《My Dungeon of Terror》 01 - Dungeon Lord In a cold and dark room, a man in his twenties sat in a chair as he looked towards the air in front of him. Looking at him you would not spot a difference from a normal human, but once you look at his head you can instantly see the difference. The horns on his head form a crown. Clear signs showing that he is not a human, but a demon. As a demon he is not strong or possess great background, but just a lowly demon, the lowest scum of all. A low-level Lesser Demon. What makes him different from other demons? He is reincarnated and has a system that helps him. When he opened his eyes, first a dark cave welcomed him, and memories assaulted him of how pathetic the previous owner was. He is currently a dungeon lord. What are dungeons? Dungeons are created by demons on Perans. What is Perans, or where is it? Perans is the planet name that the inhabitants gave to it. On Perans, humans are different as there is magic, and not only are they good at manipulating magic, they have a very advanced science and combine the two, making them extremely powerful. With such a good start for any civilization, they embarked on colonizing the nearby habitable planets, making their civilization possess 5 planets in total. Even though they have 5 planets under their control and vast resources, most of their attention remains on Perans. Why? Not only is this the capital, but only here can they descend into dungeons, as dungeons only appear on Perans and no other planet. Then with great technology and magic, they can easily conquer dungeons? No, in dungeons the monsters are almost fully immune to scientific weapons, and only magical weapons can harm them. The higher the rank of monsters in the dungeon, the higher the resistance towards scientific weapons. In this world, the main races are the demons and humans. The demons came to invade the Perans, bringing magic with them, and on Perans they pursued science with everything. Magic and technology had a great combination, resulting in a rapid breakthrough of many previously thought impossible things. Such a breakthrough was the one causing the humans to have more resources and not worrying about it depleting, so the likes of famines were completely forgotten by people. These advancements at first did not look great, but as time passed, this put more and more pressure on the demons, as their reproduction is much different than humans. With more humans, more people chose to become adventurers that descend into dungeons to gain resources from these dungeons. Soon dungeons were destroyed by people for their resources. Fewer dungeons meant fewer people could enter it and gain wealth and glory. This led to a frenzy among humans, as less dungeon meant less wealth for them, and no one could stop this frenzy for money grabbing. This ultimately led to a situation where weaker dungeons were eradicated and only the strong remained, but this did not last long as they too fell under the endless wave. So if all dungeons are destroyed, how am I here? Even though the strongest dungeons were destroyed, it did not mean no more dungeons popped up, but they became a rarity. Some people tried to monopolize it, but they did not have a good end, after all, everyone wanted the wealth in it for themselves. How do I know all this information? All demons are born in another dimension. This knowledge is granted to all demons who are born to conquer this world. Their objective is to conquer this world, and this is the main reason no dungeon was spared or protected for their resource they generated as this feud started so long ago with all of them being the same either me or you die. My situation, thanks to it, is extremely bad, as the strongest dungeon that kept the humans at bay was destroyed not long ago after I was born. With the strongest dungeon destroyed, making this world abandoned by the stronger demons. So am I scared of dying? No, why? All demons will return to hell once they die and start from nothing, so death is nothing to fear about. This is the main reason no demon gives up until the very end, as starting from the bottom is the hardest, as you made many enemies in your long lifespan. I am a new soul born into hell, so I did not make any enemies yet. So comes my next problem. Survival. My dungeon is constantly being sieged by humans. Wave after wave. They don''t give me any time to recreate the traps the previous owner created, and the monsters are dying too fast, so I had no choice but to recreate the floor, consuming all my mana and terror points in the process. Thankfully I gained a system in these dark and tiring times. What kind of system? Terror System. Each person gives me a different amount of terror points, so I don''t have a constant income. There is no upper limit on how much a person gives, but how long can they endure it is the question? Knowing my problem, I recreated the first floor as a foggy forest instead of a maze. This foggy forest can disorient a person''s sense of direction, and the longer a person is in it, the greater the effect. After recreating the whole floor, I felt my energy drained, but here comes the system. I can exchange my terror points for mana. 1 terror point is equivalent to 10 mana. How much mana do I have? 100. But sadly I could only open part of the system and not fully. For it to open fully, I need to gather 1000 terror points. It granted me at the start 100 terror points to build up my dungeon. Such a good start is not granted to everyone, as almost all demons die on the first day after they are born by the crazy siege from humans. So what creatures are on my floor? I thought about ancient legends on Earth for the first time, and the Wendigo came to my mind first. Thankfully, the wendigos in the dungeon do not need to eat or sleep and can move in 0-24 hours.
Name Nameless
Race Wendigo
Title none
Skills super strength (passive)
Traits Weakness to Antlers(Special)
Strength 22
Agility 23
Intelligence 5
Wisdom 4
Mana 10
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Other than that, I created screaming birds. Their voice, when scared, sounded like human screams, and I made them scream fear humans so they will always scream, and no one will know if the scream is real or fake. The foggy settings and constant screams of people in agony can put any person on the edge of his nerves. I thought about making traps, but I gave up, instead, I decorated the whole forest with decapitated human heads and antlers on their heads. Such a grotesque scene makes weaker people puke, but I felt ecstatic about it. In my previous life, I was imprisoned in that damn house! They claimed I was crazy and I should make no contract with any human! The agony I endured imprisoned there! The agony of knowing there is no blood on my hands from day to day from the innocent people I killed. Knowing people happily move on the streets without any fear and how innocent they are?! That damn police captured me before I could feel happiness! Others can have fun, but I don¡¯t, because my fun costs human lives, so what?! They also claimed I killed 77 people. Where did they get these numbers? I killed around 300 people, and those 77 people had nothing to do with me at all. They did not even know who they were arresting, and they falsely accused me of another person''s crazy doings! What I did for happiness and they did for their so-called hobby! Mine wasn¡¯t a hobby but a daily routine. When I told them about it, they put me here, locked up, making me crazy! I could only bash my head against the door so I could be released from this prison, but no, they even sealed my movements so I couldn¡¯t harm anyone or myself. I lived for a shitty 88 years there! I reached the age of 133! The agony of knowing I can¡¯t kill anyone or harm others?! It made me crazy! But as if the gods answered my prayers and knew these people did injustice against me, they granted me a second chance! I can finally kill people without regard to being caught, and even if I get caught, I can restart all over! If this is not heaven, then what is it? I could see their faces as they were in agony as the wendigos on the first floor ripped them apart. When you create monsters for your floor, their strength varies based on how much weakness they have. I created the wendigoes so their weakness is deer antlers, even a bit of touch, and it will kill the wendigo instantly. Do you mean I decorated my whole floor in antlers? I made all of them fake, but one real. How many there are? I don''t know, probably a thousand. Am I not scared this information gets leaked to the outside world? If they became brave and ventured into my dungeon even more, I would be the happiest, as I could crush their hope and see their suffering as they try to use the fake antlers as weapons. I could only imagine such a blissful future. Thousands and thousands of people scream, filling a whole world as they beg to end their misery, but I just extend their suffering by not crushing their hope so I can enjoy. From time to time I let them escape to the outside world, and when a dungeon break occurs, I will hunt them down to the last bit of usefulness they have! What a perfect idea, and they can happily contribute to creating a paradise for me! But before that, I should make a second floor, as these people are getting closer and closer to my room. I know how to fight, but I don¡¯t want to. Bloodying my hands with these lesser creatures? Never again! I realized my mistake in my past life! The problem was that I did not have any person I could blame it on! They blamed the 77 people''s deaths on me, while it was not me at all! So I can always say I never killed anyone! My subordinates will take all the blame for the killings I did. With these happy thoughts over, I came back to reality, but I was slowly bored seeing the wendigoes ripping them apart from limb to limb and eating them. I cannot increase the number of Wendigoes from 30, as there is a limit. Each floor has a limit on how many monsters can live in it, and a dungeon needs to expand so more monsters can be on a floor. I already have a plan for my second floor, but for that, I need to advance to middle-level Lesser Demon. Each category of demon is made into 3 subcategories. So from a lesser demon, I go to a middle-level lesser demon and a high-level lesser demon. After a high-level lesser demon comes common demons. From what I know, your looks will change based on your level. Even though I looked the same in my previous life when I was entering my 20s with horns on my head, to other demons I look nothing different from an imp. But I don¡¯t care what other demons think of me. All I care about is my happiness. I could only boringly look now at the people entering my dungeon as it gets even more boring to look at them when they react almost similarly to the people before them. *** My name is Dane, and this is my first dungeon conquest in my life. I was thrilled to know I got chosen to participate in this dungeon conquest. I couldn¡¯t sleep all night. When I entered the dungeon, I looked around for the typical monsters like goblins and kobolds, as they are what dungeons spawn on their first floor. But it was different when we all saw what awaited us. A foggy forest with a creepy atmosphere. ¡°Haha, kiddo, don¡¯t believe what they tell you about dungeons on the internet as many dungeons. Dungeons newly born have all different types of monsters, but because these dungeons connect to older ones, they gain the ability to create better creatures, so in this dungeon, there is nothing scary or strong.¡± I looked back and saw a middle-aged person saying this to me as he had one of his hands on my shoulder after he saw me getting frightened by the sight. ¡°Also, kiddo, don¡¯t forget to be alert, as these dungeons aren¡¯t connected to higher dungeons, they are trickier to conquer than those that are linked to higher dungeons.¡± Added the middle-aged person, as he no longer held my shoulder, and I could only listen to him, as many adventurers are banned from speaking to the public about what is happening in the dungeons. I could only look at this information, so most of what I was told is a lie, and those self-proclaimed dungeon experts are fake too? But knowing that new dungeons aren¡¯t dangerous made me much more confident. Conquering this dungeon would be a piece of cake, and the riches I get from conquering a dungeon would be great! I am no longer worried about making money for the rest of my life, but the uncle just shakes his head at my sight and can only shake his head as he had these thoughts when he was younger, but he knows reality best. ¡°Everyone gather here!¡± Soon a booming voice sounded as a person in military gear spoke to all of us. ¡°Our mission is to gather information about this new dungeon and not conquer it! Anyone who disobeys it will be put in military court!¡± Saying the captain of the military units, as they clearly claimed this new dungeon for the military. Everyone had a bad look on their faces, as gathering information and conquering are different. One brings glory and a shit ton of money, while the other only gives you some scraps as payment. But who will dare to go against the military in the empire after it united the whole world and colonized so many planets? Many people had a downcast look as I looked around, but I still held a bit of hope, if I find it secretly, I may be able to claim it all for myself. If I defeat a dungeon lord alone, I would be one of the geniuses everyone talks about. Clenching my hand, I knew this was my only chance in my life. ¡°Now, everyone will find a team, if not, I will assign them to one.¡± Said the military leader, as he knew some people would try to claim glory for themselves, and he wanted that. They clear the monsters ahead, and then he reaps the rewards. But no one knew once they became so loud there were already pairs of eyes in the forest lying up one by one and looking at them. *** My teammate is the uncle who told me information about dungeons and 3 other people. We were made into 4 separate groups as the military brought in 10 people. Each of our groups explores this forest in a way while the military stays at the entrance, and we have to notify them in case we find the entrance to the dungeon lord room. But looking at each other, I knew everyone wanted the loot for themselves, but I had to be the one getting it! They are already over their 30s, but I just entered my 20s. I have much more chance in my life than them. ¡°Aaaaaah!¡± Soon a scream erupted in the forest far away from us. Everyone instantly got into a fighting stance, and we moved in that direction. As we moved towards the scream to know what happened, we encountered this dungeon hobby. I felt like puking seeing the head with antlers on top of it. Its eyes were removed, and only the blood from the sockets remained, they stained their whole face and a fearful face at their last moment. Just what did they see before they died, and what kind of monster does it? Or did the dungeon create it? As I looked over, I saw others shaken by this sight too. So this is not normal in other dungeons? They each made a fearful face, but they soon recovered as they saw many corpses, but such brutality was their first experience. Whoever created this dungeon has to be crazy. No wonder so many people want to destroy dungeons, not only for glory but for revenge for the fallen. We could only bypass this head as we went towards the sound of a scream, but another one sounded in the way we came from. ¡°Aah!¡± Everyone looked at each other, then we realized we were tricked. Some creatures can copy human screaming. We can only ignore it as we have no choice. Who knew the scream behind us was real, from a soldier who secretly followed us and met the Wendigoes? *** Several hours passed, yet we did not find any leads, but other adventurers'' equipment, some torn clothes, and bloodstains. There was nothing else, so we can assume there was a fight between the monsters and adventurers. We could only follow the bloodstains as they led us back to the entrance of the dungeon. We were sure we did not move in the direction where we came from, so how did we end up back at the entrance? What was more shocking was the soldiers were no longer there. From the looks of it, a fight broke out, and the soldiers went into the forest as we saw footprints on the ground. We could only look at each other and start walking in that direction. As we walked, we found dead people as they lay on the ground. Their stomach was ripped out as they bled to death. Each had a missing arm or leg. We counted their number as 5, only the captain of this unit is missing and 4 others. ¡°Should we retreat?¡± I asked as I was uncertain of conquering this dungeon, but who knew the noise I made made the monsters in the dungeon aware of our presence? ¡°Yeah, this dungeon is clearly out of our league.¡± Said the middle-aged man as he looked at the dead soldiers. We turned around and wanted to go back the way we came from, but as we walked, the terrain around us changed from what we remembered. After walking for a while, everyone''s face changed from hope to hopelessness, but I knew we would reach the end. We cannot give up now. ¡°Did we get lost?¡± Said one of the women as clearly she realized we could not escape. ¡°We can reach the end any minute now,¡± I said to myself, but I clearly couldn¡¯t say this out loud as I knew I would lie to myself. We walked for so long yet didn¡¯t even reach the exit or any signs of other adventurers. As we walked, I saw a pair of eyes lit up in the fog. ¡°Enemy!¡± I could only yell to others as I saw a monster in the fog. Everyone hearing my voice instantly prepared themselves for battle. The monster screamed as it charged at us. ¡°Eeaak!¡± A soul-shaking scream came out of the monster as it charged towards us. Raising my shield to block its advancement, but instead, I was sent flying back, and I couldn¡¯t feel my arm at all. The monster did not pay any attention to me as it charged towards the uncle, who could only raise his sword to strike at the monster, but he wasn¡¯t better than me. ¡°Magic missile!¡± Soon one of the women''s voices sounded, and a bluish magic rod appeared and struck the monster. ¡°Eat this! Hahaha.¡± Said the woman as she saw the monster get hit by it, and no monster on the first level could withstand it. We were happy as the monster was sent back, but this did not last long as the woman who launched the missile didn¡¯t have a long time to live as a claw penetrated her chest from behind. We were shocked at the sight, but the other woman who was next to her tried to raise her staff but failed as she was shocked by the sight. Soon the monster ripped her head from her body, threw it away, and looked at us. 2 versus 4. Our odds are extremely low, but we can do it. I thought to myself as I got up, but soon more and more eyes appeared in the fog. ¡°There are too many of them, we can''t escape, what should we do?!¡± This was the last thing I heard before a claw appeared in front of my face as darkness engulfed my vision. 02- Second Floor Just like the previous party this was wiped out successfully. I also saw how foolishly they separated their forces. Shaking my head at how stupid they are, but this is good for me. They give me terror points slowly, but surely as I can gain enough terror points to evolve. Looking at my status window I knew I was close to it.
Looking at my status I noticed that I have alignment while my monsters don¡¯t. Why is that? Or because they are bound to me so their alignment is the same as mine? Not caring about it as I sat in my chair and looked through the description of each element in my status window so I wouldn¡¯t miss anything.
Title Dungeon Lord
Description You who control a dungeon full of monsters where lays many treasure and danger, but only you know what truly lies in here.
Effects +5 to mana.
Hyped title with little to no benefit. Next one.
Skill Demonic aura (Lesser) (passive)
Description Anyone who comes into contact with you will experience all other demonic passive skills you possess by nature and experience a series of bad luck events. There is an extremely small chance for a person to be infected by a demonic nature and turn into a demon.
Again nothing changes!
Skill Demonic Strike (Lesser)
Description You gained this skill through your race as a demon. Once activated this skill will consume 20 mana to cover your hand in demonic magic and anyone who is affected by it will receive random negative statuses (nausea, bleeding, poisoning, hallucinations, etc.).
Finally, a skill I can put on my shelves to collect dust. Not interested.
Skill Demonic Whispers (Lesser)
Description You gained this skill through your race as a demon, any intelligent creature near you will hear whispers that will try to bewitch them and betray their allies in exchange for you accepting them as a follower. There is an extremely small chance for this to happen.
Oh? This skill is really interesting and would be great if I could increase its influence further so it can cover the whole dungeon, but currently, it is only the people who are near me likely around 5 meters (16.5 feet for Americans, Myanmar and Liberia friends). I like this skill I would gladly upgrade it if I have the chance in the future.
Trait Demonic Nature
Description You gained this skill through your race as a demon, slowly your soul will become more cruel and thirsty for power, the only way to stop it is by changing your race as this skill''s effects will be passive and constant all the time.
Meh, another one for the shelves.
Trait Psychopath
Description You do not feel any sympathy at all for other people and because of this your alignment will be locked to evil faction.
Alignment Neutral Evil
Description You do not care about rules and such as you only care about yourself and you will do anything as long you can accomplish it.
Looking at the trait Psychopath and alignment I must say the system knows me well. I don¡¯t care about other people suffering and I would do anything so I can enjoy my current lifestyle. Finishing reviewing myself I thought about my next problem to reach 1000 terror points. I currently have around 88. As more and more people come into the dungeon I gain more, but how do I scare them? Should I let be attacked by Wendigos and then one of their teammates dragged off leaving the rest for later? That is a good plan slowly, but surely I will make them crazy in this forest. As long I have time I can get enough terror points so I can enjoy my life in blissfulness, but what I don¡¯t have is time. They find out their weakness, but I need to create my second floor before they find it. Knowing I didn¡¯t have time sighing as I started controlling the monsters for the first time as I needed terror points more than anything. *** With my intelligence and scheming it did not take long for me to gather the 1000 terror points for evolution. It only took me 2 sleepless days, who knew demons needed to sleep too? Soon another window appeared in front of me.
Do you wish to evolve into Lesser Demon middle-level?
Yes / No.
I clicked yes and I felt energy coursing through my body as I looked towards my status screen.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Name Dave
Race Demon (Lesser ¨C middle-level)¡ü
Title Dungeon Lord
Skills Demonic aura(Lesser), Demonic Strike (Lesser), Demonic Whispers (Lesser)
Traits Demonic nature, Psychopath
Alignment Neutral Evil
Strength 38¡ü
Agility 32¡ü
Intelligence 27¡ü
Wisdom 28¡ü
Mana 155¡ü/22
My skills did not change, but my stats did, which is not great, I need Demonic Whispers to upgrade. Even though it is great for my physical skills to be upgraded, if I have to fight humans over and over one day I will be exhausted to death so I need to avoid the possibility of me fighting. With goals in mind, I could feel the dungeon responding to my upgrade as it allowed me to create the second floor and upgrade the number of monsters on the first floor. I have enough screaming birds, but I need more Wendigoes. So from their original 30, they went to 50. As for the humans in the dungeon? They are dead as upgrading the dungeon can only be done if there is no invader in it and it will lock the dungeon down until I create the second floor or the safety period is up which is 10 hours. What should my second floor look like? No, first what creatures should live in here? What about parasites? Yes, let''s make parasites that can take over people''s bodies. What is the biggest fear of people? Your companion betraying you. I should also let the first group spread the news about how you cannot trust your companion the second creates more tension and fear for me. What I need for the parasites is not to be noticeable can hide easily and take over the host body without the host realizing it. Let¡¯s create an environment first. An empty field with an extremely strong blizzard raging all the time while it is nighttime. What least you expect is that there are creatures living in this frozen wasteland and they can infect you at any time. For the parasites they emit Benzodiazepines once they come close to their target so they won¡¯t realize what is happening. Their size? Not even 2cm long (0,78 inch). Their physical bodies are not strong, but they have a special skill which is mutation. This allows them to alter the host body with enough biomass. For their early weakness, they make up with their latent potential as unlike the wendigoes who are locked to floors, these creatures later can go up a floor once they reach enough strength. I also created several other creatures that will pull all the attention from these parasites. The first one is Night Stalker which has great burst speed and strength, but weak defense in exchange. This job is to injure people so the parasites can infect them more easily. The second one is what I call a bulldozer. This instead of focusing on agility focuses more on defense and strength and they make a good combo to get all the attention. I also made them as ugly and big as possible so everyone''s attention would be on them instead of their surroundings. Decorating this floor with abandoned houses scattered around the whole floor to create a false sense of security. They might look safe from a distance, but they are the nest for these parasites. Also made sure no survivor was attacked while in these houses as I commanded the monsters so they could let their guards down and boom. Thinking about how will these parasites alter their host is something I am curious about and I can¡¯t wait to find it out.
Name Nameless
Race Night Stalker
Title none
Skills superhuman speed (passive), Infectious Strike (passive)
Traits Night Owl(Doesn¡¯t like sunlight and receives a -30% under the sun and gains a 10% bonus at night), weak skin (attacks deal double damage and piercing attacks triple)
Strength 33
Agility 44
Intelligence 4
Wisdom 9
Mana 10
Name Nameless
Race Bulldozer
Title none
Skills superhuman strength (passive), superhuman defense (passive)
Traits High muscle density (This creature by nature slower than his peers thanks to his big and complex build of the upper body, but gives great strength.)
Strength 47
Agility 19
Intelligence 6
Wisdom 4
Mana 10
Name Nameless
Race Parasite
Title none
Skills Mutation (Special), Memory loss(Special), Infectious Puppeteering (This creature can take control over the infected host body.)
Traits Weak body (This creature''s body is unusually weak compared to even weaker lifeforms of its category)
Strength 1
Agility 7
Intelligence 30
Wisdom 38
Mana 47/47
With this my floor is complete and I cannot wait to see my results. *** ¡°Listen up you fools our guild bought the raiding rights for this dungeon after the military failed so miserably last time.¡± An elegant, yet rough voice was the number one captain of the Tiger Fangs guild. This guild is pretty weak in the area and we have to fight for every opportunity to get the raiding rights for dungeons of the lower end as high-ranking guilds also started buying lower dungeons as the high-ranking ones slowly got destroyed. We cannot fail this raid as the guild paid a heavy price to steal this from another big guild. I don¡¯t know what price as I am a grassroots soldier in the guild. With the captain''s order over we marched into the dungeon, unlike the solo hunters before who could not trust each other and had priority to hunt dungeons in advance so their living weren¡¯t at stake, but they had a maximum of 5 tries, and after that comes the military and we the guilds. You might think we are in the worst-case scenario for being the last ones. Not really as the previous groups explore undiscovered dungeons for the first time and with no information people can only fumble in the darkness. But I swear before we came into the dungeon I saw it open up for a second and close again and doesn¡¯t this gate look slightly redder? There is no way a dungeon in 3 days can advance in a rank? After all, humanity would be exterminated if it is true and I hope I saw it wrong. 03 - Floor Guardian As we came inside the dungeon what awaited us was a foggy forest, you could barely see around yourself. Damn, I hate fogs so much. Just moving around this fog is a pain in the ass. As I shook these thoughts from my head I heard our captain yelling once more. Can¡¯t you shut up for a few seconds you already told us about the information from the military what is there more to speak? ¡°Everyone move in formation and keep a close eye on your teammates.¡± Said the captain as he moved into the middle of the formation so he could oversee everything better and be protected all the time. With that, we started our march. We heard screams, but no one is missing and likely the dungeon feature. Some mages noted this information down as we advanced. Even if we fail we can gain considerable amounts of money from selling this information. We had to stop from time to time as mages gathered different herbs that grow in dungeons. These herbs don¡¯t grow anywhere else, but in dungeons so making them extremely valuable as they have much greater effects than those back home. Just as I thought nothing going badly red eyes lit up in the fog. ¡°Prepare for battle the monsters are here! Tanks outside damage dealers behind them and mages and priests in the inner circle.¡± As the captain said this he stayed in position while everyone moved to the position. As for me? I am a hunter aka I enjoy the safe inner circle protection. I pulled the string of my bow not too back as it consumes too much stamina to keep that position long. Many people mistakenly think pulling up a bow and keeping it in a position is easy, but it is an extremely hard and stressful thing to do to the body. Soon create came out of the fog and their numbers were over 10! I can see more coming this way, but even if they have the numerical advantage we can defeat them easily. When the tanks and the monsters clashed our tanks were forced back from just the first collision. ¡°Agh! Damn it! They have super strength!¡± Said one of the people who tasted it first-hand. I could see his arm shaking from blocking the monster''s attack. ¡°Magic missle!¡± ¡°Fire Ball!¡± ¡°Ice Lance!¡± Soon row of magical attacks came at the monsters from the inner circle and I also activated my skill-piercing arrow. It is not necessary to say your skill out loud to activate, but it gives your teammates information about what ability you will use next making it mandatory if you fight with other people to say your skill out loud if they can affect an area. Soon my arrow passed through the people and hit the monster in the head piercing its skull and killing it.
