《Stop! Dungeon Time!》 Prologue One would think that, if you were to enter college and actually study your hobby, you¡¯d be interested in the lectures. James, however, found himself browsing through many websites and playing games throughout his studies. He really liked programming, being able to create software that would do exactly what he wanted it to do. However, the classes were not so much fun. Usually, the tasks given were to write some stupid program that listed all the students in the class. When he was home, however, he¡¯d spent most of his time reading fantasy books, playing MMORPG¡¯s or writing his own programs, even trying his hand at making his very own roleplaying game. Today was one of those days. Currently he was sitting in class, listening to another lecture of a teacher. It was his last year in college, and they were studying a new programming language. For the last few hours, all he had been doing was writing the same very basic hello world programs to test out the functionality of the language. Salvation came when the teacher said ¡°Alright, that¡¯s all for today. Make sure you finish those applications by tomorrow¡±, and dismissed class. James practically leapt out of his chair and started shoving his items in his backpack before rushing out of the classroom. As he bounded down the stairs, he glanced at his phone. ¡®Three more minutes before the bus is here¡¯, he thought to himself, and promptly increased his walking speed. Walking out of the college building, he went straight for the bus stop. Not a moment later, the bus arrived and he hopped on, showing his pass to the driver. A bus ride, train ride and bike ride later, he was finally home and went up to his room. It wasn¡¯t much later that he fired up his laptop again and started playing one of his favourite MMORPG¡¯s.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. James is an avid gamer. Within his games, he is able to shove this boring world away and immerse himself into the fantasy realm of the games he plays. It wasn¡¯t long before he had gathered a party and went on a raid. Boss fight after boss fight, his party progressed and tried to do their best to defeat them as efficiently as possible. But as the alarm beeped, indicating it was time to shut down the game and go to bed, James let out a deep sigh, having to come back to the real world. He said his goodbyes to his party members and logged out. After shutting down his laptop, he got up and out of his room, going to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Not long after, he found himself in his bed, under his covers and staring up at the ceiling, his eyes having accustomed to the dark. ¡®Tomorrow another long, slow day of classes¡¯, he thought to himself, before drifting off to sleep. He woke up startled, scared, panicking. He felt like he was falling, endlessly. As he opened his eyes, he couldn¡¯t see anything. Everywhere around him was black, pure darkness, not a shred of light. His limbs felt heavy, he couldn¡¯t move arm nor leg. ¡®What¡¯s happening¡¯, he thought, ¡®Is this a bad dream? Am I dead?¡¯. James didn¡¯t know what was happening. His head started to ache, more and more, pain starting to course through his body, every nerve feeling like it was on fire, a burning sensation throughout his entire body. He wanted to scream out in pain, and opened his mouth to do so, yet no sound came out of his voice, making him panic even more, wondering whether or not he was dying. As the sense of falling continued, and the pain started to get worse, a blue light starting to shine in the darkness, yet it originated from his own body. Every vein started to throb as it shone a light blue colour, clearly visible through his skin. The blue light grew more and more intense, and the pain skyrocketed as well, as if they were connected. Eventually, it felt like his body was about to explode, and as his vision started to fade, a seemingly transparent box appeared in front of his eyes, clearly readable. [ You have died. You have been summoned to a different world as a ¡­] Before he could read the rest of the text on the box, his vision vanished completely and he fell unconscious, the pain proving too much for his mind to take. Chapter 1 James woke up with a throbbing headache. Instinctively, he reached with his hands towards his forehead to rub over it. When he didn¡¯t feel his hands against his forehead, he tried again, only to fail again. That¡¯s odd, he thought to himself, until he couldn¡¯t even feel his arms. That¡¯s when he noticed the blinking transparent box in front of him, the text on it still a bit fuzzy. As he tried to focus on the text on the box, the memories of the last event came flooding back to the front of his mind. The agony he felt, as if his body was being torn to shreds. The disgusting sight of his veins throbbing blue, shining through his skin and seemingly growing larger would have made him vomit if he could. His mind reeled back from just remembering the sheer pain that went through his body and mind, the headache totally overpowering, like nothing he had ever felt before. Trying to hold onto something, anything, he focused harder on the box, and finally, the words came clear to him. [You have died. You have been summoned to a different world as a dungeon core.] ¡®Oh, ok, I¡¯ve just been summoned as a dungeon core. Sure, got it, no problem.¡¯ ¡®That explains everything¡­¡¯ ¡®¡­¡¯ ¡®Like hell it does!¡¯ James screamed inwardly. He didn¡¯t want to die! Nor be summoned as some sort of hero to a foreign world! Let alone as a dungeon! He was a human! He let out a loud groan and started to calm down slowly, realizing that freaking out wouldn¡¯t help him one bit. ¡®So I¡¯ve been summoned¡¯, he thought, ¡®that means someone will come explain things.¡¯ His mind immediately went to the many stories he has read, where a breathtakingly gorgeous Goddess shows up, her beauty knowing no boundaries, making every head turn in her direction, unable to do anything but stare, some even going as far as drooling. Her voice would be sultry, bewitching someone with every word she said. He¡¯d be shy and stumble over his words, and she would giggle, cutely holding her hand in front of her mouth as she looked at him. Of course, nothing of that actually happened. No, everything stayed eerily quiet. James his mind started to wander again, trying to come to terms with recent events. The box with text blinked for a moment, and then disappeared, catching James his attention. He looked confused ahead of him, as confused as someone without a body can look, of course. If he could, he would have blinked a few times, and just a few moments later, another box appeared. [Welcome, new dungeon core. Mentally saying ¡®status will bring up your status screen. Other commands will work the same way.] He carefully read over the message before it vanished, his mind starting to work, soaking in the information and comparing it to things from his past world. ¡®So this world has some sort of system in place¡¯, James thought, ¡®It feels remarkably similar to some of those stories I¡¯ve read... Ah well... Not that that really helps me.¡¯ He kept like that for a while, not bothering to bring up the status screen just yet, his mind still too busy coping with what he had experienced so far. He would have probably continued like this for quite some time, if it weren¡¯t for a large flashing box appearing in front of him. [Now if the somewhat mind-challenged new dungeon core would be so kind as to think of ¡®status¡¯ and bring it up so I can do other, more interesting things, that would be very much appreciated.] If he had eyes, they would probably have bulged out a bit as he read through the text, again and again. ¡®Right right, I guess I better go to it¡¯, he figured, and mentally thought of ¡®status¡¯. Immediately, a table opened up in front of him, seemingly hovering in front of him. [Name: James] [Race: Dungeon] [Level: 1] [Attributes:] [Mana: 0/100] [Status Effects:] [Forced Summon: You have recently been summoned and had your body altered significantly to adapt to your new world. Your mana has been locked. Effects: No vision, No mana gathering. Time Remaining: 10:32] [Active Skills:] [Passive Skills:] [Mana Gathering: level 1] [Mana Manipulation: level 1] He blinked in surprise a few times as he looked at the status screen. The race made him shiver a little. As he wandered down further, he noticed the Status Effect and let out an inward groan, yet received some hope as he saw the timer go down, the last two digits seemingly being seconds with the first two being minutes. Moving down lower, he cringed a bit as he noticed he didn¡¯t have any active skills and only two passive skills. As he concentrated on the first passive skill, Mana Gathering, another box popped up. [Mana Gathering: As a dungeon core, you automatically gather mana from your surroundings and the very world itself.] Reading through the description carefully, he eventually went to the next passive skill, Mana Manipulation. [Mana