《Cultivating Dungeon》 Chapter 1 - Im a what now? Hello everyone this is my first time writing so please point out any errors I made and I hope you will enjoy it!
¡°So, this is how it all ends¡­¡± ¡°Can¡¯t believe I ended up falling for something like that¡­.¡± ¡°Oh well, there wasn¡¯t much left to do anyways¡­.¡± ¡°I wonder how she¡¯s doing.¡­¡± ¡°How things could have gone had this day gone differently.¡­¡± Then the darkness came and the man lost all of his senses. He was known as the Sage Emperor. Although he wasn¡¯t among the top cultivators, he was still both well known and respected. He reached his limit when he reached the Emperor Realm. His own talent wasn¡¯t that good to begin with, and if it wasn¡¯t for his own vast knowledge of cultivation and some lucky encounters, he never would have made it as far as he did. His mastery of the road of cultivation was so high that even those more powerful than him would seek him out for advice. The Sage Emperor knew that he had reached the end of his journey in the way of cultivation, so he devoted himself wholeheartedly to his studies. Cultivators with all sorts of backgrounds, from lonely rogue cultivators, to the disciples of the largest sects, and even those who had already reached the peak, came to him. This gave him access to techniques and cultivation methods that many could only dream of. Because of the large number of people that came to him for help, no one dared to offend him for fear of the rest of the world¡¯s retaliation. The Sage Emperor lived in peace, teaching and learning for a thousand years. While it may seem like a perfect life, the truth was that he was very lonely. The people that came to him only came for their own benefits. The disciples that he taught were not his own disciples, and those stronger than him would never see him as their equal. Gradually, he began to explore ruins and tombs, hoping to find some long-lost techniques or cultivation methods to study, because only when he drowned himself in learning could he discard all of his emotions. However, while exploring an unknown ruin one day, something went wrong. He had reached the last chamber and saw a giant crystal at the entrance. The crystal was shaped like two square pyramids connected at the base. What was interesting about the crystal though was that it was floating slightly above the ground. Curious, the Sage Emperor walked up to examine the crystal when he suddenly felt a powerful force emanating from the crystal. He could feel just how dangerous the power was and knew that if he didn¡¯t leave immediately, he would die. But he could also sense that there was something odd inside the crystal, and that caused him to pause. The feeling he got was that if he didn¡¯t see what it was inside the crystal, he would regret it for the rest of his life. In that instant, he made a decision that would change his fate. Instead of using one of hundreds of methods he had to escape, he stood there and, using his divine sense, dug deep into the crystal. He knew he was racing against the clock as he had only seconds before the energy destroyed him. There were many restrictions placed around the mysterious object inside the crystal, but, with his knowledge, he easily broke through them all. His divine sense then surrounded the object. At the same exact moment, the energy from the crystal was finally released and it exploded forth. Because he was there so long, there was no way he could escape the blast. Just as a blinding light washed over him, the Sage Emperor saw what the object that was inside the crystal was. It was a very simple book, and it was titled, ¡°The Dungeon Master¡¯s Manual¡±. Slowly, he regained consciousness and tried to look around, but everything around him was dark. He then tried to move, but found that he wasn¡¯t able to feel his body at all. He immediately attempted to activate his Qi, but quickly found that he had none. None of this, however, caused him to panic. It was not like his thousand years of life counted for nothing. He quickly began to cultivate in an attempt to replenish the Qi in his body and repair it. He immediately noticed that something was different. While the natural energy in the area was fairly dense, it felt quite different compared to the energy he was used to. It began to feel even stranger as he cycled it through his body. Since he didn¡¯t have any other plans at the moment, he continued to absorb the natural energy in the surrounding area. It felt like his body was a parched desert absorbing the water left by a rain storm. After continuing for some time, a change finally occurred. As if triggering something that had lied dormant, there was a sudden flash of blue light. The room he was in suddenly became visible. He could see that he seemed to be inside of a small cave underground. The room wasn¡¯t very big and had no entrance or exit, much like a sealed cultivation cave. The odd thing was that he could feel the entire room as if it were a part of him. Curious, he carefully concentrated on that feeling and then he suddenly became the room. His point of view shifted into a third person view as he looked at the entire room. What he saw stunned him. It was a small cave, as he previously felt, but what was inside the cave where his body should have been was not his body at all, but, in fact, a crystal. It was much like the one that killed him, only smaller. It took a long time for him to recover his senses. When his mind was clear, he carefully examined the crystal and muttered, ¡°Is this why I can¡¯t seem to move or feel my body?¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. He began to carefully examine his new crystal body and noticed that it still felt empty somehow. He pondered for a bit, then began to cultivate. He quickly noticed that the surrounding energy entered the crystal and the crystal began to fill up. After analyzing it for a while, he came to the conclusion that whatever his new body was, it lacked this mysterious energy. He also noticed that his cultivation technique seemed to speed up the natural absorption process a lot. He thought about how he couldn¡¯t see or feel anything before, but after absorbing enough of this energy, he was suddenly able to see this small room. ¡°Maybe once I completely fill up the crystal, something will happen¡­.¡± With that thought in mind, he calmed himself down and began to cultivate again. The energy swirled around the room before rushing toward him. The crystal began to slowly fill up. When the crystal was full, another change occurred. He suddenly felt like he had control over both the crystal and the entire room. This was a strange feeling, so he decided to test it out by attempting to use the newly gathered energy to dig into the wall. He could feel the energy leave him as he dug one meter into the wall. What shocked him was that he could feel that the space he was in control of had increased as well. Then he tried moving his own body, and, to his delight, the crystal moved as well. ¡°So, my guess was correct. After gathering enough of this energy, I seem to be able to unlock abilities, though I still have no idea where I am or what exactly happened to me.¡± Thinking that, he suddenly realized something. ¡°Hmmm, this view almost feels similar to when using divine sense. I wonder if I can examine things.¡± With that, he focused on the crystal and was surprised when information popped into his mind. Status Name: ??? Race: Dungeon Core Mana: 74/100 Level: 0 ¡°What is this!?¡± The information shocked him. In the past, he was able to use divine sense to scan things and people, but the information resulting from it was never this clear and was up to himself to interpret. ¡°The information in my head is so clear, though I have no name and I¡¯m a what now?¡± Startled, he scanned himself again, double checking the information appearing in his head. ¡°A Dungeon Core? Well, this sure took an interesting turn. I seem to have reincarnated, but not as a human. Instead, I¡¯ve become a Dungeon Core¡­¡± ¡°Well, ignoring the race for now, this mana thing seems to be an indication of how much of this strange energy I¡¯ve absorbed. From what it shows now, around 50 was when I gained sight, and at 75 I gained control of this room. If this trend continues, then something else is bound to happen when I reach 100/100.¡± ¡°I have no idea what this level thing means, but the zero is a clear indication of how weak I currently am. No matter what, I must gain enough strength to at least protect myself. Guess the only thing left to do is gather this mana for now.¡± He then began to cultivate. He could feel the mana surge toward his new ¡°body¡± as he cultivated. He could tell that the crystal hosted his soul and that he would die if it were to be destroyed, but he also had this odd feeling that the room was also part of his body. 80, 85, 90, 95, 99...100! Right as he hit 100/100 mana, a voice entered his mind. ¡°You¡¯ve reached the requirement to level up!¡± ¡°You are now level 1!¡± Status Name: ??? Race: Dungeon Core Mana: 100/150 Level: 1 ¡°Now forming your dungeon fairy!¡± Suddenly, a ball of light appeared before him and he felt all the mana he had gathered drain from him, making him feel weak. He knew that if this continued until he was back to zero mana, he would fall unconscious. Considering the situation, it wouldn¡¯t be very good if he did. He also knew that he couldn¡¯t stop it, so he immediately calmed his mind and began to cultivate like crazy to absorb enough mana to counterbalance this mana drain. This went on until what he felt was about 100 mana had been drained away. It seemed like it was about to be over, but the light suddenly intensified and the mana drain intensified with it. He was shocked at the sudden turn of events, but considering how long he had been alive for, he didn¡¯t panic and continued to absorb mana by cultivating. This lasted for a long time. After what he determined to be a total of 500 mana had been drained, it finally stopped. The intense light faded and the shape of a little person appeared from within the blinding light. Once the light was completely gone, he could see a girl. She was a bit small for a normal human. She wore a red dress and had long, red hair. She was beautiful. Her looks alone would have definitely attracted a lot of attention in a crowd. When taking into consideration her very small stature and the wings on her back, the attention she would attract would cause a riot. ¡°According to the voice, this should be my dungeon fairy? I wonder what that is¡­ I hope I¡¯ll finally have some answers,¡± He muttered as he stared at the little fairy The fairy slowly opened her eyes. She stared at the crystal before her and said, ¡°Hello, my name is Alice, and I¡¯m your dungeon fairy!¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Edited by: The General Chapter 2 - What is a dungeon? Hello everyone here is chapter 2! I hope you enjoy it and please leave a comment on what you like, dislike, and what I can improve on!
Alice stared at the dungeon core before her and after a long and awkward pause she asked ¡°So what is the name of my master?¡± The dungeon core seem to suddenly come back to its senses and muttered so quietly no one but himself could hear ¡°A name¡­ I haven¡¯t had used my name since then¡­ really doesn¡¯t bring back any good memories.¡± Alice seemed to have heard the dungeon core muttering to himself and moved closer. ¡°Hello is anyone in there? Is this thing hollow?¡± Then she said as she lightly knocked on the crystal. This seemed to have gotten his attention as he quickly composed himself and said, ¡°You can call me Sage.¡± *Bing* ¡°Name is now Sage.¡± ¡°That voice again. It seems to make an announcement whenever something important happens. Is this an automatic function of my new body or is there something else at work observing me?¡± Sage secretly thought. Then he suddenly thought of something and said, ¡°Did you hear that?¡± Alice looked confused and replied, ¡°Hear what? Nothing but you, me, and rocks here.¡± ¡°I see, so it seems these messages are directed towards me.¡± he thought. After a pause he asked ¡°So what¡¯s a dungeon fairy?¡± Alice replied, ¡°We dungeon fairies are formed when a dungeon core gathers enough mana to truly awaken. Our job is to guide the dungeon as it grows and to help it maintain a dungeon.¡± ¡°I see and what, exactly, are dungeons?¡± Sage asked after a slight pause Alice stared at him like he was some strange creature. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Sage asked, feeling very awkward She continue to stare at him then flew around him knocking here and there. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Sage asked again, feeling helpless Alice finally seem to regain her senses and shouted, ¡°How do you not even know what you are! I thought you were a pretty talented dungeon considering how smart you were right as you awakened but how do you not even know what a dungeon is? Oh what am I to do. If this dungeon core is like how will we survive! Will I ever be able to evolve and become like my sister? What if he gets destroyed and I get captured! Oh what to do what to do!¡± Seeing Alice zipping around the room in a frenzy Sage wasn¡¯t sure of what to do. he had always been kind of a bookworm in his past life. His focus had always been to learn so he could become stronger and because of his own lack of talent he had to work harder than everyone leaving no time for any social interaction. Once he became known as the Sage Emperor he became even more reclusive. All the people who came to him seeking his knowledge and were very respectful to him. And now there is a little girl having a panic attack before him and he really doesn¡¯t know what he should be doing. ¡°Ok, so this might not be the smartest dungeon core out there but at least he seems to be good at gathering mana, that¡¯s one upside. Ok Alice you can do this, you going to make this dungeon core into the best dungeon out there!¡± Alice muttered. With that she seemed to have finally calmed herself down. She turned toward Sage and said, ¡°Ok time for a lesson. I don¡¯t know what happened to you that caused you to forget the most basic information you¡¯re suppose to be born with but I¡¯m not going to die or get captured because of you. I¡¯m going to give you a crash course in dungeon basics!¡± Alice took a deep breath before she continued ¡°Dungeon is a location control by a dungeon core. There are many varieties of dungeons but overall it¡¯s a place where people come to kill monsters and get loot for their trouble. A dungeon core, that¡¯s you, is what controls a dungeon. The dungeon is a part of your body and as you grow so will the dungeon. A dungeon core is formed naturally underground where there are high density of mana. It takes a very long time for the mana to slowly condense into a core. Once enough mana is gathered in the core the dungeon core gains consciousness and then forms their dungeon fairy.¡± ¡°So what exactly is a dungeon fairy? Are you a part of me?¡± Sage suddenly asked. ¡°What no, that¡¯s gross.¡± Alice quickly replied, ¡°While us dungeon fairies aren¡¯t really part of the dungeon, the mana gathered by the dungeon is used to form our body. We¡¯re normally spirits without physical form but when a dungeon awakens they form a dungeon fairy which is the host body for us. We¡¯re given a chance for a physical form and in return we help a dungeon grow.¡± ¡°I see, please continue.¡± Alice continued ¡°Ok, so as a dungeon you will expand your territory using mana you gathered which in turn give you wider control and faster mana gain. You will also need to populate your dungeon with monsters and traps to protect yourself.¡± Sage quickly asked ¡°Wait protect myself from what? Is there something after us?¡± Alice explained ¡°Well as I said before people will come into the dungeon to test themselves against the various danger in a dungeon. Most people will be here to train themselves and to make money from this place but there will always be people that might have ideas about a dungeon core. Normally it is against the rules to destroy a dungeon¡¯s core but there are always greedy people who might want a dungeon core for whatever reason.¡± ¡°Wait, why is it against the rule to destroy a dungeon¡¯s core?¡± Sage paused for a moment and then continued, ¡°And what do you mean by normally?¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s simple silly, just like how the relationship between a dungeon and a dungeon fairy is beneficial so is the relationship between a dungeon and its surrounding people. A dungeon has the ability to produce resources just using mana gathered from nature and this is a very valuable to the surrounding people. Having a dungeon would draw in travelers from far and wide, increasing trade in the nearby area. A dungeon would also serve as training grounds for adventurers and sometimes even the army will use it to train their soldiers! So if we build a good dungeon we¡¯ll have a lot of people coming to visit us which in turn will provide you with what you need to evolve!¡± Alice seem to be getting very excited. ¡°I see, I suppose it¡¯s the same as magical forests the sects use to train their disciples only the entire area is controlled by a sentient force. Interesting, well if it¡¯s a training ground then this might not be as hard as it seemed at first.¡± Sage was muttering to himself again. Alice felt awkward when Sage just seem to mutter to himself without telling her anything, she was about to speak when Sage suddenly said, ¡°You said having people in the dungeon would provide me with what I need to evolve, what does that mean?¡± Alice was startled by the sudden outburst and said ¡°Oh right I forget you seem to lack all dungeon common sense. It is fairly simple really for a dungeon to grow they need mana and lots of it. As you expand your dungeon size you will get more mana but that comes slowly. In order to get more mana you need people inside your dungeon. The stronger someone is the more ambient mana they give off and you can capture that for your own use. Of course if they were to die inside your dungeon you get even more!¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be bad if people started dying in there?¡± Sage asked ¡°Well it is part of the trade off. No one will grow if there is no danger and if dungeons are not life threatening then they would be flooded with people abusing it for its resources. You won¡¯t be able to keep up with the demands and you will be sucked dry. Making a dungeon dangerous deters those lazy people away after all you don¡¯t really need people without much mana in your dungeon.¡± Alice slowly said After pondering for a while Sage asked ¡°You said before that normally it¡¯s against the rules to destroy a dungeon core, when it is not against the rules?¡± Alice replied ¡°Like I said before there are many types of dungeons but most of them are pretty superficial as it is just the type of monster and environment. The two type that are different from the rest are Demonic Dungeons and Void Dungeons. Demonic Dungeons are dungeons that have fallen under a demon¡¯s control. They become a lair that breed demon and is used to attack the people that lives on this land. Void Dungeon are even scarier as the void is something that is still fairly unknown. The spawn creatures of the void and the dungeon will rapidly expand into areas where people live. Both are considered highly dangerous and will be destroyed at all cost.¡± Sage processed all this information and finally said ¡°So how do I exactly go about this whole dungeon business?¡± Alice happily replied ¡°For starters we need to increase the size of this dungeon, just this room is way too small, you won¡¯t want people to find you so easily! Once we have a decent size first floor we will need to fill it with monsters, traps, and loot. Then all we need to do is to make an opening to the outside and we are open for business!¡± Sage said ¡°Sounds good but where are we exactly? All I know is we are in a sealed cave, how far away would the outside even be?¡± Alice pointed to the eastern wall and said ¡°Don¡¯t worry silly that¡¯s what we dungeon fairies are for. You only need to dig about 200 meters to the east and will connect use to the outside. Of course right now we have much more important things to do. Oh right Sage what is your current status?¡± Sage was startled by the sudden question and proceeded to check his own status. Status Name: Sage Race: Dungeon Core Mana: 290/300 Level: 5 Alice waited for a response and after a while asked, ¡°So what is it?¡± Sage replied, ¡°Sorry you can¡¯t see the status window? I¡¯m currently level 5 and have 290/300 mana¡± ¡°WHAT!¡± Alice was in complete shock ¡°How? You just awakened and formed me how did you gather so much mana already? I guess my luck isn¡¯t too bad though the dungeon core I got stuck with is a bit dumb. I guess god compensated in other areas. With this kind of growth rate we¡¯ll be able to¡­¡± Sage just stared at this hyperactive little fairy zipping around as she went into another mumbling rampage. While Alice muttered to herself Sage started controlling the mana in his body to expand his dungeon. ¡°So it seem the cultivation methods I brought from my world has greatly speed up my ability to absorb mana in this world. Although this dungeon fairy seems to be on my side I believe it would be best to keep it a secret that I¡¯m a soul from another world. I¡¯m curious to see what type of cultivation they have in this world.¡± Sage thought to himself as he continued to dig. Alice¡¯s little fit lasted for a few hours before she became exhausted. By the time she came back to her senses Sage has already expanded quite a bit. The room they were previously has now been expanded to a 30x30x10 meter room with a tunnel going south. She also notice that Sage seemed to be gone and instantly panicked. She quickly flew down the tunnel and found another room but Sage was nowhere to be found. She is now in full panic mode and shouted ¡°Sage where are you!¡± Just as she shouted a rock on one of the walls moved with a rumble and a secret passage opened out as a voice came from inside ¡°In here Alice!¡± Alice flew through the door and as she flew inside the stone door closed again. Once she was inside the room she saw that it was a simple room that¡¯s about 20x20x5 meter room. She couldn¡¯t help but exclaim ¡°Wow Sage you already expanded this much and even figure out how to spawn traps without me even explaining it! I thought you didn¡¯t know anything about dungeons, were you holding out on me? Or trying to make me look bad!¡± Sage was confused and asked ¡°What do you mean spawn traps?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so shy, that stone door was a secret passage that dungeons can spawn. I haven¡¯t even told you about spawning stuff yet you already did it. Guess this won¡¯t be so bad after all!¡± Alice was every excited at all the progress that has been made. Sage replied ¡°Wait, spawn traps? I built that stone door myself using mana.¡± ¡°What! That¡¯s amazing how did you do it! Well forget it for now I guess I was a bit distracted earlier but we should move on to the next phase which is spawning! You will need to spawn monsters to populate the dungeon, traps to trick all the people that enter, and then loot to draw people into the dungeon!!!¡± Alice said, seeming to be getting into another frenzy. Sage couldn¡¯t help but secretly sigh ¡°Doesn¡¯t she ever get tired? Speaking of getting tired I haven¡¯t seemed to be feeling any fatigue either since I have started my life as a dungeon core. I wonder what the status of my little dungeon fairy is.¡± With that in mind he proceed to scan Alice. There was a sudden flash of red light that blinded him for a split second before Alice¡¯s status window appeared. Status Name: Alice Race: Dungeon Fairy Mana: ??? Level: 10 ¡°What was that, it seem Alice didn¡¯t notice anything¡­..¡± Sage tried scanning Alice again, everything was normal this time and her status window just appeared. He tried again¡­ nothing happened. ¡°I wonder what that was, could it just be my lack of control¡­¡± Just then Alice excited continued ¡°Alright let¡¯s start with spawning monsters! Just focus your thoughts on the dungeon core and think about monsters. A list of what you are capable of spawning and their cost will be displayed to you!¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 3 - Monsters! Here is chapter 3 hope you all enjoy it!
Sage focused his thoughts on monsters like Alice had instructed him to and suddenly a list appeared before him.
  1. Goblin (100 Mana) - Small green skinned humanoid creatures that live together in packs. They are very weak individually so they always moves in small groups. Can be a threat when a leader is born among them as this causes much larger and more organized goblin raid groups.
  2. Slimes (50 Mana) - A slime creature formed from mana. Due to its body structure it is resistant to physical attack while weak to magic. The mana core is its biggest weakness as without it the slime will die. Slime are very adaptive creatures so will change to many different forms.
  3. Elementary White Ti... *ADSFEGJLKHGERRORFHJYFBO(XZ*
A flash of violent red appeared again and Sage lost sight of everything for a brief second. Sage thought ¡°What¡¯s this! That is the second time already. There is something out there interfering with me and I have to be careful. Have to see if I can set some restriction down to protect myself. But that monster that was about to appear seem like it was going to be Elementary White Tiger.¡± When he could see again the full list appeared.
  1. Slimes (50 Mana) - A slime creature formed from mana. Due to its jelly like body structure it is resistant to physical attack while weak to magic. The mana core is its biggest weakness as without it the slime will die. Slimes are very adaptive creatures so will change to many different forms.
  2. Goblin (100 Mana) - Small green skinned humanoid creatures that live together in packs. They are very weak individually so they always moves in small groups. Can be a threat when a leader is born among them as this cause much larger and more organized goblin raid groups.
  3. Kobold (200 Mana) - Small lizard-like humanoid creatures that are skilled in building traps and ambushes. They are aggressive in nature and don¡¯t get along well with other creatures. Due to their lizard heritage some believe they might be related to Dragons but this is unconfirmed.
  4. Skeleton (250 Mana) - Very common undead creatures and can come in a great varities. Skeletons made from dead beings will inherit characteristics of that being and are generally more powerful and more intelligent than skeletons summoned by mana.
  5. HellHounds (500 Mana) - Demonic dogs that has some control over fire. Rumor has it that once they grew powerful enough they will grow larger and gain extra heads.
  6. Dungeon Pixies (1000 Mana) - Unlike their friendlier counterpart Fairies they love playing pranks on people. Although not very deadly they are nightmares for the unprepared.
Sage listed off the creatures as he read the list ¡°Goblins, Slimes, Kobolds, Skeletons, HellHounds, and Dungeon Pixies?¡± Sage looked at Alice with questioningly. Alice quickly responded, ¡°I almost forgot about this but beside the two special type of dungeons that are targeted for extermination there is one more that¡¯s part of the normal group but depending on the local population can be quite dangerous as well. That type of dungeon is the undead dungeon. They operate same as the other normal dungeons but due to the creatures that live inside there are certain groups that aren¡¯t very happy with their existence.¡± Sage nodded in agreement, ¡°That does make sense, the undead has always made people uneasy.¡± Alice was shocked for a moment and said, ¡°Wow, I didn¡¯t think you would understand that. Sage you really are a weird dungeon core. Maybe that¡¯s why you have HellHounds as an opinion, normally only demonic dungeons can summon demonic creatures but consider how much of an outlier you are this isn¡¯t that surprising. But as I said before demonic dungeons are targeted so it is best not to summon any.¡± Sage nodded again and asked, ¡°So are these dungeon pixies? They do seem quite useless for the purpose of a dungeon.¡± ¡°While Dungeon Pixies aren¡¯t very useful when it comes to fighting they do still have their uses.¡± Alice thought for a moment then continued ¡°Pixies, much like us fairies, are creatures that are good at gathering mana. The excess mana gathered by pixies is call pixie dust which has a lot of uses in Alchemy. The best part is that because pixies need to be alive to keep producing them people generally don¡¯t kill pixies and let them go once the dust is collected. Also since it requires a lot of mana for Pixies to produce pixie dust dungeons are the best place to keep them, as a result they aren¡¯t captured either. In the end their main purpose is to simply attract more people.¡± ¡°Hmmm, so how do we feed these monsters exactly? I don¡¯t see an opinion to summon normal animals and if the dungeon was large with a lot of monsters how would they all survive?¡± Sage asked after processing all the information. Alice replied ¡°Dungeon monster don¡¯t really need to eat as they are created from mana they will feed on the mana inside the dungeon. Once the dungeon gets larger and has more floors the lower floors will have a higher mana density which mean stronger monsters will be able to sustain themselves. This is why powerful monsters are always on the lower floor and don¡¯t come up to the upper floor very often. But if you will it they will move to where you wish but remember if they go to area with too low mana density then they will get hungry and need to eat. This also is true when you sent monsters outside of your dungeon.¡± ¡°I can send monsters outside of the dungeon!¡± Sage cried, shocked at the news. From what he assumed since the monsters are created from mana they won¡¯t be able to leave this area. ¡°Yes you can send them out of the dungeon¡­¡± Alice hesitated for a bit before continuing ¡°but I would highly recommend against that. Once the monsters leave the dungeon they are outside the range of your influence so you won¡¯t be able to order them anymore. And if it is found that monsters are leaving the dungeon and causing problems for the people living nearby then they might decide to destroy you because you¡¯re a threat to them.¡± Sage silently pondered the new information. ¡°So let¡¯s summon your first monsters!¡± Alice said after an awkward pause . Sage began to plan in his mind ¡°Skeletons and HellHounds are out the question it seems, that¡¯s too bad because I knew some cultivation methods that would have fit them perfectly. Pixies can¡¯t fight so I¡¯ll leave them for later. I honestly have no idea what this slime thing even this, it¡¯s like a living pile of goo. Can I even teach it a cultivation technique? Or better yet does it even have enough intelligence for me to teach it¡­ That basically leaves the Goblins and Kobold. Kobold seem much smarter than Goblins and possibly have ancient heritage I can exploit, I do remember a few cultivation that can awaken the heritage of a dragon. That¡¯s a good long term plan but there are too many variables right now to depend on that. I have no idea what kind of body or talent they will have and how well they can even learn. I guess I¡¯ll need to experiment with these creatures to see what suit them the best.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Finally Sage said ¡°Let¡¯s start with a Goblin!¡± With that he focused on the monster list again and targeted his focus on Goblin. Quickly he felt mana drain away from him as they move away from his crystal body to the area before him. The mana moved intricately and woven together into the shape of a Goblin with a magic core forming inside its head. This process happened very fast and to anyone else all they would see is a flash of white light as the Goblin appears. However to Sage, who has been a cultivator, he could clearly see the way mana moved to create the Goblin. Sage carefully remember this process for future study. The goblin was small creature that was only about 4 feet tall and is holding a very simple spear. ¡°A goblin!¡± Alice excitedly shouted ¡°Good choice for the first monster. Although we are going to need quite a few more for this to be at least on the level of a beginner dungeon. How many can you summon right now Sage?¡± Sage replied ¡°After this one I can summon 9 more.¡± ¡°WHAT!¡± Alice shouted ¡°How much mana do you have already?¡± ¡°When I reached level 10 my mana capacity suddenly spiked up to 1000 instead of the normal 50 gain per level.¡± Sage pondered for a bit then continued, ¡°And the strange thing is even when I max out at 1000/1000 mana I didn¡¯t level up anymore.¡± ¡°You really are a genius at gathering mana!¡± Alice let out a loud cheer and then said ¡°Level 1 to 10 is considered a preparation phase for dungeon cores. Normally a dungeon core will slowly make their dungeon larger so they absorb more mana to level up. After they reach level 8 they would spawn monsters to fill up the dungeon and by level 10 they are ready to connect their dungeon to the outside world. You also stop being able to level up past level 10 from just passively gathering mana, at this point you¡¯re forced to allow people to come in if you wish to continue to grow. The growing requirements for you will now be mana you gather from intruders to your dungeon. A lot of different factors come to play for this but the longer the intruders are inside and the stronger they are the faster you will be able to level up. Of course if they were to die that would be even better! However your growth is completely different from the norm so even though you are at level 10 already we are not ready to open up to the outside world unless you want to make the shortest dungeon in the world!¡± Sage nodded and proceed to summon 6 more goblins and 1 kobold making a total of 7 goblins and 1 kobold. Good thing they are dungeon monsters so they don¡¯t attack fellow dungeon monsters or else if it was outside a fight would have already broken out. Sage then thought for a bit and asked, ¡°Can they help in expanding the dungeon?¡± Alice replied, ¡°If you give them tools I suppose they can but it would be very slow in comparison to you just digging with your mana. Normally it would help decrease mana cost but with your mana recovery it doesn¡¯t seem to matter too much.¡± Sage suddenly asked, ¡°How would I give them tools?¡± ¡°Just like how you summoned creatures you can summon items as well. You will need to summon these items as reward to lure more people to come into your dungeon!¡± Alice excitedly replied ¡°And as you get stronger you will be able to create better items. Also items people dropped here can be picked up and replicated by you. Of course if it is some very powerful item the amount of mana required to make a copy will match suit. Since we already talked about monsters and items I might as well talk about the last thing and that is your dungeon environment. Much like how you summon monsters and items you can also change the environment of your dungeon. You can add plants, ores deposits, or even LAVA! This also allows you to summon normal animals as well and depending on the environment some of them might even evolve into new monsters!¡± Alice seemed to be overly excited again and went into another fit. Sage seemed used to it already and proceeded to expand the dungeon. He figured out that because the entire dungeon is like part of his body he could easily expand at any part of it without his main crystal body having to move there. So while he controlled his mana to automatically expand the dungeon he turned toward his monsters. These monsters are going to be his lifeline until he finds a way to protect himself. He immediately decided to scan them and after checking out the goblin and kobold¡¯s body structure he couldn¡¯t help but frown. Simply put they¡¯re not only weak but have a horrible body for cultivation. Their blood flow is horrible, meridians aren¡¯t connected, and body is weak. They would need a lot of work to be able to cultivate at all. ¡°Guess things aren¡¯t going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be. Well I was considered one of the greatest teachers and even named a sage. If I can teach geniuses and those above me how bad can this really be?¡± Sage thought this and soon he regretted those words. Not only were these monsters not fit for cultivation they weren¡¯t very smart either, especially the goblins. The kobold seemed to be at least a bit smarter but this hardly mattered considering the competition. He tried giving them lectures like how he would with disciples, explaining the meaning behind the fundamentals of cultivation but all he got back were blank stares. ¡°Ok that might have been a bit too advanced so let¡¯s move to some simple Qi control instead.¡± Said Sage. However the result was the same, blank stares. Then something finally hit Sage as he shouted ¡°Right this world¡¯s energy is call mana so need to teach them how to gather mana inside their body then use that to cultivate!¡± And thus Sage went back to teaching. As for Alice she finally got tired and asked Sage to make her a room connected to his secret chamber. After getting Sage to spawn her a bedroom set she went to sleep while Sage worked on training his monsters. Hours flew by, ¡°Why is none of this working¡­¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 4 - Cultivation Is Not Easy! Hello everyone here is chapter 4 hope you all enjoy it! I''m also working on editing the older chapters and will update them once they are done. Will post in new releases on what chapters have been updated and if there are any changes to the plot. Also I want to say this now but I don''t want to get too detailed in stats. I know some stories of similar setting kinda go into lot of tiny detail of the stats of every characters and monsters. I honestly don''t want to fill up chapters with tons of tables so I won''t go into too much detail of like cost of every thing and every single character''s stats. I might make a list in the future of the summoning cost of things for reference. I personally feel the story is more fluid without spending half a chapter doing math and reading tables, at least that''s my personal decision on this matter.
¡°Ok so that didn¡¯t work again.¡± Sage muttered to himself. ¡°Why am I failing? I¡¯ve taught the best of the best, any type of genius you can think of yet I can¡¯t get these¡­ things to do the most simple cultivation technique!¡± Sage had been at it for more than 8 hours and produce no result at all. Finally the 7 goblins and 1 kobold were tired from standing there and listening to sage all day and they needed to rest but didn¡¯t dare to. Sage continued to try and teach them cultivation techniques for a few more hours before Alice finally cut him off. ¡°Sage, I¡¯m not sure what you¡¯re trying to teach these monsters but they really aren¡¯t going to learn anything asleep. Hehe.¡± Alice couldn¡¯t help but giggle at what Sage has been doing. ¡°Also neither goblins or kobolds have good affinity for magic so trying to get them to do anything with them unless they evolve is basically impossible.¡± ¡°Wait¡­ what did you just say?¡± Sage suddenly asked. ¡°Uhmmm that goblins and kobolds don¡¯t have good magic affinities?¡± Alice hesitantly replied. ¡°What exactly does that mean?¡± Sage questioned. ¡°Well it is what is sound like, they don¡¯t have good magic affinities meaning they can¡¯t really gather mana inside their body and use them.¡± Alice quickly said. ¡°You mean that not every living creature can gather mana and use them?¡± Sage continued ¡°Yes and no, every living creatures has mana inside of them and gather them subconsciously. However not every creature can sense that mana and use them freely.¡± Alice hesitated a bit and then said ¡°Only more intelligent creatures are capable of manipulating mana inside their body, the lowest of goblins and kobolds have never shown that capability. Only once they evolved to their higher form can some of them use mana.¡± Sage pondered a bit then burst out, ¡°But aren¡¯t dungeon creatures different? They all have a mana core which allow them to absorb mana inside the dungeon and sustain themselves without food. Doesn¡¯t that mean that no matter what kind of creature they would have much higher concentration of mana inside their body?¡± Alice was startled, this was something she has never considered before. Common sense always said that the lower tier creatures lacked the ability to control mana and that¡¯s just how things had always been. She felt very confused and blurted out, ¡°I mean it¡¯s just common sense you know. Anyways Sage you should worry less about whatever it is that you¡¯re trying to do and focus more on completing the first floor of this dungeon. Once it is done we can connect to the outside and you will officially be an dungeon! Time to see what you¡¯ve done while I¡¯ve been asleep!¡± With that Alice quickly darted out of the room and into the dungeon. Sage let out a sigh and decided that Alice won¡¯t be able to help him overcome this problem and it was something he¡¯d have to do himself. And so for the next 5 days this continued. Sage ended up summoning more monsters and in the end there is a total of 20 goblins and 5 kobolds. Sage had split them up into group and taught them in rotation. That way once one group grew tired out another was moved in. Sadly after 5 days zero progress was made and Sage himself was becoming increasingly unstable. All the monsters are filled with fear as they knew their master was very angry with them but they just couldn¡¯t figure out why. Alice took note of this and tried to calm Sage down but to little success. Finally on the 6th day Alice could stand it any longer and interrupted Sage¡¯s ¡°lecture¡±, which which at this point is just him yelling at the goblins. She shouted ¡°SAGE! What has gotten into you? You¡¯re doing fine! The dungeon¡¯s first floor is near completion and you already have build up a nice force of monsters for the dungeon. You should be....¡± Before she could continue Sage lashed out, ¡°BUT IT¡¯S NOT ENOUGH! THESE MONSTERS ARE WEAK! THEY MUST BE STRONGER OR ELSE THERE IS NO WAY I¡¯LL BE SAFE! THEY MUST BE STRONGER!¡± Alice as startled, this has been the first time Sage has lashed out at her. She was scared for a moment but that was just for a moment. Alice has always been one to speak her mind, people that knew her would say she spoke too much of her mind, but she is not one to be scared quiet. She responded in full force, ¡°I¡¯M TRYING TO HELP!¡± With that shout she used a bit of magic that shocked Sage¡¯s soul. Since Sage was a dungeon Core she really couldn¡¯t slap him as his physical form was, well, a crystal. All she could do was to use her mana to slap his soul so to speak. Sage was startled by the force that struck him and during that moment Alice continued ¡°Sage you need to calm down, you are doing fine. In fact you¡¯re doing amazing. Not only did you reached level 10 from awakening in record time you¡¯ve almost finished an entire floor and populated it with monsters all with in the span of a single week. It takes most dungeons at least a year from their wakening to be ready to be connected to the outside world. Sage I want you to trust me when I tell you that you are safe. People aren¡¯t targeting you and besides you even have this secret room to hide in. That¡¯s not something a newly born dungeon could possibly have. So please Sage calm down and rest for a bit.¡± Sage was completely stunned by those words and finally calmed down a little and replied ¡°I¡¯m sorry, this has really gotten out of hand. You guys can go rest for now.¡± The monsters all let out a breath as they quickly scrammed. ¡°I need to rest a little, thank you again Alice.¡± Sage slowly said. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m here to do.¡± replied Alice as she went out to check around the dungeon. ¡°What has gotten over me, how could I have lost myself so easily¡­.¡± Sage went into deep thought. Given his cultivation and experience there is no way he should have lost control of himself from such simple failures. Looking back at it now his anger was laughable. It has only been 5 days and he was angry with no results? Cultivation has always been a very long and very slow road, it would really take the top geniuses or those old monsters to be able to achieve some result in just 5 days. He remember back when he started, due to his own mediocre talent it took him a month to reach Elementary Rank 2 from rank 1. And here he was expecting these monsters that have 100x worse talent than even his own mediocre talent to achieve visible result in 5 days. The more he pondered the more he calmed down and for the first time since he became a dungeon entered an enlightened state. This made him carefully look at himself for the first time since he came here and he was shocked. His soul was in shambles, his once powerful soul was now only a tiny fraction of what it original was. This shocked Sage greatly causing him to mutter to himself. ¡°What happened to me, my soul is less than 1000th of the size it used to be. How did I not notice this at all until now?¡± Then something clicked and Sage realized what has happened, ¡°Whatever brought me here must have done this damage to my soul and with my soul in such a state I felt a constant sense of danger even if I didn¡¯t realize it. I didn¡¯t notice the state I was in due to all the events that happened one after another resulting in me clinging to the idea of protecting myself with powerful monsters. My damaged soul lead to me not thinking clearly at all and I was almost consumed by my own inner demon.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Thinking of this Sage shuddered at how close of a call he just had ¡°I need to find a way to recover my soul as quickly as possible. Maybe when it recovers I will regain some of my abilities as well to protect myself. For now let¡¯s see what I can do to help myself recover. If there some soul recovery pill this would go a lot faster. I remember Alice said I can summon items, maybe I can do something about the pill.¡± With that Sage decide to bring up the item menu.
  1. Minor Herb (10 Mana) - Healing herbs that can heal minor injuries or be used to create healing potion.
  2. Minor Healing Potion (25 Mana) - Concentrate made from minor herb, much more effect than using the herb directly.
  3. Qi Gathering Pi¡­ &%$&#$E#$%R354R#$%$#R#$^&O%#!@R!$#@
The flash of violent red light appeared again and once it disappeared the item list appeared before Sage and just like before with the monster list it was altered from the first time he saw it.
  1. Minor Herb (10 Mana) - Healing herbs that can heal minor injuries or be used to create healing potion.
  2. Minor Healing Potion (25 Mana) - Concentrate made from minor herb, much more effect than using the herb directly.
  3. Minor Mana Potion (50 Mana) - Recovers 30 points of mana.
  4. Weapon (??? Mana) - Mana cost varies depending on the size, material, and enchantment of the weapon. Current available material: Copper, Iron.
  5. Armor (??? Mana) - Mana cost varies depending on the size, material, and enchantment of the Armor. Current available material: Copper, Iron, Leather, Cloth.
  6. Skill Book (???) - Mana cost varies depending on the type of skill book. Skill book will teach whoever uses it the technique inside given that they meet the requirement. Skill books disappear once it has been used. Custom skill books can also be made. Current available skill: Elementary elemental magics.
The last choice shocked Sage ¡°Custom skill books? And from the description skill book automatically make them understand the content without the need for them to learn! I can¡¯t believe such a convenient thing exist in this world!¡± With that Sage quickly tossed all other plan to the side and decided that he was going to succeed this time for sure! He quickly searched through his memories and remember the Tyrannic Black Dragon cultivation technique which was the cultivation the Black Dragon Saint used to become one of the most powerful beings in his world. His mind quickly focused on the skill book and technique to make a skill book for it. He felt mana quickly draining from him and the mana wove together to form the book. But soon 900 mana point were drained and the book is still almost completely transparent. Sage quickly activated his cultivation to absorb more mana but he realized that at this rate it would take him over 100 years to completely form this book. Reluctantly he ended the summoning process and all that mana scattered and was lost. Sage let out a sigh and thought ¡°I was a bit too over eager that I forgot the fact the mana cost matches the quality of the skill book. Trying to summon a saint level skill book while I¡¯m this weak was a bit too rash. I almost lost myself there again, it seems like I really need to look into this problem with my soul first or else my judgement on everything else will be too clouded.¡± Sage calm his soul and begin to cultivate a technique that would help his soul recover. Damage to the soul were almost the hardest injuries to recovery. With his vast cultivation knowledge he knows of technique that could allow his body to completely reborn if he still had a living body. But even with his vast knowledge there isn¡¯t much he can do to recover injuries to his soul beside using a lot of time. As he cultivated he noticed that when his mana was filled his soul recovered just a tiny bit faster. This lead him to believe that being in a mana rich environment would lead to his soul recovering faster. Now Sage¡¯s thirst for leveling up increased even more! After he set his soul into a recovery state he turned his attention back to making a skill book. ¡°So from what I felt earlier the saint rank cultivation method was going to cost at least 1,000,000,000 mana¡± From his knowledge of cultivation he predicted that right now with 1000 mana he could only summon a very low grade Core level cultivation skill book. So he searched his memories and decide on the Soaring Dragon Cultivation method. Although it sounds amazing but it is a skill book that can be barely considered a core level cultivation method. After gathering enough mana he once again activated item summon and mana quickly drain from him. Sage has seen this process a few time and getting a much better understand of how the mana moved as it form the item. In the end Sage used 1100 mana to form the skill book which means he had to gather mana as it formed. Luckily Alice was not here or she would be shocked. She never heard of a dungeon that could absorb mana while summoning something. From this summon and the last failed summon Sage came a conclusion of the cost of different rank skill books he could make. Skill books that are at the Elementary rank cast 1-100 Mana, Foundation rank cost 100-1,000 Mana, Core rank 1,000-10,000 Mana, Earth rank 10,000-100,000, Sky rank 100,000-1,000,000 Mana, Emperor rank 1,000,000-10,000,000 Mana, OverLord rank 10,000,000 - 100,000,000 Mana), Saint rank 100,0000,000+ Mana. Of course these weren¡¯t set in stone as there are good and bad cultivation methods between them. There are some Core cultivation more powerful than Earth rank ones. Sage was very excited as he quickly called a kobold over. Alice who was in the dungeon saw the kobold rush toward Sage¡¯s chamber she quickly followed as she was still worried about his condition. When she arrived inside the room at the same time as the kobold and saw a book before Sage¡¯s body. ¡°A skill book!¡± Alice quickly shouted. She was very curious as most dungeons don¡¯t get access to skill books until they are much higher level. It have to be said that skill book are very rare and in high demands. Not all dungeons are known to have skill books even some really powerful ones while some lower level ones do. All dungeons that can summon skill books are well protected as it is too important of a resource to lose. She was very happy and became lost in thought as the kobold picked up the skill book. The kobold picked up the skill book and stared at it. Seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Sage urge the kobold to use the book again and the kobold seem to be trying very hard but nothing happened still. Finally after a whole minute of silence Sage shouted ¡°Use the book!¡± The kobold was startled and dropped the book. Alice finally regained her sense and said to Sage, ¡°Sage, skill books have requirements. If the user doesn¡¯t meet the requirement than the skill book is completely useless to them. From the cover of that skill book I¡¯d say it¡¯s a rank C skill book and you want a common kobold to learn it? Really? Still you sure are full of surprises. I never thought that you¡¯d have the ability to summon skill books. Those things normally only appear in high level dungeons and even then it is very rare. It is not a skill all dungeons get and no one really knows what the requirements are for dungeons to unlock it. Dungeon that can spawn skill books are highly valued. With this our safety is basically assured!¡± Sage was startled at this information and after a while he couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh and muttered, ¡°I should have known better. Cultivation is not easy!¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 5 - Finishing Touches Here is chapter 5, I hope you all enjoy it! Almost time for the dungeon to be open for business =D
Alice pondered a bit and said, ¡°Still to make a rank C skill book already, we honestly don¡¯t have a strong enough dungeon to for such a rare drop to appear. But it would be a good idea to let people know that skill books can be obtained here.¡± Alice paused for a bit and continued, ¡° Oh I just remembered something good. There are special cases when a dungeon is awakens an item is created along with the dungeon. This usually represents that the dungeon is specialized in whatever item is summoned during their awakening. These items are normally given to the first party to clear the dungeon, which honestly isn¡¯t hard and just means whoever comes first, as a reward and help spread the name!¡± ¡°I can always just summon more of these, it¡¯s not that big of a deal.¡± Sage replied. ¡°Nononono, Sage that¡¯s not how things work. You have to balance the risks and rewards in your dungeon. If you give too much too easily you will easily tire yourself out because you¡¯ll have to use up too much mana to resummon everything. Also this will lure far too many greedy people and your dungeon will be flooded and will only end in your destruction. Of course making it too difficult and giving no good rewards no one will bother to venture in anymore.¡± ¡°But I recover mana so fast wouldn¡¯t it be better for me to take advantage of that and lure more people in so I can level up faster?¡± Sage asked. ¡°Sage even if you can keep it up it would attract too much attention. It is rare enough for a dungeon to spawn skill books. If you summon them too fast then you will have people who would come to capture you to make you summon for them. The reason why people don¡¯t bother to take control of dungeon cores and force them to summon materials for them is the fact that it takes the dungeon a very long time to gather enough mana to summon high rank items. By the time a dungeon can summon high rank items at a good rate they are too powerful to be messed with. However you¡¯re weak but can summon skill book and at a fast rate, which makes you the ideal target.¡± Alice explained. ¡°I can be controlled!¡± Sage shouted in surprise. ¡°Yes but don¡¯t worry too much about it. The process is very complicated and difficult as it requires many rank A mages.¡± Alice quickly explained, ¡°It¡¯s also dangerous with high chance of backfiring so unless there is something worth the risk you don¡¯t have to worry about it happening to you.¡± With that in mind Sage no longer worried about it as he thought back to his original problem, teaching these monsters to cultivate. Since the monsters he can summon now are too weak to cultivate stronger cultivation methods he first had to test their limits. For the rest of the day Sage summoned various cultivation technique of varying degrees of mana cost. Starting from the low grade Core rank cultivation method he went down all the way until elementary rank cultivation before something finally worked. In the end it wasn¡¯t until he reached the low grade elementary level technique, the Bear Breath cultivation method, that the goblins and kobolds were finally able to learn one. To be honest anything at the elementary rank can¡¯t even to be considered a real cultivation technique as the peak anyone can reach with them was elementary rank 10. Most don¡¯t consider cultivation to truly start until Core rank as before that you¡¯re simply preparing your body. ¡°I guess I really was too hasty. How could I forget that the most important thing in cultivation is to lay a solid foundation. Without that foundation how could these monsters possibly cultivate at all. I must start with the basics, these aren¡¯t genius that has been groomed by those top sects. Luckily mana is very thick in the dungeon and on the first floor the concentration matches a well off small sect. From what Alice said, once I build more floors the lower floors will have higher concentration of mana, this will be important should I wish for the my monster to advance further in cultivation.¡± Sage thought to himself. Since the cultivation technique being used to teach the monsters was so low it only costed 50 Mana to summon one book. It took only half a day before all the monsters have learned the Bear Breath cultivation method. For the next 5 days Sage continued finished expanding the dungeon and finally completed a full floor. The result were 10 rooms beside the entrance and the final boss room. The first two rooms after the entrance were pretty straight forward as you only need to pass through them. In the second room there would be two paths that branched into two sections of the dungeon. Each section contained 4 rooms that people must pass through before finally reaching the boss room at the end. Building the dungeon hadn¡¯t really taken much effort from Sage, so most his attention had been focused on training the monsters. Although it wasn¡¯t much ,the goblins and kobolds were showing some progress. These were known to be some of the weakest creatures and just by having a breathing technique their growth increased a lot. The Goblin¡¯s movement became faster and they became slightly stronger. At that rate the goblins and kobolds would be able to enter elementary rank 1 within 1 month. But the most notable growth was their fighting style because with proper training the goblins and kobolds would fight with technique rather than just simply swinging their weapon randomly. Granted they were far from even the weakest adventurer¡¯s technique but compared to before they were much more dangerous. Alice was getting very excited as the dungeon was almost ready to be connected to the outside. She rushed in and excitedly shouted ¡°We are almost done with setting up the dungeon! All that¡¯s left is the finishing touches and we are good to go!¡± ¡°Finishing touches?¡± Sage was confused, isn¡¯t dungeon set up already? Doesn¡¯t he just need to move the monsters to their proper places? Thinking for a moment Sage suddenly realized something and made a chest and put the Rank C cultivation skill book inside. Alice angrily said, ¡°No no no, that¡¯s not nearly enough! You can¡¯t just have one treasure at the very end. You need to space smaller loot across the dungeon and also give your monsters things to drop that way even if a group doesn¡¯t reach the final room they are still rewarded for their efforts.¡± ¡°Oh right!¡± Sage felt embarrassed. Because the training was producing results that he tunneled himself on to the whole cultivation thing again and forgot about everything else. He quickly followed Alice¡¯s instruction and placed loot across the dungeon and give loot to his monsters, which currently consist of 40 goblins and 10 kobolds. He could have summoned more but was advised by Alice against it as there was already a lot of monsters for a newly borned dungeon. ¡°Now that loot is set we just have to decorate the dungeon a bit and we are all set!¡± Alice happily announced. ¡°Decorate the dungeon?¡± Sage seem very confused at this. ¡°Remember I told you that you can change the environment of the dungeon and also add in normal animals to let them live and naturally evolve here. Having a varieties of different environments in the dungeon will attract more people as each produce their own resources. Most first floors remain a cave as dungeon don¡¯t have too much resource at this point so the environment stays what it originally was. Just add some bats, rats, spiders, and all the good stuff found in caves!¡± Alice explained. Sage summoned the environment menu and once again the menu appeared, showed a hint of something from his past world, a flash of violent red light, and the list was modified again. This time Sage was prepared after encountering the situation so many times. He believed his dungeon power was working around his knowledge but because they didn¡¯t belong in this world the law of the world corrected it. Sadly there was no way for him to really confirm any of this as this was one secret that he won¡¯t be telling anyone. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The one other thing that caught his attention was his ability to summon demonic environments, plants, and animals but after pondering a while Sage assumed that it is the same reason why he can summon HellHounds. Considering his own origin it is very likely that these inconsistencies are caused by the law of the world acting on him. Sage was sad at the lack of ability to summon plants from his world. Now it would be much harder for him to get himself soul recovery pills if he couldn¡¯t plant the needed material himself. ¡°I might be able to resist the changes the law of the world is imposing once I¡¯m a higher level or find something in this world that will substitute for what I need. After all, from what I heard from Alice, ghosts and spirits are a thing in this world.¡± Sage quietly thought. Once again following Alice¡¯s instructions, Sage began to add the last finishing touches to his dungeon. Patches of minor herbs were added in the various rooms along with a bunch of cave animals such as rats, bats, spiders, and snakes. Sage decided to make one route to the final boss room be monster fighting based and the other to be trap based. One route would force the party to fight and increasing amount of monsters in each room for 4 rooms while the other would be mainly about avoiding traps and ambushes by small amounts of monsters. Each route also had different herb plants as well. The monster route contained a plant that can be used to make antidotes while the trap route contained a herb used to cure paralysis. After Alice made a trip around the dungeon she came back and happily said, ¡°Well done, the rest of the dungeon seems pretty much all set. All we need to do now is finish up the boss room and the entrance! I would suggest growing some mana herbs in the boss room. They¡¯re very valuable and a good reward for people who made it this far. Beside that they would increase the mana density for the room which would be very beneficial to your dungeon boss!¡± ¡°Dungeon boss? Like a final guardian to the treasure here?¡± Sage looked at the chest containing the Rank C skill book. ¡°Do I just leave a group of these guys here?¡± ¡°Well you can but that is hardly a challenge. As a dungeon you are given the ability to make one of the monsters a boss monster. They¡¯ll evolve to a higher form making them much stronger than the rest. Once you gain more floors you would be able to have more boss monsters and the boss monsters placed on lower floors will naturally evolve more than the bosses on the upper floors.¡± Alice replied. ¡°Eh?! I can get one of them to evolve? Now? Why didn¡¯t you say anything sooner?¡± Sage was shocked by the news, he has been troubled by the fact that his monsters were too weak to cultivate and he was too weak to make them stronger. But here was a chance and it has been in front of his eyes the whole time. ¡°This is common¡­ sense¡­¡± As Alice spoke she realized her mistake and face palmed. After seeing Sage doing such a great job at building the dungeon she completely forgot the fact that he had zero common sense when it came to being a dungeon. ¡°Forget it, first tell me how do I make one of them my dungeon boss?¡± Sage quickly said. ¡°It is quite simple, just focus on one of them and think of making them the level 1 floor boss. You can change the boss monster at any time assuming you have the mana but is it not advise to do it too often.¡± Alice responded. ¡°Why is that?¡± Sage questioned. ¡°Bosses are different from your normal monsters. When normal monsters are destroyed you summon another one to place it but that is not true for boss monsters. When a boss monster is killed their soul is retained and you will reform their body with your mana. This way the boss monster retains everything. The longer a boss monster has been around the stronger it will get as it will have fighting experience to back it up.¡± Alice slowly said. Sage pondered for a while and decided to make a kobold his new dungeon boss as he still wanted to see if he could awaken the power of a dragon inside the kobold race. He focused on the one kobold that has became stronger than the rest and named his first dungeon boss. Mana left his body and wove around the kobold changing it. Its figure slowly grew until it was 6 feet tall. The resulting monster was a Kobold Lord, this creature looks much stronger than a normal kobold. ¡°A kobold lord!¡± Alice shouted, ¡°Well that is surprising but I guess since it¡¯s you Sage I should stop being shocked all the time.¡± ¡°What is so surprising about this?¡± Sage responded as it scanned the new dungeon boss to see what he can do with it. ¡°Well normally the first boss for a newly borned dungeon would only be an elite version of the mob you picked but you manage to get a Kobold Lord rather than Kobold Elite.¡± Alice responded. ¡°I see¡­¡± Sage half heartedly responded as his focus was on the Kobold Lord. After carefully examining the Kobold Lord Sage was still disappointed. While the Kobold Lord is much stronger than the normal Kobold it is mainly a physical difference. In term of their mana channels the Kobold Lord is better but only to the point of a poor talent human. Still this was a lot more than what he had to work with before. Quickly Sage pulled out a low tier Foundation ranked cultivation skill he had created before and gave it to the new Kobold Lord. The Kobold Lord held the the book which turned into a ray of light and entered the Kobold Lord¡¯s body. The cultivation the Kobold Lord learned was the Armor Scale Cultivation method. This was a common cultivation method among low ranked reptilian spirit beasts. This cultivation method strengthened their scales to make their defense much stronger and make the reptilian blood in their body more pure. It would be a slow process but someday this Kobold Lord might prove that their species do indeed contain the blood of a dragon. With all this done Sage organized the monsters across the dungeon to live and train at the assigned location. Sage spent another 2 days making sure everything was ready when the dungeon was opened for adventures to explore. One thing he finally did was mess around with the slime monsters that has piqued his interest. Alice has suggested summoning them for the pitfall traps and just having them in the dungeon add variety. They¡¯re pretty cheap to summon so he didn¡¯t mind summoning a bunch and scattering them across the dungeon. However from Alice¡¯s introduction of them they seem to be very versatile creatures that can involve into many different forms. Sage kept one slime with him inside his secret chamber to study and for some reason just watching the slime was very calming to his soul. What neither of them knew was that slimes are much more sensitive than they originally thought. Finally, on the 3rd day after the Kobold Lord was summoned, Alice happily shouted, ¡°We¡¯re ready for business!¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 6 - The First Customer So like the chapters are posted as thread in a forum and their position moves as people post on on them. Right now it''s like chapter 5, 4, 3, 1, 2 and its bugging the crap out of me for some reason and I''m not even that OCD XD Chapter 1 and 2 have been edited by mossclaw64, thank you for volunteering to help me edit my chapters! Also I want some advice with shifting Point Of View. Well take any suggest on how to structure that transition. Thanks! Enjoy the chapter! And any advice on doing the divides too coz right now I''m just spamming *s XD Enjoy!