A smile came to my face as I heard I leveled up. I gained 5 stat points from the level-up. Thinking for a bit I assigned them to agility and strength. 2 for strength and 3 for agility. Feeling the energy coursing through my veins I could never get used to it as it felt like intoxicating. Soon we killed over 14 wendigoes and rested for a bit then continued our journey. At this rate, we will clear this dungeon in no time. But I felt something was off. There are more monsters, but they aren¡¯t attacking us at all. I knew something was up, but what it is? Does the dungeon Lord know no matter how many of these useless creations come at us they are worth nothing and he rather faces us himself? Not like I care at least it makes our job easier. Soon we reached the staircase that leads us to the Dungeon Lord''s chamber. As we descended suddenly the front stopped who most likely reached the bottom, but why stop!? ¡°Keep moving and don¡¯t stop!¡± The leader was clearly impatient as the front stopped, but suddenly after hearing their leader they came back to their senses and moved aside for everyone to be shocked too. There is a second Floor. How do I know this is not the Dungeon Lord¡¯s chamber? A staircase leads to the dungeon Lord''s room like when you descend, but once you descend the Dungeon Lord¡¯s chamber a door will await you, and behind the door is the Dungeon Lord. But there is no door which means this is a floor and I knew I saw it right this dungeon evolved in just a short amount of time. This information must be brought back as soon as possible as a dungeon that can evolve this fast is extremely dangerous. There was one in the past that evolved extremely fast and humanity paid a heavy price to destroy it back then, but there is one more. ¡°Everyone prepare for a march as we must finish this dungeon as soon as possible.¡± Said the leader as he had different thoughts. If he can clear this dungeon his guild fame will rise extremely and he might be promoted to vice. Guild master and he no longer has to worry about going every day into dungeons to make a living, but can lay back and enjoy life. I could only sigh and comply with the captain''s orders. When in the dungeon the captain of the raid has total authority over anyone else and anyone going against the captain''s order can be executed on the spot.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. This was to combat the monster''s skills that can bewitch people. But I saw greed in the mage''s eyes too who had the second most influence in the group as I realized they already spoke with the leader and I knew what those mages wanted. There is an extremely rare herb that grows in the dungeons and only on floors where there is an extremely harsh blizzard. Blizzard eye. These flowers are worth extremely big money as they are capable of raising the maximum of mana of a user by 5 points. The more you level up the harder it will be to gain stats so the only possibility is using different types of potions or herbs to raise it. This resulted in these first useless herbs becoming the most prized among all herbs. Titles are the only thing that is worth more than these stat-raising items. I could only sigh at our fate for having such bad luck as I prepared myself for the monsters that exist on this floor at least twice as strong. It did not take long as monsters came from towards us. First, a monster that is at least twice the size of a normal human and is extremely muscular, but has slow speed. Our tank which wanted to test the monster''s strength was sent flying and took our priest a considerable amount of time to bring him back to life, but we knew we couldn¡¯t face that monster directly. I tried to use piercing arrows on it, but it only scratched its surface as it did not deal any big damage to it. Mages were in similar positions. But came the second problem as we tried to retreat a shadow bypassed us and took 2 mages'' lives as most tanks focused on the giant monster in front of us resulting in a gap that this monster utilized. Just as everything went downhill a sword pierced my chest. The sword was taken out and blood gushed out of my wound as I saw a small worm going inside me. I could only shockingly look behind me it was the captain. Saying it was as if half of his face was melted and the other half smiling at me. I felt my strength leave my body as the person who was sent flying out was the captain back then he might have been taken over and now I am infected too. Feeling my strength leaving me I raised an arrow and pierced the captain''s head, but looking around I knew we were doomed as more and more people were turning into monsters. Soon darkness engulfed my vision as I lost too much blood. *** Looking at how they got massacred I was shocked. They took down Wendigoes so easily, yet they got annihilated in no time. I could only scratch my head about how useless they are. Soon my interest was drawn to the parasites that took over their bodies. They moved like zombies without aim and showed no signs of intelligence and they even attacked other monsters. Of course, they got destroyed and the parasites did not invade them at all. Just as I thought the parasites were a failure I saw one host different from the rest. If I remember it was the hunter right? His face is already unrecognizable, but instead of attacking the monsters on the floor as he started consuming the flesh of his dead teammates. Soon its body became bigger and more grotesque as green spots appeared on its body as it grew in size. The green bulbs had parasites in them and it could no longer walk, but crawl on the ground as his size became too massive for his legs. It was interesting in the first minute, but it became boring and I was not interested in seeing its stats as most likely it only had his strength increased. Soon I turned my attention back to myself. Just this wave gave me 114 terror points and I need for my second evolution 2000 terror points. 11 terror points what should I do with it? I soon thought about creating a Dungeon Guardian. It is so boring being alone here all the time, but I can¡¯t create an intelligent guardian yet, so I would waste all my mana on it. So instead I thought about creating a Dungeon Floor Guardian. There is a difference between the two. One just overseas one Floor while the other is all the Floors and there can be multiple Overseas and they can travel to any dungeon while Floor Guardians there can only be one for each floor and people are forced to fight them as they can skip them, but they cannot challenge me, if they don¡¯t defeat all the Dungeon Floor guardians. Then they have to face the Dungeon Guardians. How can I create them when only Greater Demons can create them? The reason why only Greater demons can create them is because of the lack of mana, but I have now around with my terror points over 1000 mana, more than enough to create one. Soon I started my planning, but another batch of humans entered my dungeon making me wait until they got wiped out to commence my plan. But first of all, let me imagine what the first Boss looks like. For a normal Wendigo, I first created it consumed around 40 mana. There is sadly an upper limit to how strong a Floor Guardian can be, but it will scale according to its challengers, but if the invader''s levels are too high he can be easily taken down. Let¡¯s see first of all it should be a Wendigo too. A normal size of a Wendigo is around 2 meters + antlers which is different for each one. Let''s double it and give it some skills too that can infect fear in others and should be hard to kill so they suffer from facing it too long. Soon another party was wiped out and I commenced my guardian creation. A massive creature appeared on the first floor and unlike its kin, it did not attack the invaders outright or chase them, but only when all other Wendigoes were dead. Of course, it can be drawn out by special items, but it is best to face it as the last and only opponent.
Name Arozen
Race Alpha Wendigo
Title First Floor Guardian of the Terror Dungeon
Skills Superhuman Strength (Passive), Superhuman Agility (Passive), Devourer (Active), Dark Howl (Active)
Traits Weakness to Antlers(Special), Aura of Despair(Passive), Frenzied Hunger (Passive)
Strength 45
Agility 35
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 8
Mana 30
Title First Floor Guardian of the Terror Dungeon
Description As the name implies he is the first line of defense against the invaders who dare to challenge the Dungeon Lord himself.
Skill Devourer (Active)
Description The Wendigo Chieftain can devour the life force of fallen enemies to restore its health.
Skill Dark Howl (Active)
Description Emits a terrifying roar that causes fear and confusion in all creatures within a 20-meter radius (65,61 in feet). Those affected have their defenses and movement speed reduced by 40% for 10 seconds.
Trait Aura of Despair(Passive)
Description The Wendigo Chieftain emanates a constant aura that reduces morale and has a small probability of driving a person insane.
Trait Frenzied Hunger (Passive)
Description When its health falls below 30%, the Wendigo Chieftain enters a frenzy, doubling its attack speed and physical damage for 15 seconds.
04 - Blood Moon (1) With the guardian on the floor, the door in front of my chamber had a keyhole. So they can¡¯t just open it if they descend here. The first layer of defense is ready. As everything is ready I can see the system fully. I can see other creature''s status with it and gives me a greater ability to read them, but is there anything else? Changing terror points to mana is that all it got? If so it is a big letdown, but still a great help in creating monsters. So for the first time, I can rest easy now and don¡¯t have to worry about people breaking into my chamber without any signs. Few parties will be wiped out before they can face, but I was curious about the boss so I looked forward to the next party that might they able to draw it out. *** Looking down at my hand I felt it shaking a bit as this was my first time leading my party to conquer a dungeon as the guild assigned me to do it. Many parties had already been wiped out so the dungeon difficulty was raised and anyone who had no experience in dungeon hunting was banned so only those who reached level 5 could even challenge it. { No one survived so far who reached the Second Floor so no information was brought back about this change. Each dungeon emits mana from it so people check the dungeon''s mana level. } F-rank dungeons anyone can clear while E-rank dungeons only those with experience and guilds can challenge. Even though the dungeon was newly formed it already resulted in close to 400 people''s death. The Empire already dispatched hunters with abilities to check on this dungeon for any abnormality. But our guild master wanted to conquer it before the dungeon was fully regulated. Looking at my teammates as each had a fierce aura. They all were kept on level 5 and not dispatched to any dungeon so our guild has an elite force in this level. 29 veterans and with myself as the leader we can take this dungeon down. As we entered the dungeon I took out a monster luring emitter. You won¡¯t use it in higher tier dungeons as it would draw out the floor Guardian and fighting it and all the monsters on the floor is suicide that is why this is not used, but on newly created dungeons this is not a problem. With the traps ready I activated the monster emitter. Soon eyes lit up in the darkness as a monster came out from the fog and attacked us, but we held them back as we were prepared for them, and if anything went wrong we could escape easily. As I looked at the portal behind me I saw it turn from red to black. Each gate has a different color for their portal, but all have the same thing in them is that once a Floor Guardian is challenged the portal will be sealed and it will turn black no matter which dungeon. ¡°You are joking, right? A newly created dungeon already has a Floor Guardian?!¡± I could feel my legs losing strength as everyone was looking at the front and only I could see the portal changing color. What should we do?! I cannot let the morale plummet if I tell everyone there is a Floor Guardian otherwise we have no chance. As long I keep quiet and hope the Floor Guardian doesn¡¯t show up until we defeat these monsters we have a chance. ¡°ROAR!¡± A roar that shook everyone was heard and looking at the direction which way it came from I was shocked as a massive creature came out of the forest. Like the other monsters, but much larger and each step shook the ground. It ripped a tree out and threw it at the tanks which were crushed by the tree''s weight. With another roar, it announces its presence on the battlefield. ¡°ROAR!¡± Everyone knew what this monster was just from a look and turned around only to see the dungeon gate being locked down. But outside the dungeon this also created havoc. *** As I was looking through my phone for something new to watch I heard people running around and everyone calling their superiors there was a problem with the gate. Curious I came out of my car and looked at the portal of the dungeon only to see it turn black. My phone slipped out of my hand as it reached the ground and even the cracking sound did not wake me up from the shock of seeing a gate that only appeared 4 days ago having a Boss monster already. *** It did not take long for the empire to dispatch another group of people once they learned the news to see the mana level of the dungeon. I saw them taking out equipment from their cars and I saw also the gate turning back to red. I knew the people who went inside got wiped out. You need a raid party made out of 50 people from level 5 to defeat the Boss or 20 people who capped their levels at 10 and are fully equipped. But how is that possible? Could this dungeon have already created many floors, but all newly created dungeons can only have 1 floor or 2 maybe, but Floor Guardians only appear once the dungeon Floor reaches 7. Are you telling me there is a dungeon that can go against common sense? Soon the data was shown to everyone and everyone had a horrible look on their faces, even mine. This dungeon has only 2 floors, but 1 Floor Guardian. Not even 7 floors, but only 2 and a Floor Guardian and the maximum level is 10 now.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. We can bring that many people inside but comes the next problem. The Dungeon Lord. Outsiders might not know much, but insiders know that Dungeon Lords need a certain amount of power to create a Floor Guardian and this monster has enough power to create one already. Even if a party of 50 members who all are level 10 might be wiped out. This, who dares to challenge a dungeon of this caliber? Even the best guilds will not try to challenge it. Maybe once this dungeon has 7 floors some guild will then challenge it, but then this dungeon might become even more dangerous than before. Soon I got a phone call that the guild gave up on raiding this dungeon, not only us but all the guild did too. We don¡¯t gain anything from raiding this dungeon at all. The ones who received the hardest blow were the other guilds before us. They sent their men into a certain death trap. They demand the Empire compensate them for their oversight. We got lucky as our guild was next in line to raid this dungeon. I just don¡¯t know what will happen now to this dungeon. It most likely will be abandoned until it reaches 7 Floor so guilds can truly challenge it, but Blood Moon makes it hard as it will cause the Dungeon Break. *** After the party triggered the Floor Guardian and got wiped out easily no party entered the dungeon at all. It has been 3 days without any wail or suffering in my dungeon it is driving me nuts. Just why not attack my dungeon?! There were so many of you who did not stop attacking my dungeon, but now! Not even a soul entered my dungeon. Is the difficulty spike too big for them? They realized there was a Floor Guardian and they gave up on conquering the dungeon. How I am supposed to get terror points now? No, more importantly, what about my happiness?! Looking at their last moment made me so happy, but knowing they lived such a comfortable life outside and only a portal separated me from their suffering made me so mad. Wait, if they won¡¯t come in I go after them! But how do I leave the dungeon? Only when the Blood Moon happens which happens once every year or if there are too many creatures in my dungeon a dungeon break occurs. They most likely are prepared for a dungeon break or once the Blood Moon comes. What can I create that makes people think about raiding my dungeon? A way to extend life? It is possible after all everyone fears death and fighting monsters so not everyone will become a fighter, but some people buy dungeon items so they can extend their life. So I have to endure until the blood moon comes which is 5 days from now on. Thankfully my dungeon was born before it. But what item should I create to specify it? A plant should be good and should only appear on the second floor so they have to go through my first floor. As I did so I looked through my dungeon as the herbs that I never created existed here. They were born in the dungeon corresponding to the environment. The plants in my dungeon are not great and can only be say average as the best just gives you +3 strength and nothing else. I thought some plants could enchant a person''s physique and I could make it evolve but looks like it won¡¯t work so my second method is a monster. Monsters killed in the dungeon won¡¯t disappear but remain there so people can harvest them for their resources. Soon I created a new monster on the second floor a limited their numbers to 10 compared to the 200 monsters that live on the second floor not counting the parasites. I also made the floor bigger consuming my mana from the original 12 football field size to 15. Let''s say the average area of a football field is 7,350 m2. (8,790.52 square yards) The first-floor size is around 8 times that while the second floor now is 15 times, but I cannot expand it indefinitely. The bigger a Floor is the more monster needs to be in here so there can be danger everywhere. This new monster on the second floor has great vitality as I enchanted it as much as possible and even granted it a special skill that enchants its regeneration ability and this resulted not a life-extending ability, but a fast regeneration. This is also good, but this whole rage consumed me 40 terror points making my terror points drop from 331 to 291. I sit in my chair and think about what should I do next as the monsters in my dungeon are stupid so even if I torture them they won¡¯t scream or do anything human-like emotion like despair and even then they will happily accomplish everything I ask them to do. There is no fun in that so I can only boringly watch as that big-ass parasite moves around the floor and fights other monsters. Not going to lie that things is huge already. As it crawled on the ground with its two massive forearms and its legs were like small pop stickles compared to it. Its height as it lays on the ground is around 5 meters and has a width of 3 meters. (16.40 feet = 5 meter and 9.84 feet = 3 meter) *** Row upon row of sandbags was put into position on both streets as it was locked down and the houses were evacuated long beforehand. The dungeon was surrounded as people were prepared to face anything that came out of it. There are people of level 10 and above, but few as their main reason here is to face monsters that might be abnormally strong. The rest of the people were dispatched to higher-tiered dungeons. Just because this dungeon has a Floor guardian is the reason so high defense was put up as who knew what stronger monster lay inside the dungeon? Soon monsters came out at once and a fight broke out. The tanks on the front lines held back the monster''s charge while mages and archers dealt with them. Any monster that was not killed by this volley of abilities was taken out by the close-range damage dealers. They caused a bit of damage, but everyone knew they were the first row of monster¡¯s stronger ones soon arrived and it did not take long. Giant Muscle Hills came out of the dungeon as the portal expanded so they could easily move out. After them were shadowy figures who moved quickly towards the front line as they reaped their lives and no one noticed them before it was too late. ¡°Fire at will!¡± Soon an order came down as spells rained down on the monsters without stopping. These monsters were somewhat intelligent as they knew they would die so they hid behind these giants as they took all the damage as it was nothing, but they moved slowly. Soon the people were brought away from the battlefield who were seriously injured. But no one saw the small worms moving inside the people''s bodies who were injured and no one used cleaning spells on them only healing. Even if they used they could not cast it on everyone at once. This resulted in the infected being brought into the injured quarters and what about the dead? They were brought to another place. Just as the situation turned around for humans a huge arm came out of the portal and with it, many creatures on its body gave out green ooze and looked like humans, but their limbs were made out of vines that connected to their heads and their head was a flower. When monsters came close to the flowers they ripped off a part of the vine monster and ate it and they quickly regenerated back to their peak state. ¡°Focus fire on the flowers and everyone who is above level ten focus on that giant monster!¡± Soon another voice sounded on the battlefield, but no one knew where the voice came from as it sounded from every direction. With this, the real battle started between humans and monsters.
Name Nameless
Race Parasititans
Title None
Skills Superhuman Strength (Passive), Strengthened Mutation (Special), Memory loss(Special), Infectious Puppeteering (Special)
Traits High muscle density (Special), Unstable Body (This monster body was made out of many different type of monster and were clustered together making this body extremly unstable and once life function dissapear a big explosion can occur)
Strength 62
Agility 9
Intelligence 32
Wisdom 40
Mana 62/62
Name Nameless
Race Florasiths
Title None
Skills Superhuman Regenation (Passive)
Traits Weak body (Special)
Strength 22
Agility 21
Intelligence 5
Wisdom 5
Mana 10
05 - Blood Moon (2) Soon the tanks started moving forward to limit the monsters moving area knowing all monsters came out from the dungeon. Mages bombarded the monsters with magic missiles and fireballs as lower ranked spells they are the best for burst damage. The high-ranking adventurers came out and targeted the big monster while everyone else focused on the fast-moving ones as the big ones looked threatening, but their speed was extremely slow so they are easy targets once you keep your distance. As the battle progressed the humans gained the advantage thanks to the terrain favoring them. The only problem was that the giant monster using its arms threw other monsters or anything it could grip at the mages in the backline. The high-ranking adventurers had to draw the monster''s focus resulting in the lower-end battles being won by the humans, but the high-end losing miserably. Just as it looked like the situation stabilised the medical area burst into flames and the monster swarmed out. They were once humans, but no longer as they got transformed into grotesque creatures. Even the dead that lay on the ground or were dragged out of the battlefield rose from the ground and attacked the people nearby. It did not care about friend or foe as it attacked everyone it saw resulting in chaos breaking out at the back lines with not constant bombardment on the monsters the Night Stalker darted out and started a slaughter, while the Bulldozers without stopping rammed themselves into the houses nearby making the battlefield wider. ¡°Retreat!¡± Soon a roar erupted from somewhere calling for a retreat of all soldiers. But it was too late as the monsters slaughtered most of the adventurers here as no one expected the parasites. Such an oversight resulted in the battlefield being won by the monsters. The monsters did not stop and started rampaging all around. The parasites on the other hand started burrowing all around they could for their future host who did not find any host for itself. The rest taking over the bodies and mutating them into monsters marched with the others. But it did not take long for a heavy bombardment to commence the area not long later which destroyed all buildings in the area and killed most of the monsters in no time. Still, some survived like the Parasititan and the Florasiths. One thanks to his bog body the other thanks to his high regeneration. Soon new adventurers arrived and unlike the previous group they were all equipped with top-notch equipment. ¡°I will take care of that big guy, while the rest of you clean up the rest.¡± Said a person in full grey light armor and a helmet on his head as he gripped a spear and ran towards the Parasititan. The Parasititan raised its front arms to hit its foe, but only for the person to dodge it and pierce the monster''s head, but retreating suddenly. The monster was trashed in pain as the Florasiths could not heal its wound as they are being killed left and right without any way to fight back. With another rush forward the main unleashed his skill. ¡°Tempest Strike!¡± The winds suddenly became much stronger as the spear pierced the body of the Parasititan, but it did not end there as he stabbed the monster multiple times even before the Parasititan could react. The Parasititan swung one of its arms to sweep the annoying ant away from it only for him to jump over and pierce his head again. ¡°Damn it! This monster is too big and doesn¡¯t have a critical point I can¡¯t trigger my skill at all!¡± The man backed off as he told his teammates who finished off the rest of the monsters. ¡°Wait for Elise to chant her spell so we can finish off this monster.¡± Said one of his teammates with a big shield as he looked towards a woman who had an extremely tight robe on her body that highlighted her features and an icy cold gaze towards him. ¡°Give me some time for me to prepare for it.¡± Said the woman coldly as she started chanting the spell. With their teamwork, they easily pulled the monster so their mage could finish it off easily. Soon a huge Ice Glacier appeared and pierced the monster in the center and did not stop until half of the monster''s body was buried underground and freezing its whole body in ice.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Let''s gather the trophies and set off to the next destination.¡± With their leader saying it they gathered all the loot they viewed as useful as they will sell all these off to the right people. But they did not see what problem they left behind as the ice temporarily stopped the monster from exploding by sealing, but once the ice melts the monster will explode killing everyone who is not prepared for it. The second biggest problem is the parasites burrowed into the ground not killed by the bombardment as they lay down waiting until their host arrives. This resulted in so many problems that the dungeon area was forbidden for normal people to visit as they could not figure out what caused these people to turn into monsters and the explosion from the giant Parasititan killed close to 200 people as they tried to repair the buildings around the area. *** ¡°Where did you get this monster part!? Tell me quickly!¡± We can see a person in his twenties with brown hair and a dashing look on his face, but it becomes ugly as the person in front of him questions where he got the monster part. In truth, even he doesn¡¯t remember as he fought more than 20 different areas with a wide variety of monsters. He needs some time to figure out where the monster came from. What he is referring to is a flower petal from the Florasith''s head that they took. ¡°I don¡¯t know old man, I would bring you more, but what do you need these things anyway?¡± Said the youth back as he was curious why the old man was so hyped up. ¡°Ethan you don¡¯t understand it anyway so I make it simple, this petal can help me create a better version of the Greater Healing potion and at the cost of 10 Greater Healing potions.¡± Said the man as he looked agitated at Ethan''s nonchalant look. Upon hearing about how much he can save Ethan''s eyes lit up in light as he looked at the monster part and soon remembered where he got it, but an ugly look came to his face. ¡°Ugh, I know where that thing came from.¡± Said Ethan with a look of helplessness. ¡°Tell me quickly and don¡¯t beat the bush around I can give you 10 potions right away as I need some to show off to my colleagues from the Alchemy association.¡± Urging Ethan to spit out he even offered him his prototype of potions. ¡°It came from the dungeon that caused the heated discussion recently online where to seal the area off completely and cost me so much money to compensate for our team oversight that caused so many tragedies.¡± Said Ethan as he was not guilty about their death, but was frustrated as he lost money doing so. ¡°You mean that mutated dungeon? That is indeed problematic, but I have money and that is more than enough for people to descend into it and I don¡¯t ask them to destroy the dungeon, but to look for these monsters.¡± Said this old man first with a pondering look on his face, but then realized what he least needs is money and he had plenty and there would be people who would accept his task once he started selling those potions many realized the intergradient for this potion is in that dungeon. Nowadays it is getting harder and harder to get resources if a golden fever breaks out and everyone wants to raid dungeons and hardly many people accept gathering requests. If a person participates in the dungeon destroyed, he will gain the title ¡®Dungeon Conquerors I¡¯ as it is only the rare few titles that everyone knows and they bring each person a +5 to all stats once you destroy another one the title will be upgraded further and grants an additional +5 for each level. This is the main reason people go crazy about destroying dungeons and fewer dungeons meant fewer people can gain this title, but how many people does it take to destroy a dungeon? 1000 or 2000 maybe more. But this old man did not care as long he had resources he was happy whatever the outside world was doing, but the problem was he had fewer and fewer resources so their Alchemy Association was extremely against destroying all the dungeons. Their main intergrading is coming out from dungeons and destroying a dungeon means fewer resources for them and this leads to fewer and fewer potions which results in people buying them for sky-high prices so they can raid dungeons more easily. Such a vicious circle would result in it being destroyed if one part is missing and dragging the rest down. Sadly, only their Alchemy association is protesting, but the other don¡¯t. Why? The blacksmith association is extremely happy as lots of monster body parts are coming in resulting lot of new weapons being created. The other one is the Mage association which mainly creates new types of spells and they need different monsters'' body parts for them to copy the monster''s skills the blacksmith too needs the monster''s body, but they need the minerals in the dungeons that can be mined, but with enough benefits currently the Mage association did not say anything. With a 2 to 1 vote it was decided that their voice is the heaviest in the whole empire and even outside of it on other countries that still exist, but the empire is the de facto ruler of this world while other countries exist solely, because of a great person ability to resist the Empire or political reasons. So they can only keep their dissatisfaction to themselves, but now a new dungeon has appeared which is not worth raiding and can be a constant supply for him as long as others don¡¯t realize it. The old man as he thought more about it became even happier and hoped more dungeons this strong sprung up so they could deter anyone from conquering it. Ethan soon left the Alchemy workshop with the new potions while the old man prepared a bounty with a hefty price for the monster. *** Never again another Blood Moon! To recreate all the monsters cost me not only all my mana but all my terror points! I could have waited for the monsters to respawn naturally, but what happens if they invade? Extremely troubling matter for me. So with no choice, I could only grit my teeth and spend my terror points, and man how badly I misjudged it. No one invaded for another 3 days and now I spent all my terror points. Worst deal ever I made. But at least people started coming into my dungeon and I knew the reason why as they bypassed the first floor fast and made their way into the second. I looked as if they left behind their teammates or used others as bait to lure monsters away and the regret and betrayal made me forget all the terror points I spent as their suffering filled me up with newfound motivation. They killed 4 Florasiths and left the dungeon and I did not order the monsters to kill them all as I realized without survivors no matter how much I did not want them to leave I had to as they needed to spread the news around so I could gain a constant terror points. But this gave me an idea for my next floor. I could only give an evil smile myself, but before that, I needed to create the second-floor guardian and I had zero idea what he should look like and what kind of monster he be so I needed to think about it for some time, but as long people not try to conquer it, it can wait for a later date. 06 - Second Floor Guardian Soon I started planning what should the next floor boss look like and what abilities should he have. The main aspect it should cause fear in everyone who sees it so it can farm more terror points, so something extremely ugly or fearsome. As I was drawing up how the Floor Guardian should look a bang sounded and looking over one of my bowling pills fell over. Sighing I could only put the bowling ball in my hand to the ground as I was bored. The bowling pills are human arms while the bowling ball is someone''s head. I don¡¯t know whose it is as I just picked it from the monsters and sent it here. Looking at my terror points getting closer to a 1000 again and I knew I needed another 1000 to evolve so I should create another Floor Guardian in case something goes wrong. After all, in every world, some people love to challenge the impossible once their ego overcomes their rational mind. Soon my mana was being consumed rapidly as I started creating the second-floor guardian I had to use my terror points to make up for it. Soon a monstrous figure appeared in front of me slowly as it materialized from nothing. It took me 300 terror points plus the 150 mana I had to create it. It was a giant spider, but different as its legs came out of her body, but slowly it turned into ice that shattered the chamber floor with its weight alone. It was 5 meters in height and 8 meters from one leg to another in width and 10 meters long. (16.40 in height, 26.24 in width and 32.80 in length) The rest of the body was just like a normal spider, but its abdomen had many holes in it and each hole had parasites in them with some unknown green jelly-like thing. I could see them moving around and the head was like a normal spider until it opened its mouth. Mouth full of barbed teeth. Is this spider at all?! Wait its legs are half ice, so no. The pain of getting bitten by it and dragged away would be painful l won¡¯t lie. The two front fangs also look deadly to anyone who sees them as their size is my arm. No need for poison whoever gets bitten by definitely won¡¯t live long enough for the poison to affect them. It¡¯s a boy full of hair and for the human touch, it felt rough and sticky. Even I felt disgusted by it but fascinated da the same time. With my wave, I sent it out of my chamber and towards its new home, but before that, I looked at its stats.
Name Anansi
Race Parasitic Frost Spider
Title Second Floor Guardian of the Terror Dungeon
Skills Superhuman Strength (Passive), Superhuman Agility (Passive), Frost Parasite infection (Active), Frost Slave Commander (Passive), Parasitic body (Passive)
Traits Weakness to Fire (Special), Aura of Despair (Passive), One body Countless Minds (Passive), Frost body (Passive)
Strength 40 + (53) = 93
Agility 50 + (53) = 103
Intelligence 20 + (53) = 73
Wisdom 30 + (53) = 83
Mana 240/240
I almost choked to death seeing its status. What the hell?! There must be a reason for such an absurd amount of stats. I started looking through its skills and traits and I found the culprit for such high stats.
Skill Frost Parasite infection (Active)
Description Launches frost parasites that inflict significant damage on targets and have a high chance of infecting them, potentially transforming the victim into a monster.
Skill Frost Slave Commander (Passive) - Floor Guardian Unique Skill
Description Any infected on the floor will obey the skill user''s command no matter the strength difference. Upon the death of the user, all infected on the Floor enter a frenzied state and die after the frenzied state is over. This frenzied state gives a 30% boost to all stats and last for 5 minutes.
Skill Parasitic body (Passive - Active)
Description The user''s body is a parasite nest making any creature injured by the host have a high chance of turning into an infected person. Once the user dies all parasites in the host body die too. Once the skill is activated all parasites from the host body will be released and anyone it deems as an enemy the parasite will try to infect regardless of the cost.
Trait Weakness to Fire (Special)
Description The user receives 30% damage from all fire types of sources.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
Trait One body Countless Minds
Description For each infected under the user command gives +1 to all stats with no upper limit to the skill.
Trait Frost body (Passive)
Description Any person close to the user''s body will experience frost seeping into their bodies and their movements will be slowed down by 20%.