Manipulation: As a dungeon core, you continuously manipulate the surrounding, circulating it through your dungeon rooms and monsters.] As the timer hit 00:00, the status effect disappeared, the throbbing headache lessened a lot. Keeping his eye on his mana, he saw it started to rise slowly, and with it, he started to sense things around him, including his own body, or what he felt was his own body. And instantly, he was being weirded out yet again. He didn¡¯t have legs, nor arms. He had no eyes, nor a mouth. No, his body was a crystal. It was rather small, perhaps the size of a cat or a small dog. As the mana points increased, he could feel his crystalline body collected it from the very air. Knowledge started to appear in his mind, as if he had always known it. It was weird, gross even. He would have wrinkled his nose if he could. James mentally took a deep breath as he started to analyze this newly acquired knowledge. Apparently, this passive skill, Mana Gathering, allowed him to gather mana from the world continuously, though it felt as if he simply gathered it from the air around his crystal body. He knew that if he increased his dungeon level, the speed at which he would draw mana from the world would increase as well. Yet, Mana Gathering wasn¡¯t only limited to that, it would draw mana from sources within his dungeon. He didn¡¯t know what these sources were, though. Mana Manipulation, however, was just as the skill description had said. He could feel how he subconsciously let the mana flow throughout his entire crystalline body. He could feel more and more mana seeping into him, and finally, it started to flow out of the mana and into the room. That¡¯s when he regained his vision. Though it wasn¡¯t the ability to see as he was used to as a human. He could freely move his... conscious... throughout the entire room, as small as it was. He estimated it to be a mere 1m in length, 1m in width and 1m in height. He turned his sight to himself, and watched his new body, a white crystal with a faint blue glow to it. As more mana gathered inside of his crystal form, the blue glow started to become brighter. His mana began to fill the room completely, seeping into the walls. When his mana reached 95 points, a slight craving started to nag at him. He wanted to expand. A larger room. Multiple rooms. Most of all, he wanted to be connected to the surface. This sudden craving took him off-guard. Why did he feel this way? Why did it feel so important? Another weird thing was that he knew where to expand to and how to do this. He could use his mana, move it into the wall and then break it down. Yet his former knowledge stopped him. If he were a dungeon, that meant there would be adventurers. If said adventurers were to find him, they might destroy him. He loathed the idea of living as a dungeon core, yet he didn¡¯t want to die again either. He mentally took a deep breath and calmed himself down. ¡®Right¡¯, he thought to himself, ¡®this world is weird. There¡¯s magic, dungeons, some sort of gaming system. Perhaps there¡¯s a way out of this existence.¡¯ He resolved himself, and, figuring he needed more information, he let the craving take over. Without having to put his mind to it, the mana that had seeped into the room started to break down the walls, creating a slightly larger room. He could feel a slight drain on his mana, and went to look at his status screen. His mana points were stuck at 97. Sometimes, the points would go down by 1 and then go up by 1 again. It seemed that the process of expanding the room took roughly as much mana as his passive mana gathering skill created for him. [New Passive Skill Unlocked: Expansion] [Expansion: You can let your mana break down walls to expand your domain] Knowledge again flooded into his brain, this time about the ¡®Expansion¡¯ skill. Apparently, he could gain skills by doing certain actions, which would then make those easier. As the room grew larger, James noticed that it took longer and longer to expand, as there was more to break down. Once the room reached 2 by 2 by 2 meters, he decided to dig a small, very small tunnel in the general direction of the surface. Right ahead of his dungeon core. His mana immediately set to work and started digging a tunnel. He could feel how his dungeon grew bigger, as his mana seemed to seep into the parts he dug out. His mana gathering increased somewhat, but just enough so that it could influence the new regions he conquered. Slowly, the hallway became longer and he was quite proud of his work, though he didn¡¯t really do anything, and only a mere 30cm had been dug out. He moved his conscious forth into the hallway and stared at the progress.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. And waited... And waited some more... And some more... He groaned in frustration. ¡®My god, this is boring!¡¯, he thought, and wanted nothing more to either speed it up or find something to do. Anything other than watching a wall slowly crumble away. As much fun as it was at first, looking at a wall really, really isn¡¯t all that spectacular. Really, it felt like he was watching another one of the idle games he was playing, where you simply wait until the next action is available to you. He mentally shook his head. No, he wouldn¡¯t settle to that, there had to be a way to improve things. Focusing his mind, he started to concentrate on how the mana in the wall slowly broke it down. Every bit of dirt and rock was slowly dissolved by the mana, and simply seemed to vanish. Making use of his passive Expansion skill, he followed the process step by step. First, mana would flow into the rock and dirt, becoming part of it, and in turn, making it part of his dungeon. Now that he focused on it, he could actually feel it become part of his domain slowly, and how the mana was actually used up to completely break down the piece of dirt or rock, and evaporate it into nothingness. ¡®Let the mana flow into it, let it become part of it, and then break the piece down. Got it¡¯, he repeated to himself, before trying it out. He put his mind to the task, and felt for the mana, willing it into the dirt. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Nothing at all. He couldn¡¯t even let his mana flow a tiny millimeter. He cursed at himself, several times, before realizing a stupid mistake he made. Just like a program, he had to follow a path, an algorithm, step by step. Before breaking down the wall and expanding his dungeon, he had to learn how to actually manipulate mana. He again gathered himself, and this time watched how the mana flowed from one place to the other. How it circulated within his crystal core. How it moved within the walls of his dungeon. Drawing from the knowledge he gained through the mana manipulation skill, he started looking at more detail to the flowing mana and felt how it was a part of him. Through his passive mana manipulation skill, he was able to move it subconsciously, as if you were breathing, or had to relief yourself. He focused on the tiniest particle of mana inside of his core, and slowly tried to move it as if it were part of him. He could feel the mana particle respond to him, feel how it trembled and gradually started to move. Sweat would have dripped off his crystal body if that had been possible from how James concentrated. The little particle of mana started to move from one side to the other, at a very slow pace. As he learned from the process, he started to understand the mana manipulation skill more, and what it offered him. For what seemed like hours, he moved the mana particle back and forth, making it gradually move faster and more smoothly. He added more and more mana particles as he practiced, and started mimicking what his passive skill did, moving the controlled flow of mana out of his crystal body and into the room, flowing it around. He was pleasantly surprised as another box popped up in front of him, seemingly hovering in front of his vision. [New Active Skill Unlocked: Mana Manipulation] [Mana Manipulation: Control your own magic energy, move it around with just a thought.] Once he gained the skill, knowledge flowed into his mind again, giving him some new insights at how to actually control it, the stream of mana flowing somewhat more smoothly and swiftly than before. Alright, now for the expanding, he thought, as he directed the magic energy into the wall. As it came into contact with the solid dirt and rock, it became a bit harder to move the magic energy forth, but not impossibly so. Steadily, the magic energy seeped into the wall and he could feel his territory increasing again and felt even more directly that it became a part of him. The next part, however, took quite some time. The mana had gone into the wall, had seeped into a piece of dirt, yet he couldn¡¯t let the mana break it down. He didn¡¯t give up, however, and over the next few hours, he studied how the other particles naturally broke down the wall to form the hallway. Trying again and again, he was met by failure, until