Sage finally dug eastward from the room he awakened in and after about one hour reached the outside world. It was noon and the sun shined into the entrance of the dungeon. Although Sage had been underground and hadn¡¯t seen the sun for over two weeks, this didn¡¯t really shock him much. Cultivators would go into closed door training in a small cave or room for months to years to decades at a time. However Alice wasn¡¯t an 1,000 year old monster and excitedly flew out of the dungeon and enjoyed the sun. ¡°So this is what sunlight feels like! I have always dreamed about being able to feel the sun hitting my body!¡± Alice exclaimed. Sage couldn¡¯t help but laugh and say ¡°You wanted to experience the sun yet you choose to be a dungeon fairy where you¡¯d spend the majority of your time in underground?¡± ¡°Shut up. Being able to enjoy this a little beats not being able to enjoy it at all as a spirit.¡± Alice stuck her tongue. Sage pondered a little and said ¡°However once the news of a dungeon spread out you won¡¯t be able to leave as easily to experience this.¡± ¡°Oh that¡¯s easy silly, just create a small exit away from the main dungeon entrance for me to use. Then I can safely come out and experience the outside world!¡± Alice replied. ¡°Not a bad idea, however you sure it is safe for you to be outside like this?¡± ¡°As long as I¡¯m careful I should be fine.¡± ¡°So now what?¡° ¡°Well we wait until people find out about this and sent people over.¡± ¡°More waiting it is¡­ well it¡¯s not like we can¡¯t use this extra time.¡± Sage made it so the monsters in the latter half of the dungeon would all train as they were the elite mobs to provide more challenge while the monster in the first 4 rooms are untrained to cater toward beginners. To not be too hard on beginners Sage also set the rule that if someone too weak goes past the first 4 rooms then the monster would only knock them out and throw them out of the dungeon after taking something from them. This rule came to be when Alice noticed that the trained monsters were something far beyond what the beginning Rank G adventurers could handle and it would be bad if the first floor is too hard. Sage went back to studying monsters to pass the time. *POV John* John just started as an adventurer two months ago and was collecting minor herbs in the forest. You might all be wondering why he was still doing such a task even though it¡¯s been two months since he started. Most prepared adventures jump straight into the subjugation of weak monsters and while other would go on safer gather quests while taking basic training from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild which John passed with flying colors. Now John wasn¡¯t bad at fighting, in fact he was a very talented fighter, but he was kind of a scaredy-cat. If he could just get over it he would be a great swordsman but every time he sees a monster his knee go soft and all his training goes out the window. So there he was, two months into his adventurer life and still collecting minor herbs. *RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE* The ground shook for a moment and caused John to fall over and plant his face into the ground. ¡°What was that noise!¡± Thought John as he got up rubbing his face. ¡°Should I go check it out? Adventurer¡¯s Guild do award people to bring in new information but what if it was caused by some giant Ogre? Ooooooh, what should I do¡­¡± John struggled with the decision. He knew that he needed to get over his fears or else he¡¯d have to give up his life as an adventurer. After walking back and forth toward and then away from the noise John finally clenched his teeth and decided to check it out. He made up his mind that he will at least to go see what is going on and if there is any danger he would run as fast as he could back to the city. Slowly John made his way to the source of the noise and, after about one hour of carefully going through the woods, he came to a clearing and saw a cave. ¡°A cave? I don¡¯t remember there was any cave on the map for this area. From the look of those rocks it seems like something came out from the cave! Dear god, what powerful creature does it have to be for it to dig itself out from the mountain and create that large of an opening! I knew this was a bad idea!¡± With that John turned around to leave. After a few step he paused, turned around and looked at the cave again. ¡°Strange there is no footprint outside the cave at all, the grass looks completely undisturbed. Even if the creature went back in it still would have needed to step outside¡­¡± As he pondered he slowly walked toward the cave and stopped at the entrance, ¡°Come on John, you have been an adventurer for two months now! How can be you still be scared of a little cave! How will you ever be like those legendary adventurers if you¡¯re this scared of a cave!¡± John muttered to pump himself up. Finally after standing outside mumbling to himself for over half an hour he walked in. As soon as he enter the cave he felt like there was something watching him and the mana density around him increased. ¡°This is a dungeon¡­¡± John said, shocked at the development. It is very easy to identify dungeons in this world as a dungeon will have a much higher concentration of mana so when entering a cave and mana concentration increase then it is likely a dungeon. Another key indicator is something only people with good perception or good mana affinity can feel which is that they are being watched. Which is true because once you have entered a dungeon you are constantly watched by the dungeon core as the dungeon is part of its body and it can see anything that happens inside. ¡°That rumbling noise must have been when the dungeon dug a passage connecting it to the outside. That would mean this is a brand new dungeon!¡± John became excited. ¡°Discovering a brand new dungeon has a pretty big reward behind it in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild! I should head back and report it as soon as possible!¡± Just as he walked to the entrance he stopped again ¡°Damn it John, think like an adventurer! A brand new dungeon was just discover by you and instead of exploring it for all its secrets you run off to report it!¡± Again he paced back and forth at the entrance, ¡°Ok John, you got this! This is a brand new dungeon meaning that there is no way for powerful monster to be inside. All the monster must be weak and it¡¯s a perfect place to hone your skills!¡± With that John finally forced himself to walk deeper into the dungeon. He walked through the tunnel and into the next room, ¡°This dungeon has pretty high mana density for the ambient light to be blue.¡± John muttered. Dungeons aren¡¯t pitch black because of the high mana density, the rocks are fused with a bit of mana and thus glow. Most dungeons glow white light while dungeon with high mana density glow blue. Of course there are other colors depending on the situation like a Demonic Dungeon would have red ambient light. John entered the next room and looked around. He immediately noticed minor herbs to the right side and rushed over. ¡°Wow so many minor herbs and with this mana density they¡¯re high quality too! Normally one would have to go at least past the 3rd floor to get herbs like this!¡± John was very excited and became so completely engrossed in harvesting herbs that he didn¡¯t notice something was closing in on him. Only when it was within 20 feet of him did John notice something in the corner of his eyes. He was startled and froze on the spot. Then he slowly turned and saw a goblin holding a spear looking at him. ¡°Arrrrrrggg!¡± The goblin shouted and charged toward John. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhh!¡± John shouted. *POV Sage* 1 Hour Ago. Sage was observing the Kobold Lord cultivating and making corrections when he suddenly noticed a presence near his cave. Then he saw it a young man slowly and nervously walking toward his dungeon entrance and then just stood there. ¡°Alice we got someone at the entrance!¡± Sage shouted ¡°Where! Put up a projection of what you see so I can have a look!¡± Alice replied. ¡°How do I exactly do that?¡± Sage asked ¡°Just focus on a location and then project the image with your mind toward the wall.¡± Alice answered. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. With that Sage focus on the entrance and soon a display appeared on the wall of the cave for Alice to view what is happening. They watched this adventurer just standing there outside the cave. After a while Alice couldn¡¯t help but say ¡°What exactly is this guy doing?¡± ¡°He seems to be pumping himself up?¡± Sage said hesitantly. After 30 minutes the man finally walked into the first room. ¡°Whoa, that¡¯s our very first adventurer!¡± Alice shouted and paid extra attention to the screen. However she was disappointed, the adventurer became very excited and then turn around to leave. ¡°NOooo!¡± Alice shouted. As if answering her the adventurer paused at the entrance and started to pace back and forth. ¡°Come back in! Come back in! Come back in!¡± Alice chanted on the side. Sage was curious about this person and scanned him. He found out the adventurer¡¯s name was John and that he was a G ranked adventurer. From what Alice have told him that was the lowest rank. ¡°Very fitting person to test our dungeon¡± Sage thought. Then after another 15 minutes this John fellow finally walked into the tunnel toward the first real room of the dungeon. ¡°Yesss!¡± Alice exclaimed. They watch him enter the room and immediately jumped upon the minor herbs that were planted on the side of the room. Alice: ¡±....¡± And this guy continued to gather herbs, not bothering with the rest of the room at all so Sage ordered one of the goblin stationed in the room to slowly sneak up on the guy. The goblin moved slowly toward him and he still didn¡¯t notice. It wasn¡¯t until the goblin was within 20 feet that he noticed and his first response was freezing up. Sage told the goblin to scream and rush the guy. As the goblin did that the guy also screamed and rushed the goblin. Then something peculiar happened. Although the guy was screaming and caught off guard Sage could tell that his form was good and should have no problem cutting down the goblin. But just as Sage was thinking that, John tripped just as the goblin stabbed toward him. The stab missed and John, in an attempt to stabilize himself with the sword, stabbed through the goblin¡¯s heart and face planted into the ground. The goblin died, its body slowly disappeared as it turned back to mana leaving behind some copper coin. Silence¡­ ¡°Hahahahahaha¡­!.¡± Alice was laughing so hard that tear was coming out. ¡°There should be an award for killing goblins like this. Hahahahahahaha¡­¡± Alice is now on the floor. Sage couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh ¡°Not a bad seed at all, needs a lot of work but not a bad seed.¡± Sage observed John as he killed the the remaining two goblin in the room with a bit of effort and then John left with the herbs. Alice seemed to have finally calmed herself down a bit but you can still see her face twitch every now and them. After John left the dungeon Sage turned to Alice and said ¡°I guess we better get ready for more guests.¡± *POV John* It was late afternoon and John had made it back to the city. He was very excited not only because had he found a newly born dungeon but he had killed three goblins! Well the first one died because he kinda fell on it, but he killed the other two on his own! He felt amazing right now as he realized for the first time that he could really do this. He rushed to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and headed toward the receptionists desk. Some of the customers that knew him well teased him. ¡°Hey John back from collecting flowers? You should come with us tomorrow, we will be hunting some orcs much more fun than flowers and you might finally get a decent meal. Hahahaha.¡± These were all nice guys and all have been trying to help John get over his fears. They all saw him perform during basic training and knew that he could be something great but only if he took that first step, Normally John would meekly reject them but this time there was something different about him, as if he was a different person. ¡°Orcs sounds like fun but not nearly as fun or as profitable as raiding a dungeon!¡± John proudly said then he turned to the receptionist and continued ¡°And I just happen to find a newly formed dungeon today!¡± There was silence for a moment before the entire Adventurer¡¯s Guild lobby went into an uproar. ¡°No way a newly formed dungeon?¡± ¡°Na he¡¯s just joking, it¡¯s John! He won¡¯t even dare to enter a cave much less a dungeon.¡± ¡°But what if it is true? This could be the chance of a lifetime. We don¡¯t have any dungeons nearby so resources are limited but with a dungeon, once it grows, we might be able to make it big!¡± ¡°Damn it if it¡¯s true then John sure is a lucky bastard, the reward for finding a dungeon is high, especially in area that doesn¡¯t have a dungeon already!¡± Everyone is debating with each other, making it impossible to really hear anything. The receptionist, who is a pretty young girl, couldn¡¯t contain the situation so she went and called the guild master. ¡°EVERYONE! SILENCE!¡± A voice boom down from upstairs causing everyone to stop talking. A buffed middle aged man walked down from the second floor, the receptionist pointed at John while whispering something to him. The middle aged man walked next to John and stared at John. John could feel the imposing aura coming from the guild master, he has felt it many time during basic training and very time he made him cower. However this time was different, he didn¡¯t know where he got this confidence from but he didn¡¯t cower and withstood the pressure. ¡°Not bad¡± The guild master muttered, then continued in a louder voice ¡°John, while discovering a newly formed dungeon has an high reward should you be lying to us there will be a severe punishment. Do you understand?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± John replied and then proceed to take out three mana core and the herbs he gathered inside the dungeon. ¡°Here are three dungeon goblin mana cores and some minor herbs from the dungeon.¡± Once the items came out everyone¡¯s face changed because they knew that John was speaking the truth. The guild master carefully examined the mana cores and nodded and focused his attention on the herbs. He couldn¡¯t help but frown and said to John ¡°You went all the way to the 3rd floor John?¡± This cause everyone to be startled. ¡°No, I found these herbs on the first floor in the first very room after the entrance and the ambient light was blue.¡± John quickly replied. John knew the meaning behind the guild master¡¯s question as those minor herbs¡¯ quality is something normally found at 3rd floor or lower. The guild master¡¯s eyes lit up when he heard that and said ¡°Good job John! This is a great find and will benefit us all! Please follow Penny here and give her the location of the dungeon. This is a great find John and you¡¯ll be well rewarded!¡± Everyone could tell from the guild master¡¯s reaction it was something big but before anyone could ask anything John, Penny, and the guild master had already went upstairs. They could only talk among themselves as they waited for an announcement. After hearing John¡¯s full story and getting as much information as he could the guild master sent John off with a reward for the items that he brought back. As for John¡¯s dungeon discovery reward, it would be given to him once the full value of the dungeon had been assessed. ¡°Penny go find Jake and Ardryll and tell them they got a mission to explore the dungeon.¡± The guild master said after pondering for a long time. ¡°You¡¯re sending them? Isn¡¯t that a bit too much?¡± Penny was shocked, you normally don¡¯t call two C rank adventurer to check out a newly born dungeon. ¡°This one is a bit different and I want to play it safe. Jake is one of the most talented one handed sword and shield user around, with him holding the front line nothing will get through. I also need Ardryll because elves are much more sensitive to mana. You saw these herbs, they are 3rd floor quality herbs on the first floor and the ambient light is blue so I want to know just how dense the mana is in there.¡± The guild master explained. ¡°I got it.¡± Penny replied, finally realizing just how big of a deal this is turning out to be. ¡°Also send a request for Alex¡¯s team to do the full dungeon evaluation run.¡± The guild master added. ¡°Ehhhh?!¡± Penny cried ¡°You¡¯re requesting a Rank A adventurer team for this!!¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 7 - The News Spread Hello everyone here is chapter 7 hope you all enjoy it! Well be updating Chapter 3-6 with edited version within the hour! Please leave comments about how you feel about the story so far. Well do my best to improve myself and provide you guys something fun to read! P.S. How many followers do you need for it to be consider a cult =P?
Everyone decided to stay at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild late into the night, waiting for the announcement on the new dungeon. Finally it became too late and they all had to leave but no one could really fall asleep as they knew that the news had to be out in the morning. Penny went and quickly found Jake and Ardryll to give them the guild master¡¯s request while the guild master sat down and wrote two letters. One of the letter was to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild in the capital to request the rank A adventurer team while the other was to the king. A dungeon¡¯s a valuable resource to any kingdom. Dungeons are owned by the kingdom they¡¯re in so all new dungeons must be reported to the king. The guild master took the two letters to a Thunder Hawk, there¡¯s always a Thunder Hawk at each branch of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and it¡¯s only used to carry critical information. Normally a dungeon discovery doesn¡¯t really warrant this kind of attention but the situation here was a bit different. Their city, the city of Dawn was at the southern border of the country of Zeal. Zeal wasn¡¯t a large country but due to its geographic location it was fairly safe from other powers. Zeal had the ocean to the east, mountains blocking the north and west side, and the waste land to the south. This also make Zeal quite isolated from the other powers which give it safety but also hindered trade. Because of this, dungeons became a very valuable resource in Zeal as it could provide Zeal with the resources it was lacking. Currently there were only 3 other dungeons in the country with one of them even being an undead dungeon. This was how important dungeon resources were to Zeal that they allowed an undead dungeon to continue existing. A fourth dungeon had now just appeared inside the country of Zeal and not only that, it was a very high mana density one. That meant that as the dungeon grows, the quality of all the resources inside the dungeon would be higher and easier to get to. Like the herbs John brought back, normally only past the 3rd floor of a dungeon would the mana concentration be high enough for the herbs to reach this quality yet it was in the very first room. Now this might sound insignificant as it was only two floors but every floor is dangerous so being able to find better resources earlier is always a good thing. Not to mention the fact that this also means that the stuff at the end would be better as well. The Thunder Hawk pierced the night sky as it rushed toward the capital city of Zendo. It normally takes 3 days of travel time by messenger but with the Thunder Hawk reached the capital in less than half a day. The Thunder Hawk immediately attracted a lot of attention but only a few knew exactly what a letter carried by a Thunder Hawk really meant. When the Thunder Hawk landed in the Guild Master¡¯s room she was already waiting for it. She carefully removed the two letters and then handed the Thunder Hawk to someone else who would take care of it. She then handed one of the letter to a special emissary from the palace. She opened up the second letter and with each word she clenched the letter a little harder. This was big news. A 4th dungeon has appeared inside the kingdom and from the early reports it looked too be very promising. The guild master there even requested that Rank A adventurer Alex and his team to do the full dungeon evaluation. What caught her attention is the most was that the dungeon had a blue ambient light and high quality herbs on the first floor which meant that it had a high mana density. Of the three existing dungeons in Zeal one of them was an undead which meant there was nothing living inside. Another was a fire element dungeon so the environment was very dry and only contain special herbs that thrived in heat. The 3rd dungeon was jungle type dungeon that was the main export of rare herbs and plants for the kingdom. To have another dungeon that could produce these plants would help the kingdom greatly. There was always a need for these types of consumables. ¡°Go find Alex and tell him to get his team ready for a dungeon evaluation mission. Tell him to make haste. I want him to head out by this afternoon and rush for Dawn. Also send out news to all Adventurer¡¯s Guilds in the kingdom notifying them of this new dungeon.¡± She called an attendant and gave out her orders. ¡°Looks like things are about to get busy around here¡± She couldn¡¯t help but smile. *The Palace* Someone rushed into the palace via a hidden entrance. This person was running inside the palace yet no one dared to stop them. He charged at full speed and burst into the throne room. Inside the throne room the king was on the throne with the nobles having their morning session when the door was thrown open. The loud noise startled everyone in the room and made them wonder who would dare to charge in during a meeting. However when everyone saw who came in they remained silent because they knew that whatever message this person carried was important enough to interrupt them. The messenger rushed up to the king and passed him the letter he received from the guild master then silently stood to the side. The king opened the letter and as he read it he couldn¡¯t help but tremble. ¡°Good! Good!¡± The king finally shouted. ¡°Hahaha, finally a 4th dungeon has appeared in my kingdom and it¡¯s even one with a high mana concentration!¡± Hearing this all of the nobles in the room were stunned for a moment but then became very excited. They had just been debating about the allocation of dungeon resources and now the news of a new dungeon arrived. Soon they all began to think about how to get the most out of it for themselves. The king reread the letter and became even more excited. It¡¯s not easy leading a small country. The only thing that keep them safe were their natural boundaries but that also limited their trade with everyone else. This left their country lacking a varieties of resources. Dungeons helped a lot in this department. So much so in fact that they willingly kept a undead dungeon due to the need for the resources. ¡°We¡¯ll prepare the materials and manpower to build the dungeon town. Get everything ready and moved out asap. We want to make it there by the time the dungeon evaluation team is done.¡± The King said. ¡°How long will that be?¡± One of the nobles asked. ¡°Not long, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild is requesting Alex¡¯s team go do the dungeon evaluation.¡± The Kind replied. ¡°Really?! Alex¡¯s team? Is that necessary?¡± The noble replied. ¡°From what the Adventurer¡¯s Guild got from the person who discovers the dungeon, the herb he returned with can only be found on the 3rd floor or lower but it was growing in the first room on the first floor. The ambient light in the dungeon was also blue, which means that this dungeon has very high mana density. I believe you all understand what that means?¡± The king said slowly ¡°Yes¡± The nobles replied. Rumor has it that when some dungeons were born a valuable item is born with the dungeon. This item represented what the dungeons speciality would be. The item normally wasn¡¯t that high a rank, usually around Rank D or so, but for an newly born dungeon it was still really good. So if a dungeon had a rank D magic sword then you could expect that in the future the end reward at would most likely be another magic sword. This meant that in the future, Rank C, B, A and maybe even higher ranked magic swords would appear. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. With the king¡¯s order everyone scattered and began to prepare. The news quickly spread like wildfire and everyone in the kingdom soon knew about this new dungeon and many began to prepare their journey to strike it rich. All these people, however, were only busy preparing while the people of Dawn were all rushing toward the dungeon. Many requests went out to survey the area and thus many adventurers were sent out to map the region. Originally, because this area was on the border so close to the endless wasteland, no one bothered to come around here besides some beginner adventurers. Now this area suddenly became one of the most important locations in the kingdom so a detailed map need to be made. Aside from mapping the area many subjugation requests went out to clear the area around where the new dungeon town would be. While many were tempted to venture into the new dungeon, almost everyone else knew better. Although a newly borned dungeon won¡¯t contain powerful monsters, it is always very dangerous to go into a dungeon blind. Most of the adventurers here were only G or F ranked so even if it was a newly born dungeon it was still very dangerous for them to walk into it blind. *Back to when John first left the dungeon* ¡°So how long before we get more visitors?¡± Sage asked. ¡°Hmm assuming that guy reports his findings as soon as he returned to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, they should soon send a small group to check the dungeon out followed by a more advanced team who would do a dungeon evaluation run. Depending on how far we are from the city I would say anywhere between three to five days.¡± Alice replied. ¡°I guess we still have some time.¡± Sage paused for a moment then continued, ¡°Guess we should replenish what was taken.¡± With that Sage summoned more monsters to populate the first room of the dungeon. The day passed with Sage and Alice making some final adjustments to the dungeon before Alice went to get some rest and Sage went back to his studies. The cultivation of his monsters was going smoothly and there wasn¡¯t any way for him to speed things up without any pills, which he had no way of getting. What he was testing then was trying to control the flow of mana when he summoned things. He was able to detect the intricate movements of the mana as they were woven together to form items or monsters. At first he simply made a lot of copper coins one by one to see how worked. For the first experiment he tried changing how the mana was being woven. If the changes were small then the coin would be made but the shape would not be perfect. If the the changes were big enough the summon would end up failing and the the mana was lost. Then he tried adding more mana than necessary when summoning the coin. When he added a little he obtained a mana infused copper coin. It was simply a copper coin that had a high concentration of mana. When he added even more mana the coin exploded before forming which woke up Alice and made her think they were under attack. After calming Alice down Sage decided to try to make a coin by controlling the mana himself. He felt the mana flow through him and then projected it out of his body. He focused all his attention on the blob of mana before him. One minute¡­ five minutes¡­ ten minutes had passed and nothing happened. The blob of energy just stayed there as if it were frozen. ¡°Why is this not working¡­¡± Sage was getting frustrated. This was simple Qi manipulation, even though in this case it was mana, it should still be as simple as breathing for a master like himself. No matter how hard he tried,l he couldn¡¯t seem to get any fine control over the mana. Hours passed and Sage was once again getting increasingly more agitated as he continued to fail at gaining any fine control of the mana. During that period, the slime that Sage kept around entered the room. This slime was now light blue instead of the normal green. It stared keenly at the blob of mana floating in the air. If it had eyes one would be able to see the hunger it them. After a while the slime jumped into the blob of mana. Sage was completely shocked by this development and suddenly lost control of the blob of mana before him. The slime quickly absorbed the blob of mana and its color darken greatly. Sage¡¯s anger was about to explode forth when the slime suddenly began to glow. Immediately all of Sage¡¯s anger and frustration disappeared as he became mesmerized by the glow of the slime. The slime decomposed into mana and completely rebuilt itself into something else. Soon the reconstruction finished and the slime was twice the size as before and was colored a dark blue. Sage was completely absorbed in what had happened to the slime. After a long time he regained his senses. ¡°That was close¡­ I almost lost myself again. It seems the damage to my soul is effecting me a lot more than I thought. Things have just been so busy lately but I must find time to deal with this. What just happened seemed to be an evolution. This was very similar to what happened when I created the Kobold Lord.¡± Sage curiously looked at the now larger and dark blue colored slime and decided to scan it. Mimic Slime - An evolution of slime that occurs after absorbing a large amount of mana. Mimic slimes gain the ability to construct its body with it¡¯s massive mana reserve into different forms. They grow more powerful as they absorb more mana and this allows them to devour more powerful creatures and mimic them ¡°These slime are truly interesting creatures¡­¡± Sage pondered as he continued to watch the slime. The mimic slime seemed very happy with the development and seemed to be doing a dance or some sort. Maybe it was just moving around. It¡¯s pretty hard to tell when it¡¯s just a ball of slime. As he looked at the slime he once again calmed down and reached an enlightened state. For the second time since he arrived here he carefully observed his own soul. It was still the mess it was the last time he checked it and it had only recovered a little bit. In his state he began to think more clearly about the situation. He scolded himself for all the mistakes he¡¯d made. With his soul at its current state he basically had no cultivation so how could he possibly have the fine control required to complete the complicated process of the summoning. This introspection continued and, unknown to Sage, while in this state his soul began to recover at a much faster rate. However considering how weak his soul was even at this speed he was far from making a complete recovery. Hours passed in this state and Sage reflected on all his actions since he arrived and decide to make improvements. As he remembered back to all that had happened suddenly a thought popped into his head ¡°When Alice was summoned the ma¡­¡± ¡°SAGE! New guests!¡± Alice suddenly bursted into the room shouting.
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 8 - The Scout Duo Hello everyone here is chapter 8! And can you guys believe it? It has been a whole week since I started! And in just a week I have manage to reach a 1k average views =D I''m very happy that people are reading and enjoying my book. I feel like I hit a milestone and should do something. Sadly I can''t draw at all so can''t post any pictures so I''ll give short story of how I started this coz I love to ramble =X Feel free to skip the next paragraph as it''s nothing important. P.S.: Anyone got tips on formatting? coz I copy and pasting directly from google drive always end up with too many space between the lines. Like on google drive its only 1 line of space but copy and paste into here it becomes 2-3. I have had an idea for a novel for a very long time. I want to say had the idea near the start of high school so its been 8 years XD I have the start, and end of book 1, 2, and 3 all planned out but nothing on you know what happens in them just the ending XD I thought about writing it many times but never did it. So finally I decide to give it a crack and realize I don''t have the writing experience to write a story good enough to make it play out like I want it to play out. So the question came where to start? I have been reading a lot of XianXia in the past year and thought about that but honestly after reading a lot of them (I mean a lot like translated and untranslated ones) I realized my story isn''t honestly that different from the hundreds of existing ones and just be any copypasta standard XianXia story. So I thought about a cross over between XianXia and fantasy, it sounded good in my head but after a while it was like would kinda end up like a lot of other reincarnated story with the reason for OPness changed. So the whole idea of writing a story was tossed aside for a while. Then I saw some dungeon novels and remember the ones I read before and how much I enjoyed them and that''s when it hit me! Lets have a cultivator become a dungeon! And so from there this story came. I''ll be honest that I started writing this story literally the day after I thought it up and I posted it here. But I''m just so interested in it myself that I''m excited to write each chapter ^_^ Well hope you enjoy my rumbling or thought I was really annoying but enjoy chapter 8!
Alice¡¯s shout completely jolted Sage out of his enlightened state causing him to completely forget the last hour of his meditation. Sage wanted to lash out but quickly calmed himself down. ¡°It¡¯s not her fault¡­ For now dealing with adventurers is more important. I would love go into closed door cultivation right now but that it¡¯s just too dangerous right now.¡± Sage thought to himself as he slowly calmed himself down. His turned his attention to the entrance of the dungeon where he found two people. One was a young man who looked like he was in his early 20s, short black hair and was about 6 feet tall. A notable difference that separate him from others was his face. His face showed a maturity far beyond his age. His choice of weapon seemed to be a 1 handed sword and shield combo. Sage scanned him. Status Name: Jake Race: Human Rank: C The other was a rather tall young woman. She was very beautiful but beside just beauty she had a certain grace and elegance to her. She had long green hair, which was something Sage had never seen before, but what attracted Sage¡¯s attention the most was her two long pointy ears. Curious, Sage scanned her as well. Status Name: Ardryll Race: Elf Rank: C ¡°Elf?¡± Sage said out in surprise. ¡°Ooooo it looks like a front line warrior and an elf mage duo, they seem very skilled.¡± Alice replied. ¡°I mean what is an elf?¡± Sage clarified his question. ¡°What?¡± Alice was startled for moment then continued, ¡°Oh right, you and your lack of common knowledge. I really worry about you sometimes Sage, you¡¯re so talented and come up with all these neat things but you don¡¯t seem to have shred of common sense.¡± ¡°There are three other races that live in peace with the humans. The elves, as you see before you, are one of them. Elves look very much like humans only they are much more graceful and elegant. They also live much longer than humans do but the key distinctive feature is their pointy ears. They¡¯re also more in tune with nature, making them highly sensitive to mana.¡± Alice explained. ¡°The other two races are the dwarves and beastmen. I won¡¯t go into too much detail right now but the dwarves are great craftsman and live in mountainous areas while beastmen are humanoid beasts, as their name would suggest.¡± Alice continued ¡°For now let¡¯s focus on the duo at hand. I wonder how strong they are.¡± ¡°When I scanned them it said their rank was C¡± Sage said. ¡°I see rank C¡­ Wait Rank C!?¡± Alice shouted. *POV Jake and Ardryll* Jake and Ardryll also heard about the news of some rookie discovering a brand new dungeon. They were as excited as everyone else was about the new dungeon but didn¡¯t think much of it. A new dungeon would need some time to grow before they could offer rank C adventurers like themselves anything. But, to their surprise, shortly after they heard the news Penny, the receptionist from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, came to them with an job for scouting the dungeon. Both of them were honestly shocked by the request. Not only was the guild requesting a pair of rank C adventurers to scout a new dungeon but the rewards were far better than what it normally would be and the guild was supplying them with supplies so they could head out as soon as possible. Jake and Ardryll finally realized how serious this was to the guild and immediately agreed. The next day they set out before dawn and headed towards the location of the dungeon. The reason that the guild master picked them specifically was because both of them were very reliable for their age. Jake was a big brother to four younger siblings so he grew up being the responsible one. Ardryll was an elf and she was taught since she was a child to give it her all during a mission and to never lose focus or slack off no matter how easy the job might be. This made them the perfect candidates to explore an unknown dungeon because, even though it is a newly born dungeon that should hold no threat to them, they would still take it seriously. After about half a day of travel they arrived outside the dungeon a bit before noon. ¡°Let¡¯s set up camp here and have lunch. After that we¡¯ll go inside and explore for the afternoon. We¡¯ll pull back out when night comes and then continue tomorrow morning. Given the average size of newly born dungeons we should be able to finish by tomorrow afternoon.¡± Jake said to Ardryll. ¡°Sounds good.¡± Ardryll replied as they began to set up their base camp ¡°What do you think we¡¯ll find inside?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure. From what we know so far the dungeon has goblins and minor herbs. Going from that we¡¯ll most likely only meet goblins inside the cave but since the discoverer didn¡¯t go in any further than one room we have no idea what type of traps there might be.¡± Jake said while setting up his tent. ¡°Then we can expect an elite goblin as the final dungeon boss then?¡± Ardryll said. ¡°Maybe, why are you thinking of the dungeon boss? Our mission is only to scout the dungeon and to pull out if we encounter anything we aren¡¯t 100% sure we can take care of.¡± Jake said sternly. ¡°I know the mission Jake.¡± Ardryll replied seriously ¡°But it¡¯s still a newly born dungeon. Even if we were to play it 100% safe there is still a high chance of us just clearing the dungeon. Afterall most full dungeon evaluation runs for the first floor are lead by a low rank C adventurers with a group of rank D adventurers. Yet here we are two upper tiered rank C adventurers sent to only do a scouting mission.¡± Jake let out a sigh and said ¡°You¡¯re not wrong, we do seem overly qualified even if this was a evaluation run. But since the guild master requested us to do it he must have his reason so we should still be on guard.¡± Ardryll pondered a bit and replied ¡°True, the guild master was a legend back in the day so if he requested two rank C adventurer then he must have his reasons. I always wondered how he ended up being just a guild master of a branch Adventurer¡¯s Guild all the way out here.¡± Hearing that Jake slowly said ¡°Everyone has their own troubles.¡± Soon they finished setting up their base camp and Jake cooked a hot meal for themselves. Once they finished eating they decided to take a short break to let the food digest and to rest up from their travel. Finally after their camp was set up, they had eaten, and well rested they headed toward the dungeon. The moment they entered the dungeon they felt like someone was watching them. ¡°This is a dungeon alright, can never get used to the feeling of something watching you at all times.¡± Jake said. Ardryll felt her surrounding and slowly said ¡°The mana density of this dungeon is very high and this is merely the entrance. I can see how those minor herbs were so high quality despite being from the first floor.¡± They carefully proceeded into the first room where they found the minor herbs along with three goblins. Of course because they were well trained rank C adventurers it took them almost no time to kill all three goblins and harvest the herbs. After they completely explored the first room they drew a rough map of the dungeon with the entrance and the first room. This was part of their mission to map out as much of the dungeon as they felt safe doing. Then they continued onto the second room where they were met with five goblins scattered around. However after mapping out the second room they found themselves with two tunnels going deeper into the dungeon. ¡°A split path already? Now that is rare, most first floors are pretty linear at the start and only split off into side rooms near the end.¡± Jake said after seeing the two tunnels. ¡°I guess we will need to check them both.¡± Ardryll paused for a bit and continued ¡°Do you want to split up or check them one at a time together?¡± Jake immediately replied ¡°We will check them together. This dungeon seems a bit out of the norm and I don¡¯t want anything unexpected to catch us off guard.¡± Ardryll nodded and the two of them ended up going down the tunnel to the left. Shortly after they entered the tunnel they encountered their very first trap in the dungeon. It was a simple pitfall trap with a slime at the bottom. ¡°Jake there¡¯s a pitfall trap ahead and there seems to be a slime at the bottom.¡± Ardryll said. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Ardryll was a very gifted mage who¡¯s very good at detecting mana. This mana dense dungeon seemed to have brought out the best in her. Normally she always had to touch with detection magic but here it just felt so natural connecting with the mana in the dungeon to detect traps and monsters. ¡°So there are slimes as well. To have already two types of monsters is certainly rare.¡± Jake replied. Like that they avoided two more traps before arriving in the next room. They carefully navigated through the the first room. When they were half way through a shadow suddenly jumped at them from the side. Jake quickly reacted as he moved his shield to block the attacker. The attacker wasn¡¯t too strong and was easily pushed away by Jake. Once he got a closer look he couldn¡¯t help but exclaim ¡°Kobolds!¡± Just as he shouted two more shadows charged towards him from his side. However he didn¡¯t even bother with them as he charged forward and slayed the first kobold that attacked him. Just as the other two came close to his back two balls of fire zoomed past Jake and slammed into the two Kobolds. The two Kobolds were instantly killed by Ardryll¡¯s magic. ¡°That was dangerous. If it were a weaker team that ambush, combined with the traps in this room, could have easily killed rank F and careless rank G adventures. Kobolds huh¡­ this dungeon is indeed strange to have three types of monsters already. I can understand why the old man sent us.¡± Jake slowly said. ¡°That was too strange, my detection magic couldn¡¯t see them at all!¡± Ardryll said with a hint of worry. Jake pondered for a bit and said ¡°It looks like this room is clear, once we map this room we will head back up. While we can press forward I don¡¯t feel it is safe enough if you can¡¯t detect the Kobolds ahead of time.¡± The two of them mapped the room and returned back to the second room. Now they stood before the right side tunnel. ¡°I wonder what this side of the dungeon will have. Still can¡¯t believe that two rank C adventurers were forced to turn back so early by a brand new dungeon.¡± Ardryll said with a sigh. ¡°No matter what¡¯s down there we should be on guard.¡± Jake replied. The two of them made it down to another room where they found five goblins. However, unlike the second room where they goblins were spread out, these five goblins were together as a group. The goblins immediately noticed the duo and got into battle formation. This startled both Jake and Ardryll as they¡¯d never seen goblins working together like this before. Normally only large packs with an elite goblin or stronger would have any sort of teamwork and even then it hardly went beyond charge at the enemy. However the goblins were closing in on them so they quickly threw all those thoughts out of the way and focused on the fight. The goblin¡¯s teamwork and fighting abilities really shocked Jake after exchanging a few rounds with them. ¡°Are these really still goblins?¡± Jake couldn¡¯t help but mutter. Granted they were strong for goblins but in the end they were still very weak. After purposely testing them out for a bit Jake got a good grasp of the goblin¡¯s fighting capabilities and decided to end it. ¡°Ardryll, now!¡± Jake shouted. With that Jake instantly bashed one of the goblins with his shield and the goblin flew back knocking two that were coming up to help him. A giant ball of fire quickly followed and incinerated the three goblins on the ground. As that happened Jake quickly moved to the remaining two goblins and slaughtered them. ¡°These goblin almost seem trained somehow but there was no goblin elites or goblin lords here to train them.¡± Jake muttered to himself as he thought of that battle. As he was thinking he suddenly heard Ardryll shout ¡°Hey Jake look, there are some Light Herbs growing here. These are used for making various antidotes. The kingdom will be happy to have a dungeon that can provide this kind of resource. Just like the minor herbs they¡¯re much higher quality than normal first floor herbs.¡± ¡°This cave just keeps getting weirder and weirder.¡± Jake finally let out a sigh. They finished mapping the room and continued to the next room. When they reached the next room they were once again startled. This time there was a group of ten goblins together and now there are even three goblins with bows. Once again this group showed coordination never seen before from goblins. Still in the end goblins are still goblins and after twenty minutes of fighting Jake and Ardryll wiped them out. They could have finished it much sooner but due to the extremely unusual circumstances Jake dragged the battle out to test the goblin¡¯s fighting capabilities. He noticed that the goblins were slightly stronger than normal goblins but not by enough to make a big difference. What was most surprising about them was that their skill with their weapons was far beyond what a normal goblin should have and their teamwork was something that shouldn¡¯t be pulled off without at least an elite monster to lead them. Jake took a break this time because he used more energy than normal testing out the goblins so Ardryll went around to map the room and collect the herbs. Once that was all done they set off for the next room. However before they entered the third room Ardryll suddenly stopped Jake. ¡°Hold on I feel like something is off.¡± Ardryll whispered to Jake. ¡°What is it?¡± Jake asked. He trusted Ardryll¡¯s senses so if she feel something is off then it is most likely true. ¡°I used detect again and could feel 10 goblins inside that room but in addition to that there are also some traps. However they are not nearly as bad as the other side. What¡¯s bugging me is that I feel like there should be something else in the room but I can¡¯t detect them.¡± Ardryll slowly replied. Jake pondered for a bit and said ¡°Those Kobolds¡­¡± ¡°Yes, I believe there are Kobolds that can hide themselves for my detection in there ready to ambush us while we fight those ten goblins.¡± Ardryll replied. This startled Jake, goblins and kobolds working together? That is very unlikely but Ardryll¡¯s senses are hardly ever wrong and he isn¡¯t willing to take the risk. While they were still rank C adventurers and getting ambushed by Kobolds while fighting goblins wasn¡¯t a big deal he didn¡¯t want to take this risk. With everything that had happened so far he wasn¡¯t sure if something else unexpected won¡¯t happen during their fight. In the end Jake and Ardryll decided that this was the end of their scouting mission and headed back out. They reached their base camp around late afternoon, having finished far earlier than their original plan. They had dinner and gathered their thoughts on what they found inside the dungeon and took down notes to turn into the guild. Only after organizing their trip did both of them finally understand why the guild master sent the two of them as the scouts. The dungeon had far too many thing that were off with it but they aren¡¯t easily noticeable unless one was careful. If another rank C adventurer had come instead, they would have powered through the room and completely ignored the fact that the goblins were trained and the kobolds could hide from detection. They would have suffered injuries but played it off as bad luck and pushed forward, refusing to be beaten by a new dungeon. Then when they were weakened and had their guards down they would been ambushed and maybe even have lost their lives. After realizing all this Jake couldn¡¯t help but let out a wry smile and said, ¡°That old man knew this kind of thing would happen which is why he specifically asked for us. Damn it, if he knew he should have told us in the request.¡± ¡°He was probably testing us again like he always does.¡± Ardryll too let out a sigh, ¡°But still, I can¡¯t wait for when this dungeon grows.¡± ¡°This will definitely be the place to be in a few years.¡± Jake replied. The two went to sleep and headed back toward the city at dawn. After they returned to the city they went to finish their request at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Penny was shocked by their early return but the guild master seemed to have been expecting them. ¡°So from how early you two returned I take it that I was right to send the two of you.¡± The guild master said to them with a smirk on his face. ¡°If you knew something was up you should have told us old man!¡± Jake said ¡°And yes, you were right to have sent the two of us. Had you sent anyone else, unless they are rank B or higher, they would have most likely died.¡± Penny was in complete shock when she heard this while the guild master just laughed. Jake and Ardryll quickly recounted the events in the dungeon and handed over the notes and map they had made while exploring. Even the guild master was shocked at the turn of events. After all was said and done the guild master let out a laugh and said, ¡°Looks like things will be getting pretty busy around here soon. That dungeon is making me think of coming out of retirement. Hahahah!¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t joke old man or else you¡¯re going to scare the dungeon to death. A retired SS adventurer going to raid the first floor of a newly born dungeon? All you need to do is wave your sword and you would cause it to collapse.¡± Jake couldn¡¯t help but sigh, this old man was just too strong. ¡°Hahahaha! Well at least life will be more interesting now. Good work you two! With the completion of this mission I officially recommend you two for the rank B exam!¡± The guild master paused and continued, ¡°The two of you are pretty skilled and level headed for your age. This mission really proved that. You didn¡¯t let your own power go to your heads. The rank B exam should be a piece of cake for you two. I have high hopes for the future!¡± Jake and Ardryll were both stunned, they¡¯d been waiting for this for a long time. After regaining their senses they both shouted, ¡°Thank you guild master!¡± Soon the report of the scout mission was posted and caused another shockwave throughout the kingdom. Two upper tier rank C adventurer were sent out for a scout mission for the new dungeon and not only did they not clear the dungeon but were forced back. However the resources they found excited many people as the kingdom sorely lacked light herbs. Armed with the new information more brave adventures headed out towards the new dungeon. *Back at the dungeon.* After watching all that has happened Sage couldn¡¯t help but mutter, ¡°I think there is a big problem with our dungeon¡­¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 9 - Preparing To Be Defeated? Hello everyone here is chapter 9! Can''t believe it''s 9 chapter already ^_^ I hope you are all enjoying the ride. We reaching the middle part of book 1!
*In Sage¡¯s chamber after Jake and Ardryll entered the dungeon* Sage and Alice watched as the scout duo easily cleared out the first and second rooms of the dungeon. ¡°This is so unfair, who sends rank C adventurers for a floor 1 dungeon scouting mission! This group is powerful enough to do a full dungeon evaluation run if they¡¯re careful!¡± Alice had been grumbling this whole time. ¡°Is it really that bad?¡± Sage asked. ¡°Yes it is. Normal scouting parties for floor 1 is just a Rank F and G. Even dungeon evaluation missions normally only have a rank D in charge and yet here we have two rank C¡¯s. And from the look of their age they aren¡¯t some washed up adventurers who have hit their limit, they¡¯re people who¡¯ll move up to at least rank B or higher. How did we end up having these types of people already.¡± Alice complained. Sage could only helplessly smile and say, ¡°We can only see how it goes.¡± They watched as the duo cleaned up the second room and proceed down the left tunnel. ¡°What? That mage is cheating! They can detect all the traps¡­¡± Alice cried out. She looked like she was about to start crying at any moment. However when the duo got ambushed by the kobold Alice instantly cheered up and shouted, ¡°That serves them right for cheating! How did the kobolds manage to sneak up on on them though?¡± ¡°That¡¯s simple, I just taught them a technique that would help hide their presence. I figured since they like ambushing I¡¯d teach them this technique but they¡¯re very bad at it still. The only reason they managed to get close is because the mage is relying too much on the dungeon¡¯s mana rather than her own. The monsters are made from this dungeon¡¯s mana so it was much easier to hide from her. If it was someone who wasn¡¯t relying on the dungeon¡¯s mana then this technique would be quite useless until they reached a higher mastery of it.¡± Sage replied. ¡°Look Sage they are turning back! Oh Sage I¡¯m so proud of you, a new dungeon was able to force two rank C adventurer to back off. We should put up a sign telling everyone!¡± Alice became so excited that she hugged Sage, or tried to hug sage but just kind of pressed herself against his crystal body. They continued to watch as the duo returned to the second room and went down the tunnel to the right. There they watched the duo clear out the first and second wave of goblins. During the second wave Alice proudly said, ¡°Hmph, so what if they are rank C adventurers. Look at how much they are struggled against our goblins. Hehe, Sage your training is really effective.¡± ¡°No they aren¡¯t struggling against them at all.¡± Sage helplessly said, ¡°That fighter is completely toying with them to test their abilities. He is very good to be able to notice the slight difference in strength of these goblins. Normally when someone is much stronger they don¡¯t notice the difference between things weaker than they are.¡± ¡°Umm Sage, it might have to do with the fact that the goblins are fighting as a team.¡± Alice suddenly said. ¡°What?¡± Sage was confused. ¡°I mean the fact that the goblins are fighting as a group like this is probably what made that guy so careful. Normally goblins have too low intelligence to have that kind of team work without an elite goblin or goblin lord leading them.¡± Alice replied. Sage was startled, he honestly didn¡¯t think that these creatures were considered this dumb. After the duo played around with the second group of goblins for a while they finished them off and continued to the 3rd room. However right as they got close to the 3rd room the elf stopped the fighter and they begin to whisper among themselves. Then to Alice¡¯s dismay they turned around and left. ¡°Why did they leave? It was just going to get to the good part! There were kobolds waiting in ambush and the traps and then goblins archers... Arggg!¡± Alice screamed. Sage however seem to be lost in his own thoughts as he recall what has happened and couldn¡¯t help but mutter ¡°I think there is a big problem with our dungeon¡­¡± When Alice heard this she thought Sage was depressed at how easily everything was cleared so she quickly said ¡°Oh Sage don¡¯t be so sad. Honestly, you¡¯ve done better than what most dungeons have done. Those were two rank C adventurers and could have easily cleared a newly born dungeon.¡± ¡°Huh? I¡¯m not worried about those two clearing it too easily, I know they were way too strong for what we we had prepared. In fact if they weren¡¯t so cautious they could have easily made it to the boss room. What I¡¯m worried about is the huge flaw I noticed with our dungeon.¡± Sage answered. ¡°What flaw?¡± Now Alice was curious too. ¡°Our main goal is to attract as many people as possible to enter our dungeon so that we can absorb mana from them to evolve. The current dungeon isn¡¯t fit for a lot of people to enter. At most we have two teams moving down the two paths and even then it¡¯s not ideal as the two paths are more of a barrier to the boss so new adventurers don¡¯t really stand a chance. When I built this I was too focused on preventing them from getting here that I forgot to make the dungeon more attractive for people to come in.¡± Sage explained. ¡°Hahahahaha! That¡¯s what you are worried about?¡± Alice burst out laughing, ¡°I thought it was something seriously wrong with the dungeon. Hahahahaha!¡± Sage was getting used to Alice¡¯s personality so he just patiently waiting for her to calm down and explain herself. After a while Alice calmed herself down and said, ¡°You¡¯re thinking too far ahead silly. Remember that you¡¯re a brand new dungeon and if anyone knew how little time it took you to build this big of an first floor they would all faint. Don¡¯t worry too much about it. Once people start entering you¡¯ll have more resources to expand the dungeon.¡± This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Still since I am capable I might as well fix this problem so we can have more people coming in.¡± Sage said. It has been a long time since he hit level 10 and have been unable to advance. Those two rank C adventurers gave him a lot of mana to help him level but they were only there for a very short period of time, ¡°So what is going to happen next Alice?¡± Alice thought for a bit and replied, ¡°Since the scout team got here so quickly that means the city isn¡¯t too far off. They¡¯ll report their findings and the Adventurer¡¯s Guild will announce them. Once that¡¯s done we should start getting adventurers coming into the dungeon. Then once the team they called to evaluate the dungeon is here they¡¯ll come and clear through the first floor. Depending on the rating they give, a settlement might be built near us.¡± What Alice didn¡¯t expect is that before the dungeon evaluation went underway the settlement near them has already been confirmed. ¡°Even more reason to upgrade the dungeon then so we can get a better evaluation.¡± Sage quickly added. ¡°I suppose you can but like I said before what you have is already beyond what a dungeon normally would have. Besides we still got that skill book, with that even if the dungeon was just one room it will still be evaluated as a very important dungeon.¡± Alice replied while circling Sage. Sage pondered for a bit and decided to expand the dungeon. He resummoned the monsters that were killed and began digging. His plan was to add some side rooms to the first two rooms for fresh adventurers or show who came in by themselves. He looped the tunnels a bit so that people would have to keep track of where they were or they might end up going in circles. Next he planned to add rooms to the side of the two sections and in between them. The room in the middle can be accessed from both sides and allowed people to cross to the other section. Once all the changes were done the dungeon¡¯s size would double! As Sage started out the plans Alice quickly said ¡°Hold on Sage, you can expand the dungeon now but don¡¯t connect them yet or at least don¡¯t connect the side rooms and tunnels to the first two rooms. Right now they¡¯ve already mapped part of the dungeon and if you suddenly changed those areas it would cause too much attention.¡± ¡°What do you mean cause too much attention and isn¡¯t that a good thing?¡± Sage asked. ¡°Attention that would draws adventurers to come to our dungeon is good but attention that would draw people to come study you is bad. You are a newly born dungeon that almost no one has been to yet. If you suddenly expand for no reason that would raise too many questions. Even though a dungeon¡¯s resources are important, if they find out you can gather mana at this speed they will do whatever it takes to control you.¡± Alice expression became very serious. ¡°It¡¯s fine to add those rooms that are going to connect to places they haven¡¯t mapped yet but for the other areas just don¡¯t connect them.¡± Sage was shocked by the information and felt very grateful for Alice. Although she can be a bit annoying at times Sage felt that she had always been looking out for him. Time slowly passed and a week went by without anyone else entering the dungeon however Alice did sneak out and found that a fairly large camp was set up near the dungeon. That meant it was only a matter of time before people started to come and explore. After a week, adventurers started to come in and, as Sage had worried due to the current structure of the cave, only one party was exploring the dungeon at a time. Alice snuck out and found that the Adventurer¡¯s Guild had set up an office there and adventurers had to sign up to come inside. This was very common with newly born dungeons as they are simply too small to allow everyone to enter as they please. In order to get the most out of the dungeon the Adventurer¡¯s Guild controlled entry until the dungeon had expanded enough. Sage continued his expansion while re-summoning all the monsters that were wiped out at the end of the day. Soon another week had passed and Sage finished his expansion. After he finished he began to populate them with monsters and traps. He even attempted to create restrictions for more complicated forms of traps. However due to the fact he could only rely on his monsters to set them up, most of them ended in failure. ¡°Finally, a restriction simple enough for them to set up!¡± Sage shouted without realizing it. ¡°A what now?¡± Alice asked. ¡°It¡¯s a trap that will trigger when someone walks on it and bind them to that spot for a certain period of time. Because the restriction setup is so crude it won¡¯t take much force to break out of them but would still keep a rank C adventurer like the two scouts still for about 1 second.¡± Sage explained ¡°Adding to that, I also created a few that will release a bright light to blind their vision.¡± Sage happily explained all the new addition he add to the dungeon. ¡°Sage this is all really nice and all but is there really a need for all of this? I mean they will definitely give us a better evaluation but considering the skill book these won¡¯t matter too much.¡± Alice said. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Sage was startled at Alice¡¯s words. ¡°Well as of now no one has made is this far and most likely will not make it this far until the dungeon evaluation party arrives and clears the dungeon. That means the first people that will come here are the dungeon evaluation party and it is their job to explore every part of the dungeon. With their strength they will easily clear out everything you have set up¡­¡± Alice begin talking softer and softer. Sage fell silent, after a while he could help but let out a big sigh and said, ¡°So I have just been preparing to be defeated?¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 10 - The A Team Double digits guys whoa! Won''t get to celebrate this again until triple digits =X I also like to say I suck at names and thinking up name is like the hardest thing for me to do. I think i spend at least 1/3 of the time on this chapter just staring at the screen trying to think up names o.- Hey if anyone has cool names they don''t mind me using feel free to post them. Please post if they at male/female name at least and yes I''m that bad with them that if you don''t post it I''ll probably not figure it out. Feel free to add extra detail like race or even personalities behind the names. (name for places and countries be nice too) Anyways enjoy the chapter!