I could only breathe in cold air looking through those broken skills. They need to clear all monsters on the floor before they challenge the floor guardian or they all become food for it and you cannot let anyone be infected otherwise it would only strengthen the Boss monster forever. The chamber door transformed as the single keyhole vanished, and two new keyholes appeared on either side of the door, each marked with Roman numerals I and II above them. Looking at the floor I saw those infected people no longer fought against other monsters but burrowed underground near the entrance to attack anyone who suddenly came to the floor, but they all were spread out so no matter what they could catch the person who passed here off guard. But it doesn¡¯t work that well and can only hinder people as they already know the second floor somewhat and they know they need to be on guard all the time and the houses are the most dangerous places and as long they don¡¯t cause big scenes they can pass the floor easily as there might be many monsters, but they are spread too far apart. Only the parasites are grouped, but I don¡¯t care about this little problem as I finished my work on the Second Floor and started thinking about the third floor. Just as I thought everything was going well a new group of people arrived in my dungeon. 50 people at once. Previously there were 50 too, but they soon separated and went towards their own goal. But this group stayed together and started drawing monsters toward themselves. No way they want to conquer the dungeon? *** || In front of the Dungeon few minutes earlier || A big group of people gathered and everyone saw the symbols on their bodies and could only look helplessly towards the dungeon. A cave entrance tore into two. This guild operates nothing more than hatred towards the dungeons as they view all dungeons as a curse on the land and have to be eradicated and no compromises have to be made. At first, this dungeon did not get the attention of the group, but recently so many people died around this dungeon even after the Blood Moon, and some people turned into monsters that the Dungeon Breakers'' interest was piqued and they learned it was a mutated dungeon so they made this dungeon their new target. Such a thing should not let be grow anymore. 50 people fully equipped with the best gear and potions at least 5 healing and 4 mana as there are hoarders who carry all this equipment. All people here all level 15. Some were curious about what are they doing here after all they could not enter here except if they had an item for it, but this rumor was suppressed who was going to waste such a precious item on such a low-ranking dungeon anyway? But to their shock, the leader of this group took out a bead that gave different colors each second it went from red to blue then green in just 3 seconds. Dungeon Limit Breaker Bead. That is the item name the leader took out. It can raise the maximum level of entry into a dungeon permanently. They thought at first maybe a temporary, but such a precious item wasted on such a low-ranking dungeon, but they soon remembered this was a mutated dungeon more dangerous than the previous ones. Soon after the bead went into the dungeon the people marched in. Many people were shocked by the power the Dungeon Breakers had, but more importantly, the money they spent on conquering this dungeon. *** At first, this group looked much better than the previous ones, but I did not pay any attention to them as there were groups that defeated the Wendigoes easily before too, but once they faced Arozen everything changed. At first, Arozen had the upper hand as it threw the trees it could uproot, but soon it was encircled as the people used potions to heal their injuries as the priest did not cast any healing spell saving it for later. Arozen soon entered a frenzied state it caught them off guard as 3 people were sent flying and their situation was unknown as they could not pay attention to their teammates. Using its superior strength and speed thanks to its frenzied state and traits it killed 11 people in the end. I could see their leader kicking the ground in frustration as a smile crept on my face. The helpless look on their face but soon it turned into an angry look. I could taste their anger as it leaked out from their bodies, but they did not give me any terror points until now which pissed me off greatly, but their frustrated look made up for me. As they descended to the second floor after burning their teammate''s bodies they advanced slowly and guarded each other back. Soon the infected people sprung out from the ground as they attacked them in teamwork. It took some time for them to defeat them as they knew they shouldn¡¯t be injured by them. But this fight draws more monsters in and from their look they are not prepared to face all the monsters on the floor as they escape hastily leaving a few of their teammates back so their main party can escape and prepare itself to face me. Seeing this I instructed the monsters not to kill them, but to capture them alive. Soon they all got captured and parasites made their way towards them. Soon they all turned and instead of many different I made the meat each other, but left their faces out as they turned into one big monster their faces patched all around the monster''s body as it moved towards the group. The group currently knows nothing about what they have to face. Their leader had a compass in his hand that led them to the staircase and they descended and arrived in front of my chamber. As they descended and searched for the keyhole to insert the key into only to see another keyhole making them despair. They looked at each other not knowing what to do as they spent so many resources on destroying this dungeon only to be met with such a setback. They have to replan their action and give up their current, but they are hard-pressed into two rocks as many of their teammates already died to conquer this dungeon or give up and waste all the resources they spent on the dungeon. After all, they defeated the first Floor Guardian and could leave since they didn''t challenge the second Floor Guardian. However, once they exit, the first Guardian will respawn, and they will have to start all over again. This is because no one can enter a dungeon once a certain amount of time has passed since the first person entered. Soon they made a vote on what to do and the vote in the end sadly they ended up leaving the dungeon and preparing for a bigger raid next time. Knowing they were leaving I left them a present at the entrance of the staircase of the second floor as they made their way back quietly. After slaying the monster, I could see their rage and arms shaking in anger as they could hardly hold back the impulses of challenging the second Floor Guardian. But for the first time they gave me terror points, but a small amount likely it was not big fear, but hatred mixed with fear and not just pure fear. Even the people who died at their last moment did not fear their fate even though their teammates turned into monsters around them one by one. Who knew me letting them leave the dungeon caused many people shock as they rarely fail to raid dungeons and even if they fail they won¡¯t suffer great losses, but this one was extremely miserable as news spread there already being a second Floor Guardian. If not for the high rewards no one would venture into this dungeon. 07 - Third Floor (1) Several days passed as I decorated my chamber with all kinds of gems I found on my floors. These can range from the human eye to diamonds. After I became a demon my artistic asterisk upgraded greatly. Just seeing it makes me happy, I also started drawing, but sadly I have no talent for it as the images could not grasp the person''s mind, but only his body as they are half alive. But soon my terror points crossed 200 thousand and I was ready to create the third floor and I already knew what it would look like. Labyrinth with several treasures. The monsters? The treasure itself. Imagine finding a gold hill and the gold hill turning into a giant monster the moment you take too much treasure from it. Soon I hit the evolution button in the system that popped up and irritated me for a whole day to press it. I could feel my strength rise after the energy finished channeling itself through my body.
Name Dave
Race Demon (Lesser ¨C High-Level)¡ü
Title Dungeon Lord
Skills Demonic aura(Lesser), Demonic Strike (Lesser), Demonic Whispers (Lesser)
Traits Demonic nature, Psychopath, Sadist
Alignment Neutral Evil
Strength 43¡ü
Agility 36¡ü
Intelligence 32¡ü
Wisdom 37¡ü
Mana 205/0 ¡ü
Terror points 244
Similar changes to the previous evolution with nothing major happening other than gaining a new useless trait. Why can¡¯t I gain like the ones my minions have? They are so powerful and mines are useless. Shaking my head at it I turned my attention back to the third floor as it was bare bones currently, but its size double compared to the Second Floor. It was huge and I wondered just how big would be in the future. Will there be a limit for it or they keep expanding infinitely? Not caring about it anymore I created the labyrinth. The walls are made out of stone and I strengthened them as much as possible and made them slippery so no one will try to climb them up, but if they fly up I will create a few monsters for that job. First of all, the wall''s height is 10 meters and 4 meters wide. (32.80 in ft and 13.12 ft wide) Above the walls is an extremely heavy fog with a new monster in it. This monster has a big mouth on its small body and has long arms and because it is not favorable for it to move in a labyrinth that is too narrow for it, it mainly moves above the labyrinth sometimes encountering adventurers it will try to grab them, but they pose no real threat as long as you don¡¯t climb up as they use mainly their sense of smell and hearing. After all, in the fog, they are blind so why not make them fully blind? I could imagine when two such monsters do not see each other and just collide with each other as they try to catch adventurers. It has 6 arms and no legs as the arms function as legs for it as it moves on the labyrinth and each arm is around 13 meters in length and extremely slim making one question how can such an arm bear the weight of its body at all. (42.65 ft) The first monster is ready and the next one comes. The next monster is a gold pile made out of gems as they move around the labyrinth and collect all kinds of gems they can find. They won¡¯t fight against each other and will be extremely territorial as they won¡¯t leave their territory no matter what. Their strength will be based on how much or rare the materials they absorb into their bodies making them collect all the items the adventurers had on them. As long the item is part of the monster it will not deteriorate no matter how long time passed by. Their main body is an extremely small magnetic ball that functions the same as a golem core, but unlike golems, these monsters can get bigger and stronger, but don¡¯t regenerate like the golems once they suffer injury they need treasure to repair that part of the body. Because the Labyrinth walls are the same as the floor gems have an extremely high chance of being created on the walls or inside of it, but this greatly enchants the dungeon Floor''s ability to collect and create more treasures. With two monsters down I need to create more. A treasure monster is good, but I need more so adventurers are not forced to attack that monster only and hunt them down to extinction. The next one is a giant plant that has a flower in the center of its body like how the Florasiths operate. They gather vitality in the center of this flower that gives off a scent that lures adventurers into its giant mouth. The teeth are hidden in the lush grass that it creates around its body and they like to live in dead ends where the different kinds of lush weeds can thrive. But for their great strength, they have 0 mobility as they are locked down to one area. As I created more and more monsters, I began to realize something: How would they find all the monsters in the labyrinth? Even if the adventurers break down all the walls, it will take a long time to map everything out. Many monsters roam freely, and not all of them will attack adventurers unless provoked, like the monster made of gems and gold. With gems and herbs done, I thought about making an extremely strong monster that chases and hunts down people. There will be a few and they will have a complete image of the labyrinth in their heads so they won¡¯t go to dead ends or will do by chasing their prey and trapping them there. The monster will have a humanoid body with a massive frame standing 6 meters tall. Its arms resemble pillars, and its legs are similarly sturdy and durable, enabling it to withstand numerous attacks. (19.68 ft) As I made the monster more and stronger my terror points got reduced by a whopping 50 points before I finished it, it drained me an additional 50 points making me cost around 1200 mana points to fully create. For other demons this most likely will be a floor Guardian, yet for me, this will be a monster that chases people around. These won¡¯t stop until they kill the adventurers once they see them with their one massive eye. Yeah, you guessed it right Cyclops. Their all equipped with a giant gauntlet that protects their fist. Why not give them weapons? In a narrow labyrinth for such a massive monster how will it move or turn around with it? Maybe in the future, I might add more monsters to the Labyrinth, but for now, there are enough. The whole floor has around 1000 such a monster all scattered around. The first-floor monster capacity went from 50 to 70, the second floor now has around 500 monsters and most of them are parasites. With everything done, I lay comfortably in my chair as I looked at my room full of art. I should get an artist kidnapped so he can teach me how to paint and draw as I felt my collection missing too important elements in it. But then I was hit by bad news, I have to participate in some kind of ball. I only know I have to go there and I cannot be absent from it no matter what. Whoever sent me this message likely sent it to many others, but should I go? What benefit do I gain from it? What is their plan to call me alone or many other demons there? Scratching my head, I thought about how to get there and I got news that a portal would be opened in my chamber which leads me to the ball entrance. I knew from this message I couldn¡¯t refuse it as I could go there so could people come to my chamber. Just who heck they are and what do they want? Guessing that many people got it like me too, but how many and how widespread is this? Shaking my head as I asked for a skull I found extremely pleasing to hold in my hand. ¡°Should I go?¡± it was not a big skull or small, but perfectly fit my hand as I understood why those people loved to hold a human skull, it felt like talking to someone who understands you and can calm the mind as worms moved from one eye socket to the other. ¡°Damn, I just cleaned it now!¡± I smashed the skull on the ground as I trampled the worm under my feet in frustration I destroyed a few of my ugly art concepts that I did not like that much before. *** ¡°Really man you needed to accept this mission and from this dungeon? Why on earth did you accept this instead of a safer one, do you know the death ratio of this dungeon?! More than 70% of the people who enter this dungeon!¡± I said while holding my head as I saw him showing me how much money we could make out of this mutated dungeon. ¡°But man look they give us a ton of money for it and we gain even more if we bring any new material we can find in the dungeon.¡± Said while not giving any thought to what I said. ¡°Fine, fine how much do they give for you not to care about this dungeon at all?¡± I could only look at how much they give and I sucked in cold breath at looking at the zeros. A total of 400,000 gold coins, with five zeros after it! For the rest of our lives we can live off of such an amount of money, but why do they give so much for it?This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°You might be curious why this is so high, right? This is a new type of monster with extremely high regeneration ability better than trolls and being a plant type making it more compatible with other incidents as I heard many new types of potions were made from this monster material.¡± Said this ass with such a wide grin that I could hardly ignore it as I had the same for myself. ¡°Are you in for a wild ride?¡± Said my friend Otto in front of me. How could I back off from this small mission? Otherwise, I wouldn¡¯t be the bravest warrior around here, no I mean the bravest thief! My job is a rare class with my friend Otto also being one which is the thief. Sounds bad, right? Well, it is, the class''s main job is to steal from other people''s items, but we can steal items or part of the monster we aim for, so we don¡¯t need to fight them to gain their loot, we can steal it from them. But this also pisses off the monsters and makes them berserks which strengthens them if we steal from them making our job harder. ¡°So when will we do it?¡± I asked back instead of answering as Otto already knew my answer. ¡°Tomorrow, I already bought two spots for ourselves as all the others are full of other people who aim for the same as us.¡± Said Otto as he grabbed his head knowing how hard he fought for the two spaces only. He wanted to bring in more people so they could be safer with more people, but who knew everyone aimed for this same monster? The alchemist demands this kind of monster that only lives in this lone dungeon and does not appear in other dungeons at all. If this monster existed in other dungeons he would go for that dungeon, but there is none! Otto fears his life more than anyone else, but wealth is his weakness. So without further ado, we prepared ourselves to delve deep into this dungeon. *** In the morning the next day in front of the dungeon, I waited for Otto to arrive as I checked my equipment only to hear a voice behind me. ¡°Oh man, I almost couldn¡¯t recognize you, Matthew.¡± Said a person I turned around only for my mood to plummet from indifference to hostility. The person in front of me is Jackson famous thug in the underworld for extorting people and he also tricked me when I started as a thief a few years ago. ¡°Shut up, Jack! You still owe me 20,000 gold coins!¡± I snapped back, not giving him a chance to respond. Just then, Otto arrived, and I turned to him. Behind me, Jack shot me a furious look while his cronies laughed at him for being embarrassed by his old friend. ¡°Just wait Matthew, I pay you back for this.¡± Jack murmured it under his nose as no one heard it, but his eye gleamed with dangerous thoughts. Soon the dungeon was opened as the previous group left only with 22 people from the 50. With a bit of rest, we entered the dungeon.
Name Nameless
Race Mist Walker
Title None
Skills Superhuman Strength (Passive), Superhuman Hearing (Passive), Superhuman Sense of Smell (Passive)
Traits Blind (Passive), Endless Hunger (passive)
Strength 52
Agility 33
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 9
Mana 10
Name Nameless
Race Gem Stasher
Title None
Skills Monstrous Strength (Passive), It''s all mine! (Passive), Shiny makes me strong! (Passive)
Traits Inorganic (Passive), Territorial (Special), Docile (Special)
Strength 0~105 (Based on how much gold they gathered and combined into their bodies)
Agility 50~10 (Will be lowered the more gold/gem it combined with)
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 16
Mana 10
Name Nameless
Race Venus Gem Flower
Title None
Skills Luring Scent (Active), Fast regenation (Passive), Vitality condensation (Passive)
Traits Inmobile (Passive)
Strength 44
Agility 22
Intelligence 11
Wisdom 9
Mana 40/40
Name Nameless
Race Cyclops
Title None
Skills Metallic Fist (Active), Monstrous Strength (Passive), Superhuman Speed (Passive), Metallic Skin (Passive)
Traits Blood Hound (Passive), Labirynth expert (Special), Massive Frame (Passive)
Strength 102
Agility 66
Intelligence 22
Wisdom 25
Mana 20/20
Skill Monstrous Strength (Passive)
Description A strength that surpasses anything you have ever seen, anyone who possesses this skill can easily cause tremors with just their fist hitting the ground casually.
Skill It''s all mine! (Passive)
Description The user has a great desire to collect anything that shines in the sunlight and the more you collect the slower you get in exchange for a temporary stat boost upon someone stealing your loot.
Skill Shiny makes me strong! (Passive)
Description The more shining objects you collect the stronger you become with an upper limit of 105.
Skill Luring Scent (Active)
Description Anyone who smells the scent you give off will be charmed and follow the scent to its source.
Skill Vitality condensation (Passive)
Description You can condense your vitality in one point so you can fasten up your regeneration by 100 times at that part of the body where you condense your vitality, but other places will have slower regeneration.
Skill Metallic Fist (Active)
Description Cover your fist in metal, but by doing so consume mana to keep the skill active and the user won''t feel pain from his fists until the skill is active.
Skill Metallic Skin (Passive)
Description The user''s skin is as hard as metal and slashing attack damage will be halved and piercing attack strength will be reduced by 20%.
Trait Endless Hunger (passive)
Description The user feels an endless hunger to devour anything it can no matter who is it and will eat until it feels satisfied.
Trait Inorganic (Passive)
Description This creature possesses nothing that a living creature should, yet it is still alive somehow living and thinking like a living creature. The user can only die if their core is destroyed or sealed.
Trait Territorial (Special)
Description The user has extreme territorial tendencies making him not leave his territory no matter what happens.
Trait Docile (Special)
Description The user of the skill will not feel hostility from other creatures until it is attacked and upon being attacked gains a 20% stat boost for 10 seconds. This skill be reactivated once no more enemies are around.
Trait Blood Hound (Passive)
Description Once you lock onto a prey scent you can follow it through the end of the world, aka the whole Floor.
Trait Labirynth expert (Special)
Description You grew up in this labyrinth and know it like the back of your hand the whole labyrinth layout.
Trait Massive Frame (Passive)
Description Your bulky frame limits your movements, making even small actions loud and sneaking up on the target impossible.
08 - Third Floor (2) As we entered the floor, what waited for us was extremely thick fog. ¡°Damn it, I can¡¯t see anything here!¡± Said Otto next to me as he tried to squint to see better in the fog. I hit the back of his head for his stupidity. ¡°Are you an idiot? You won¡¯t see anything even if you squint here.¡± I could only shake my head. He could only embarrassingly look down at his feet as he scratched his head. ¡°Right, I forgot about it.¡± Said as he looked at the fog. ¡°Let¡¯s go we have to reach the Second Floor before the others beat us to it.¡± I could only pat him on the back as I walked into the fog, and he followed me inside. ¡°Do you have a dungeon compass?¡± I could only turn back and ask him as I didn¡¯t have enough money for it, but Otto surely had one, and I was right. ¡°Yeah, I have one on me wait a second, I need to take it out from my backpack.¡± Said Otto as he put down his backpack and searched for the compass. ¡°Why did you not prepare it beforehand?¡± I could only irritatingly say it as I forgot how stupid Otto is sometimes. Soon he took out a compass, and luckily it pointed to the direction we had already walked and not another direction, as it would waste time. ¡°Hey, where are the others? Didn¡¯t we enter together?¡± Otto said as he looked around as we entered together, but others did not. ¡°How would I know? Likely the teleportation disturbance this happens sometimes.¡± I could only raise my hands in innocence as I don¡¯t know why this happened. Only maybe the Dungeon Lords know why this happened, or even they may not know it. Soon I felt my senses tingling. ¡°Activate presence eraser skill,¡± I told Otto as I disappeared from Otto''s vision. I did not become invisible as I stayed in the same position from where I disappeared, but simply temporarily I erased my presence, and without detection skills or until I move, I cannot be spotted by anyone only if they bump into me will they know I am here. Soon Otto disappeared too, and we saw a monster with antlers appear not long later and look around confused as it heard people talking and followed the traces, but they suddenly disappeared. Confused, it can only turn around and leave, trying to find other prey for itself to feed on. Seeing it leaving, I sighed and started moving again and reappeared, and soon Otto too. ¡°Let¡¯s go and leave this dungeon already. I have the feeling that something has been observing us all this time.¡± I could look around, but I saw nothing as I felt someone was watching us. Waiting for Otto to catch up to me as I saw him rummaging through his backpack. ¡°Sorry, sorry, I had to write down the monster as it was new, and there is not much information about it, and the guilds would kill for any new monster information, so I thought about selling it later off.¡± Said Otto as he looked at me with a happy face. ¡°The little information you wrote down is not enough for a scrap for those guilds.¡± I could only roll my eyes at him how can he be so stupid, yet successful at this business is beyond my comprehension. But thankfully we did not stay on the first floor too long as we reached the second floor. As we descended the staircase, I saw fighting traces of battle here. Instead of speaking, I pointed at the traces and gestured for him to be quiet as we moved forward, only the snow under our feet gave off the sound as we stepped on it, but this heavy blizzard easily suppressed the sound. We can barely see what is ahead of us, and I have to look back to see if Otto is not lost, as being alone on this floor is a death sentence. Soon we heard sounds of battle ahead, and we quietly made our way towards it. Using a present eraser, we saw a familiar group fighting against a monster that we needed to hunt down. Seeing them fighting far away, I disabled my presence eraser and monitored Otto to prepare himself for action. He only gave me a thumbs up back, but I knew he was ready as we both equipped a gas mask on our faces. We might be discovered later that we were the ones who fucked Jack''s group over, but as long as they don¡¯t see our faces, we can always deny it. Just as we prepared ourselves to take action, I saw Jack, their leader, smiling in our direction. I knew we were in trouble, as they might have discovered us already, but I knew they might not be able to do big things after all, they had to end this fight fast otherwise, more monsters would arrive here, as many infected people arrived here already.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Soon I saw Jack taking out from his pockets a small ball, and I knew he must have gone crazy, as his teammates were shocked too. What did he take out? Monster lecher and not some crap, but a genuine one, and from the look of it, it can make any monster smelling it enters a frenzied state. This is different than normal ones, as this one was made so the Floor Guardian won¡¯t be triggered, and I don¡¯t know how someone created it, but my main priority is to escape this floor and later come back here if the monster''s frenzy is over. Just what happened to Jack, making him this crazy?! He might be an asshole that extorts people and cheats them out of money, but he was cautious all his life no way he has a way to escape. Looking at him, he did not look towards me, but into the fog, smiling as he took another item, and activated the lurer. The item he took out was a return stone. Its price is in the millions, as it can save anyone''s life as long as they don¡¯t face a Guardian, as it can lock down the floor so no one can use any space-related item. I looked at Otto for a solution, but soon roars echoed through the floor as monsters entered a frenzied state and came in this direction. I saw Jack''s teammates panicking and giving up on the monster as they tried to run back but were stopped by monsters, and I could see monsters coming from the staircase direction. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the one leading to the Dungeon Lord''s chamber, as we have not killed any Guardian yet, so we don¡¯t have to worry about facing the Dungeon Lord himself.¡± Saying this as I grabbed Otto''s arm and dragged him towards where the compass pointed, as the compass always points towards the direction where the staircase is for the lower floor. As we ran, I saw Jack''s former group fighting, but soon I couldn¡¯t see them anymore but still heard the fight and screams but did not go back to see as I could hear rapid footsteps catching up to us. Why not use a pencil eraser? The longer it is used, the more mana it consumes, and what would happen to me once I was out of mana inside a floor full of rampaging monsters? Soon I saw the staircase leading to the Boss chamber, and we entered it. The monsters behind us stopped chasing us and could only vent their frustration on the ground as their prey left their floor, so they could only give up the prey that escaped and focus on those that were still on the floor. As we made our way, what awaited us was not the Dungeon Lord''s chamber, but another floor. I was shocked by this as this dungeon is evolving way too fast. Not even a month since its birth and already has 3 floors?! Other dungeons take at least half a year to have it, yet this grew so rapidly. I could only feel fear towards the monster that lures this dungeon just how strong does one have to be? The dungeon lord he is currently speaking about is having a showdown with a small centipede that dirtied his favorite skull. I was taken aback by this thought, but the sound of scribbling on paper soon brought me back to reality. Looking at Otto, whose first thoughts were to write it down and sell this information to the guilds, as we might be the first ones to discover it. Just as I was about to teach Otto a lesson, I saw something shining on the wall, and coming close, I found a gem. It was a small red gem about the size of my middle finger in length and had the width of around 3 fingers put together. ¡°Holy shit! We are rich!¡± I took out the gem and showed it to Otto, who was frivolously writing down what he saw as I took the gems from the wall. But soon he stopped writing and started collecting gems with me and putting them in our backpack with smiles that went from one ear to another. Soon our backpack was packed, but there were so many gems and herbs growing around the entrance that it caused me heartache to look at them as I left them behind. ¡°We hit the jackpot, Matthew! We are super rich, and after I sell this information to the guilds, I can rack up even more money!¡± Otto was extremely happy with everything happening as we camped in the staircase we did not want any monster appearing at the entrance and getting chased by it. ¡°We have to thank Jack otherwise we would have never discovered this floor,¡± I said sarcastically as I remembered what Jack did, and I wondered why he did this. He looked in another direction before taking out the stone and using it. We weren¡¯t his targets, but other people and his teammates were just a cover for him so he could come here without raising suspicion. This thing should have been obvious from the start. Why would a guy who mainly extorts weak people and newbies come to such a dangerous place? We waited for around 20 minutes before we made our way back, and surprisingly we found no monster at all. Dave instructed the floor bosses that the first people who entered the third floor should be let out without hindrance so they could spread the news about the third floor. But this was something Otto and Matthew did not know, and Dave did not see, as he was currently being suppressed by the centipede it slipped into his clothes and tickled him all around, which caused Dave to manically laugh. As Otto sold the news about the Third Floor information, many guilds at first were not interested, but an association was soon pumped up by this news and that was the Mage association. They dispatched different groups to see if the news was legit, and Otto was held in a special car in case his information was fake, he had to pay, but Otto was not displeased, as this was normal to him. Soon the news came back as true, and as if Golden Fewer took over the association, they dispatched even more people, as mining gems in dungeons is extremely heavy, normally after all dungeons mainly want to ward off adventurers and not lure them in, but Dave''s dungeon just became so strong so suddenly, making many people give up on entering it at all, and only because of the special monster did they venture into it alone, but now a whole floor full of treasure made many people interested in going into it even though the death ratio of the dungeon was brought down from 90% to 54% thanks to the information about the floors and how to counter them. But now the death ratio skyrocketed back to 80%, but this did not discourage people but made them even braver as the adventurer''s equipment made the place have even more loot, and soon the golden hill monster was discovered, which could preserve the adventurer''s equipment and did not attack at first sight, making them best buddies for many people as they could not bring important equipment up or it was too risky, so they left with the monster and came back later to kill it and claim it back. The adventurers almost drove the Gem Stashers into extinction, where Dave had to spend mana to spawn them even more and upped the number of Cyclops from the original 4 to 6. Why so few? One can wipe out multiple parties alone, and they cause such a big noise that other Cyclops will come here, and soon they will be besieged by multiple ones. The only reason was so people wouldn¡¯t hunt the gem stasher to such a degree that he was forced to use his mana and let the dungeon naturally generate it. This worked for some time until some people hunted down the Cyclops! Dave gave up on this floor as it had more adventurers than monsters in it, but still, the Cyclops somehow could stay alive. These monsters were hunted for their hard skin and bones for weapons, making Dave question if the Cyclops were strong enough and if they needed an upgrade in strength. 