finally, a very tiny piece of dirt started to crumble and vanished. He could feel his territory grow just a speck larger. Repeating the procedure, he started to direct the magic energy more, and part of the wall, embedded with his mana, started to slowly crumble, disappearing. Another satisfying box appeared in front of him as a result of his hard mental labor. [New Active Skill Unlocked: Expansion] [Expansion: Actively direct your mana to grow your dungeon larger and break apart solid structures.] Just like before, knowledge once again became available to him, his mind soaking it up. He started to direct more and more mana, helping his passive skill with his active skill to create a hallway to the surface. He could feel himself come closer and closer to the surface. As he continued the mental task, his head started to throb again. As he looked back to his crystal body, he could see that it had lost a lot of its blue shimmer. Bringing up his status screen, he noticed that a lot of his magic points had dwindled down. He was actually all the way down to 18 points out of a 100. He immediately realized his mistake. While his mana gathering skill could compensate for his passive ability to expand his domain, it wouldn¡¯t be able to cope with the mana demand of him actively digging a hallway. As he tried to focus on how he gathered mana from the world, he wasn¡¯t able to, his throbbing headache stopping him. He wanted to get rid of this headache. It was annoying, painful and stopped him from progressing. He quickly stopped the passive expansion to let his mana points fill up again. And now, he was again doing nothing. His thoughts quickly started to wander. Would he ever be able to get out of here? Was it really worth it to try to reach out, to try and gather more information? He gave himself a mental slap, shaking him out of his thoughts, as they would have only led him into a vicious circle. To keep himself busy, he brought his status screen up again and looked through it. [Name: James] [Race: Dungeon] [Level: 1] [Attributes:] [Mana: 22/100] [Status Effects:] [Active Skills:] [Mana Manipulation: level 1] [Expansion] [Passive Skills:] [Mana Gathering: level 1] [Mana Manipulation: level 1] [Expansion: level 1] Eventually, his mana had recovered and his headache had receded, leaving him with a completely fresh mind. Rather than continuing to dig, he used his passive skill to do the expanding and put his mind onto analyzing the Mana gathering skill. He hit a wall, though. He could follow how the particles were drawn into his body, and then distributed around. But they seemed to simply appear. As if they were granted to him by the world. Deciding to throw caution to the wind and trying something random, he took hold of the particles as they appeared, and dragged them inside of his body at a faster speed than his Mana Gathering skill did. Though limited by the speed and amount of which he could move magic energy around, it was a significant increase. It seemed that the particles continued to appear, and it did speed up the process quite some bit. Soon, his mana capacity was filled, his crystal body shining a bright blue. [New Active Skill Unlocked: Mana Gathering] [Mana Gathering: You can draw power from the world and your surroundings.] Quickly, he set to work, and divided his attention between gathering mana himself and expanding the hallway. He wasn¡¯t able to expand as fast as he was before, without gathering mana himself, but he didn¡¯t bump into any headaches and was able to continue working. For several hours straight, he continued to dig, dig and dig. More and more dirt and rock broke away and vanished, the hallway already being several meters long. He could barely contain his excitement to reach the surface. Being cooped up in a room in front of a laptop was one thing, but being inside a cave like this, without any shred of light, started to get to him. The unnatural craving to have his dungeon connected to the surface probably didn¡¯t help either. As he grew closer to the surface, he decided to become somewhat more cautious and started to make the hallway smaller. Gradually, the height and width decreased, only large enough for a small animal, such as a rabbit, to be able to move through. Just as he felt the hole was roughly the right size, he had another small idea and started to make a small turn, moving alongside the surface for a while before heading back straight for the surface. Making it this way, he figured, adventurers wouldn¡¯t be able to peer into the hole and see it opening up to reveal a larger hallway deeper inside. Finally, he could feel his mana reach the outside world, and the last thin layer of dirt and stone started to crumble away, tiny beams of sunlight moving into the little hole he created. The moment the opening to the surface was as large as the hole he made, his vision was momentarily blinded, a large message box hovering in front of him. [Congratulations! You have leveled up, you are now a level 2 Dungeon.] He stared at the screen for a moment, before he felt a little headache forming. Looking back at his crystalline body, he could see it grew just a little bit larger, and that his mana was starting to gather somewhat faster. Just a moment later he was practically flooded with message boxes, all indicating that he had grown as a dungeon. [Your mana pool has increased from 100 to 200] [Passive: Mana Gathering has increased to level 2] [Passive: Mana Manipulation has increased to level 2] [Passive: Expansion has increased to level 2] [You have new active skills: Assimilation, Create, Summon Monster] He stared with wide eyes at all the message boxes, and, as they disappeared, quickly brought up his status screen. [Name: James] [Race: Dungeon] [Level: 2] [Attributes:] [Mana: 121/200] [Status Effects:] [Active Skills:] [Mana Manipulation: level 1] [Expansion: level 1] [Mana Gathering: level 1] [Assimilation] [Create] [Summon Monster] [Passive Skills:] [Mana Gathering: level 2] [Mana Manipulation: level 2] [Expansion: level 2] ¡®Hmmm, that¡¯s odd¡¯, he thought, as he looked over the skills. Some of them had levels, whereas others didn¡¯t. He could quickly grasp the effects of the new levels of his passive skills and his level-up. The mana that seemed to appear from the world was thicker and denser, giving more magic energy. The passive gathering was a lot quicker than before and actually gathering it more quickly than his active skill. As he looked around the room, he could see that the mana was denser in his room and in the walls. The flow of mana was far smoother and quicker and he could tell his knowledge was more in depth. He would have to explore this though, as he wasn¡¯t used to the knowledge simply appearing inside of his mind. Leaving the passive expansion skill aside, for now, James went to look over each new active skill. [Assimilation] [You are able to absorb objects. Absorbing objects will eventually lead to the knowledge of how said objects are made with mana.] Well, that was quite the short explanation. He figured it probably had something to do with when he broke down the walls. [Create] [You are able to create any object as long as you have the required mana and knowledge.] Oh, that¡¯s pretty neat. So if he assimilated enough objects, he would be able to recreate them. He could probably use this to pretty up his dungeon a bit and give it a nicer look. Perhaps make it a bit more cozy and comfortable to live in. though it does depend on how the system, or whatever it was that governed this, defined objects. Is dirt an object? Is a plant an object? Would he be able to even absorb humans or monsters? He mentally shrugged and went on to the last skill. [Summon Monster] As he was about to read through the message boxes that popped up, he felt a throbbing pain and looked away from the boxes. He brought up his status screen and noticed his mana plunging rapidly. James started panicking and looked around. That¡¯s when he noticed the mana flowing out of his crystal body and gathering next to it. Mana continued to be forcefully pulled out of his body, his mind starting to go numb from his headache. He could just make out a small body forming in the sphere of blue mana. A small box popped up in front of him [Companion gained: dungeon fairy] He looked over at his status screen and noticed he had roughly twenty mana points left, and still going down. His vision started to become darker, and eventually faded as his mana trickled down to 10. Finally, as the sphere of mana started to dissipate to reveal a body, he fell unconscious, his mind receding back into the crystal body to let his mana recover. Chapter 2 Once his mana had recovered somewhat, James regained consciousness and was able to glance around the room. The crystal gave off a faint blue glow, casting some light into the small, dark and damp room. The small box from before he passed out was still there as well. [Companion gained: dungeon fairy] He could actually feel an entity in his room. He turned his dungeon eyes towards the entity in his dungeon, and his jaw would have dropped to the ground if he still had his human body. Right there, leaning against the wall, was a small creature. It had a humanoid shape and was dressed in a light purple robe, tiny white wings sprouting from its back. Its face was rather smooth, with large, round eyes. The ears were a little longer and slightly pointed, compared to a human, and long, white hair flowed from the top of its head. His eyes wandered up and down the fairy¡¯s body, realizing it was most likely a male. The fairy moved his hand to his mouth and coughed a bit, and looked at the crystal indifferently, before speaking up. ¡°Oh great, a perverted dungeon. You know I can feel your eyes roaming up and down my body, right? Just my luck. You¡¯ll probably be more busy with ogling adventurers entering your dungeon to stop them from stealing your core and taking me hostage.