*Temporary Settlement Outside Sage¡¯s Dungeon* Soon after Jake and Ardrylll returned from their mission the Adventurer¡¯s Guild set up a temporary base near the dungeon. Normally a dungeon this close to a city wouldn¡¯t need a settlement near it but Zeal was a small kingdom and they didn¡¯t have a lot of dungeons like the bigger countries. These dungeons could mean the continued survival of the kingdom so they decided to build a dungeon town even though the city of Dawn was only half a day away. The guild quickly built a temporary base and became the heart of the soon to be dungeon town. Their first order of business was to restrict access to the dungeon which was commonly done for new dungeons as they were too small to handle a lot of people. This allowed each group that went inside to get the most out of their trip. However the real reason was protection of the dungeon. While this dungeon has shown to be very different it was still too weak and if any high rank adventurer sneak in with ill intent then the loss of the dungeon would be detrimental to the kingdom. This was also another reason why everything was being done so fast. The normal procedure of scouting the dungeon, sending an evaluation team, and finally building a dungeon town near it can take months and normally during this time adventurers were free to enter the dungeon as they wished. The key reason why it takes so long was because new dungeons are in a growing phase so it¡¯s changing often. By allowing people to enter, the dungeon can grow so when the evaluation team arrived the dungeon is mostly done with floor 1 and likely to began work on floor 2. However this time they have to rush it because this is too important for the kingdom. During the first week the guild prevented all access to the dungeon and instead sent out many jobs to survey the area. To encourage people to do these boring tasks the reward was slots to enter the dungeon. Motivated with the chance to explore a new dungeon that had been shown to contain high quality herbs, all the rank F and G adventurers set out to map the area. Due to the large amount of low ranked adventurers, this previously uncharted area was quickly mapped. The guild master moved there to personally oversee everything that was going on, though the main reason was to keep anyone with ill intent away as few wanted to mess with a retired rank SS adventurer. This, however, had become a nightmare for his vice guild leader back in Dawn. Because of the news of a new dungeon born in the area the Adventurer¡¯s Guild was flood with requests to join. Of course they¡¯re free to enter the dungeon even if they''re not in the Adventurer¡¯s guild but once it¡¯s fully opened but they wouldn¡¯t be able to get requests, information, and meet other people to party up. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild can¡¯t just take everyone and their cats as a member though so everyone needs to be tested. Those that are skilled enough are given rank G and those that just aren¡¯t good enough are rejected but they can retake the test in half a year. Now the biggest problem are those who are good enough but lack experience as they would become trainees and go through a boot camp provided by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Before the boot camp was always managed by the guild master himself, he took it as his personal hobby to train the young ones, but since he¡¯s gone it fell to the vice guild master. Due to the huge influx of people signing up she was having to deal with a large amount of beginners. The part that infuriated her the most was that this whole boot camp thing was the guild master¡¯s idea. Normally the Adventurer¡¯s Guild just passed you and then let you go figure thing out on your own. The guild master, however, had a hobby of trying to find talent so he set up this whole stupid boot camp so he could teach those youngsters. What made it all worse was that when he left he simply said ¡°This is a good chance to smooth out that temper of yours or else you¡¯re never going to find someone willing to marry you. Hahahaha!¡± After that everyone was walking on pins for a whole week. After the first weeks passed adventurers finally started to enter the dungeon. Since all the adventurers going in were low ranked ones most of them didn¡¯t have their own party so the guild master made it for them. While it seemed random the guild master crafted these parties with care to ensure them the best survival rates. Many adventurers had their first taste of a dungeon and were very excited about the rewards. The herbs they found inside the dungeon were at a floor 3 or later quality which net them an earning well above what they would normally get. But for those with talent the most important thing they got out of it was combat experience. The first two rooms allowed them to gain confidence in themselves as they fought solo or duo goblins but once they entered the right tunnel, the left is restricted and adventurers were told to not go in there, the real fights began. Fighting organized monsters was a fairly rare occurrence for low rank adventurers like themselves and the fight against the group of 5 and 10 goblins were very beneficial to them. One team was allowed to go in in the morning and then another in the afternoon with about 4 hours break in between for the dungeon to recover. Soon three weeks passed like this before something changed. There was a huge commotion at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡¯s temporary base as a group of 5 arrived in the morning. Who were they? They were the rank A adventurer team that was requested to do the dungeon evaluation run. For an deserted area like this, rank A adventurers were stuff of legends. Most people here had only seen rank C adventurers and even they were a rare sight. Although the guild master was a retired rank SS adventurer no one really took him seriously due to his nature. Almost every adventurer crowded around to take a look at a rank A team. Alex¡¯s team was away on an request when the dungeon was discovered so they didn¡¯t know of it right away. They returned 2 weeks ago and got the news of the dungeon and the request. This shocked them greatly as they¡¯re a rank A team. Normally they¡¯re asked to evaluate 50th+ floors, not the first floor and especially not one that has only been discovered for 2 weeks. Alex was going to decline until he saw who sent this request. ¡°It¡¯s from old man Max¡­¡± Alex slowly said and everyone else in the team became silent ¡°If it¡¯s that old coot then there must be a good reason. Is everyone ok with taking this request?¡± After a moment of hesitation the rest of the team said ¡°Agreed.¡± With that they began their trip halfway across the kingdom and arrived at the temporary dungeon town after two weeks. They were immediately swarmed by a crowd once people recognized them. Soon the guild master came out to greet them and lead them into the a private room. ¡°So old man, care to tell us why you called us here to do a dungeon evaluation run floor 1 of a brand new dungeon?¡± Alex said to the guild master as soon as they sat down. ¡°Hahahaha, I thought I let you guys see your future training ground. Hahaha.¡± The guild master laughed. Alex couldn¡¯t help but sigh as this old man always does what he pleases but he hasn¡¯t been wrong once. ¡°Our training ground? Maybe in a few hundreds years.¡± A girl wearing a pure white cloak that covers her completely retorted at the guild master. ¡°While dungeons are an excellent places they also take time to grow. It will be a very long time, probably after we are long dead.¡± This time a young man in a very clean blue robe talked. ¡°While the dungeon right now is probably as easy to crush as an ant, I¡¯m not so sure it will really take that long.¡± The guild master chuckled and toss a piece of herb at them. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Alex caught it and said ¡°This is a medium minor herb, what about it?¡± The guild master let out a smirk and said ¡°This was found in the first room after the entrance on the first floor.¡± ¡°What?¡± The girl in the white cloak grabbed the minor her from Alex¡¯s hand. After carefully examine it for a while she couldn¡¯t help but exclaim ¡°There¡¯s a high concentration of mana in this minor herb. The only reason it¡¯s a medium quality herb is because the herb itself is too young but the mana has already reached top quality. This stuff only appears in floor 5 boss rooms!¡± The guild master¡¯s smirk got even bigger as he laughed ¡°As expected of the kingdom¡¯s youngest arch mage. Most people can only tell it¡¯s a medium quality herb but you were able to notice how much mana it really had. Your mana control has gotten better since we last meet. Hahahaha.¡± ¡°Shut up old man.¡± The girl respondedly coldly and handed the herb back. ¡°With this mana concentration at only 1 floor this dungeon has potential.¡± ¡°That would be an understatement.¡± The guild master said while shaking his head. ¡°I sent Jake and Ardryll to do the scout mission and here¡¯s their report.¡± With that the threw a copy of the report on the table. Alex picked it up and read the report. The more he read the more his harder his brow furrowed together and in the end said ¡°So even Jake and Ardryll didn¡¯t feel safe enough to push deeper in¡­¡± Suddenly the guild master turned his head and looked outside. Alex and his team suddenly became alert. ¡°What¡¯s wrong old man?¡± Alex asked but just as he finished speaking the guild master turn his head back and said with a smile ¡°Oh it¡¯s nothing, just a little bug.¡± Alex pause for a moment and then said ¡°Well, I can see why you called us but how did you know this before they went?¡± ¡°Hahaha, I may have retired but I still know a lot more than you youngers.¡± The guild master replied with a huge smirk on his face. Alex couldn¡¯t help but sigh, they¡®ve all been too used to his old man that they forget this guy was a legend during his younger days. ¡°I can¡¯t keep underestimating people like this. It¡¯ll lead my team into danger someday.¡± Alex thought to himself. ¡°Thank you for the information old man. we¡¯ll rest for today and head in tomorrow.¡± Alex finally made a decision and they left left for their resting place. *Back at the dungeon* It has been three weeks since adventures have been coming in and Sage has manage to collect a lot of mana from the adventurers to level up. He just managed to reach level 15, increasing his mana pool, and he gained the ability to summon a type of plant that would cause people to fall asleep. It wasn¡¯t very powerful and anyone who gained some control of the mana in their body can easily stop the effect but it was something that adventurers could sell. In truth. Sage¡¯s leveling was a bit slow, normally there wouldn¡¯t be a guild restricting entry to a new dungeon or making sure they traveled in groups. This entire time only groups of adventurers ever came in so they were all very safe. So far only total 5 people have died and that was because they didn¡¯t listen to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and headed down the left tunnel. Their greed got the better of them and the combination of traps and Kobolds wiped out the group. ¡°I wonder when they¡¯ll be there.¡± Sage muttered to himself as he meditated with the mimic slime next to him. The mimic slime seem to prefer to hang around Sage¡¯s secret chamber and never left. Sage didn¡¯t mind it as he only had slimes for the sake of having slimes and for some reason watching this one help calm himself down. ¡°They should be here soon. It¡¯s almost noon so I¡¯ll go check if anything new happened in the camp outside.¡± Alice replied as she came out of her room and headed toward the secret passage Sage made for her. ¡°Be careful Alice. Even though you haven¡¯t been found yet you never know what will happen.¡± Sage said with a hint of worry in his voice. Alice has been going out to spy on the camp outside every day for a week now trying to gather some information on the team that would be doing the dungeon evaluation. ¡°You worry too much silly.¡± Alice¡¯s voice echoed through the tunnel as she left. Through this tunnel made just for her she quickly exited the side of the mountain and moved towards the camp. Lucky for her it¡¯s still just a camp so the forest nearby hasn¡¯t been all cleared out yet so she easily got close. Soon she arrived near where all the adventurers were gathered. She hid herself in the trees and carefully listened. ¡°Hey did you guys see! A rank A team! How amazing is that?¡± ¡°What? A rank A team? What is a rank A team doing here?¡± ¡°You guys sure are slow on the news. The guild master asked them to come to do the dungeon evaluation run.¡± ¡°What? How did the guild master manage to get a team like that to come for such a small matter?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you pay attention at all during boot camp? The guild master is a retired rank SS adventurer. I heard the leader of this rank A team was personally taught by him.¡± ¡°Wait you mean that was true? I thought he was just bluffing. He sure doesn¡¯t look like a rank SS adventurer.¡± ¡°So which rank A team it is?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Alex¡¯s team.¡± ¡°You mean team STAR?¡± ¡°Yes that team.¡± ¡°What¡¯s team STAR?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe you don¡¯t even know that! Team STAR is made up by Zeal¡¯s five up and coming young geniuses. Each of them represents a point on a star. The reasoning was that a star made of stars would shine even brighter. Alex is the team leader. He¡¯s a master swordsman who was trained by guild master Max himself when he was a kid. Seith¡¯s an elf ranger who¡¯s a master of archery and stealth. Xanthe is the fiery tempered blond bruiser that prefers to talk with her fists. Josh is know as the ¡®Kind Cleric¡¯ and will help anyone in need. Finally Elsa, the genius mage that graduated from the magic academy at the the top of her class. She¡¯s also the most mysterious one as she always has a cloak that hides how she looks.¡± ¡°I remember now wasn¡¯t there story about her¡­¡± At this point Alice¡¯s mind was blank as she heard the news. A rank A team? A rank A team? ¡°A rank A team!¡± Alice finally shouted out. A moment later she realize what happened and became very nervous. She quickly looked around and found that, luckily, everyone else is so loud that her shout really didn¡¯t raise too much attention. Just as she was repairing to back away she suddenly froze. Sweat pour out of her forehead and back as she felt some powerful force locking on to her. However that feeling disappeared as fast as it came and she was once again able to move. She rushed back to the dungeon and returned through the secret tunnel once more. Sage saw the messy state Alice was in and immediately became very worried as he asked ¡°Alice what happen? Who did this...¡± Before Sage could finish Alice shouted word by word ¡°RANK A TEAM!¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Chapter 11 - Unstoppable Here is chapter 11 hope you all enjoy it!
¡°What?¡± Sage was confused as Alice was out of breath. Alice took a deep breath and said ¡°Rank A Team! They got a rank A team here to do the dungeon evaluation!¡± Sage was startled for a bit and then said ¡°So?¡± Alice was stunned for a moment and said ¡°So? So It¡¯s a rank A team Sage! That¡¯s like a team that can clear level 100+ dungeons!¡± ¡°But they¡¯re only here do the dungeon evaluation right? So what is the problem?¡± Sage is still confused at why Alice seem to be so tense. ¡°More importantly what happened to you?¡± Alice finally fell silent, after a while tears fell from her eye as she rushed into her room. Sage was dumbfounded at all of this and couldn¡¯t help but mutter ¡°Did the news of a rank A team shock her that much? Normally I¡¯m the one who panics¡­ is that what I¡¯m like when I lose control? This lack of control over my emotions is simply too dangerous but nothing I can really do anything about right now. Ah¡­ good thing Alice is here to pull me back.¡± Sage thought he should do something to cheer Alice up but he honestly had no idea as he had almost zero social skills back when he was know as the Sage Emperor. Luckily for him Alice came back out a few hours later and acted like nothing ever happened. Sage didn¡¯t want to upset Alice so he didn¡¯t question her any further. Sage had completed a lot of the expansion for the first floor but none of it was connected yet. After some careful discussion with Alice they decided to connect them after the evaluation team is done because the evaluation is a rank A team so just by having them Sage would get a lot of mana from them and level up. *Camp outside the dungeon* ¡°This place is horrible. There are only tents here and there are so many people staring at us when we go outside.¡± Elsa has been complaining since he settled down. She wanted to go and do the dungeon evaluation now because she was interested but Alex insisted that they get a good night¡¯s rest before heading out. ¡°We traveled for 2 weeks straight to get here so it is good to get some rest. Even though the dungeon pose no threat to us it is still best to go in fully prepared.¡± Josh had been calming Else down for a while now. Due to his good nature even Else, who is know to be fairly selfish, can¡¯t deal with Josh that well and finally accepted it. The team stayed in the area the guild prepared for them the entire time because they simply attracted too much attention if they went out. The guild master came by to chat with them for a bit, mostly seeing how they¡¯ve progressed, while making fun of them. While the team did find the guild master to be kinda of an annoying old man all of them respect him for what he¡¯s done. They all went to sleep early and prepared to wake up at the crack of dawn to enter the dungeon and ,because this is a only the first floor ,they planned to finish by early afternoon. The night passed peacefully in the camps. *Morning the next day outside the dungeon.* Alex double checked all his equipment and then turned to his team ¡°Are you guys all prepared? Remember, even though it is only the first floor of a new dungeon it is very different from normal. While nothing should be a threat it¡¯s best to be careful.¡± ¡°Ya ya, let¡¯s get going already! I want to see for myself how those herbs came to be.¡± Elsa was ready to just rush in with her most powerful magic and find what she wanted. ¡°I hope the dungeon boss can withstand more than 1 punch or else this is going to be a snooze fest!¡± Xanthe cracked her knuckles as she too is about to charge inside and slaughter everything. Josh quickly step forward blocking her and said ¡°Now remember to hold back. This is a brand new dungeon and we wouldn¡¯t want to destroy the dungeon now do we.¡± ¡°Our duty is to evaluate this dungeon as it¡¯s very important to the kingdom. Please refrain from doing anything that might damage this valuable resource.¡± Seith looked at Xanthe with a very serious expression. Xanthe let out a sigh and replied ¡°Fine fine I¡¯ll hold back but the boss is mine!¡± Alex felt helpless as he replied ¡°Fine but no area wide attacks as you might damage or destroy the dungeon core. This is a new dungeon so the core should be close to the boss room and Else, don¡¯t even think about doing anything to the dungeon core.¡± Alex last words caught Elsa completely off guard and woke her from her fantasy of experimenting on the dungeon core that could produce this mana density. ¡°Alright since this is all settled let¡¯s move out then.¡± With that Alex and this team entered the dungeon. *Sage¡¯s Secret Chamber* ¡°So they¡¯re finally here¡­¡± Sage stared at the group that entered ¡°I wonder how strong rank A is.¡± With that he tried to scan them and immediately felt a headache. Alice seem to notice what Sage was trying to do and quickly said ¡°Don¡¯t try to probe them, I forgot to tell you this but adventurers do have a method of shielding themselves with mana. Normally rank F¡¯s and G¡¯s protection is too weak to block you out. Until you¡¯re much stronger you won¡¯t be able to scout their abilities.¡± After hearing this Sage stopped trying and the headache disappeared ¡°Why was I able to scan the two rank C then?¡± ¡°That¡¯s because they didn¡¯t try to hide themselves. They probably didn¡¯t think much of it and decide to not waste the mana but it seems this rank A team is taking this seriously.¡± Alice is started to get a little nervous and moved all over the room. The fight isn¡¯t very exciting as this is a rank A team and no matter how much Sage have tried to train his monsters they basically die if a rank A adventurer so much as looked at them. The team easily wiped out the first room, well not really the team but more like just one person. A girl with long blonde hair who easily obliterated the goblins with a single punch. Sage¡¯s eyes were glued on to her during the fight. Although the fights lasted less than 1 second for each goblin and she only threw punches Sage could tell how talented she was. Afterall Sage has taught genius after genius so he can easily tell who really has potential. ¡°If I can only get someone like her on my side then I¡¯ll have a guardian that can keep me safe while I recover my soul¡­¡± Sage couldn¡¯t help but think these thoughts. He even thought of trying to communicate with them and exchange his teaching for protecttion but in the end he knew that was just far too dangerous. After clearing out the first two rooms the group stopped there for a bit. *The second room* ¡°According to the reports the two tunnels leads to two different section of the dungeon. The left tunnel goes to an area filled with traps and there are also kobolds that can hide their presence in there as well. I believe Seith and Elsa can easily take care of that section?¡± Alex turned to Seith and he nodded in reply. He turned to Elsa and only to find her on the ground staring intently at a patch of herbs. ¡°Elsa?¡± ¡°Ya, sure, whatever you say leader.¡± Elsa half heartedly replied and muttered ¡°The mana concentration is so high for a floor 1 dungeon. I just can¡¯t wait to see what is further down!¡± ¡°The right tunnel connects to a section of the dungeon that has group of goblins. Reports have it that they work together and are trained compare to normal monsters.¡± And before Alex could continue Xanthe shouted ¡°Those are all mine! I hope they put up a fight least!¡± Alex was speechless, Xanthe has always love to fight but he has no idea how she get so pumped about fighting things this week. He finally understood what the old man meant when he said that if Xanthe had the right environment then she would quickly become stronger than all of them. She¡¯s a fighting manic and will always go at 100% no matter what. After they agreed on the teams they split up. *Left tunnel* Elsa and Seith walked down the tunnel, Seith suddenly stops Elsa and said ¡°There are pitfall traps ahead with slimes in them. Follow my lead.¡± However Elsa completely ignored him, she walked forward and said ¡°Seith, you know how powerful my detection magic is so please stop it with these pointless warning. Now this slime sure is interesting.¡± Elsa waved his hand and one of the pitfall trap quickly collapse as a slime flew out. The slime tried hard to move but something is holding it making it unable to move at all. ¡°This slime is slightly blue due to all the high density of mana, very interesting! I¡¯ll take one for my studies.¡± With that she chanted a spell as a magic circle appeared under the slime and then the slime disappeared in a puff of smoke. Seith could only let out a sigh as they moved forward. The first room was a complete cakewalk for them as both of them are well adapted at detecting all the traps. After exploring the room Elsa was very excited to find the Para Herb which is used to heal paralysis and once again it was filled with mana. Only if the herb is older it would be high quality instead of just medium. They continued to the second room where Elsa boldly walked across the room. ¡°Wait¡­¡± Seith said but was instantly cut off by Elsa ¡°I told you I can detect anything as well as you do. Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t notice those five kobolds. Although their technique of blending in with the surrounding mana is interesting their use of it is simply too poor.¡± With that 5 rays of light shot out from her in different directions leaving behind 5 burned kobold corpses. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The next two rooms went similarly as Elsa force her way through by sheer power and Seith just silently kept watch. He knew there was no point in arguing with her so he just kept vigilant. After passing through 4 rooms they finally entered an extra large room¡­ *Right tunnel* Alex, Josh, and Xanthe walked down the right tunnel and as they neared the opening to the next room Xanthe was about to dash into the room but was held back by Alex. ¡°Hey what gives? I thought we agreed on letting me do all the fighting!¡± Xanthe was not happy about being stopped when she was this excited. ¡°Let me fight this room, we are here for a dungeon evaluation and have to test how strong the monsters are. If you just kill them all with one punch then that¡¯s not every informative is it?¡± Alex slowly explained to Xanthe, although this wasn¡¯t strictly required he was very interested about the monsters once he heard the reports. ¡°Fine!¡± Xanthe unwillingly back off to the side. Alex walked slowly into the room and got the attention of the 5 goblins. He took a defensive stance as he allowed the goblins to attack him. However to his disappointment while the goblins are working as a team they weren¡¯t nearly as good as the report from Jake and Ardryll. He was very confused as he dragged it on for a bit longer to give the goblin a chance to act. However the goblin didn¡¯t get any better, while they know some basic teamwork it is still very clear that they aren¡¯t that used to working together. Finally he decided it was enough testing and ended it. ¡°Ok Xanthe I got what I needed so the rest of the monsters are all yours.¡± Alex turned and said to Xanthe who happily jogged toward the second room. Alex and Josh could only wrily smile at each other and follow her. The second room had 10 goblins and like the 5 before them only knew some teamwork and was far inferior to the ones in Jake and Ardryll report. Xanthe drag out the fight a bit herself dodging and moving but all the goblin were once again obliterated them in one punch. Then they moved onto the second room and that¡¯s where things changed. There was 10 goblins and 5 kobolds waiting in ambush. The first thing that surprised them was of course the ambush, since one had made it this far they didn¡¯t know it was there. It was very shocking to see kobold and goblin working together but in the end it is only a slight shock as it still pose no real threat to them. The second surprise was that this group of monster were far stronger than the previous group. The teamwork the goblin and kobold was great and could have easily caught low level adventurers¡¯ party off guard. ¡°Now this is more like it!¡± Xanthe is always up for a good fight and seeing the monsters fight like this just made her more excited. Although they were much more coordinated they were still no match for Xanthe who, after toying with them for a while, once again obliterated them. Alex was confused because this was the type of fighting level matches the ones from Jake and Ardryll report but why only now and not the earlier rooms? As he was thinking about it he suddenly heard Josh calling him and realized Xanthe has already ran toward the next room so he had to quickly follow. This room had 15 goblins and 7 kobold which let Xanthe have her share of fun before she wiped this group out single handedly as well. Once again this group of monster showed much better fighting abilities than the first two rooms. Alex thought about it but finally give up trying to figure out why. With this room cleared they moved into the next room which turn out to be an extra large room. There were some herbs growing around the edges of the room and a group of 3 goblins walking around. Xanthe immediately charged forward at the group of goblins. Halfway there something suddenly lit up under her feet causing her to stop for a split second before she heard a shattering sound and she could move again. She was caught completely off guard and almost tripped but in the end regained her balance and wiped out the 3 goblins. ¡°What was that¡­¡± Alex muttered but just as this moment they saw a flash of white light followed by a girl¡¯s scream. ¡°That sounded like Elsa! Quick everyone let¡¯s head over there!¡± The three of them ran toward that direction only to find Elsa and Seith perfectly fine. ¡°Are you ok Elsa? What just happened?¡± Alex let out a breath seeing that his teammate was fine. ¡°Oh, it was nothing. There seem to be some kind of trap that let out a flash of white light to blind your vision. It just completely caught me off guard and surprised me. I¡¯m honestly very interested in what kind of trap it was as it completely avoided our detection.¡± Elsa calmly replied trying to hide the embarrassment of her scream. Josh pondered for a bit and said ¡°We encountered something similar too, when Xanthe was running toward some monsters something lit up under her feet and manage to snare her for a split second. Normally Xanthe¡¯s keen battle perception isn¡¯t any worse than your detection magic or Seith¡¯s detection skill.¡± ¡°It seem to be some kind of trap made by the dungeon, this place just get more and more interesting.¡± Elsa seem very happy about this turn of events. ¡°Well I believe are should be close to the final boss room let¡¯s move ahead.¡± Alex said this after pondering for a bit and lead the group forward. *Sage¡¯s Secret Chamber* Sage and Alice watched the whole thing as the rank A team just sweep through the dungeon without even breaking as sweat. ¡°They are unstoppable!¡± Alice complained, she still felt very cheated. ¡°Not much we can do... ¡° Sage helplessly replied and then as he watched the fight in the right side of the dungeon he suddenly froze. Alice didn¡¯t notice this and kept on complaining about how overpowered this dungeon evaluation team is and how it is unfair to them. ¡°Oh look Sage! The traps you invented worked! I mean they didn¡¯t really do any harm to them at all but at least they fell for it.¡± Alce was very happy the adventurers fell for the traps, made her feel like they had a chance. However she soon realize Sage wasn¡¯t responded and said ¡°Sage are you there? Don¡¯t be so shocked by what has happened it is a rank A team after all.¡± However still no reply, after waiting for an awkward moment Alice was ready to use her magic to slap Sage again when Sage suddenly bursted out laughing. ¡°Hahahaha, such a huge flaw and I didn¡¯t even realize it. Hahahaha.¡± Sage continued laughing ¡°Now these past 2 month of hard work all went to waste. I can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t realize something so simple. Hahahaha.¡± Although Sage is laughing but Alice could tell that if Sage as a body he would be crying. She honestly didn¡¯t know what to say as she didn¡¯t know what was wrong so she could only let him calm down before asking what the problem is. After a long time Sage finally quiet down. Alice gathered up her courage and asked ¡°Sage what is wrong?¡± Sage let out a deep sigh and said ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about it Alice it was just me being very short sighted.¡± Alice was still worried and kept asking ¡°Come Sage you can tell me, I¡¯m your dungeon fairy it is my job to help you. Sage hesitated for a bit and let out another big sigh ¡°It¡¯s fairly simple really, I have been training these monsters to make them stronger but training takes time. Yet they are very weak that they die very quickly. I notice this because the fighting power of the monster in the first two room of the right tunnel was so much weaker than the last 2 room. Why? Because adventurers have being coming in daily to kill them so those monsters never had much training before they died where the monsters in the later rooms live longer so they are stronger. However now with this rank A team all of the monster I worked hard to train are killed instantly....¡± Sage took a deep breath and let out another sigh ¡°Look like I was focused on the wrong thing and ended up wasting so much time.¡± ¡°Aww Sage, you are already so far ahead of what normal dungeons would have so don¡¯t be so down on yourself.¡± Alice tried her best to cheer him up. ¡°Look the team is almost to the boss room. I¡¯m sure your dungeon boss will give them a big surprise!¡± Sage stayed silence for a long time and finally said ¡°Thank you Alice.¡± *Outside the boss room* ¡°Alright we map out every part of this dungeon, there is only the boss room remaining.¡± Alex said to his team. ¡°This dungeon has been very special so far so be prepared. Xanthe will engage the dungeon boss and everyone be ready to jump in to support if needed. Are you all ready?¡± ¡°Ready!¡± The other four replied in unison. Then Alex walked forward and pushed over the door¡­
Edited by: mossclaw64 Chapter 12 - The Skill Book Hello everyone here is Chapter 12 and we are now officially halfway through book one wooo. Does that mean book one will have 24 chapters? I have no idea but this is halfway through the story line I have planned for book one. I have the ending ready but as for how many chapter it will take to get there I''m not sure at all =X Enjoy Chapter 12!
The door opened to reveal a dark room. Alex¡¯s team carefully entered, and after they had all entered, the door suddenly swung shut behind them. Then the room began to slowly light up from where they were and extended down the room until it revealed a 6 foot tall lizard man. This was all Alice¡¯s idea to make the boss room more dramatic. Sage thought it was pointless but in the end give into Alice and set it up. ¡°Is that¡­¡± just as Josh was going to finish speaking Xanthe suddenly burst out ¡°KOBOLD LORD. MUAHAHAHA, just when I thought the dungeon couldn¡¯t get more interesting.¡± Alex recover from the shock and said ¡°Indeed, this dungeon is full of surprises. That old man wasn¡¯t wrong, if a normal dungeon evaluation team had came in they would have made it here with some struggles but would have been very dangerous to fight this boss.¡± ¡°This one is mine!¡± Xanthe step forward getting right to fight. ¡°Alright but be careful. All the monsters here have been stronger than normal so it¡¯s most likely that the dungeon boss will be the same. If it goes bad intervene Elsa.¡± Alex give out the final order before the fight starts. ¡°You worry too much! This is going to be fun!¡± Xanthe shouted in excitingly as she dashed forward. ¡°RAWRRRRRRR¡± The Kobold Lord let out a fierce roar as he readied the sword and shield in his hands for battle. As Xanthe came into the Kobold Lord¡¯s range it slashed diagonally at Xanthe. Xanthe calmly dodged by ducking to the left and sent out a straight punch with her right hand. The Kobold Lord reacted quickly and raised his shield. BANG, the first connected with the shield and to Xanthe¡¯s surprise nothing happened. The Kobold Lord notice this small opening and slash down vertically at Xanthe. Xanthe quickly recovered her sense and took a step back exiting the range of the slash. ¡°Not bad, that punch would have easily knocked down a goblin elite yet wasn¡¯t even able to faze you.¡± Xanthe let out a bright smile as she is getting more pumped up about this fight. Although the Kobold Lord looked fine that punch caused his hand to feel numb. In fact if it wasn¡¯t for the Armored Scale Cultivation its arm would have been broken already. The Kobold Lord was feeling the pressure from Xanthe and now had a much more serious expression on his face. The two stood there for a few seconds before Xanthe once again dashed forward. The Kobold Lord once again swung his sword diagonally and once again Xanthe dodged and went for a counter. However the Kobold Lord¡¯s swing suddenly accelerated and was way short of hitting Xanthe but by using that momentum the Kobold Lord turned its body and swiped its tail at Xanthe. Due to the sudden rotation Xanthe¡¯s punch hit the air and the Kobold Lord¡¯s tail smashed into his sides sending her flying into the wall. ¡°RAWRRRRRR!¡± The Kobold Lord let out a shout of victory! ¡°Hahahaha, not bad, not bad at all.¡± Xanthe slowly pulled herself out from the small imprint she made in the wall ¡°This dungeon is fun, too bad it is too weak right now.¡± The Kobold Lord immediately became very cautious again as he finally realized just how strong his blonde human really is. Xanthe once again dashed directly at the Kobold Lord but the Kobold Lord no longer attacked but quickly dodged to the side hoping to catch Xanthe off guard. However with Xanthe¡¯s skill how could she ever let that happen. Soon Xanthe begin to pressure the Kobold Lord heavily with her punches. The Kobold Lord dodged what he could and blocked what he couldn¡¯t. The Kobold lord could feel that each punch he blocked was slightly stronger than the rest. This caused him to become very nervous as he wondered how much power this human really had. Xanthe, who is fully enjoying herself, didn¡¯t want the fight to end too quickly so she started the power of her punch at that of a rank D and slowly increased it. She was shocked at how the Kobold Lord was able to block punches of upper tier rank C punches. This went on for 10mins and finally after 10 mins Xanthe¡¯s punch strength reached that of a barely rank B and it smashed the shield in the Kobold Lord¡¯s hand and broke the hand as well. The Kobold Lord let out a howl in pain as it swiped it¡¯s tail at Xanthe to gain some space. Xanthe wanted this to last a bit longer so she give him the space and jumped backward. The Kobold Lord quickly retreated towards the back of the room before stopping and facing toward Xanthe again. Xanthe thought she give it enough time to catch its breath and charged forward. She decided that she¡¯s had enough fun and was going to end it. As she drew within about 10 feet of the Kobold Lord something unexpected happened. Suddenly a large circle lit up under her feet like the time with the snare trap. At first she thought it was the same as before and only applied a little extra force to move. However she didn¡¯t break out as she expected and soon chains made of light appeared and coiled around her body. This was a more powerful disable restriction Sage had manage to construct but only inside the boss room because it provide the trap with enough mana to activate. Normally even with this restriction its effect would be the same as the snare trap outside to a rank A adventurer if Xanthe didn¡¯t let her guard down. The split moment where she didn¡¯t use all her strength to break free allowed for the next trap to occur. As the trap activated the Kobold closed his eyes, this caused everyone else to be very confused. But just as the Kobold Lord closed his eyes a very bright light suddenly appeared in the room and completely blinded everyone. Adding on to Xanthe¡¯s carelessness that allowed her to get trapped this was the perfect chance for the Kobold Lord to attack and he aimed his sword at her neck. Xanthe was someone who has been through many fights and many much more dangerous than this one. Even though she can¡¯t see for the moment she could feel the sword coming at her neck and she used all the power in her body and pushed herself backwards. *Whoosh* the sword missed its target and only manage to a few strands of Xanthe¡¯s long blonde hair. Xanthe and her team quickly recovered their vision and were all in cold sweat. They didn¡¯t see that coming at all and Xanthe got away due to being way more powerful than the enemy. Had it been an enemy more evenly matched with them then they should have easily lost Xanthe right there, or at least she would be severely injured. Xanthe¡¯s heart was pounding fast at what had just happened. While even if it had really hit her it wouldn¡¯t have done much, it was the fact that she got caught off guard by something so much weaker than her shocked her. As she looked at the Kobold Lord she suddenly notice something slowly floating down in the air. ¡°Is.. that¡­ my¡­ hair?¡± Xanthe said as she stared at the blonde strands of hair slowly falling to the ground. Suddenly the atmosphere around Xanthe changed and her eyes became shined a golden light as she shouted ¡°You MONSTER!¡± She kicked the ground to launch herself and arrived before the Kobold Lord in an instant. The Kobold Lord didn¡¯t even have time to react as Xanthe let out a flurry of punches one after another so fast that the Kobold Lord couldn¡¯t even react. After 50 straight punches she channeled the mana into her hand and let out an empowered punch that obliterated the Kobold Lord. Only after that did her eyes return to normal and she finally calmed herself down, Alex could only let out a sigh because once Xanthe lost her temper like that it is way too hard to calm her down again, though since there wasn¡¯t any real danger it wasn¡¯t such a big deal. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Well that was more fun that I ever thought I could have on a floor one dungeon boss.¡± Xanthe has calmed down and was reliving the fight. ¡°I have never fought a Kobold Lord this strong or smart. I think it might be some sub species as its scales were way harder than normal. It was able to withstand punches of rank C.¡± ¡°Too bad when dungeon monsters die their bodies disappear into mana. It would have been a great specimen to study the effect of mana on evolution.¡± Elsa sounded very disappointed by the turn of events. ¡°Our job is almost done. Now we just have to confirmed the final boss¡¯s loot and then we can head back out.¡± Alex calmly stated as he walked deeper into the room. When he saw the chest at the end of the room he suddenly hesitated and turned to Xanthe ¡°Since you defeated the boss you can have whatever is inside.¡± ¡°Aww how sweet, don¡¯t regret it if it something really good!¡± Xanthe said with a mischievous smile on her face as she quickly ran toward the chest and opened it. Once she took out what was in the chest her whole body froze. Her teammates notice that she stopped moving and became curious. After a while Josh finally said ¡°Come one Xanthe no need to pretend to be shocked that it¡¯s a good item to spite Alex.¡± However his words didn¡¯t do anything so the part decide to go see for themselves. Just as they got closer Xanthe suddenly turned around, her eyes glowing as she show off a book in her hand and shouted ¡°IT¡¯S A RANK C SKILL BOOK!¡± *Sage¡¯s Secret Chamber* As the members of team STAR were shocked over the discovery of the rank C skill book Sage was thinking about the fight that just happened. With that fight he finally had some kind of gauge of the strength of people in this world. He estimates that this current Kobold Lord can be consider a low tier rank D adventurer in strength but if he managed to get the Kobold Lord to get the most from this fight then the Kobold Lord¡¯s power can raise up to that of a mid tier rank D adventurer. Suddenly he felt the Kobold Lord¡¯s soul return to his crystal body, it is something he never felt before so he couldn¡¯t help but mutter ¡°It returned¡­¡± ¡°Oh? Did the dungeon boss return already? I guess with how close the two rooms are it won¡¯t take much time. Now you can just use the same process that you used to create dungeon boss to create a new body for the Kobold Lord. Remember that as your dungeon boss gets stronger the more mana it cost for you to resummon it a body. Sage isn¡¯t worried about mana at all right now so he poured in mana and the Kobold Lord was as good as new. Right after it was reborn Sage immediately sent it to a small room and made it reflect on the battle it just had. Right now he still hasn¡¯t thought up of a solution to his monster training problem but at least dungeon bosses were something he could train and they would be his elite forces. Sage followed the Kobold Lord and give it a lesson based on the fight it just had. The Kobold Lord isn¡¯t too smart so it took some time for Sage to explain it all. When he finally left the Kobold Lord alone to cultivate and returned back to his secret chamber he found the adventurers are all gone. ¡°What happened?¡± Saged ask Alice who was here watching the whole time. ¡°You missed the best part sage. When the blonde chick opened the chest she froze from the shock. Then her teammate came to check what was going on. When they got close she showed them the book and they froze in shock as well. I think the leader guy is really regretting letting the blonde chick have whatever was in the chest. Finally they talked for a bit and decided to head out to report their finding. From the look of their reactions I can say this was a success.¡± Alice is also very happy right now as the rank A evaluation finally left and they are likely to get a good evaluation. *Camp outside the dungeon* *Bang* The guild master¡¯s hand hit the table causing everything on it to jump up. Luckily all the fragile cups were already gone and the only thing sent flying into the air was a book. ¡°A rank C skill book¡­¡± The guild master caught the book and closely examine it. ¡°This is without a doubt a rank C skill book. Soaring Dragon Cultivation Method¡­ never heard of a skill book like this before but it is indeed a rank C skill book¡­ I know the dungeon was special but didn¡¯t think it would be this special.¡± ¡°Yes, all the monsters were stronger than their normal counterpart and the final boss was even an extra powerful Kobold Lord. Adding on some very interesting traps it even manage to catch us off guard.¡± Alex¡¯s expression is very serious as he give his report. ¡°However, the fact that it had a rank C skill book really overshadows everything else. Since it¡¯s such a high ranking skill book that means this was formed during its awakening!¡± ¡°You are correct Alex and you know what that means¡­¡± The guild master¡¯s eyes lit up brightly ¡°That means this dungeon will specialize in skill books! Although the chances are very slim, this dungeon will still be more likely to give another skill book! But they¡¯ll probably only be rank G for awhile. More than enough to attract new adventurers to help this little dungeon grow. Hahahaha¡± ¡°Yes this will definitely be an hot spot for rank G and F adventurers for a while.¡± Alex nodded his head in agreement. ¡°So what do you guys plan to do with this skill book? If you were to sell it it would go for a lot.¡± The guild master asked Alex with a curious look on his face. ¡°No, it was already agreed that loot of the dungeon would be given to Xanthe since she did most of the work. Also from reading the description of the skill we find it extremely fitting for her as well.¡± Alex replied as he took the book back from the guild master. ¡°Yes, if what the skill book says is true then it really does fit that girl.¡± The guild master let out a smile ¡°Like I told you before, she¡¯ll pass you guys soon and with this she¡¯ll do it even faster. Hahahaha.¡± Alex was startled for a moment and then let out a bitter smile as he thought back to how seriously she took every fight and how much of a battle maniac she really is. Xanthe was waiting for him outside the door and immediately took back the skill book as if he had just stolen her baby. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that they had to show this skill book to the guild master for the request she would have used it back in the dungeon. Her hands trembled as she held it. She had read and reread the description again and again. Finally she took a deep breath and concentrated on the book. Soon the book glowed, the light from the book entered her head and the book disappeared. In her head information began to fill up her brain ¡°Soaring Dragon Cultivation Method is¡­¡± *Sage¡¯s Secret Chamber¡± ¡°So Sage, how much did you level up from them being in here.¡± Alice finally asked the one thing she has been wondering about. ¡°I manage to gain 5 whole levels and went from level 15 to level 20. It¡¯s really amazing at the difference in quality of mana coming from these rank A adventurers. Level 10 to 15 took 3 weeks of low rank adventures but level 15 to 20 took just a bit under half a day from rank A adventures. But the real reason I got so much was due to the damage the Kobold Lord was able to do against that long hair blonde girl.¡± Sage explained as he felt his own growth. He checked his summon monster menus and was happy to find Elite Goblin, Elite Kobold, and Elementary Elemental Slime were added there. ¡°Finally I have access to better monsters¡­¡±
Edited by: mossclaw64 Chapter 13 - Changes I can''t believe it guys almost 2000 average view! The dream is 5000+ average views by end of the month and hopefully make it into the top 5 novel of the month! (That thing does count from begin of the month to the end right and not some other weird date right?) Also to prove how bad I am at names I finally picked the name Xanthe after searching for a long time then proceed to misspell it as Xentha 22 times in chapter 11 and 46 time in chapter 12.... o.- Enjoy the chapter guys!
Sage¡¯s eyes shine as he looked at the new summons on his list and thought ¡°With these stronger elite monsters I can teach them better cultivation techniques and then I¡¯ll have a better defense. I should start doing tests right away. Let¡¯s start with 10 Elite Goblins and 10 Elite Kobolds.¡± With that Sage was ready to begin massing summoning monsters when he suddenly stopped. ¡°That was close¡­ I almost lost myself and did something stupid without thinking ahead again. I just experience the problem of having my monsters wiped out faster than they could be trained and here I am ready to jump into the same hole again.¡± Sage began to frown ¡°This damage to my soul is really hindering me but it seems my guess was correct. The higher level I reach means the more mana I can hold in my body and as a result my soul recovers faster. If it wasn¡¯t for this massive increase in level that helped my soul and adding on to the shock of revelation I just had I would have lost myself again. I really wish I could go into close door cultivation but managing the dungeon comes first.¡± While Sage is thinking about all of this Alice was just waiting there. Since Sage has no real body Alice couldn¡¯t really tell that Sage was troubled and just thought that he was looking through the new summons he has gotten. However after waiting for a while she got impatient and finally said ¡°Sage you can admire the new summons all you want but I believe you should repair your dungeon first. Sage was awaken from his thoughts and replied ¡°Sorry about that, but I guess I should do that and then finish connecting the expansions¡­¡± Sage was still very absent-minded but began to resummon all the monsters for the dungeon and connecting the new areas he carved out. This ended up not being too much of a problem due to the excessive mana built up from leveling up so many time in a short period. Adding on Sage¡¯s abnormally faster mana regen the dungeon was completely repopulated by around midnight including all the new area. Sage observed the new dungeon that is now almost double in size, during this whole time he has been thinking about the issue of training these monsters. He realized that having trained monsters on the first floor is a complete waste. Too many adventurers pass through this area and killing them faster than training a new monster. Alice came back in after checking out the new dungeon and excitedly said ¡°I¡¯m so proud of you Sage! To have already completed your first floor in only around 2 month since you awaken, this must be some kind of record if there was any! Now is probably a good time to start working on your second floor.¡± She paused for a second then continued ¡°I forget to tell you this but generally a dungeon adds a new floor every 10 levels they gain. Naturally it becomes a lot harder to level up later on but in return each floor will have denser mana than the previous. Also I don¡¯t know if you tried but there¡¯s a limit on how far you can expand and the lower the floor the further you can expand. The reason is quite simple really, how far you can expand on each floor is related to the density of mana on each floor. An area is considered your dungeon because how far the mana that has been processed by you has spread.¡± ¡°Processed by me?¡± Sage was shocked and couldn¡¯t help but shout. ¡°Oh right you don¡¯t know the basics¡­ I keep forgetting that .¡± Alice was startled for a moment then continued ¡°Your body, the dungeon core, automatically filters and processes all of the mana in the surrounding area. This mana then spreads a certain distance before it just dissipates and that range is how far you can expand each floor.The deeper down you go the denser the mana and thus the farther your range of influence will be. To be honest your current dungeon has already exceeded what¡¯s normal for floor 1 of a dungeon but the mana density here is really high as well so that could be what¡¯s causing it.¡± ¡°Oh, I see¡­¡± Sage was a bit stunned by the revelation of exactly how his own species functioned. He, for the first time, realized just how little he know about about his new self and this world. Everything he knows has came from Alice¡­ who just randomly appeared¡­. ¡°Well you¡¯ll have plenty of time to work on your second floor right now because the evaluation team just wiped out your dungeon so the Adventurer¡¯s Guild will prevent people from entering for a while to let you recover. Of course this only happens during evaluation runs as the team has to explore everything and most likely wipe out your dungeon. Oh, the next evaluation run happens when you finished your 5th floor, then your 10th and after that it is every 10 floors. You can create a boss for every 5 floors you create. Before you reach floor 5 whatever is your newest floor will hold your dungeon boss. Once you start on the 6th floor you will have a boss stay on floor 5 and a second one that will be on the lowest floor until the 10th floor and so on.¡± Alice sudden explanation of so many different thing made Sage completely lose track of what he was thinking. ¡°Huh¡­. Oh thank you for explaining.¡± Sage quickly recalled what Alice has just said and processed the information but in doing so he forgot what he was previously thinking about. After this Sage began to work on digging out the second floor. *Outside* The day after team STAR finished their dungeon evaluation the result was announced and sent another shockwave through out the kingdom. Dungeon Name: The Sage Dungeon Potential: S Current Floor: 1 Specialty: Skill Book The reason for the name is that Xanthe felt only a Sage could possibly teach monsters to fight that well and she pointed out that the skill book she learn felt like something only a Sage could create. Since the other team members didn¡¯t really care too much about it they let her have the final say since she fought the most inside the dungeon. After Xanthe used the skill book last night she hasn¡¯t slept because she was so absorbed by what she has learned. This was something she has never seen before. She is the daughter of a rank S adventurer father and he had been training her ever since she was 4. Her love for fighting came from her father. He left her 5 years ago when she turned 16 for an adventure and hadn¡¯t came back since. She went and became an adventurer herself that year and shocked the kingdom with her fighting skills and became a member of team STAR. As one of the future rank S or higher adventurers in the kingdom she is given lot of special treatment including access to the royal library. There she has read many different fighting techniques and received teaching from many powerful people associated with the royal family of Zeal. However she felt that none of them was as special or as profound as the Soaring Dragon Cultivation Method she had just obtained. This was not an attack or defensive skill but a way control the mana in one¡¯s body to strengthen your body and gain better control of mana through your body. At first she didn¡¯t believe the effect written in the skill book but after just learning the basics she believed whole heartedly. Thus she became completely absorbed in the cultivation technique and cultivated throughout the night. What surprised her the most was that not only was she not tired from not sleeping all night but she felt more refreshed and energized than ever. This excited her greatly as this would mean that she could train at night while everyone else has to rest. ¡°This kind of thing should be considered a rank A skill book and not rank C! However I should keep this to myself for now or else it might bring too much trouble for this dungeon. Last thing I want is for the dungeon to be destroyed before it can grow strong enough to produces even higher ranked skill books. At least it should be safe for now as this book only exists as a special summon when the dungeon awakened so it won¡¯t be able to reproduce something like this for a while.¡± Xanthe thought of this as she finished up her cultivation when the run rose. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. This new quickly traveled across the kingdom via the Thunder Hawks and soon The Sage Dungeon became the focus of the entire kingdom. *Capital City, Palace* The King was holding the evaluation report that arrived around noon. Guild Master Max sent out a Thunder Hawk with a copy of the report the instant it was down back to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild in the capital. As the King read the report his hand couldn¡¯t help but tremble and the smile on his face grew wider and wider finally he shouted ¡°GOOD! GOOD! It seem the gods have really blessed up this time!¡± All the nobles who were called there were shocked to see their King in such a good mood. Things had been tough for Zeal with the recent pressure from the surrounding kingdoms so the King has been on a short fuse for years now. However, seeing how delighted their king was, their hope also rose greatly. What appeared in almost every noble¡¯s mind at the moment was ¡°How can I get the most out of this.¡± The king passed the report to as servant and had him read it out loud. After the servant finished reading the report the entire chamber was in complete silence. Not ore or herbs or other natural resource but something far more rare and far more valuable¡­ skill books. This was big, far bigger than anything they could have possibly imagined. It have to be said that because their kingdom is so small and young that there were only 3 dungeons which is why every single one of them is treated like a treasure. However this is not the case in the other large kingdom. On the continent Zeal was on they were only a small kingdom where what were consider the large kingdoms are more than 100 time their size. That means they had hundreds of dungeons and new ones constantly forming so unless the dungeon produced something none of the other dungeon did then the kingdom couldn¡¯t care less about what happens to them. The one exception was a skill book dungeon. Even if a kingdom had 100 skill book dungeons then they would still all be guarded as if there was only 1. Skill book dungeons were really rare however and, even in these large kingdoms, only a few existed If a medium sized kingdom had a skill book dungeon then their power would instantly rise far above the other medium sized kingdoms. Not only does the dungeon itself greatly strengthen the adventurers of the kingdom itself it also allow the kingdom to form very favorable alliances with other kingdoms in exchange for access to the dungeon. Luckily the kingdoms don¡¯t have to worry about the skill book dungeon being destroyed by force from jealous countries as there was a law set by the most powerful country on this continent that stated that a skill book dungeon may not be destroyed unless it became an Void or Demonic dungeon but even then only destroy it if there was no chance of recovery. Should any country disobey this then they would feel the wrath of the entire continent. Of course another country may still go to war and take over the area for themselves but a kingdom with a skill book dungeon would have made a lot of allies so they were not easy to mess with. However, there was documentation of huge wars between alliances of kingdoms over a skill book dungeon. This dungeon has just solved all of Zeal¡¯s worries as now they can easily gain an alliance with a powerful medium size country and then all the other countries surrounding them won¡¯t dare to pressure them anymore. ¡°Quickly send out all the resources that has been gathered up and all the workers to The Sage Dungeon and began the construction of a dungeon city. Also order captain Hans to take a platoon of elite guards to oversee the construction. Spread this news to the other kingdoms as quickly as possible and do whatever it takes to finish the construction of the new city.¡± The King quickly give out his orders and servants ran in all directions to sent out the message. *Across the kingdom* ¡°Hey did you guys hear about the new dungeon that popped up about a month ago?¡± ¡°Who hasn¡¯t? I still can¡¯t believe it¡¯s a skill book dungeon!¡± ¡°I know right, a skill book dungeon! I thought those stuff were just legends, I have to go there and see it for myself.¡± ¡°You wish, you think just because it¡¯s a skill book dungeon you will be able to find a skill book?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Skill books are a very rare drop even in skill book dungeons. Also this dungeon is new and forming a skill book is very difficult so I won¡¯t expect there to be many for now. Even if there was they would all be rank G and F skill books.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with rank G and F skill books? Even if they don¡¯t bring in the big bucks like rank D and higher they still sell for a few gold to the rich who wants it easy!¡± ¡°Even if there is no skill book it is still worth going. Have you guys not read the report? This dungeon has a very high mana density so even on the first floor there are medium quality herbs, those are some easy money!¡± ¡°You wish! Everyone else is going to think like you and there won¡¯t be any left.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we gotta move fast and get there ahead of everyone else!¡± ¡°Forget about the dungeon, they¡¯re building a new city there and that means opportunities! All the adventures will need various services. This is a perfect time to set up shop there!¡± This kind of talk happened across the kingdom as everyone from adventurers to merchants to shop keeper to just people looking for work headed toward The Sage Dungeon. There are also many that didn¡¯t move right away but prepared instead. ¡°All these fools rushing there now is wasting their time. The dungeon hasn¡¯t grown enough to sustain too many people so the Adventurer¡¯s Guild will be controlling the entry for a while and the city isn¡¯t even built yet so there is no where to stay. Instead of rushing in blind like those fools I¡¯ll prepare myself so that when the dungeon reaches 5 floor I¡¯ll head over prepared and create a shock wave and become famous!¡± *The Sage Dungeon* The guild placed an one week restriction on entering the dungeon to allow it time to recover after being evaluated by team STAR. As for team STAR. they had already left because this dungeon currently couldn¡¯t provide anything for them. After a week has passed adventurer teams began to enter the dungeon again though soon after the first team entered they were shocked. Everything was now completely different from before. The first two rooms now branched off into many side rooms with tunnels that looped around, linking them together. After only exploring a bit they wisely decided to go back out and report this to the Guild Master. After the Guild Master listen to the report he send them away and stood next to the window his office by himself. ¡°So I was right about this dungeon, it seem the dungeon core is quite special to be able to expand this fast. It must have some special ability to absorb and process mana at several times the rate of other dungeon cores. Other people might not know it but I been around here for so many years, I know how dense the mana in the area is and there''s it no way it would have naturally produced a dungeon with such a high mana density. That means the only answer is that the dungeon core itself is the cause of this dense mana. I was right to have sent Alex¡¯s team in there to help speed up its growth. Grow faster Sage Dungeon, we may need your power in the future¡­
Edited by: mossclaw64 Chapter 14 - Unexpected Visitors Well this chapter turned out lot longer than I thought it was going to be lol. Hope you all enjoy it!