09 - Banquet (1) Just as I took care of the centipede, I got bored fast, as what I saw was a carry frenzy of people slaughtering the monsters on the third floor without touching the first and second floors at all, and every loot they gathered was immediately brought out, so not even a fight between groups was happening, and instead of swords, people were bringing pickaxes with them into the dungeon. Shrugging as they did not try to kill me I did not care, as this would result in more fights between themselves, as the loot in the dungeon would become rarer, and more infighting meant more people would betray their teammates for the money they could gain. And like what I guessed happened, people started fighting against each other once it turned out the loot on the Floor dwindled with their constant harvesting of it. The monsters respawn only when all humans die or leave the dungeon, but based on the monster''s strength, it will need some time to respawn, with the Cyclops needing the most time, as it takes 6 hours for one to respawn. The gems, on the other hand, will not respawn with the arrival of new humans but need a long time of mana nourishing. This process is what I speeded up last time, so there can be many gems, but now that I no longer speed it up resulted in fewer gems being created and fewer and fewer gems are in it, so the infight became even crazier. Not caring about it, as the time approached for me to enter this ball. I prepared myself for it as I did not trim my clothes, as I would arrive there with my pajama clothes, never mind, I always wear them even in my sleep. (pajama = pajama) With no change in my clothes from my white shirt and black pants, a portal appeared in front of my room. Do I need to bring any gifts with me? Oh well, they should have said it before inviting me. As I stepped inside the portal, the world changed around me as if I was traveling in a high-speed train, and soon it stopped, and I arrived in a field full of weeds. No one greeted me or said where I should go, but soon other demons arrived shortly after me. I saw many of the same realms as me arriving, but others too, and they each brought a servant with themselves. Why bring a servant with you in the first place? I could ponder their stupidity. You don¡¯t need to eat as the dungeon mana nourishes you. Just as I thought the ones who hosted this party had forgotten about us, the area around us changed to a medieval dining room. Each table had one chair with it, but there were several ones with many chairs with it and extremely fancy plating. I even found my name on a table that was made the farthest from all other tables, which had a single chair for me only. I sat down as I observed the other demons as they sat down too. Some looked similar to humans but had bat wings with purple skin, others were jelly-like creatures with eyes in their bodies, and others were like golems with red cracks all around their bodies. I observed that the table with more chairs was prepared for the people who brought their servants with them, and they looked strong as I occasionally felt their aura leaking. How can I tell a person''s strength by their aura? Each demon has a skill called the Demonic aura, and this aura gets stronger each time you cross a major realm from Lesser Demon to Common Demon. Lesser Demons have no rights in anything, not as common Demons have, but common Demons were at least treated as demons, while Lesser Demons were treated like garbage on the roadside that you can kick anytime. From what I heard from the occasional chatting, I realized other demons did not see each other''s information like a system, so it is likely only for me, as I could see some of their skills and stats, but those stronger than me, like Greater Demons, who I see sitting in the middle, only have ??? in their panel. No demon came to my table as I was a lesser demon, and I saw other lesser demons going to high-ranking demon''s tables to please them at any cost. How do I know if I can¡¯t feel their aura, which one is high-ranking? There are patterns on their table clothing, with mine being a chicken head while the Common Demons had a cow, the high-ranking one¡¯s lamb, and there was one table empty with a goat head. What a childish design, I must say. Just then I felt a gaze on me when I thought about it from somewhere. Do they read minds? Not likely, more likely they felt me looking down on their taste. Soon bells rang, and many demons returned to their tables from the stairs that were in front of the tables and chairs that were seated in such a way that everyone could see the staircase no matter what happened. Soon creatures in different shapes and looks appeared, all holding silver plates with food on them. Looking at the food, it looked back at me as they served the food to me, but I did not start eating as other demons did not start either.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Soon I could hear high heels hitting the ground as a woman of otherworldly beauty descended it. I mean otherworldly, as I can never imagine such a hideous creation, it even made me feel what gave birth to such a creature. Its face was made up of countless tentacles, each with an eye, and connected to a single torso, but her skin was made up of countless human nails. Her clothes were at least normal as they were made out of human skin with eyeballs dangling from it. I could only sigh at why I even came here, as I could see the suckering gazes of demons here as they were ready any second to please the woman who descended the stairs. Soon a high-pitched voice came from the woman that sounded like nails were dragged on a chalk table. My ears were about to bleed from her sound. Other demons were mesmerized by this voice, but I was not, rather, I hope it ends as fast as possible. ¡°On behalf of the owner of the Dungeon of Desire, I welcome you all.¡± Said the woman who turned out to be just a dungeon monster. ¡°Many of you are new here, as at least half of the demons here are ones born in the last 3 years.¡± Said as she stopped and looked towards the Lesser Demons area. ¡°This ball was held every year, but 4 years ago the previous owner who held this ball sadly died by those insects, and our Dungeon Lord took on the responsibility of holding this ball.¡± Said the woman, the disappointment in her voice was obvious, as she likely had feelings towards that demon lord who was killed by the humans. ¡°Well, let¡¯s not remember the sad past but look forward to the present as we brought you a great feast, and later some other elite demons will appear in this banquet as we got notices from Hell.¡± Said the woman as she bowed, then went back up the stairs, and other demons started eating, but not everyone ate. Like me, I can see the food blinking at me. I might be crazy, but not so crazy as to eat such food. Shaking my head from the thoughts of eating it, I looked around the hall, and I saw some other demons not eating, but they were all lesser demons, as the demons from common and above even if forced ate the food presented on their tables. Soon this farce was over, and the woman came down after all the plates were taken away, and I got an angry glance from the one bringing my food away as if I wasted some divine food. I would rather eat junk food than this, as I tasted it, and it tasted like charcoal. Who can even eat such a thing? No wonder people suffered even eating it. I thought maybe the taste was better than the look, and oh boy, how wrong I was. This also made my mood much worse as I could hardly wait to go back and see people screaming in agony or betraying each other and having desperate looks. ¡°I thank everyone who attended our banquet.¡± With a bow, the woman paused what she wanted to continue, and once risen and finished bowing, she said. ¡°Everyone must be curious about what Hell told us, and sadly it is not as great news as Hell decided it is not worth having so many Dungeon Lords here, and their numbers have to be trimmed down. We first eliminated those who did not wish to come here as they were uncooperative with us.¡± The woman said this without hesitation as different creatures'' heads rolled on the ground. ¡°Secondly we will take out those who did not show any respect towards higher-ranked demons.¡± Soon many demon heads exploded who all tried to please higher-ranking demons beforehand, and even common demon heads exploded. Looking around, I saw the hall full of blood the higher-ranking demons were shocked as they did not expect even common demons to die, I bet even they did not expect it at all. Looking at the dead demons, I can see many who did not eat the food that was served to them, and I guess that is also a form of respect that you must eat the food that was served to you. ¡°With the trash cleaned, we can start our real banquet.¡± As she said it, we got teleported to another place, and not like the medieval theme, this was more luxurious, like a modern hall from Earth. There was no ceiling, rather, it was the starry sky that illuminated the hall. In the middle, the ground was raised much higher. I can see 4 other figures at one table as they talk with each other and do not even cast a glance towards us. Soon I felt an aura descend on us as it was forcing us to kneel no matter who it was. I could see even the people at the table of the center kneeling as they crushed the table with what they ate, and I could see a person coming in, and behind him was a steward. The people at the table did not even glance as they did not show any furious expression but rather said. ¡°We pay respect to his highness.¡± They said in unison and with a feverish look of zealously as they looked toward the man who came in. You can see he was a demon as he had purple skin and bat wings, but unlike the ones who were common and lesser demons, he had several horns on his head, each being in different colors. I was surprised to hear his highness. From what I know, demons can¡¯t have offspring from each other, so they need to have other creatures as their partners, but then those people became outcasts from both groups, as no one wanted to acknowledge them as part of their race. So not only must he be half demon, but his parent might be extremely strong considering how these elite demons are kneeling, and I, too, but I can feel it was not from him but the gem around his neck. That gave off an aura that forced us to kneel. ¡°Did you all clean up the useless trash?¡± Said the young man as he looked at the Elite Demons. One elite demon looked like a golem, and unlike the ones down there who had red cracks, this one had blue cracks all around his body and a human face with blue gems as his eyes. ¡°I cleaned them up already, your Highness, according to your instructions.¡± Said as he awaited his reward for doing such a great feat, and other elite demons only cast envious glances at him. ¡°Good work. I will reward you later, but now we have more important things to do.¡± With that, he said he manifested a chair out of thin air and sat down facing all of us and not releasing his aura that forced all of us to kneel. I wanted to hit his face as he wasted my time with such a farce, but I couldn¡¯t move at all. Who cares if he is a prince of a high-ranking demon? I can live forever, and even if he imprisoned me for a long time, it is nothing compared to being imprisoned in a room for 88 years and not even hearing the sound of other people screaming. At least at the place, I would be imprisoned, I could hear their screams. ¡°With you all here, let me tell you what Hell planned to conquer this world after an all-too-long time passed with no progress forward.¡± Said the young man with an unhappy expression of being sent here. ¡°Hell wants to fasten up the corruption of this world, so from now on all dungeons limits on how many people can enter it will be lifted, so you all have to prepare yourselves.¡± The man said this without blinking, but many people hearing this felt a chill going down their backs. What stopped many humans from conquering new dungeons instantly and gave dungeons a chance to grow was the limited number of people entering the dungeon. I can sign in relief as even if the numbers do go up, they most likely won¡¯t attempt to clear my dungeon, as the Floor Guardians can still lock down floors so no one can come in to reinforce it, and the second Floor Guardian is perfect for this job to stop humans from using large numbers, as having more people will likely result in more people infected and strengthening the already strong Boss to another level entirely. But clearly, he did not stop at this as he said more shocking news. 10 - Banquet (2) ¡°With the limits of the number of humans that can enter Hell we also decided to eliminate all those who perform below a certain quota. This quota is how many humans your dungeon has killed.¡± I could hear gulps as people knew what that meant as they would lose their position as Dungeon Lords and would become normal demons. All Dungeon Lords are demons, but not all demons are Dungeon Lords. Once a demon loses the position of dungeon lord, he can only join other dungeon lords and become their steward. Such a position is extremely humiliating for all demons. There are ways to become a Dungeon Lord after losing it, but the price is too high for many Demons, even if they have to serve another Demon, it is much better. I don¡¯t know what the price is, as only those who return to hell know its price, but who cares? It¡¯s not like my dungeon is short on people, and so many die every day that I can hardly count them. This all feels like being at a doctor''s and waiting forever for them to call you in. Even if they release the aura, I might not be able to get up as I can¡¯t feel my legs anymore. Soon the young man did not say anymore, and I could not understand how he was so arrogant. You are a half-demon, half-something that I don¡¯t care about, and I was a human in the past, yet he shows nothing even towards his subordinates. If I were him, I would have at least kicked them and made them scream so I could lift my mood, but him? Just leave like that? No wonder half-demons aren¡¯t accepted. The elite demons, after the young man left, got up and looked towards us, with a wave of their hands, a handful of gates appeared behind us. ¡°You heard the young master, do not let his expectations down!¡± Said the golem as he turned and looked at us leaving. Waiting a few seconds so I could feel my legs, I left swiftly. Returning to my dungeon I could feel energy going through my dungeon and lifting something off. Humans will realize there are no longer restrictions on how many people can enter the dungeons, and another wave of people will come here to kill me. Without caring a bit, I need to create a Floor Guardian and a Floor Overseer. What is a floor overseer? They are Floor Guardians, but my guards and helpers, like me, can evolve, and even better than Floor Guardians, there is no upper limit on how many there can be. Of course, the downside is the enormous amount of mana needed to create one with the help of the dungeon, and after you create one, the next one will be more expensive, as the dungeon will be burdened by them more. Just to create one Overseer, you need 5000 mana, but how do I know this? When I created the Cyclops, I attained this knowledge as if I stepped over a boundary. Hell might have thought I reached the level of some high-level demon and granted me this knowledge accidentally. This system most likely works on mana capacity rather than the ranks of the demons. But first the Dungeon Floor Guardian for the Third Floor. Let¡¯s imagine it. Should I create one from mythology? Yeah, I can already imagine people''s reaction when they face it. Soon I channeled mana into the image as it started drawing up its form in front of me. Three heads, one lion two dog heads with a lion body, a snake tail, and two huge wings. The whole creature was coated in golden light, and the light shone on it so it reflected a golden luster around the body. But I felt it was majestic rather than scary as I added a new skill to make it rather scarier, and I liked this new skill as I looked over it.
Name Lizon
Race Chimera
Title Third Floor Guardian of The Terror Dungeon
Skills Venom Spit(Passive/Active), Superhuman Strength(Passive), Superhuman Speed(Passive), Predator gaze(Active), Roar of the Wild(Active)
Traits Look at me flying (Special), One body many thoughts (Special)
Strength 122
Agility 83
Intelligence 44
Wisdom 39
Mana 60/60
Skill Venom Spit(Passive/Active)
Description: Your mouth contains poisons so deadly that any animal that comes into contact with it goes and without an antidote, they will die in less than 3 hours. You can activate this skill which turns any liquid leaving your body poisonous even your blood.
Skill Predator gaze(Active)
Description Any creature that makes eye contract with you feels primal fear from the depth of their soul which results in the opponent losing their will to fight against the user on the spot.
Skill Roar of the Wild(Active)
Description Unleashing an earth-shattering roar that causes all creatures in the radius of 100m (328.08 ft) to enter a shocked state in which the opponent''s speed is reduced by 80% and strength by 60% for 5 seconds.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Trait Look at me flying (Special)
Description This creature can fly even thought it should not be possible for it biologically. Sadly its flying ability comes with a price as its back became weaker and easier to injure the user.
Trait One body many thoughts (Special)
Description This creature has several heads that all struggle to control the body however each time a head is destroyed it makes the creature stronger by 10%. The last head will gain total control over the body making its total stat rise by 50%. (The chimera has 4 heads in total)
It lowered its lion head as I caressed it as I saw for the first time in my monster''s intelligence and not a robot-like mechanism. Soon I instructed it to go to the third floor. As it left, I felt alone suddenly, but it soon dissipated as the centipede reappeared! ¡°How are you still alive?!¡± I was shocked as I remembered I killed it¡­ or not my attention was drawn away by the humans going crazy on the third floor, so it slipped away! Holding back my urge to squash it, I turned my attention to my chamber as I needed to redesign it as I had enough mana now and time for myself. The room changed from its cave-like appearance as daylight came from the skies and a huge empty field appeared. I made a big mountain with a castle on top of it. The castle, unlike in medieval times, has more modern aesthetics. The castle walls had a very clear design of human faces in them, and as each screamed for help, I memorized the many people who died, and according to their most desperate look, I recreated them on my walls. The gate had spikes on it, and even the touching felt uncomfortable to the person. As I opened the gates, I was greeted by a small field that would become my garden. Every time I step outside the castle, it serves as a reminder that I must water the plants, otherwise, they will die, and only dead plants will greet me. As I walked past the garden, soon the main building was in front of me. Inside there are several corridors that lead me to the throne room. Inside the throne room, there is a red carpet and statues of me in gold as I posed in all different styles. Soon I looked at my throne, which was made out of gold and an extremely comfortable pillow, and looking at it, I saw the centipede sleeping on it. I lost my breath seeing it here again. I forgot to remove it from my chamber! Damn it! The centipede woke up and darted out of my room into the corridors to never be seen by me, but I followed it after as I could see everything in the dungeon. *** After several hours of chasing the centipede, I sealed it into a jar as it could not escape. ¡°How does it feel to live the rest of your miserable life in this jar?¡± With a smiling face, I asked the centipede in the jar as it looked at me blankly and started sleeping, ignoring my taunt. Losing interest in it. I started thinking I needed overseers for me. Or should I wait until I create the new floor? I could only wait until I see what the humans do, as having another floor can greatly slow them down, or maybe I should just have an overseer who can fight instead of me? Another floor is better as I can make creatures in it hide somewhere and create a floor guardian who is good at hiding so they can suffer from finding it. But now I am the one feeling fear towards others, and this left a bad taste in my mouth. I shouldn¡¯t be scared by the likes of them and should rather face them head-on. Looking at my terror points slowly climbing up to 2700, I knew I was close, as I needed 4000 terror points for my next evolution and then 8000, as I can see the system double it every time I evolve. But I was curious if this evolution would be the same as the others with only me gaining strength or if there would be a difference. Smiling at myself in the mirror as I wore all kinds of different clothes, I also watched the adventurers fighting against the monster and more and more of them coming inside. Thankfully, all they were interested in was the Third Floor, and no one was brave enough to challenge the Floor Guardian. Even though the limit is removed, they might be planning to launch a large-scale attack, as some people descended to my chamber to make sure there is no Fourth Floor, so I know their attack will soon commence. I can hope other dungeons will take away enough attention from me so I can evolve quietly, as evolution no longer works the same as before. Now you need at least 1 Guardian to be alive to evolve, and for the poor people who don¡¯t have any, they need to make sure there is no human on the last floor. This kills many new Dungeon Lords in the bud, as these criteria are harsh, and for newborn Dungeons that only have one floor, they need to make sure there are more monsters on the floor than adventurers to evolve. I don¡¯t get why they want to corrupt this world so much, or do they want to give up this world this way? After all, they did not retreat but were defeated. Not caring what games they were playing, as I only had myself in my eyes and not the demons. What is the meaning of life if there is nothing fun in it? All gray and depression can drive any sane person crazy. Think about not killing other people and seeing them being happy, who can stand that?! As I fought with myself, time passed by slowly, and soon my terror points reached 4000. At the same time, a large number of people came into the dungeon. I can see around 200 people at once, and more might be coming in. However, having too many people can be a hindrance because individual movement becomes restricted. This can lead to a situation where, if a retreat is necessary, many people on the front lines could be at risk of dying. Soon they cleared all the monsters on the First Floor, and Arozen appeared and started a fight. It did not last long as Arozen was defeated with the mages bombarding it with spells constantly and not giving it any time at all. I could only look forward to Anansi''s fight, as this will be interesting. They were prepared as they bought many priests with cleanse spells learned. Soon they got rid of all the monsters on the floor, but it did not go as smoothly as last time, as at least one-third of them died, as someone always got infected and was not spotted in time, and chaos broke out in their ranks as they fought against another monster. Soon it was time for Anansi. At first, the people had the upper hand as they fought against Anansi, but her skill let her infect more and more people, which resulted in her stats skyrocketing and her being able to ignore the spell entirely and no one being able to damage her, which resulted in a total annihilation. Looking at it, I can already see how many people will die and how broken she is. The way to overwhelm her is not the way until the level difference is big enough, but the level cap is only 20. A person can only have a hundred free stat points he can distribute across all of his stats. I left my restroom and entered my throne room as I felt Anansi giving me a big number of terror points as she played with the last survivors. She did not kill them but slowly drove them insane as it led the infested to slowly wear them down. They were forced to fight against their teammates. No one escaped, and everyone was killed, and the floor had enough monsters to guard it. Soon Arozen respawned as the challengers died, but the monsters on the floor slowly appeared as I helped in their resurrection. With a little time, everything turned back to normal as if this whole raid did not happen. With the show over, I started planning the next floor theme and monsters in it, in my head, once I reached 4000 terror points, but I was extremely close thanks to Anansi helping me out with close to 600 terror points. I have close to 3600 Terror points now, and it is climbing upwards slowly. 11 - Fourth Floor and Challange Soon it reached 4000 and the system reminded me to evolve, but I chose to wait to accumulate enough terror points so I could create the monsters on the next floor. I had to wait a little bit until I had enough terror points so I could fully create the new monsters.
Do you wish to evolve into a Common Low-level Demon?
Yes No
As I picked yes another row of windows popped up.
Please pick a skill you wish to upgrade further from the rest of your skills. This skill will receive a greater boost than other skills in the evolution. There is a slim chance of the skill evolving into a superior version of it.
>Demonic Aura<
>Demonic Strike<
>Demonic Whispers<
Finally, something good thing. I did not even have to think for a second as I chose Demonic Whispers. Why the Demonic Whispers and not the others? When can I use those skills anyway? Once every decade maybe? On the other hand, if I use Demonic Whispers I can influence humans to enhance their darkest thoughts and betray their teammates for sweet words. As I clicked on the third skill I felt energy coursing through my body much faster and I could feel that it was mana. Feeling the changes that this brought to me I opened my system window to look at my stats.
Name Dave
Race Demon - (Common ¨C Low-Level) ¡ü
Title Dungeon Lord
Skills Demonic aura (Common - Passive), Demonic Strike (Common - Active), Devil¡¯s Temptation (Elite - Passive)
Traits Demonic nature, Psychopath, Sadist
Alignment Neutral Evil
Strength 73¡ü
Agility 65¡ü
Intelligence 55¡ü
Wisdom 49¡ü
Mana 522/205 ¡ü
Terror points 239
My stats changed drastically, but compared to the monsters I am far weaker and I could only sigh as I forgot people can only create Dungeon guardians once they reach the Higher Demonic realm as they don¡¯t have enough mana to do so. Soon I clicked on the Devil¡¯s voice skill and another window popped up in front of me.
Skill Devil¡¯s Temptation (Elite - Passive)
Description Evolved version of Demonic Whispers: This skill affects anyone who enters the user''s space, causing them to hear constant whispers. However, if they focus on the whispers, they will disappear. For those who hear this voice for the first time, it will inflict a negative status effect that lasts until they leave the dungeon. If someone enters the dungeon a second time or more, they will receive a speed boost and a luck increase; their speed will increase by 30% and their luck by 20% for one hour, and also gain a hidden debuff if they collect any treasure in this time frame. This debuff is called ¡®Tempted I.¡¯. The more treasure the user collects and the longer this buff remains active, the more their hidden debuff of ¡®Tempted I.¡¯ will rise. Once ¡®Tempted I.¡¯ rises above a certain value, this is based on the person''s willpower stat they lose control of themselves and demonize. This debuff will slowly wear off over time once they leave the dungeon.
All my complaints were about my stats nibbed into the ground as I looked at the skill and I could project this skill across my Dungeon without it consuming mana. They will suddenly receive a buff who will care who did it. As long they benefit from it no one will care and no one will stop it. After finishing my evolution and making sure everything was fine, I started creating the Fourth Floor. Gravestones rose from the ground as the light shone onto them as I made the world have a permanent sunset. It gives enough light for people to see and at the same time intervenes with their vision. Even though the sunset looks beautiful not many know it is extremely hard to see during this time as everything can mesh together and if you face the sun''s direction you will be completely blinded. I even made the sunlight more harmful to the eyes so people can¡¯t look at it directly or near its position. Soon comes the monster I want to create is here. I created a gigantic skeleton made out of as many bones as I could as I saw my mana reducing at a drastic rate yet I was not halfway down and I had to use terror points. Soon its physical body manifested in front of me at least 50 meters tall, but sadly I could not bring out the true effect of the skill I wanted as likely it would consume even more mana and I sacrificed all my mana even my Terror points. To this day this is my strongest monster as I opened its status to take a look at it.
Name Ossivor
Race Skeleton Giant
Title Fourth Floor Guardian of the Terror Dungeon
Skills Monstrous Strength (Passive), Combine (Passive), Item possession (Active), Soulrend (Active), Fake Death (Passive), Mind Blast (Active)
Traits One-man army (Special), Everyone counts (Special), Giant(Passive)
Strength 192 (Complete)
Agility 80 (Complete)
Intelligence 70 (Complete)
Wisdom 126 (Complete)
Mana 400/400 (Complete)
I thought I went overboard, but looking at this monster I did not think so anymore. Just the stats crush anyone in the same realm and look at its massive size as it slowly dissembles in front of me. Thankfully I upgraded my chamber otherwise there would be no space left for us to move at all. Soon it turned into many skeletons and moved into the Fourth Floor. Looking at the army leaving I saw many different types of skeletons and wraiths too. Each one possesses a part of the Floor Boss complete skill section. The skeletons gained combine and fake death ability while the wraiths got the Item possession, Soulrend, and Mind Blast skills.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Skill Combine (Passive)
Description You can merge your body with other skeletons devoid of soul remnants, making you stronger.
Skill Item possession (Active)
Description Your soul can control weapons and move them as you desire, but this requires mana. You can possess any object, but if the object has a spirit, occupying it will consume mana and may fail, which could result in your death.
Skill Soulrend (Active)
Description Unleash a torrent of attacks at your opponent and each attack causes the soul pain and cannot be blocked physically at all and only magic or soul protection equipment can protect the user from the attack.
Skill Fake Death (Passive)
Description Upon death, this skill activates and makes the user enter a hibernation state losing all control over the body. This skill effect lasts for 2 hours and after the time limit is up the user''s body is fully repaired, but this skill will be blocked if any of the user body parts are under the effect on combine and as long as the person who used combine on the user is alive this skill will not resurrect the user.
Skill Mind Blast (Active)
Description Unleash an extremely powerful attack on an opponent that consumes 80% of the user''s mana, this attack''s strength will be based on the user will power and the opponent''s willpower.
Trait One-man army (Special)
Description Your soul was born from a collection of soul remnants you can separate yourself into many thoughts that can operate independently and once these thoughts body''s are destroyed they are recombined with you, but by this, you suffer a mental attack.
Trait Everyone counts (Special)
Description Your body is divided into many parts, each operating independently from your control, yet all share a common goal: to reunite. The more parts you gather, the stronger you become. Your strength will increase based on the number of parts you can successfully combine. If you manage to combine all the parts, you will achieve complete status and receive a 20% stat bonus for 30 minutes.
Trait Giant(Passive)
Description You are a massive creature, and as such, your strength is far greater than others. However, your speed is lower due to your size, even though your strength increases with it.