¡± The fairy let out a deep sigh and held his head. ¡°Might as well just give up now, but no, I have a duty to do, so I¡¯ll try and make sure your attention stays on defeating them.¡± He clapped his hands together and jumped up on his feet. ¡°My name is Clint, I¡¯m a dungeon fairy, here to give you advice. What¡¯s your name?¡± The fairy looked at roughly where James his presence was, waiting expectantly. James honestly wasn¡¯t sure how he had to respond. He hadn¡¯t really tried to talk before. And that dungeon fairy was really weird. ¡®Shouldn¡¯t they be enthusiastic?¡¯ As he spent several long moments pondering the situation, Clint got a little impatient and spoke up again. ¡°It seems I got saddled up with a dungeon core that doesn¡¯t know the basics or doesn¡¯t want to talk. Both are really bad, you know? Might as well roll around on my back and let the adventurers end us already. Right. If it¡¯s the former, you should feel a bond between us. You can talk through it.¡± A little put off by the slightly depressed tone by the fairy, and how he viewed everything so pessimistic, James needed a minute to collect himself before he started to feel around within himself, trying to see if something was different than before. It didn¡¯t take all too long before he found a sort of tendril connecting his mind to that of Clint, and tried to talk through it. ¡°Can you hear me?¡± Clint nodded his head up and down slowly. ¡°Yes, I can hear you. You can talk, that¡¯s good.¡± ¡°Oh.. Ok, that¡¯s good. My name is James¡­ So you¡¯re a... uh... Dungeon fairy?¡±, he replied with an unsure voice, still not quite comfortable with everything that just happened. At least he had a way to get knowledge now, so that was a good thing. ¡°Why yes, I¡¯m a dungeon fairy. Congratulations on figuring that one out. I¡¯m sure the little system box you received earlier didn¡¯t give that away.¡± Clint let out a heavy sigh and hung back a bit, sliding down the wall again to rest on his bum. ¡°Considering you actually asked it, I¡¯m going to assume you don¡¯t know how to appraise someone. That¡¯s going to bode well for us, a dungeon without common sense. Anyway, just focus on me, analyze me, and will up a status screen, not your own but mine. Try to think about how you want to appraise me.¡± James held his tongue and didn¡¯t rebuke the statements of the fairy. After all, he didn¡¯t really have the common sense of a dungeon core, in fact, he didn¡¯t have any common sense at all for this world. He focused on the small body of the slumped down fairy, and tried to will up a status screen. He could feel his mana heading towards the fairy and seemingly push against him for a moment, yet nothing really happened. He was quickly getting a little irritated, and took charge, helping the mana flow to Clint. Finally, a status screen popped up, yet quite different than that of his own. [Name: Clint] [Race: Dungeon Fairy] [Level: 2] [Title: Cynical Bastard] The status screen of his dungeon fairy didn¡¯t give a lot of information, but it was a pleasant sight nonetheless. It meant he could possible analyze people and monsters that came into his dungeon. As before, he managed to gain a skill from the action [New Active Skill Unlocked: Appraisal] As he brought up his status screen, the skill was at a meager level one, yet still a good gain. Looking at the description, it informed him that he could use it to appraise any entity that was within reach. He turned his gaze back to Clint and spoke to him cheerfully, happy that he managed to gain another skill that could be of use. ¡°Thanks, Clint. I actually got a skill thanks to that. I¡¯m sure that¡¯ll be useful, no? I managed to get Mana Gathering, Mana Manipulation and Expansion as active skills earlier.¡± The fairy looked up momentarily at where James his presence was, a hint of surprise in his eyes at the mention of the last three skills before it quickly faded and was replaced by his usual disinterested gaze. ¡°Nice. You managed to get one of the most basic skills in this whole world. It¡¯s a nice addition that you got those other active skills, means you at least have some skill. But your apparent lack of common abilities, common sense, in addition to your pervertedness, are going to be the end of us, I¡¯m sure.¡± The fairy let out another deep sigh. ¡°Regardless, as your dungeon fairy, it¡¯s my duty to stay with you and offer any advice. So, with that out of the way, let¡¯s go check out your entrance.¡± Clint promptly stood up and headed into the hallway, inspecting the mixed dirt and rock walls. As he headed further into the hallway, his eyes narrowed as he noticed the hallway becoming narrower and narrower with each step he took. Eventually, even the small fairy felt his head touch against the ceiling of the hallway. James could hear a small groan escape the fairy¡¯s mouth as Clint knelt down and started crawling forward, moving through the twisting passageway and reaching the surface. Looking outside at the night sky for several minutes, appearing deep in thought, the fairy crawled backward until he could stand up again, and started heading back to the room hosting James his body. Meanwhile, James his mind started to wander to less pleasant thoughts. Seeing the fairy walk about gave him a longing. He missed his old body. The ability to really touch something. To feel the soil beneath his feet. To feel the morning sunlight caress his face while hearing the birds chirp outside. He knew it had been at least a day since his summoning to this world, and he had neither felt the need to eat, sleep or drink. He didn¡¯t have a body. He couldn¡¯t wrap himself up in blankets and get comfortable. As he felt his dark thoughts take control, he shook himself out of it. ¡®No, I can¡¯t give in¡¯, he thought, ¡®There has to be a way to get out of this mess. Snap out of it, James, you can do it!¡¯ He imagined receiving a firm slap in the face and moved his presence back to the core room, the fairy waiting for him, a stern look on his face. ¡°I see you had the good idea to make a twisting, small tunnel that only allows small animals, probably to hide your dungeon from adventurers and larger, more dangerous enemies. Good job, James! However, as most adventurers have the ability to sense mana, and the mana present in the air and ground being far more dense around dungeons, they¡¯ll know right away where your dungeon is located. So first, you¡¯ll make them dig out the entrance, making it large enough for them to get through. This will, most likely, piss off the adventurers or make them annoyed, increasing the probability of our impending doom. Besides, you actually need to allow adventurers inside of your dungeon. Adventurers give off more mana than a regular person, which allows you to grow quicker. If you make it worth their while, they¡¯ll most likely leave your core room alone.¡± James his mind reeled back from the verbal abuse he once again received from Clint, yet he was right. This once again proved that he needed more knowledge to even simply survive in this world. He didn¡¯t have to be so rude about it, though. James made up his mind to follow Clint¡¯s advice and learn as much as he could from the little dungeon fairy. ¡®I wonder if a hyperactive fairy would have been better or even more annoying¡¯, he thought to himself. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll fix the hallway. I¡¯ll make it bigger from the point I started to make it more narrow. What else?¡± Even though James replied affirmatively to Clint, his voice a dead give-away that he was annoyed. ¡®The title really, really suits him well.¡¯ Clint shrugged a little and gave a slight nod. ¡°Let¡¯s first go over a few other things that you can do, namely monster summoning. You should have this skill, like any other dungeon, together with Create and Assimilation. Now, if you look at monster summoning, you¡¯ll notice that you¡¯re able to summon several monsters. These monsters are the basic monster that every dungeon has access to at the start of their dungeon career. Let me know when you¡¯ve finished examining them.