The changes to the dungeon shocked everyone around but the guild master seem to be prepared for all of this. He quickly got Jake and Ardry to take a group of adventurers with them to map out the area. This time the scouting process lasted for 2 days for Jake and Ardryll¡¯s team to map out the new first floor. This time they focused a lot more on mapping so they avoided most fights. ¡°This is a complete map of the first floor.¡± Jake then handed over a scroll to the guild master then continued ¡°This is so different from when we went in last time. I mean beside the increase in rooms but the feel of the whole floor feels different too.¡± ¡°Hahaham, every perceptive kid. You are right there is something different from the dungeon now compare to the last time you went in and when Alex¡¯ team went in.¡± The guild master looked out the window ¡°This dungeon core show far more intelligence than ordinary dungeon core at this age.¡± Ardryll couldn¡¯t help but blurted out ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°What was the feeling you had when you were sent to scout the dungeon the first time. What was everything in the dungeon screams?¡± The guild master slowly asked the two. ¡°...¡± The two were completely stumped. What the feel of the dungeon screamed at the time? How could they possibly know? The guild master let out a sigh ¡°Still too inexperienced, did you guys not feel how desperate the dungeon core was trying to keep you out? How each side was getting increasingly more difficult and finally forced both of you to leave for your own safety? Now think about how you felt in the past two day when you explored the dungeon¡± After a bit of a pause Jake answered ¡°This time it felt¡­ normal like how it should feel in a dungeon. Lots of rooms and tunnels that allows a lot of people inside at once. The monsters were more spread out and scattered making them easier fights. Everything felt more inviting than before.¡± ¡°That¡¯s is right kid, that is how must dungeons should feel. You see when dungeon core first awaken they are just following their instinct and doing whatever that tells them to do. It isn¡¯t until they reach 10 floor in size so they finally gain some self awareness and can start to feel the need to preserve their life. This is why new dungeons are so easy to destroy because they don¡¯t even know that they should protect themselves.¡± The guild master explained ¡°What?¡± Both Jake and Ardryll were shocked at this news. There isn¡¯t much information about dungeons cores so in Zeal so they only know of their existence. ¡°This isn¡¯t well known here due to how protective the kingdom is of the dungeons here but if you were to go to the big kingdoms it is common knowledge. There are a lot of people that try to make a quick buck hunting newly born dungeons in those big kingdoms but even then it is pretty hard.¡± The guild master seem to be remembering something from the past as he paused ¡°Why would it be hard? A dungeon is so weak when it is borned a high level adventurer would easily wipe it clean and then search for the dungeon heart.¡± Jake couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°The same reason as why it is so hard here. Just because the kingdom itself might not care about these dungeons doesn¡¯t mean other people won¡¯t. No matter what dungeons are a valuable source of income and in the large kingdoms those not controlled directly by the kingdom are controlled by other powers. These powers have developed way to detect for possible dungeon awakening spots and constantly sent out scouts to search area for possible new dungeon. Once the a new dungeon is found they would immediately move resource to protect it and claim it as their own. Trying to compete with those powers for the dungeon is not an easy task and many saw it as too dangerous line of work.¡± The guild master let out a sigh after he finished talking. There was an heavy feeling in the room that lasted for a bit before the guild master continued ¡°Our dungeon here is very special, right after it awakened it felt the need the preserve itself so the dungeon was built with the message of stay in the outer two room or die if you come in any farther. This is how the last floor of a dungeon is once they grow past 10 floor in depth. When you are on any other floor the dungeon is built with an inviting feeling as if it was build for adventurers to explore and hone their skill but the moment you enter the last floor you are endangering the dungeon core and it want you out by any means necessary. So what do you think this change in the first floor means?¡± The guild master finished explaining and toss a question at Jake and Ardryll. Both were stunned by all this new information about dungeons cores that they have never heard of before but after a while they were able to process of this. Then after some careful thinking Ardryll finally said softly ¡°That the dungeon has a second floor now?¡± ¡°Hahaha, that¡¯s correct my dear! The dungeon core has already started on its second floor and moved its body down there. Now that his body has a new home floor one became a place where the dungeon core wants all the adventurers to be so that it came grow faster.¡± The guild master said with a smile. ¡°This is simply too shocking, I never knew that dungeon cores had their own thoughts¡­.¡± Jake couldn¡¯t help but mutter this as the news was too shocking. ¡°The dungeons are simply a very special lifeform that exists. No one really knows why they are formed but after having co-existed with them for so long we have learned many things about them. However in a small countries like this all the dungeons are far too young. In the bigger kingdoms the very old dungeons have a much closer relationship with their kingdom than people know¡­¡± The guild master¡¯s expression suddenly became very serious ¡°Remember, what I have told you today is a secret here in Zeal. This is something not even the king or royal court knows about. I have told you this because I believe in the potential you two hold and that both of you will one day leave this tiny kingdom. Ah, as backwater as this kingdom is it sure does produce some good youngsters¡­¡± Both Jake and Ardryll were shocked by the guild master¡¯s sudden serious tone and strange last words but they were smart people so they realize just how shocking this news really is. They both nodded to the guild master and said ¡°We understand and thanks the guild master for believing in us.¡± ¡°Hahaha, now you two have a bright future ahead of you. Here take this letter to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild in the capital and take your rank B exam. I expect you guys to pass without much of a problem. By the time you two are done and are back here there will probably be more work related to the dungeon for you guys to do.¡± The guild master handed them each a letter. ¡°Yes, guild master! We won¡¯t fail you!¡± Both Jake and Ardryll replied and left. With the new updated map the Adventure Guild began to allow much more than just one team into the dungeon at a time. Normally a dungeon of this size wouldn¡¯t need regulations anymore but because so many people have gathered here that even now it needs to be regulated. Sage was very happy with everything that has happened so far. Because Jake and Ardryll spent two day inside the dungeon with a group of adventurers they end up giving a lot of mana to Sage and allowed him to level up to 21. Then after they were done a lot more adventurers began to enter daily allowing Sage¡¯s level to grow at a steady rate. ¡°Hey Alice, I just thought of something. Why don¡¯t I capture a some of these adventurers and keep them in a cell somewhere? That way I¡¯ll always have adventurers inside my dungeon speeding up my growth.¡± Sage has been thinking about how to speed up his growth as he felt it was the best way to deal with this damaged soul. ¡°That is pointless, you might as well just killed them if you are doing to do that.¡± Alice quickly replied. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Sage questioned. ¡°Well the mana that you drain from the adventurers that allow you to level up are mana from outside your dungeon. Once you drain all of it from the adventurers they would have to leave to replenish that mana. If they are trapped in here they can only absorb mana from the dungeon which is your mana and won¡¯t help you level up at all. So if you trap them and slowly absorb all the mana they gather from outside and once that is gone you won¡¯t get anything out of them. A lot faster to just kill them and get it all at once rather than stalling it out over the course of several weeks.¡± Alice casually responded as it was common sense, which probably was for almost every other dungeon beside Sage. Have the idea shot down cause Sage to realize once again just how little he knew about this world as a whole. The next week passed by without anything too exciting. The adventurers explored the first floor of Sage¡¯s dungeon but none of them dared to challenge the boss. Only 1 person died this week and it was someone tripping over a small pebble and proceed to face plant into a pit fall trap and devoured by a slime. Alice felt the gods were pitying them and give that unlucky adventurers life to them. However on this night something unexpected happened. It was late into the night and all the fire from the camp have already gone out. There was no moon today so the area is even darker than normal. A shadow quickly moved through this darkness, she was tired, she was hurt, and she was near the end of her rope. The figure moved through the forest trying to find some place to hide. She has been hunted for almost a month now, her once leisure life was replaced with a month of hell. She hated the enemies that chase it so. She had tried many way to get rid of them but they always find her again. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Soon she sense an area of dense mana and quickly moved toward that area. She hoped to use that mana to recover herself a bit and allow her to run just a little bit more. She quickly saw the entrance of a cave and dashed in. The moment she entered she felt the dense mana surrounding causing her to feel very comfortable. How long has it been since she felt like this but just at the same moment she suddenly felt something watching her and muttered ¡°A dungeon¡­¡± This was a great shock to her, the mana here was dense because it was part of a dungeon but if so this has to the first floor. How can the mana be so dense only on the first floor of a dungeon? However soon she no longer had the luxury of thinking about that as she notice her pursuer closing in. She knew she was out of opinions and made a decision. She took a deep breath and whispered ¡°Oh mighty dungeon core, I offer myself to become your servant in hope of survive! All I ask is that you rid of me my pursuer and I shall offer my eternal servitude!¡± *Sage¡¯s Chamber* Sage notice the moments outside cave and check the entrance of the cave. He was startled by what came into the cave. The person that came in was a beautiful woman with hair as white as snow, skin that looks as smooth as ice, and a face as beautiful as a flower. She would have looked much better too if her white dress isn¡¯t completely in a complete mess with dry blood stain everywhere. Even so she was very pretty, if she was in a small to medium sect back in Sage¡¯s world she would be consider the gem of that sect. Sage was very curious as to who this was as he feel that she is somewhat different from the adventurers that came through his dungeons so he called Alice over. Just as Alice into the room Sage heard the woman say something that completely shocked him. ¡°Oh mighty dungeon core, I offer myself to become your servant in hope of survive! All I ask is that you rid of me my pursuer and I shall offer my eternal servitude!¡± Alice just happen to hear this as well and darted toward the project Sage showed and immediately shouted ¡°Sage! Agree! Now!¡± ¡°What¡± Sage was still recovering from the shock of that woman¡¯s words. ¡°Sage I¡¯ll explain later but agree right now or else those people chasing after her will be here soon.¡± Alice said then suddenly seem to remember something ¡°All you need to do right now is cover her with your mana and accept her request. The contract between the two of you will be completed then.¡± Sage notice the urgency in Alice¡¯s voice he quickly Alice instruction and surrounded the woman with his mana and accepted the contract she offered. Soon a light glowed around her and a lot of mana in the surrounding area entered her body. By the time the light faded her cloth were no longer damaged and revealed to be a snow white dress with white gloves. The woman now is lot more graceful and elegant compared to before. ¡°Quickly guide her deeper into the dungeon, the people chasing her is not something she can handle right now. Pull all monster back to the room outside the boss room. That is where we will fight them.¡± Alice once again quickly instructed Sage. Sage immediately responded and guided the woman into the room outside the boss room. At the same time he pulled the monsters on the way back there as well. He also pulled the elite mobs he has placed in the second floor out as well. Just as the woman ran deeper into the cave give fiery figures appeared just outside the cave. Their eyes glowed red as they watched the woman escape deeper into the cave and then charged in without any hesitation. They were fast and she barely kept her distance as they slowly closed in on her but soon she entered a large opening and just as they charged in a bright light appeared before them and blinded them. Rumble, rumble, rumble. Two rocks fell down blocking the only two exit to this large cave. The five fiery figures suddenly became alert and looked around and was immediately shocked. Aside from the woman they were chasing there was an small army of monsters here. At least 30 goblins with 3 goblin elites and 10 kobold with 1 kobold elite guarding the woman. One of the figure finally said ¡°Dungeon core, know your place and don¡¯t mess with our plan. If you hand over the woman now we will ignore this offense and leave you be.¡± Sage was startled when he heard this, how long has it been since he heard someone say something that arrogant to him. He couldn¡¯t help but remember all those times when the taught those arrogant young geniuses a lesson. He wasn¡¯t even going to reply and decide to teach them a lesson. He ordered the slime he had hidden in the ceiling to all drop down. Soon 50 slimes rain down from the ceiling. The fiery figures noticed and try to dodge but a circle suddenly appeared under their feet locking them in place. The slime fell on them and began to try to digest them. However these figures were tough and their body seem to contain fire elemental naturally so the slimes were soon all burning. But this distracted them greatly which allowed the rest of the monsters to attack. Each elite monsters lead a group of 1 monsters and attacked one of the fiery figures each while the woman took on one herself. Soon the battle was spread across the fight room as the fiery figure engaged in combat with the monsters and the woman. At first fiery figures thought that killing these monsters would be a piece of cake but soon they were in for the fight of their lives. The elite monster leading the group were lot stronger than they should be but if it was just that it wouldn¡¯t have pushed the fiery figures so far. What is really beating them is the coordinated teamwork of the weaker monster the elite monster lead. Soon the figures were pushed their limit and then their robe suddenly burned off revealing a body made rocks glowing red. ¡°Demonic Lava Golems!¡± Alice quickly shouted. Sage caught the words but was too busy giving the monsters directions to think about it. The figure¡¯s body lit up figure and they suddenly became much fiercer. The battle became even but the goblins and kobolds were still weak monsters after all. If this continued then the goblins and kobolds won¡¯t be able to hold out. The sudden change caught the monsters off guard and the Demonic Lava Golem all manage to kill some of the goblins and kobold. Just as they thought they were going to turn it around circles appeared under their feet. They thought it was going to be like last so they decided to break it by force but this time it was different. Their whole body was locked in place and the force they used wasn¡¯t nearly enough. As they were locked in place the remaining monsters pierced their weapon through them and the elite monster dash in and cut their heads off. Just like that 4 of the Demonic Lava Golems fell. As for the last one facing the woman he was the worst off of them all. After recovering she was stronger than the Demonic Lava Golem and beat him around. Even when he revealed his true power he was only a punching bag for her. She didn¡¯t finish him off instantly even though she could have was because she wanted revenge for all that has has been put through. Finally after the Demonic Lava Golem was beaten until it can¡¯t even anymore she froze the golem and then shattered it to pieces. She then walked to the other 4 bodies and did the same. The fight was over and the monsters won, in total 12 goblins and 4 kobolds were lost but the elites were fine. Sage was happy with the result as this kind of fight is what is needed to make these monsters stronger. The woman after getting revenge on her pursuer came into the boss room. She was completely shocked at the sight of the Kobold Lord. At first she was kinda worried as this dungeon seem to be very new with only goblins, kobold, and slimes. For a moment she thought she made a mistake seeking shelter in this dungeon but the moment she saw the Kobold Lord all those worries disappeared. She realize that this dungeon core was not that simple. She could tell that this Kobold Lord is stronger than her in her current state and had the dungeon core sent it out it would have easily defeated those creatures with the help of the monsters. She walked down the stairs to the second floor and headed toward Sage¡¯s chamber. When she entered the second floor she felt the mana density increase and couldn¡¯t help but feel very comfortable. This was exactly the environment she needed to recover. Soon she entered Sage¡¯s chamber and inside she saw a crystal core and a fairy. ¡°Hello my lord, my name is Sigrid and I¡¯m an Ice Maiden.¡± Chapter 15 - Ice Maiden Hello everyone so quick change to note. I''m changing the Ice Maiden''s name from Crystal to Sigrid. While writing chapter 15 Crystal just doesn''t feel right (why I shouldn''t pick names when I''m in a rush and tired and I''m bad at names o.-) The new name''s meaning fits a lot more. Second thing is I''m sorry about any grammar issues. Sadly my time to write this everyday is very limited so I don''t really have the luxury of letting them sit and then go back to check them until the weekends. Even then my grammar is still pretty bad so there will be things I miss (and also since I created the story it some time just make sense in my sense even though it make no sense to everyone else.) If anyone is interested in helping with editing please read this http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=81863&pid=725655#pid725655 Now enjoy chapter 15! Also 2404 average views <3 almost halfway to the dream of 5000 by end of month!
¡°Ice Maiden?¡± Sage said questionly toward Alice. ¡°An Ice Maiden is a special kind of Ice Fairy. They are much more human like than normal Ice Fairies and are also much more powerful.¡± Alice responded. ¡°That is correct, however I¡¯m currently injured so my power is even weaker than your current dungeon boss.¡± Sigrid paused for a moment then said ¡°However I¡¯ll slowly recover as long as I have time and the dense mana in the dungeon will help me recover faster.¡± ¡°So what is this contract Alice?¡± Sage finally asked the question he wanted to ask since the whole thing started. ¡°Normally a dungeon only have monster that the dungeon cores summon. This has many limitations like certain monsters can¡¯t be summons, certain monster require very special condition, and amount of boss monsters you may have. However a second way of obtaining dungeon monster is to form contracts with monsters from the outside. The upside to this is that you can obtain powerful monsters to serve you and allow you to have more bosses than normal but this method isn¡¯t easy. Powerful monsters won¡¯t just become servants to dungeon cores for no reason, most of the time there is a price to be paid for the monster to serve you for certain amount of time. Contract like the one you just made with Sigrid is very rare as most monster wouldn¡¯t offer an eternal contract. The fact that she offered an eternal contract shows how determined she was which is why I urged you to agree.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Sage pondered for a while and said ¡°So Sigrid what happened to you?¡± Sigrid let out a big sigh and said ¡°This all started about a month ago. Normally I live out in the snowy mountain range to the north. Suddenly a month ago a strange creature suddenly attacked me. It was a hard battle and after a whole day of fighting I won. Just I was going to head back to my home to recover I was surrounded by those Demonic Lava Golems. From that point on I have been on the run from them until now. My original power is that of a lower tier rank A but I have suffered too many heavy injuries over this month and my power dropped to that of a low tier rank D.¡± There was an awkward silence and just when Sage was about to speak Sigrid suddenly continued ¡°I would like to inform my lord that the mastermind behind the attack on me is still out there so I would suggest strengthening the defense of the dungeon to prepare for an even larger attack than this time.¡± Just as Sage was about to reply Alice suddenly said ¡°Oh I won¡¯t worry about that to much. Soon they won¡¯t dare to come to here at all so you can relax.¡± Sage was very confused by Alice¡¯s confidence and asked ¡°What do you mean?¡± However Alice only let out a mischievous smile and winked ¡°You¡¯ll what i mean soon.¡± Sage felt helpless about this and decided to trust Alice for now but he still decided that he should be prepared for an invasion. ¡°So what happened will happen to Sigrid when she fights as the dungeon boss? The Kobold Lord can be summoned again when it dies but what will happen to Sigrid?¡± Sage was curious on how this contract monsters work. ¡°Normally with a timed contract the monster are not considered part of the dungeon so when they die they die. But an eternal contract means she give her soul to you and are now bound to you. This way you can rebuild her body if she were to fall in battle inside the dungeon. However if she is outside of the dungeon then the only way for her to revive is to bring her soul back to you somehow.¡± Alice¡¯s response was a delightful surprise to Sage, he began to comprehend just how serious the contract Sigrid offered was. ¡°Wait you said if she does outside? So she can move outside like the normal monsters?¡± Sage quickly asked Alice. ¡°Yes she can, only summoned boss monsters are restricted in their boss room unless special circumstance occurs.¡± Alice replied. Sage began to process everything that has happened, after a while he suddenly said ¡°Does that mean I can sent Sigrid to mix in with the adventurers?¡± Both Sigrid and Alice shouted ¡°What?¡± ¡°Right now we lack information from the outside and can only wait here for people to come. Since Sigrid looks basically the same as a human it should be easy for her to mix into the crowd and gather intelligence for us.¡± Sage explained. ¡°Ummm.. my lord it is not that simple¡­¡± Sigrid began to speak However her voice was quickly overpowered by Alice¡¯s ¡°Sage you dunce! Let us ignore the fact that her aura makes her a beacon to anyone who ranked higher than her but how can you look at her and say she will just mixed in? Have you looked at her? Do you have eyes? Have you seen just how beautiful she is?¡± Sage was completely caught off guard by the sudden change in topic, originally he wanted to ask about what this aura is and why it would make her a beacon but now he suddenly had to take a closer look at Sigrid. She was indeed very beautiful, someone worthy of being the treasure of a small to medium sect but to Sage this doesn¡¯t seem to be such a big deal. He have meet woman who were basically goddess so comparing to them Sigrid is just beautiful. Sigrid felt very awkward by all of this and after seeing Sage in silence she finally spoke up ¡°Before I could attract any attention with my appearance my aura would already have attracted it. The fact is I¡¯m a monster who is used to living in extremely cold areas, because of that and identity as a Ice Maiden my mana give off an very distant feel. The feeling of the mana someone emits is consider an aura, normally only people stronger than me can detect it but right now I¡¯m injured so I¡¯m very weak. However once i reach rank S I¡¯ll gain control over the mana in my body and then even people stronger than me won¡¯t be able to easily notice me.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡± Sage began to ponder, he really wanted to be able to have someone mix into the outside world so that he can learn more about it. Just as he was about to give up he suddenly remember ¡°That¡¯s right there is that!¡± With that he suddenly summoned a skill book. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The appearance of the skill book shocked Sigrid greatly. She stared at the book and was unable to speak for a very long time. Finally she muttered ¡°No wonder she said don¡¯t worry¡­¡± ¡°Here Sigrid learn this skill book. If you master the content inside then you should be able to hide your aura from being detected.¡± Sage said to Sigrid as he pass the book to her. Alice look at the book and suddenly shouted ¡°Oh, is that the skill you taught the kobolds to help with their ambush? That¡¯s so smart Sage, maybe with this Sigrid can really mix into the outside world.¡± Sigrid was startled by what the who was saying, a skill that can help her hide her aura? But more importantly her lord taught kobold¡¯s this skill? Does that mean he wasted precious skill books on kobolds? Everything about this dungeon has been abnormal since the moment she entered here but it is too late to regret anything now. She focused on the book and the book turned into a ray of light and entered her forehead. Soon information rushed into her consciousness and the skill was imprinted into her memory. ¡°This skill is amazing, I have never seen anything like this! With this I might really be able to hide my aura from almost anyone!¡± Sigrid became very excited, she has been forced to stay by herself in the mountains because she wasn¡¯t strong enough to hide her aura to explore the human world. Now even though she was weaken down to rank D but she might finally have a chance of exploring the human world. ¡°That¡¯s right since the evaluation party took away that skill book I should make another one to replace it.¡± Sage suddenly remembered that he hasn¡¯t replenished the final boss reward. ¡°No!¡± Alice quickly shouted ¡°And here I was just praising you for being smart. Sage just because you can easily summon the skill books doesn¡¯t mean you should be causally handing them out. You need to understand that skill books are a big deal and normally they appear very rarely. I only made you put that last book out as a reward so that we can get the attention we need from the kingdom we are in. From now on it is best to limit around a max of 1-2 rank F and G skill book dropping from the monsters a month. When you reach 5 floors you can put a rank D skill book into the reward for defeating the boss but only be there like 10 day out of the year. You have to know that we want attention for protection and to attract people here but the wrong attention can get us killed.¡± Sage was startled by how serious Alice was and remember this to heart. This however made him even more determined to have Sigrid gather information for him. He knows far too little of the world and because his current power is completely out of the norm if he just active normally sooner or later he would attract unwanted attention. ¡°Oh, take this Sigrid and learn practice it well. It should help you recover faster.¡± Sage decided that since Sigrid was now bound to him forever she is basically the same as the Kobold Lord and thus decided to give her a cultivation method to help her improve. Afterall the stronger she is the safer he will be and safer she will be when gathering information outside. Sigrid received a skill book and looked at it curious and asked ¡°What exactly is this?¡± Sage slowly said to Sigrid ¡°Just learn it and practice it well. This should suit your body type. Sadly I¡¯m too weak to create anything better but once you have reached the peak and are in need of something better I¡¯ll be strong enough to make it.¡± Sigrid used the book and information poured into her head once more. Her eyes lit up and shined brighter and brighter as she read the information entering her head. ¡°Ice Flow Cultivation Method¡­ what a wondrous skill. I have never seen anything like this before¡­¡± ¡°Cultivate hard and soon you will be able to recover.¡± Sage then looked to a wall and began to dig. He quickly created a private room for Sigrid and changed the room to a cold environment that Sigrid would feel more comfortable in and would help her in her cultivation. ¡°When you have time spare with the Kobold Lord, it will benefit you a lot.¡± Sigrid nodded and entered her room. With that The Sage Dungeon gained a new boss without any of the adventurer outside knowing. *In a hidden location* ¡°What! How did we loss contact with the Demonic Lava Golems!¡± ¡°Sir, their life stone has shattered just a while ago!¡± ¡°What was their last report!¡± ¡°They said they chased the Ice Maiden into the newly formed dungeon and then soon after that they died sir!¡± ¡°Damn it! She must have made a contract with the dungeon. ARG! We must capture her no matter what as she is vital to our plan! Quick gather all the troops and we head for that dungeon. That dungeon is going to learn that you don¡¯t ever get in the way of Demon Lord Zoar!¡± *Few days later* ¡°Damn it, the humans have already fortified the area. Sir it would be impossible for us to get inside that dungeon without being notice by the humans.¡± ¡°ARG! You get to live a bit longer for now dungeon core but we will be back and we will get that Ice Maiden! Everyone fall back and continue your task, I¡¯ll personally take care of this.¡± *Sage¡¯s Chamber* After the eventful night where Sigrid joined them everything returned to normal. Soon after a few days Sage finally understood why Alice was so calm about all of this. The Kingdom¡¯s elite troops have arrived to help police the dungeon town that is going under construction. Aside from that there is also always a squad of 5 elite soldiers always camped at the entrance of the dungeon to prevent unsavory characters from going in. Sage has been slowly finishing up floor 2 and will be ready to open it up by next week. Once he opens up floor two the dungeon size will double once again allowing more adventures to come in at once. He decide to place a Bear Breathing Technique book with a goblin hidden in the second floor for the lucky person to find when the second floor opens up. However side from this Sage also began to create a secret section of the dungeon that is not accessible to adventurers. Here he decided to house his own personal army that will be used to defend himself in a time of crisis. He decided to train only elite monsters here because they get the most benefit out of it and the lower monsters is really only good for cannon fodder even after being trained. Throughout the week Sage ended up summoning 30 goblin elite and 10 kobold elite. He have taught them all the Iron Skin Cultivation Method to increase their survival rate and raw strength. He wanted to have them take patrol in floor 2 in rotation but thinking about the danger of them dying and having all that effort wasted made him hesitate. Even though death was common on the road of cultivation but these monsters were simply too weak compared to the danger they constantly face. Sage thought for a long time and could help but muttered ¡°Only if there was a way to have them fight adventurers but not get killed¡­¡± Chapter 16 - Trials Here is chapter 16 hope you all enjoy it! So I found people who are willing to help edit, I''ll try to get edited copy out the first time but sometime there might be situations where I''ll post without the editors going through it due to our times not matching up that day but will update as soon as possible when it get edited.
Sage had been thinking about this since team STAR cleared his dungeon. The dungeon boss will continue to grow and every battle will help him grow no matter what. But the normal monsters didn¡¯t have that luxury as when they died they were gone forever. He could just keep them hidden and let them only fight each other but they will hit a wall on their growth. As he pondered he muttered ¡°I wish there was a way to communicate with the people outside.¡± Alice heard this and quickly flew over to him ¡°Oh no Sage that is a bad idea. The fact that dungeon cores have a consciousness is a secret to most people and don¡¯t forget that you are too different from a normal dungeon core and would likely attract unwanted attention.¡± Sage began to think again trying to think of something that could allow him to train his monsters against adventurers without too much danger for his monsters. Suddenly he remembered the tombs he used to explore and thought of an idea. ¡°Hey Alice if I were to set up signs and rules, would the adventures follow them?¡± Sage decided to tell Alice his idea to see how it might go. Alice was caught a bit off guard by the question, after pondering a while she replied ¡°Yes in certain situations it is possible.¡± ¡°What kind of situation?¡± Sage was becoming more hopeful. ¡°Well if you have a puzzle or something that they need to solve in order to progress then they would need to follow whatever instruction you give them to move forward.¡± Alice answered with a thoughtful expression. Sage pondered a bit and then finally said his idea ¡°Would they follow rules for a fight? I want to train a group of elite monsters that will be used to protect us. However sending them out in the dungeon means they are very likely to get killed before they can become stronger. But if they don¡¯t fight the adventurers then they are very likely to quickly reach a limit from fighting each other. So my idea is to have a trial room where these adventurers can fight the monsters but not kill them. If the adventurer win they get a reward but if they lose they won¡¯t die either.¡± Alice¡¯s eyes grew wider and wider as she listened to Sage explaining his idea. Finally once Sage finished she looked at him like he was some strange creature and said ¡°That is a very interesting idea Sage¡­ this could work.¡± Alice pondered for a bit before continuing ¡°Ok this is what you should do: Some dungeons do have puzzle rooms or treasure rooms that only open if you meet a certain condition. Once inside the adventurer is given a challenge and is rewarded accordingly. You should create tokens as a rare drop from the monsters. Once they have a token it will give them access to the treasure room where their goal is to defeat the monster without killing it. Then based on their result you can make a reward appear according to how well they did. You should also add a punishment where, if they kill the monsters, they won¡¯t be able to access the room for a certain amount of time.¡± ¡°This is very well thought out Alice.¡± Sage was a bit surprised at how quickly Alice took his idea and improved upon it. ¡°How were you able to come up with it so fast?¡± Alice let out a proud smile and said ¡°You¡¯re looking at the top graduate from dungeon fairy school!¡± ¡°Dungeon fairy school?¡± Sage paused for a bit and continued ¡°You know Alice it¡¯s been 2 months since we met and I really don¡¯t know much about you.¡± Alice was startled for a moment and then said ¡°Well it has been two very busy months.¡± ¡°Well since things finally slowed down I would like to know more about you. Unlike me who was just born you seem to have been alive for a while already, I would like to know more about you before you became my dungeon fairy.¡± Sage has thought about who Alice was many times but he has been so focused on keeping himself safe he always forgot about it. However now that Sigrid was here he felt a big weight lifted off his shoulder as he will finally have someone talented to train and protect him. ¡°Aww that¡¯s so sweet Sage. Like I said before us dungeon fairies are spirits without a physical body. We are naturally born by the world so we don¡¯t really have a family but we do have a strong sense of community. We tend to live together in groups in isolated areas. The older spirits wander around to find newly born spirits and bring them back to be educated.¡± Alice began to tell her story and Sage carefully listened. ¡°To tell you the truth we aren¡¯t really dungeon fairies when we are spirits as not all of us become dungeon fairies, in fact only a few do as there aren¡¯t that many dungeons. Most of us will live as spirits forever but there are certain ways for us to gain a physical body. One is to become powerful enough that we form a physical body on our own but that could take hundreds of thousands of years. Another way is to possess a living being but that is very dangerous because if the soul of the living being is stronger than you, you would die, also you will be stuck in that body and if that body dies you die. Unless a spirit becomes powerful enough to take over someone powerful then taking over a weak person is just making yourself weaker. If one is lucky enough like me they would become a dungeon fairy and get a body custom made for us by the dungeon core.¡± Alice slowly explained more about her species and there was a hint of sadness in her voice. ¡°The village I came from is many kingdoms to the east. We were very lucky as the village itself was founded by a dungeon fairy of a nearby dungeon. Because of this we had protection that other villages didn¡¯t. You might be wondering why a bunch of spirit would need protection but we are very valuable to certain types of mages who use us for experiments or as ingredients for some potion they are making. The dungeon fairy did a lot to keep us safe and even taught those who were interested in the workings of a dungeon. This way if any of us were to become a dungeon fairy we could guide our dungeon core down the correct path and stay alive.¡± Suddenly Alice paused and her breathing became much more rough. ¡°However¡­ that peaceful life didn¡¯t last.¡± Her voice is now getting hoarse and tears formed in her eyes as she struggled to continue ¡°One day demons appeared¡­ their goal was to take control of the dungeon to create a foothold in that kingdom. Although the dungeon and dungeon fairy put up a valiant fight they were eventually overwhelmed by the demons. The dungeon fairy was killed and the dungeon core turned demonic. After the dungeon core was turned he sold us out to the demons and our village was attacked¡­ I ran¡­ I don¡¯t know how far but I ran with all my strength and finally lost them after a few days¡­ After that I was wandering around for years before I finally met you¡­.¡± Sage was silent as he processed all that he has just heard. He has always wondered about Alice¡¯s existence but didn¡¯t expect it to be something like this. Seeing how sad she was he wanted to comfort her but had no idea what to say. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. After a long time Alice recovered and smiled ¡°Now look at me being all down and gloomy. I promised myself that I will stay positive no matter what! I know this is a bit late but I thank you for letting me be your dungeon fairy and I¡¯m going to make you the best dungeon ever!¡± Sage finally replied ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to our time together.¡± After that Sage began construction of those rooms he had planned, he decided to name them the ¡°Trial Rooms¡±. The rooms were easy enough to create and he made 3 of them on the first floor and 3 of them on the second floor. Then he labeled them as Rank G Trial Rooms and one of floor 2 room as Rank F Trial Room. The monsters now had a chance of dropping Rank G or F Trial Room tokens that would open up the door to the trial rooms. There is a hidden chamber inside the rooms where the monsters will stay and come out from. Sage decided to rotate the monsters inside the room daily and only allowed each room to be used twice a day. Sage will observe the fight and if the adventurer wins without killing the monster he will summon a reward for them. Outside of each room the rules of the trial rooms were posted so the adventurers knew what to do. All of this took about 3 days until it was completed. Sage waited until it was night and there were no adventures left in the dungeon to make the entrance to these trial rooms and to put down the rules. After that he began moving the elite goblins and elite kobolds he summoned for his army into the hidden chambers in the trial rooms. Soon morning arrived and adventurers entered. *Dungeon Town* Massive amounts of builders and supplies began to arrive and the dungeon town is now under construction. With the support of the entire kingdom the town was being build at an unimaginable rate. Just a few days ago the elite guards sent by the king arrived to help maintain the law in the area. More and more adventurers arrived and luckily for them just 3 days ago the second floor of the dungeon was opened up so now even more adventurers could enter the dungeon at once. Soon adventurers began to enter the dungeon with the guild request at hand and the dream of finding a skill book. One team was inside the dungeon for about an hour before one of the members made a new discovery. ¡°Hey guys come here, I think I found something new!¡± ¡°Something new? People have been through every part of the first floor already what new thing could there possibly be?¡± ¡°All of you just come over here and see.¡± When the rest of his team arrived they were shocked at what was before them. It was a wall with a closed stone door with the words ¡°Rank G Trial Room¡±. ¡°What is this place?¡± ¡°Look on the right side of the door.¡± Then everyone¡¯s gaze locked onto the right side of the door where a set of rules was listed. Welcome to the Trial Rooms! -A token of matching or higher rank than the room is required to enter -Only 1 person can be inside for the trial to activate -Each trial room can only be used twice per day -The person doing the trial must be equal or lower rank than the rank of the trial room -A higher ranked person will not trigger the start of the trial -Tokens will not be refunded -Tokens can be dropped from monsters -To leave once you are inside you only need to press a button, however if you have not finished the trial you will forfeit the trial -To complete the trial you have to use the weapon provided. Should you use anything else you have failed the trial. -You are not allowed to kill the monster inside, only defeat it. In turn the monster will also not kill you. -Should you kill the monster none of the trials will work for you for a week, the second offense will be a month, 3rd will be half a year, 4th will be a year, and after the 5th none of the trials will activate while you are inside. -Once you have successfully completed the trial, you will be rewarded according to your performance. The entire team just stared dumbfounded at this as this sounded more like the rules for a competition than something seen in a dungeon. Quickly one of them regained their sense and shouted ¡°Quick we need to report this to the guild! If we are the first to report we will get a big bonus!¡± With that the entire team rushed out of the dungeon. *Evening, Dungeon Town, Adventurer¡¯s Guild* The guild master stood looking out the window as Penny read the summary of today¡¯s report. ¡°Today many teams reported the appearance of these ¡°Trial Rooms¡±. From all the reports there seem to be 3 Rank G Trial Rooms on floor 1 and then 2 Rank G Trial Rooms and 1 Rank F Trial Room on floor 2.¡± Penny slowly read the report to the guild master. The guild master kept looking out his window and asked ¡°Has anyone managed to see what is inside?¡± Penny flipped to a page in the report and said ¡°Yes, one adventurer by the name of John has managed to find a rank G token and went inside one of the Rank G Trial Rooms. He has reported that once he was inside the door closed on him. Around the edge of the room there were racks filled with different types of wooden weapons for him to use. An elite goblin walked out from a secret door in the back of the trial room and waited for him at the center. He picked his weapon and fought with the elite goblin. He struggled a bit but was able to defeat the elite goblin in the end. Afterward the elite goblin went back through the secret door but when John checked that wall he couldn¡¯t find anything. A chest appeared next to the exit and inside he found a rank G skill book but we only have his word for it as he said he has already used it.¡± ¡°I see¡­ That will be all Penny. Leave the report here and release information about these ¡°Trial Rooms¡± tomorrow.¡± The guild master still looked out the window and hadn¡¯t turned to look at Penny even once since she came in. ¡°As you order sir.¡± Penny put the report on the table and left the room. After Penny left, the guild master continued to look outside for a long time. Finally he let out a sigh and turned back to look at the reports. He quickly read through the report and muttered ¡°Little dungeon core do you sense the danger that is to come as well.
Edited by Nova Chapter 17 - Leaving The Dungeon Here is chapter 17 hope you guys enjoy it! Also I feel like it is time to consider getting a cover for book 1. I''m leaning towards just make it like lot of the jpn LN where if you line up the book cover its like a playboy calendar (who won''t like that =X) so thinking of putting Sigrid on the cover. However I have zero artistic skill so no idea what like pose or other stuff to make it look nice so if anyone has any suggestions please post them in the comments. (Feel free to throw any cover ideas at me)
The Trial Rooms surprisingly went better than Sage thought they would. Most adventurers followed the rules posted but as always there were those that would break or try to bypass the rules. Over the past week since the Trial Rooms appeared Sage had lost a total of 4 Elite Goblin and 1 Elite Kobold. He made sure those monster dropped nothing and blacklisted those adventurers for a week. Once the adventurers learned of the rewards that they could get they became much more inclined to follow the rule. This really was thanks to this rookie adventurer John. Sage was surprised to find the person who discovered his dungeon in the first place. He watched John¡¯s fight against the Elite Goblin and was surprised at this rookie adventurer¡¯s performance. Since John was the first person to discover his dungeon and the first to enter the trial rooms he felt that this was a bit more than coincidence so he decided to reward John with a the rank G skill book to see how he would grow in the future. John was absolutely ecstatic and immediately used the book without a second thought. ¡°A bit rash but that¡¯s youth for you.¡± Sage couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at the sight of John using the skill book like someone was going to steal it from him. John reported this to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and by the next day the news of the Trial Rooms spread across the dungeon town and soon far beyond. On the second day 2 tokens were found and used and both adventurers were rewarded with an iron version of the weapon they chose to fight with. On the third day one of the adventurers that entered a Trial Room lost but was able to safely come out. He reported that he was knocked out by the Elite Goblin he faced but once he woke up the Elite Goblin was already gone and he was allowed to exit. All of this fueled the craze to obtain the trial room tokens because of the possibility of getting a skill book. Soon the news spread throughout the kingdom tempting even more adventures to make their way to the new dungeon. None of this bothered Sage too much as the Adventurer¡¯s Guild still kept watch on the amount of people entering the dungeon everyday. During the past week he had focused on Sigrid¡¯s cultivation as to get her ready for her mission to mix in with the adventurers. Luckily she had much better talent than all the monsters he had been able to summon so far. Due to her nature as an Ice Maiden she was able to cultivate the Ice Flower technique at an astonishing rate. Within just a week she understood the basic of the cultivation and reached the start of the first level. Her cultivation of the concealing technique was much slower because she had always lived in her own element and never had needed to learn to hold back her power. She had always been attuned with nature to help herself grow but now it was like she was broadcasting her location to everyone. It had taken a lot of effort from Sage to finally get her to stop unconsciously spreading out her mana. Now she could walk outside without people being able to detect her from a mile away but if they were to see her they still could easily see her very unusual mana aura. It wasn¡¯t a big issue with normal people but not enough to fool the more skilled adventurers. ¡°Sigrid you must imagine your own body is a pot used to hold water. There mustn¡¯t be any holes in the pot or else the water will leak out.¡± Sage explained to Sigrid ¡°You must gain full control of the mana flow within your body. Not only will it help you with master the concealing technique but your cultivation as well.¡± ¡°Yes my lord.¡± Sigrid answered. After reaching the first level of her Ice Flower cultivation when she started feeling the benefits it brought her, she was convinced to have made the right decision in offering the contract to this dungeon. Originally she just wanted to survive and get revenge on those who pushed her to this state but now she realized that she had the chance to go much farther. She carefully listened to Sage¡¯s every word as she soon realized how insightful he was when it came to these skills even though he seemed to lack a lot of common knowledge about the world. Sigrid has also gotten along with Alice pretty well as both of them were spirit creatures in nature and shared similar issues of being chased out of their homes. Alice quickly updated Sigrid on the current situation of the dungeon and the situation with Sage. However aside from being surprised about the skill books Sigrid didn¡¯t seem to be all that surprised about any of the other stuff as she had never been in a dungeon before and only ever heard of skill books from her mother. Alice had also gotten a lot more cheerful as she had another person to talk to. Sage suddenly realized that Alice had spent most of the time by herself wandering around the dungeon or doing other stuff as Sage himself is either focused on building the dungeon, training monsters, or cultivating. He was used to years of solitude at once but he felt that he might have been neglecting his partner. But things seemed to work out fine with Sigrid here but he wondered what would happen once she had to leave. Like this the days slowly passed by and it has been a month since Sigrid arrived. The people that were chasing Sigrid hadn¡¯t appeared again due to the elite guards stationed by the kingdom. Sage had also managed to reach level 30 from all the adventurers coming into his dungeon allowing him to finish building the second floor and beginning construction on floor 3. He really wanted to reach the 5th floor so that he could have another boss monster to bolster his defenses as he felt those who were chasing Sigrid wouldn¡¯t give up so easily. In attention to his soul recovering a bit more he also gained the ability to summon new monsters. He now could summon Orc, Goblin Shaman, and surprised him the most was the Elementary White Tiger that disappeared when he first opened his summon menu. ¡°Elementary White Tiger¡­ so that means my theory of reaching higher levels might break the hold the world has on me could be true¡­ Wait that means the herbs!¡± Sage quickly thought of herbs for the pill and brought up the environment menu. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The menu appeared before him and as expected some basic herbs from his world were there. He was very happy about this so he quickly made several rooms and filled them with the basic herbs. However he suddenly realized a problem: who is going to make the pills from these herbs? Thinking about it he suddenly thought of Sigrid but quickly decided against it. Alchemy took lot of time and effort but he needed Sigrid to grow as fast as possible. The goblins and kobolds lacked the intelligence needed and the Elementary White Tiger didn¡¯t fit either. Thinking hard about this he suddenly looked back to his summon menu and stared at the Goblin Shaman. Goblin Shaman (1000 Mana) - Goblins that have learned the ways of magic. Goblin Shaman holds a very high status among the goblins as they believe they have way to communicate with gods. The Goblin Shaman also acts as healer for the village, they tend to the sick and make medication for them. ¡°These might work¡­¡± With that Sage summoned a Goblin Shaman for testing. Soon the result came out and they were decent. The Goblin Shaman wasn¡¯t any genius at alchemy but at least it was able to learn it. Sage summoned 2 more before he ran out of mana and decided that he was going to have a total of 10 Goblin Shamans working on alchemy. Lucky for him one of the most difficult part of alchemy, which was getting the ingredients to practice with, was not an issue at all for him. After he finished learning all his new abilities it was time to ready Sigrid for her mission. Over the past month she had worked hard and reached the mid stage of the first level of the Ice Flower Cultivation Method. She had also managed to reach the first stage of master of the concealing technique. Now as long as she didn¡¯t get caught and carefully examined by someone stronger than her then her identity wouldn¡¯t be exposed. Sage also prepared a decent amount of money for her to use and a map he got from one of the dead adventurers. The plan was for her to make her way to the city of Dawn to register as an adventurer. Alice suggested to have her apply there so the people after Sigrid wouldn¡¯t suspect her. Afterall if she joined in the dungeon town it was very suspicious but if she joined in Dawn it was not because her pursuer wouldn¡¯t think that she might get past them. Soon it would be early morning and therefore time for Sigrid to set out. She came to Sage¡¯s chamber to say her goodbye and take the exit tunnel he built. However what surprised Sage was that Alice came and seemed to be ready to leave with Sigrid as well. ¡°Alice what are you doing?¡± Sage was very confused by Alice¡¯s action. ¡°I talked with Sigrid for a while about her mission and decided it would be best for me to go with her.¡± Alice replied. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be dangerous for you outside?¡± Sage quickly asked. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Sage, with Sigrid there I¡¯ll be fine¡± Alice tried to reassure Sage. ¡°I still don¡¯t see the need for you to risk yourself like this.¡± Sage wasn¡¯t about to let this go easily. Alice pondered for a minute and said ¡°The reason I decided to go with Sigrid is to better relay information back to you and you don¡¯t have to worry so much. After all once we reach Dawn we will come back to the dungeon town and basically be living right next to you. With me around I can easily sneak back into the dungeon and tell you information we have gathered. After all it might not be so easy for a beauty like Sigrid to move around so easily without catching everyone¡¯s attention, hehe.¡± Sage pondered for a bit and agreed with the problem he had not thought of. Finally he let out a sigh and helplessly said ¡°Alright but please becareful.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry my lord, I¡¯ll make sure Alice is safe and sound.¡± Sigrid also joined in to assure Sage. She was very happy to have Alice along as Alice was her very first friend and having her along made her less nervous. Sage looked at the two of them, he sighed again and said ¡°Take these 4 tokens, two of them act like the binding trap I made and the other 2 act like the flash trap I made. Use them to get away when you are in danger. If you need more just have Alice come back for some. Remember to always have some with you for those dangerous situation.¡± With that 4 tokens appeared before Sigrid and Alice. In the past month Sage had also worked hard on his own mana control. Although he was far from reaching his old level of control he was making progress. One of the things he had managed to do was set up more restrictions with mana and setting them into different objects. The tokens he gave the girls were just a simple item with a binding and flash restriction set to them. They weren¡¯t very powerful but could help in a pinch. ¡°Alright I know I asked you guys to gather information for me but your own safety comes first. When you¡¯re not in my dungeon your lives will be in real danger so please don¡¯t do anything too rash.¡± Sage said the final parting words as he watched them leave through the tunnel and exit into the forest. *Somewhere 50 miles to the south of the dungeon one month ago* ¡°Sir the area is too well guarded to use our normal troops without tipping off the humans. Also based on the information we have gathered so far this dungeon is growing very fast and is a skill book dungeon. So far there is only 1 floor and the strongest monsters seen beside the Kobold Lord are Elite Goblins and Elite Kobolds. It is recommended to move as soon as possible before the dungeon is allowed to grow too strong.¡± ¡°Hahaha, what luck! We were chasing the Ice Maiden and chased her right to a skill book dungeon! Hahaha, once we turn that dungeon core into a demonic one we will be handsomely rewarded by Lord Zoar himself! Since we can¡¯t assault with our troops then I will just have to borrow the human ¡°volunteers¡± for this. Begin organizing the troops here and have them be ready for battle in 2 months. Once I have gathered enough human ¡°volunteers¡± I¡¯ll make an assault on the dungeon and once I have successfully taken it over we will began our first offensive on this puny kingdom of Zeal!¡± ¡°Yes Sir!¡± ¡°Now mister dungeon core are you prepared to pay for your actions."
Edited by Nova Chapter 18 - Journey To The City Of Dawn Here is chapter 18 everyone! This was chapter that was not going to be much but somehow as I wrote it turn out way better than what I had planned ^_^ Also still looking for book cover ideas =D
Alice and Sigrid left the dungeon via the secret passage and entered the forest outside the dungeon without anyone noticing them. They followed the map and headed east after checking their direction with a compass Sage had summoned for them. They estimated that it would take about half a day to get to the city based on the map but to be safe they ended up bringing a whole day¡¯s worth of supply for this trip. Alice was very happy to be out again after being inside for so long, it just wasn¡¯t safe for her to come out for long no matter how sneaky she was. As they walked the two girls chatted about their life before coming to Sage¡¯s dungeon. ¡°This is my first time just walking through a forest like this. Before I have always lived in the snowy mountains as I wasn¡¯t strong enough to leave and I could hardly experience my surroundings during my month on the run either.¡± Sigrid happily walked through the forest and felt the warmth of the sunlight as she chatted with Alice. ¡°This is also my first time enjoying it as well. The last time I came out was to scout for information about the dungeon evaluation party that came. Had to focus all my attention on not getting caught so I went back as soon as I found out who it was. I have always dreamt about what bathing in the sunlight feels like as a spirit and now it can see why those animals love it so much!¡± Alice stretched her body, she sat down on Sigrid¡¯s shoulder and leaned against her neck. ¡°Hehehe, that tickles Alice.¡± Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but giggle when Alice¡¯s wings brushed against her neck. Because she had wanted to feel the sunlight¡¯s warmth she didn¡¯t have her cloak on but wore an elegant blue dress. Alice suggested that she should make use of water as her main specialty and make it seem like ice is only a variant. This limited her abilities somewhat but made it so once she appeared her pursuers wouldn¡¯t connect her to the Ice Maiden they were after. Luckily her control over water was good too she just never practiced it as she had always been around snow and ice. They walked through the woods for a few hours without too much problems. Some stray wolves and wild dogs came by but were easily scared away by Sigrid with a bit of magic. However as they were getting close to exiting the forest they encountered two ogres that blocked their way. These two weren¡¯t going to be scared away that easily so Sigrid prepared herself to fight however she wasn¡¯t nervous as they were still too weak to be any threat to her. But as she was about to cast her spell a figure jumped before her and shouted ¡°Get back, I¡¯ll protect you!¡± She was startled by the turn of events and before she could say anything the figure jumped forth and engaged in battle with the two ogres. The man was struggling a bit but holding his own against the two ogres which impressed Sigrid as she could sense that his mana was only that of a rank F adventurer. Alice however was giggling on Sigrid shoulder and whispered ¡°Look at you, already got people risking their life to save you. Hehehe.¡± Sigrid¡¯s cheek turned slightly red at what Alice had said, she felt embarrassed about what Alice had said and replied ¡°He is just being a kind adventurer who helps people in need. There was no way he could have seen what I look like from where he came from.¡± ¡°Hehehe, you shouldn¡¯t underestimate your appearance.¡± Alice continued to giggle. Sigrid let out a sigh and felt helpless against Alice. Her attention focused back onto the fight and felt like it was time to help the adventurer out. She created some water bullets and shot them at one of the ogres which caught it completely off guard. The adventurer noticed this and immediately took action and stabbed his sword through the ogre¡¯s heart. However this left him open as the other ogre punched at the adventurer¡¯s right arm. Sigrid realize this too late and was unable to do anything to help but the next moment stunned both her and Alice. The adventurer wasn¡¯t blown away with a heavy injury like both of them had expected but instead his left hand had stopped the ogre¡¯s punch. Now this was a 2 meter tall ogre and while they weren¡¯t that smart they had strength of a low tier rank D adventurer. It is shocking that this adventurer who only seemed to be at low to mid tier rank F could stop a punch with his own hand. The ogre seemed to be caught off guard as well which gave the adventurer a chance to swing his sword and slice the ogre¡¯s throat. After the two ogres were defeated the adventurer sat down on the ground breathing very hard. Sigrid recovered from the sudden turn of events and ran up to the adventurer and asked ¡°Are you ok?¡± The adventurer turned to look at her and then just froze. He seemed to have lost himself as he stared at her for a long time before Sigrid finally felt it was getting too awkward and coughed. He suddenly recovered himself and realized what he had done. Embarrassed he lowered his head and replied ¡°I¡¯m¡­ fine¡­¡± Suddenly a crisp voice came from Sigrid¡¯s shoulder ¡°Hehe, don¡¯t try and play the tough guy now. Your left arm is clearly injured from stopping that punch from the ogre. Even though you are very strong for low tier rank F you still can¡¯t match physical strength with an ogre yet. Better let her look at that left arm if you still want to use it in the future.¡± This of course was Alice trying to spice up the situation for her own enjoyment. Sigrid was startled by Alice¡¯s words and immediately focused her attention onto the adventurer¡¯s left arm. She could see that it is bleeding, the muscles must have torn from withstanding that impact and the bone may even be broken. She quickly used her water magic and surrounded the adventurer¡¯s arm. He was shocked at this but she quickly said ¡°Please don¡¯t move or else the healing effect would lessen greatly.¡± With that he quietly sat there not moving an inch as Sigrid healed his arm. After an hour Sigrid ended the spell and the adventurer¡¯s arm now looked normal again. ¡°Your arm should be fine, however I suggest not stressing it today and you will feel very sore tomorrow.¡± The adventurer looked at his left arm amazed and finally said ¡°Thank you! I wanted to protect you but ended up causing you more trouble. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Sigrid smiled and said ¡°No worries, I¡¯m happy that you came to my aid. May I ask for your name?¡± The adventurer was startled and quickly replied ¡°Where are my manners, my name is John Dawnbringer. May I ask what is yours?¡± Sigrid simply replied ¡°Sigrid. Nice to meet you John.¡± John replied with a smile and asked ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you too Sigrid. So where are you headed Sigrid?¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Alice suddenly shouted ¡°How rude to completely ignore a lady like this!¡± John was startled by the voice, he remembered hearing it earlier but didn¡¯t see anything. He looked around but was still unable to find anyone. ¡°Over here!¡± Alice shouted again. Finally Sigrid pointed at her shoulder and John finally noticed a little fairy with red hair and red dress sitting on Sigrid¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Whoa!¡± John shouted as he took a few step back and almost fell down. ¡°A...fair...fairy!¡± ¡°Looks like you¡¯re not too dumb after all.¡± Alice said with a mischievous smile ¡°My name is Alice and my job is to keep people like you from trying to take advantage of my friend Sigrid here.¡± John suddenly felt very embarrassed again as he did want to get close to Sigrid by escorting her to her destination. Alice still smiling a mischievous smile finally said ¡°But since you did jump in to help us without any hesitation and risk yourself to help us I¡¯ll allow you to accompany us.¡± Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but laugh at what Alice did and at John¡¯s expression. She looked at John and said ¡°We are going to head to the city of Dawn. It will be our first time there so we would be happy to have a guide.¡± John quickly pulled himself together and and stiffly said ¡°I was born and raised in Dawn so you can count on me!¡± Alice continued to giggle at how awkward John was acting right now and Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but find it kinda funny as well. However more than anything she felt happy as she had always been by herself. Beside her own mother who disappeared years ago the only other contact she had with the outside after that was being hunted for a whole month until she found Sage¡¯s dungeon. There she gained a sister in Alice and a parental figure in Sage. Her own mother never really cared for her much, mostly taught her the basics of survival and let her fend for herself. When she was around Sage she felt a sense of safety she hadn¡¯t felt since she was a little girl and the way he took the time to teach her also warmed her heart. Every passing day in the last month had made her feel that her decision that night was the correct one. This was why she was so eager to master the concealing technique so she could be of use to Sage even though she was very scared of having to go out by herself. She was very happy when Alice decided to tag along and now less than half a day out she had already made another friend. Since John was the most familiar with the area Alice and Sigrid followed him towards Dawn. The reason Alice decided to allow John to accompany them was because she realized who he was. She knew that he was the person who first discovered their dungeon and was the first to complete a trial room. She also knew that Sage saw a lot of potential in him and even gifted him a rank G skill book as his trial room reward. Alice assumed that the reason he was able to stop that ogre¡¯s punch with his left hand was probably due to that book. She remembered that Sage taught that to all the elite monsters too but none of them had shown this kind of increase in power like John. Alice knew that with Sigrid¡¯s ability she would be able to climb the rank of adventurers very fast and that soon she would need to form a team herself. However with their background they had to be very careful with the people they chose. John became the first candidate for Sigrid¡¯s future team but that would still depend on his own growth down the line. But it was clear that John had already fallen for Sigrid so this would only make it less likely for him to betray her in the future. Along the way John talked a lot about the area and the situation at Dawn. At first he was very nervous and stuttered a lot but after a while he became much more comfortable talking to Sigrid and Alice and even was able to not blush when Alice teased him. ¡°The city of Dawn was one of the original cities of Zeal when the country was founded. It is the only major city around and is also the southernmost city of the kingdom. The reason there aren¡¯t more cities is because to the south is the endless wastelands. No one has ever managed to cross the wasteland and the wasteland itself offers no valuable resources so the kingdom never developed this part of the kingdom. However now that we have our very own dungeon this area will begin to flourish!¡± John was very proud when talking about Dawn, it was very clear how much he loved his home city. When he talked about the dungeon he suddenly tried to look dignified and said ¡°Speaking of the new dungeon it was I who first discovered it and reported it to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡± Sigrid was shocked by this and quickly looked toward Alice only to see Alice nodding back at her. Seeing that Alice confirmed John¡¯s words she replied ¡°Wow John that is amazing.¡± John was startled by those words, after a brief pause he said ¡°You believe me?¡± Sigrid looked at him questioningly and said ¡°Is there a reason not to believe you? So far you have shown yourself to be a very trustworthy person John.¡± John was lost for words, after a while he recovered himself and said ¡°Thank you Sigrid. Many people would think I¡¯m just boasting but you are the first person to believe in me.¡± John was truly touched. While he had gained a lot of confidence since forcing himself to enter that dungeon and even earning a skill book that made his physical strength a class above his peers he was still very insecure. He had been labeled as a scaredy cat for so long that a lot of the other adventurers wouldn¡¯t even believe in his achievements. However here was a girl who looked like a princess who probably had every right to look down upon him but instead she chose to believe in him instead. Sigrid and Alice didn¡¯t realize it now but this was a life changing moment for John. At this moment John had decided that Sigrid was someone he wanted to protect. He knows he was probably too weak right now and that he was probably not good enough to have her but he would do his best to prevent any harm from coming to her even if it meant his life. Alice noticed something had changed in John, after that conversation about him discovering the dungeon. He was no longer nervous around Sigrid anymore and the way he carried himself changed too. Before he was always unsure of himself but the him right now was determined and confident. Alice observed the changed John for a while and thought ¡°Interesting, I guess Sage wasn¡¯t wrong when he said that this guy had potential¡­¡±
Edited by: Nova Chapter 19 - The City of Dawn Here is chapter 19, enjoy!