Now we are talking about human wave tactics. The more undead die the stronger the Floor Guardian will be when they face him at the end, but how can they avoid the Guardian from gaining its full strength? I don¡¯t know and I hope they don¡¯t find any way to do so. Feeling tired I went back to sleep as spending so much mana at once tired me. *** Prey. Moves in team. Use weapons to hunt my people. Make me angry. I am angry. I see them kill the last of my people. The chain no longer hinders me as I want to move forward. Revenge will be mine alone. The usual thought of Arozen as he saw his people getting killed as he could do nothing against it and every time he failed he felt endless guilt towards his failure. He learns from prey. He adapts. *** ¡°Join us!¡± I could only say it, but instead, they gave a horrified or angry look as they attacked me. Why hurt? Why not join us in an endless blissfulness. You no longer have to worry about anything as your mother, I will take care of you. But they resisted. Why resist? This world only brings you pain, but I as your mother will no longer let you suffer! Fire? Who dares to use such a thing here? Unforgivable! They must be punished, but sadly the chains prevent me. Sorry my children but mother can¡¯t help you, you need to be strong so something like this won¡¯t happen to you. As a mother, I failed to protect you all. Without context, this would make many people sad, but knowing who said it changes this from warm to extremely disgusting. Yes, I am talking about Anansi. *** ¡°Go left!¡± I said it, but they did not agree with me as they went right and we soon reached another dead end. ¡°I told you to go left, beacuse they left that way!¡± I could only roar at the others as they did not want to listen to me at all. ¡°Last time you said left we also reached a dead end.¡± Hissed the snake head as it looked at our back so no one could suddenly ambush us. ¡°That was because I got caught up in your fight about what to eat and could read the labyrinth directions well.¡± I said this as the lion head as I am the most majestic and I am this body''s true owner and controller, but these guys take that from me! ¡°Hahaha, did you forget we share the same body so your thoughts are no secret from the others?¡± Laughed one of the dog heads as it said this. The other could only laugh quietly at their fight as they did not stop moving forward to hunt down anyone they found in the labyrinth. *** ¡°Where¡­?¡± A voice asked as it tried to look around, but only darkness was seen and nothing else. This soul that flew in the darkness soon had another soul joining it. Once more the question came, but from all the souls at the same time. ¡°Where¡­?¡± Their voices were synchronized together without a flaw and all had the same emotionless voice. But one soul said something different. ¡°There¡­¡± As it said this it turned towards another direction and the other souls hearing this all followed closely behind it, but soon they all were dissembled to one soul. Their mournful cries could be heard and their anger as they are separated from each other. The extremely pale white color which they previously had changed into a reddish color to it now. Soon they all separated into different bodies as they had only one thought in their mind to combine into one once more, but they had to take revenge on anyone trying to stand in their way. But there was one that was different from the rest. ¡°Like¡­ us... help¡­ them¡­¡± Listening to it all others turned towards it as they realized it was the one who led the way and they did not feel hatred for it, but rather fanaticism. Soon they felt souls different from them as they arrived at their place. They knew they were once like them, but no longer they are free from mortality and they must free others too. This was the first thought of many skeletons and wraiths once they saw anyone who wasn¡¯t part of them. If there was no one they would fight against each other to combine and dissemble as they knew the core part that held them together was not here, but they would do anything to find it. *** As I looked over the floors I saw some differences in the Floor Guardians, but I could not pinpoint what it was. Just as I was thinking my peaceful days were ahead of me I got a notice from Hell. Someone challenged me over a dungeon battle. I was shocked at first then clueless. Who is it why is he targeting me and why now of all time when I was ready to cosy up in my bed to watch others suffering?! Now my whole day is ruined. You may ask what is this dungeon challenge? Dungeon Challenges can be initiated by anyone to anyone. So even a Lesser demon can challenge an Elite Demon, but no one would do such a thing as it was a sure loss, but the one who challenged me was a Higher Level Demon. I can accept the challenge or decline, but that would be judged as I lose and that means the victor can do whatever he wants to my dungeon. Looking at when the challenge happens I have one-week time on my hand. This is more than enough for me to prepare. When this dungeon challenge happens I can pick 3 monsters from my side to fight against his 3 monsters. This was made so the matches wouldn¡¯t last long and there wouldn¡¯t be an all-out fight between dungeons as the victor wouldn¡¯t gain anything if the loser sacrificed everything in his dungeon to win the match. But what should I do in this time frame? Save up for an Overseer? The best case scenario as I forgot about the Dungeon Challenge as I did not talk to anyone from the Banquet or is this newbie crushing or trying to remove me and place one of his henchmen in my place? 12 - Vorzath the Overseer I knew everything was on the line, so I took everything into my hands for the first day after that, I was too tired to do anything at all. Feeling drained of energy, I looked at my skull collection beside my bed. ¡°What do you think I should do, John?¡± I asked the skull with a scar on it. I did the scar so I could make differences between them. Not hearing an answer, I threw the skull at the wall and it shattered. ¡°Why is no one giving me an answer?¡± I could only sigh as I lay on my bed and looked at the air in front of me, not knowing what to do. I soon realized what to do when a person is sad all he has to do is make another person sad. Sharing is caring after all. Getting up, I found newfound strength but realized who should I inflict with my sadness. These skulls are too hard-headed to feel emotions. I should create an Overseer, but how should it look? It''s not like the other dungeon Overseer, as it most likely will live in the same place as me. I need someone who understands me the best and takes care of my daily needs. Someone as handsome as me and well-mannered as me. Thinking back, the strongest creature I created cost me around 200 terror points, yet I want to create one with 5 times that. Soon I looked at the people entering my dungeon as they fought with my monsters, but I saw them using the speed buff to search for treasure or cross into the Third Floor, skipping the previous 2 floors. What is even more surprising is that no one went to the Fourth Floor after I created it, or they might think there is no Fourth Floor at all. I could only sigh at the fools trying to fight their way through all those floors and fighting the Guardians. But this is why I love this so much, knowing how desperate they became once they realized the truth they had no chance from the beginning. Just as I was thinking, I got a message from Hell that my opponent wanted to postpone the fight as they suffered an attack from the humans and needed time to heal. I refused it as I would win. The higher-ranking demon is most likely around my strength, as it is obvious if it were a much higher-ranking demon, they would continue the fight if they were high demons. (The demon doesn¡¯t know MC''s strength for clarification.) This passed the days as I laughed like a little girl in my bed at the suffering of the people and their misery. *** But soon the time came to create my first Overseer. As I only have one day to prepare for the fight. Let¡¯s see, I need an artist, most importantly, so I need it to strive to create the perfect art for me. I sadly possess no talent in such a great field. Soon I dragged part of the dungeon and ripped a small part, and suddenly I felt uncomfortable, but soon this feeling disappeared as the dungeon had a thread coming out of it and connecting to the part I tore off. Soon I started channeling my mana into this part as I imagined the perfect artist I needed and teacher for myself. Soon a figure appeared in front of me with a big hat and monocle in front of his right eye and clothes from 19th-century Britain. He looked no different if you excused the flesh vines coming down from his neck over his clothes and connecting to his hands. His hands are elongated and clawed, perfect for an artist, I assume, as I did not make it this way. Looking at him curiously, he bowed towards me and looked around, shaking his head. ¡°Greetings, my Lord, my name is Vorzath.¡± He said this while looking around and shaking his head. ¡°I now understand why my Lord created me such a disgrace to art this place is. Let me patch this up, my Lord.¡± Said this as he tore down my art and fixed it in different ways I cannot imagine ever doing it. As he did this, I checked his status and could only freeze on the spot at how monstrously strong he was, and his status was different from other monsters I created until now.
Name Vorzath
Rank Rank 1 - Overseer
Title First Overseer of the Dungeon Of Terror
Skills Fleshcraft (Active), Dungeon of Flesh (Active), Blood Cataclyst (Passive), Overseer''s command (active)
Traits Tryant of Creation (Special), Endless Regenation (Passive)
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Strength 520
Agility 430
Intelligence 855
Wisdom 670
Mana 4770/4770
Evolution Condition 30000 Terror Points
Skill Fleshcraft (Active)
Description Creates and enhances abominations from fallen foes, with no limit on the number, but the creature cannot be stronger than the user.
Skill Dungeon of Flesh (Active)
Description All creature based on the same floor as the user will receive a 2000% regenation bonus once the skill activated and last for 1 hour.
Skill Blood Cataclyst (Passive)
Description Gains exponential strength for every intruder killed, providing scaling power. This skill effects dissapear after the battle is over.
Skill Overseer''s command (active)
Description Grants all dungeon monsters +50% to stats while in combat.
Trait Tryant of Creation (Special)
Description Empowers any dungeon monster with double stats temporarily or evolve a monster with a high probability of being an art piece.
Trait Endless Regenation (Passive)
Description Restores 5% of maximum health and mana every five seconds, even during combat.
Soon I felt the dungeon changing as if the fog on the first floor changed from white to slightly reddish and the blizzard too from white to reddish.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The first two floors had immediate change, while the third and fourth did not show any signs of change, but I knew something changed for the better for me. ¡°¡­Lord, my Lord.¡± Vorzath started shaking me as he brought me out of my shock. ¡°What is it? Are you disturbing me?¡± I could only snap at him as he, hearing my voice, suddenly lowered his head as he apologized and showed me his work. ¡°I am sorry, milord, as I called you out you did not respond, and I was not sure what to do, so I could only shake you to wake up.¡± Said embarrassingly Vorzath. Thankfully no one was here to see this moment of Vorzath otherwise they would not believe it of the world''s feared Flesh Master. As I took my eye away from Vorzath, I saw his art, and I was surprised as he created this art through my failed art. The skulls were made into a base with the flesh of the people as a sort of central pillar as it connected the skulls with the top part of the art, which had eyes, all of which had x marks on them and were all looking towards my position, but as I moved, the eyes moved too. I was confused, then remembered Vorzath''s skill, and he most likely used it already. ¡°Milord, I did my best to create the perfect art for you, but I had a limited amount of material here. Can I ask your permission to collect some?¡± As he bowed, he requested my permission, and I was happy as I could look at something else other than people dying. I felt bored from watching so many, but the fire in my heart burned ever brighter after seeing their misery. After finishing the tour and seeing Vorzath off as he made his way up to collect some material, I thought back to his status and save the evolution conditions, and I could only smile bitterly towards it. I might go bald before I could get enough material for his upgrade, or it might be better to create another Overseer rather than evolve him. Soon the day passed by like that as I watched how Vorzath created his art, and I was sure Vorzath would clean up the ground with whoever dared to challenge me. I also brought two other monsters with me. Arozen and Anansi. They both were free, as not many people came here, and the number of people coming into my dungeon dwindled. Suddenly something was happening outside that caused this ruckus, but I did not care at all about it. Soon another portal appeared, and Vorzath was not surprised, as I had already informed him about it. Both Arozen and Anansi were ready, and all three of us entered the portal as it expanded so everyone could enter it. *** Once I stepped out of the gate and looked around, the sky, first of all, was red, and I could see clouds that were wailing. The next thing I realized, I was in a colosseum. Soon out of nowhere a green imp appeared and held to me a letter. Before I could take it, Vorzath took it and grabbed the imp by his throat, and with his other hand he opened the letter and started reading it to me. ¡°Dear Dungeon Lord of Terror, we prepared the arena for you ahead of time where we will clean up our grievances, and this imp here leads you to your waiting room until our match starts. Greetings from Dungeon Lord of Maniacs.¡± I could hear the elegance and refinement in the letter as Vorzath read it out for me. I wanted to see the letter for myself, but Vorzath tore it apart with one of his hands and released the imp. ¡°Milord, the letter was not perfect, so I had to adjust it, and it would ruin your mood if you had seen it.¡± Said Vorzath as he made sure I could even see the torn-apart parts as he ate it. I looked at him strangely as I didn¡¯t care even if the person wanted to eat my flesh after I was defeated. What surprised me was Vorzath''s way of handling things. He rather destroys anything that can affect his perfect image, as I might have gone overboard when I created him, nah! I couldn¡¯t go overboard likely I put too little effort into it. Soon the imp sacredly led us into our waiting room, which was a run-down room, and even rotten meat was there. Vorzath took the rotten meat and fed the imp with it. The imp could not endure it and died, but Vorzath used his skill to bring it back to life, and it limped around with dead fish eyes. I felt irritated by its presence and wanted to remove it, but Vorzath told me we needed the imp so he could lead us to where the arena would be held and when. Soon we did not have to wait long, as the imp limped around with his head hanging from his shoulders he showed it was our time as I heard big cheers coming from the arena ahead. I was led to a different place by another imp who was scared of seeing its friend. How did it turn out? It did not show any rudeness towards me as I was let into a room with me alone, as there was nothing to eat, and the view was horrible if the people in front of me stood up, they would block my vision. People are targeting me. In the arena, I saw a corpse as big as Ossivor being taken away as it was brutally mauled. ¡°Demon and imp, today we have an interesting matchup ahead as a greenhorn challenged the mighty Demon Lord Maniacs to a duel, which Maniacs had to accept to save his face, and even then Maniacs tried to be friendly and asked the other participant to give up as he would not take anything from his dungeon, and they could be friends, but he refused arrogantly this new dungeon Lord of Terror. Ha, the name does not scare me at all. How does he think he can challenge the mighty Maniacs at all?¡± The red imp in the arena is trying to fan the flames, but he is currently burning himself as I was ready to eliminate it from his life. I could hear boos and bad-mouthing me, as disgracing a higher-ranking demon is taboo for the weaker demons. ¡°But we should calm down first and let''s see our fighters from both sides, as it is a three-versus-three match format, and after all, Devil wishes can happen from time to time, and maybe the new Dungeon Lord thinks he can do a Devil wish too.¡± Said this so he could calm down the situation and try to get himself out of trouble for his earlier remark against me in case I won, as this was not unexpected, but he checked beforehand that the realm difference between us was too big for me to cross. But I did not have much time to think about how this progressed as I saw Maniac monsters coming up, and I checked them, but I was surprised seeing his monster, because¡­ 13 - The Arena The first monster was an ogre¡ªnothing special about it other than being a floor guardian, but the other two weren¡¯t even floor guardians at all. The ogre was around 3 meters (9.84 ft) in height and had a club as his weapon and barely any cloth hiding his private part while his upper body did not have any cloth. While the two other monsters did not have any clothes at all.
Name Nameless (One does need to name their monster eve nif they are Floor Guardians)
Race Ogre
Titles Second Floor Guardian of the Dungeon of Maniacs
Skills Hard skin(Passive), Berserkers Fury(Passive), Superhuman Strength(Passive)
Traits Natural armor(Passive)
Strength 55
Agility 28
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 13
Mana 20
Skill Berserkers Fury(Passive)
Description When the user''s health falls below 30%, you receive a 50% increase in your strength stat, while blocking any effects that raise your defense, including skills cast on you that increase your defense.
Trait Natural armor(Passive)
Description Your skin has evolved so that even the sharpest sword can''t cause any damage. As a result, slashing attacks are reduced by 50%, and piercing attacks are reduced by 30%.
The two other creatures were even more boring, as they were just orcs, and their stats were somewhat better than the wendigoes, but, the way they treat the ogre, they are on the same floor.
Name Nameless
Race Orc
Titles None
Skills Time for a feast(Passive), Superhuman Strength(Passive)
Traits Natural armor(Passive)
Strength 29
Agility 25
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 7
Mana 10
The orcs were around 3 meters in size, and full of muscles, but his stats said something else. Three-muscled, not like Arozen, is better than them in intelligence. The two orcs are like some thugs before the main boss. Arozen was more than enough for me to send. Anansi and Vorzath might not even have a chance to fight at all if the fighting type is last standing otherwise they would have come here for nothing. Soon my monsters were brought into the battlefield, but they did not make any showing off like the Maniacs did, making many demons boo for being frightened. Soon the fight type was out, and it was, I guessed, last standing. Soon Arozen stayed with an orc in front of him as his opponent. The signal did not go off, the orc already attacked, I was surprised but then realized in the arena there were no rules, and this meant there were no rules to follow the signal to attack, it was only to distract the fighters when this fight started. The real fight started when the referee left the arena. Red imp did not even watch the match, it left it completely and would show up when one of the combatants died and needed the next to be called up. My focus was fully occupied by my opponent''s horrible monster when I saw Arozen using a flesh battle axe. Where did he get that from? The battle axe was fully made out of flesh except its edge, as it was made out of bones. As the orc charged forward to grab and bite Arozen, Arozen just hit him with his fist, and the orc was sent flying. The demons did not care who was sent flying as long as they could see blood and cheered. Maniac''s ogre was surprised as it took on a look of seriousness as he watched Arozen fight. Arozen was momentarily surprised at how this creature was so weak when he fought against adventurers, he was the one constantly being trashed, making his fighting experience mainly focused on defense and hardly on offense. Using the axe, he swung at the orc, who was stunned, and almost cleaved the orc in two as it screamed its lungs out. I just don¡¯t understand how you can create such weak creatures. Even though Arozen would likely defeat the floor monster above him from the second floor, some could pose even a challenge to him, but these guys were a joke. No one knew that making a Floor Guardian from 1000 mana was normal, as using more mana was a waste. Who has so much mana to create the monsters and the Floor Guardian in one go? They have to plan the Floor Guardian out and just go with the flow. In case you don¡¯t have enough mana, the whole process will be terminated, and you face a backlash for trying to create something that is out of your capacity. The axe covered in the blood of the dying orc started absorbing all the blood it was covered in as grotesque hands came out of the axe and started grabbing the orc and pulling it closer to the weapon. Even the audience stopped seeing this abomination as the orc was fully integrated into the battle axe, and you could hear its screams to be released from this place, but other screams from the axe suppressed its voice, but as the last bit of the orc was consumed, the axe became quiet as if this never happened.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Arozen just swung the axe around, testing out its newfound weight and strength. It asked Vorzath for a weapon as he observed his prey using weapons and how much stronger they could become, so he wanted to test out how strong he could be with a weapon. But soon cheers erupted for the demons, this was just a momentary surprise as they were taken aback by how brutally the orc was killed, but who cares about the loser? Only their scream makes these demons, from who knows how long being in hell, excited. If Dave were to check all the demons here, he would spot the majority having the same trait as him sadist. But soon the red imp came back sweating. How easily were maniacs defeated? As he knew well, the new dungeon was barely reaching the age of 1 month, and having such a strong monster was extremely unheard of. He might have offended someone who had great backing, and at this time it wasn¡¯t him who was sweating the most, but Maniacs, as he saw how the battle progressed and the monster is the same strength as his Second Floor Guardian. His upper floors suffered a great defeat as many humans flooded in just before the fight a day earlier resulting only for him to bring the Second Floor Guardian as he was the only one who could resurrect in time for the fight, and the monsters on the upper floor took more time to be reborn, resulting in him not being able to bring those monsters as the humans cleaned up his dungeon. He could only bring out weaker monsters, but he thought this would be enough, as the new Dungeon Lord could at most have 2 floors, but he had a monster on the third floor. (He mistook the Guardian for the First Floor monster, as in demons there is no system for the MC to know where that monster is from, so they can only guess, but after a certain authority, they will know if the monster is a Guardian or not.) But he wasn¡¯t the only person suffering from this, as multiple dungeons are being sieged at the same time, but Dave''s dungeon was just too perverted, making many guilds give up on it entirely. The maximum level is 25, and there are several Floor Guardians, which only stronger dungeons have, but this one had, and no one ever reached the dungeon lord chamber, resulting in many guilds not having enough information and not daring to gamble in case the boss is extremely strong and would wipe out the party. The higher the level of the person, the harder it is to find a replacement. This is why lower dungeons are raided so much so they can find any potential seedling they can nurture for future high combat personnel. But back to the present Maniacs was scared as he already guessed he would lose, but he hoped his Guardian could make a Devil¡¯s wish and turn everything around. But the second orc''s fate was the same as the previous one, killed in one blow. Soon the ogre made his way up to the arena. Without speaking, they both started fighting. The ogre with his fist tried to use his raw strength to his advantage, and he did have the strength advantage with Arozen being inexperienced with weapons, gaining the upper hand, but Arozen got better with his weapons as they traded blows. The ogre had extremely thick skin, resulting in the axe not doing the imagined amount of damage. Even when Arozen managed to strike his opponent, his axe got stuck in the ogre''s fat. Taking advantage of this moment, the ogre punched Arozen in the face, causing him to lose grip on the axe as he fell backward. As he stabilized himself, an axe came towards him and the ogre threw it at him. Arozen dodged in time as the axe went past him and landed on the ground behind him. Taking his attention off the axe as it flew past him, the ogre closed in on him and threw another punch at him. Not surprised by this situation Arozen blocked the ogre attack with his hands and swiped another at the ogre. This brawl continued between them as the demons cheered. The most interesting fights were those where both fighters were equal in strength. Now both opponents exchanged blow for blow as the fight intensified, the ogre''s skin turned red as he roared at Arozen. His skill was triggered before Arozen''s skill, resulting in the ogre gaining the upper hand. The ogre raised his face to punch at Arozen with full strength, but he remembered how the humans dodged when he tried to attack them as they somersaulted, but he couldn¡¯t because his antlers were in the way, so he could only kick the ground as he dodged to the side. As he was not firm enough, his side was hit by the ogre''s fist, and he fell to the ground. As he tried to get up, the ogre''s leg landed on his back, sending him back to the ground to eat more dirt. Arozen tried to escape from this situation but was hard-pressed by the ogre''s constant attack, and as he was nearing his death, images of his previous defeat flashed in his mind, and soon his body shook as he sent the ogre away. Skin cracked as blood oozed from his mouth and wounds, but his eye told another thing crazed for blood. As soon as they clashed, the ogre''s situation wasn¡¯t good as he activated his skill ¡®Berserker Fury,¡¯ but it was about to wear off, and Arozen just activated his ¡®Frenzied Hunger¡¯ and hit the ogre in the chin and slashed at his stomach, which resulted in deep wounds as blood gushed out. Ogre was clearly in pain, but not giving in, threw another punch to try to stabilize the situation but was met with air as Arozen cleanly dodged the attack and landed another attack on his stomach. As they fought, they got near the flesh axe. The ogre, seeing it, made a run for it and grabbed it as it kicked the dust up to obstruct Arozen''s vision. As the dust disappeared, an axe edge appeared in front of Arozen, it blocked his arm as it inserted itself into his arm. The ogre expected the same situation to happen to Arozen as to his men, but Arozen removed the axe and damaged his arm completely as it limped on his side. With his newfound strength, he charged at the ogre and landed a clean blow on his head as the ogre''s skill deactivated, resulting in his strength reducing and not being able to properly block the axe, and even if he did, the axe would cut through his hard skin with Arozen''s strength. Soon the eye reopened once it tasted blood and started draining the ogre and slowly assimilating itself with the ogre. No one noticed the smirk on Vorzath''s face at that moment, as he had a hand in the situation. Even if others were aware of his involvement, they would remain silent, helping fighters is not uncommon, but it rarely happens because it can quickly spiral out of control. The arena management dislikes intervening since it is banned for higher-ranked demons. However, for lower-ranked demons, such assistance is not prohibited, as they lack the strength to cause significant damage to the arena. Soon the ogre fell, or more like assimilated itself with the weapon. As the battle came to an end, the red imp came up to the arena sweating, as he did not expect this situation at all. But his voice did not show his look of concern as he declared the Dungeon of Terror as the victor with overwhelming cheer as the demons forgot about what the imp said at the start, for them, that was just a reason to start the fight, and they did not take that reason as something significant. Maniacs collapsed on the ground, and Dave was escorted into another room. *** Inside the room welcomed me a jelly-like creature with a clown hat on top of his head, and the other costumes of his were inside his body as they floated inside of him. Not caring about Dace''s strange look, the jelly-like creature spoke with who knows what. ¡°Congratulations on your win, Dungeon Lord of Terror. I am the enforcer, and I brought you here to hear your request of what you want from the loser to do. You can do whatever you want to the loser as Maniacs challenge you to an all-out duel.¡± Said the jelly, knowing why Maniacs challenged Dave, as he was the one who pushed Maniacs to do this at first. He wanted to subjugate Dave, but the enforcer coaxed him into doing this. Dave did not know the jelly was against him from the beginning. ¡°I want his dungeon.¡± I did not beat around the bush about why he challenged me, I just wanted to tell everyone what would happen if they challenged me. The enforcer was not surprised by this but delighted. As soon as Dave said this, the jelly split into two parts, and one went out of the room. Not long later it came back as Dave and the enforcer did not speak this time, as Dave was the chatting type and the enforcer only cared about his desire to crush dungeons, as he was once a dungeon lord himself, but he found no enjoyment in it, so he gave up on it and later destroyed what others built. What the other jelly creature brought back was a crystal. This crystal is in every Dungeon Lord¡¯s body, which is the reason they have control over their dungeons, but now this is here as Dave took the gem, he felt another dungeon connecting to him with 8 floors. Soon a system window popped up after he absorbed the dungeon core, but he would check it after he went back to his dungeon. He turned and left the room, not saying anything to the jelly, as he found his subjects, and not long later the red imp came apologizing and created a portal for Dave to return, but not before tearing one arm off the imp and asking Vorzath to sew it to his face. Even his mouth was sewed together so he could no longer speak. The red imp was in tears from the pain as this whole process happened while he was conscious. *** As I returned to my room, I saw what the system wanted to do, and I was more than happy with the system proposal once I saw what it wanted, as I had zero intention of managing another dungeon. 14 - Demonification (1)
Do you wish to incorporate the Dungeon of Maniacs into the Dungeon of Terror?
Yes No
I did not have to think long as I clicked yes. Soon I felt my flowers expanding beyond their size and new creatures appearing on my flowers. Any floor that was above my fourth floor was soon converted into Terror Points. For the Floors broken down into Terror points, I gained 5000 in total, which is not much at all. I would rather say pretty poor. All other floors merged with the ones on the same level as them. The ones who were the luckiest were on the third floor as the first-floor monsters got hunted down by the wendigoes, and they were classified as invading species. They survived by adapting to the wendigoes, but only a small group perfected their survival to the extreme, these were mainly goblins and kobolds. Next, the second floor had the orcs and ogres all turning into infected monsters as they had no way to resist the parasites at all or the monsters that ripped them apart easily. The third-floor monsters were minotaurs, who quickly adapted to their situation and settled down. For the Fourth Floor, it was Griffons that got dissembled by the skeleton and wraith armies on the first day. The third and fourth floors have little monsters that got added, likely, humans hunted them down easily. ¡°Sir, then I will return to my job as I need to prepare my perfect art.¡± Said Vorzath as he turned around and left, leaving me with the first and second-floor guardians, but I quickly sent them back. Soon a thousand-legged human centipede came to me. This was Vorzath''s creation. Each leg of the centipede was a human arm or leg, and his head was a grotesque mixture of multiple heads. I shooed it away as it made me remember that irritating centipede that always sleeps on my throne and asked Vorzath to remove it, but even he was unable to fully get rid of it. As if that centipede was immortal, it always returned. Not caring about it, I looked towards my terror points, 5122. I was able to farm 122 terror points for a whole day. This made me extremely happy as I gained more and more as dungeons were getting destroyed, so the remaining humans were forced to come into my dungeon as there are a limited number of dungeons already. Thinking about this makes me happy. As I walked around my castle and entered my garden, I realized I had forgotten to water the plants, and they had all dried up. I had never left my castle because I never had any reason to do so. In great need of maids and butlers, as Vorzath is not here to take care of me all the time. He is currently busy creating his perfect art in his laboratory, which he asked me to build behind my castle on the hill. I established the laboratory, but I never entered it since Vorzath claimed his art is not perfect and requires time to be crafted so that people can be more mesmerized by it. So with my mana, I started imagining monsters for myself that would serve me. Homunculi should be good for me as a butlers, while the maids should be living puppets. The homunculi are people made chemically, so they should do this as I created their bodies. They had suits that hid most of their bodies while their heads had transparent glass, and inside you could see their faces constantly melting and reangering themselves. Any normal person who touches this liquid will melt on the spot, leaving nothing but a pool of blood. Their suit was a normal butler suit with nothing major other than looking like a tin can with a butler suit on them looking funny. I created around 200 of them so they can take care of this whole floor and for the maids.
Name nameless
Race Homunculi
Titles none
Skills Monstrous Regenation(Passive), Maintance(Passive), Detection(Passive)
Traits Instabil Checimal Body(Special)
Strength 55
Agility 64
Intelligence 52
Wisdom 50
Mana 90/90
Skill Maintance(Passive)
Description Can repair anything in the dungeon as long the user has enough mana and the item origin is from this dungeon.
Skill Detection(Passive)
Description Can detect any slight difference in the area as the user is sensitive to mana so he can sense danger beforehand. A great skill to detect magic traps.
Trait Instabil Checimal Body(Special)
Description The user''s body is created with countless materials that miraculously create the user, but this price came in a way where the host state changes from liquid to solid in a split second so any damage to the user''s armor would result in his death, but not without a big bang at the end.
Living puppets look like humans but with obvious differences, as they look like dolls with carving joints that can be seen on their faces as they move like puppets on strings. Unnatural yet natural movements made many people feel as if they were in a puppet show. I created just like for butlers another 200 to take care of the castle and the surroundings.
Name nameless
Race Living Puppet
Titles none
Skills Maintance(Passive), Detection(Passive), puppetry(Passive)
Traits Soul in an urn(Special)
Strength 40
Agility 70
Intelligence 45
Wisdom 62
Mana 110/110
Skill Puppetry(Passive)
Description The user can control lifeless objects as they wish, but this consumes mana with a constant drain for controlling the object.
Trait Soul in an urn(Special)
Description Your soul is trapped in a body that is perfectly designed for you, resulting in complete compatibility and control over it. This arrangement means that using the body will not consume any mana. However, if the body is destroyed, you won¡¯t die, instead, you can take over other objects in the vicinity and inhabit them and live in them until the user mana runs out.