¡± Clint promptly lied down on the ground, bending his legs a little bit at the knees, one draped over the other. He moved his hands behind his head to prop it up a bit and keep it off the hard ground. James stared at the relaxing fairy for a moment. What he had said made sense, and pretty much aligned with what he had thought himself. He opened up his status screen and went down the list to the Summon Monster skill, and brought up the detailed version. [Summon Monster] [Goblin: 80 mana] [Kobold: 80 mana] [Imp: 80 mana] [Skeleton: 80 mana] [Slime: 50 mana] Hmm, so he could summon five monsters. He could immediately summon two of any of the first three, or a total of three slimes. If he summoned four, he would most likely black out again, something he¡¯d prefer not to happen again. It would be possible to summon two slimes and any of the first two as well, which would give him the most for his mana. First, though, he should probably inspect each monster. Focusing on each monster, he quickly received a box with a description.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. [Goblin: A slim, green and small creature. It has long, pointy ears with big yellow eyes. Though weak in nature, groups of them can prove to be dangerous. A goblin is known to use a long dagger.] [Kobold: Kobolds are grey-skinned creatures. Somewhat larger than a goblin, they are hunched over a bit and tend to use a crude club to try and bash in some heads.] [Imp: Imps are hellish creatures. Their skin tone is a deep red. Their small body hosts wings which they use to fly at a slow pace. Their combat ability is limited to throwing small balls of fire and playing petty tricks on adventurers.] [Skeleton: A typical human skeleton. Their eyes have a slight white shine to them. The skeleton doesn¡¯t have any weapons, but in turn is able to easily use anything he finds. While the skeleton is stronger than his fellow starter monsters, he¡¯s quickly defeated.] [Slime: The slime is nothing more than some goo that sticks together and slowly moves around the dungeon. Its only combat ability is slowing down an adventurer. Can, however, take up several properties to strengthen it.] He didn¡¯t really like the sound of a skeleton. It actually sent shivers through his mind. Just imagine a cold, heartless skeleton wandering around your room. Ewww. No, he didn¡¯t want to go the necromancy path. The imp looked like fun, though. It appeared to be the only one with magical capabilities in his small arsenal of monsters. Slimes didn¡¯t really sound promising, though the description did promise some improvement. Goblins and Kobolds had the default description and didn¡¯t seem any special. ¡®Well, best ask Clint¡¯s opinion or he might go on a rant again.¡¯ ¡°Clint, I¡¯ve looked over the monsters. I¡¯m not really liking the skeleton. The kobold and goblin sound quite standard while the slime seems a little bit underwhelming. The imp sounds quite cool, though.¡± ¡°The imp sounds cool, he said. Next thing you know, we¡¯re going to start a demonic dungeon and be assaulted by every adventurer in the whole wide world to destroy our corrupted core. Please just kill me already.¡± Clint groaned and rolled around before sitting upright. ¡°At least you don¡¯t want to pick the undead. The goody good believers will stay off your back that way. I suggest you go with kobolds, goblins and slimes. Besides, if you chose imp or the skeleton, you¡¯d be locked out of the other choices. Choosing one of those would have made you either an undead or a demonic dungeon. Adventurers don¡¯t really like those. In fact, they pretty much hate those. The smart choice would be to go for the goblin, kobold and slime.¡± The fairy let out a little yawn and move his little hands to his eyes to rub them a little. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m getting quite tired. For now, simply make the hallway larger, make a few rooms and move your crystal to the very last room. You¡¯ll figure it out, I hope. Oh, and you can send some out to gather stuff to assimilate, but be careful. Good night.¡± Without a second glance, the fairy turned around and laid down on the ground again, curling up into a ball to try and catch some sleep. Left to his own devices, for now, James started filtering through the monologue Clint had just delivered. Skeletons and imps were out of the question, he really didn¡¯t want to be hunted. Crusades weren¡¯t really his thing. After searching his mind for a bit, he found the knowledge for the summon skill and promptly started to summon a goblin. Casting an eye on his status screen, he noticed his mana pool lowering until he had roughly 120 points left. The mana visibly flew out of his dungeon core, some even coming from the walls as it gathered in front of the crystal. Just like with the fairy, the goblin¡¯s body began to form. An ugly, small and green creature emerged, wielding a long dagger that looked more like a sword for the goblin. The creature stared ahead of himself dumbly and even bashed his own head with the hilt of his weapon. James felt a slight connection to the goblin, weaker than the connection he felt to Clint, but still there. He instinctively knew that the creature would do as he said. He mentally ordered the creature to move to the hallway, and was astonished that the creature did, in fact, turn around and slowly started trudging over the cold, dirty ground. Once it reached the hallway, it simply fell down on its bum and stared mindlessly ahead of itself again, even going as far as to let out a bored yawn. He quickly summoned another goblin, and had them group up in front of the hallway before moving his presence further into the hallway. His mana slowly started to climb up again, being quite low from the summoning, and he started to absentmindedly gather more mana using his active skill Mana Gathering. Once he reached the narrow part of the hallway, he let the passive expansion skill do its work and directed its progress. The hallway started to become wide enough, with the height just reaching two meters, large enough for most humans, as far as he knew. While he was expanding the hallway, each time his mana would be back to 150 points, he¡¯d summon another goblin, dropping his mana back to a meager 70 points. It was a long and somewhat boring process, but eventually, he had dug out the entire hallway and now had a large opening which he could peer out of. The night sky was beautiful to look at. It appeared his dungeon was located in a grassy mountain hill. With the hallway slightly tilted upwards, or downwards for adventurers coming inside, he figured he had quite some room to expand. The moon was high in the skyline, shining a brilliant white, with many stars shining in the darkness of the night. It was beautiful. Back at home, the lights that the buildings gave off overpowered the shining light of the stars, and you¡¯d have to move to a rural area to get a sight like this. Getting his mind back to the task, he moved back into his core room and started making it somewhat larger with an irregular shape, the corners becoming rounded a little. Looking at the group of goblins, he noticed he had already summoned a total of eight goblins. They just stood there idly, doing nothing. Figuring it couldn¡¯t hurt to have them explore, he ordered three of them to go out, explore and bring anything they could find back to him. Things such as plants, herbs, anything that could be useful. The goblins appeared to give a slight nod, though that could be James mistaking the gesture for them simply jolting their head up out of their drowsy state. The three goblins started heading through the hallway. James followed them and finally watched them head out of the dungeon. He could still feel a connection to them, but he wasn¡¯t able to give them any orders. Once they were far enough for him not to be able to see them anymore, James went back to his dungeon room and started making another hallway, digging it out slowly. Over the next few hours, he had managed to create two short hallways and two more rooms, similar to the first one and the entrance hallway. Meanwhile, the three goblins had been exploring the nearby surroundings and had started collecting as much as they could. They had found several plants and carefully took them out of the ground by grabbing them at the base and ripping them out. They made several trips back to the dungeon entrance and placed their findings there, creating a mess of plants, rocks, twigs and a bird, which quickly flew out of the dungeon again once the goblins were out of sight. Once James was finished and happy with the additional rooms, the four goblins in his room push the hovering crystal towards the last room, while the last one carried the deeply asleep fairy to the last room as well, gently placing him in one of the corners of the room. Apparently, summoned monsters do get tired and require rest. After bringing in the last batch of stuff they found around the dungeon entrance, the goblins collapsed on the ground, alerting James. He quickly moved towards the entrance and looked at a huge pile of collected items. Moving his attention to the exhausted goblins, he had the others drag them back to the last room, letting them rest there. As he looked over at the pile, gathered by the goblins, he used his assimilation skill. Mana slowly enveloped each item and the pile started to disintegrate, knowledge flooding into him. He wasn¡¯t all too sure about what he could do with it, but he figured he¡¯d ask Clint for his advice later. It was several hours later that Clint finally awoke. ¡®He must have been exhausted¡¯, James thought. While Clint was asleep and the dungeon rooms had been expanded, James had summoned several more goblins, to a total of twelve. The goblins varied slightly in skin tone. Some had small patches of dark green hair, while others were completely bald. Some had longer ears than others. They all seemed equally dumb, though. Not really wanting to be confronted with their rather ugly faces, James had moved them to the first two rooms, each containing six goblins. Clint slowly got to his feet and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, lazily looking around the room. ¡°Seems like you did what I asked you to. Good job.