John, Sigrid, and Alice arrived outside the city of Dawn about an hour after noon had passed. With John leading them the guard let them in without any trouble. The first place they headed to was the Adventurer¡¯s Guild as Sigrid¡¯s goal was to become an adventurer and John was there for his promotion exam to rank F. ¡°Thank you for leading us here John.¡± Sigrid turned to John and smiled as they reached the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. ¡°No problem! I have to do my promotion exam for rank F but once that is finished I can show you two around the city.¡± John quickly replied with a hopeful look on his face. Sigrid pondered for a bit and said ¡°I¡¯m sorry but after I register as an adventurer I plan to head towards the dungeon tomorrow.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± John looked depressed as they walked to the front desk. The receptionist noticed their group, in fact everyone noticed their group due to Sigrid. She heard their talk so when they reached the receptionist she said ¡°While I appreciate your enthusiasm but due to the increase in amount of people joining the Adventurer¡¯s Guild just to go into the dungeon all new adventurers registered here can only start at rank G and must go through one week of basic adventurer training. You are in luck though because the next session starts in two days.¡± Sigrid was a bit startled by this but it was their mission to become adventurers so even though it was going to take a lot longer than expected it was something they had to do. Just at this moment Alice suddenly chimed in ¡°Since we have a day before the basic training I suppose we will need someone to guide and to show us the city.¡± John¡¯s face immediately lit up and quickly said ¡°Leave it to me!¡± What he failed to notice was all the deadly gazes staring at him from all over the room. The receptionist was startled when she noticed Alice on Sigrid¡¯s shoulder. To her Sigrid looked like some daughter of a rich family that ran away for fun and now seeing a fairy as a pet she was even more sure. She couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh at all the craze the dungeon had caused, at least this girl was lucky that John was the first person this girl ran into. She focused her attention onto John and said ¡°So John what are you here for and where did you pick up such a pretty girl?¡¯ ¡°What are you talking about Jenny!¡± John¡¯s face became red after hearing that from Jenny. He managed to recover himself after seeing Jenny¡¯s mischievous smile and let out a sigh. ¡°I was on my way back for my promotion exam when I met Sigrid and Alice. They came across some trouble so I helped them and after that we moved together since we had the same destination.¡± Jenny was shocked, not by how they met but by how fast John recovered himself and that he was here for his promotion exam. She has known John for a long time and while she knew that John had talent but his personality was just too weak willed to accomplish anything. ¡°Congratulations John, you are finally moving up the adventurer¡¯s ranking. Looks like you went through a lot recently.¡± Jenny said with a warm smile. ¡°So when would you like to have your exam?¡± ¡°The day after tomorrow please.¡± John quickly replied. Jenny looked at Sigrid and Alice and let out teasing smile and said ¡°Ok, report here at sunrise the day after tomorrow. Now I assume you are here to register as an adventurer?¡± ¡°Yes I would like to register as an adventurer.¡± Sigrid replied as she held back her smile from watching John¡¯s reaction. ¡°Please fill out this form and the cost of registering is one piece of silver.¡± Jenny handed the registration form to Sigrid. Sigrid quickly filled out the form with help from Alice to make up their background information. ¡°So Mrs. Sigrid, you are a mage who specialize in water magic and can heal. This is good as every team would like a healer. Here is your adventurer¡¯s badge, please infuse some of your mana into it and it will be linked to you. This badge is made of a special material as there is another badge kept by the guild and if you were to die or this badge get destroyed then the one in the guild will break too. This is to help the guild keep track of adventurers who might be trapped and post rescue missions for them or if they are dead and we should contact their family.¡± Sigrid accepted the badge and infused her mana into it linking the badge to her. Once she finished Jenny continued ¡°This badge can serve as your identification almost everywhere and you would also need it to take requests. Currently you are rank G and you would need to complete requests from the guild or have rank A or above adventurer to vouch for you for promotion exam. Restriction has become much more strict due to the new dungeon appearing causing a huge influx of people who want to become adventurers. As I said earlier you also need to go through a mandatory one week basic training so please come back at the break of dawn the day after tomorrow. Basic training is held here at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and is run by our Vice Guild leader so it¡¯s a rare chance to learn from a rank A adventurer.¡± Sigrid thanked Jenny and left the Adventurer¡¯s Guild with John with everyone¡¯s gaze still locked onto her. Alice couldn¡¯t help but sigh and mutter to herself ¡°She really should realize how much attention she attracts.¡± Soon the news of a beauty registering as an adventurer spread across the town and made people excited for the last day of the next basic training session. The last event of the basic training is a fight against the vice guild leader where the new adventurer shows off everything have. This had been a big source of entertainment for the people of the city since the dungeon craze started. The three of them went to the Fairy Roost Inn as it was recommended to Sigrid and Alice by both John and Penny. The inn keeper was an elegant and graceful middle aged woman in a simple dress. Although her cloth wasn¡¯t fancy she had a certain air to her and the waitress was like a younger version of her. It is obvious to anyone that they were mother and daughter and why the inn¡¯s name was what is is. When she saw John she greeted him with a smile. ¡°Why hello John my dear boy what brings you here?¡± ¡°Hello Mrs. Rain how are you doing today? I¡¯m here because two of my friends need a place to stay.¡± John politely smiled back at her. ¡°Oh and is this lovely lady here your friend.¡± She looked at Sigrid and secretly give John a wink. ¡°So where is your other friend.¡± Before John can say anything a crisp voice called out ¡°Right here.¡± Mrs. Rain was a bit confused as she focused on the source of the sound and her eyes finally landed on Alice sitting on Sigrid¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Oh my a real fairy! This is the first time the Fairy Roost Inn had a real fairy staying over. I hope you enjoy your time.¡± Sigrid cut in and said ¡°I¡¯m sure we will. My name is Sigrid and this here is my friend Alice.¡± She pointed to Alice who was lazily sitting on her shoulder. Alice hearing this nodded toward Mrs. Rain. John quickly added ¡°Sigrid, Alice, this is Hellan Rain. She is the owner of this inn which is considered the best inn in the city. She helped me out a lot by giving me a cheaper rent when I became an adventurer.¡± Hellan smiled and said ¡°Oh it was nothing, I saw great potential in you my boy and I wasn¡¯t wrong. Only after a bit over a month after you became an adventurer you discovered a new dungeon that sent everyone into a craze!. Now come in you all must be tired and hungry so come in! You too John, Ellen would be happy to see you and to hear more stories from you.¡± Alice was shocked at this and secretly thought ¡°It seem this woman is not as simple as she looks. No one would be this kind to a random rookie, that means she was able to see what Sage saw in John too. We¡¯ll have to be more careful around her¡­¡± *Sage¡¯s Chamber When Alice and Sigrid left* ¡°I hope they will be ok. If only I figured out the voice transmission tokens¡­¡± Sage muttered to himself a bit about his worries before he went back to work. ¡°It¡¯s time to summon some Elementary White Tigers to train. While they are one of the lowest ranked spirit beasts they are also descendants of the White Tiger. If they cultivate properly then they can awaken their White Tiger blood line making them very powerful. However they will need a better environment to cultivate him, I¡¯ll have to make the 3rd floor a jungle.¡± Sage thought for a long time about what to do before deciding on the 3rd floors environment. Next he summoned 4 Elementary White Tigers and split them across the current 3rd floor as they don¡¯t do well in groups. After finishing that Sage summoned some orc and find them to be green humanoid hogs. They are however larger and physically stronger than the goblins so Sage taught them all breathing technique and toss them into the 3rd floor. There was also another camp built in the 3rd floor to train more elite monsters once he can summon them. The rest of the day passed with Sage building the 3rd floor, training the elite monsters, managing the trial rooms, and teaching the Goblin Shamans alchemy. Sage knew teaching alchemy was going to be difficult but this was really testing him. In the short period of less than a day he already lost 4 goblin shamans due to explosions caused by alchemy. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°This is going to take a lot more work¡­¡± *Next Morning, The City of Dawn* Alice and Sigrid ended up meeting Ellen, Hellan¡¯s daughter, the night before and they hit it off really well. Ellen even ended up deciding to go with Alice and Sigrid as they went around town since she said she knew more places that would interest them than John. Of course since he did offer to guide them already they couldn¡¯t ditch him so everyone decided to go together. John arrived early in the morning and had breakfast with them all. After that the 4 of them headed into the city. The plan was for John to show them some of the famous location in Dawn in the morning, then they will break for lunch in a shop Ellen recommends, and the afternoon will be Ellen taking them out for some shopping while John went to start his promotion exam. They first arrived at a square near the center of the city and in the middle of the square is a statue of a young maiden holding a sword and shield ready for battle. ¡°This is the Statue of Dawn, Dawn was one of the great generals that helped found the kingdom of Zeal hundreds of years ago. After the kingdom was established she moved back to her hometown in the south and founded this city that was eventually named after her. She was master of light magic and considered the most powerful of the 4 generals under the first king¡¯s command. However she had a very gentle nature so she took the southern portion of the kingdom because it was the area with nothing important and thus avoiding the internal conflicts of the royal court. But although she was a gentle person when it was time for war she showed no mercy to her enemy and to this day she is still idolized by many people!¡± John excitedly explained as they reached the statue in the center of the square. Sigrid looked at the statue and was completely stunned. She just stared at the status and completely didn¡¯t hear anything else John said. When they were all about to leave they noticed Sigrid¡¯s blank stare so Ellen asked ¡°Hey Sigrid, are you ok?¡± Sigrid suddenly pulled herself back and quickly said ¡°Oh, I¡¯m fine. I was just a bit mesmerized by by the statue.¡± She smiled back and left the area with the rest of them. Alice however noticed Sigrid¡¯s change and decided that they would need to talk but not right now. The group continued to a few more spots in the city like the castle where the city lord lived, the arena where fighters tested their skills, and finally the market district where most of the shop and stalls were at. It was almost noon by the time they got there so they headed directly to the shop Ellen recommended for lunch. It was a small shop that specialized in grilled food. Although small there was already a line forming outside the shop. ¡°We are lucky we got here early with the line only this short. If we were any later we might not have been able to get any today.¡± Ellan quickly pulled the group into the line. ¡°Anyone who visits the city of Dawn has to try out the Dawn Grill or else you can¡¯t say you have been here!¡± They waited about 30mins before they were seated and ordered an assortment of grilled meat, fish, and vegetable. ¡°When people talk about grilled food most people think meat or seafood but what¡¯s so special about this shop is that their specialty is grilled vegetables!¡± Ellan excitedly explained the food they ordered to Sigrid and Alice. Both Sigrid and Alice have never eaten much before, one of them lived in a snowy mountain living off of mana for most of her life and the other was a spirit that didn¡¯t need to eat who turned into a dungeon fairy that didn¡¯t need to eat. They were very excited to try out all these food they have never seen before and enjoyed themselves greatly. Alice couldn¡¯t help but whisper to Sigrid ¡°We need to get a cook for the dungeon. I don¡¯t think I can go back to not eating food after this.¡± And Sigrid gently nodded in agreement. Once lunch was done John said his goodbye and left while Ellan took Sigrid and Alice through the market district for some shopping. Since Sage could literally summon as much money as they needed Sigrid and Alice had a healthy amount to spend. Since Sigrid never shopped for anything before she was like a kid in a candy store. Ellan wasn¡¯t too surprised by Sigrid¡¯s reaction as she thought that Sigrid was the daughter of some rich family who ran away and decided to be an adventurer to see the new dungeon. While they were looking through some cloth at the 4th shop they went to Ellen suddenly asked ¡°Hey Sigrid, what do you think of John?¡± Sigrid was a bit startled by the question but quickly responded ¡°He seems to be a very nice person. Afterall he jumped into a fight and risked his life to save someone he doesn¡¯t even know.¡± Ellen smiled ¡°He has always been like that, wanting to be the hero and jumping in to help those in trouble.¡± She paused for a moment and her brow furrowed a bit and said ¡°So how do you feel about him?¡± Sigrid was confused and replied ¡°Feel about him? I think of him as a friend and a nice person but honestly we only known each other for 2 days.¡± ¡°Oh is that so.¡± Ellen seemed a bit relieved hearing this. Sigrid didn¡¯t realize what had happened but it didn¡¯t escape Alice¡¯s eyes. Alice let out a mischievous smile and flew next to Ellan¡¯s ears and whispered ¡°Oh getting jealous are we? Don¡¯t worry though Sigrid won¡¯t steal your John from you but if you keep this up someone else might. Hehe.¡± Ellen¡¯s face suddenly turned bright red and she exclaimed ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about!¡± Sigrid was startled by the sudden outburst and looked at Ellan questioningly. Ellen¡¯s face became even redder and stuttered ¡°It¡¯s...it¡¯s nothing¡­¡± Alice let out a laugh and said ¡°Oh Sigrid you still have a lot of learn.¡± After that they went through a few more stores before it was almost nightfall and they returned to the Fairy Roost Inn as Ellen still had to help out at the Inn during the peak evening hours. ¡°Thank you for guiding us Ellen even though you still have to work right after this.¡± Sigrid was very happy as she had never experienced going out with friends before. ¡°Oh it¡¯s nothing.¡± Ellen smiled ¡°Once you put your stuff away come down for a nice dinner. After all you got to go to basic training tomorrow!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be looking forward to dinner then!¡± Sigrid replied with a smile. Sigrid and Alice ate a hearty dinner before returning to their room. They had a fun day but tomorrow they had to go to basic training for a week and how well they did would determine what rank Sigrid started at. Sigrid looking out the window and muttered ¡°I hope Sage won¡¯t get too worried. According to the original plan we would have been back to the dungeon town already but now it¡¯s going to take a whole extra week¡­.¡± Alice casually said ¡°Don¡¯t worry Sage is more capable than you think.¡± She paused for a bit and suddenly turned very serious ¡°Sigrid I have a question for you and I need you to answer honestly.¡± Sigrid sensing Alice¡¯s serious tone became nervous as she had never seen Alice this serious before ¡°What is it Alice?¡± Alice took a deep breath and said ¡°That statue in the center of the square, you seemed to recognize the statue. And considering how out of it you were I say you knew that person very well. What is your relationship with that person the statue depicts? I¡¯m sorry but this concerns Sage¡¯s safety so I can¡¯t just let it go.¡± Sigrid remained silent for a very long time but letting out a sigh and finally said ¡°I have never heard about this Dawn before at all. But that status looks just like my mother¡­¡± *In the fancy manor on the other side of the city* ¡°Sir, the last batch of human ¡°volunteers¡± have registered to become adventurers. They will take their basic training tomorrow and once they are done we can move to the dungeon town Sir!¡± ¡°Good, any news of the Ice Maiden?¡± ¡°None sir! It seem she is still hiding deep inside the dungeon.¡± ¡°It seems like she might be hiding with the dungeon core but no matter once all our human puppets move to the dungeon town we¡¯ll have about 3 weeks to scout out the dungeon before the army moves. Then once the invasion begins we can use that moment of chaos and take over the dungeon and get the girl! Muahahaha!¡± ¡°Sir yes sir!¡± ¡°Now let¡¯s see if there are anyone we can use to help our ¡°volunteers¡± blend in better among this batch of trainees.¡±
Edited by: Nova Chapter 20 - One Week Hello everyone here is chapter 20. Got someone who sent me an picture of dungeon crystal. Feel free to sent me these as I''ll post one in each chapter (assuming I get any =P) unless i feel like they can be used in the story down the line which then I''ll hold it until then. If you do sent me anything just give me a name to credit and link if you want me to link to your site/page or something. FYI I haven''t really decided on what Sage''s Dungeon core looks like so if anyone want to draw it just do what you think looks nice might be the one i decide to use =P By: Waffie Also 2 spot away from top 5 weekly ^_^ The dream!
It now was already the night of the second day since the girls left and they have yet to return. Sage was getting increasingly worried by the minute as following their original plan they would have registered on the day they arrived and at the latest returned by noon of the next day. However now it was already night and they still hadn¡¯t come back yet. ¡°Could they have been caught by those people chasing Sigrid? No that shouldn¡¯t be possible with the concealing technique. Maybe someone wanted to kidnap Alice and attacked them? No with Sigrid¡¯s current strength it shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem.¡± These kinds of thoughts filled Sage¡¯s head and for the entire day he did nothing but think about this. Finally when he was reaching his limit he suddenly felt something hit his crystal body and was startled. He quickly looked around to find the mimic slime hitting him as if it was slapping him away. Sage was confused for a bit and then suddenly realized something and laughed bitterly . ¡°It has been a long time since I cared about anyone that I almost lost myself again. I should believe in them a bit more, after all Sigrid was personally trained by me.¡± With that thought in mind Sage calmed down a lot and once again he entered a state of enlightenment. He was once again able to fully observe himself and ignore everything else that is going on outside. First his soul had recovered a lot compared to before but compared to his original form he was still far away. Second he began to calmly assess the current situation. The chance of Sigrid¡¯s pursuers finding her was very low due to the concealing technique she learned and because she was also hiding her power by focusing on water magic the chance is even lower. Even if she was found with the restriction tokens Sage gave her she should be able to at least escape back here considering how close the city was to here. If it¡¯s not her pursuers than the chances of any random encounter being dangerous for them was even lower as the area was crowded with adventurers and guards due to the dungeon so she should be safe. So if it¡¯s not anyone attacking them then it is most likely an issue with the Adventurer¡¯s Guild due to her background which was something they had expected. They may have had extra requirements Sigrid had to fulfill in order to get registered as an adventurer so he should give them a few days. After thinking about that clearly he was able to finally put that worry down for now. Next he decided to focus his attention on teaching the Goblin Shamans Alchemy as right now the method of learning was a bit too dangerous. He began to recall all the alchemy books he had read and fused it with all the practical experience he had himself. Then he factored the Goblin Shaman¡¯s capability and limitation and slowly without him knowing a book formed before him. After being in the enlightened state for the entire night he finally regained his senses and noticed a book before him. He was every excited when he looked at the book because this was a skill book he created by using all his knowledge and then factoring in the limitations of the learner. He had no idea that the skill book creation skill he had was this amazing. Not only did it allow him to create a skill book of things he already knew but allowed him to adjust, mix, and fine tune the skill book to match the user. However he also knew that the current him was far too lacking in his mana control to be able to do it willingly. Only when he reached that enlightened state could he achieve something like this which was why he decided to use this chance on alchemy so that he could recover faster. He quickly created more skill books for each of the 10 Goblin Shamans and as he expected they were able to learn it. Then he focused the rest of his day on teaching the Goblin Shamans as they practiced and only splitting his focus to judge a trial room or respawn some monsters. And by the end of the day Sage was very happy with the results, none of the Goblin Shamans caused an explosion that killed themselves. On the 5th day after Alice and Sigrid left Sage just happened to be looking around the dungeon and heard the adventurers talking about something interesting. ¡°Man did you guys see that rookie in basic training? She was so beautiful just like a princess.¡± ¡°She probably is the daughter of some rich and powerful family. Did you see what she had on her shoulder? A Fairy! She has a fairy for a pet, only a rich and powerful family can afford that.¡± ¡°No way! Now I wish I had stayed until the last day of basic training to see her fight against the vice guild master!¡± ¡°I do too but I already accepted the request so I had to come here to finish it in time.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about it guys, I was in the Guild hall when she came to register. I heard she wanted to come to this dungeon which is why she signed up as an adventurer. Once basic training is done in 4 days she will be on her way here.¡± ¡°I wonder why such a pretty girl want to come to a dungeon¡­¡± ¡°She probably had some disagreement with her family so she ran away and became an adventurer for fun after hearing about the new dungeon. Well this gives us a chance to get close by offering our service as guides. Hehehe.¡± ¡°You idiot! You think you got a chance to be on the same team as her? All the top teams here will probably want to invite her once she arrives. And ignoring her looks she is also a water mage who can heal, who doesn¡¯t want that on their team? I also seen her skills and she good enough to be rank F so some of the rank D teams might even offer her a spot.¡± ¡°Man why you gotta ruin a man¡¯s dream?¡± ¡°Forget your stupid dreams and focus on the mission! We¡¯re still in a dungeon you know.¡± Sage immediately found weights gone from his heart. Even though he was able to calm himself down the lack of news from Sigrid and Alice has weighted heavily on his heart but now that he knows what was going on and roughly knows when they will be back he felt at ease. However he didn¡¯t like how one of the adventurers were having ideas on Sigrid and decided to make that team¡¯s time inside the dungeon fairly miserable. However after doing so he was suddenly shocked at his own actions. Why did he act so childishly? Those thoughts were fairly common among men when they talk about a beautiful woman and since they haven¡¯t acted why did he felt the urge to punish them? This feeling Sage is feeling right now is so strange and foreign to him. ¡°Maybe this is just another side effect of the damage to my soul¡­.¡± He quickly forgot about his own childish actions and went back to work on expanding floor 3 and teaching the Goblin Shamans. By the time the week was over the first batch of pills the Goblin Shaman had been making was done. This was supposed to be some basic qi recovery pill, well, mana recover pill now in this world but something odd happened. The Goblin Shamans in the end weren¡¯t skilled enough to make the medication into pills but instead created some sort of alcohol instead. This puzzled Sage greatly as he has had alcohol with special properties like recovery or even increase in cultivation but those were only made by cultivators who truly enjoys alcohol. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. However for some odd reason because the Goblin Shaman failed to condense the medication into a pill the failed condensing process ended up fermenting the brew into alcohol. Curious Sage had the different monsters of his dungeon test this alcohol and the result was surprising. The effect was twice as strong as a normal basic qi/mana recovery pill but if you have a low mana pool you are also more likely to get drunk. The goblins and kobolds were completely drunk after a small sip while the elites were only a bit tipsy after one small cup. The orcs and the elementary white tigers could hold a few cups before becoming drunk while the Kobold Lord could drink a whole jug without even feeling it. The Kobold Lord had probably grown the most aside from Sigrid in his dungeon. It right now was reaching the peak of mid tier rank D and inching toward high tier rank D. Sage decided that since the Kobold Lord was still the only dungeon boss he could show right now that he equipped the Kobold Lord with two gourds of this Mana Ale allowing the Kobold Lord to recover during a fight. This was the first type of mana recovery consumable he has made and he knew that in order to train a batch of powerful disciples they would need a lot of resources. He quickly increased the production to 20 Goblin Shaman so there could be a steady supply of this Mana Ale to help his elite troops get stronger. He also decided to release 5 medium jug of this Mana Ale per day as drop in his dungeon. Soon the first adventurers got hold of a jug of this Mana Ale¡­ *The City of Dawn, morning of the first day of basic training* Alice and Sigrid got up early the next day to head over the Adventurer¡¯s Guild for basic training. As for the talk the night before there wasn¡¯t much to say. Sigrid was raised by her mother and then she disappeared more than 10 years ago telling her that she couldn¡¯t leave the snowy mountain until she was rank S. Not much details to go upon as her mother didn¡¯t say much to her. Also her mother was also an Ice Maiden while Dawn was known as a light mage so there was also a chance they just looked very similar. In the end nothing came of it and Alice didn¡¯t pursue the matter any further. After a hearty breakfast at the Fairy Roost Inn before heading out to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Sigrid had now changed to simpler cloth compared to the blue dress she wore before to attract less attention but even so there were a lot of heads turning. They waited in the lobby for half an hour before everyone arrived and the vice guild master came out. The vice guild master was a tough yet beautiful looking woman in her early 30s. She would be very pretty if it wasn¡¯t for the frown that¡¯s on her face. ¡°Alright trainees, my name is Shannon but you will all call me teacher! Today you will begin basic training to become an adventurer. I know many of you think you know what it means to be an adventurer but I¡¯ll tell you now you don¡¯t!.¡± She suddenly released her aura and everyone is being crushed under her power ¡°All of you will listen to exactly what I say for the next 7 days and on the final day I¡¯ll rank you all on your performance. Does everyone here understand?¡± ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am!¡± Only few people along with Sigrid out of this group of roughy 40 people weren¡¯t completely suppressed by Shannon¡¯s aura. For Sigrid it wasn¡¯t a big deal, afterall she herself used to be rank A as well so even though she currently only has the power of a mid tier rank D she wasn¡¯t going to get shocked by the aura of a high tier rank A. The vice guild leader also let out a quick but faint smile when she notice the 3 people who were able to withstand her aura. However that was quickly replaced by shock as she notice Sigrid who wasn¡¯t even affected at all, it was as if this girl wasn¡¯t in her aura range. ¡°Not bad, it seems like there are indeed some good seeds this time. Max you old bastard, you owe me for making me do your hobby as a job.¡± With those thoughts in mind she withdrew her aura and lead the group into one of the large training halls of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. ¡°Ok we¡¯ll start with some general information about being an adventurer. You all have registered as an adventurer of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, this gives you access to the guild¡¯s resources but in return you are to fulfill requests given by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. For Adventurers at rank G you must complete at least 1 request a week or your status as a member will be evoked and can¡¯t rejoin for half a year. Rank F adventurers also have to complete at least 1 request a week or else they will be demoted to rnake G. Rank D and C adventurers need to complete a request of at least difficulty D or higher every month or they will be demoted as well. Rank B adventurers must complete at least 1 rank B requests every year or they will be demoted. Once you have reached Rank A or above you won¡¯t have to complete any requests to maintain your rank but should any disaster happens the guild has the right to conscript you to help. Once you have helped once the guild can¡¯t force you to help again for 10 years.¡± The crowd of trainees all keenly listened to Vice Guild Leader Shannon¡¯s speech. Sigrid was paying extra attention as this was the main purpose of her mission. ¡°Now in order to raise up in rank you must complete requests posted by the guild or obtain some sort of achievement. A good example would be discovering something new in a dungeon and be the first to reported back to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Each request you take will be worth certain amount of points and once you have enough you may request for a promotion exam. The lower level promotion exam only requires you to fight a trainer but for rank B and higher you will be ask to complete mission along with being tested by us. And for those of your dreaming of rank S or higher well let¡¯s just say even if you complete requests for 1000 years you still won¡¯t be a rank S.¡± Hearing this a lot of people such in a deep breezed and began to talk among each other. Shannon let the chatter go for a bit before releasing her aura to shut everyone up. ¡°You all can worry about rank S once you manage to reach rank A. Now the basic training will include a test of your strength to see if you are even worthy of a rank G adventurer. Then you will be taught basic skills to survive in the wild. Followed by dungeon exploration guides and practice on how to work with people you have just met. The final day of basic training each of you will fight me with all you got. Your performance may allow you to skip ranks but be warned I¡¯m very picky. Alright everyone break up into 4 groups of 10 and follow one of these 4 trainers here.¡± With that everyone¡¯s attention turned to the 4 people that had entered the training ground while most of them were focused on the lesson. Everyone quickly broke up into 4 groups and went to different training halls. Nothing too interesting happened after that as Sigrid breathed through all the training. This training was mainly used to get brand new adventurer up to speed as quickly as possible but was completely useless for someone like Sigrid. However due to the circumstances she had to do this but she enjoyed herself as she learned a lot of things she never had before and got to interact with a lot more people. Soon 6 days of basic training passed. The entire city is excited as they knew that tomorrow there will be a show at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Tomorrow will the last day of this basic training session meaning that today the rookies will be fighting the Vice Guild Master. Everyone in the city had turned this into some sort of event and there were even illegal betting rings to bet on how far each trainee made it. Currently there are 3 other crowd favorites beside Sigrid who were all able to withstand the Vice Guild Master¡¯s aura. But none of those three can compare to Sigrid in terms of popularity that had been nicknamed The Jade Water Fairy. Sigrid had a pretty easy time and wasn¡¯t really nervous for the battle exam tomorrow at all. She and Alice enjoyed a nice dinner at the Fairy Roost Inn as they planned to head back right as the battle exam was over because they didn¡¯t want to worry Sage too much. Soon the final day of basic training arrived...
Edited by: Nova Chapter 21 - End Of Basic Training Here is chapter 21! Probably the most detailed fight I ever written (which doesn''t mean much as this is my first novel) so would love feed back on it so I can improve on it for the future!
The discovery of the Mana Ale was¡­ strange. The adventurers that discovered it first, thought it was just normal ale and decided to taste some on the spot. Sage thought it was an extremely dumb thing to do but not his problem. Sadly the adventurers were all fairly new rank G adventurer so with just a sip they were completely drunk. What happened afterwards were a series of strange events that ended up with the group of adventurers dancing half naked with a group of drunk goblins. In the end they were found by another group and taken out, the goblins were spared. ¡°Sir this was recently discovered inside dungeon.¡± Penny handed the gourd of Mana Ale to the guild master. He took the gourd, opened it, sniffed it, and poured himself a cup. Just as Penny was about to warn him about what happened he drank the small cup of Ale down. ¡°Sir! Are you ok?¡± Penny quickly ran up toward the guild master, she found him smiling but he didn¡¯t seem drunk at all. ¡°Good Ale! Good Ale! Hahaha, I haven¡¯t tasted something like this in a long time!¡± The guild master let out a roar that shook the entire Adventurer¡¯s Guild building. ¡°This stuff is Mana Ale, it recovers a good amount of mana but the downside is that if your mana capacity is too low you easily get drunk. Now this is some good stuff. Oh this dungeon making me want to go inside for this alcohol. Hahaha¡± ¡°Sir! You can not go inside there!¡± Penny quickly walked forward and grabbed the gourd closing it. ¡°And I know how much of a drinker you are! Please remember that you are the guild master here.¡± She angrily walked out of the room with the gourd of Mana Ale. ¡°Ah¡­ can¡¯t believe I¡¯m getting scolded by a little girl. Still that Ale really hit the spot, it has been years since I drank something like that as Zeal has no way of producing it.¡± The guild master¡¯s eyes were shining as he looked out his window ¡°Hehehe little dungeon core, thank you for the little gift, guess I¡¯ll owe you one.¡± *Sage¡¯s Secret Chamber* ¡°Well that sure was¡­ interesting? Even though I saw the whole thing I still don¡¯t feel like I understood exactly what has happened.¡± Sage carefully pondered about everything that had transpired but finally gave up on it and went back to teaching the Goblin Shamans. ¡°I guess the Goblin Shamans are most skilled at brewing potions, so the skill book I tailored for them ended up focusing on liquid formed medication. And due to the high level of mana density it somehow turned the potion into alcohol but instead of getting drunk from the alcohol you get drunk from the mana.¡± Sage carefully studied the Mana Ale the goblin shamans had created to see if he could recreate other pills from his world in this form. He began to teach the goblin shamans how to make some of the alchemy tools that were needed for higher grade recipes. This once again proved to be very difficult as those tools were very intricate and complex while the goblin shamans were still too simple in comparison. ¡°I might have to teach Sigrid to help me make these tools. It¡¯s going to waste some of her cultivation time but the things it will help produce can easily negate the small amount of time wasted!¡± Now Sage was focusing all his attention at the secret entrance he had made for Sigrid and Alice to enter and leave the dungeon. Based on his calculation and the information he has gathered they will finish basic training around noon today so they should be back by nightfall. Sage was very excited for their return and if his soul wasn¡¯t so damaged he would probably feel how weird it was but right now he was completely lost in anticipation. Soon a figure appeared near the secret entrance¡­ *The City of Dawn, Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡¯s Main Battleground* ¡°Welcome trainees! You all have done well in these past 6 days. In this short period of time you have changed from a normal person into an adventurer. Remember the things you have learned here well as they will guide you for the rest of your lifes.¡± Shannon stood before the trainees with a smile on her face, a rare thing nowadays. ¡°Now we will proceed to the last test which is an one on one battle against me. Don¡¯t be afraid to go all out as you won¡¯t manage to hurt me. We will begin in order from front to back, everyone else please move to the sideline. Now begin!¡± Soon the battles started, Shannon purposely let the trainees show off what they could do. In truth there wasn¡¯t much for her to see as 6 days of training allowed her to gather enough data to not have to do this at all but the reason these fights were still done at the end, was to see if anyone had been hiding their ability or sometimes someone¡¯s power only displayed in true combat. This fight would allow Shannon to draw everything out of them. Among the trainees here today there were 3 people here who Shannon knew were holding back. However, beside those 3, there was one person that she really needed to test and that was Sigrid The Jade Water Fairy. It was very rare for an adventurer to get a nickname during basic training but many would just play that off as her looks but Shannon knew. Sigrid was at least a league above the rest and at least high tier rank G in terms of power. Even though Sigrid had been holding back really well Shannon could still easily see through that Sigrid was holding back. The mock battles went by fairly quick, most adventurers fought for less than 5 minutes because Shannon decided it was enough and ended the battle. The only fights that were different were the 3 talented newcomers. Two of them fought for almost 10mins while the last one went on for 15 before Shannon decided to finish the fight. Although the fights were fast, there were a total of 40 people so by the end when it was Sigrid¡¯s turn more than 3 hours had passed. All previous 39 trainees had been easily beaten by Shannon after she tested out their abilities and now it was finally Sigrid¡¯s turn. Shannon¡¯s eyes lit up as she called Sigrid up for the fight. Sigrid also seemed to pick up on Shannon¡¯s excitement, immediately becoming very cautious and confused. Sigrid walked to the center of the training ground and ready herself. Shannon saw that Sigrid was ready and shouted, ¡°Begin!¡± Sigrid quickly casted multiple water bullets and shot them at Shannon but all of them were easily dodged. Seeing that direct attacks would be pointless Sigrid quickly moved to Shannon¡¯s side and shot water bullets from Shannon¡¯s flank. However as they got close they suddenly merged together and formed a thin veil between Sigrid and Shannon. Shannon was startled by this but didn¡¯t mind it too much, once someone had reached her level of strength sight wasn¡¯t as important when comparing to sensing your surrounding with your mana. Even though Shannon¡¯s view of Sigrid was blocked she could still easily sense where Sigrid was and what Sigrid was doing. Sigrid rapidly prepared many water bullets and shot them toward Shannon. Shannon couldn¡¯t help but let out a smirk and thought, ¡°You¡¯ll need to try harder than that to touch me little girl.¡± She could sense the water bullets were coming behind the veil and prepared to destroy them all. However when they got close to the veil of water the veil didn¡¯t collapse but instead the water bullets fused into the veil. Suddenly the veil expanded rapidly and surrounded Shannon. At first the layer of water surrounding her was thin but as more water pullets hit the wall of water became over 1 meter thick. Shannon was completely caught off guard by this as the water surrounded and engulfed her. She was honestly surprised by the sudden turn of events but couldn¡¯t help but praise Sigrid in her heart for being able to come up with something like this. This move required very precise control of one¡¯s own mana and mastery of water magic. If a rank E adventurer was trapped in this unless they had some hidden ace they would be at her mercy. She let out a big smile as energy quickly gathered in her sword. Her sword began to slowly glow brighter and brighter, finally it suddenly became too bright forcing everyone to cover their eyes. When the light disappeared so did the water trapping Shannon. Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but let out a wry smile ¡°This is the power of a high tier rank A alright to be able to get out of that so easily. Guess I showed enough of my hand already so it¡¯s time to get beaten.¡± With that in mind Sigrid prepared herself for Shannon¡¯s attacks. Suddenly she felt a sense of danger and quickly summon a water bullet to her left as she dodged left. Immediately after a fist punched through the water bullet and she just barely dodge that hit. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Not bad, using the water bullets to slow my attacks down so you have time to dodge. Sigrid you shouldn¡¯t have been holding back during basic training.¡± Shannon stood before Sigrid with a bright smile on her face but somehow caused Sigrid¡¯s heart to sink. ¡°But this is the final mock battle and you will have to use your full power whether you like it or not. I won¡¯t kill you or leave any lasting injuries but if you keep holding back you might find yourself a guest at this Adventurer¡¯s Guild for a few months. Although with someone as pretty as you I wouldn¡¯t really mind personally nursing you back to health.¡± Sigrid shivered at those word and immediately felt danger to her left and once again dodged with the help of the water bullets. This continued as Shannon¡¯s attack became faster and faster making it harder and harder to Sigrid to dodge even with the help of the water bullets to slow down the attacks. The audience were at a shock to see someone holding out against the Vice Guild Master¡¯s rain of attacks. But soon Sigrid was no longer able to keep up and a punch that would break the bones in her left arm came crashing towards her with no time to dodge. ¡°I can¡¯t afford to get injured here! Sage is still waiting for us to go back!¡± Suddenly there was a white glow as the punch connected and there was the sound of something shattering. Everyone in the audience gasped thinking it was Sigrid¡¯s arm but soon they saw Sigrid looking perfectly fine 10 meter from Shannon. The entire audience was confused except for a few who were able to see what happened. ¡°Such fine control over ice¡­ could it be the Ice Maiden? No that¡¯s impossible the Ice Maiden¡¯s aura would shine like a beacon and would have been discovered by us the moment she came near the city.¡± ¡°What if she reached rank S and can hide her aura now?¡± ¡°You moron! She was heavily injured and hunted for over a month. Her power must have dropped down to rank F or G when she got away, it would be impossible for her to even be as strong as the girl before us. However keep a watch on her as she could be useful to us in the future.¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± Shannon let out a even bigger smile and whispered ¡°So you finally decided to show your real power?¡± Sigrid knew that she could no longer hold back unless she really wanted to stay here and be nursed by the Vice Guild Master for a few month. Just thinking about it caused her to shiver again and she quickly attacked. This time it was no longer slow and weak ice bullets but fast and deadly icicles. However they were all still easily destroyed by Shannon as they came into her range. Sigrid quickly moved by freezing the ground and gliding on the ice and sent out a wave of icicles and water bullets. After the icicles crashed into shannon the water bullets formed another veil between them. ¡°Don¡¯t think this will work a second time!¡± Shannon punched toward the veil to destroy it. However a hole suddenly opened up causing her fist to go through as an big icicle smashed into it to cancel out the force. Soon the water gathered around Shannon¡¯s wrist and force locking her in place. Before she could break free however the veil of water turned into ice and ice spikes shot out toward her forcing her to block with the left hand. Soon she gathered mana in her right hand and destroyed the veil of ice. However as soon as she broke free and got sight of Sigrid again it was already too late. Shannon¡¯s eyes widened as she saw a dark blue orb with a speck of pure white snow in the center appear before her. The orb instantly broke open and surrounded Shannon. The temperature dropped rapidly creating a thick layer of mist so no one could see what had happened. After the mist slowly dissipated everyone in the audience sucked in a breath of cold air. At where Vice Guild Master Shannon was there was an giant beautiful ice flower with the Vice Guild Master trapped inside. Soon the crowd erupted into chatter as most of them thought the trainee won against the Vice Guild Master. However Sigrid knew that this move could only stop Shannon for a while. This was the first technique she learned from the Ice Flow Cultivation Method Sage taught her. It was a very powerful technique but due to her current weakened state she couldn¡¯t use its full power and just one use drained almost all her mana. Suddenly she felt danger more than 10 time stronger than before but before she could even react a fist was already before her face. The ice flow had suddenly exploded as a figure charged out in flash and arrived before Sigrid. Sigrid couldn¡¯t do anything as the fist closed in on her but instead of a punch that would knock her head off she felt a gentle tap that caused her to fall to the ground. ¡°You should have gone all out when I told you to. But still not bad. That skill is powerful enough to easily kill any rank D adventurer but it looks like you¡¯re still too weak to use it more than once. Good job trainee.¡± Shannon reached out and picked Sigrid off the ground in a princess carry. Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but let out a yelp as she tried to struggle and get down but failed. The audience were all still shocked by the sudden turn of events as Shannon carried Sigrid out of the training hall. Shannon finally put Sigrid down when they reached the other trainees and Sigrid¡¯s face couldn¡¯t help but burn red. ¡°All of you did well and with this you are all officially adventurers of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild! Please go to the front desk and Jenny will update your badge to make you all official member and update your current rank.¡± Sigrid, embarrassed by everyone¡¯s look, quickly left to meet Alice who was waiting on the side of the training field. She rushed to Jenny, was the first one to get her badge updated and rushed out of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild without even giving Jenny any time to explain anymore. They dropped by the Inn to eat lunch and say goodbye to Hellan and Ellen. After a nice lunch they quickly left the city and headed towards the dungeon town. After walking for an hour Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but having this nagging feeling in her and finally said, ¡°Alice, I can¡¯t help but feel we forgot something¡­¡± Alice let out a sigh and felt sorry for the poor guy, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, we need to get back so Sage knows we are safe.¡± Sigrid nodded, ¡°You¡¯re right, we been gone for way longer than what was planned, he must be worried sick!¡± *Sage¡¯s Chamber That Night* The figure entered the secret tunnel and Sage was immediately able to tell who it was. ¡°Alice! You guys are back! You guys had me worried¡­¡± Sage suddenly focused on the entrance and couldn¡¯t find anything else, ¡°Where is Sigrid!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry Sage, Sigrid is fine but she just can¡¯t leave at this moment to come here.¡± Alice moved quickly through the secret tunnel and arrived in Sage¡¯s chamber ¡°After she arrived at the dungeon town she attracted a lot of attention from everyone and even got invited to dinner with the Guild Master. Since she is going to stay at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild today there was no way for her to sneak out without raising too much suspicion so I came instead.¡± Sage finally was able to relax after realizing both of them were safe. Only now did he truly realize how on edge and nervous he had been this whole time and this scared him greatly. It took a while for him to clear his mind and finally ask, ¡°So what exactly happened Alice? I heard from some adventurers that came in about some basic training for new adventurers which was the only reason I didn¡¯t send out monsters to find you guys.¡± ¡°Aw that¡¯s so sweet Sage... but like I said before sending monster out from the dungeon is very dangerous. If it was found out you would be marked for extermination and then me and Sigrid wouldn¡¯t have a home anymore.¡± Alice¡¯s tone became very serious at this point causing Sage to be slightly startled, ¡°You should have more faith in us Sage, after all we got those tokens from you too.¡± Sage pondered for a bit before finally saying, ¡°You¡¯re right, sorry for thinking so rashly.¡± ¡°Hehe, it¡¯s ok Sage, it was kinda cute.¡± Alice seemed to be in high spirits as she circled around Sage ¡°Tell me what happened in this past week Alice?¡± Sage¡¯s gaze locked onto Alice as he waited for her response. ¡°Well, it all started when we ran into some ogres in the forest¡­¡±
Edited By: Nova Chapter 22 - Laying Foundation Hello everyone one! I believe many of you have already seen our new cover ^_^ It is a picture of Sigrid and I''m very happy with the result =D I know some people imagine her to be older but I picture her with innocence as a key trait. My artistic skill is shit so the artist did a lot of work making this come to life with just my simple description Cover was done by Catastrophic_Finale Please check out his forum thread and his deviant art Here
Alice quickly went over what happened from when they met John to signing up being an adventurer to finding out about the basic training and the fight at the end of basic training. ¡°So she was forced to use her ice ability this early already?¡± Sage couldn¡¯t help but frown, however Alice wasn¡¯t able to see anything as Sage¡¯s body showed no expression. ¡°Was there any trouble due to this?¡¯ Alice only helplessly shook her head ¡°Not that we know of. We headed back almost directly after the mock battle was over, so we avoided a lot of people.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ be extra careful for now and if anything goes wrong return to the dungeon immediately. Once you guys are in the dungeon then everything becomes a lot easier.¡± Sage¡¯s voice was heavy at the end as he was still very worried. ¡°Understood Sage. Luckily we didn¡¯t come out of that with a total loss. Sigrid was granted rank E by the Vice Guild Master so she can already considered a high ranked adventurer for this dungeon.¡± Alice paused for a bit as her brow slightly furrowed, ¡°This is also the reason why she ended up being invited to dinner by the local Adventurers Guild¡¯s guild master.¡± Sage seemed to have picked up on Alice¡¯s slight change in facial expression and quickly asked ¡°Was there any problem with the guild master?¡± ¡°Not exactly.¡± Alice slowly shook her head. ¡°He is just a very powerful individual and being tested by him was very stressful. Luckily Sigrid didn¡¯t seem to notice the probing questions but I have a feeling he is suspicious of our origin. However he doesn¡¯t seem to care as long as we don¡¯t intent to cause the people any harm.¡± Sage pondered for a long time before he finally let out a sigh ¡°I should have known this would not be this easy. Be very careful Alice and pull back if anything goes wrong. I rather you two blow your cover if it means returning safely back here.¡± Alice felt touched by Sage¡¯s words and went up and hugged him to comfort him. Although Sage couldn¡¯t really feel anything the gesture still secretly calmed him down. After a while Alice let go and asked ¡°So Sage how have you been the past week?¡± ¡°It hasn¡¯t been that eventful since you two left but I did manage to create something nice, have a look.¡± Sage moved one of the gourds filled with Mana Ale over towards Alice. Alice seemed very confused by this but opened up the gourd. When the mana and smell came out from the gourd her eyes lit up and she quickly took a sip. ¡°Mana infused alcohol! And such large amount of mana too, this would make great mana recovery medication. The only down side is the mana intoxication people with small mana pool would feel.¡± Alice eyes were sparkling as she stared at the gourd. ¡°You never cease to amaze me Sage!¡± With that she took another gulp. Sage was happy that Alice liked it so much but soon he was kinda shocked as she drank the entire gourd. ¡°Alice are you ok? I know you like it but that was a lot of Mana Ale and even the Kobold Lord can only handle two gourd.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Sage, just a little mana like this won¡¯t affect me.¡± Alice licked her lips as she finished the gourd and tossed it aside. She looked perfectly normal as if she just drank some water. Sensing doubt from Sage she let out a laugh ¡°Sage we fairies are creatures that are very well adapted to storing a large amount of mana. We can hold a much larger supply of mana than other creatures of similar strength. If Sigrid was here she would be able to drink 10 gourd of this Mana Ale before she would be intoxicated by it.¡± Sage couldn¡¯t help but silently weep, it seemed that his plan of using this Mana Ale to speed up Sigrid¡¯s training wasn¡¯t going to be easy. At first he thought just 1 gourd would be enough but now he realized he needed 10 just at this level, he didn¡¯t even want to think about how much resources he would need later on. He couldn¡¯t help but sigh and mutter ¡°Even geniuses take a mountain of treasure to help them mature¡­¡± *Dungeon Town, Adventurers Guild* The guild master stood next to the window in his room looking outside. Today he met a brand new adventurer that just registered but was approved by Shannon to be rank E. Shannon even used the thunder hawk to get the message to him before she arrived. He was surprised that even Shannon was taking an interest in this Sigrid so he was looking forward to meeting her. She arrived at the dungeon town early in the evening and dropped by the Adventurers¡¯ Guild. Naturally she was immediately invited to a dinner with the guild master as he had been waiting for her. However what shocked the guild master the most, wasn¡¯t Sigrid¡¯s look or talent but the little red fairy sitting on her shoulder. He immediately recognized it as the fairy that he caught spying on the dungeon town when Team STAR came for the dungeon evaluation. According to Sigrid, this fairy had been with her for a long time but if this fairy was here over a month ago where had Sigrid been back then? This caused him to have a lot of questions and he tried his best to get the answer out of Sigrid. In the end the only thing he managed to get out of Sigrid was that she ran away from home but she wasn¡¯t willing to share more. Since the guild master really admired talented youths he decided to let it go. However he did give her a warning that, although he didn¡¯t mind where she came from, if she caused any trouble for the adventurers here he would have to act. She didn¡¯t seem intimidated by his words at all which caused him to become even more interested in her. This entire time he had been secretly pressuring her with his mana to try to crack the mask she put on but she was able to easily withstand it all. This type of mentality isn¡¯t something a mere rank E could have, only people in Team STAR had this kind of mental fortitude. The guild master couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh as he drank a gulp from a gourd ¡°This place is getting even more messy. I am wondering how much longer this peace will last¡­.¡± *A Room in the Dungeon Town¡¯s Adventurer¡¯s Guild* Sigrid laid on the bed in the dark room with her eyes wide open. Both she and Alice were shocked when they were invited to dinner by the guild master the moment they arrived. They agreed, seeing no harm in it, but the moment they meet the guild master she regretted agreeing. This man was scary, far scarier than anything she has faced so far beside her own mother. The entire time he was pressuring her with his mana to try to get information out of her. The only reason she managed to hold out, was by forcing herself to repeat the Ice Flow Cultivation Method to calm her heart. This ended up working surprisingly well as she quickly repeated the cultivation in her head and the mana in her body began to move in a certain way through her body. The pressure from the guild master¡¯s mana immediately lessened and she was able to maintain her mask. In the end she fed him the half truth of her running away from home but just as she thought it was over he suddenly became very serious. She could feel the air freeze solid around her, makingcausing her unable to move as he gave a warning about not causing any trouble around. By the time she regained her senses she was already being led to her room by the receptionist Penny. Only when she entered her room did the cold sweat cover her body as she recalled the warning. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Alice was completely silent the whole time as if she wanted to avoid the guild master at all cost. She finally spoke once they were alone again ¡°I need to go back to the dungeon and tell Sage what happened. You can¡¯t come with me right now, not with that old monster around. Stay here and I¡¯ll be back once I explain everything. Then tomorrow we can find a reason to go explore the woods and go meet Sage.¡± Sigrid really wanted to go back to meet Sage as well but after hearing Alice¡¯s words she silently nodded and obediently stayed behind. She couldn¡¯t sleep as she was waiting for Alice to return with news from Sage. In the dark she couldn¡¯t help but think of what happened during dinner and began to repeat the Ice Flower Cultivation Method in her head. The mana once again cycled through her body allowing her to reach a state of extreme calmness. She quickly set up into a lotus position and continued to experience this mysterious feeling. She could clearly feel the mana in her body moving like it had never done before and with each time the mana cycled through her body some of it would enter her muscle and bone making them stronger. Soon she was completely lost in this feeling and didn¡¯t even notice Alice silently sneaking through the window. Alice was about to greet Sigrid but she suddenly noticed something off about Sigrid and decided to not bother Sigrid. After waiting for a long time and seeing that there wasn¡¯t any change, Alice gave up waiting and went to sleep. Sigrid continued in this mysterious state as the mana nourished her body. Soon the sun rose and Sigrid slowly opened her eyes. Even though she hadn¡¯t slept for a wink last night, she felt well rested and refreshed. Suddenly she realized it was morning and panicked as she looked around. However after seeing Alice sleeping on a pillow provided by the guild she let out a breath. She moved her body and felt the change that had occurred that night. Her body had changed but she wasn¡¯t sure how because her injury hadn¡¯t recovered more than normal and the amount of mana she had in her body remained the same yet she knew something changed. In the end she gave up and decided to ask Sage about it later. She got up and walked next to Alice to wake her up. Alice begrudgingly got up after much effort from Sigrid. After she fully awakened, Alice told Sigrid what Sage said and they made plans to go back to meet Sage today. Both quickly got ready and left the room. They reached the receptionist desk and registered for an entry slot to enter the dungeon for tomorrow. After that they asked for Penny to recommend them an inn to stay at. Penny offered them to stay here long term but they declined. It would be far too troublesome to be around that old monster all the time. Finally Penny gave up and gave them a letter of recommendation and pointed them to the Treasure Inn. They quickly reached the Treasure Inn and rented a room for a week. After that Sigrid put on a blue cloak to cover her appearance and they snuck into the woods. Once they were sure that there was no one following them they headed toward the secret entrance into the dungeon. *Sage¡¯s Chamber* After Alice left, Sage thought about the guild master for a bit. From Alice¡¯s description this person was very powerful and could probably easily crush him right now. He couldn¡¯t help but smile bitterly, even though he had made a lot of progress he was still very weak. He spent the night finishing up the 3rd floor and decided to allow Sigrid to be the one to ¡°discover¡± it first allowing her to move up the adventurer¡¯s rank faster. Time quickly passed and it was getting close to noon when two figures appeared near the secret entrance. Sage¡¯s attention immediately focused there as he saw Sigrid and Alice enter the secret tunnel and walked toward his chamber. Soon they arrived and only then did Sage finally feel all the weight on his heart lifted. This feeling kinda surprised him and left him speechless. ¡°Greeting master, I¡¯m sorry for the late return.¡± Sigrid took off her cloak and bowed toward Sage. ¡°No worries, I¡¯m just glad you are o¡­ ¡° Suddenly Sage paused as he focused on Sigrid and after awhile he laughed ¡°Sigrid it seems you managed to have a breakthrough during your time away!¡± Sigrid was startled and quickly responded ¡°What do you mean master?¡± ¡°Do you not feel it yourself? Do you not feel like your body has changed but no matter what you don¡¯t know why?¡± Sage¡¯s voice contained a hint of tenderness. ¡°Yes I do.¡± Sigrid quickly explained what happened the night before. ¡°After spending the night like that I felt the change to my body but my injury hasn¡¯t healed, my body isn¡¯t stronger, and my mana hasn¡¯t increased at all. What exactly is this feeling master?¡± ¡°You have begun to lay the foundation for the future Sigrid. This is a very important step for the future so you mustn¡¯t rush this. Slowly absorb and cycle the mana through your body to nourish it and once your body has reached its limit you will be ready to move on to the next stage of your training.¡± Sage¡¯s voice slowly became very serious. ¡°Remember to not rush this process and let it naturally happen or else you may destroy your own future.¡± Sigrid quickly nodded, ¡°Yes master!¡± Alice seemed to find the right time and added ¡°So Sage what is the plan?¡± Sage¡¯s voice returned back to normal, ¡°I¡¯m almost done with the 3rd floor so I was thinking about opening it up tomorrow and allowing you two to be the first to discover it?¡± ¡°Good idea Sage, the Adventurers¡¯ Guild seems to value new information a lot, so this should speed up Sigrid¡¯s climb up the ranks.¡± Alice was very happy at how much Sage had grown to even consider this. They quickly came up with a plan and then the rest of the day Sage focused his attention on teaching Sigrid¡­ *Dungeon Town, Treasure inn* ¡°Sir, all 12 ¡°volunteers¡± have successfully entered the dungeon town without being detected.¡± ¡°Good, now split them up into 4 groups of 3 and have them form parties. Have them spend the next month forming a good relationship with their party members. Send message to the forces to the south that the operation will start 1 month from now.¡± ¡°Yes sir! Also we have tracked that girl Sigrid here as well. She had dinner with the guild master last night and now is staying at this inn as well. She has also signed up to enter the dungeon tomorrow.¡± ¡°Ah good, I¡¯ll personally deal with her. She will be a key pawn in our plan.¡± *Forest Outside Dungeon Town* A lone figure walked through the forest heading toward the dungeon town. ¡°I can¡¯t believe she is rank E already.¡± The figure sighed, ¡°She could have at least waited for me before rushing to the dungeon town. I finished my promotion exam only a few hour after the mock battles were over. I still can¡¯t believe that old man lied to me and sent me into such a place! But still at least now I¡¯m the same rank as her...¡±
Edited by: Nova Chapter 23 - The Assigned Party Hello everyone and all the new readers! It has been a pretty amazing day. About 24 hrs ago I posted the last chapter and broke into rank 5 on the weekly view then I went to sleep woke up and just watched the views soar up through out the day! The dream of world domination is at hand! err I mean monthly ranking ya monthly ranking... As I said before feel free to sent me art of this novel and I''ll post them. Currently hording all of them, might make a little art book or something someday. Anyways here is a fan art of what the artist thought the scene of when Sage meet the crystal was like. Fan art by (F)art, Silent but deadly.