But thinking about it, I need guards too, don¡¯t I? After all, every big boss has these small minions who obstruct them from meeting the final boss. To be honest, the Overseers are made for this reason, so I don¡¯t need to create them. I looked at the butlers and maids as they already started cleaning up the place. I can say the butler¡¯s way of moving is a bit funny in that big tin can they wear, but they moved naturally. Right, I should make a head butler and head maid so I don¡¯t need to call for them all the time and familiar faces can be around me. But they had to be different from the rest. They need to be stronger so they can always command them with their authority even though they will forever obey them.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. For the head butler, it should be a shadow reaper. They are creatures in the dark harvesting the souls of anyone crossing their path. Soon a person in dark robes gives off constant black fog around his body as it obstructs anyone trying to see him. His face cannot be seen at all as a thick black fog blocks anyone from seeing his true face, and only his cold teal-blue eye can be seen beneath this dark fog. His clothes are like other butlers, making his moves elegant and refined.
Name Varrick
Race Shadow Reaper
Titles none
Skills Shadowmelt(Active), Silent steps (Passive), Death''s sickle (Active)
Traits Fear of the unknwon (Passive)
Strength 55
Agility 83
Intelligence 72
Wisdom 95
Mana 160/160
Skill Shadowmelt(Active)
Description You can melt into the shadows of anything can teleport between those shadows you see and cannot exceed 200 meters. Consumes mana only for being in the shadows. This skill mana consumption will not stack over time.
Skill Silent steps (Passive)
Description All your movements make no sound and you are immune to detection skills and similar abilities.
Skill Death''s sickle (Active)
Description Upon activating this ability, a sickle manifest in your hand is made out of dark elemental and deals double damage to enemies of the light elemental and the user receives 30% less damage from ark attribute attacks.
Trait Fear of the unknwon (Passive)
Description No one knows what is your boddy made out of and even yourself don''t know, but anyone who tries to find out even you will pay a price they cannot afford.
¡°My Lord.¡± He bowed towards me with his dark and distant voice, awaiting his order. ¡°Wait a bit, I am creating your counterpart,¡± I said while concentrating on how the maid should look. Remembering ghost stories, I was told as little I created it that way. A woman with a beautiful face, but she had no eyes, as only blood came out from it as they flowed down her face, leaving blood marks on her face that dried to her face. She had pale skin like the dead have, with her fingertips being light blue. She did not have any lower part as she was floating in front of me.
Name Selene
Race Wailing Ghost
Titles none
Skills Scream of agony (Active), Pain of the past (passive), Piercing Lament (Active)
Traits Intangible Form (Special)
Strength 40
Agility 70
Intelligence 45
Wisdom 62
Mana 110/110
Skill Scream of agony (Active)
Description A terrifying scream that causes mental and physical damage to all who hear it. This skill''s mana consumption will stack over time as the skill lasts longer.
Skill Pain of the past (passive)
Description Anyone who glances at you will receive a small mental probe into their minds. If they fail to defend against this probe they receive a mental shock which incapacitates them based on the user wisdom and opponent wisdom stat difference.
Skill Piercing Lament (Active)
Description A focused scream that targets a single foe, breaking through magical defenses and causing intense pain. The longer the scream goes on the stronger the pain becomes and can explode the opponent''s brain.
Trait Intangible Form (Special)
Description The user can pass through walls and objects, and most physical attacks won''t work on the user.
¡°Greetings, my lord.¡± Eerie and irritating to the ear, perfect for me. Like nails dragged across a chalkboard. No one can ignore her once she starts speaking, and her face can cause any person seeing her a heart attack. With everything ready, I instructed their next order, which captured that irritating centipede, locked it up, and brought it to me. I don¡¯t care what it costs, just do it. If they don¡¯t encounter it, then do the work they were instructed to. As I was doing it, I saw a surge of humans in my dungeon, and they each had different symbols, I saw a few familiar ones, but I can¡¯t recall where. I called Vorzath over so we could both watch it together, as it was boring to watch it alone as the Head Butler Varrick, and the Head Maid Selene. They took care of all my needs while Vorzath was served by other maids and butlers. I created a big screen so everyone can watch it with me. The first floor was nothing more than a speed bump, as even though Arozen gained a battle axe, it had no real experience other than fighting the ogre, who had similar strength to it, making it have no knowledge of how to use it against foes weaker than it, but still granting experience to him. I did not expect him to fend off this wave as even Anansi would be taken down. The first caused them to lose around 20 people from their number, which I calculated to be 530. Arozen still took people with him even if he died doing so. Anansi''s abilities were countered as they prepared many fire mages to counter her, and the parasites were burned as they used the fire as a wall to protect themselves. With no one infected, she was on the same level as Arozen and was killed, but she killed around 40 people injured many, and wasted this team''s mana potions as the priest had to heal many people. Soon they entered the third floor with maps and moved around trying to find the Guardian, and soon they found Lizon, who once again got lost in the labyrinth. This time they could not utilize their advantage, but thankfully many people were on this floor who hunted down many monsters, making their job killing the rest easy. Unlike the previous floors, Lizon can be encountered just like in the previous floor Guardians, and you can attack them and trigger their lockdown on the floor, but no one will do so as this is a death sentence, so they always run away from them. Running away is like giving up on the challenge, resulting in the Guardian not chasing them for long. Lizon is a cat, so he likes to play with humans, by nature, he secretly follows them but does not attack them and leaves once he gets bored. With Lizon''s ability to get stronger for each had slain, soon the situation turned the worse for them as Lizon used his pure physical abilities to overwhelm them and cause massive casualties, as not many people could attack at once. It took them around 3 hours to tire Lizon out and defeat him. Lizon killed around 130 people and injured close to almost all combatants who came as it charged inside their lines, and the humans could not attack wantonly as they would most likely attack their teammates, resulting in chaos and death. I could see them resting for a day and more people coming into the dungeon as reinforcements, but they all had fear in their eyes as they generated terror points as they were forced to come into this dungeon. Even the first people who had hopeful eyes with light dimmed at this moment. Their leader gave a heartfelt speech about this typical nonsense, which made me sleep, and Vorzath woke me when they started moving. This speech was about their fallen comrades who sacrificed themselves to reach this point, but for me, it was the most boring thing in the world. As they moved around, they found the staircase to the next floor. As they descended, I noticed that the first group of people had frustrated looks on their faces, they had not expected a fourth floor. Some even vented their anger at those who had provided information about the dungeon. However, the leader quickly addressed the situation, calming everyone down as they prepared to face the monsters on the floor. They encountered skeletons first and defeated them easily, which caused them more hope of reaching the Dungeon Lord, but they left behind the bones as they had no value to them. Soon another skeleton came this way and started combining with these bones, getting bigger and stronger. The people had no idea about this floor theme or how strong monsters are, but soon they met their first challenge by the wraiths, who killed many people before the mages took care of them. Such an enemy made many people want to retreat, but the most fun thing about it was the person I saw collecting everything. He has a hidden debuff on himself, which he had no idea about, all he cares about is collecting treasures from his fallen comrades. He had 89 stacks of Tempted, and I know that once he reaches 100, he will transform. Until now, no one has fully transformed because they were killed by their teammates, who had similar debuffs and left the dungeon once they collected all the loot. The highest I had ever seen was around 70, he had his eye already turned black, but this person wore a helmet that hid his eye and gloves on his hands. His hands already turned claw-like. He did not fight like others but collected the loot or killed his teammates who were down, and he alone killed 20 people. Lizon''s rampage resulted in him having many chances of killing his teammates by accident and getting their loot. No one thought more as they were fully focused on this raid. Who would have thought that there was a ticking time bomb nearby? From the looks of it, I can finally see a person fully transform and the Fourth Floor guardian appearing in front of them at the same time, but they most likely will be defeated before the Fourth Floor guardian appears as they leave behind the skeleton parts to search for the staircase leading to me. 15 - Demonification (2) The fight got more and more bloody as it went on, and the guy who I watch is getting brazen as he no longer cared if someone saw him kill, and because of this, a fight broke out for his blatant killing of other people. But what can they do but leave him alone for his fate in these endless hills of skeletons? I was too curious about what would happen, so I instructed the skeletons to let him live and leave him alone. I could see him raging as he kicked skeleton remains around and roared towards the sky as he got crazier as his treasures were taken away. While others were also affected by the ¡®tempted¡¯ debuff, none of them displayed this level of madness beforehand. Seeing how he reacted like a crazed beast, he picked up a sword from the ground and started running where the group went. Not caring about the monsters around him, he started running with bloodshot eyes. At this time his previous party found the entrance, but they got into trouble as the skeletons and bones they left behind soon formed into several giants and attacked them. These giants are around 10 meters in height as they kick the humans like balls around. Like when the kids kick the sand, the humans are the same as they hastily evacuate into the staircase for protection. Their numbers dwindled from the original 530, and even with reinforcements, they only had around 600 people, but now? 84 people are here, the rest died. You might think, why not ask for more people? The people have to make their way from the First Floor to the Fourth Floor while the monster will respawn over time, except for the Guardian, until all people who got marked leave the dungeon, fail, or accomplish their objective of defeating the Dungeon Lord. I could see the leader having 3 keys in his hand as he came in front of my room, and I realized it was the same guy who came here last time and couldn¡¯t enter and had to give up raiding the dungeon. He looked more refined and calm, but under these eyes was endless despair and regret. I checked him only to ponder how this could happen as I awaited the show as the guy who almost turned into a demon reached the staircase and descended as the skeletons and wraith let him do so. He can use the staircase as he is still a human by what standards and not part of my dungeon. But there are already buddings of horns on his head, and from the original pinkish skin, it turned reddish. As he descended, he attacked everyone who was in his way, and another fight broke out, with each kill, he came closer to reaching 100% demonification. But heard by everyone, there is a commotion, even though they are tired, they get up and prepare for a battle. Soon the guy was covered in blood as he escaped the stairs, his sword was covered in blood, and the people who guarded the stairs did not expect to be attacked immediately. But Sadly he was also tired and got besieged by so many people at once, he was killed at the end when he reached 99%, only 1 percent off, sad, but was expected. Still, he killed 8 people in his craziness, which is surprising as he did not care about his wounds and just attacked others. Their leader only glanced at him and took the papers that this guy had on himself and told others he would take care of it and they should all rest while he guarded them. They listened to their leader, who went up the stairs, but no one saw something only Dave saw once he looked at the status of this guy. Demonification 100%. I forgot completely that the leaders will take the belongings of their fallen comrades and their treasures to save them for the future. This also stacks with the debuff. I could only look forward to how he held back his impulses and did not transform like the guy previously, but as soon as he left the group, changes happened to him. His skin cracked as purplish light escaped from it, and soon these cracks covered his whole body as soon he transformed into a demon, but without horns, as this was not uncommon as he most likely evolved into a higher-tier demon. Just what realm did this guy reach? I was curious as to people who transform into demons, their potential and destiny they had will change into the potential of their demon part. This guy, unlike the previous one, did not charge down but had a stoic, icy-cold face without emotion. What surprised me even more was his turning back into human form as if nothing happened, but I saw a small grin on his face. I checked his status as I was curious about what he had become, and I could only hold my head as I knew this trouble would be really big for humans.
Name Drenvar
Race Corrupted Demon (Common - middle level)
Level 25
Class Demonic Jester
Titles Dungeon Conqueror II
Skills Backstab (Passive), Crying Mask (Active), Laughing Mask (Passive), Silent steps (Passive), Superhuman Agility (Passive)
Traits Hero in the making (Special - Corrupted)
Alignment Lawful Evil
Strength 35
Agility 65
Intelligence 35
Wisdom 45
Mana 40/40
Class Demonic Jester - Epic
Description You are a masterful manipulator behind the scenes and no one will stop you from achieving your goal. You are the greatest actor in your life and you can change other people''s goals even if they are against yours to align with your views. For each level up you gain +15 to Wisdom and +5 to Intelligence. Great power comes with great cost, your body is much weaker than other people, but you are more agile than them.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Skill Backstab (Passive)
Description Any attack that lands on the opponent''s blind spot deals 300% of the attack damage and will be a critical attack if it lands on the opponent''s back which will deal 600% of the attack damage. If the attack does not land on a blind spot it will be weakened by 70%.
Skill Crying Mask (Active)
Description You can change the atmosphere of your story so people will be dragged into it and you can spin the story as you wish. This spell cannot be resisted normally as this skill influences other people''s judgment. The more people this skill influences at a time the greater the mana cost and the longer it lasts the greater the mana cost.
Skill Laughing Mask (Passive)
Description You enjoy other people fighting against each other and benefitting from it. Your objective is to make many people distrust each other. When you fight against or with people of the other alignments you gain a 200% stat bonus to all stats.
Trait Hero(Demon) of Guilt (Special - Corrupted)
Description You are a person with unwavering resolve to save(kill) others and you feel it is your responsibility to save(kill) others. You will feel guilty about other people''s deaths even if they have nothing to do with you, but this gives you strength. The more people die around you the stronger you get. For each person, you gain a 1% stat bonus to all stats.
This will be a menace for all humans once this person leaves the dungeon. Never a demon like him appeared before, possessing both demon and human traits. Likely because of my influence and this guy''s willpower that formed this new demon. He can be the main villain in novels. Driven to insanity seeing how his teammates died in front of him as they were driven to this hopeless dungeon, and without anyone reinforcing their ranks, their numbers dwindled. Normally these people will not turn to demons, as their motivation is vengeance and they would not hurt the innocent on their way back, but because of my skill, he turned into a demon. So in the future, whenever a leader tries to take the belongings of a person to safely keep, this will also add tempting value. Good to know, and how horrifying will it be knowing your good leader was a demon? Will you continue attacking this dungeon as you are not sure if you got into a power play or were used as a scapegoat for others? The despair and helplessness, this sweetness is just too good to resist. I can already taste the air in the air. The next day the leader called off the attack, and they all returned. I did not stop even helping them find a way back, as I was so curious about what this guy did, and I wanted to see the outside world for the first time. But I had no way to go outside, I needed strength and some way to spy into the outside world, but how? Right, blood moon. That is the time when monsters can leave the dungeon, and I need some ways to send out some probes into the world. I could only have a headache from Selena trying to massage my head with her cold hands. Soon my headache went away, and I felt great pleasure from this. I could enjoy this all day, but back to the present, I needed to have a way to see the outside world. Spatial manipulation might be the way, but I can only access that once I reach High Demon, which is a bit far away, but close enough for me to accomplish before the next blood moon, as only a month passed since my birth in this world. Not knowing what to do after the raid was over, I wandered around my castle. I miss the days when there were raids every day without interruption. The garden is green, the sky is blue, and the centipede is back. I can see a bunch of stewards and maids chasing it as it tries to run away only to be captured and sealed into a jar. Just as I took the centipede, I felt a slight connection with the outside world as the raid party leader left. As if the outside world is connected to my dungeon? Feeling the changes, I tried to find where it was coming from, and I could sense the changes around my dungeon. Could this be because of the demonification? Did I affect the outside world by turning a person into a demon? But what changed? Something big must have been outside the dungeon that I was not aware of. *** Outside at this time, the dungeon changed once the party left. Normally a portal would just exist in a place not affecting their surroundings at all only when the Bloodmoon comes. But at this time some fog from the first floor started coming out of the dungeon, and the ground around it started cracking, and blood covered the surface around the portal in a diameter of 7 meters. (22.96 ft) Many people were taken aback by this situation. The dungeon perimeter was locked down, and many researchers came to analyze the situation. After all, this situation never happened where a dungeon affected their surroundings. If other demons were here from Hell, they would know this is corruption and the last section when a world is being corrupted, but it shouldn¡¯t happen at all to this world so soon. Likely something happened that affected this world order. The people''s voices who wanted to eliminate dungeons became even stronger, and the first target was the Dungeon of Terror, which caused all of this. Since its appearance, it was an anomaly different from other dungeons. More and more people called for the siege of this dungeon, but who wanted to do it first was the big question, as the first person to start the siege would suffer the most, as the Empire had already passed the problem to the guilds as a way to say, We protected you until now, and this is your job, not ours. In such turbulent times, can heroes and villains rise? Like a certain demon who appeared on the planet with a wide grin wishing for the system''s destruction and bringing chaos his way. People pass the hot potato to each other until someone has to keep this hot potato in his hands only to burn himself in the process of holding onto it. Who will this person be? Dave doesn¡¯t care and only wants to enjoy and watch the show. He started making plans for his next floor as he knew he needed to reach a higher demon rank to be able to spy on the outside world. He knew his plans for the next floor were a bit grandiose, so he broke his idea into two. The Fifth Floor will be a shallow ocean, while the Sixth Floor will be a deep ocean. He already envisioned the monsters on this floor would be more numerous and more terrifying. But before that, he needed enough Terror points to create a new Floor. My terror points slowly climbed up to 8000. Perhaps I should try Dungeon Challenges? After all, one dungeon gave 5000, but that was only after the humans had cleared the area bone clean. This small raid gave me a better look that one skill has many outcomes and this ultimately comes down to the person who is affected by my skill. 16 - Outside World and the Fifth Floor ¡®I will save everyone! I will defeat all those evil monsters!¡¯ I remember those words I spoke when I was little and ringing in my ear. Smirking to myself as I thought about it. How blind I was! The very monsters aren¡¯t those in the dungeons, but those who live with us every day. They wore human skin with a twisted evil personality beneath this skin. I realized my mistake when I raided this dungeon as I reflected on myself. Why was I raiding dungeons? Was it to save others? If so, why are they sending us to our deaths? For the greater good? But whose greater good is it? The people or your rich people? Knowing the truth, I called the raid off as I knew what this would cause to my guild, but I was ready to leave it. No matter what, I must bring these people to face the law for their rash actions. Let them taste the same despair as those who fight every day in the dungeons do. But before that, I have to deal with the investigation of what happened in the dungeon. I told most of the story from my view but kept quiet about a few things so later they could be used. After the empire investigators could not get more information about me, and the people under me gave the same information, we were set free. You might ask why I don¡¯t face anything for so many people dying under me. I just realized how much authority I have over other people''s lives, as I won¡¯t be held accountable for the people''s deaths under me. Even the public does not blame me for my actions. But from one investigation I was forced into another as the guilds wanted information about the dungeon, as no one knew who would be the next one going into that place. So better be prepared than get caught with your pants down. Knowing this, I gained few benefits from the guilds as a result, as I was a part of another guild, and they could not force me to reveal all information, otherwise, the blackslash would be too big for them to handle, and the guild I am part of is part of the conservative faction that believes the dungeons should be destroyed, but recently this view shifted, but if I can use my cards right, I can gain popularity among my guild and in the conservative faction. The class I gained can greatly help me in this case. Each person gains their class from going inside a dungeon, and their views and lives will be used as a referee. If you have a life full of vitality and an outgoing personality, then you get a warrior, and if you helped others and brought happiness, you gain a priest or paladin class, but the stronger your emotions were in your life, the better class you can gain, and this emotion must be heartfelt. This is the main reason the conservative faction has a great way, as many people lost their people, resulting in a strong emotional outburst that granted them power. But there are limits on what class you can get in your life experience like you won¡¯t get paladin even if you helped people but at the same time brought suffering to others. This is a hidden value in your life, like karma. The greater good you do, the better the class you get, but this is true for the opposite of this, but doing both will result in the person gaining an average class. People cannot change their classes normally, as they need to wait for them to reach level 25, then 50, 75, and more, but the highest person in this world is level 77. Many people guessed the next class upgrade would be at level 100, but no one is sure of it. Once you reach these levels, you can still level up, but you will lose a great deal of stats, which will set you behind others. Most of the classes'' ranks are based on how much stat they give, but that is only true for lower classes, for those of Epic or higher, their real value is their effect, as it can change the tide of the battle. For example, the legendary class is the Paragon of the Banner. This class does not give you much stat for each level, yet it is considered legendary by the system, and people too think that way. This class has one massive buff that lets it plant a banner with different colors on the battlefield. Red means strength, which gives all people on the battlefield a 200% increase in strength stat, green for agility, purple for intelligence, orange for wisdom, red for mana, and there are special items that can help them use their skill multiple times. But this is one of the skills that the bard has, and not speaking about when a person class levels up their skills too. So not only do you gain more skills, but your original skills, which were slowly getting weaker, gain a major boost in strength. But this only applies to the skills you gained when you got your class and not those you learned later. How to gain a better class? The system issues you a mission that you must accomplish, and mine was to destroy dungeons that claimed many people''s lives. I needed to destroy 5 of these, but I never told anyone what my requirements were. Of course, what I am going to tell you is that I got the Jester class, which does not have major plays in the raids, but for leaders, they are great as they can cheer people up and grant some buffs, but after all, I cannot say I got the Demonic Jester. After all, this name alone gives bad vibes, let alone its skills, but sadly my transformation took away my skills, otherwise, I could hide my new class for a bit longer and use it to my full ability, but it doesn¡¯t matter. After this was all over, the media also interviewed me, and I said I would tell everything in the Wanrin news. It is an independent newspaper with its television banned multiple times, and its editors were captured and killed for their anti-imperial views, but the recent emperor is extremely open-minded, not only for the empire to enter its golden era but also acknowledging his mistakes. He let go of anyone who did not have any hostility for the empire system, but how it did things, so as long as you are not working to undermine the empire, you won¡¯t be put into prison. This political party is called the Ebon Accord, while the conservative faction''s name is Iron Order. They are the oldest political party, as they were always loyal to the crown, resulting in their existence almost from the start of the Empire, while the Ebon Accord is a young party with great ambitions. The two parties always fight against each other, and the Emperor is the mediator between the two. Shaking these thoughts off as I had left the journalists behind, I needed to prepare myself to bring this system down and create one that is much more equal. Let the pillars of the old and blind crumble, and let the world burn, for only from the ashes can justice for the people rise. Those who twisted the system to their will shall face the reckoning of the innocent, no matter the cost. This is what pushes me and keeps the fire in my heart constantly burning, no matter how cold it is outside, knowing my goal is justice for all. *** Looking at my stats after evolution, there is nothing major that upgraded, but the normal stuff is as I hoped for a new skill or trait, but nothing like that. Every man can dream big.
Name Dave
Race Demon - (Common ¨C Middle-Level) ¡ü
Title Dungeon Lord
Skills Demonic aura (Common - Passive), Demonic Strike (Common - Active), Devil¡¯s Temptation (Elite - Passive)
Traits Demonic nature, Psychopath, Sadist
Alignment Neutral Evil
Strength 82¡ü
Agility 73¡ü
Intelligence 68¡ü
Wisdom 60¡ü
Mana 693/522 ¡ü
Terror points 1744
Other than the new evolution condition being 16000, which made my eye twitch for a second. But not caring about it, I let out a small breath and started creating the Fifth Floor. The staircase leads the person to a small island, which means small is that only around 100 can reside on the island without being overcrowded, as only a few trees are on the island with no food or fresh water source. Around them is only water, and I made a few fake islands in the distance, which are a mirage in reality. No matter how much you sail towards the island, you will never reach it, and this sea has a special ability, which is d¨¦j¨¤ vu. As they sail this ocean, they feel they passed by several things they already saw, or the starting island, which never gets out of their sight as the ocean moves in a way where you think you are going forward, but you go backward in reality. Any sane person can go crazy watching everything over and over for a long time. Now with the floor settings ready, I need monsters to live on my floors. I added many different types of fish and ocean life with no combat ability, their main reason is to create this d¨¦j¨¤ vu for the people. Now the monsters are reef stalkers, needlefishes, living kelp, and water elementals. But thinking of this is not enough. Giant jellyfish and stingrays were also added, I am finished with this floor until I have enough terror points for the floor boss, what I imagined. { Author Here: I had no idea for the shallow ocean floor monster to be super unique as I had a hard time coming up with them as I had more ideas for the next floor the Deep Ocean, but oh well I try to be unique with the Floor Guardian at least. You can take their look from the internet how they look like in real life. }
Name Nameless
Race Reef Stalker
Titles None
Skills Camuflage (Passive), Venomous Tongue(Active), Inhuman Agility (Passive), Inhuman Strength (Passive), Quick Escape (Active)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive)
Strength 132
Agility 113
Intelligence 20
Wisdom 20
mana 30/30
The Reef Stalker is a sleek, predatory creature that blends seamlessly into the rocky and coral-filled underwater environments of the shallow ocean. Its body is serpentine, long, and slender, and its tongue is like a lance that can pierce enemies with an extremely hideous face.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Name Nameless
Race needlefish
Titles None
Skills Swarming Tactics (Passive), Rapid Dash (Active), Inhuman Agility (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Weaponisedd body (Special)
Strength 18
Agility 196
Intelligence 25
Wisdom 20
mana 10
Name Nameless
Race living kelp
Titles None
Skills Entagle (Passive), Tocix Spores (Active)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive)
Strength 98
Agility 20
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 10
mana 20
Name Nameless
Race water elemental
Titles None
Skills Water manipulation (Active), Mistform (Active), Waterbomb (Active)
Traits Aquatic Body (Special)
Strength 40
Agility 55
Intelligence 95
Wisdom 103
mana 330/330
Name Nameless
Race Giant jellyfish
Titles None
Skills Entagle (Passive), Shock Therapy (Passive), Toxic Touch (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Immobile (passive)
Strength 44
Agility 35
Intelligence 37
Wisdom 44
mana 530/530
Name Nameless
Race stingray
Titles None
Skills Electric Pulse (Active), Venomous Barbs (Passive), Camuflage (Passive), Rapid Dash (Active), Superhuman Agility (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive)
Strength 77
Agility 144
Intelligence 60
Wisdom 40
mana 70/70
Skill Camuflage (Passive)
Description Like a chameleon, they can blend into sandy or rocky ocean floors, making them nearly invisible to those unaware of their presence.
Skill Venomous Tongue(Active)
Description Your venomous tongue has great toxicity that can kill any creature that comes into contact with it.
Skill Quick Escape (Active)
Description Upon activating this skill, the user gains speed a 50% speed boost for 1 hour, but this skill will deactivate if the user is not chased by anything and if the user tries to use it to chase its prey.
Skill Swarming Tactics (Passive)
Description You are specialized in group attack warfare. If multiple friendly creatures are present, they gain a bonus to Strength stat based on how many there are in the swarm. +0.1 for each other friendly creature.
Skill Rapid Dash (Active)
Description Upon activating the user can dash forward rapidly. This gives the user for 10 seconds a 200% agility boost.
Skill Entagle (Passive)
Description Any creature coming into contact with you will be shortly entangled by your body as it tries to free itself. Attacking targets who are entangled by you or other creatures takes double damage from you.
Skill Tocix Spores (Active)
Description You can release toxic spores around your area which causes hallucination or sleepiness. The longer you use this skill the longer the mana cost rises and so does the ability potency.
Skill Water manipulation (Active)
Description You can manipulate water as you wish with enough mana to do so.
Skill Mistform (Active)
Description Once activated your body turns into a mist that cannot be physically harmed, in this form you take triple damage from fire sources. The skill mana cost will not rise over time.
Skill Waterbomb (Active)
Description Creating an extremely potent water ball that once released causes a massive water explosion. The attack damage will be based on the mana used in the attack and the environment it was released.
Skill Shock Therapy (Passive)
Description Any creature coming into contract with you experiences constant electric attacks that will cause it to suffer from extreme pain and become immobile.
Skill Toxic Touch (Passive)
Description Your body contains extremely deadly toxicity that can kill any creature that comes into contact with it as a result anyone who touches you will be poisoned and has 5 hours to cure themselves or die of the toxins and every hour they will receive a debuff lowering their total stats by 20%.
Skill Electric Pulse (Active)
Description Release electricity around you shocking any creature that enters its radius regardless of foe or enemy. This skill strength is based on the mana you used for this skill and environment.
Skill Venomous Barbs (Passive)
Description Your barbs possess venom that paralyzes them once they touch it or come into contact with it. Anyone who touches it receives a 70% Agility reduction debuff for 30 minutes.
Trait Aquatic Lifeform (Passive)
Description You gain a 20% stat bonus to all stats in the water while outside you gain an 80% stats reduction to all stats.