¡± He stretched out a bit, and, for the first time, fluttered his wings and started to fly around the room and through the hallway to the second room. He calmly observed the goblins before flying to the first room, noticing the same amount of goblins there. He flew further and headed towards the entrance, noticing it was now large enough for a human to pass through. He landed and turned around, slowly walking all the way back to the core room. ¡°Well, you managed to create a few rooms with several goblins. They should be able to stop the beginning rank of adventurers.¡± He looked up momentarily, a thought entering his head. ¡°Right, James, do you want me to explain about adventurers?¡± Always eager for more information, James swiftly responded. ¡°Yes, that¡¯d be great, thanks.¡± ¡°Right. So. The beginning rank of an adventurer is F rank. Through quests, missions and various tasks and tests, they can go all the way up to rank A. That means F, D, C, B and finally A. However, there are two ranks above A, namely S and S+. These are only achieved when someone has displayed an immense amount of power. Per rank, there are four more ¡­ divisions. Low tier, mid tier, high tier and top tier. A top tier is at the verge of ranking up, while a low tier is at the very start of his or her current rank. Easy, right?¡± James mentally noted down the information that Clint just provided him on how adventurers were ranked. ¡°And how do we proceed from here?¡±, James asked the fairy. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to assume you managed to assimilate some stuff. Try and create something. A plant perhaps.¡±, Clint swiftly responded. James nodded and started to gather the knowledge involving the Create skill. It was a weird experience. He felt like he could create and shape objects based on his mind. The more complex the object he made, the more mana the creation process would take. He could make things from scratch if he wanted to. Or he could alter objects that he already knew, through, for example, assimilation. He could easily create a dirt or rock wall and felt like it wouldn¡¯t take too much mana points. Trying to think up the stuff he could create thanks to his assimilation skill, he received a small list and started to scroll through it. His eyes fell on one object, probably because of what Clint said earlier. Using the knowledge from the Create and Assimilation skill, his mana started to collect near one of the walls of the room. Slowly, a small stem started to sprout from the ground, several leaves forming and hanging down just a little. At the top of the stem, a small, green flower started to sprout, with tiny, blue-glowing petals around the middle. Clint observed from close by and went closer to the plant, inspecting it. ¡°Appears to be a healing herb, James. Don¡¯t know the name, to be honest. Adventurers will probably find these good. Because the mana in a dungeon is denser, plants and such are of much higher quality than outside, so now that you have something worthwhile, they might be somewhat less inclined to destroy you. Anyway, let¡¯s go plant a few around the various rooms.¡± Together, James and Clint started growing the healing herbs around the dungeon. Eventually, two healing herbs started to grow in the very first room, with several more in the second room. Throughout the process, James could feel his knowledge on creating items grow and felt it was more easy to form the plants and infuse mana into them. As he finished growing the plant, he was glad to see it shone brighter than the previous ones. The increased density of mana around the dungeon hadn¡¯t gone unnoticed, however. A figure slowly crept closer, moving stealthily through bushes as it gazed at the dungeon, a growl emanating from its mouth, revealing a set of sharp teeth. Chapter 3 The wolf moved slowly but steadily from his hiding place and entered the dungeon through the entrance. James felt a fluctuation in mana the moment the wolf stepped through the entrance and into the dungeon. At first, it was a good feeling, mana seemed to seep into the walls and become his own. But as the wolf started to move through the entrance hallway, only one word reverberated through his being. Danger. The wolf was dangerous. Very dangerous. He moved his presence to the hallway and gazed upon the predator. A large wolf. Its face held a snarl, showing off its large, sharp teeth. The wolf was coated in black fur, the light of the mana embedded in the walls created vile shadows, making it seem even more dangerous for every second that passed. Wicked looking claws dug slightly into the ground as it walked forward. ¡®It¡¯s huge.¡¯, James thought, ¡¯even on all fours it¡¯s as tall as one of my goblins.¡¯ ¡°James, this is bad.¡± Clint spoke up, his voice revealing that even the fairy was uncertain this time around. ¡°That¡¯s quite a strong monster there for your current dungeon level.¡± James tried to shake the fear off of him and sent forth one of his goblins, wanting to test the wolf and see its capabilities first. His goblin held the dagger in front of him, and set forth at a quick pace, moving to the first room. There, it waited for the wolf to arrive. The wolf growled and snarled at the goblin once it entered the room, and looked completely unimpressed as it dwarfed the goblin. It charged forward at the goblin like a wild beast. The goblin raised his dagger, holding it steady at the incoming wolf, fear quite visible in his eyes even for James to see. The wolf moved a bit down to the left with its head, and then came back up, its eyes entering the vision of the goblin from up close, staring it down. The goblin shivered at the sight of the bloodthirsty and violent eyes of the wolf, seemingly paralyzed. The next moment, the goblin was laying down on the floor, claws pressed firmly against his upper body, sinking into his flesh as the wolf held him down. It had happened quickly. A small push from the wolf his head had pushed the goblin off balance, and then the paw pushed him down, claws lodging into the skin. The wolf looked down at the goblin and opened his mouth, giving one lets snarl before sinking its sharp canine teeth into the throat of the goblin, ending the fight. James could only stare at the huge wolf as it killed his goblin in cold-blood with ease. ¡®It¡¯s strong. Very strong. How do I deal with this? What do I do? It¡¯s going to kill me. It just killed the goblin like it was nothing. How.. What do I do?¡¯ His thoughts spiraled out of control, the mana in the dungeon started to fluctuate as James his emotions went out of control and fear took root in his body. The sight of the dead goblin and the advancing wolf proved too much for him to deal with. ¡®I don¡¯t want to die... I don¡¯t want to die again..¡¯ He was scared, very scared. Clint stared at the dungeon core as he felt the mana fluctuate, and balled his fist before slamming it against the dungeon core. A loud clang rang through the dungeon as James was brought back to reality. ¡°W.. What did you do that for?¡± A weak sounding voice responded to Clint. ¡°Take control of yourself, idiot! You still have seven goblins left! Use them!¡± Clint snapped angrily at James. Even though it was harsh, it seemed to work a bit, and James calmed down. The flow of mana started to turn back to normal as he gazed upon the wolf, which was slowly licking its claws clean. It stretched its hind legs a bit before moving in the direction of the second room. ¡®Seven goblins... I can let them gang up on it..