The day went by quickly and Sigrid and Alice returned to their inn before it got dark. However when they walked into the inn a voice called out to them, ¡°Sigrid! Alice!¡± This caused them to turn around to see John walking towards him. Sigrid was startled for a second before letting out a smile and saying, ¡°Hello John, how did your promotion exam go?¡± John walked up to them, he looked different somehow, a lot more mature. ¡°It went well, was tricked by the old man but it worked out for the better. I finished shortly after the mock battles, I wanted to come and congratulate you but you were already gone.¡± Sigrid suddenly realized something and felt bad for leaving John behind like that but it had been crucial that they reported back to Sage back then. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, was just too excited about the dungeon so I rushed hoping that I could join.¡± Alice suddenly flew between them and smiled, ¡°Sorry to break up this reunion but maybe we should go inside the inn and talk over dinner instead?¡± Both Sigrid and John realized they were blocking the entrance and starting to attract too much attention. They let out an embarrassed smile and entered the Treasure Inn. The group quickly found a table on the side and ordered some food. After they settled down and food came, Sigrid took a closer look at John and noticed something was off. She noticed his change when they just met outside but now she realized there was something more. Sigrid focused closely on John and was suddenly startled by the mana she felt from John, ¡°You already reached rank E!¡± John was also startled by Sigrid¡¯s little outburst, he quickly recovered himself and smiled ¡°Well I thought I was going on an promotion exam for rank F but that old man tricked me. I can¡¯t tell you the details but I can say I went through hell and back in that week. Still I thought I would finally be a match for you but it seems I¡¯m still far away.¡± Both Alice and Sigrid didn¡¯t speak for a while as they processed this information. Finally Alice regained her senses and asked ¡°Old man?¡± ¡°Oh, I meant the guild master. He pays a lot of attention to us new adventurers so we are used to calling him old man. It was him who sent me to take that rank F exam, it turned out to be a lot more than what he originally told me.¡± John shivered, ¡°But in the end I¡¯m glad about what he did.¡± Sigrid finally regained her senses and smiled ¡°That¡¯s amazing John, congratulation! Now we are the same rank and can go explore the dungeon together.¡± John shook his head and let out a bitter smile, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that won¡¯t be possible right now.¡± Sigrid looked confused and asked, ¡°Why?¡± John took a drink from his cup, ¡°It is because the dungeon is currently too weak right now. A rank E is already the limit of what the Adventurers Guild allows to enter the dungeon, they don¡¯t allow two to be in the same party as it would be too easy. Since you signed up to enter you will probably be paired up with a few new rank G adventurers to even out the strength of your party.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be paired up with other people?¡± Sigrid was surprised at the news, ¡°Don¡¯t adventurers get to form their own teams? ¡°Yes, normally that is the case but this dungeon is not exactly normal.¡± John helplessly shook his head, ¡°Everyone wants to go into this dungeon but it¡¯s simply too young to sustain everyone so there is a limitation placed to allow as much people to explore the dungeon as possible. If you sign up with your own team then it is fine but since you signed up by yourself you are going to have to take whoever the guild gives you.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Sigrid thought about this and decided to just see what happens. Afterall her mission was to simply gather information so who she was with is hardly important, it¡¯s not like she needs anything from the dungeon. They talked until they finished dinner and parted ways. It seems the guild master had some special task prepared for John and he would need to go do them. John said he would be done with them after a week so they agreed to meet up for dinner again once he completed them. As they walked back in, Alice noticed someone sitting in the corner of the Inn. This person looked like he was in his early 20s and gave off a very calm and elegant feel. She noticed he was looking at Sigrid and casually looked over. It wasn¡¯t really anything strange as Sigrid attracted everyone¡¯s attention but as she looked over their gaze locked for a moment. ¡°...¡± Alice quickly broke the gaze and no longer bothered with him. The person sitting in the corner took a drink and his smile grew wider. ¡°Interesting, this might be easier than planned¡­¡± The night went by quietly and it was now dawn. Sigrid and Alice got up and had breakfast at the Treasure Inn before heading over to the Adventurers¡¯ Guild. When they arrived at the front desk, Penny greeted them, ¡°Hello Sigrid and Alice, are you both ready for your trip to The Sage Dungeon today?¡± ¡°Yes, we are Penny.¡± Sigrid smiled back at Penny. ¡°Great!¡± Penny quickly flipped through some papers, ¡°We have assigned you 4 rank G adventurers to form a party with you. I¡¯m sorry for the trouble but in order to maximize gain from the dungeon we pair up higher rank adventurers with lower ranked ones to even out the strength of the party.¡± Sigrid pondered for a bit and said, ¡°What if I had my own party when I sign up? What happens then?¡± ¡°That would depend on your party. If it is too powerful then we can¡¯t allow you to enter the dungeon until the dungeon is strong enough. If your party is at the correct strength then you will be assigned a time slow but this is usually a longer wait.¡± Penny sorted the papers in her hands. ¡°Please wait over there for the rest of your party to show up. This group of 4 came together but requested for a stronger adventurer to guide them as it is their first time. We thought it would be a good chance for you since you guys were all in the same basic training.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Oh, really?¡± Sigrid was curious to who they were as she didn¡¯t really talk to anyone during basic training. ¡°Thank you Penny, I¡¯ll be waiting then.¡± Soon the group of 4 adventurers arrived and they were quickly introduced to Sigrid. They were all at shock that Sigrid was the one who would be leading them but having seen the fight between Sigrid and the vice guild master they were very happy. ¡°Hello Sigrid, my name is George!¡± The person that seemed to be the leader of the group walked up to Sigrid with his hand stretched out. Alice¡¯s gaze locked on to him for a second recognizing him as the young man who stared at Sigrid the night before in the inn. Sigrid shook his hand and smiled, ¡°Nice to meet you all, are you all ready to head out?¡± George let out a smile and said, ¡°Yes, we can¡¯t wait to enter the dungeon as well.¡± They quickly left the guild and reached the entrance of the dungeon. After they showed their pass to the guard at the entrance they went inside. ¡°What do you guys specialize in? I would like to know how each of you fight so I can act accordingly.¡± Sigrid¡¯s tone became very serious and she looked at the group. George let out a bright smile and said, ¡°Me, James, and Greg are all melee fighters while Jimmy is an archer. We all have some experience in close combat but none of us knows how to use magic.¡± Sigrid thought for a moment and nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll let you guys handle the monsters on the first floor. I don¡¯t need any of the drops so they are yours to keep.¡± George shook his head, ¡°This won¡¯t do! We can¡¯t just have you leave empty handed.¡± Sigrid felt helpless but Alice suddenly popped out and said, ¡°How about this? If you guys defeat the monster, the drop is yours but if Sigrid had to step in then the drop is ours. Sounds good?¡± George was startled by the sudden suggestion but quickly recovered himself, ¡°That is an excellent idea, what do you think Sigrid?¡± Sigrid could only nod her head, she knew Alice¡¯s idea was for the best or else it would seem too weird that she would work for nothing. They began their way through the dungeon and the group didn¡¯t have too much trouble making their way through first floor. While there were a few close calls none of them really required Sigrid to act. After being inside for over an hour Sigrid muttered to Alice, ¡°Alice I never realized this but did you notice how well placed all the rooms and monsters are?¡± Alice was startled and asked with a confused look, ¡°What do you mean?¡± Sigrid pondered for a bit, ¡°Well you won¡¯t think about it if you just walk through it but after being with this party for over an hour it became really obvious. All the rooms and mobs are designed in a way that rank G adventurers would be challenged but rarely in danger. A lot of the monster placements would give them a decent fight but there is always a safe place to retreat to and you would rarely run into too many monsters at once. It¡¯s almost as if this is a training camp rather than a dungeon.¡± Alice remained silent for a long time and finally nodded. They continued for another hour before making it to the second floor. Once they reached there they decided to take a break before moving further into the dungeon. Sigrid recalled the past 2 hours of fighting and after coming up with a plan for the 2nd floor she walked up to the rest of them. ¡°Ok, from what I¡¯ve seen from you guys on the first floor, you guys should be safe as long as you guys don¡¯t do anything risky. However this is the second floor and while I¡¯m here, I advise you to be careful as there might be danger that can kill you before I can act. But rest assured that I¡¯ll do my best to keep you all alive.¡± The rest of the group all nodded back at Sigrid and they prepared to head out. The second floor monsters provided a bit more challenge than the first floor with the increase of the elite goblins and elite kobolds. Against one of them the group did fine but against one that is leading a small group they were hard pressured. Finally one encounter that had two elite goblins required Sigrid to act. She felt bad attacking the goblins because she knew that they wouldn¡¯t hurt her or Alice due to their connection with Sage but to keep this lie going she had to be merciless. ¡°Thank you for saving us Sigrid¡­. if you weren¡¯t here¡­. we would have been in big trouble....¡± George was breathing hard as he walked over to thank Sigrid. Sigrid only smiled and lead them to a safe spot to rest while she kept ¡°watch¡± but in reality all the monsters that would have came over turned around and left once they saw her. Steadily they made their way through the second floor, the route they walked was one planned by Sage the night before. The idea was to get to the entrance to the 3rd floor as quickly as possible but also make it so that it doesn¡¯t feel like they walked into a boss room. The entrance to the next floor is always in the boss room of the floor above it. Before the next floor is open the boss would be in that room so many time weak adventurer would never consider going inside to check. Now if Sigrid was by herself it wouldn¡¯t have been an issue but after finding out she was going to be assigned a party then this would be an issue. Alice made a quick trip back to the dungeon to inform Sage of the change and Sage quickly modified the previous second floor boss room and some passageways so that it would feel like they just entered another room but in reality entered the old second floor boss room. This way there wouldn¡¯t be an issue of the party being too scared to check the boss room. They spent over three hours inside the second floor before they finally made it to the boss room of the second floor. Of course no one but Alice and Sigrid knew so they entered it only to find nothing but stairs going down. George had a confused expression on his face, ¡°What is this? Stairs going down but where does it lead?¡± Sigrid pretended to be excited and shouted, ¡°Could this be the stairs to the third floor! I can sense denser mana down there.¡± The rest of the group were shocked as well as they weren¡¯t expecting this. ¡°But isn¡¯t the path down to the third floor supposed to be in the boss room?¡± George couldn¡¯t understand why the stairs were there. ¡°I¡¯m not sure but only one way to find out, stay behind me.¡± Sigrid waved her arm and headed towards the stairs. Everyone else looked at each other and followed behind her. Soon they descended down the stairs and felt the mana density increase. ¡°These really are the stairs to the third floor¡­¡±
Edited by: Nova Chapter 24 - The Third Floor Hello everyone this is a lot later than normal, had to sleep early to get up early today for work related thing so I put it off posting it until I got up so my editors could have time with it. Enjoy!
They rested at the entrance room to the 3rd floor, everyone besides Sigrid and Alice were very excited. Discovering a new floor was a big deal for rookies like them as the rewards for new discoveries were alway good. While they happily chatted among themselves Sigrid looked into the dungeon while going over the plan in her head. Soon everyone was rested and Sigrid walked up to them, ¡°I know you are all very excited about the discovery of a new floor but this is also very dangerous. Everything in this floor is completely unknown so I¡¯ll take the lead and gauge the enemy¡¯s strength. Only fight when I say it¡¯s ok and we should be safe. Ok?¡± ¡°Ok!¡± Sigrid sent a dazzling smile as she turned around and headed into the tunnels of the 3rd floor. *Sage¡¯s Chamber* Alice came back the night before to inform Sage of the sudden change which required them to adjust their plans accordingly. However the party was unwilling to enter the boss room. However, this was easily solved with a simple change to the boss room¡¯s appearance. Sage was at first worried that the change would draw unnecessary attention because the adventurers had a map of the second floor already. But Alice reassured him that it wouldn¡¯t be an issue. She told him that since the dungeon was so young, having the floors change was a pretty normal thing. After the new plans were made Alice quickly returned to Sigrid while Sage began his experiments. He had reached a limit with the goblin shamans for now as it seemed, the Mana Ale being the only thing they could produce with the given resources. As for the training of the monsters they were going as planned, but with how simple the cultivation techniques were there wasn¡¯t anything left for Sage to teach them. Now they only needed time to gain experience through the trials rooms. As for the dungeon floor expansion, since his soul had recovered a little, a piece of him could continue the expansion without him having to worry about it anymore. Now that he had done all he could for now to increases his defenses, he began to try and understand the world more. The first thing he was going to work on was this mana, an energy source very similar to Qi yet so different at the same time. He noticed the difference right away when he arrived in this world but due to the given situation at the time and all the events that followed, he never really had the time to deal with it and just used it like how he used Qi. This worked fine in terms of absorbing it but he had a lot of difficulty controlling it. At first he thought it was due to his injured soul which had been causing him many other issues. Now, that he had recovered to the level of an Elementary rank 10 cultivator, his control over mana was only as good as an Elementary rank 1¡¯s control on Qi. This made him realize that, while similar, he had to learn how this new energy source worked, if he wished to increase his chances of survival. Through his observation of the monsters and all the adventurers so far the one thing he noticed was that mana was used very differently. The first thing every cultivator did, was to use the Qi to nourish and enhance the body. This was the stage Sigrid was currently at, where the Qi cycled through her body and built a better foundation. Once the foundation was set, a new foundation was laid on top and this process repeated itself 10 times throughout the foundation building stage to make sure the cultivator¡¯s body was ready for more power. After that a core was formed and this became the key source of Qi for a cultivator. Before forming their core, cultivators would rely heavily on the Qi in their surroundings but once the core was formed they could generate their own Qi. Once you have formed a core you can be considered a real cultivator. However mana was used very differently, instead of using the mana to nourish and enhance the body, creatures here seemed to cover themselves in a protective aura subconsciously. The more mana in their body the more powerful their body becomes, allowing them to break the physical limitation that held them back. After this past month of observation, Sage had also concluded that the difference between the so called fighters and mages in this world was simply people that excelled at different types of mana control. Fighters lacked fine control but they could move mana through their body extremely well, so they excelled at using it to reinforce their own body to fight. Mages had much finer control of mana allowing them to use it for ranged attacks but their speed at moving the mana was lacking, making their defense a lot weaker. However there are people that seemed to excel at both but still stick to these archetypes which confused Sage greatly. But the key difference he noticed was that none of the adventurers or creatures he met generated any mana, they all absorbed it from their surrounding. In theory if they were to run out of mana in place with no mana then even the strongest fighter in this world would just be a normal person. ¡°If only I can create a void zone but for mana then maybe....¡± Just at that moment Sage noticed a group of people entering the dungeon. He quickly put his thoughts on hold and checked the entrance. Just as he guessed it was Sigrid¡¯s party that had arrived. Sage quickly double checked the dungeon layout again to make sure everything was as planned before focusing back on Sigrid¡¯s party. He watched them slowly progress through the first floor and carefully observed their encounters. Sage had been working hard on making each dungeon floor with the idea of a training location in mind, where the adventurer would always feel threatened but also left a way out. Of course he wasn¡¯t going soft, if the adventurer failed to make the right decision, they would die. However he did want to let the adventurers get the most out of his dungeon so they could spread his fame. ¡°Hmmm, maybe this place could use another patrol. The escape point for this fight was far too obvious and easy.¡± ¡°It seems I have to weaken this group a bit so if they happen to run into two squads at once they will try to fight.¡± ¡°Oh, this movement pattern for the elite mobs needs to be fixed here. There shouldn¡¯t be two of them grouped up against rank G adventurers.¡± Sage followed along Sigrid¡¯s group and used this chance to study the adventurer¡¯s use of mana as well as how to improve his dungeon. For him it is very good to observe the weak adventurers as their lack of mana control made everything they do extremely obvious and easy to pick up. However one of the adventurers, a young and elegant man, seemed to have much higher control of his mana than the rest of the rank G¡¯s. While he still showed some mana leak, it felt a bit odd. But since Sage was still learning he didn¡¯t find it too weird. After more than 4 hours they finally made it to the 3rd floor and it seemed Sigrid successfully lured them into the third floor. While they were taking a break before heading deeper into the third floor Sage ordered one of the Elementary White Tigers into position so that it is the first monster they encountered. He also placed a gourd of Mana Ale so Sigrid would get it, this way Sage can keep supplying her with more without raising too much suspicion. The group quickly encountered the Elementary White Tiger and Sage saw the rest of the group immediately back away. Sigrid stepped up and ¡°fought¡± with the tiger. She purposely let the tiger ¡°use¡± all its attacks before defeating it. That way she could turn in a detailed report and her party wouldn¡¯t question it. And as planned the Mana Ale dropped and was given to her. Then the group explored around 10% of the third floor before heading back out. Overall everything went as planned and Sage was even able to use this chance to test out his dungeon floor design. One thing he did notice was how well Sigrid was able to lead and teach that group of adventurers. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°This should help Sigrid move closer to rank D but if she does reach rank D then she won¡¯t be able to enter this dungeon until I grow more. I guess we¡¯ll have to take this one slowly...¡± Sage suddenly paused and after a long time he shouted ¡°That¡¯s it! That¡¯s what has been bugging me about mana. All the creatures here seem to have a really hard time nourishing and enhancing their body with mana.¡± Sage suddenly recalled Sigrid when he was teaching her, while she gathered mana into her body at an amazing rate the rate at which it integrated was extremely slow. This was why even though Sigrid should have broken through to foundation establishment she was still stuck at Elementary rank 10. The experience she had at the Adventurers Guild should have been her breakthrough yet she only managed to lay about 10% of the first layer of foundation. This was indeed a very big issue if Sage wished to use his knowledge to train a powerful enough fighting force to protect himself. He quickly summoned a few of his elite troops he had been training and order them to cycle the mana through their body and integrate it. This was going to be a slow and painful process but it was something he must figure out as soon as possible. *Adventurers¡¯ Guild¡± ¡°Wow just the first day and you guys have already discovered the 3rd floor!¡± Penny almost hit her head on the ceiling when she jumped out of her chair from hearing the news, ¡°And you guys even found a new monster as well? This is pretty amazing for the first dungeon run.¡± George shook his head and let out a wry smile, ¡°No, it was all lucky really. The dungeon happened to have changed so we didn¡¯t even realize we walked into the boss room and found the stairs leading down. After we reached the third floor we were basically useless, if Sigrid hadn''t been there we probably would have all died on the third floor.¡± ¡°I only helped where it was needed, they did a great job clearing through floor 1 and 2 by themselves. As the rank E adventurer in charge I have to take the lead when going into unknown territory to ensure the party¡¯s safety. It is my job.¡± Sigrid shook her head with a smile. ¡°Still you have been a great leader and teacher to us all. We felt like we improved so much from just one dive into the dungeon. I know we are very weak compared to you but I hope that you would party with us again in the future.¡± George let out a bright smile and reached out his hand. Sigrid felt embarrassed at the praise but also didn¡¯t know how to respond. She felt they had a lot of potential and she really enjoyed teaching them but this was not something she could easily agree upon. However just as she was hesitating Alice suddenly popped out, ¡°Are you guys trying to take advantage of her kindness? Do you guys know how many people would want to party with her?¡± Suddenly George¡¯s party became very embarrassed and didn¡¯t know what to say but just as he was about to talk, Alice cut him off, ¡°But you guys did show potential so when she is free she will consider teaching you guys again.¡± Sigrid was as startled as everyone else and looked toward Alice only to see Alice nodding back to her. Sigrid immediately recovered and smiled, ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll be happy to teach you guys in the future. Train hard and you might even become stronger than me one day.¡± George¡¯s party all thanked Sigrid again before leaving. ¡°Wow you are really a natural born leader Sigrid.¡± Penny was back with Sigrid¡¯s reward, ¡°This is the first time I seen a group of rookie adventurers respect a higher ranked rookie adventurer this much. Most of them think that the higher ranked rookies are just lucky and that they are just as good. It¡¯s hard to make them admit you are better you know.¡± ¡°Is that so? But those guys seemed like they are smart so I guess they didn¡¯t care about something like this.¡± Sigrid couldn¡¯t really think of why they wanted her to teach them. Penny smiled and handed the reward over, ¡°Well we could always use someone with leadership skills like yours. If you ever wish to do this again please tell me.¡± Sigrid accepted the reward, ¡°Thank you but I think I¡¯ll take a few days break for now.¡± With that they left the Adventurers¡¯ Guild and returned to the Treasure Inn. Once they ordered dinner to their room and once they returned Sigrid immediately turned to Alice, ¡°What was that Alice? Why did you agree for me?¡± Alice looked at Sigrid calmly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I have discussed this with Sage before. Since we need to blend in with the adventurers you will need a team. Instead of joining an existing team and running into the risk the truth leaking out, me and Sage decided it was best to form the team ourselves. That way we can hand pick talented rookies and train them ourselves to ensure maximum loyalty. While the others aren¡¯t much but that George guy is very talented so he would make a good candidate.¡± Sigrid relaxed a lot more after hearing that, ¡°Sorry for doubting you Alice.¡± Alice shook her head, ¡°No it was my bad for not telling you about this sooner, just didn¡¯t seem important at the time. Ok, I need to head back to Sage to update him and see what he wishes to do next.¡± With that she flew out the window. Sigrid looked out the window as Alice disappeared into the distance, wishing that she too could fly. *Somewhere hidden in the Dungeon Town* ¡°Good job everyone this dungeon run was success. We were able to approach the target and even manage to get a promise for future parties.¡± ¡°Thank you sir!¡± ¡°Now what are the reports from the other teams?¡± ¡°Sir! The others have all formed their own team and have signed up for dungeon times so things are moving as planned sir!¡± ¡°You guys sure are having a party here.¡± ¡°Who is that?!¡± ¡°Quiet you fools! So you¡¯re finally here, didn¡¯t think I would be getting back up but seem like this job is going to be a piece of cake.¡± ¡°Hmph, you¡¯re lucky I happen to be around to help you. Try not to screw this up. Here is the thing you wanted¡± ¡­. ¡°Damn it! That person always ticks me off acting all high and mighty like that but just wait until I complete this mission for Demon Lord Zoar! See how mighty you will act once I gain his blessing and become second in command! Muahaha!¡±
Edited by: Nova and The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 25 - One Month Part 1 Hello everyone here is chapter 25! Getting closer and closer to end of book 1 ^_^ Enjoy!
After Sigrid¡¯s group left, Sage went back to observing the other adventurers inside the dungeon. He needed to see how they controlled mana here and refine his own control using them as an example. This was pretty easy on rank G adventurers but on rank F and even some of the higher rank G it was difficult. The new rank G adventurers didn¡¯t know to put up an mana barrier to prevent Sage from scanning them but all the adventurers that had been to a dungeon for a while learned this little trick. Of course if Sage got stronger, then those barriers would mean nothing but right now they were proving to be a hassle. Sage thought he could just avoid those people for now but then realized that soon he wouldn¡¯t be able to advance anymore from just observing the rookie rank G adventurers, forcing him to move up. This caused Sage to end up spending the rest of the day observing the adventurer¡¯s mana barrier rather than how they controlled mana. By the time all the adventurers left Sage had managed to figure out a possible angle. He noticed that the barrier formed by these rank G and F adventurers wasn¡¯t very stable, filled with small openings. If he could control his mana to leak into them then he could be able to observe them and bypass the barrier but the problem was that he lacked the fine mana control to do this. However this didn¡¯t discourage him as he decided that all adventurers in the dungeon would become his tools to practice his mana control. That night Alice returned and informed Sage of taking George as a possible candidate for Sigrid¡¯s adventurer party. Sage recalled to earlier today and agreed, while that entire group was pretty good, George really stood out to him due to George¡¯s precise mana control. Sage told Alice to keep on the lookout for potential candidates and hopefully form an official team within a few months. Once Sage had reached 10 floors then he would have enough defenses to protect himself and thus allowing Sigrid to explore the rest of the kingdom. This had to be done because Sage¡¯s growth would slow down the further it went and he wouldn¡¯t be able to provide the needed missions to rank Sigrid up so they had to go to other parts of the kingdom and visit the older dungeons. Things slowly fell into a routine as Sigrid and Alice continued their adventurer life while Sage focused his time on expanding the dungeon and training his mana control. He tried asking Sigrid about it but sadly Sigrid was an Ice Maiden who was born with naturally high control over mana so she had no way of explaining how to improve. Thus Sage could only take it one step at a time. Week One. *First Floor* ¡°Hey you heard about the brand new rank E adventurer that arrived?¡± ¡°Dude who hasn¡¯t heard of her?¡± ¡°Pretty amazing if I do say so myself, her first time entering the dungeon and she finds the passage to the 3rd floor. Now even more adventurers are allowed in and there are new herbs and monsters down there!¡± ¡°Man you can¡¯t even deal with an elite goblin, anything is amazing to you.¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± ¡°She is someone who managed to trap the Vice Guild master for a while, she is going places unlike us.¡± ¡°I hope we can get teamed up with her.¡± ¡°I wish, that team that went with her got credit for discovering the third floor as well. Lucky bastards¡­¡± ¡°Cut the chatter we got monsters.¡± ¡°Oh relax oh mighty leader there is only goblins here, nothing to worry about.¡± ¡°Goblins that still kick your ass if you fight it on your own hahaha.¡± ¡°Not like you do any better!¡± ¡°I said quiet! Battle formations!¡± ¡°See it¡¯s a group of goblins¡­ why is that one blue?¡± ¡°Whatever it¡¯s a goblin none the less so it can¡¯t be hard.¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a rare mob, dibs!¡± ¡°No wait don¡¯t jump¡­.¡± ¡°Ahhhhhh! Help it¡¯s a slime!¡± ¡°Damn it, get him out of there!¡± ¡°Noooooooo! There¡¯s slimes falling from the ceiling!¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t supposedd to happen! This is only the first floor!¡± ¡°Damn it! Run! Ru¡­.Ahhhh¡­..¡± .... ¡°Good job guys, now goblins bring those bodies back to my chamber and Blue you come as well it seems like it¡¯s time to teach you as well. Oh leave when you guys get to the third floor drop that guy¡¯s ring at the entrance, to give this group¡¯s ¡°disappearance¡± a valid reason.¡± That night Penny noticed that out of all the teams that entered the dungeon today one didn¡¯t report back. If this was a normal dungeon no one would care because no one would even keep track of who entered, in some of the larger dungeons adventurers had stayed for extended period in the dungeons. However this was a new dungeon that was heavily monitored and because most people going inside were rookies the guild was taking extra care of them. Again this was only the case with a small kingdom like this where one extra rank A adventurer meant a lot for the kingdom so they did their best to help the rookies grow. ¡°Sir it seems a team of five rank G adventurers have gone missing today in the dungeon. This is the first time that an entire group disappeared.¡± Penny frowned, ¡°Do you think something has changed?¡± The guild master continued to look out the window, ¡°Penny, nothing has changed. It is natural instinct for dungeons to want to kill the adventurers inside for their mana, this is nothing new. This dungeon¡¯s floor has honestly been very kind to the adventurers.¡± He suddenly turned toward Penny, ¡°Have you studied the detailed maps of the dungeon?¡± Penny was startled by the guild master¡¯s action, ¡°Yes¡­ Yes sir! I have looked at and memorized the entire map.¡± The guild master shook his head, ¡°I asked if you studied it, not if you memorized it.¡± Penny crooked her head in confusion, ¡°Sir, I¡¯m not sure I understand you.¡± The guild master let out a sigh, ¡°Penny you have talent that matches Alex¡¯s group and I trained you well but you need to start thinking beyond the surface. Now recall floor one and all the monster positions. Then look at every single possible encounter spot and tell me what you find in common.¡± Penny was a bit startled by the sudden request but she complied anyways. After being with the guild master for so long, you got used to this kind of thing. The map and monster position quickly appeared in her head and she began to run analysis of each possible combat location. After checking 3 spots she suddenly froze. ¡°It can¡¯t be¡­¡± She quickly checked more spots and her voice became louder, ¡°No, no, no, no, no! This shouldn¡¯t be possible! How?¡± ¡°Hahaha, why is it not possible?¡± The guild master¡¯s grin grew even wider ¡°It¡¯s right there in front of you, if you don¡¯t believe it check the second floor.¡± Penny quickly recalled the floor two in her memory and checked every single possible combat location. After finishing all of it she sat down on a chair because she couldn¡¯t stand due to the shock she just received. ¡°See, not everything is always as simple as it seems. You realized it too these floors are built optimally for training. Every floor is build for people of certain strength, on that floor they will face battles that will push them but if they are smart there is always an way out. This is the perfect way to find the rough gems and polish them, the design is simply amazing.¡± The guild master let out a sigh as he looked out the window again. Penny finally regained her sense and looked at the guild master, ¡°Sir¡­ shouldn¡¯t we be reporting this?¡± The guild master didn¡¯t look at her but shook his head, ¡°No, this dungeon is already special enough. Any more and it would draw¡­ unwanted attention towards it. With the dangers to come this dungeon is a vital resource we need to have.¡± Penny stood there thinking before finally nodding, ¡°Yes sir, I understand.¡± The guild master smiled and looked toward Penny, ¡°Good, now post a mission for any information regarding the missing party.¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°Yes sir!¡± The next day every party that went inside the dungeon payed extra attention to their surrounding. This was the first time an entire group has gone missing like that and it was making everyone nervous. However this all disappeared at the end of the day when a group of rank F adventurers that went down to floor 3 found a ring that belonged to one of the missing people. The conclusion was that they went over their heads and went into the third floor. Now that everyone realized the group died to their own stupidity rather than the dungeon they all returned to normal. *Secret Location in Dungeon Town* ¡°Sir, the report from the guild says, that that group went to the third floor and died.¡± ¡°Hmmm, likely story but still feels wrong to me.¡± ¡°But their belongings were found on the third floor sir.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter, the dungeon has the ability to take everything. Doesn¡¯t matter, they were only a few rank G adventurers. Even if he ate all the rank G adventurer¡¯s here it wouldn¡¯t help him much!¡± *Sage¡¯s Chamber* The goblins returned with the bodies of the 5 adventurers. Sage ordered the goblins to return to their training and then turned towards Blue. Blue was the name of the slime, Alice named it Blue because it was so Blue. Sage didn¡¯t really care but he enjoyed the company of the slime, ¡°Ok Blue devour them all, then you should be able to transform into a human.¡± Blue jiggled happily at all the food given to him and he jumped on them. Because Blue had been around Sage so much, it had absorbed way more purified mana than anyone here in the dungeon, even more than Alice. This allowed him to grow rapidly and it even gained a bit of intelligence. It took it half the day but Blue devoured all 5 bodies and then it stopped moving. Sage knew this was normal as when he allowed Blue to devour goblins the same thing happened. It took Blue time to process all the information gained from the body it ate and then create a matching form. The goblins took a whole day so humans might take a lot longer. With the start of the experiment going so well Sage happily went back to training his mana control, Week Two. ¡°Buying rank F trial room token! Best price out there!¡± ¡°Buying rank F trial token! Willing to pay 100 silver coins!¡± ¡°Willing escort in floor 3 for rank F token!¡± ¡°Hey, what is going on here? Why is everyone looking for a rank F token?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t know? Where have you been? Under a rock? Everyone knows what happened yesterday!¡± ¡°I went back to Dawn to visit family and just got back here, come on tell me what happened.¡± ¡°Oh, well you missed out so yesterday a rank F trial room was discovered on the third floor. Someone who had a token went inside. Instead of fighting the normal elite goblin or elite kobold he faced a blue elite goblin.¡± ¡°What? A blue elite goblin? Is that even possible?¡± ¡°Well no one knows, the adventurer that went in got his ass kicked and knocked out without being able to put up much of a fight. Now the guild is offering big for information on that creatures so everyone wants rank F token to see if they will face it. Also the rumor going around is that it is a special challenge set by the dungeon, if you defeat it you will get a skill book!¡± ¡°Is that true?¡± ¡°Well it is only rumor and speculation but enough to drive most of this town crazy.¡± *Sage¡¯s Chamber* Blue finished his assimilation at the beginning of the week. Why he? Because, well, the form he took, was that of a 10 year old boy. Sage was pretty confused at first because he assumed Blue would take the form of the people he devoured. According to the description of a mimic slime they copied appearances but somehow Blue copied the species but kept his own identity. Sadly Sage knew far too little about the creatures of this world to make any progress so he decided to leave it for later, at least Blue was created by him so he doesn¡¯t need to worry about being betrayed. ¡°Well this is still a problem.¡± Sage stared at Blue thinking very hard, ¡°You are still blue after you morph, there is no way for you to blend in with the humans at all right now¡­ Wait I might just have the perfect cultivation technique for you.¡± A ball of light appeared before Sage and once the light faded a book appeared within. ¡°The 49 Form Cultivation Method, master this method and you shall be able to take 49 different shapes. With this you should be able to fix the one flaw in your transformation.¡± Blue happily accepted the book and learned it. ¡°Remember Blue you¡¯re not allowed to show your human form to anyone unless I told you to. Not even Alice or Sigrid! You are going to be my insurance.¡± Blue didn¡¯t seem to understand what Sage really meant but as long as Sage told him to do something he would do it. ¡°Now let¡¯s get you started on your cultivation, I¡¯ll also have you transform into elite goblin or elite kobold so you can get some combat practice inside the trial rooms. Train hard Blue, because I¡¯ll be depending on you in the future.¡± Sage also took this chance to study mana control as well because Blue was like a child learning from the start. He hoped, that through Blue¡¯s growth, he would gain more insight into how creatures of this world controlled mana. Everything was set but all of it would need time to complete and Sage just hoped he had enough. Soon anyone who managed to get a rank F badge either sold it for quick money or used it to enter the rank F trial room in hope of facing that Blue Goblin. The results were varied. ¡°What? I spend 100 silver just to face a normal elite goblin! Die!¡± ¡°Dude what happened? Why is there blood?¡± ¡°I.. I killed the elite goblin inside¡­¡± ¡°You moron now you¡¯re banned for a week! Someone else would have defeated it long before then.¡± ¡°I¡­¡± ¡­. ¡°Yes! It¡¯s the blue goblin! Now come to pap...Ahhhhh!¡± *Thud* ¡°...ow my head, what happened? Where the blue goblin go?...Nooooooo! I spent so much to get that token!¡± ¡­ ¡°What is this a blue kobold? Another rare monster? My lucky day then!¡± ¡°Damn this one is a tough bastard! Take this!¡± ¡°What! How did it block that hit? No no no no.. Arggg¡­.¡± ¡­ ¡°Damn it not the blue one¡­¡± ¡­ ¡°Yes! It¡¯s my luc¡­ Ahhhhhhh¡­¡± ¡­ ¡°Yes I defeated it! Now come here skill book¡­ What? Only a gourd of mana ale? Where is my skill book! Ahhhhhhhhh!¡± ¡­ ... ¡­ ¡°Sir from the reports that came in this week, there is a new type of goblin and kobold that is blue. This monster appears to be a powerful elite monster that can easily defeat rank G adventurers. As for the rank F adventurer only the medium tier can beat it, the low tier ones can put up a fight but all end up losing even though they felt the monster was weaker.¡± Penny moved her gaze from the paper in her hand to the guild master ¡°Sir¡­¡± The guild master raised his hand, ¡°It¡¯s fine as it is, this is good training for all the adventurers too.¡± ¡°But Sir¡­¡± ¡°You need to look at the bigger picture Penny, the dungeon needs its own protection as well. You won¡¯t be as naive to think that he would really trust in our protection?¡± ¡°....Yes sir.¡± ¡°Now little dungeon core, what are you preparing for the coming battle? I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡±
Edited by: Nova Chapter 26 - One Month Part 2 Hello everyone here is chapter 26 enjoy!
Week 3 The token frenzy continued and to help drive this little event Sage even increased the chance of tokens dropping inside the dungeon. Suddenly all the monsters of Sage¡¯s secret army were getting in a lot more training than normal. However the one monster that got the most benefit was Blue, who has becoming every adventurer¡¯s target. While Sage didn¡¯t give out any skill books to anyone he did make sure the reward was mana ale and for the few that did really well 2 gourds of mana ale. The adventurers, at first, were disappointed at this but mana ale was still something worth a lot of money and in the back of their heads they still held on to the hope they would get a skill book. ¡°I wonder if I should reward someone a skill book to keep this up.¡± Sage was observing a battle Blue was having against a low tier rank F adventurer. After putting up some struggle the adventurer was defeated and Blue returned back to Sage via a secret passage. ¡°Good job Blue, you have been learning well. It seems your body has a much easier time integrating mana than every other creature I¡¯ve seen so far, I wonder if it¡¯s because your body lacks a stable structure so it can easily take in the mana without any risk. Still, I wish I could have more humans to test my cultivation techniques and see how their body reacts.¡± So far the only two humans that had received a cultivation skill book from Sage had been John and Xanthe. Xanthe left after the dungeon evaluation was finished, so Sage had no idea how she was doing and as for John he only had a breathing technique. Still it was better than nothing and the only data of human cultivation he had. John had been through the dungeon multiple times throughout the last 3 weeks, taking groups of rank G adventurers with him. Sage always paid extra close attention to John whenever he came and purposely created situations that would force John to act. Over the course of the past 3 weeks Sage had managed to learn one thing from John and that was that humans were even less adaptable than the monsters at integrating mana into their body. John¡¯s mana integration was much slower than Sigrid¡¯s even when considering the difference in cultivation method. While his physical body was much stronger now than other people at his rank, he wasn¡¯t even close to completing his first layer of foundation. Sage was extremely puzzled at the slow integration rate of mana into the human body. The problem was that John wasn¡¯t someone who lacked talent, in fact he had great talent. If his talent was translated to Sage¡¯s old world he could easily be the head disciple of a small sect. But the rate at which he was integrating mana was like that of a waste. The only conclusion Sage could think of was that the human body rejected the mana integration because it was harmful to them. If they integrated too much mana into their body it would even end up damaging their body instead of helping it. Only by slowly integrating over time could their body slowly adjust to it and absorb more. The one thing that helped Sage come to this conclusion was the mana ale. The strong mana concentration had an intoxication effect, had this been dense Qi instead it would have only helped the body instead of causing a negative side effect. In the end he lacked data to really come to any conclusive answers since John was his only source of information. He planned to slowly pick out people to give cultivation methods to and to observe them, hoping to fix this issue. The problem is he couldn¡¯t give out more than 1 or 2 books a month so this would be a very slow process. ¡°Well this is just how things are for now so no point in moping about it.¡± Sage cleared his head and focused back onto Blue. ¡°Ok Blue, today we will practice how to modify your appearance so you look like a human. Now feel the mana cycling through your body and once you feel it bring it to the surface of your skin¡­.¡± Blue¡¯s training slowly continued as Sage spent most of his day teaching Blue. Sigrid would also drop by once a week and received teaching from Sage. She had progressed fairly well and finally finished the first layer of her foundation. With the first layer complete her strength had recovered to that of mid tier rank D and her potential was much greater than before. She had also been learning from Sage how to teach others as she had been leading different groups of rank G adventurers into the dungeon. This had increased her reputation greatly and allowed them to find candidates for Sigrid¡¯s future team. The number one candidate so far was John, who seemed to have fallen for Sigrid, making him the easiest to use. The second candidate was George who had now partied with Sigrid 3 times and showed great improvements. Based on Sage¡¯s calculations this George should be able to reach rank F in terms of power by the end of the month. Besides those two there were few more good seeds but none of them as outstanding as those two. Since this was a long term team they weren¡¯t in a rush to select its members, the goal was to have a powerful yet loyal team. One other interesting thing that had popped up was that the creatures that lived inside the dungeon had finally began to mutate as well. The rats, bats, spiders, and such were now no longer as doctile as before and became mana beasts instead. This change wasn¡¯t immediate but attacks by them had already started this week and according to Alice all the animals should complete their mutation in a few weeks. After that Sage would gain access to new monsters and summon them directly instead of having to wait for a new batch of animals to evolve. The rats allowed Sage to fill the first and second floor with more monsters for the adventurers to fight without making it too dangerous as the rats wouldn¡¯t really endanger any lives right now. The bats made a great addition to the second floor in conjunction with some traps that forced the adventurers to be much more aware of their surrounding. Finally the spiders in the 3rd floor floor forced adventurers to bring antidotes or to have a healer with them as they could easily hide in the jungle environment. All these increased the overall difficulty of the dungeon and a lot more people were coming out injured. However Sage was very careful with it as it only lead to increase in injury which forced the adventurers to be more alert rather than killing them which would only scare away adventurers. Week 4 Something very interesting occurred at the start of week 4 and it was something Sage didn¡¯t even think would happen. An elite goblin managed to tame one of the elementary white tigers. It seemed that the tiger was fighting a group of adventurers and when he was almost killed an elite goblin along with his squad fought off the adventurers. After that the tiger decided to follow the elite goblin¡¯s squad so now there was a goblin squad with an elite goblin on a white tiger. Sage suddenly remembered that he never set any rules on how the monsters should behave around each other, other than that they shouldn¡¯t fight each other and protect each other so this was natural now that he thought about it. *A Group of rank F and G adventurers* ¡°Be careful guys, ever since the normal animals mutated into mana beasts this dungeon has became a lot more dangerous.¡± ¡°Tell me about it, the rats are pretty nice for some extra money and the bats are ok if you¡¯re aware of the traps but the spiders in here on the third floor are the worst.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t remind me, I got bitten by one and my hand was swollen for a few days from it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s only because you were too cheap to use an antidote, would have healed it in an instant.¡± ¡°Hey that stuff isn¡¯t cheap you know!¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who is cheap, with how bountiful this dungeon there¡¯s no way you can¡¯t afford an antidote!¡± ¡°At least we have a healer this time.¡± ¡°Hey I¡¯m not healing any of you unless we get into life threatening situation. Healing magic still takes a lot out of me and mana potions are much more expensive than antidotes.¡± ¡°Come on don¡¯t be so¡­¡± ¡°Quiet, I sense movement in the next room. Prepare for battle!¡± ¡°It seems to be a squad of goblins lead by an elite goblin this should be ea¡­ what is that goblin riding?¡± ¡°Shit! That elite goblin is riding a white tiger! That¡¯s one of the rare mobs on the 3rd floor, one of them is stronger than the squad lead by an elite goblin.¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Damn it¡¯s charging this way, battle formation!¡± ¡°Arg, this tiger is stronger. I can¡¯t hold it off for too long we need to get out of here!¡± ¡°Hold the goblins off! We need to knock the elite goblin off the tiger than we have a chance.¡± ¡°Ahhhh my arm!¡± ¡°I pray for the blessing of light, Heal!¡± ¡°Thanks, this is not good guys.¡± *Thud* ¡°Yes! Now everyone quick back toward that tunnel!¡± ¡­ Sage watched the fight between the adventurers and the goblin squad with the white tiger. It was clear that this squad¡¯s power had increased greatly with the addition of the white tiger and Sage decided to let this be and have them act as some sort of mini boss. He even handed a skill book over to the elite goblin. The monsters were at a clear advantage and would have won had it not been for the healer in the adventurer¡¯s party. ¡°Hmmm, it seems having someone who is capable of healing can change the tides of battle greatly. This is something I sorely lack for my army, I hope that I¡¯ll soon gain access to something that can heal.¡± The fight lasted for 5 mins before the adventurers managed to knock the elite goblin off the white tiger, thus creating an opening for them to retreat. Sage didn¡¯t mind too much about them getting away but he was happy that he managed to finally break through the mana barrier the adventurers had set on themselves. This had been something Sage had been working for the past 4 weeks and he could finally get through within a reasonable amount of time. With all this practice he also learned something new, as he gained better control over mana he found that he could control the mana in the dungeon as well. Nothing too big but he could shift the density of mana within a certain area around. This wasn¡¯t very useful now but considering his theory about how creatures in this world rely on external mana, once he could create an area void of mana, it could become his greatest weapon. Still he was far away from that type of control but his increase in control had finally allowed him to produce voice transmission tokens. Now he could easily send messages between him, Sigrid, and Alice without them having to always come back to his chamber. However the one thing he had been working on the most, outside of training Blue, in these four weeks was the soul crystal. This was going to be his last resort, his final ace. He had been studying himself a lot and he noticed that within his crystal body there was a smaller core that housed his soul. This crystal was very interesting in nature and key to his survival. He had been trying to create a replica of it and place a piece of his soul inside. Then, with the help of a transfer formation, he knew he could transfer his soul to the new soul crystal. In theory his soul would leave the current soul crystal and seek out the new one and the down side was that all the mana he had collected would have gone to waste and he would start again at level 0. Saddly this was a very complicated thing to attempt and with his current condition he only had a theory and nothing else. However this wasn¡¯t going to stop him from continuing the pursuit as one could never be too careful. He finished up his practice of mana control for the day and let out a sigh, ¡°Everything is moving along smoothly and only thing left is time. Time passed so quickly back when I was cultivating, years went by like it was nothing but now each day could easily become a life and death struggle where I¡¯m basically powerless¡­ Things sure have changed from my previous life but is it for the worse ¡­ or for the¡­ better¡­?¡± *Dungeon Town* ¡°You heard about the elite goblin riding a white tiger?¡± ¡°What? An elite goblin was riding a white tiger?¡± ¡°Yeah, one of the team that went in encountered it on the 3rd floor. Almost lost their lives if it wasn¡¯t for their healer.¡± ¡°Wow they sure are unlucky. A white tiger is almost stronger than a group of goblins lead by an elite goblin now you add them together it¡¯s like fighting more than 2 groups of goblins at once. The dungeon sure is getting lot more dangerous these days.¡± ¡°Yeah, but still the death rate is lower than the other dungeons and the rewards are bountiful. We just have to be lot more careful than before.¡± *Adventurers Guild* ¡°Sir, scouts have detected movements to the south, it seem they are gathering.¡± Penny was in the guild master¡¯s room and her expression more serious than than ever before. ¡°According to the scouts the enemy will be ready to attack by next week.¡± The guild master stared outside with a frown, ¡°So they are finally beginning to move. Send a message back to the king and have him quietly move troops over. We can hold off the first assault until the troops arrive and then ambush the main enemy force. Gather all the trusted rank C and higher adventurers, debrief them and get them ready for battle. No matter what, we must keep them away from this dungeon until the main forces arrive. If they get hold of this dungeon then it would be disastrous for us.¡± Penny struggled before finally saying, ¡°Sir should we set up preventative measures and destroy the dungeon core in case we can¡¯t hold?¡± ¡°Nonsense!¡± The guild master shook his head, ¡°The dungeon core isn¡¯t stupid, if we do something like this it will only work against us in the future. After all do you think they would be able to easily get by with me here?¡± Penny suddenly felt ashamed for suggesting something so rash and softly whispered, ¡°I¡¯m sorry sir...¡± The guild master sighed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Penny, you¡¯re still too inexperienced. Get ready because you¡¯re leading the adventurers in this fight.¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± *Somewhere hidden in Dungeon Town* ¡°Sir, everything is in place. The army to the south has purposely showed their movement to the kingdom¡¯s scouts. Now the kingdom should be preparing for battle and gathering all the rank C or higher adventurers.¡± ¡°Good job and what about the dungeon raid?¡± ¡°All the parties with our members have signed up to enter the dungeon on next Tuesday. Half of us will enter in the morning and the second half will enter a bit before noon. This way we have all possible escape routes sealed.¡± ¡°Good! Good! Finally, I¡¯m sick of playing the good little student to that brat. After next Tuesday she will be chained at my feet. Muahaha!¡± ¡°Celebrating so early already? Don¡¯t underestimate that ¡°little¡± girl¡¯s strength. If she was at full power she could tear you to pieces with a wave of her hand.¡± ¡°You! Hmph! But she isn¡¯t at her full power! The demonic lava golems have weakened her greatly and now she is no match for me!¡± ¡°Says the person that screwed up the job and lost all the demonic lava golems in the first place. That should have been more than enough to capture her yet you only weakened her and even gave her this much time to recover.¡± ¡°You! I¡¯m¡­¡± ¡°Well don¡¯t screw this up now after all the help I give you. Hehe, well then again you managed to screw up with 20 demonic lava golem and a top grade fire elemental so what is my help compared to them.¡± ¡­ ¡°Arg! Just you wait! Once this is all over and demon lord Zoar rewards me for capturing the Ice Maiden and the skill book dungeon you will be chained at my feet as well! Alright everyone prepare yourselves and make sure you are all in peak condition next Tuesday, no mistakes allowed!¡± ¡°Yes Sir!¡±
Edited by: Nova and The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space! Chapter 27 - Dungeon Raid Part 1 Here is chapter 27! Almost at the end of book 1 ^_^ Also 10k avg view another mile stone! Feel like I should do something but again no idea XD Anyways here art I ask someone to draw for me. Not really official but just wanted to see how different artist would portray the characters. Here is one of Sigrid with Alice on her shoulder By: ngt Yes I''m getting all the artiests'' PM box spammed =X
It had been a month since Sigrid became an adventurer and she had slowly gotten used to her new life here. She would take about three trips a week into the dungeon with a party of rank G adventurers and did her best to guide and teach them throughout the dungeon dive. Most of the rank G adventurers were very positive towards her teaching but of course there were always a those few that didn¡¯t listen, thinking she wasn¡¯t good enough. This didn¡¯t bother Sigrid too much as her goal here was to gather information on the outside world and finding suitable candidates for her future adventurer party. She made sure to never party a second time with those that didn¡¯t respect her as they were no longer considered possible candidates. However after the entire month had passed, the only two suitable candidates were still John and George, everyone else was lacking compared to them. John had been finding time to spend with Sigrid and Alice whenever he could and they even had training fights against each other a few times. Sigrid was very happy at having such a good friend while Alice couldn¡¯t help but giggle on the side. Alice knew John¡¯s feelings for Sigrid but also knew that due to Sigrid¡¯s innocent nature, she didn¡¯t really understand what love was, besides the love toward her mother. Alice found it amusing when all of John¡¯s attempts were shot down by Sigrid with a sweet and innocent smile, that she never bothered to point this out to Sigrid. As for George he had been a very good student and under Sigrid¡¯s training, he was getting close to breaking into rank F. That was extremely fast growth almost rivalling John¡¯s growth but Sigrid couldn¡¯t see him as a friend. She didn¡¯t know why, but she subconsciously felt uneasy around him. But she took her teaching very seriously and didn¡¯t hold back because of this small feeling she had. Today Sigrid and Alice got up bright and early as today Sigrid would be taking George¡¯s group to train on floor 3. The dungeon had changed a great deal in the past 2 weeks, as the normal animals became a threat as well. Of course none of those things were a threat to Sigrid so she could focus all her attention on teaching and gathering information. During breakfast she met John and found out that he would be taking a group into the dungeon as well a bit later in the morning. ¡°We might see each other inside then.¡± Sigrid smiled brightly at John. John let out an awkward smile and shook his head. ¡°Not likely, my group isn¡¯t as experienced as yours, so I don¡¯t think we will be going down to the 3rd floor today.¡± Sigrid nodded and said, ¡°I see, we might meet up on the way out then.¡± John and Sigrid talked a bit about the parties they would bring into the dungeon today before splitting up. John decided to rest until it was time for his party to meet up, while Sigrid headed over to the dungeon entrance. Soon she arrived at the dungeon entrance and found George¡¯s group already waiting for her. She waved as she got close and shouted, ¡°Sorry for the wait. Are you guys ready to head in?¡± George turned to her and let out a bright smile, ¡°We have been prepared for a long time.¡± *Plain South of The Dungeon Town* Penny stood on a hill overlooking the troops that had gathered here today. There were 200 elite guards sent by the capital and 30 rank C and up adventurers here today. According to the scouts the demons had a force of about 400 imps, 100 hell hounds, and about a dozen elite demons leading them. They were clearly outnumbered but they had to hold on because this was part of the kingdom¡¯s plan. This area was purposely made to look weak to make it the ideal place to attack by having low amounts of defenders here. Once the demons took the bait, the kingdom¡¯s troops stationed just outside the enemy¡¯s detection range would move in. The key was, that the elite forces here held off the first wave of attack so when the enemy¡¯s main forces arrived they would charge in and be ambushed by the kingdom¡¯s main force. Penny went over the plan over and over again in her head and everything seemed perfect but she couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that something was off. However no matter how much she went over the scenario she could not find anything wrong, so in the end she put that worry aside. She walked around the camp to make sure the defenses were set up properly and everyone was ready. The sun was slowly rising and soon the demonic forces began to enter the horizon. The charge of the demonic forces grew louder and louder as they got closer. Soon they were easily visible, an army of 400 imps, 100 hell hounds, 10 demonic lava golems, and even 2 fire elementals. The appearance of the demon¡¯s elite troops made Penny frown as those demonic lava golem and fire elementals were very powerful. However when she noticed the young man leading them, her heart immediately sank. This person looked completely normal, like a regular human you would pass while walking down the street. She couldn¡¯t even feel any mana from him at all as if he couldn¡¯t even fight but her 6th sense screamed at her to get away and she knew that they would need the guild master here. Without any hesitation she crushed a guild token, that was used so that the guild master would know if he needed to come to help. She knew, she would probably have to use it at some point but never thought it would be this early. ... The young man let out a faint smile as he looked at the forces the human had gathered to fight him. Originally it wasn¡¯t his job to come here as a single distraction force didn¡¯t need someone of his stature to lead it but the person in charge of capturing the Ice Maiden was his subordinate. He recently came back and found that his subordinate had failed to capture the Ice Maiden even though he had provided 20 demonic lava golems and 1 fire elemental. When he first heard it, he wanted to rush over and roast that subordinate of his alive but then he heard of the skill book dungeon and the plan of turning it into a demonic dungeon while capturing the Ice Maiden that has taken refuge inside. This made him very happy as it would give them a valuable resource and a solid foothold in this kingdom but more importantly it would take the credit away from ¡°her¡±. Just thinking about ¡°her¡±, made him boil with rage. Argh! So in the end he decided that if his subordinate succeeded, he would forgive that little rat, but he was going to mount the distraction himself to make sure he lured out the old monster the kingdom had hidden near the dungeon. He looked over the soon to be bloody battle field and smiled. While attacking now would probably be for the best, he wasn¡¯t here to win anyways, so he wanted to enjoy himself, thus he gave ample time for the old man to arrive. There had been many stories about the old man among the demons and he couldn¡¯t wait to test him out. ¡­ Penny stood there frozen as she stared at the enemy forces. ¡°Why aren¡¯t they attacking? What plans do they have?¡± She was so nervous that she was muttering out her thoughts. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Penny, calm down!¡± Jake came up towards Penny. ¡°I know their leader is very powerful but you need to calm down. Remember you are our leader right now and we can¡¯t have you losing it before the old man can get here.¡± Penny was startled by the sudden voice and jumped a little. Then she looked at Jake before taking a deep breath and said, ¡°Thank you Jake, I understand. Everyone! Get into battle formation! The enemy could be attacking any minute and we need to be ready!¡± Everyone in the camp quickly moved into their battle stations and the atmosphere became heavy. They all knew that this was going to be a tough battle from the start but the appearance of the demon leading the enemy really shocked them all. They could all feel the power hidden inside that plain looking young man but none of them could back down. Soon sounds of the air breaking could be heard which startled everyone but brought smiles to the faces of the few upper ranked adventurers. ¡°So the old man is finally here.¡± Soon with one final look back and the guild master landed in front of the army. He looked a lot more dignified than normal and the entire atmosphere around him was different. After he landed he looked toward the demon army and immediately frowned. His gaze landed on the young man and after staring at him for a while he shouted, ¡°So to what do I owe the pleasure of meeting the demon general Xaizal?¡± ¡°Well if it isn¡¯t the legend Max The Destroyer. I¡¯m of course here today to test that legendary title of yours. I have heard many stories about your feats since I was a kid so when i heard you were in the neighborhood I had to come and ¡®see¡¯ the legend myself.¡± The young man let out a bright smile as he talked to Max but the smile caused everyone on Zeal¡¯s side to shiver. Max¡¯s laugh roared across the plain, ¡°So it¡¯s just some snot nosed brat who is still wet behind the ears coming to test himself. Well then boy I¡¯m ready when you are.¡± Rage filled the demon general Xaizal¡¯s eyes, but he maintained his temper and said ¡°Charge!¡± *The Sage Dungeon* While all of this was happening Sigrid¡¯s party moved smoothly through the dungeon. George¡¯s group had grown a lot under Sigrid¡¯s instruction so that the first floor offered almost no threat to them as long as they didn¡¯t do anything stupid. After only a bit over one hour they made it to the second floor. Sage kept a close eye on them, since he had been paying a lot of attention to George as well whenever he came into the dungeon. One reason was that he was a potential candidate for Sigrid¡¯s team but he also had very good mana control. George¡¯s barrier was much more wholesome than everyone else. He noticed that a normal adventurer¡¯s barrier was filled with holes that he could get through given time but then there were people like George¡¯s party who had much better control and Sage still hadn¡¯t managed to break through yet. Finally there was George who¡¯s mana barrier only showed tiny openings before they shifted and changed. As Sigrid¡¯s group moved into the second floor John entered the dungeon with his party. Sage focused a little attention onto John and then to his party. As he checked all the adventurers in the dungeon today he noticed that the level of adventurer was higher than normal. More than half of the adventurer in here today were ones whose mana barrier Sage couldn¡¯t get past. However he only thought it was weird for a second before he put it in the back of his head. Instead he took it as an opportunity to train his mana control and attempt to break past them. Time slowly passed and Sigrid¡¯s party had almost reached the 3rd floor. Sage finally took a break from all these attempts and notice something was off. He checked the entire dungeon and found it emptier than usual. ¡°Were my calculations off? I guess I have a group of higher quality adventurers today that they are going through the monsters really fast.¡± Sage pondered for a bit before continuing to mutter, ¡°Well I guess I can summon some monster and have them wait in the barrack area. Can¡¯t let it leak that I can respawn them too fast.¡± After doing that he turned his focus back to George to try and find a hole in the mana barrier. He purposely made the monsters focus on George a lot more than the others so it would force him to be under stress and thus create more openings for Sage. This time it was an elementary tiger that focused attacked George which almost created enough opening but in the end was defeated by the party. This time Sage sent the elite goblin that tamed the white tiger to attack and the results were great. The goblins kept the others back while the elite goblin on the white tiger pressured George greatly. After a few minutes of fighting, Sage got a hang of how the mana barrier maintained itself and broke past the mana barrier. ¡°Yes! Now let me see your¡­.¡± *George¡¯s Mind* ¡°It seems everyone has entered the dungeon and that means the battle outside should have started too. Hahaha, just you wait dungeon core and Ice Maiden. By the end of today both of you will be under my control. Muhaha!¡± ... ¡°Damn it what is going on today, why are all the monsters putting so much focus on me? Could the dungeon core have noticed? No, it¡¯s not possible if he did then he would be sending all the monsters inside the dungeon at us. Only a bit longer and we would have wiped out most of the monsters in the dungeon and then it would only be the dungeon boss and the Ice Maiden left to deal with. And as much as I hate to admit it with ¡®that¡¯ person¡¯s help this should be a piece of cake.¡± ¡­ ¡°That white tiger sure was persistent, maybe it was the meat I had for breakfast that drew it to me. It was clawing at me like I was a piece of well cooked steak. Still only a bit more and the plan is complete!¡± ¡°Is that the rumored mounted elite goblin? Yes to face it now is the best possible outcome, with this girl here she can take care of it for us.¡± ¡­ ¡°Arg, why it is focusing me. Those idiots are useless with their power suppressed and I can¡¯t show my true power yet. Damn us help already! Can¡¯t you see we are in¡­ DAMN IT!¡± *Sage¡¯s Chamber* Sage felt a rush of violent red energy coming from George, this power was that of a rank B adventurer but this mana was completely different from any human or elf he had seen. This mana reminded him of the night when Sigrid arrived¡­ this was the mana of a demon! Sage quickly used a voice transmission token and shouted, ¡°Sigrid get out of there now!¡±
Edited by: Nova and The super secreted masked editor... from space! Chapter 28 - Dungeon Raid Part 2 Edit: Well here is the rewritten Chapter 28. Not much change on this one basically first half of chapter 28 with few things changed. I changed Blue''s speech into something much more disjointed as if he is just learning to talk. I realized after someone pointed out how stupid it was he could talk so smoothly so quickly.