Trait Weaponisedd body (Special)
Description Your body is created to fight as every part of your body is made to fight for your life regardless of how effective they truly are. This can greatly help you fight, but all other activities can be forgotten as you are unable to do so or with great suffering.
This time the staircase is hidden in an underwater cave that is heavily guarded by many monsters as they patrol this area regularly. Humans are not creatures that are good in the water, so this would give them a hard time even moving here, not to talk about fighting underwater, which is extremely hard for people. Movements will be restricted greatly, and dodging attacks will be even harder, and they need air as they cannot breathe underwater. I hope there is no such item, but there should be other demons who created floors like these, so humans should have a way to deal with this. This will only hinder them for a time being and not forever. With this completed, I cannot wait for the lab rats to enter this floor. What will they do? 17 - Drenvars plot Drenvar POV: (IK if you don¡¯t like it, but bear with it as it drives the plot forward.) A week has passed since, and I prepared myself for the live interview, as I requested it this way so my plan could move more smoothly. Not only that, I also brought some people from the raiding party who had connections to higher places, and their identities are extremely sensitive. They participated in this raid to get the title, as they never fought and were always in the backlines enjoying the show in front of them. Soon I walked up with my former teammates to the podium with the host and started talking about our experience of the dungeon. ¡°May I ask you, Drenvar, why did this situation happened and what was the reason you called off the raid?¡± Asked the host, as many people were curious as not much news was shared with the public around the raid, only it was a failure. ¡°I¡­ I felt if we continued this raid we would suffer even more losses, and it was not worth it as many people died, and we didn¡¯t even see the Fourth Floor Boss at all.¡± I remember the faces of all the people who died, and I even showed in my voice the regret and guilt I felt towards them. ¡°Of course, this jeopardized my future, as I might not be a raid leader anymore, which is a great regret and relief.¡± I continued with this after a short pause. ¡°Great relief of giving up such a great position?¡± The showmaster was surprised, as many people would kill for this position no matter what. ¡°Of course, relief, as I don¡¯t have to see the people under me die because of my poor leadership.¡± I could only look down and express my embarrassment and hope I gained the sympathy of the people. ¡°I tried very hard to be a good leader and watch out for threats, but there were people who obstructed me.¡± I did not say it but looked at the two other people with a glance, many people saw this, and the two of them too. They did not want to speak up as this would confirm them, so they tried to be quiet, but I used my skill on one of them, which was the crying mask. Of course, but if everyone feels sympathy with me, right, then why would they flare up at me? If I don¡¯t need them to believe me, I just flare up their emotion of sympathy, which makes them confused inside and makes their emotional outburst easier. ¡°What do you mean we obstructed you? This is a blatant conspiracy against us! You had full authority in the raid.¡± He flared up, and his other teammate was shocked that he fell for it. ¡°Of course, you obstructed me by calling your people over to protect you, and the defensive line was always at risk of breaking.¡± I could only get up and look at him with an angry expression as I pointed at him. My skill effect did not disappear completely as he was angry, and all I need is for him to be angry all the time. ¡°Of course, I need protection. I am the sole heir of the Golden Dragon Guild.¡± He did not realize what he said was live and many people saw it, but it did not last long as the show was terminated. Soon I was escorted out and got scolded for what I did and got fired from my guild, but do I care? No, why? My goal was to plant the seed of doubt in the people as they got outraged at the guild first. This will not bring any social difference at first glance but will set off the first domino of the inevitable results. Small steps at first. It did not take long for this to spread far and wide as the Golden Dragon Guild''s public image worsened, and they are trying to do everything to keep up their mask at all costs. Just as I was walking on the street with the look of a person who lost everything, a swarm of people surrounded me. I was surprised by them. ¡°Mr. Drenvar, is that true? You got fired from your guild?¡± Asked one of the reporters who was the first one to come here, and others listened and did not speak so they could get some interesting stories. I did not speak for a few seconds but nodded slightly. Soon cameras flashed and recorded my nod. Soon many questions bombarded me, but I answered them all with a look of frustration building up on my face as everyone could see I was angered. I pointed at one of the reporters.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°You can ask me the last question, as I am not in a good mood anymore, as I got fired and need to find a new job, and I don¡¯t even know where I can live at all,¡± I said with a hoarse voice as my eyes got bloodshot. ¡°Mr. Drenvar, why do you think they fired you?¡± Said the reporter I pointed at. ¡°They fired me not because they wanted to but beacuse they were forced to, as other guilds did not like my goal at all.¡± With this sentence, I clearly showed a hint of tears as I left the reporters. Hearing this vague answer, they could spin this how they want. The empire did not care about the news as long as they did not criticize the empire. Soon articles popped up about how the big guilds would rather see people suffering than clear dungeons, and the one who got the most attacks was the Golden Dragon Guild, as they openly admitted this. The Golden Dragon Guild was forced into raiding the mutated dungeon, aka the Dungeon of Terror. They had to conquer this dungeon no matter the cost, as they could not fire the chairman''s son. So they had to put the chairman''s son in the raid to show everyone he had a big heart but was just impulsive and was a greenhorn. Those people were explicitly hired, and other guilds were also informed about these bodyguards. The hot potato landed in the Golden Dragon Guild''s hands. If they give up on the dungeon raid, they will be forever marked as a guild that doesn¡¯t care about the people. This would make it harder for them to recruit new members as the majority of their people were commoners. Not only do they get marked, but the other guilds will be under pressure to never let such a dungeon prosper. Just as this all happened, another news shocked the people. The area infected by the dungeon expanded to double its previous size, from 7 meters to 14 meters. This put the Golden Dragon Guild in a position where the more they delayed, the worse the situation got, as the empire too started paying attention after all. Never had something like this happened, and it must be stopped. If the empire were to intervene, it would be catastrophic for the Guilds. But the Empire gets priority before the guild, so why not solve this whole matter when raiding dungeons? It is a farce put up by the empire, as it has no interest in using its soldiers, and the majority of the people it uses are criminals sentenced to life or freelancers. But once it intervenes, it would take people from the guilds directly, and they cannot refuse it, otherwise, destruction would be their end. Even if they had to pay a heavy price, they had to conquer this dungeon, otherwise, they would be dead, and worse, the guilds would lose their power in the empire, as their words are already weak, and the empire''s military would be much stronger than them. If not for the current emperor being merciful and caring about people''s opinions, they would long be brought down. This would be a great excuse for the military to make a move before the emperor gives his words so they can gain the greatest benefit. So the Golden Dragon Guild, being pressured by other guilds, was forced to commence the raid in a week. *** As I was playing with the centipede, I felt many people coming into the dungeon after a full week of almost no one coming into the dungeon. Soon I saw them have the same symbol on the body, a dragon head made out of gold. Man, such an expensive suit would go for a lot in my previous life, but money no longer mattered to me as I could manifest all kinds of rare gems with a wave of my hand. I saw them moving together like the previous raid party, and I felt bored, but once someone was injured, they would go to the back lines to get treated. They mowed this floor extremely quickly as all of them reached the maximum level, and I felt they could reach the Fourth Floor Boss easily as they had intel about the previous raid fighters'' experience. Still, I was not scared, from the looks of it, they were not prepared at all for an ocean floor, as they did not bring any equipment good for hunting down monsters in the water or diving equipment. The second floor, after knowing the weakness of the monsters and realizing there were parasites, quickly became hell on earth as everything was burned to the ground, and even the strong blizzard couldn¡¯t calm down the raging fires. They started with around 460 people and have around 400 combat-ready people. Experience changes how they attack dungeons. Now they know the Dungeon Floor Guardians'' weakness, and with a clear strength difference, they roll them easily. The third floor this time did not get them as many casualties as they learned their lesson by having the tanks stop the Floor Guardian and the mages bombarding it. Still, they paid a painful price as the Guardian, using its wings, flew over the tanks when it got irritated by the mage''s constant attack, resulting in a massacre among the mages. They had around 280 people combat-ready for the next floor, but instead of head charging into the next floor, they waited for reinforcements. With that, they departed to the Fourth Floor. The Fourth Floor soon became a battlefield between the skeletons and the humans. The humans built their base around the staircase leading to a big hill of skeleton remains. Once in a while, one or two skeletons slipped through the net, resulting in unforeseen consequences. Like a much bigger skeleton bursting out from the pile of bones and charging into the crowd of people. Looking at the situation, I have doubts they can conquer the Floor at all. Soon they had no choice but to retreat and wait for everyone to recover and call for additional reinforcements, but I could see dark clouds rising on top of people''s heads, and the leaders of these guys also started getting more and more demonic as they barely cared about their people and more about their possession. I don¡¯t know what happened, but a fight broke out between the people who came in, as they instead of joining with these guys had a fight. This suddenly spiraled out of control, and the reinforcement of around 120 people fought with the worn-down people who fought in the dungeon for hours. Well, I don¡¯t need to say who won in the end, as you can guess it. I saw the leaders being tied up if they were alive and being extremely crazy while the people under them were stripped of their weapons as all of them were escorted out of the dungeon. Such a crazy turn of events. Not knowing why this happened, as before they were pretty cooperative, being meat shields in the past raids. But I did not know what crazy events this led to and how much chaos followed after this. 18 - Fifth Floor Guardian? ¡°Do you know what you have done?!¡± Roared a man who was in his sixties and in a fancy robe that you can see on all wizards. The robe had two red lines going down from the neck in the middle to the bottom. This long robe not only gave great protection to the wearer but also enchanted their physical capabilities and raised their maximum mana capacity. Many people would be envious of this robe and would kill for one, but the person who wears it doesn¡¯t care about his robe but what these people did. They caused significant losses to his guild in that amount of money and reputation that could buy several robes of this caliber. They failed the most important thing for them, and they could barely stand as the other guilds put all the blame on them for failing this raid and letting the mutated dungeon grow even more. He did not care about the dungeon at all as he was level 55. A powerhouse among humans, even though not at the top of humanity, he was the backbone at least. But now because of these failures, he lost everything he built up over the years. ¡°Bring them away!¡± He waved toward the guards as he turned around, and he could only painfully swallow his decision. ¡°Dad, you cannot do this to me! I am your only son!¡± One of the people cried out as he said this while screaming towards the man in the robe. ¡°I have no son.¡± You can hear his hoarse voice, and if you looked at this time at his face, he is crying. His decision likely will result in his son''s death, but what can he do? His son destroyed everything he built up over the years. As the guards left with the people who were the raid leaders, he collapsed into the chair as all his strength left his legs. ¡°Just what did I do to deserve such a fate?¡± The man in the robe could only look up at the sky as he asked it in a hoarse voice, trying to find his answer, but only silence answered his prayers. *** In a room, several people are seated around a round table, each looking more menacing and older as you look around. ¡°With Arnold''s failure, we need to create another raid group, but this time all guilds must use their best personnel as the military is aiming at us with their greedy eyes.¡± Said a woman in her seventies, the age is already shown on her body as grey hair was visible, but no one dared to call her ugly, otherwise, you would know the wrath of a level 62 Pyromancer. {People age slower the higher their levels are.} ¡°Easy to say, but who will bring everything out? No one can trust each other here.¡± Said another man as he casually moved a ball between his hands. ¡°Hmph! This is the reason the military targeted us, because of our differences. You all need to grow up and act like adults.¡± The old woman was not satisfied with how others acted. ¡°You tell us to act like adults? You who has the nickname of matchstick.¡± Said another person under his breath, but everyone could hear it, but not pinpoint who said it clearly as the voice came from every direction. ¡°What did you call!?¡± Soon the old woman flared up as fire started appearing around her and her hair turned crimson. No one came forward, as everyone knows how poisonous she is. She might lose, but she will hold a grudge for a long time. ¡°Enough of this childish play. Everyone bring half of their best person and the best equipment for their use, and I will grant them my relic.¡± Said another old person who once spoke, making everyone quiet. Everyone silently accepted the old man''s terms, but they were shocked that a relic was being used for a dungeon of that level, it was a total waste. But they knew what was on the table, and they must succeed in it. Giving up is not an option. So they must prepare. *** As I was thinking about what monster I should create for the Fifth Floor Guardian, soon I had an idea that previously went past it. As I went to the Fifth Floor, there were no humans, and hardly any came into the dungeon after the raid. Most stayed on the Third Floor, and a few went around the Fourth Floor. As I created the monster, I imagined a huge humanoid monster made out of crystals that each emitted purplish light and dark fog around them. Looking at it can confuse people as its existence was chaotic. As I created it, soon something was not right as I created it. I felt someone was watching me as I created the monster, and I felt it was smirking at me and amused by what I was doing. This formed a black gas that went around me as it moved on its own. It went around the floor, curious about everything. I tried to control it, but without a chance, it seemed to find something interesting once it saw the centipede as it was put into a jar that was around my neck so I could always keep a look at it. Soon the black gas entered the jar into the centipede. The centipede broke free from the jar as it thrashed around, and it fell into the ocean. At this time the giant I created absorbed this black gas and changed. I felt something was off as I left the floor. The floor started changing from what it was originally. The monsters in the Floor all gained bizarre looks but kept all their skills and stats, but their look changed from the original normal to grotesque monsters. But all of them gained a new trait.
Trait Child of ???
Description These lost children wandering the world without purpose have been recreated and reborn into a much more wonderful entity. They gain ??? a devolved version of the skill, which causes them to cause a random negative effect for each of their attacks this ranges from sacred to demonic with stronger spells having a lesser chance of appearing, but everything is possible.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Looking at the trait, I was shocked and awed too. Soon I used the dungeon to take a glance at the giant that I created. As it was made out of crystals, it changed to a flesh monster with flesh hanging around its body as it served no purpose. But what shocked me was the Guardian.
Name Bergelmir
Race Corrupted Crystal Giant
Titles Fifth Floor Guardian of the Terror Dungeon
Skills Chaos Infusion (Active), Chaos Infestation (Passive), Chaotic Crystalizitation (Passive), Monstrous Strength (Passive)
Traits Chaotic Crystal body (Special), Flesh of Strength (???), Giant(Special)
Streangth 277
Agility 91
Intelligence 55
Wisdom 63
Mana 40/40
Skill Chaos Infusion (Active)
Description Temporarily enhances its crystalline body with chaotic energy, making it stronger, faster, and unpredictable, but at the cost of receiving a random negative debuff. This can range from slight cold to instant death.
Skill Chaos Infestation (Passive)
Description Any creature injured by you receives a debuff ''Chaos Infection'' which causes them to have random debuff every minute you are alive. This can range from sacred blessings to True Death.
Skill Crystalizitation of Flesh (Passive)
Description Cover your body in the crystalized flesh of monsters around you which in turn grants you strength and causes your enemies to receive a mental horror. Mental horrors are events in which the user has to overcome his greatest fear. Failing to do so the user enters a shocked state for 10 minutes and will have a debuff on them which causes them to lose 50% of the total stat for 3 days. The skill strength is based on the number of monsters around you and your wisdom stat.
Trait Chaotic Crystal body (Special)
Description Your body is made out of crystals of extremely high quality that grant your body immense strength and weight which slows you down a considerable amount. Additionally, your body once receives fatal damage this will be transferred to a random entity in your vicinity regardless of whether friend or foe.
Trait Flesh of ??? (???)
Description You possess the flesh of ??? entity which grants you insight into chaos.
I tried to find the centipede that got engulfed in the ocean, but something blocked me from looking into the ocean. Nothing came to my mind that is capable of blocking a Dungeon Lord from being able to see everything on his floor. Looking at the floor as it changed in my clear view. The floor changed from the scorching sun to a constant thunderstorm. Even the floor specialty that was created has changed. Instead of the mirage that I created, it turned it tribulation of the mind. Every hour for being on the Floor the person will receive a random debuff jsut like before it can be anything. But soo ni felt someone is watching me as I looked at the crystalized flesh giant that rosen from the water and stands around 70 meter in height. (229,65 ft) When looking around the floor, I saw an eye glancing at me when I looked at the ocean as if it was watching my every movement with great interest. Soon a system window popped up in front of me.
Your ''Dungeon Lord'' title has been changed to ''Dungeon Lord of Fractured Realm''.
The description did not change, but the name only, but I felt something changing in the whole dungeon as if something empowered it. I could suck in cold breath as my whole dungeon started shaking once my title changed to Dungeon Lord. Every creature in my dungeon gained a special trait.
Trait Chaos First Order
Description Consuming the flesh of monsters will enhance the user with the consumed monster flesh, but this only applies to monsters outside the dungeon. This grants permanent strength to the user until their deformation which results in the user self-destruction.
But this wasn¡¯t everything, as the outside world was shocked by what changed and caused turmoil in the whole world. I just couldn¡¯t wrap my brain around why this happened at all, no matter how much my 2 brain cells worked. Just the monsters in my dungeon felt more aggressive, and those monsters that originally got into my dungeon and somehow are still alive. {As I stated, all monsters from Maniacs are treated as invaders, so they are not required to hunt down for the Guardian to appear.} None of them were left alive as they were massacred by all other monsters. I wanted to revert it and stop all of this, but I started thinking, why should I? Isn¡¯t this better for me? I want to enjoy my happiness, and I don¡¯t care about others at all. But those eyes left me frustrated, and the guardian made me curious about what would happen, so I could only wait for the raiders to come in and test it for me. *** Outside the dungeon before the change. You can see many people moving around, preparing their equipment, and checking the site. Nothing is happening, but suddenly the gate starts turning from the original red to black. Everyone knows what this means! Dungeon break, but the blood moon is far away. People started scrambling around as there were many civilians transporting food and equipment for the big raid, only to the dungeon going crazy. Soon the ground that it covered previously slowly expanded, and monsters came out of the portal never seen before. They were the manifestation of chaos, as they had somewhat similar physiques to humans, but they had more arms or less placed around their bodies without any clear reason why, or multiple eyes, or were completely blind with nothing to compensate them. These monsters all charged at the humans, well, the ones that could, as there were some with no limbs. As the adventurers soon arrived, what shocked them was the people who got caught in the grasp of these monsters soon turned into such monsters with no order or reason. These monsters used their overwhelming force to defeat all adventurers, and the ones killed turned into monsters. These monsters inherited their original owner''s stats and skills as they used them as if they were alive but used them on their old teammates. A crazy slaughter happened and chaos ensued after it. The area had to be locked down as stronger adventurers arrived to clear the monsters up, but this left many people shocked that a dungeon break could happen at any time and not only at the Bloodmoon. The guild prepared their raid in 2 days but was brought closer by a day as fear encroached into the people''s hearts of what happened to this dungeon and what could happen to other dungeons. When chaos and fear reign, the troubling time is coming closer, and once there is no order, everything falls into chaos. This is the perfect time for people to rise to power and change the old ways. 19 - The Guilds Siege As I was getting bored from watching the Fifth Floor, humans flooded into the dungeon. All had different symbols on their bodies but had the same high-quality equipment on their bodies. I can see them flowing in without stopping. Is this what they call human wave tactics? Half of the floor was occupied by them! I didn¡¯t even expand it lately, because I am more focused on the higher floors, as the lower floors always will be a speed bump for them. So what¡¯s the point of fattening up the speed bump? They did not stop at all and did the first three floors in one go. Their causalities were 0 as they had a shit ton of priests, and from the looks of it, they prepared a ton of paladins too for the Fourth Floor. Soon the clash between the two sides ensued as they entered the Fourth Floor. More and more skeletons were drawn to the noise as their fight became bigger and bigger. They also realized the skeletons could combine with the dead skeletons and started destroying the bones on the ground. Just as the last skeleton was killed, the bones all around the floor started being drawn into the position where the last skeleton was killed. As if all the bones were magnetic, they soon combined, even if they were broken in two or turned into dust, they returned to their original look before they got destroyed. Soon a massive skeleton appeared with a height of 50 meters. (164.04 ft) With just a casual step, it killed 4 people and didn¡¯t even attack. ¡°Retreat!¡± Soon the voice was heard as people tried to distance themselves from the monsters, but they were not so lucky. With a kick, it sent flying many people, and those people landed in the crowd, injuring or killing others in the process. Soon magic spells bombarded the giant skeleton as it trashed the people under his feet, not caring about the spells at all. It can be seen the spell does work, but simply the giant has so many bones, and they replace the damaged parts with ones in much better shape. Even though it cannot regenerate, it can still replace the damaged ones with much better ones. As the fight continued between the Floor Guardian and the humans, it became clear they were going to defeat the Floor Guardian as the situation stabilized. Even though the Guardian had great strength, the problem came when it combined, it became a massive target, which was hard to miss. Looking at this, I wish I had popcorn, as it was so entertaining. I looked at them trying to bombard the giant skeleton, only for it to grab people and throw them far away. For some reason, this was one of the most entertaining parts of the whole raid. Seeing them running away and only being trampled or being thrown away. Even though the situation stabilized, some people had to distract the giant skeleton, so they became its primary targets. {For some reason I always imagined the people being thrown away having Tom and Jerry screams. After this, I imagined this, I couldn¡¯t stop laughing at it.} Man, if only I could create popcorn¡­ Wait a damn minute. *** ¡°Don¡¯t let it get close to the mages! Stop it at all costs! Thanks to the front!¡± I could scream into the voice enchanter crystal so everyone could hear it. Damn it! This giant skeleton is just too much! We can barely leave damage on it, and no matter what, we concentrate as if it is a bulldozer and are not stopping even for a second. ¡°AHHHHH!¡± I could see a person fly away as it got kicked away. I knew the tanks stood no chance, but we didn¡¯t have any better way to draw the monster''s attention away. ¡°Raid Leader! Not good!¡± One of my guards pointed at the monster as it dug into the ground and ripped a large piece of dirt and stone out. ¡°Out of the way! Get out of the way!¡± I could only yell as I soon lost my voice from the constant screams. Soon the large chunk of dirt and stone landed amid the mages, killing many of them in the process. ¡°Tell¡­ the¡­mages to scatter and bombard it that way.¡± I had to calm down as I couldn¡¯t properly speak from the stress. ¡°Sir, our casualties are increasing! We have to do something.¡± Another person appeared not long later, as it said the casualties of the mages.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Out of the 200 mages, 27 died instantly, 8 died of the injuries they sustained and could not be saved, and 53 were injured and needed medical assistance. Soon I saw the situation not stabilizing but deteriorating for the worse. ¡°Bring the weapon.¡± I could only give this with a heavy heart. We prepared this weapon for the Dungeon Lord, but who knew we had to use a relic so soon? Soon a strange weapon was brought forth. It looked like a horn, but once I touched it, I felt my mana being drained crazily, so I let it go. I looked at my mana, and I could only gulp. 240/5. One touch and drained 235 mana like that. This item consumes mana for its charge-up. Soon, with a heavy heart, I took out mana crystals. These crystals are infused with astronomical amounts of mana and are an extremely rare material that can only be obtained by killing Dungeon Lords. {Dungeons Cores = Mana crystals, as humans cannot become Dungeon Lords, so they have other uses for it.} Not caring about it anymore, I felt a heavy burn leaving my body as I grabbed in one hand the mana crystal and in the other the horn. Soon the mana from the mana crystal got sucked into the horn. Soon the horn, which had dust on it and had already started to rust, turned golden and radiated light from it. Soon I collapsed on the ground, but my guard grabbed me as I could barely stand and instructed them to blow the horn. As the horn sounded, the ground shook, and even the world color changed, and everyone, including me, gained a status buff.
Hope of Tomorrow
Darkness fades away and hope shines as a new day comes to bring light to people''s hearts. This buff grants a 200% stat bonus to all people who are considered allies by the user and grants for 1 hour and the Hope Buff for 2 days. This buff reduces the user''s fear and enchants the user''s bravery. Once the person enters a situation with no escape gain invulnerability for 3 seconds, but this debuff will disappear as a result.