¡¯ James nodded to himself and sent all seven goblins to the second room. He placed three of them in the middle of the room and split the remaining four up in two groups of two, each group taking up position at a corner from where the wolf would emerge. With his remaining mana, he summoned two more goblins, bringing him down to 40 mana points. They quickly took position at the entrance to the last hallway of the second room. His goblins in position, they all waited for the wolf to emerge and attack. Which it did. ¡®It¡¯s quick¡¯, James thought, as the wolf sprinted out of the hallway and into the second room, toppling over the three goblins, throwing them against the walls. One of the goblins lost his dagger and scrambled to reach it. The last thing the goblin saw was large, sharp claws coming towards his face. A scream echoed throughout the dungeon as the goblin died. The other two goblins didn¡¯t fare much better. One was bitten in his shoulder while another had his arm scratched badly by the wolf¡¯s other paw, yet managed to roll away at the very last second. The goblin lunged forward with his remaining power, embedding his dagger into the shoulder of the wolf, blood seeping out of the wound. The wolf howled in anger and pain, fury visible in its eyes, shaking the goblins a bit at the massive amounts of killing intent that rolled off the wolf. The goblin that attacked the wolf took a small step back, but it was too late. Teeth sank into his throat. The goblin wasn¡¯t even able to scream as it died. The last goblin of the three thrust his dagger forward at this exact moment and managed to slash the other shoulder of the wolf, moving its attention to that goblin. Its paw moved up and crushed the goblin¡¯s head like a bug, killing it as well. The other six goblins could only stare at the wolf as it killed three of their kin with relative ease, only having received some shallow wounds. James had hoped they would have done more damage, but he still had plenty of goblins left. He really hoped it would be enough. He didn¡¯t wait for another second as he ordered them to attack the wolf. As one, the goblins charged to the wolf, their ugly feet carrying them forward. The wolf snarled and turned around as it was getting attack from three sides. It lunged towards the two goblins charging from the furthest side, using its paw to smash both of them against the wall, their dangers clanging on the floor as the goblins lost their grip on them. The now four remaining goblins continued to charge at the wolf, finally reaching it. As the wolf turned around to face the incoming danger, it was slashed across the face by one dagger, creating a large wound across its face, blinding one eye. It howled in pain and lunged forward with its head, snapping its teeth shut around the shoulder of the goblin, shaking it back and forth as the life of the goblin was quickly depleted. The wolf swung its head to the side and let go, the lifeless body of the goblin hitting the wall. The other goblins didn¡¯t remain motionless and started to repeatedly slash and stab the wolf, more and more wounds appearing on the wolf¡¯s body, its fur starting to color red from the blood flowing from its wounds. It snarled and turned around, slashing with the claws of one paw towards one goblin while sinking its teeth into the throat of another, ending the lives of another two goblins. The remaining two goblins fighting the wolf continued their assault, drawing more and more blood from the wolf as its motions started to become sloppy, the numerous wounds on its body started to show their effect. Yet it didn¡¯t save their life, and they too were quickly ended by the wolf. It snarled and turned its head to the remaining two goblins. It stalked towards the first to the left, and slowly sank its teeth into the goblin¡¯s throat, killing him. As it turned towards the last goblin, the last sight the wolf had was the dagger of that goblin quickly approaching. The goblin thrust its dagger forward, right between the eyes of the wolf. A whine escaped the wolf¡¯s mouth as it fell down to the ground, its life vanishing from its eyes. The goblin staggered back and let out a victorious cry, having defeated the wolf. ¡°W.. We did it...¡± James said quietly to Clint. ¡°We really did it... We killed it... We survived...¡± ¡°Y.. Yeah, we did. You did well using the goblins like that.¡± Clint looked pale as he replied. The near death experience having unsettled him as well. As James looked back at the second room, he noticed that the bodies of the goblins slowly started to disintegrate as if they were never there, but the body of the wolf remained. He figured it must have to do with the goblins being dungeon monsters. As he thought back to the fight, he realized just how close to dying again he had come. And how he had sent the goblins to die in practically a suicide attack. He looked at the wolf again and shivered as he had never killed an animal before. What was most unsettling was that he felt no guilt. Would he feel nothing if he had to kill an adventurer, a fellow human, for his own survival? The thought unsettled him, yet hardened him at the same time. ¡®I can¡¯t die. I have to survive. I have to become stronger!¡¯ James his resolve hardened as he created a goal. He couldn¡¯t come to death so close again. He had to grow stronger as a dungeon if he wanted to survive in this world. He would only be able to get knowledge if he survived, after all. He glanced at his mana and noticed it was fulfilling a little bit faster than before. As he looked back at the wolf, he saw that its mana was seeping into the dungeon, helping him to recover slowly. Most of it, however, didn¡¯t seem to go to his mana pool. ¡®Hmmm, that¡¯s odd... I should ask Clint about it later.¡¯ He focused on the wolf¡¯s dead body again, and, even though he didn¡¯t want to, he set himself to the task and started to assimilate the large body of the wolf.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Roughly three hours later he had assimilated the wolf and gained the knowledge. As he glanced to his status screen, he noticed that his mana had barely recovered. He had felt the drain of mana as he assimilated the wolf. IT seemed that the larger and more difficult objects would take longer to assimilate and take up some of his mana to do so. Moving back to his status screen, he opened up his skill monster window and glanced at it. [Summon Monster] [Goblin: 80 mana] [Kobold: 80 mana] [Slime: 50 mana] [Wolf: 400 mana] ¡®Oh, that¡¯s cool. I can summon a wolf now. But it seems my maximum mana is lacking for now. Guess that¡¯s for when I¡¯m a higher level dungeon.¡¯ As James thought about possible uses for his monsters, Clint spoke up to get his attention ¡°Alright, so James. Your dungeon is a bit damaged. It seems your plants got hit in the attack, some of your walls are destroyed, and well, you obviously lost most of your goblins. It probably would be a good idea to summon them again if we want to stop another attack.¡± Clint glanced at where the body of the wolf should have been and looked momentarily surprised as he noticed James had assimilated it. ¡°And quick thinking there, assimilating that. Guess you can summon it?¡± ¡°Yeah, but I don¡¯t have enough mana for now. Anyway, I¡¯ll get right to summoning them¡­ Ah, I have another question, Clint. I could feel mana leaving the body of the wolf and enter my dungeon, but most of it didn¡¯t go to my mana pool. Do you know what happened?¡± ¡°Hmm... Well, it¡¯s probably a requirement to level up. As I said before, adventurers and monsters alike give off a certain amount of mana. The stronger they are, the more mana they give off. Part of this goes towards your mana pool while another is used to make you stronger. The more mana you take in from foreign entities, the quicker you will level up. There¡¯s like, a maximum amount of mana you can take up, though. They continuously replenish their mana so eventually, it¡¯s your own mana. Only if you kill them will you be able to get even more, like what happened with the wolf.¡± Clint looked worried for a moment before speaking up again. ¡°Please don¡¯t kill too many adventurers, alright? Or they¡¯re going to come in charging and grind your dungeon crystal to dust.¡± James took the information to heart and glanced at his status screen again. ¡®110 mana points. Not bad.¡¯ He waited until he had 120 mana points before summoning another goblin, bringing his total back up to two goblins, his mana back to 40 mana points. For the next hour, he started repairing the walls slowly, while repeatedly glancing at his status screen. Once he reached 120 mana points again, he summoned another goblin. An entire day passed while James brought his goblins back up to eight and his mana points to their maximum. He summoned another two goblins to bring his total amount of goblins to 10, creating some force, even though they were quite weak. He waited a few more hours to bring his mana back up and tried to summon another goblin, yet failed. As he tried again, he noticed the flow of mana didn¡¯t seem as strong and the goblin wasn¡¯t created. He moved over to Clint and addressed him. ¡°Hey Clint, I can¡¯t summon any more goblins. Is there like.. a limit or something?