Sigrid was caught completely off guard an didn¡¯t even register what Sage had just said. In front of her, George¡¯s mana suddenly turned red and violent as it leaked out from his body. The cracks appeared all over his body as the shell around him was bursting due to the energy coming from within. When the other members noticed this, they too began a similar transformation. ¡°Sigrid! Alice! Get out of there, now!¡± This roar from Sage finally made Sigrid regain her senses and she began to run back towards Sage¡¯s chamber. However, her reaction was a bit late, as George, whose skin was red and had two horns on his head, put his hand up and shot out a giant ball of fire. Sigrid felt the heat of the attack and immediately used all of her mana to create an ice wall to block the attack. But the attack came too quick and the explosion smashed her back into a wall. A part of her side seriously burnt. ¡°Hahaha, playtime is over, little girl! We were going to wait until we were closer to the dungeon boss, but this will do. Hear me, dungeon core! Give up now and we¡¯ll turn you into a demonic dungeon painlessly, but should you struggle¡­ Well, I do hope you struggle after all the trouble you put me through!¡± A low but loud laughter echoed through the 3rd floor. Sigrid managed to get up. The blast had caught her off guard and she was already injured before the fight even started. She suddenly recalled what happened to her two months ago and froze. Alice noticed Sigrid freeze and quickly channeled her mana to gave Sigrid a slap like she gave Sage before. ¡°Focus, Sigrid! We need to get out of here and regroup with the monsters or we won¡¯t stand a chance!¡± The sudden force cleared Sigrid¡¯s head as she turned around to leave. George saw Sigrid attempting to flee and began to laugh. ¡°Thinking about running now? It is far too late! Maybe when you were at full power you had a chance, but now? You are just a stone to be stepped over.¡± He raised his hand and was about to shoot out another fireball when Sigrid quickly threw something at him. The object failed to reach him, which caused him to sneer, but the next moment, a blinding light appeared before him and filled his vision. ¡°Ahhhh! My eyes! Get back here!¡± George threw out fireballs towards Sigrid, but all of them missed. At that moment, goblins as well as the white tiger jumped toward George, knocking him to the ground. Sage had ordered them to close their eyes when the blinding talisman went off, so their vision was fine. Sadly, the difference in power was simply too strong and adding on the demons naturally tough body, all they managed to do was stall George for a bit, but that was all Sigrid and Alice needed to get away. As this happened, all of the remaining monsters inside the dungeon began to move. All of the monsters left alive along with the monsters from the barracks on that floor moved toward the adventurers on those floors. When Sage broke through George¡¯s mana barrier, it enlightened him and now he could easily break through the every remaining adventurers¡¯ mana barriers other than John¡¯s. He instantly found all of the demons among the adventurers and formulated a plan. The demon¡¯s goal was to use human adventurers to wipe out his defenses, but these human adventurers only thought they were here on a normal dungeon dive. If things looked like they were out of their league, they would want to retreat, but the demons wouldn¡¯t allow it, thus forcing the demons to act. The only real problem left was John¡¯s group. Because he was strong, Sage really couldn¡¯t spare the monsters to scare him away. Sage had to decide now whether it was better to send more forces to scare John away or let him bring that group of adventurers to reinforce George. Just as he was about to make a choice, a voice suddenly echoed in the room. ¡°I¡¯ll go.¡± This voice was childish, yet filled with determination. Sage looked toward the source of the voice and was suddenly startled, but he quickly regained his senses and replied, ¡°Go.¡± *Party one* ¡°Did you guys hear that roar? Sounds like it was coming from below us.¡± ¡°You think someone reached the dungeon boss?¡± ¡°Maybe. Sigrid¡¯s party is down there today after all.¡± ¡°Get ready, guys! Monsters!¡± ¡°Relax, we got this.¡± *Party two* ¡°What was that sound?¡± ¡°Probably a party down on the 3rd floor fighting the dungeon boss. I heard it was a powerful Kobold Lord.¡± ¡°Cut the chatter, guys. We got monsters incoming!¡± *Party 3* ¡°Whoa, that didn¡¯t sound good. Maybe we should go out and report it to the guild?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be such a wimp. We got two rank E adventurers in here, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Get ready! Monsters!¡± *John¡¯s party* John suddenly stopped as he heard the roar, ¡°That was coming down from below. It must be Sigrid¡¯s party! We have to hurry!¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± They quickly moved through the 2nd floor, but as they got close to the stairs down to the third floor, the group stopped in their tracks. There was a large group of monsters blocking their path, much larger than any group they had seen in this dungeon before. There were five squads of goblins and three squads of kobolds, all with an elite leading them. Even though John had grown a lot, this would still take him quite some time to get through. ¡°Damn it, they are in trouble down there! Move!¡± John charged forward, but as he was halfway to the group of monsters, he suddenly heard a childish voice say, ¡°Stop.¡± John was startled by this and wondered why a child would be here right now, but his question was soon answered. Something made its way through the monsters. What walked out was not a boy. It had the shape of a boy, but it¡¯s entire body was blue and clear. ¡°What¡­ are you?¡± John became very confused because this was the first time a monster had ever tried to talk to him. The boy shook his head and said, ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.. What -- they ------ matters.¡± As the boy spoke, he raised his hand and pointed at John¡¯s party. This caused John even more confusion as he asked, ¡°What do you mean?¡± The boy let out a faint smile and softly said, ¡°Demons.¡± Although the words were soft, they crashed into John¡¯s ears like thunder. ¡°You¡¯re saying they are demons?¡± The boy nodded his head. ¡°Lies!¡± ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t believe in the monsters¡¯ lies!¡± ¡°He just wants to stall for time so we can¡¯t get down there to save Sigrid!¡± After hearing Sigrid¡¯s name, John was ready to charge forward again. The boy let out a sigh and said, ¡°You -- go ------ through, they -- stay ----- die!¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Don¡¯t believe him John!¡± ¡°He just wants to split us up and kill us all!¡± ¡°Yeah, he¡¯ll probably stab you in the back the moment you go through them!¡± John was struggling with a decision. He wanted to go help Sigrid. The monsters even gave him a chance to, but could he really trust the monsters? However, what if what the monster said was true? If he leads them there, he would have ended up hurting Sigrid. Just as he was struggling with the decision, the boy talked once more. ¡°Don¡¯t...believe? They lower shield¡­ truth comes. ¡± John was confused at what the boy meant by shield as no one in his party used a shield. Seeing that John didn¡¯t seem to understand him, the body said, ¡°Mana shield.¡± John¡¯s eyes suddenly lit up as he heard these words. Yes, if his party was truly demons, then he would be able to tell if they lowered their mana barriers. He didn¡¯t really care if the monsters were going to let him pass or not because once he was sure that his party didn¡¯t have any demons, he would fight with all his might. He turned to his party and shouted, ¡°Quick, lower your mana barriers!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t seriously believe him! He is a monster!¡± ¡°Yeah, John. He¡¯s just trying to make us¡­¡± John roared, ¡°Quiet! Lower your mana barrier now! If you¡¯re not demons, then I can fight without a shred of doubt in my mind. Do it now!¡± The five of them looked at each other before finally all letting out sinister laughs. ¡°Not bad, dungeon core, not bad. We had planned to use this idiot to help us kill more monsters, but it seems that plan has failed.¡± John couldn¡¯t believe what he was seeing as the five members of his party¡¯s bodies all showed signs of cracks and light exploded forth. Once the light had died down, there were no longer five humans, but five demons. ¡°Damn it! How could you guys!?¡± John raised his sword and prepared for battle. ¡°How can we? Hahaha, we are demons boy! We do whatever it takes to achieve our goal. Now, die! You have no idea how much I¡¯ve waited for this day¡­¡± *Party one* ¡°What is going on! Why are there so many monsters coming toward us?¡± ¡°We have to move back!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s¡­ Ahhhh!* ¡°Hey, wait. What are yo¡­ Ahhhhh!* *Party two* ¡°Move back! We can¡¯t hold them off any longer.¡± ¡°Something is wrong. The dungeon shouldn¡¯t ever do this unless it is in danger.¡± ¡°Something is threatening the dungeon and we need to get out of here.¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s¡­ Ahhhhh!¡± ¡°What are yo¡­ Arggg!¡± ¡°Nooooooo!¡± ¡°After him!¡± *Party three* ¡°We must break through! John¡¯s party is just on the other side!¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible! We need to back up now!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, there are too many of them. We need to get out of here and report it to the guild.¡± ¡°Hey, don¡¯t run!¡± ¡°Damn it! Let us¡­ Ahhhh!¡± ¡°Honey? What...Ahhhh!¡± ¡°After her!¡± *John¡¯s Party* The battle quickly began once the demons revealed themselves. John quickly jumped at the five of them, but soon realized his mistake. These demons were all high rank D, bordering rank C, but luckily, the monsters also moved under the command of the blue boy, so the demons were quickly split apart. Three of the demons had two squads of monsters on them them while the last two had John and the blue boy with one squad aiding each of them. The battle raged on and the fight was very even as neither side could get an advantage. Unlike the last time the monsters fought the demons, these elites had been training for much longer. With the experience from the last fight against the demons and the trial rooms, the demons were slowly being pushed back. One of the demons roared, ¡°Impossible! How could such lowly creatures be so difficult to deal with?! Die!¡± This outburst shocked John and almost cost him his life as he barely dodged a blow to his head. However, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder, ¡°Why are these monsters so powerful?¡± After five minutes of fighting, a few goblins had been killed, but in return, the demons were all injured. Seeing that if this continued they would lose for sure, the demons used their final trump card and began to burn the life force of their hosts. Seeing this, the blue boy let out a smile and shouted, ¡°Now!¡± Suddenly, tokens were thrown out and with a flash of light, the five demons were trapped in chains made of light. ¡°Kill them now!¡± As the words came out of the boy¡¯s mouth, he dashed forward and instantly cut the head of the demon off. The other group¡¯s elite goblin and kobold seemed to be prepared and quickly stabbed their targets in the throat. John was the only one who was shocked by all of this, but he quickly regained his senses and cut down his opponent. He let out a breath of relief, but suddenly realized he was surrounded by monsters and quickly became alert again. The blue boy smiled at him and said, ¡°Relax. Like I said before, we only want to hunt the demons.¡± John looked at the blue boy and slowly said, ¡°Can I go down to help Sigrid now?¡± The blue boy shook his head. John frowned, but before he could say anything, the blue boy said, ¡°Sigrid safe. Help adventurers.¡± John was shocked to hear there were more demons, but suddenly realized something else and shouted, ¡°What adventurers? Are there more demons mixed into the other parties in here?¡± The blue boy nodded at him and said, ¡°Yes, demons all parties. Demons plan long time. Must save adventurers quick. Monster too weak, won¡¯t last.¡± John knew that as a rank E adventurer, it was his duty to help protect those people, but at the same time, he was very worried about Sigrid and wanted to get to her as soon as possible. The blue boy saw his struggle and said, ¡°Sigrid okay now. Rank B Demon, you no help. Need help outside.¡± After hearing this, John was startled. A rank B demon? That was not something he could do anything about. The slime was right; they needed help from the outside, from the adventurer¡¯s guild. After pondering for a bit, he reluctantly agreed and ran along with the blue boy to find the survivors. John hated himself very much right now because if he was stronger, he could have gone down there and saved Sigrid instead of hoping that someone would come to save her. He swore to himself that he would get strong no matter what it took!
Edited by: Nova and The super secreted masked editor... from space! Edited by: General Luke Chapter 29 - Dungeon Raid Part 3 Announcement Spoiler : So I personally hate doing these as I feel its weird to have these mixed into the chapters (also feel bad about w/e get pushed off the update list on the front page) but I felt that this was kinda needed. So I returned I''ll merely update this post to a chapter post later so I don''t push another update off XD On to the important matter, after reading all the feed backs for chapter 28 I''m decided to hold off on the epilogue and going onto vol 2 and fix chapter 28 first. Honestly I thought I was going to be able to end it on 28 so I went in with the mind set of completing it no matter what. Well as a result I had a lot more to write about than I originally though and instead of just stop I kept going and now we have chapter 28. What will happen is I''ll be working on splitting chapter 28 into 3-4 chapters of their normal length. Flesh out the fights and encountered and fixed some issues people saw. At first I wanted to make post explaining some of the stuff but then I realize if I had to explain it now then it should have been explained in the chapter instead. Since this is the weekend I have more time so I hope to finish in these 2 days but might take longer. I''ll update chapter 28 with the new chapter and then update this thread with chapter 29 so don''t expect any notification from RRL until Chapter 30 is posted. Now since this is an announcement post I''ll add one more thing. I do plan on publishing this as an ebook for this but will take a lot of editing and probably changes to the chapters to make them flow better. After all once everything is done it''s a lot easier to see issues and change the previous points to make it fit the later part better. That being said I don''t want to end up in a situation where I change a ton of things in vol 1 but only in the ebook but I also do want to the ebook to have some extra stuff so its worth the buy. So how I plan to do this is all the chapters will be updated with better grammar, that I feel shouldn''t even be questioned. Now for the changes to story, key changes will be updated here as well but extra fluff I add will not. Say I might expand a battle scene or idk some side stuff that doesn''t effect the story much I''ll keep those for the ebook. Probably release some side stories for the ebook as well. However all the ebook stuff is further down the line as I''ll continue on with vol 2. Now as for vol 2 I do have a pretty good idea of where it''s going so pace might keep up until the end of vol 2 but i promise nothing as things happen. So well deal with it when we get there I suppose. As for after vol 2 I got no clue. That''s about yet, thank you all for reading and supporting me so far. I''m sorry for chapter 28, it was very rash and stubborn decision on my part that made it happen so I''ll do my best to fix it. P.S. I''m interesting in setting up a patron but I honestly have no idea wtf to even do for the rewards so anyone with some experience or idea can shoot them at me by posting here or PM me. Sincerely, Rex Here is Chapter 29!
*Plain South of the Dungeon Town* The demon army charged across the plain, causing the ground to shake. The human defenders held their breath as they waited for the demons to arrive. Many of the adventurers had never seen a battle of this size before, so, even though many of them were stronger than the soldiers here, they were much more nervous. Penny noticed this and quickly shouted, ¡°Remember that the lives of everyone back in the dungeon town depend on us holding them off! Most of the people back there are all rank F and G adventures who would be massacred should we let this army pass. You are all rank C or higher adventurers. You all have faced far worse to get there. So, get yourself together and get ready to fight!¡± The adventurers¡¯ morale immediately rose after hearing Penny¡¯s speech as they all recalled the dangers they faced to reach their current rank. They all felt ashamed that they were shocked by such lowly demons while the weaker guards all stood their ground. Images on their loved ones back in the kingdom flashed across their minds. If they failed here, then there was a chance the entire kingdom might fall. They all recovered from the shock of facing so many demons at once and entered battle mode. The guild master couldn¡¯t help but smile and mutter, ¡°She has really grown in the last few years.¡± His eyes turned to the Demon General. He knew that with him present, the only danger was the demon general. He wasn¡¯t sure why a Demon General had come with the first wave or how strong the Demon General was, but he was fairly confident that he could win. After all, he had faced much worse in the past, so he wasn¡¯t about to be scared of some brat who just rose to the position. The demons closed in rapidly. 1000 meters, 800 meters, 500 meters, 300 meters, 100 meters¡­ ¡°Fire!¡± With that shout from Penny. All of the mages and archers shot their spells and arrows into the incoming demon horde. The hellhounds were nimble and dodged some of the attacks, but the imps weren¡¯t so lucky and were hit. However, there were a lot more demons than human defenders, so although they hit about 30 or 40 demons, the reset reached the front line and the battle began. The guards held the front with their coordinated movements so the demons couldn¡¯t easily break through. Soon, the demons began to spread and surround the humans. A few rank B adventurers led a group of rank Cs to guard the side and killed the demons that tried to flank them. The five rank As didn¡¯t do anything as they knew that their job was to deal with the ten elite demons, so it was best they didn¡¯t waste too much energy on the small ones. The battle quickly entered a stalemate as the human defenders held their ground and the demons kept trying to break through. So far, there were no major injuries or deaths while the demons were slowly being grinded down. If this could last for a few hours, then they would have easily won this battle without losing person. Sadly, that was only wishful thinking as 20 minutes into the battle, the elite demons began to move. The demonic lava golems were the first to move toward the front line. The rank A adventurers saw this and wanted to move, but they were stopped by Penny. ¡°As much as we want to charge in and destroy them, it is too dangerous right now. We can¡¯t go in while they have the support of all those imps and hell hounds. We have to wait until they move in closer before it is safe for us to move.¡± One rank A adventurer couldn¡¯t help but shout, ¡°Damn it, but the guards can¡¯t hold out against them!¡± Penny shouted back, ¡°They know their duty! Now, pay attention to yours!¡± Everyone¡¯s face darkened at those words, but they knew that Penny was right. This was the best way to wipe out the demonic lava golems. If they were to get trapped or killed by the enemy, then this battle would be lost. Although the guild master was there, they all knew that should he act, the Demon General would act too, and the battle between those two might kill them all. They gritted their teeth as they watched the demonic lava golems crash into the front line. Soon, the front line began to collapse as the guards couldn¡¯t hold out against the lava golem and began to retreat. As well planned it all was, there were still unavoidable casualties. Soon, the demonic lava golems pushed in deeper into the human defenders. Finally, once all ten were mixed into the front line, the rank A adventurers moved. They had been watching the battle for 30 minutes, waiting for the right moment, and this was it. Each of them quickly arrived next to a demonic lava golem and began to unleash their fury. The demonic golems were only rank C creatures, but due to their tough bodies, even rank B adventurers would struggle to finish them off quickly. However, the rank A adventurers had time to prepare, so all of their attacks were focused on the demonic lava golems¡¯ weak spots. Soon, the golems started falling one by one. The golems seemed to notice that they had fallen into a trap, so backed up to regroup with the other demons. Sadly, they had already fallen too deep into the trap, so after another 30 minutes of fighting, eight were destroyed while only two made it back to the protection of the two elementals. The plan was a success as it destroyed a large amount of the demons¡¯ elite forces and the rank A adventures didn¡¯t suffer much. That being said, a price was still paid. A total of 34 guards and two rank C adventurers died. Many more were suffering injuries. However, things were looking favorable. If they could wipe out the two remaining demonic lava golems and fire elementals, then the rank A adventurers could use their remaining strength to easily slaughter the rest of the imps and hellhounds. Demon General Xaizal stood there watching the battle unfold with an indifferent look on his face. He really didn¡¯t care how the battle went as long as it meant keeping them here, especially that old man. Truth to be told, aside from trying to ruin ¡°her¡± plan, he was also very interested in testing his strength against the Legendary Max the Destroyer. He was raised to be a demon general after the great war, so he had only heard stories of this legendary human. He wanted to see just how much of the legend was true, but in his heart, he looked down on Max. He thought that the old man was just a relic of a bygone age and that he was going to be the one who inspires the myths now. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After seeing eight demonic lava golems destroyed by the humans¡¯ ambush, he knew that it was time for him to act. He needed to keep the old man busy so that the fire elementals could do some serious damage to the remaining human defenders. Even if his remaining forces were to get wiped out, as long as he hurts those rank A adventurers enough, then no one could help the dungeon even if his subordinate somehow screwed up and let a message get through. After ordering the fire elementals to fuse with the demonic golems, he finally stepped forth. ¡°Hey, old man, that was a pretty entertaining warm-up, but it¡¯s time for the main event.¡± Demon General Xaizel flew forward, causing the guild master to frown. Guild master Max didn¡¯t want to fight if possible. He wasn¡¯t afraid of losing, but if he were to fight this Demon General, they would have to move a bit further away, or else the shockwave could kill everyone here. However, the situation here wasn¡¯t completely safe yet. He also knew that this was why the Demon General acted now, because the demon was preparing for a counterattack and they didn¡¯t want him messing it up. He let out a sigh and looked toward Penny. She also heard the Demon General, so when she saw the guild master look at her, she knew what he meant and nodded. After seeing her nod, he let out another sigh and also moved forward to meet the Demon General on the eastern side of the battle field. The Demon General smiled and said, ¡°Please go easy on me.¡± As soon as he finished, his body disappeared. When he reappeared, he was already before Max, swinging down his long sword. Max noticed this and immediately raised his hand, knocking the sword away with his mighty hammer. Soon, the two began to exchange blows rapidly creating shock waves that could be felt by the other battle. Their battle was quick and intense. No one besides the five rank A adventurers could even remotely see what was happening. All of them wished to observe this battle, but they all knew they had their own problems to deal with. However, during the moments where everyone¡¯s attention was drawn to the battle between the Demon General and Guild Master, the two fire elementals fused with the demonic lava golems. Right after they fused, they let out roars and each shot a giant ball of lava toward the guards. Penny was the first to notice and shouted, ¡°Quickly, water barriers, now!¡± The mages suddenly withdrew their gaze from the battle to the east and casted water barriers. The lava was stopped by the water barriers and a wall was formed. Just as the water barriers disappeared, the wall was shattered as two demonic lava golems with fire elementals in them charged through and smashed into the guards. This time, these were rank A fire elementals inside demonic rock golems, which negated their weakness of being weak to being attacked. The rank A adventurers quickly split into two groups of twos and attacked the golems. However, they didn¡¯t realize that the fire elementals had secretly entered the golems, so they attacked as if they were only normal golems and suffered the counter-attack. The moment they hit the golems, they noticed something was wrong, but it was too late and two of the five rank A adventurers suffered serious blows. Penny noticed this and shouted, ¡°Quickly, move those two out of the way and get them to a healer!¡± With that, she jumped in herself to fight one of the golems. ¡°Hold that one there until we kill this one here!¡± The battle became increasingly difficult at this moment as the two golems rampaged inside the front line. More than 70 guards had already died and three more rank C adventurers had fallen. Only about an hour and a half into the battle and only 125 guards and 25 adventurers remained. Penny knew that if this continued, they could still win, but their losses would be great, so she clenched her teeth and made a decision. Suddenly, her body began to glow as the mana in the area surged toward her. This was a special ability unique to her bloodline and why the guild master picked her up as his personal disciple, Mana Overload. This ability allowed her to draw more mana than her body could normally handle and for a short period of time, boost her abilities greatly. However, the downside was once was it over, she won¡¯t be able to move for a week, and if she were to overuse it, then her body would disintegrate. This surge of mana caught everyone by surprise, except the guild master, who only let out a bitter smile. He knew that she would have to use this move if they wished to keep the damage to a minimum. Once she finished activating the skill, she quickly moved and rapidly attacked the golem before her. The sudden burst in strength caught the golem by surprise and it wasn¡¯t able to properly defend itself. Soon, after five minutes of suppressing the golem, Penny finally landed a fatal hit and killed it. As soon as it died, she and the other rank A adventurer rushed toward the remaining golem. With Penny and two rank A adventurers attacking it, the last golem quickly fell. With only one minute left on her mana overload, Penny used up all of the remaining mana in her body to cast a wide-area lightning spell before falling to the ground, unable to move.... *Dungeon Second Floor* John and Blue quickly made their way through the second floor toward the surviving adventurers. Since Sage could see the whole dungeon, it was easy to point them in the right direction. John couldn¡¯t stop thinking about the rank B demon down there. He knew that Sigrid was strong, but she was still only rank E, two ranks below rank B. No matter how he looked at it, she wasn¡¯t safe. Yet, this blue boy said she was. Was it because of the dungeon? That made sense as this dungeon seemed to recognize the demons as a top threat above all else, even allying with adventurers to win. He remembered that the final boss in his dungeon was reported as a powerful Kobold Lord that was around rank D in strength. Maybe with that boss, Sigrid could hold out until they could get help, but the difference in strength was still far too great. The more John thought, the more worried he became, and the more worried he became, the more frustrated he was at himself because he couldn¡¯t help. All he could do was get help from the guild master, because even if he were to go down there, he would just be throwing his life away. He hated himself for not being stronger and for being such a scaredy cat before. If only he had started training earlier, he might¡¯ve been at rank B himself right now. If only¡­ if only¡­ Just as he was tormenting himself in his mind, he suddenly heard a cry in the distance. He quickly regained his sense and asked the boy, ¡°Is there a surviving adventurer ahead?¡± The body simply nodded and pointed forward to a turn. Just after the boy raised his finger, a figure came around the corner. The figure was that of a very disheveled adventurer. His clothes had many cuts on them with some minor injuries, but he was overall still alive and kicking. When he saw John, his face suddenly lit up and he shouted, ¡°Please help me! People in my party suddenly turned on us and killed my other party members! Please save me!¡± However, he soon noticed all the monsters next to John and immediately panicked again. ¡°Ahhh, monsters! Get away!¡± He was around to turn around and run when John suddenly shouted, ¡°Wait!¡± This came out much more forceful than John had intended, but all of the pent up anger he felt toward himself bursted out and shocked the adventurer in place. John took the chance and quickly arrived next to the adventurer and said, ¡°Calm down and tell me what happened.¡± But the adventurer saw the monsters coming as well and began to panic again, but John prevented him from running, ¡°No, please don¡¯t let the monsters get me. Please!¡± John finally couldn¡¯t take it anymore and slapped the guy. ¡°I said calm down! The monsters aren¡¯t here to kill you. They are here to help you. If you haven¡¯t noticed, the only reason you are still alive is because the monsters have been getting in the demons¡¯ way and slowing them down for you.¡± The adventurer was dumbfounded and slowly said, ¡°Really?¡± Then something suddenly registered in his brain as he shouted, ¡°Demons?¡± John nodded and explained, ¡°Yes, demons. There were demons mixed in with all of the parties that entered here today. Their target is the dungeon and they used us to help clear out the monsters. Right now, our goal is to get out of here and report this to the adventurers guild to get help. Sigrid is trapped on in the third floor with the demon leader. We have to be quick. Can you still fight?¡± The adventurer stared at John for a while as he processed all of this, but thinking back to how his best friend was killed in cold blood, his expression suddenly became serious. ¡°Yes!¡± he replied. John pulled him off the ground and Blue walked up to hand over some medication. The adventurer was uneasy, but after seeing John nod, he took the medication and thanked the blue boy. Shortly after taking it, Blue suddenly turned to look down the hall and said, ¡°Demons coming.¡± Right after he said that, they could hear voices echoing down from the tunnel. ¡°Come here, little human. If you obediently come out now, we¡¯ll grant you a swift death. Hehe..¡±.
Edited by: General Luke Chapter 30 - Dungeon Raid Part 4 Sorry for the long wait guys, weekend was my birthday so ended up with no time to write so everything got kinda pushed back 2 days. For those who didn''t know part of the rewrite for chapter 28 is already out as chapter 28 and 29 so please go re-read those before reading chapter 30. Also I finally bugged Kana enough and he worked his time wizard skill to fix all the views I got from search engine crawlers so time to re-climb back up to rank 1 monthly and into monthly ranking! >=3
The demons finally got away from the monsters and chased after the adventurer that got away. They finally saw the adventurer who had fallen down and was currently cowering against a wall making all the demons smile as they saw the adventurer¡¯s fear and slowly walked towards him. ¡°Good boy, now you can join your little friends!¡± Just as they got close the demons saw an object fall to the ground before them. They were startled at first but after taking a look they noticed it was a token. The tokens looked very similar to the trial room tokens so after taking one look the demons decided to get back to killing this adventurer. However just before they turned their gaze a blinding light came from the token completely blinding the three demons. ¡°Argggghhhh, my eyes!¡± One of the demons rushed forward in an attempt to get the human that he knew was only five feet away. However as he dashed forward he felt something hit him from his side and he was knocked to the ground. Soon he felt a powerful force hit his head causing his mind to go blank and at the next moment he could no longer feel his body. After being sent into shock his natural defenses weakened greatly allowing the adventurer to cut of the demon¡¯s head. The other two demons realized something was wrong the moment they were blinded and they chose to back up instead. However they weren¡¯t lucky either as there were monsters behind them already, however the monsters were too weak so they only managed to injure the demons lightly before being knocked away. Soon the demons regained their senses and saw their dead companion. At first they were angry but soon they noticed that they were surrounded by monsters on both sides. This caused their hearts to skip a beat as they immediately went into battle mode. The monsters quickly swarmed at them and split the two demons apart. At first they were doing well dealing with the monsters but soon John and Blue joined in on the fight. Although their fighting strength was only at rank E and would normally stand no chance against these rank D demons, with the help of the monsters they were able to put up a good fight. John channelled all his anger at himself towards the demon and his attacks became even fiercer. Soon the demons realized that if this continued he was going to get exhausted to death as he had to deal with so many enemies at once. Thus he decided to activate his final move but just as he did so another token fell near him and locked him in place. During the activation of this skill the demons were the most vulnerable and after being caught by the binding restriction they would have to re-channel their mana which would take time. Using this opening John plunged his sword into the heart of the demon before quickly turning around to help Blue. The remaining demon finally began to panic, he never thought that this simple mission would become hard. He wanted to run but was surrounded by monsters and the constant attacks from Blue and John finally caught him off guard and he took a slash at the waist. The demon stumbled back from the shock of the blow and was knocked to the ground by a goblin. John quickly took this chance and stabbed the demon in the throat. John let out a breath of relief as the last demon died. This battle went exceptionally well for them because those demons were all rank D. The death of the first demon was what really won the battle for them as that not only shocked the demons into thinking they were stronger but also allowed John and Blue to engage one each. Had the third one been alive, it would have been impossible to keep them apart. The adventurer that killed the first demon finally began to cry as he mourned the loss of his friends. He slammed his fist into the ground, tears streaming down his eyes as he cried, ¡°Why! Why did she had to die! Why wasn¡¯t it me instead¡­¡± John reluctantly walked up and stopped him from hurting himself any longer. John wished he could give the man time to mourn but right now it was a race against the clock. ¡°I know you must feel terrible right now but this isn¡¯t over yet.¡± The adventurer suddenly stopped and turned to John, ¡°What¡­ what do you mean?¡± ¡°Like I said before the demons planned this so every single party that came in has demons. There is a total of 5 parties in here today. We just killed the demons in your party and I have dealt with the ones in mine. Sigrid¡¯s party is down at the third floor with a rank B demon.¡± The adventurer¡¯s face suddenly turned pale at the words rank B demon. ¡°So there are still two remaining parties of demons left. According to the monsters there is one more survivor like you so we must go and rescue that person as soon as possible. Once we save that person we need to get out of here and get help from the Adventurers¡¯ Guild, only they can help the dungeon now.¡± The adventurer was startled by the sudden news and asked, ¡°Help the dungeon?¡± John nodded, ¡°Their target is to control the dungeon, imagine what would happen if a demonic dungeon appears within the borders of Zeal! This would be the ideal forward base for an demon invasion!¡± The adventurer was once again shocked by the revelation. John felt bad for lying, while it was true that this could happen the chances of it being true were very low with the guild master around. At most the dungeon was turned demonic but quickly dealt with by the guild master. However he was in a rush to save Sigrid so he needed this guy to help him fight instead of moping around. The adventurer shook his head to clear his thoughts and nodded at John. With that they quickly moved through the second floor. Since Sage could see everything that happens in the dungeon he easily lead Blue and John to the next group of demons. This group had successfully managed to kill their party so they weren¡¯t chasing anyone but trying to clear out monsters as they moved deeper to their leader. Sage used this to his advantage and purposely lured them into many traps. This kept the loss of monsters to a minimal while slowly weakening the demons. ¡°Guys¡­ let us take a break here¡­¡± ¡°Good idea¡­ we ran.. Into so many traps on the way here¡­¡± ¡°Damn¡­ these¡­ monsters¡­¡± The three demons just wiped out another group of monsters but had suffered through a pitfall trap filled with slimes that tried to digest them. The pit was deep so it took them awhile to get out and lost a lot of mana to the slimes. They stopped at room with only two entrance and decided to rest here. ¡°Damn, why is the mana here so thin today? Normally recovery is very quick in here.¡± ¡°Hahaha, probably the boss is doing work on the dungeon core.¡± ¡°Yeah, the dungeon core must be panicking right now trying to absorb more mana. Hahaha.¡± The real reason the mana is so thin around them was Sage actively moving the mana away from them. His goal was to weaken this group of demons as much as possible so John and Blue¡¯s group could easily take care of them in one fell swoop. He also secretly dug a tunnel into that room wall opening up right above the demon¡¯s heads. Blue quickly guided the group into the secret passage made by Sage and once they all arrived Sage connected the tunnels. With a bang the side of the wall exploded and rocks fell down from above onto the demons. The relaxed demons panicked as they tried to find where the explosion came from. When they noticed the pebbles hitting them on their head they looked up and their faces were filled with terror. They wanted to dodge but it was too late as rocks and monsters fell down and smashed on top of them. They were able to knock away the first or second goblin that was dropping down on top of them but soon all three were knocked to the ground. Once they were down the monsters gave them no chance to get up so the demons could only focus their mana on defending themselves. This didn¡¯t last long as John, Blue, and the adventurer quickly got down and finished off the demons before they could regain their bearings. Normally the demons were strong enough to not get knocked down by the goblins falling on them but they were already exhausted and caught off guard. John¡¯s heart pounded as he made sure the demons were dead, ¡°Only three more demons then we can get help! Hold on, I¡¯m coming with help soon¡­¡± They had no time to celebrate their victory as Blue quickly lead them to the last survivor. This last party was on the first floor when the battles began as the last group¡¯s job was to keep people from leaving. They decided to not chase after the adventurer that went away because as long as she didn¡¯t get out it didn¡¯t matter if she lived for a bit longer. Once their leader won there would be nowhere left for her to hide. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Damn, they blocked the only way out of here.¡± The female adventurer secretly checked the passage, ¡°I know there are 4 more parties in here today, maybe I can get help from them?¡± With that thought in mind she began to move deeper into the dungeon. She was very cautious but soon she noticed something was off. There were no monsters as she traveled through the dungeon, this caused her to feel very uneasy as it meant something was really wrong here. After traveling through the first floor for 30mins she got close to the stairs to the second floor. Just as she got close she heard footsteps and quickly hid herself. Right now the situation was too strange and she couldn¡¯t be too sure on who might be coming. Soon she saw two adventurers emerge. She recognized one of them as John, one of the two rank E adventurers in here today. But the next scene completely shocked her as a boy who was blue and almost transparent came out behind them followed by a group of monsters. Just as she was trying to process what was going on the boy pointed towards her and said ¡°There.¡± John quickly turned towards that direction and shouted, ¡°Please come out, we mean you no harm.¡± After a while the female adventurer came out from her hiding place, however she was still very guarded and asked, ¡°Care to explain what is going on?¡± John let out a wry smile and said, ¡°It¡¯s a long story and we don¡¯t have much time. The simple version is that demons are trying to take over the dungeon and we need to break out of here to get help from the Adventurers¡¯ Guild. The dungeon is helping us because the demons are threatening it.¡± The female adventurer raised her brow and said, ¡°And you expect me to believe that?¡± John let out a sigh, ¡°You don¡¯t have much of a choice do you? The demons have blocked the exit and without the help of the monsters we stand no chance against them.¡± ¡°And what is to stop the dungeon from turning on us once all the demons are dead?¡± The female adventurer is still very doubtful of the whole situation. John was starting to lose his patience as he growled, ¡°Because there is a rank B demon on the third floor! The dungeon needs us to to get help from the guild and once the rank A and above adventurers are here do you still think the dungeon can turn on us? Now either you help us or you can try your luck getting out yourself. Remember the monsters haven¡¯t attacked you because the dungeon sees you as a potential ally.¡± The female adventurer was shocked by John¡¯s sudden change in tone. She thought hard for a while but finally letting out a sigh and nodded her head. John relaxed a bit and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡± As the group moved towards the chock leading to the dungeon entrance, the female adventurer asked, ¡°Why doesn¡¯t the dungeon core just build us a tunnel out of here? Since all these demons are doing is guarding the entrance, as long as we get past them, it would be fine.¡± Blue shook his head and said, ¡°Too slow, no time.¡± The female adventurer frowned and said, ¡°So what is the plan then? Those guys must be at least rank E and there are three of them.¡± Blue suddenly cut in before she could continue and said, ¡°Rank D¡± ¡°Great, even better three rank D. How are we going to win?¡± John frowned and sternly said, ¡°Like how we killed the last 9 rank D demons.¡± The female adventurer was startled at what John just said, it took her a while to recover before she asked, ¡°And that is?¡± John for the first time since this whole thing started let out a smile and said, ¡°With a good plan and help from the dungeon.¡± With that John explained the plan they had made to take care of those last remaining demons. The idea was to ambush the demons and push them back into traps set up behind them. There were still monsters on the other side of the blockade set up by the demons, they will attack to get their attention. Then John¡¯s group will hit them while they are dealing with the monsters and catch them off guard forcing them into the trap set up on the other side. Soon they arrived near the choke point where the demons were guarding. They got in position and waited, after a few minutes both them and the demons heard footsteps coming from the other side. ¡°What! Could the humans have sent help already?¡± ¡°No! That¡¯s impossible! We were the last party in so no one could have gotten passed us.¡± ¡°Wait! It¡¯s just monsters from the first floor. Damn still that many? Where were they hiding?¡± ¡°Whatever, still easy pickings. At least something to do while we wait.¡± The monsters arrived and began to fight the demons. However since these were floor one monsters they were very weak and the demons were mostly toying with them rather than fighting seriously. But just as they were playing around John¡¯s group slowly closed in and once they could longer move in any closer without being noticed they charged forward. The sudden appearance of three adventurers and a large group of monsters startled the demons. They suddenly became serious and started to wipe out the monsters they were currently fighting. By the time John and Blue reached the demons, only a few of the monsters that started the fight remained but they did their job and let John¡¯s group have the element of surprise. The demons were caught off guard and slowly pushed backwards. With the addition of two more adventurers they can now easily keep each of the 3 demons busy and prevented them from working together. Things were going well and the demons were slowly being pushed toward the trap but suddenly something changed. The male adventurer felt that they had the demon on the ropes so he suddenly went really aggressive. However the demons had been waiting for a chance and this was it. The male adventurer¡¯s attack missed and in return the demon slashed across his chest which sent him smashing into the wall. Suddenly the pressure on one demon was lost as the female adventurer was now pushed back even with the help of the monsters. ¡°Damn it!¡± John was furious as the battle began to spiral out of their control. *Sage¡¯s chamber* Sage who was watching this also became very frustrated. The plan was going perfect but the rash action of that one adventurer ruined it all. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he needed them to get help he wouldn¡¯t mind making that man suffer slowly before killing him. Ideals rapidly went through his head and he suddenly remembered something Alice said just before. ¡°That could work¡­ but no it isn¡¯t enough with just Blue. Think Sage, think¡­¡± Sage began to rapidly analyze different possibilities and just when it seemed there was nothing else to increase the chance of success something suddenly entered his mine. ¡°Maybe¡­ just maybe it will work¡­¡± *First Floor* The battle was getting ugly as more and more monsters died. John and Blue moved some of the monsters helping them to help keep the third demon in check but it wasn¡¯t going to last long. ¡°Is this it? Is this the end for us? Is my weakness going to destroy the last hope of saving her?¡± John began to despair as he see no way out of his. ¡°Is this really all I can do?¡± Just at this moment he suddenly heard someone shouting his name, ¡°John, catch!¡± John turned toward the voice and saw Blue tossing a blue thing at him. He quickly dodged an attack from the demon and caught it. The thing was like a blue marble only it was soft instead of hard. John was very confused by what this is but before he could ask Blue shouted again, ¡°Eat! Trust me!¡± At the same time Blue shouted that he threw out 2 flash talismans. John knew that this was the final trump card that the dungeon had prepared so he closed his eyes and swallowed it without any hesitation. As he felt the bright light through his eyelids and heard the cursing of the monster he could feel whatever he swallowed dissolving and spreading throughout his body. Soon mana began to gather at those points in his body where the strange substance had spread to. Feeling the surge of mana inside his body John felt more alive than he had ever felt before. And for the second time today John let out a smile and whispered, ¡°Yes, with this I can help¡­¡±
Edited by: Nova and The super secret masked editor... from space! Chapter 31 - Dungeon Raid Part 5 Here is chapter 31, this rewrite just get longer and longer =3 So thinking if spending some money on a really really really nice cover and browsing through deviant art commission folder (not fun) and man my friend was so picky like went through 100/178 pages and only one he was happy with o.- So I thought I post here see if any reader got recommendation. Like I said he is very picky so here the two that caught his eyes. First - Issue with this one came down to background, the character looks really good but the background looks really meh. So something at this level but with better backgrounds Second - This is one he is happy with right now and current choice until something better comes up. So ya PM or post them here if you got recommendations.
John wasn¡¯t the only one that changed as Blue also lit up as mana surged into his body. Because Blue¡¯s body was transparent it was much more obvious when mana began to gather. Sadly for the demons they were blinded and didn¡¯t notice the change that occurred. Once they felt the mana surging through their body there was no hesitation as both Blue and John dashed at the demons and attacked. The demons who were still recovering their sight were shocked at the sudden change in their enemy that they couldn¡¯t defend fast enough. Blue¡¯s attack hit the demon square in the chest and slammed the demon into the ground. The demon coughed out blood from the impact and couldn¡¯t catch his breath. Without giving the demon any time to breathe Blue¡¯s fist smashed into the demon¡¯s skull. The demon¡¯s mind blanked out from the impact and he couldn¡¯t think as Blue¡¯s fists rapidly smashed against his skull. Normally you wouldn¡¯t think a slime¡¯s punch could hurt but with a majority of his mana focused in his fists they were harder than steel. It didn¡¯t take many punches before the demon was knocked out and after that it only took one punch for blue to crush the demon¡¯s skull. John however went for a much more direct approach and dived straight for the demon¡¯s neck. Normally this wouldn¡¯t work even at his current strength but suddenly gaining this much mana allowed him to use a technique he learned during his 7 days in hell. He never used this technique before because he lacked the mana. At rank E he could only use it once and it would exhaust all the mana in his body making him defenseless but now mana was surging into his body. He carefully controlled his mana into his sword. He poured mana inside until it give off a light glow as he ran toward the demon. The demon recovered his sight just in time to see John¡¯s sword aimed at his neck.s In response he quickly moved his hand to stop it. He had it all planned out in his head, he would stop the human¡¯s sword with his left hand and then rip the guy¡¯s head off with his right. However the moment the sword touched his left hand things didn¡¯t turn out as he expected. The sword infused with mana sliced through the hand and cut into the demon¡¯s neck, the demon didn¡¯t even have time to feel the pain from his hand before his head flew off. At that moment the third demon who thought they were about to win was frozen. One moment they were minutes away from victory and the next his two teammates had died. His mind drew blanks as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. However these moments of distraction were fatal in a life and death battle such as this. The female adventurer saw this opening and stabbed through one of the demon¡¯s eyes. The demon knocked her away and howled as he rolled on the ground in pain. Blue quickly took the opportunity and gave this demon the same treatment as the other. The tides shifted very quickly and the demons were killed without even needing to use the traps set in place. John quickly went to check up on the two adventurers and couldn¡¯t help but frown. The female adventurer was fine, she was a bit battered up but will live but the male adventurer is not doing so hot. Just as he was thinking about what to do the blue boy walked up and smeared something over the male adventurer¡¯s wound. ¡°He fine, get help.¡± With that the boy turned around. John quickly shouted, ¡°Where are you going?¡± The boy didn¡¯t even turn his head and replied, ¡°Help Sigrid.¡± John¡¯s body trembled when he heard that name. Before he planned on getting help from the guild master because he was too weak but now¡­ now things were different. He felt that with the strength he had just now he could help. ¡°Let me come and help! If you do whatever you did earlier I can fight!¡± Blue suddenly paused and didn¡¯t know what to do but soon Sage sent him a message and he replied, ¡°Follow.¡± Before continuing to walk back into the dungeon. John quickly turned to the female adventurer and said, ¡°Go get help from the guild. Tell them the demons have invaded the dungeon and there is a rank B demon down on the third floor.¡± The female adventurer looked at the male adventurer. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him, the dungeon won¡¯t harm him because it still needs our help. Now go quick, while I go help Sigrid.¡± The female adventurer pondered for a bit and nodded. After that John quickly ran after Blue and headed back into the dungeon. This time he was going to make a difference¡­ *One and half hours ago* Sigrid limped away as quickly as she could while standing the pain she is in. She knew that she had messed up by being caught off guard and had endangered not only her own life but Sage¡¯s and Alice¡¯s as well. The pain was getting to the point where she could no longer stand but as she was about fall a white tiger appeared and she fell onto its back. Knowing that she was safe for now she slowly closed her eyes and passed out from the pain. The white tiger moved as quickly as it could through the 3rd floor and brought Sigrid and Alice to Sage¡¯s chamber. As soon as they arrived Sage didn¡¯t even get to say a word as Alice shouted ¡°Sage quickly channel all the mana you can and give it to Sigrid!¡± Sage was stunned by the sudden outburst but none the less channeled all the mana in the area into Sigrid before turning to Alice to ask, ¡°Why?¡± Alice finally let out a breath and replied, ¡°Sigrid is bound to you and thus can be revived if she dies with in the dungeon as you can build her a new body with mana. By the same logic you can also help her recover her body with mana as well. Not only that but you can overcharge her with mana, allowing her to fight far beyond her strength but that comes at a price.¡± Sage was happy to hear all this but suddenly frowned at the end and asked, ¡°What price?¡± Alice looked at Sigrid and slowly said, ¡°Once her body can no longer handle anymore mana it will start to break down. She won¡¯t be dead but you will need to reform her body. It¡¯s not ideal but if you don¡¯t do this Sigrid stands no chance against that rank B demon.¡± Sage hated this decision yet it was one he had to make, he knew that right now their chance of survival was very low and they would need to do whatever it took to win. After pondering for a while he knew he had to overcharge Sigrid but he also knew that Sigrid had been slowly integrating mana into her body for a month now and could handle a lot more than normal. He decided to use this battle as a test to see how well he can handle manual mana injection and if it worked out then Sigrid¡¯s strength would grow much faster. With that in mind he began to control the mana as it entered Sigrid¡¯s body. As he did a part of him turned toward where George was. Right now he must use the monsters to stall him to gain time for Sigrid to recover and get overcharged. Luckily the battle on the second floor went well and Blue had convinced John to help them. Hopefully the help from the kingdom would arrive on time should things go south. Sage began to formulate plans to deal with the remaining demons in the dungeon to get the adventurers out of here alive. *George¡¯s Location* ¡°You useless trash! Why didn¡¯t you guys kill the monsters after you all transformed? You all just stood there like a couple of morons and now they got away! Why do I get stuck working with people like this! You got lucky this time girl but your luck won¡¯t get you out of this!¡± George let out a loud and triumphant laugh as he moved through the dungeon. Now that everyone had awakened nothing in the dungeon was a threat to them anymore. They met almost no monsters along the way aside for the few that tried to ambush them. However with their current power they easily crushed everything in their path. George knew the dungeon was stalling for time but he didn¡¯t mind. He knew that what the dungeon was hoping for would never come. So he slowly moved through the 3rd floor as he too was waiting for his men to arrive. Along the way all he could think about was how terrified the dungeon core and Ice Maiden had to be right now. Whenever he thought about the reward he would get once this was all over he couldn¡¯t help but let out a large grin. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. After 2 hours of navigating the maze like third floor and smashing through every trap along the way George¡¯s group arrived at the large room outside the boss room. What he saw shocked him a little as he didn¡¯t expect the dungeon to have so many monsters on the 3rd floor. There were five white tigers, ten squads of goblins, and five squads of kobolds. Although he was startled he wasn¡¯t worried. Even though this was a large force, if you compared it to the power of three rank C demons and himself, a rank B demon, this was far too little to pose a threat to them. He let out a wide grin and said, ¡°There is no need to be so hard on yourself dungeon core. All you have to do is hand over the Ice Maiden and let me control you. After that you can have all the mana you want and grow into a powerful dungeon for lord Zoar! I can see you have created quite the force here and it would be such a pity to destroy them. I can do something far more productive with them like wiping out that pesky dungeon town. Muahaha!¡± After the laughter died down there was silence. When George saw that the dungeon core didn¡¯t seem to be willing to surrender, he frowned and shouted, ¡°You were given a chance to join willingly now you will join by force! Attack!¡± With that the three demons charged toward the monsters and the monsters charged back at them as well. Soon the room was in complete chaos as the demons slaughtered the monsters. The normal goblins and kobolds weren¡¯t able to do much before being killed while the elites and white tigers barely held on. George stood back and watched the fight with a smile on his face, he knew that it would only be a matter of time before his men wiped out the monsters. Just like he thought after only a few minutes only the elites and white tigers were remaining but even they were already injured. The demons were feeling good and moved in for the kill when suddenly waves of slimes dropped from the ceiling and covered them. They screamed and cursed but there was so much slimes that the sound wouldn¡¯t get through. However George didn¡¯t move as he knew that the slimes couldn¡¯t possibly harm his men but just at that moment he saw some objects falling between him and his men. ¡°What the¡­¡± Violent flashes of bright white light filled his eyes again causing him to lose his vision, ¡°Damn it not again!¡± Right as the flashes went off the entire room began to rumble as the side of the wall opened up and more monsters came out. There was a total of 30 white tigers with 15 elite goblins, 10 elite kobolds, and five orcs riding them. Behind them came two large ogres and 10 goblin shamans. Finally the boss room door opened and the Kobold Lord charged out at full speed. This was the most powerful force Sage had trained here aside from the ones with John and Blue. Soon they charged into battle and the tides suddenly turned. George was blinded by the flash and could only hear the rumbling. The three rank C demons still trapped in slime quickly became sitting ducks. The ogres went in and both landed a hit each on the demons knocking them out of the slimes. The final one was hit by a few elite monsters before he finally began to burn the life force of his host body. All the slimes were quickly burned to ashes and the demons began to fight back. George was only blinded for about 10 seconds before regaining his sight but when he did all he saw was a the Kobold Lord¡¯s shield as it smashed into him and sent him flying. The two demons hit by the ogre were injured and were forced to start burning their life as well to keep up with new monsters. However the monsters didn¡¯t fare too well either. Even though they had the number advantage the demons were rank C and after burning their hosts¡¯ life force they could easily kill an elite monster with one hit. But with each monster¡¯s death another hit landed and by the time George got back up two of the demons were in critical condition while the other one was doing only slightly better. George became furious as he realized that he had been tricked. George let out a roar of anger as he shot fireballs at the monsters to keep them away from his men. The monsters tried their best to dodge but the fireballs were too fast and many died. However with all ten goblin shamans working together they used mana to block a fireball so that one of the ogre got in one final hit and killed one of the critically wounded demons. When George saw this his eyes glowed burning red and quickly dashed towards the ogre. The moment he arrived before it he placed his hands before the ogre¡¯s face and completely incinerated it. After the first one was dead he quickly moved on and killed the second one. With the two ogres dead the monsters the only threat remaining was the Kobold Lord. George went out of control and began to slaughter the monsters. After only a few moments only about one fourth of the monsters remained as they backed up toward the boss room. The Kobold Lord let out a loud roar that shook the room and its eyes stared directly at George. George sneered at the Kobold Lord and charged towards it. He planned on killing it just like he did with the ogres but just as he got before the Kobold Lord and was about to raise his hand he felt a force at his side and got knocked flying into the walls. The Kobold Lord was able to keep track of his movements and predicted his attack. George realized that this Kobold Lord wasn¡¯t normal and became serious. He once again dashed forward but this time kept a close eye on the Kobold Lord¡¯s weapon. This time he dodged the kobold lord and landed a blow on the arm but again to his surprise his attack only left a burn instead of burning the entire arm off. George let out a grin and attacked the Kobold Lord with a barrage of attacks. The Kobold Lord was able to see the attacks but couldn¡¯t move fast enough to defend against all of it. With only a minute of fighting the Kobold Lord was already battered. However as George prepared to make the finishing blow he felt danger and quickly backed off. An ice spear passed by just where George was and created a hole in the wall. Sigrid walked out from the boss room, this time she was no longer restraining herself and released the power of an Ice Maiden. George grin widened even more, ¡°Good to see you again. I¡¯m sorry if my men were a bit ¡®rough¡¯ last time. But my lord really does want to meet you and it wouldn¡¯t be good to keep him waiting.¡± George¡¯s expression turned serious as he knew that once he defeat the Ice Maiden then his mission would be a success. George began with a wave of fireballs were which calmly stopped by Sigrid. She retaliated with ice spears but all of the melted as soon as they got close to George. After seeing that she switched to water magic and created a huge wave of water bullets that flew toward George. George simply laughed as he created a wall of flame before him to block the water bullets. As the water got close they began to evaporate and soon the area was covered in mist. This surprised George a bit as he didn¡¯t expect there to be this much water but before he could wonder more he increased the heat around his body. Just as he did so 10 ice spears shot at him but they were all melted by the flame near him. However this only made the mist denser. He was getting frustrated and began to throw out large fireballs to clear out the mist. Again ice spears came but this time he controlled the flame around him so it didn¡¯t create anymore mist. Just as he felt it he saw through the trick feeling more spears coming toward him. This time he controlled it even better and used the least amount of heat to melt the ice spears but this time after the ice spear melted a shield appeared before his face and sent him flying into the wall again. This time Sigrid placed ice spears on the Kobold Lord¡¯s shield as well so when she sent out the attack he followed behind. Sigrid took this chance and condensed the mist back into ice and attacked George. George felt the ice hitting him causing him pain, he let out an angry roar and dashed back up. He moved so fast that Sigrid wasn¡¯t able to even react as he smashed into the Kobold Lord. He and the Kobold Lord smashed into the wall, after that hit the Kobold Lord could no longer move. George let out a satisfying grin as he stood over the Kobold Lord, a black fire slowly forming in his hand. Sigrid did her best to help but all her attacks were blocked and finally the black fire landed on the Kobold Lord and began to burn. As the black flame burned Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but shiver and George notice this, ¡°Oh? Do you know what this is? This is a flame designed to fight against dungeons. You see dungeon have this annoying ability to resummon their dungeon bosses and that makes conquering them a pain. However us demons created this black flame that destroys the soul and prevent the dungeon from summoning the boss again. It¡¯s kinda a pity to destroy good dungeon bosses but does make our lives easier.¡± Sigrid was shocked, her breathing grew erratic, and she took a few steps back but then Sage¡¯s voice appeared, ¡°Calm down Sigrid. It takes him a long time to summon the black flame and it is too slow to hit a moving target. As long as we follow the plan there is nothing to worry about. ¡° After hearing those words Sigrid¡¯s breath calm down and she cleared her mind. Her sudden change of expression caused George to frown, he had wanted to instill fear into the Ice Maiden and force her to surrender but it seemed to have failed. ¡°Fine, have it your way.¡±
Edited by: Nova and The super secret masked editor... from space! Chapter 32 - Dungeon Raid Part 6 Last chapter of vol 1 beside the epilogue which is really a chapter too XD
As Sigrid regained her composure, her heart rate quickly slowed down and her expression changed. Suddenly, the face of a young and lovely girl disappeared, replaced by a cold and expressionless face. This was the training she had received from her mother, to be cold and ruthless before your enemies. The Ice Maiden¡¯s powers relied not only on their affinity toward ice magic, but an icy heart. She was taught to throw away all emotions during combat to bring out her full potential as an Ice Maiden. Throwing away all of her emotions was something she always had trouble with. While she never met anyone beside her mother for most of her life, she always dreamt about what it would be like to meet people. This made her unwilling to let that dream go. However, now that she had friends to protect, she willingly gave it away, knowing that as long as she won, they would still be there. But the most important factor would be what the cultivation Sage taught her. For a cultivator, it is key to have full control over one¡¯s body and soul. Many techniques and cultivation techniques only work when one has full control. Otherwise, the result is catastrophic. This is why Sage chose the Ice Flow Cultivation for Sigrid. Not only does it match her affinity, but the key teaching of this cultivation method was to perfectly control one¡¯s emotions, to be able to freeze it all away in a flower of ice. Sigrid might not even realize it herself, but her mentality had changed a lot from learning cultivation from Sage. Now, the result displayed in full force. The temperature suddenly dropped, causing George to furrow his brows. He noticed that something was off about the Ice Maiden, but he was still sure that her power was only at high tier rank D. He wondered about where his subordinates were and decided he would punish them once he finishes his job here. Suddenly, the air around him heated up as he released 90% of his power and dashed towards Sigrid. After entering her special state, Sigrid¡¯s vision and reactions improved greatly. Before, she couldn¡¯t react to George¡¯s speed, but now she could track him. She quickly created a wall of ice to block the demon¡¯s path, but the demon melted through the ice wall. Sigrid didn¡¯t panic. She jumped to the side and began shooting ice spears at the demon. The demon responded with fireballs and the explosions filled the room, making it rumble. Sage during this entire time was carefully moving mana into Sigrid¡¯s body and attacks. Every ice spear she shot out was a tiny bit stronger than the last as Sage had gotten better at the processes. The ice spears proved to be just enough of an hinderance to prevent George from catching up. After five minutes of this cat and mouse chase, his face darkened. He realized that something was off as the ice spears had been gradually getting stronger. It was hard to notice because the ice spears were constantly coming at him, but if he were to compare the ice spears now to the ones at the start of the fight, then the ice spear¡¯s power had grown by 10%. If this were to continue, it might even start to get dangerous for him. He decided that he was going to end this once and for all and released 100% of his power. However, little did he knew that this was exactly what Sigrid and Sage were waiting for. In truth, Sage could have boosted Sigrid¡¯s attacks up to 15%, but he purposely never did that in order to give the demon a false sense of security. As the mana came forth from inside the demon¡¯s body, Sigrid sent out a wave of Ice Spears. The demon let out a deafening roar that shattered the ice spears that approached him. However, as the ice spears broke, two tokens fell out of them. One instantly exploded, releasing a blinding light that once again robbed George of his vision. Following suit, the second token activated and locked George in place. Due to him releasing his power, he was caught off guard and would require a few moments to break free. However, he wasn¡¯t worried as the Ice Maiden couldn¡¯t launch a powerful enough attack in theses few seconds. But just as he was thinking that, he felt something slimy landing on his shoulder. Then more and more of it landed on top of him. When he could finally see again, he noticed that he was covered in slimes. He couldn¡¯t help but let out a laugh. ¡°You thought the cheap trick that worked on my worthless subordinates would work on me? You are underestimating a rank B too much, dungeon core¡­ what is this¡­¡± Just as he was laughing, he noticed that there was something off about the slimes. For some reason, there were two other types of liquids inside the slime and they were moving toward each other. The moment the liquids inside the slime touched, a massive BOOM could be heard inside the dungeon. Sage had been curious about how the goblin shamans managed to explode and kill themselves, so he did some research. After many tests, he found the mixture that caused the explosion. The only problem was that they had to be mixed on the spot for this to work and that would mean killing the monsters using it. Finally, he found that slimes were the best delivery method. It was like a bomb waiting to drop down from the ceiling. The smoke slowly cleared, revealing a slightly battered George. His clothes had been mostly burnt off and there were some minor injuries, but overall, he was still in good shape. He wanted to tear the dungeon into pieces right now because he had been fooled again by these petty tricks. Just as he was about to let out a roar, he noticed something coming toward him at an abnormal speed. He wanted to dodge, but his body was still stiff from the explosion. Adding on to the speed of the object, by the time he wanted to move, it was already before him. The object that came at him was a pure white ball. If he had time to think, he would have realized that this was the same move Sigrid used against the vice guild master. However, last time, it was a blue ball with a hint of white at the center, while this time the entire ball was white. The ball arrived before George and exploded instantly to cover him in ice, creating a large and beautiful ice flower. Sigrid was breathing very hard at the amount of mana she had used, but she let out a tired smile. Alice was cheering and rushed out to give Sigrid a hug. Even Sage finally relaxed a bit as it seemed that everything did go exactly as planned. Alice quickly arrived next to Sigrid and gave her a hug. ¡°You did well, Sigrid. You saved us¡­¡± Just then, there was a crackling sound and everyone froze. Sage quickly turned his attention to the ice flower and saw cracks appearing on it as it shook. Realizing that the fight wasn¡¯t over, he immediately controlled mana to fill Sigrid again. Feeling the mana surging in from Sage, she that knew she had failed and that the fight wasn¡¯t over. Sigrid quickly threw Alice backwards and withstood the amount of mana surging into her body. She was already at her limit, but both she and Sage knew that they needed to go beyond it. Soon, cracks filled the ice blossom and then BOOM! It exploded and ice shards scattered everywhere. George came out looking like a complete mess. He was weakened a lot, but Sigrid even more so. ¡°NOT¡­ BAD! I¡¯ve really underestimated you guys, but no more! This ends now!¡± George¡¯s eyes burned brightly as he dashed at Sigrid and arrived before her. He sent out a punch, which Sigrid did her best to block, but the force was still too much for her to hand as she was pushed back. Waves of punches landed on Sigrid and she could only do her best to block her vitals. Sage worked furiously, injecting mana into Sigrid to keep her body going. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that she had already entered foundation rank and laid her first foundation, she would have already fallen. Finally, Sigrid wasn¡¯t able to keep up her guard and a punch hit her hard in the stomach. She coughed out blood as her body flew back and slammed into the wall. Her face was even paler now than normal. George let out another laugh as he slowly walked toward Sigrid. He raised his hand and a ball of black flame began to form. However, when he was halfway to her, a sudden scream caught his attention. ¡°Ahhh!¡± *10 minutes ago* John and Blue had been running back down the dungeon for the last 20 minutes. Thanks to all of the secret passages Sage had created to move monsters around quickly, they were getting close. John was preparing himself for the fight of his life as he did some image training that he remembered from the guild master. He noticed that whatever he ate had split into small pieces that were stationed all over his body. These spots were where the mana was pouring into his body, far different from naturally absorbing it through his skin. When they got close to the final boss room, they heard a loud BOOM, causing John to ask, ¡°What is going on up there?¡± Blue didn¡¯t even turn his head and replied, ¡°Battle, over.¡± ¡°What? How¡¯s Sigrid?¡± ¡°Sigrid fine.¡± John let out a breath of relief. He had to stop moving as he almost tripped from all the tension leaving his body. He stabilized himself and continued to run toward where Sigrid was; however, after moving a for short while, they heard another loud explosion. John suddenly frowned, ¡°What was that?¡± Blue¡¯s voice was not filled with panic as he said, ¡°Enemy alive, Sigrid danger!¡± John¡¯s face suddenly turned very ugly as he realized the battle didn¡¯t go as planned. The enemy was still alive after what was suppose to be the finishing move. He realized that the situation must¡®ve been grim for the boy¡¯s voice to be like this. They both ran even faster toward the final boss room, but when they were about to reach it, Blue suddenly stopped John. ¡°What¡­¡± Just as John was about to shout at Blue for stopping him, Blue covered his mouth and said, ¡°Wait, eat this.¡± With that, Blue raised his hand. Slowly, part of his hand condensed into a round shape. It was much like the blue marble John ate earlier, but this time much darker in color. He realized that this was what he ate last time, but didn¡¯t really care at this moment as he knew this would make him stronger. So without any hesitation, he grabbed the deep blue marble and swallowed it. Once again, he felt the marble break apart and spread across his body as mana surged into his body. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Blue¡¯s body also began to glow once again. After both had reached their peak conditions, they charged out. Their first targets were the two wounded demons that were still alive. They were out of the fight, but it was best to kill them as soon as possible. This was easily achieved as they caught the two completely off guard. John sliced the demon¡¯s head off while Blue purposely took the slower approach and used several punches to smash the demon¡¯s head in. This allowed the demon to scream, which caught George¡¯s attention. George turned toward them with a vicious glare in his eyes. He was finally about to win, but at the very last minute, he lost two of his best men. Angry wasn¡¯t a good enough word to describe how he was feeling right now. He decided that he was going to knock them out and slowly enjoy their deaths after he takes over the dungeon core. As he dashed toward Blue and John, he threw another fireball at Sigrid to knock her out. Luckily, the slight pause he made due to his men dying gave Sigrid enough time to set up a proper defense, so she remained conscious. Sage took this chance to pour mana into Sigrid. He carefully wove the mana into every part of her body to help her recover as fast as possible. George quickly arrived before John and planned for a one hit knock out; however, just as he got close, John¡¯s sword came slicing at his neck. He sneered as he raised his arm to block it, but when the sword hit his arm, he immediately regretted his decision. He originally thought that this adventurer was harmless, but the sword quickly cut through his mana shield and into his arm. Sadly, the power difference was too great for John as George reinforced his arm and the blade was unable to cut more than a few millimeters deep. But this did stop George in his tracks, which allowed Blue to jump in and land a punch on George¡¯s side, knocking him away from John. This quick exchange caught George by surprise as he was expecting to only take a moment to deal with these two pests. Now that he experienced the sharpness of the blade and the weight of that punch, he began to take his fight much more seriously. His eyes narrowed as he locked onto the two and decided to use ranged attacks. This put John and Blue at a huge disadvantage as neither of them could attack from long range. They could only do their best to dodge and try to get close, but George seemed keen on not letting them do this. Soon, this changed from a fight to target practice as the demon unleashed waves of fireballs upon John and Blue. They were struggling to dodge and would sometimes be caught in edge of the blasts¡¯ radius, but they were surviving. As time went on, George became increasingly irritated that these worms were still alive. Finally, he lost his patience and went in for the kill. This was the chance John was waiting for, but he severely overestimated himself. He still lacked experience and his attack was easily dodge by the demon as a heavy punch landed on his stomach. John flew backwards and smashed into the wall. The only reason he wasn¡¯t fatally injured was because of all the mana Sage was pumping into him. Blue quickly got in between John and George. The demon let out a smile as flames covered his fist when he punched toward Blue. He recognized this as a slime, so he knew that normal physical attacks wouldn¡¯t be as effective, that¡¯s why he added flames. Blue didn¡¯t dare to take it head on, so he dodged out of the way and attempted to attack from the flank. But George was too fast for Blue and prevented Blue from getting to his side. George increased his pace. He quickly arrived before Blue and threw another punch, but this time, when the punch was halfway to its target, the fire left his hand and exploded before Blue. This sent Blue flying, knocking him into the wall next to John. Sage had been moving massive amounts of mana into John, Blue, and Sigrid. He knew he couldn¡¯t keep this up any longer and told Blue to use the final plan to stall for the time he needed to bring Sigrid back up. Blue quickly turned to John and said, ¡°After me, not close,¡± before once again dashing toward George. John was a bit confused, but he still listened and followed after blue, but kept his distance. George sneered as he watched the two charge at him. He gathered mana into his hand. It was time for him to end this. He attacked Blue as Blue came into his range, but then something outside of his expectations happened. Blue transformed back into a blob of slime and encased his right arm. He was startled by this, but before he could do anything, Blue began to glow so bright that he had to close his eyes and then BOOM! This explosion was much more powerful than the last one as this was induced by a mana overload. George realized what was happening at the last moment and poured mana into his right arm. This was the only reason why it was still there. However, it was now severely damaged and just as he was regaining his senses, a figure moved through the smoke and appeared next to him. When John saw the explosion, he knew what Blue meant and quickly followed suit. He wasn¡¯t about to let the boy¡¯s sacrifice be in vain. He moved through the smoke and arrived next to the still dazed George as he poured mana into his sword. With one clean swing, he cut George¡¯s right arm off, but before he could even celebrate, a powerful kick landed on the side of his stomach. He was sent flying and imprinted deep into a wall, completely knocked out. George let out a roar filled with so much anger and rage that it felt like the entire dungeon was going to fall apart. He then created a giant fireball and threw it at John before turning around toward the Ice maiden again. Sigrid had been watching this whole fight and fought the urge of jumping in. Sage had ordered her to stay put and let them deal with it while she recovered for the last attack. When John managed to cut off the demon¡¯s arm, she felt like they were going to win, but then, before she could even react, John was sent crashing into a wall. When the fireball appeared, she almost jumped out to stop it, but Sage¡¯s voice locked her in place, ¡°Stop! If you go now, then his sacrifice will have been in vain!¡± However, now the demon turned toward Sigrid and he was not happy. After looking at Sigrid, he noticed that she had recovered a lot during this time and that it would be dangerous if this continued any further. ¡°Nice try, but it seems your little friends gave up their lives for nothing!¡± George quickly dashed at Sigrid and attacked. Sigrid did her best to hold out and not waste the mana Sage had been pouring into her. However, she hasn¡¯t recovered enough and she was soon knocked into the ground again. George let out an evil grin as he slowly walked toward Sigrid while forming the black flame in his hand. Once it was completely formed, he stopped just ten feet from Sigrid and threw the flame. Sage could only watch as the flame flew closer to Sigrid. There were many things he wanted to do and would be able to do if he had a body. But he didn¡¯t and that was the cold and hard truth. He could only stare as the black flame moved closer and closer to Sigrid. Just as the flame arrived before Sigrid, a red light dashed across the room and ran into the flame. Sigrid realized what it was and shouted, ¡°Alice, no!¡± As she passed Sigrid¡¯s head, she whispered,¡°Win this.¡± With that, Alice crashed into the flame and threw out two mini tokens Sage had made just for her. The black flame hit her, knocking her into the wall. Sigrid felt something break as she let out a scream and mana surged into her. The two mini tokens activated. One caused a bright flash, once again blinding George, and the other locked him in place. Sigrid was filled with rage, but her eyes had never been colder, ¡°Die!¡± The entire room instantly became a world of ice and ice spikes shot out from the ground and stabbed through George. Right before the ice spikes impaled him, he shouted, ¡°No! This is not how it was supposed to be!¡± So many ice spikes pierced through him that his body was turned into small chunks. At the very last moment, Sigrid comprehended the second technique of the Ice Flower Cultivation Method, The Ice World, due to the rage she felt from the loss of her two only friends. Although she had won and even became stronger, she felt hollow inside. She wanted to just curl up into a ball and cry. But she knew that Sage still needed her and all of this need to be explained to the Adventurers¡¯ Guild, so she couldn¡¯t break down, not yet. She forced herself to turn to look at where Alice¡¯s body flew and suddenly her heart skipped a beat. The black flame was gone and Alice¡¯s body still lied there, covered in a blue light. Sigrid quickly rushed up to Alice and reached out her hand when Sage suddenly said, ¡°Don¡¯t touch her! I¡¯m still stabilizing her.¡± Sigrid held her breath and watched. After about 10 minutes, the blue light faded and Sage said, with a very tired voice, ¡°She should be fine now. Bring her inside the chamber. It is too dangerous out there.¡± Sigrid was happy that Alice was going to be alright. She suddenly paused as she remembered something and asked, ¡°Master, what about John and Blue?¡± Sage replied with a grave tone, ¡°They are gone, Sigrid.¡± Sigrid froze for a moment before gently picking up Alice and slowly walking into Sage¡¯s chamber. When she arrived, she was completely startled. Sage¡¯s body was usually always bright and shiny, but right now it was very dull and mucky. Sigrid couldn¡¯t help but ask, with a worried voice, ¡°Master, are you okay?¡± Sage tiredly replied, ¡°I¡¯m fine, just used too much mana. Just give me a day of rest and I¡¯ll be okay.¡± As he finished speaking, Sigrid felt something move in her hands and immediately looked down. Alice slowly opened her eyes. She looked around and weakly said, ¡°Looks like we won.¡± Sigrid¡¯s eyes watered up as she replied, half crying,¡± Yes, yes we did.¡± Finally, she couldn¡¯t hold it in anymore and tears flowed down her cheeks.. Alice smiled weakly and said, ¡°There, there. We are safe now. Although we lost a lot, we managed to survive this.¡± Sigrid nodded, but continued to silently cry.
Edited by: The secret masked editor... from space! Edited by: General Luke Vol 1 - Epilogue So its been fun reading people''s predictions to what happen and stuff but I''ll say this now the only reason I did the rewrite was because the ending was way too rushed. I think we can all agree how rushed and messy the old chapter 28 was. I rewrote to expand on it so it is a much better read. The only thing I changed was the dialog with Blue and tone down George''s lines because I did screw those. The ending however has been planned out by me since the start of this whole thing and hasn''t changed at all. I do have a story I want to tell and it is very unlikely for me to change major story points because people disagree with it (of course if it is completely stupid and people made valid enough arguements I might still change my mind but have to be something like that just doesn''t work and I decided to do it coz reasons at the moment. Kinda like how the old chapter 28 was) Now that vol 1 is done what is next? I''m currently working with a friend on going through all of vol 1 and fixing things for the Watty on Wattpad and for ebook release. It''s slow and tedious work as one time through a chapter took as long as it did for me to write it XD So release from now on will be 2-3 chapter a week so I can focus more time on fixing vol 1 rather than rushing vol 2 (as much as I want to) and make it even harder to fix. RIP Kobold Lord Art by FluffyFlower please check him out Here
*Plains South of Dungeon Town* Penny couldn¡¯t help but let out a bitter smile as she looked over the groups of battered soldiers and adventurers. She wouldn¡¯t even be standing right now after using her secret technique if it wasn¡¯t for the guild master healing her. They had won the battle, but at a great cost. However, what annoyed her the most was that their grand scheme failed. The reason they had so little troops here to begin with was to draw in the Demon Armies¡¯ main attack force. Then, once the demon army moved in, they would ambush them with troops secretly moving in from the north. However, there was no larger demon army. Once this group was wiped out, the Demon General simply wasted a bit more time and left. This meant that all of the deaths were completely meaningless. Even the guild master was staring into the distance with a frown on his face. He noticed that the demon general was holding back, but he didn¡¯t know why. Somehow, he had this feeling in his stomach that the demons got what they wanted. As he replayed the battle in his mind for any hints of the demons¡¯ true motive, he suddenly heard a sharp screech. He turned toward the direction of the dungeon town and frowned because he knew exactly what that made that screech. It was the thunder hawk. It would only be coming here if something had gone wrong back in the dungeon down. The thunder hawk moved like lightning through the sky and soon came into view. The guild master moved back to where the group was and whistled. The thunder hawk immediately descended and landed on the guild master¡¯s arm. Penny quickly arrived next to the guild master and retrieved the message tied to the thunder hawk¡¯s leg. She opened up the letter and read out loud, ¡°Please send help back as soon as possible. We have an adventurer who reported that demons have invaded the dungeon. According to her, all of the parties that went inside today had demons hidden among them. Rank E adventurer John killed the demons with the help of monsters in the dungeon to let her escape. Another male adventurer is too wounded to move and is still near the entrance on the first floor. We already dispatched a team to retrieve him, but the female adventurer said that John told her that there is a rank B demon down in the 3rd floor with rank E adventurer Sigrid¡¯s party. Adventurer John went with the monsters to assist adventurer Sigrid. We currently don¡¯t have anyone we can send down there that can stand against a rank B demon.¡± Penny¡¯s eyes grew wider and wider as she read the message. Once he finished, she couldn¡¯t help but exclaim, ¡°Impossible! How did so many demons slip by us?¡± The guild master frowned even harder and said, ¡°Possession technique. They must have possessed humans. It weakens their fight capability by around one rank, but it allows them to bypass us.¡± Suddenly, it clicked in the guild master¡¯s head and he angrily roared, ¡°Damn it! This was all a set up to distract us! Their main goal the whole time was the dungeon. This battle was merely to get all of the people that could help far away! Penny, instruct one of the rank A adventurers to stay behind and greet the incoming army. Once they arrive have the person who stayed behind to bring them and the people here back to the dungeon down. The rest of the rank A adventurers will rush back to the dungeon down!¡± After giving out those orders, the guild master disappeared before Penny and rushed back to the dungeon town. *Demon Army Camp* ¡°That old man wasn¡¯t a legend for nothing. Both of us were not going all out, but I could feel that I was still a step below him. But that doesn¡¯t matter. Once the dungeon is under my control, I¡¯ll be generously rewarded by the demon lord. Then I¡¯ll make the dungeon give me some powerful skills! Hahaha, just you wait, Max the Destroyer. Next time, I¡¯ll take your head!¡± ¡°Everyone, get ready to move. Once the signal comes, we charge for the dungeon town. With the monsters inside helping us, it will be easy pickings.¡± All of the demons were silent, causing demon general Xaizal to frown. ¡°What is it? Someone speak now, or else!¡± he shouted. Finally, one demon walked out. His entire body was trembling as he stuttered, ¡°S..sir, Geo..George is d...d...d...dead sir¡­¡± Demon general Xaizal froze on the spot and then simply snapped, ¡°WHAT?!¡± ¡°S...s...s...si¡­r, Ge...Geor...George¡¯s s..sss.soul gem broke¡­¡± ¡°When?¡± The rage inside Xaizal was reaching its peak. ¡°Ri...right be..before you re..re..returned s...sir¡­¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhh! All that work for nothing! That useless trash!¡± Demon General Xaizal vented his rage on the poor bastard that spoke up and crushed his head. ¡°We are pulling out!¡± As the troops slowly packed up to leave, Xaizal suddenly remembered something and muttered, ¡°Could it have been her¡­¡± *Dungeon Town* The male adventurer was found close to the entrance inside the dungeon. A team of ten rank F adventurers being led by a rank C went on this mission. Luckily, they met no danger and quickly recovered the male adventurer. The entire Adventurers¡¯ Guild staff had been on the edge for the past few hours. They were all afraid that the demons had already taken over the dungeon and could launch an attack on the town at any moment. All they could do now was hope for the guild master to send reinforcements back as quickly as possible. It would take the thunder hawk about 2 hours to reach the guild master, and if a rank A adventurer was sent back, it would still be another three or four hours until someone came to help. Right now, only about two and half hours had passed, so it would be at least another three hours before anyone would return. However, as everyone waited on the edge, there was a loud thud outside that shook the ground. Everyone¡¯s heads turned toward the entrance as the guild leader walked in with a frown. Before anyone could speak, guild master Max ordered, ¡°Send a message to the capital for reinforcements. Report that the demons have made an attempt on capturing the dungeon. If it has been captured, I¡¯ll attempt to free it, but if that is not possible, I will destroy the dungeon. You, you, and you, come with me. We are going into the dungeon to see what is going on.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Everyone was slightly startled by all of this because they had never seen the guild master so serious before. However, for the always playful guild master to be acting like this demonstrated just how serious the situation was. Everyone quickly went to do their jobs while the guild master headed toward the dungeon with the three adventurers. However, just as they arrived at the dungeon entrance, the guild master suddenly stopped/ ¡°Something is coming out. Be ready for battle.¡± But once the figure entered their view, they were all shocked. The person who walked out was Sigri. She looked battered and bruised with burns on various parts of her body. Her clothes had many burnt holes in them, revealing some very soft and fair skin, causing the three adventurers to blush. The guild master quickly walked up to Sigrid and asked, ¡°Are you okay? Have the demons taken over the dungeon?¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Sigrid shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m fine, and the demons have been defeated,¡± she replied. The guild master stared at Sigrid in amazement before finally saying, ¡°Let us return to the dungeon town first. I know you had a rough day, but I¡¯ll need information from you before you can rest.¡± Sigrid nodded and smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll be okay.¡± Suddenly, the guild master noticed the little fairy laying in Sigrid¡¯s hand. The fairy seemed to be alive, but very weak. It must have been a very rough fight for the pet fairy to get injured like this. This wasn¡¯t the first time the guild master had seen loyal pets die protecting their masters. He could only let out a sigh before escorting Sigrid back to town. *Later, in the Adventurers¡¯ Guild* Sigrid now sat in the guild master¡¯s room. Penny was present, along with the guild master. She had time to clean herself up and get a change into a simple, light blue dress with long sleeves that made her look somewhat more mature than before. Alice was currently resting in a room the guild provided for them. The three of them sat around the table as Sigrid recalled the events in the dungeon. After Sigrid finished recounting the events that went down inside the dungeon, Penny organized the information and said, ¡°To recap, the four adventurers in your party were humans possessed by demons with adventurer George, who was a rank B demon, as their leader. They turned on you on the third floor after George¡¯s disguise was suddenly broken by the dungeon. You managed to escape with the help of the monsters inside the dungeon and ended up helping the dungeon fight the demons. During the fight, adventurer John arrived to help, but was killed in the battle. Then you were knocked out after sustaining a heavy blow. After that, you were awakened by the sound of a large explosion, and by the time you opened your eyes, you saw the demon¡¯s body already dissipating. Correct?¡± Sigrid simply nodded in silence. Penny couldn¡¯t help but frown at this story. It seemed too convenient that Sigrid just happened to get knocked out and survived to see the demon die. Just as she was about to question further, the guild master suddenly said, ¡°Thank you for your cooperation. It must have been a tough day for you. Please go get some rest.¡± Sigrid was as startled as Penny. She expected to be questioned, but now she was suddenly free to go. However, she quickly recovered herself and replied with a smile, ¡°Thank you.¡± She stood up, bowed, and left the room. Penny turned to the guild master with a frown and asked, ¡°Why did you let her go? That story is far from the truth! This is a big deal. So many adventurers died and demons almost took over a dungeon!¡± The guild master sighed and shook his head. ¡°This whole mess was our fault to begin with because we allowed the demons to slip in. Everyone has their own secrets, Penny, and unless it is absolutely necessary, there is no need to push her. I can tell that she has grown a lot through this fight and will likely become another rank A or higher adventurer fighting for us.¡± The guild master couldn¡¯t help but let out another sigh. He seemed even older as he continued, ¡°We already lost one good seed, so let¡¯s not push another away.¡± Penny sat there silently as she looked at her master. It was very rare to see him in this state. Finally, she nodded her head and stood up to leave. The guild master watched her leave. As she got to the door, he said, ¡°Send the report to the capital and back to them. It seems like the demons have already made their move.¡± *Dark Cave* Feeling something dripping onto his face, John slowly opened his eyes. At first, he could only see a small blue blob on the other side of the room that was releasing a faint, blue glow. However, after a while, his eyes slowly adjusted and noticed that he was inside a cave. This cave was very similar to the inside of the dungeon, but the floor and walls were much smoother. It was as if this room was made for living. Luckily, he was sitting upright with his back against the wall, so he could at least see most of the room. However, when he tried to move, he felt pain all over his body and couldn¡¯t even lift his arm. Suddenly, a voice entered his head. ¡°So, you¡¯re finally awake.¡± John was startled by this voice. He wanted to speak, but found that his throat was in pain, so he just ended up coughing instead. The voice calmly continued, ¡°You have suffered heavy injuries. To be honest, you would have been dead if it wasn¡¯t for all the mana I pumped into you.¡± John¡¯s eyes widened as he heard those words. Pumped mana into him? He quickly recalled what had happened. The only time he received mana was from the dungeon. John couldn¡¯t help but croak, ¡°Dun...geon?¡± The voice replied, ¡°Oh? Seems like you caught on pretty quick. Yes, I am the dungeon, and I¡¯m here to offer you a deal.¡± John tried to laugh, but ended up coughing. The only words he managed to let out were, ¡°Not.. interested¡­¡± The voice didn¡¯t seem angry. I continued, ¡°I see. Then I guess there won¡¯t be anyone to save Sigrid.¡± John¡¯s body suddenly trembled as he struggled to speak. ¡°What.. ha..ppen.. to Sigrid!¡± ¡°Oh, she is safe¡­ for now.¡± John visibly relaxed, but immediately tensed back up. ¡°However, that might not be the case in the future.¡± John suddenly grew furious. A murderous gaze appeared in his eyes as he struggled to say, ¡°If.. your.. dare¡­ to¡­ do.. Anything¡­ to her..I¡¯ll..kill you!¡± The voice let out a laugh. ¡°You? Kill me? You should take a better look at yourself, kid. You¡¯re body is completely ruined. You¡¯d be lucky to function like a normal person even if you manage to recover, and let¡¯s not even talk about the burn scar on your face.¡± John was shocked at those words. He quickly tried to gather mana inside his body, but he could only feel pain, and no mana entered his body at all. His pupils shrank as he muttered in disbelief, ¡°No¡­ no¡­ no! What happened?!¡± ¡°You let the power get to your head, kid.¡± The voice calmly said, ¡°You greedily used the mana I injected into you without a care for if your body could handle it. In the end, all of the mana veins in your body couldn¡¯t handle the pressure and exploded. I suppose I should thank you. Because of your stupid actions, you were able to stall the demon long enough for us to win.¡± John realized he had been tricked by the dungeon. He shouted, ¡°You!¡± The voice cut John off and said, ¡°Now, now, no need to get so angry. You haven¡¯t even heard my offer yet.¡± John clenched this teeth and said, ¡°Not interested! I would rather die than help YOU!¡± ¡°Even if I were to tell you that you would be able to protect Sigrid?¡± Suddenly John¡¯s body trembled at those words. ¡°Ah, seems like you¡¯re interested now. Let me let you in on a little secret: Sigrid is not human. She is an Ice Maiden who has formed a contract with me. You see, the demons came hunting for her. Although they failed this time, it is very likely that they will try again in the future.¡± Every word the voice said hit John like lightning. He wasn¡¯t able to utter even one word in retaliation. The voice paused for a moment, but after seeing that John wasn¡¯t saying anything, it continued, ¡°So, my offer for you is to become my servant and I¡¯ll make you strong enough to protect Sigrid.¡± John stared into the empty space for a long time, then he said, ¡°I want to see her.¡± ¡°You cannot. To everyone outside, you are dead, John, and should you agree to this offer, you will become someone else.¡± The voice became very stern. ¡°You may either choose to die here or be reborn into something greater. Those are the only two choices you have!¡± These words echoed endlessly inside John¡¯s head. After a very long time, John¡¯s eyes became determined as he said, ¡°I...I agree!¡± ¡°Hahaha!¡± The voice laughed. ¡°Good choice!¡± Just as the voice finished speaking, a mask materialized before John. This was a simple white mask; however, the face was that of a cold and ruthless assassin that would send chills down the spine of even the cruelest murders. ¡°From this moment on, you are no longer John. You are now Spectre!¡±
Edited by: Nova Vol 2 Chapter 1 - Growth Part 1 Took a while but give me extra time to plan out vol 2 better. Anyways here is first chapter of vol 2.
After the demons¡¯ raid on the Sage Dungeon, the Adventurers¡¯ Guild put the entire dungeon on lockdown for 2 weeks. The guild master¡¯s reason was that the entire dungeon town needed to be prepared to hold off a demon invasion until more troops from the capital arrived. Currently, every single adventurer was on their toes, expecting the demons to attack at any moment. However, nothing happened at all throughout the week. The real reason was to allow the dungeon time to repopulate and grow. From the information he was able to get out of Sigrid and the two surviving adventurers, almost all of the monsters in the dungeon were killed. This was a big strain on the dungeon as this rarely ever happened other than the first dungeon evaluation run, so the dungeon would need time to recover all of the losses. The upside was that a total of 13 demons had died in the dungeon with nine rank D, three rank C, and one rank B. These demons would provide the dungeon with a lot of mana, and by the guild master¡¯s prediction, the dungeon should have enough for five floors. He would love to close it down for a bit longer, but 2 weeks was already pushing it. The guild master knew that the the demons¡¯ real plan was to take over the dungeon, and if they had succeeded, then a massive army would have followed suit. However, now that the plan had failed and the kingdom was on full alert, he predicted the demons won¡¯t be coming back for a bit. But this didn¡¯t mean that they wouldn¡¯t come back at all. In fact, it just meant that the next time they come back, they will be even stronger. The guild master let out a sigh and hoped that the Kingdom of Zeal could hold off long enough for their help to arrive. *Sage¡¯s Chamber* Sage didn¡¯t have much time with Alice and Sigrid once the big battle was over. As much as he would love to let them recover completely before leaving, it was impossible because he needed them to still have those wounds when they left. After quickly telling Sigrid the story she would give, he sent them back out. He realized that it was likely he won¡¯t be able to see Sigrid for a few weeks, so he created a normal book containing the next step of her cultivation. However, he did tell Alice to come back as soon as it was safe to do so as he planned to begin her cultivation as well. He realized during the fight with the demons that what he needed were more boss monsters. Having trained normal or elite monsters was good against normal adventurers, but they were almost useless against those that threatened his life. Luckily, the 13 demons had enough mana to level him up to 57, which meant he could have five floors and a second dungeon boss. However, dungeon bosses were too slow to obtain, so he had to work with what he had. While Alice¡¯s size put her at a disadvantage up close, her natural control of mana would allow her to become powerful at long ranges. If this worked out, then it would not only increase their safety outside, but also give him four dungeon boss levels to fight off enemies. After the girls left, he focused on recovering all of the mana he had used up by absorbing the mana from the demons. This turned out to be a lot more dangerous than he expected as when he absorbed George¡¯s mana, he suddenly felt another consciousness enter his crystal. This consciousness was like a raging fire that moved violently and attempted to take over his own. This was a shock as Sage had never experienced this kind of attack when absorbing a dead adventurer. However, he quickly calmed himself down and began to fight this raging energy. A voice rang in Sage¡¯s head, ¡°Ha! You fool! Did you think I would go down so easily? Now without any help from that Ice Maidan, you¡¯re mine. Although I have lost my body, gaining the power of a dungeon isn¡¯t bad either.¡± Sage angrily growled, ¡°You! I see, even though your body died, your soul managed to retain its consciousness in your mana.¡± The raging energy was starting to push Sage back as more than 30% of Sage¡¯s crystal now glowed red. ¡°Very good observation, dungeon core, but far too late to help you now. Yes, we higher level demons may continue living as spirits after we lose our bodies unless the attack that killed us also targets our soul. This way, we can escape to rebuild our bodies or steal one.¡± The voice became even more arrogant as now more than 50% of the crystal was glowing red. Sage shouted back, ¡°Is that how you managed to sneak in disguised as humans?¡± The voice let out a laugh. ¡°Still struggling? Well, I¡¯ll humor you. Yes, that is how we possessed the humans to get past that old monster from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Unless someone breaks through our mana barrier, it would be impossible to see through us. Although the price we pay is a loss in rank of power. Had I had my real body, you wouldn¡¯t have gotten so lucky!¡± Sage started at the last bit of information as he struggled to keep the demon at bay and said, ¡°So was this your plan all along? To wait for me to absorb your mana and invade me?¡± The voice was suddenly filled with disdain. ¡°Don¡¯t overestimate yourself. Like I would have wanted to lose my best men to you. Oh well, at least now they¡¯ll help my new body grow stronger! Now die!¡± The red glow on Sage¡¯s crystal intensified and began to spread rapidly. At this rate, it would only be a matter of minutes before Sage¡¯s crystal turned completely red. But Sage wasn¡¯t nervous at all. In fact, his voice suddenly became calm. If he had a face right now, you would see a large grin. ¡°Thanks for all the information. In return, I¡¯ll end this quickly. A word of advice from someone who has lived over 1,000 years: don¡¯t talk so much in your next life.¡± Sage¡¯s voice was calm and collected. Suddenly, at the center of the crystal, a bright blue immediately overpowered the red glow. ¡°What! No, no, no, no, no! Impossible! How¡­ how could your soul be so powerful? Just what exactly are you? Damn it, she lie¡­..¡± The red light tried to hold back the blue light, but it was pointless because Sage had already absorbed the previous 12 demons, which allowed Sage¡¯s soul recover greatly. At his current state, this demon¡¯s soul was nothing, but Sage purposely played it out to get as much information as he could before wiping the consciousness away and absorbing the mana. Before he completely wiped out the consciousness, he was also able to extract some information. Sadly, most of it was too fragmented to make any sense of. All that Sage managed to figure out was that the demons had launched an attack on the dungeon town to draw away anyone that could help, which explained why no adventurer from the guild came. It seemed the demons were planning to invade the kingdom, and their first target was Sage. Sage thought for a long time after learning of this. In the end, he let out a sigh and muttered, ¡°It seems like it won¡¯t be safe here for long. I must complete my work on the soul gem¡­¡± The last piece of information Sage managed to learn was that there was another demon that was also sent out to take control of him. George seemed to have gotten help from that demon, but the demon didn¡¯t come in person to help George. It seemed that the demon wasn¡¯t very powerful in terms of combat; they simply provided information. This caused Sage to be very alarmed as the demons had a spy nearby. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. After pondering for a while, Sage muttered, ¡°Alice and Sigrid won¡¯t be able to draw this spy out, but maybe he can. Ah, seems like he is waking up. Let¡¯s see if he is smart enough to agree on his own or if I need to force him to agree!¡± Sage moved his attention to a small cave he had made that not even Sigrad and Alice knew about. While he could have let John die and gained his mana, he felt it would have been a waste. This was a great opportunity to gain another good pawn for himself, so when the fireball flew towards John, Sage gave him his spare mana to boost his natural defences just enough for him to survive. He needed John in a malleable state due to the fact that he didn¡¯t have any way to guarantee John¡¯s loyalty. However, that was no longer an issue as he when leveled up, he regained the ability to make a binding oath by swearing on one¡¯s true soul. This oath was used to ensure 100% trust between two parties as anyone who breaks this oath would die from their soul being shattered. There were ways around it for those at the peak, but this was not something Sage needed to worry about here. Sage¡¯s consciousness moved into the small cave. The cave wasn¡¯t very big, but it was more than enough living space for two people. On one side of the room was a small blob of blue slime. It was currently just sitting there, giving off a faint glow. This was all that was left of Blue, a few small pieces that didn¡¯t get blown to dust when he self destructed and the bits that were inside John¡¯s body. It was only recently that Sage realized how unique Blue was. At first, he thought Blue became like this because of absorbing all the mana around Sage, so after Blue managed to gain a human form, Sage naturally attempted to create more. However, he was met with failure as none of the Slimes had turned out to be as smart or powerful as Blue did. This puzzled Sage greatly, so he decided to ask Alice about it the next time she came back. Alice¡¯s response was that there must have been a hidden condition that was met that caused Blue to evolve the way he did. There were many things that factored into a monster¡¯s evolution and they weren¡¯t always things you could control. Sometimes, things like time of day, time of year, and countless other factors could attribute to some special evolution. Until Sage could figure it out, Blue was unique, which was why he took some precautions to preserve Blue. Luckily, Blue, being a slime, was easy to keep alive even without the ability for Sage to rebuild Blue¡¯s body. Sage had considered making Blue a dungeon boss, but decided against it. While Blue would become a lot stronger, the restriction was too great and Blue would get stronger with time anyways. This allowed Sage an extra piece he could move outside the dungeon and allowed him to have one more powerful monster guarding him. Sage had a vague guess that his own enlightenments might be the cause for Blue¡¯s evolution, but this was too hard to check. As Sage¡¯s thoughts wandered, John began to move as he regained his consciousness. Sage quickly stopped his train of thought and spoke to John. Things went as planned as Sage slowly manipulated John into giving in. In the end, John willingly agreed, so Sage didn¡¯t have to use any force. Although he said John had a choice of serving him or death, in reality he was going to force John into submission no matter what. Sage made John swear an oath on his true soul that he would never betray Sage or disobey Sage¡¯s orders. This was a very strict oath, as it meant John had to do anything Sage ordered or else he would die. Only after the oath was done did Sage finally feel it was safe enough to begin teaching John. However, the first thing that needed to be dealt with was John¡¯s body as right now he was a completely useless person. Lucky for John, Sage didn¡¯t spend most of his life studying for nothing; he did have a way of allowing John to become stronger again. John¡¯s current mana channels were a complete mess, but this gave Sage an easier time altering them. However, Sage could only alter and not completely restore or else he would give John something just as powerful, but not as hard. With the newly gained power, Sage¡¯s control of mana had greatly increased. He was now able to make the mana move like thin threads throughout John¡¯s body and stitched his mana channels back together. This process was slow and painful. John tried to endure the pain, but in the end give in and began screaming. Sage mentally blocked out the screams and continued his work. After a while, John¡¯s scream grew weaker and weaker until he finally stopped as he ran out of energy. He laid there against the wall, his eyes bleak and face pale as he endured the pain. This lasted for a whole night before Sage finally recovered John¡¯s mana channels to an usable state. If it was anyone else but Sage here, they would tell John to give up because even though he could use mana again, his mana channels were too small for him to ever become strong. This however wasn¡¯t a problem with the Lightning Dragon Cultivation Method Sage was going to teach John, in fact, John¡¯s current body was ideal for this cultivation method. The Lightning Dragon Cultivation Method was one of Sage¡¯s own creations. He created this cultivation method after he observed a dragon purifying Qi to the extreme. He took that as the foundation and found that the purified Qi works best when using lightning-based techniques. Thus, he used this discovery to create a cultivation method made for people who lacked talent but were determined. The name of the cultivation method resulted from the dragon that lead to the purification method and the element this cultivation suited. The basis of the cultivation was simple. Rather than relying on having a large amounts of mana, you instead use the purest mana you can create. This was achieved by making your meridians into filters and thus every time the mana passes through your body, it becomes more pure than before. Finally, a large amount of mana would be refined into a tiny droplet of pure mana that contained terrifying energy. This cultivation method can be used by anyone, but someone with a good body won¡¯t go through the hard work the Lightning Dragon Cultivation Method needed as they could learn something just as strong much faster. But this cultivation method was a way for those who lack the talent to step into the same level as those blessed by the heavens. Sage¡¯s own lack of talent was a huge reason why he spent so much of his life perfecting this technique. Although it was too late for him to switch cultivation methods, he wanted to give those who were as determined as he was a chance against those monsters. After he finished the technique, he traveled far and wide to spread this cultivation method to those he felt had the qualifications. Some of the youngest had begun to rise up with his cultivation method, but he died and was reincarnated into this world before any of them reached his level. In truth, the technique had a limit, and Sage had been working on improved cultivation methods before his death. Now seemed to be the perfect time to resume that project, seeing that he had a pawn at his disposal. Sage spawned food and living supplies that John would need to live and left him to recover. This time, Sage wasn¡¯t going to create a skill book. Instead, he was going to teach John the old fashioned way. There were many reasons for this, but the main two were for the sake of Sage¡¯s own research into perfecting his own future cultivation method and that he couldn¡¯t really afford to waste the time to create a skill book of that level. After returning to his chamber, Sage looked at the now almost empty dungeon and muttered, ¡°Now it¡¯s time to choose the new boss monsters¡­¡±
Edited by: Nova Edited by: General Luke