¡± ¡°Well yes. Obviously. Your dungeon can only support so many monsters. If you want more, you need to grow larger and stronger.¡± ¡®Hmm.. I guess that does make sense. Just adding Goblins will only go so far, though.. I need a larger variety of monsters and see how I can combine them. What else do dungeons have.. Think, James, think. You need more than this if you want to survive this weird world.¡¯ James started thinking back to all the games he played, and how he experienced them. In several dungeons, one thing always came back. ¡®Traps! I need traps. I need more items to make traps though..¡¯ As James realized what he had to do, he brought all his goblins to the first room and split them up into five groups of two. He ordered the first two groups to go out and gather as many materials as they could, while the remaining three groups guarded the dungeon. Not too long after, the goblins came back and dropped their gathered stuff in the first room. James used the remaining six goblins to sort through the loot and spread it out for him to analyze what he had. Meanwhile, the goblins went out to gather more stuff. James repeated this process for the next few days. He would send out a few groups to gather items, and then look through what they gathered before assimilating it, adding it to his knowledge. During this time, he thought about how he could expand his dungeon and how the layout should look like. He felt it needed several more rooms, and more hallways, if he wanted to add traps to the mix. He repeatedly discussed the layout with Clint, who pointed out several errors. ¡®Ugh, making a dungeon is quite difficult¡¯, he thought, ¡®I can¡¯t make it too difficult because adventurers have to be able to survive. Not that I want to kill anyone, anyway. Gotta make it just right in difficulty.¡¯ Finally, he came up with what he thought was a good layout and set to work. Over the course of a week, James expanded his dungeon. Using both his active and passive skills, he dug out rooms and created hallways while filling up some of the old ones. At the last room, he made a side path to hold an experimentation room to see what traps he could come up with. As he finally finished his work, he moved through the dungeon and was quite happy with the result he had made. It had taken quite a bit of work. Only the first hallway and room remained relatively the same. Part of the third room had been used as a hallway, while the second room had been made round. The second room had been filled up completely, which had taken quite some time. He had copied the layout and created the same at the other side of the first room, to create two paths for adventurers and monsters to take. They would meet again in what you could call the fourth room. Here most of his monsters would wait, with a tiny room for some of his monsters to charge from, and hopefully catch adventurers and monsters off guard. That room led to his core room and his experimentation room, which he would use to experiment with traps, to see what he could come up with. Now that he had completed the layout of his dungeon, he decided to fill it up with several plants again. From the last time he had done this with Clint, he had found out that the more mana he gave to the plants, the better the quality would be. If he gave the plants less mana, they would be poor in quality. The next several days were spent carefully creating the healing herbs. In the first room, he created two low-quality plants, enough to create some interest. Each circular room held one plant of medium quality. Most of the time spent was in the last room. He wanted a good quality healing herb there as a reward for beating the largest section of the dungeon. It wasn¡¯t easy, though. As he pumped more mana into the plant, it would break apart. He had to carefully control the mana while he created the healing herb, and adjust it accordingly. It was only on the last day that he managed to create a good quality healing herb. [Active Skill Mana Manipulation has reached level 2] His efforts were rewarded, and he gave himself a pat on the back as he reached a new level in mana manipulation. He could once again feel the knowledge flow into his mind as he gained a new, better understanding of how mana functioned and how one had to control it. Now it was time to create some traps and see what the kobold and the slime could do.
Somewhere, in a different part of the world James now inhabited, there was a busy town. The town was surrounded by a sturdy stone wall with guards at the four exits. Grassy plains surrounded the town. Further, at one side, were some hills, at another a large forest, both connected through a large mountain range. There were many farmers working the lands, with tiny villages scattered throughout the plains. The marketplace was probably the busiest place in the entire town, with taverns surrounding it. People came here to buy their daily food, or browse through arms and armor. Adventurers would haggle with craftsmen, while innkeepers were buying wares from the farmers. Besides the marketplace, the Adventurers¡¯ Guild was likely the second busiest place in the town. Here people gathered to place requests, and adventurers would complete these for rewards and fame. Taverns were frequently visited as well. Here adventurers, merchants and farmers alike would come together to fill their bellies and practically drown themselves in cheap booze while throwing out dirty jokes at each other. Everyone was welcome to start as an adventurer. A test would be taken to see if you had any combat capabilities. Based on this test, you would be assigned an adventurer rank. If you had no prior combat experience, you would be put as an F-rank and go through a training camp where a senior adventurer, currently employed by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild would teach you the essentials. Emi was one of these adventurers. She was one of the cat-people. Her fluffy cat ears were located on the top of her head. She could form large claws from her fingers and easily retract them again. A fluffy tail swished from side to side as she walked through the busy town. She had large red eyes, the color just as bloody red as her long hair, which reached all the way to her lower back. She was currently wearing a crude set of leather armor. It hadn¡¯t cost a lot at the stall where she bought it. At each hip hung a scabbard, each containing a one-handed sword. Her pace had a small extra step to it, nearly skipping through the busy street as she watched around happily, her ears twitching a little at the sounds she picked up. Catching a whiff of something delicious, she stopped mid-step, her tail standing up straight. Her head tilted to the side as she let out a ¡°Nyaa?¡± while looking for the source. Her large, round eyes quickly fell on the pancakes being prepared at one of the stalls, a bulky man preparing them, his booming voice sounding throughout the marketplace, ¡°Pancakes! Buy your pancakes here! Just five coppers a piece!¡± Curiously, she approached, her nose taking in the scent of the delicious treat. Her hand dug in the little coin purse hanging from the leather belt and she took out five copper coins. She nodded to herself, this would be a good way to celebrate her graduation from the training camp. She handed over the copper pieces and received the pancake. Holding it with both hands, she munched on it, an overly happy expression on her face as she took large bite after bite from the treat, even closing her eyes once in a while. Her tail slowly coiled around her leg as she walked through the street while finishing the pancake. Once she was done eating it, she threw away the little paper that came with it to hold it into a trash bin and licked her lips, trying to get as much of the aftertaste as possible. Emi headed for the inn she was staying at and entered the establishment. She sat down at one of the many tables and ordered a hot plate of food together with a mug of ale. She let out a deep breath as she was finally able to really relax after a long day of training. Tomorrow she¡¯d be able to do her first quest as an F-rank adventurer! She was overjoyed, and when her food arrived, she raised the mug and took a big gulp of the drink, the alcohol slightly burning her throat. ¡°Nyaah, that hit the spot!¡± She said rather loudly, some of the other adventurers around her looking up and at her. Some looked at her with a mildly amused look, remember their days of just graduating the training camp of the Adventurers Guild. She gave them an embarrassed smile. Others, however, looked at her with disgust. She shrugged her shoulders and ignored them. Beastkin like herself weren¡¯t really wanted by every human, but she didn¡¯t really care. Finishing up her food, she walked to the stairs, and, after saying good night to the innkeeper, headed up the stairs to the first floor and entered her room to the far right in the hallway. She locked the door behind her and, after disrobing, fell down on the bed and crawled under the covers, promptly falling asleep.