Feeling my newfound strength as my weakness went away, I gave the order to attack. As the people saw new hope, the attacks became even more crazed on the Giant Skeleton. I turned towards one of my men. ¡°Does this dungeon have a fifth floor?¡± I asked, as this dungeon has evolved extremely fast recently, and I need to make sure there are no problems, but the answer I got back was there is. Just before the dungeon raid, people came and checked the mana of the dungeon, but the device that measures weaker dungeons exploded. But before it did, they found there were only five floors, but it also showed the dungeon boss being extremely strong. It took them several hours, but they did it. They finally did, and they defeated the Guardian, but the cost of it was extremely bad. They never expected such a giant to appear on the lower floors of a dungeon, as a giant of this size typically appears after 10 floors, but there is already such a monster. {Before the question comes, what they are saying is that such a humongous monster cannot be besieged on the lower floors, as hardly any profession deals with them on the lower levels that specialize in hunting them or professions that can offset the differences with buffs and the like.} I could only hide my frustration on my face, but my hands clenched as blood dripped from it. Instructing them to search for the key, and after they found it, I told everyone to rest, and the scouts were sent out to see the next floor of what kind of terrain it was. One scout came to inform me they found the entrance, and others went down to check the situation. As I made my way there with the other vice leaders, there were 11! Man, the dogfight that happened for this position was extremely brutal. I can even see the envy and jealousy for this position, but I did not care as I had to conquer this dungeon at all costs, as we cannot fail here. Soon we reached them, as we did not come with everyone, as they had to rest after such a big fight, and we only cared to inquire about the situation, but no one came back up. Even after we waited for an hour, I sent 2 other people down, and soon they came back panting. ¡°Captain, not good, they¡¯re all dead! There are some monsters down there similar to the ones that broke out from the dungeon beforehand!¡± I could see the terror on their faces as they came back scared shitless. After hearing the ruckus that was happening behind me, I ordered everyone to return as we would make a breakthrough once we reached the next floor. ¡°Did you see anything else?¡± I turned back to them, asking if they saw anything else. ¡°I¡­I saw a few palm trees, so the dungeon is near the ocean, or we are on an island.¡± Said one of them as he tried to recall the horrors he saw there. An island? Ocean theme? We have a few elemental mages, but not many people for diving if the situation turns out we have to dive into the ocean. Fighting in the ground and the ocean is different. We can use monster lures to draw some monsters out, but if they can¡¯t leave the ocean, then we need to prepare a team for it. 80% of people currently have never experienced ocean-themed floors, and less than 3% have experienced fighting in the ocean. We currently have around 900 people and 500 in the reserves and more coming later. Our total reserves are around 4000-5000 people. But this is the maximum we can mobilize. Any more than this and we are out of manpower and need to request from the Army, but that is something we have to avoid at all costs. If I have to, I will pave the way to the Dungeon Lord chamber with human bodies. Our guild''s fate is on the line. We might need to use our freelancers as meat shields for the next floor. They might not like it, but so what? Should have joined a guild if you didn¡¯t want to be cannon fodder. ¡°Everyone, after a 3-hour rest, we will enter the next floor. We use plan M.¡± The vice-captains hearing my next plan smiled to themselves. They did lose people in the fights, but there was a reason they participated in it, and they took the main fighting line against the Guardian. Is to create a trap for the freelancers so they think the guild deals with the hard part while they get rewarded for doing nothing. This situation makes them think they reap great benefits, and everyone knows the monsters on the floors are stronger, but not so much that you are outclassed by them, so they will think they have a chance. With them at the back, they cannot retreat but fight against the monsters that are in front of them. Cruel? What are you talking about? It was a tragedy where the Guardian took out the heroes who bravely died to take it down with their lives on the line. So instead of meat shields, call them martyrs. Your ungrateful bastard. As the time was up, everyone slowly got into formation. The freelancers did not find anything suspicious, as they had no way to back out, they got encircled with no way out, and a small minority did find out, but it was too late, and they were taken away for causing chaos in such dire times. Soon the freelancer¡¯s forefront encountered the first monsters. Even though they wanted to retreat, they couldn¡¯t, so they had to fight with everything on the line. With this, the conquest of the Fifth Floor began. 20 - Chaos amongst the Guilds. I constantly heard the reports from people as I was with others, so everyone could come to the same decision, but everyone had different options, and I had to decide what options we had. The problem was who would fight after the Free Lancers were out of the picture. No one wanted to be the meat shield and lose all their people, after all, everyone had to think about the future. If they sacrifice many of their people now, there will be a generation gap later in the future, which can cause significant losses to their guild. So we had to decide by drawing lots, and the Frozen Giant Guild was the one who would go after the Green Lotus Guild, then, etc. As we gained more and more ground on the Fifth Floor, I got the intel that the Floor theme is an Ocean, as there is no staircase leading to the next Floor. If it can¡¯t be helped, then we have to stop our advance and request people with combat experience in water fights and skills for it. As we set up our base, the monsters got fewer and fewer, but something happened that caused ? of the people on the floor to collapse. Until they got up, we learned what happened to them. Everyone had a ghastly look on their face. Such an overpowered ability on this floor. How do we deal with it? The Hope buff cannot counter this, as this attack won¡¯t kill the user but just incapacitate him. The smaller problem was this, but the bigger problem was when we faced the Guardian. We might fight for a few hours, and the battle may take place in different places. To block this mental attack, we need people to leave the floor and then return, but the Guardian won¡¯t just stay here and let us kill it. We must come up with a plan so we can keep the Guardian close to the island so we can rotate our people. But how many should stay on the floor, and how many do we rotate? If anything big happens and the party currently staying on the floor gets caught up in something and cannot return and suffers a mental shock, they have to be escorted if they lose consciousness. Can anyone even conquer this floor? Such an inhuman design! The person who created it must be crazy! What I am talking about is that he has to be crazy to create monsters like these on the lower floors, to begin with. A monster that must be brought down into hell. Massaging my head as I sit down on a stone so I can ponder better on what to do. First of all, luring the Guardian close to the island. Second, having a rotating system set up so we can change our fighters, but having only 1 hour as time is not much, but rather short. Third, who will these fighters be, and from which guild? Will we use the same guild people who were chosen first or go with the order, but everyone had to be familiar with the environment, and it will take a lot of time so everyone can familiarize himself with the terrain? Even then the monsters will respawn and will do another attack on us. For some reason the Fourth Floor no monster is respawning, but it is good for us as we can rest on this floor for the time being. ¡°Mine! It''s all mine!¡± I could hear someone scream as he said this. I can tell this person went crazy, but so soon, and who? As I made my way there, the tents blocked my view as they got set up so people could rest. I found it came from the logistics. As I made my way there, my guards went in first into the tent, but I saw one of my guards backing out as he grabbed his throat. Blood gushed out of his throat as he tried to stop it. ¡°Priest! Call a priest fast!¡± I called for a priest as I took out my sword to confront whatever was inside. As I cut the tent flaps, what I saw took me back. A person above a pile of rings and silver and golden coins as he crazily tries to hold everything. Once he heard the noise, he turned around and I saw his bloodshot eyes and crazy smile on his face. In the tent, many bodies lying in blood, all having bloodshot eyes and smiling faces like his, but less crazed. He got up and charged me while saying to himself, ¡°Mine!¡±. My other guard came in front of me and blocked his sword while I cut off his head with one swing as I went around my guard.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Crouching down next to his corpse and looking at his body and then his head that was next to him, I did not dare to touch it, so I could only look at his body to find any clue what happened. Seeing nothing too out of the ordinary, he had a small bump on his forehead, but likely it was from the previous fights. But soon I had other things to worry about as news came that not only here, but at other places, people went crazy, and all they had to do with the logistics, but soon this became worse as people who had to take back the bodies of the dead and their belongings went crazy. Soon I sent out a ban on collecting bodies and on the logistics to not touch anything. We had to find what caused this, as our situation is extremely dangerous, as we can¡¯t carry anything with us that might contain and drive a person crazy. Just as I thought this could not be worse, it did, as one of the guild captains went crazy and killed his guards and the people around him. Soon he turned into a monster as people described. They saw him turn into a demon and kill people wantonly. I tried to gather the guild captains, but they did not dare to leave their positions, and everyone called back their people, leaving no one to guard the Fifth Floor. With one of the high-ranking people turning out to be a monster, no one trusted the other person at all. Who can say the person next to you is not a monster? Until now the guild could work together as we were all from the same camp, but now? No one can trust anyone. What if everyone else is already a monster and waiting out when to strike you in the back at the worst time? I could only grit my teeth and send out all my guards and invite them to an isolated place, but not far away so their people can keep an eye on them and vice versa. But this meeting did not go well, as no one wanted to be the first one to take the brunt of the Fifth Floor, and with a monster so high on the ladder, even the freelancers before who survived turned immovable. Until now they could only grit their teeth and accept they have to follow the guild''s orders, but who can say the guilds aren¡¯t monsters? I could only send out requests for help to the outside world, and I am prepared to lose my position as the raid leader, but I am prepared for it. Others might think I gave up on my position because I felt I failed them, but I want to leave this place as soon as possible. Who knows if my guards are not monsters too? I had to look into their backgrounds even more. Who knew at this moment, as the guilds suppressed so no information was leaked out, a person who was at the time present when one of the guild leaders went crazy held a crystal in his hand that slowly recorded everything? No one saw who this person was, but even if they did, all they could see was his smile, as the rest of his face was obstructed by the hood he wore. Soon he disappeared, as no one saw him as everyone was focused on taking down the monster that suddenly appeared. *** In a dark room, 3 hours later, 2 people met. As they sat down at the table, one of them asked. ¡°Did you get what I requested?¡± I could only ask a masked figure in front of me. ¡°I never fail any mission, but hand over what I need in exchange for it.¡± The man held a crystal in his hand as he played with it. Showing me he has what I need. Putting the briefcase on the table and pushing it towards him as I opened it for him. Inside it was all the remaining money I amassed through the years. As he accepted, he handed the crystal to me. Touching the crystal and seeing the scenes inside of it, I smiled as I got up from the table and made my way out. As for the person opposite me, he just smiled at the money he got. *** Two people in a highly secured area walk down a corridor while no one is around them. ¡°Did you have it?¡± Said one of the military commanders as he walked with another person in the hallway. Where both are going is a military meeting he called with urgency. ¡°Yes, don¡¯t worry, I have the reason to capture all guild leaders and absorb their guilds into the military before the emperor realizes, and with that, we have the final say in everything.¡± The person could hardly hide his smile as they made their way into the meeting. As they opened the room, a few people were talking with each other, but as soon as they entered, everyone got up and saluted them. ¡°Marshall.¡± With all of them saluting the Marshall, who started this meeting, he gestured them to rest. ¡°Gentlemen, I have called this meeting as a serious problem has arisen amid the Guilds raiding the dungeon. We have evidence here that shows the guild leaders are in cahoots with the guilds, and we must strike them before they realize it.¡± As he said it, he gestured to the person next to him to start the crystal recorder. Soon the events replayed how one of the vice raid leaders was a monster and made a massacre. Soon a gasp of surprise went through the room as no one imagined monsters infiltrating so high up in the guilds. This also makes them eye the people who talked before, who can know they are not monsters too. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I already checked everybody here, and there is no problem at all.¡± Said the marshal as he stopped the recording. ¡°But gentlemen, we have a bigger problem, how to deal with the guilds?¡± He knows very well some people are loyal to the emperor, and he needs to smoke them out. Asking for their intentions is a small probe into their character. ¡°What to do? Of course, we have to move and capture all of them and look through their history and what they did behind the scenes! We cannot let monsters run among humans!¡± Said one of the marshals at the table. Well, technically they are all marshals here, but everyone knows there are rankings between them. This was the result after countless years where the military did not fight large-scale fights, so they could only move in the shadows and establish ranking that way. Simply put, the one who has the biggest number of soldiers under their hand is the one with the biggest word in their group. ¡°We should wait and watch them closely as they already have a plan for this situation, and we might walk into a trap set by the emperor.¡± Said another marshal, as he was clearly against the idea of doing it, as he knew what would happen if they did this. Each person put forward their opinion, but they can be put into 3 groups. One group wants immediate action while another wants to wait and then act, and another group wants nothing to do with it. Just as the situation was getting tense, a knock was heard on the door, and everyone looked towards it, as no one should disturb them, as they might face a martial court on the spot. One marshal gestured for the guard to let him in. Soon the door opened and a soldier walked in. Unlike the others, this soldier had golden coats on his shoulders. Only the soldiers or generals under the emperor directly can wear golden decorations on their bodies. Except for the medals, nothing can be made out of gold. It is either made out of silver or emerald. As the marshal saluted the soldier, he also paid his respect towards the marshal, and as everyone sat down and waited when the soldier came here, the emperor''s envoy came and spoke to them, and only if extremely critical would the soldier come to tell them the emperor''s intentions. ¡°Under the emperor''s orders, I came to tell the marshal to mobilize the soldiers under them to assist the emperor immediately in capturing the guild leaders of independent guilds who participated in the Mutant Dungeon raid.¡± Said with a straightforward face and not beating around the bush as the soldier awaited the marshal''s response. 21 - Breaking of the straw In a room guarded by two soldiers, you can see a person as he throws all kinds of documents around his room as he is extremely angry. His plans were overturned by the emperor, and he realized the information was not only sold to them but also to another who leaked it to the media. He was in such a hurry he did not silence the person who had the information, and now everything went against his plan. If they were the first to raid the guilds, he could take their dark past and use it to blackmail them to work for him, but the emperor did, and they most likely will be held by the emperor. More enemies than allies, as the last remaining neutrals are the associations, but those are not something he can touch. Those guys are even more scared of getting caught, so they do everything to erase their dark past. As he calmed down after throwing so many documents around and making a mess out of the room, he needed to make his next plan. The only way to do so is by having the emperor''s guards reduced. But the emperor won¡¯t let his guards or soldiers under his command die in such a low-level dungeon. His only option is if the dungeon is damaging the emperor''s image or causing such a level of casualties that his soldiers must respond to it. A new plan manifested in his mind as he knew about a banned item that would put anyone on a death sentence if revealed or used. With a new plan, he started drawing up his plans for what to do next. *** Back to our mc. Just as I thought the situation was getting interesting, the raiders stopped and accused each other of being monsters. It¡¯s not like the situation is against me, as I like how they live in fear every day as they barely sleep at night, not knowing who is a monster and who is not. I wanted to see them fight against the monsters in the sea, but it looks like I have to give up on that. Enjoying the view as they fought amongst themselves and saw my terror points rising like a rocket and not stopping as it passed 3000 and is already approaching 4000. But what surprised me was that a new group of raiders came in with different clothes from before. All military personnel wore green clothes. They were more trained for group fights and were stricter in their move too. Unlike the sandcastle, before they were united, this is even more fun. What would soldiers do when they rely much more on high command than actual orders and their commanders turn into monsters that kill their soldiers? Others might not see it, but I can see the greed in their eye for glory. Be better than others, they would do anything. They might even personally honor their fallen teammates by taking their equipment or their belongings and using it to give a funeral for them. Slowly, but surely, over time this will tick up and go off in a big explosion. I can even see the previous captains being detained and escorted out of the dungeon. Most of their soldiers stayed back and went under military command. Even though the military arrived, the situation did not quiet down, as the people were still scared of others being monsters, and they did not trust the military that much, as I can see among them. The only reason they follow the orders is that the military people are more equipped and have not fought for days to be exhausted mentally. Yes, the raid went on for 3 days until now. ¡°Ahhhh!¡± A scream erupted. I was surprised where it came from. When I found out, it turned out Vorzath captured a human while he was on the Fifth Floor and brought him back. ¡°My lord, I have brought back a present.¡± Vorzath came into my room while dragging a person who was paralyzed. His voice died down, but his eyes still darted around where he was. ¡°Why did you bring a human here?¡± I could only ask as I was puzzled by Vorzath''s actions. ¡°My lord, I saw you enjoying them being tortured, so I want you to demonstrate the new form of art I mastered.¡± I could see light sparkling in Vorzath''s eye as he bowed towards me, awaiting my approval so he could demonstrate his skills to me. ¡°Then show me your skill, but don¡¯t disappoint me,¡± I said this as I turned my attention away from the screen towards Vorzath as both Selene and Varrick were next to me watching what Vorzath would do. Soon Vorzath, hearing my approval, beamed with a smile as he started his work on his new art. First, he skinned the person alive, as I can see the tears flowing from his eye, but did not pass out as Vorzath did, so not enough pain assaulted the brain, but he will get used to it over time, resulting in him not passing out and not experiencing the last moments of his life.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Second, he pulled out his tendons and inwards, and this was enough for the person to die, but not without a great pain. His greatest regret might be to come to this dungeon. After the person died, Vorzath was a bit surprised at his dying so soon, as this was likely not planned, but he continued it after a shrug. Soon he used the person''s skin as he removed the front of the chest and pasted it with his skin as he decorated his body with his inwards. I must say artistic? Not being able to describe properly would be bad, but the person dying so soon was a letdown. ¡°It was great, but the person died too soon, resulting in, I think, the art losing its process of beauty.¡± As I stated, Vorzath lowered his head in shame as he failed even though he practiced a lot, but when he presented it, he made a mistake and killed the person before he was supposed to die. ¡°You brought such shame to the Lord Vorzath.¡± Said Selena and Varrick, nodding in acknowledgment as both awaited my final judgment and did not dare to comment as they waited for what I would say before they agreed or disagreed. For them, my opinion is the final nail in the coffin of what is good and bad. Regardless of whether something is considered ugly or beautiful, my opinion will influence how they perceive it. Over time, they will learn from my taste and use it as a reference, shaping their taste in art and similar matters to align more closely with mine. As for the person, he was put on a pedestal for me to watch for all of eternity. There are many I can see and some that are still alive, and they have lifeless eyes, but these are the ones I got bored with, so I removed them. What¡¯s the point of keeping a piece of art if it no longer brings you the same feelings it once did? It has lost its value, like when someone damages a painting. No longer as valuable and memorable as it was once. While I was busy reevaluating my art, so were others busy too with conquering the Fifth Floor. The military once took power and learned the information about the floor, soon they also gained the problems the previous batch faced. Soon it became a deadlock as the military had no way of possibly conquering the dungeon with their current equipment and preparation. They thought at first that when they came in, they would reap the hard work of others, only to realize they had to do the hard work of others. So what comes next? They cannot retreat, as that would waste all the time and manpower that this whole raid consumed, and who will take the blame? But they cannot just stay here, as people''s frustration will build up over time the longer they stay here, and with chaos brewing everywhere, so is their time limited. The military people came in not long ago and have great pride in themselves and view others as nothing more than insignificant losers. So the tension slowly started to build up between the new group and the old, leading to small clashes. Thanks to the Devil¡¯s Temptation skill, soon more and more people turned into demons, wreaking havoc amongst people. This situation turned so chaotic the military had to kill people as they rebelled against them. They claimed they were being locked up there, and they were not wrong, as the military wanted to find out why and how people turned into monsters. For them, sacrificing some outsiders is worth it, and they are also the opposite in faction politics. But this situation was getting worse and worse until it met its breaking point. *** Every day I try to sleep, I can hear voices in my head each time I go through the dead people''s belongings, asking me to take them with me as they are dead and no one will know they truly belong to that person. I asked the priest to cast spells on me as I could feel I was going crazy, but they shooed me away and called me crazy. Until I could no longer hold back and took an item from a dead person and the voices went quiet, I could finally rest. But soon they returned to haunt me even more. So I took more and more until I did not even need to hear the voices to steal the equipment of the dead. I just did it by instinct. Feeling my changes, I wanted to quit the raid and return to the back home, but the military denied it, and I was forced to stay here. Walking between the tents, I can see people looking outside their tents alert to any slight noise that might sound. No one can bear it for long. I can see the stress and fear built up in the people. Even my hands started shaking, and the only thing that could calm my mind down was my sword as I put my hand on the hilt. As I walked, I saw some gold coins on the floor, and without any thought of why they were there, I grabbed them and put them away. Every coin felt like a ton as it weighed down on my mind. I can feel something is changing as if the air has become more evil. Not knowing how to express myself, I could only lie down, but I couldn¡¯t sleep as I saw eyes eye my belongings in the dark. So I can only stay up and guard it. But I did not have to wait long as I heard footsteps, and soon it reached my tent. I picked up my sword and shield and readied myself for battle. Soon a sword burst through the tent as I used my shield to block it and jump out. Seeing the attacker having bloodshot eyes as he charges at me. I blocked his sword with my shield as I deflected his attacks and thrust my sword through his chest. He looked at me with his eyes pleading to end his life, but he had a crazed face in his last dying moments. He did not dodge or defend my attack as he took it with full force. As if he wished to die. Not knowing what to do, I realized I already was searching his body for any valuables. Distancing myself and looking at my bloodied hands at what I was doing, my body moved on its own. Not caring about what I did, it moved forward to loot his body. I felt my vision darkening as only the gold and gems on his body kept the light in my eyes. Knowing this was my only way to keep myself sane, I had to gather more as I felt I was going crazy. With no choice, I attacked the tent closest to mine, and the person inside was prepared for my attack as he deflected my attack, but he wasn¡¯t faring better as he had bloodshot eyes too. Not as crazed as me or the person who attacked me, but serious enough. I saw him raising his axe high to chop me down, but using my shield, I blocked it. Feeling the pain in my heart as I saw my expensive shield being damaged made me angry for no reason at this point where I wished his whole lineage died out this moment. As we fought, so were others around too. A crazed fight started all around the camp for others'' loot. For others, this might look like a bunch of greedy bastards trying to hoard all the loot for themselves, but for those experiencing it firsthand, this was the last way to keep themselves sane from going insane. Everyone knew if they didn¡¯t steal others'' loot, they would lose themselves to the abyss that awaits everyone first. With this, the final straw broke, plunging the whole raid into a frenzy of killing each other. The military tried to calm down the situation, but what awaited them was many demons emerging and people turning against each other, no matter what the relation between them, they killed each other even for a copper coin. Even the proud soldiers felt cold feet from this massacre that was happening between them, and many lost their so-burning fighting spirit as they knew these people were humans not long ago, but they were all monsters. Will they turn into monsters too if they stay in this dungeon for too long? This situation, which was first an experience of the military leaders, turned into a blunder that resulted in the raid''s end and almost all the original people who participated in it dying in this gruesome fight to the last man. 22 - Sixth Floor After the military cleaned up this mess that happened, many people were shaken, and no one dared to stay here as all the captains sent out messages asking to withdraw them from here at all costs. Some soldiers even planned to escape secretly as no one wanted to stay there. Experiencing this firsthand was brutal, as they all knew not all the people here were monsters, but so many appeared here at once and in the human camps. Impossible that these creatures took human appearance and sneaked here to kill humans for no reason. The only explanation was that they turned at some point into monsters, but when? A sword hanging above their head, and one wrong move and they will become headless. The outside was shocked to learn the military inside wanted to retreat at all costs, as almost all commanders sent withdrawal appeals. Soldiers were even more unrested at this as they knew their commanders could leave, but when could they leave? No one wanted to turn into a monster, and after a long battle of back and forth, the issue settled on withdrawal. Once the news went out, the survivors who survived that massacre cheered in happiness as they packed up and were ready to go. The soldiers let out silent breaths as they were scared of their teammates turning into monsters. As for Dave, he watched calmly as they left. *** Seeing the last person leave and no one coming inside, I knew for a long time no one would come here as the threat his dungeon posed was just too much for them to handle at their current strength. But did it matter to me? Not really, as I already had the farm ready. These people who fought in the chaos were kidnapped by Vorzath, who took them away from him. I wanted to raise them for my fear points, so I created a kennel for them to live in as I stripped everything from them except their basic clothes. 10 males and 10 females. They will be put through inhuman experiments by Vorzath so I can have a constant income of points. But this is getting boring as I felt how they face monsters all the time and just fight when people meet with monsters. Should I make it more diverse? I thought to myself about how they felt knowing they had no power on the floor and had to use their brains for the first time in their life to find a route to escape it. Like lab rats, I had the perfect experimental material at hand as I looked at the people who were locked up in the kennel. Their food? Human remains or monster remains, but just give them raw. Many of them are starving, but who cares? There will always be new rats, and they can always be changed and should feel honored not to be killed on the spot. For such an honor, I also stamped them with a symbol of a skull on their face. I can always know who my lab rats are and not accidentally kill them when I get bored. Will I keep this promise for myself? No, I just told them as they called me the devil. Laughing at them, I knew the devil would be much more merciful for them. As I was seated on my throne, I mentally created how my sixth floor should look as I imagined a deep ocean floor. With many monsters on it, no matter the surface or underwater. I should create my civilizations, shouldn¡¯t I? They are more collective in their action when outsiders come to their floor and more united and won¡¯t do a headless charge at them, I hope. As I imagined it, soon I saw my terror points reaching the threshold as the raids pumped my points up. I saved up 30,000 points for this floor. As I created my floor, changes happened. I felt that the creature that was on the Fifth Floor that I couldn¡¯t control at all instantly moved towards my Sixth Floor as it just started forming and becoming like a tumor on it. This tumor was between the Sixth Floor and my chamber. People have to pass this mysterious creature liar to reach my chamber, and I can¡¯t even see what is inside, so I can imagine the horrors that are happening inside from what I have seen on The Fifth Floor.
Do you wish to evolve into Common Demon high-level?
Yes No
I clicked yes, and soon my stats changed it, but nothing big happened after I felt the mana surging in my body.
Name Dave
Race Demon - (Common ¨C High-Level) ¡ü
Title Dungeon Lord of Fractured Realm
Skills Demonic aura (Common - Passive), Demonic Strike (Common - Active), Devil¡¯s Temptation (Elite - Passive)
Traits Demonic nature, Psychopath, Sadist
Alignment Neutral Evil
Strength 95¡ü
Agility 84¡ü
Intelligence 82¡ü
Wisdom 77¡ü
Mana 844/693 ¡ü
Terror points 14,102
The next evolution costs 32,000 points, as I felt this is getting out of hand soon with it doubling every time. In the early stages, it was easy, but now I think about it. Just to reach the elite level, I need more than 4 million points for the first level! Then I don¡¯t know how many stages there are after it. Just calculating it out created a headache for me as I stopped thinking about this as I prepared for my floor instead. Soon, like the previous floor, this one is ocean-themed, but Deep Ocean. The staircase is always down at the bottom of the floor. The floor size is close to the size of the Black Sea. Originally this wouldn¡¯t be its size, but with the dungeon mutation and me spending mana on expanding it, it created this gigantic floor, bigger than all the previous floors combined, even with my chamber. As I said, Floors can be expanded, but what¡¯s the point of expanding smaller Floors? Just more speed bumps can be put there. The only reason I expanded the sixth floor so much is the trouble finding the staircase leading to my chamber. Appearing above the sea, I watched the endless water in every direction as I made the time to be a day and night cycle. 16-hour daytime and 8-hour nighttime. Doing so, I added a specialty to the sea, but I saw dark fogs appearing and being ready to meddle in my business at any time to modify it to their liking. Knowing they would interfere with whatever I was doing, I let them, as I did not want to waste mana on fighting them at all. Soon the floor specialty was created, but it was changed by the black fog to be more eerie.
Tides of Memory
The water contains a hallucinogenic property that forces adventurers to relive traumatic memories, leaving them in a shocked state for 1 minute, this ability will activate once an adventurer comes into contract for the first time with water and will reactivate every 5 hours.
Soon the final element came out, and looking at it, I could gain terror points from it, so I kept it. If it were not for my taste, I would fight this dark fog. Soon my first creatures were created. The surface was patrolled by ghostly ships with wraiths as their crew. These ships either moved alone or in groups as I created them, but otherwise would fight against each other, recreating their last moments. The ships were, of course, also creatures too.
Name Nameless
Race Sea Wraiths
Titles None
Skills Curse of the Damned(Active), Dreadful Scream (Active), Get in here boys (Active)
Traits Etheral Weaponry (Passive), Ghostly Pirate(Special)
Strength 114
Agility 102
Intelligence 44
Wisdom 52
mana 60/60
Name Nameless
Race Ghost Ships
Titles None
Skills Tormented crew (Passive), Fire the cannons (Active), Inhuman Speed (Passive)
Traits Fog of Despair (Passive), Eternal Damnation (Passive)
Strength 0
Agility 330
Intelligence 0
Wisdom 0
mana 10
Skill Curse of the Damned(Active)
Description Curse an opponent for 1/3 of your total mana and this curse lasts for 10 minutes on the opponent or until it is dispelled. The curse can range from nose bleeding to the Final hour. (The final hour will deal continuous damage to the user with it being doubled each 1 minute).
Skill Dreadful Scream (Active)
Description Unleash a soul-piercing scream that attacks the opponent¡¯s soul directly causing nausea to the opponent and for a short time making them deaf.
Skill Get in here boys (Active)
Description Consume all your mana to summon 3 undead who possess 60% of your stat with no skills or traits.
Skill Tormented crew (Passive)
Description For each crew being tormented you gain +30 agility to the base stat.
Skill Fire the cannons (Active)
Description For each tormented crew, you fire a cannonball that deals 60% of your total agility.
Trait Etheral Weaponry (Passive)
Description Your weapon is not only injuring the opponent''s flesh, but his very soul It can cause uncomfortable feelings at first, but the longer the fights go on the worse it gets until the opponent''s soul is destroyed.
Trait Fog of Despair (Passive)
Description In a radius of 3km a fog will appear around the ship no matter the environment and anyone brave enough to wander into the fog will be instantly noticed by you and will gain a -20% agility debuff until he leaves the fog. (1.86 mile)
Trait Eternal Damnation (Passive)
Description You cannot be sunk until all crew linked to your ship perish.
Trait Ghostly Pirate(Special)
Description Your soul is linked to the ship you once served in your life and you cannot leave it no matter what happens in life so in death, you are linked to it.
My next one is a giant monster in the deep. Leviathans. Humans need to descend into the ocean at least 300 meters before they can encounter anything that they can use as cover. These 300 meters are the most dangerous point, as they can be easily spotted by creatures in the deep ocean from below, and they don¡¯t know how they are attacked.
Name Nameless
Race Leviathans
Titles None
Skills Titanic Strength (Passive), Tidal Wave (Active), Ocean''s Wrath (Passive), Titanic Defense (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Titanic Lifeform (Passive)
Strength 260
Agility 90
Intelligence 30
Wisdom 30
mana 40/40
Skill Titanic Strength (Passive)
Description Your strength surpasses many creatures'' imagination as your very movements cause tremors that can be deadly for other creatures and with such great strength comes great defense as normal attacks can hardly damage your body.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Skill Tidal Wave (Active)
Description Unleash a supermassive water torrent that drowns any fool standing in your way. Cost half of your total mana.
Skill Ocean''s Wrath (Active)
Description Unleash vortex underwater that causes opponents to be drawn into and sucked into the depths of the ocean in a short amount of time. Cost 1/3 of your total mana.
Trait Titanic Lifeform (Passive)
Description You are a behemoth amongst behemoths. Normal can hardly imagine how can such a massive creature live at all. Your gigantic body comes at a cost with a huge appetite. You are in a constant move for new prey no matter how big or small it is.
They are massive creatures, spanning from 50 meters to 200 meters in length, and look like eels, but their heads are like hammers with their eyes positioned on each side. The biggest ones can eat a ghost ship in one go. The biggest ghost ship''s length is 33 meters. Such a gigantic maw was scary enough, let alone imagining it. The next one is the creatures of the Deep Ocean.
Name Nameless
Race Depth Charger
Titles None
Skills Torpedo Strike (Active), Hunter of the Ocean (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive)
Strength 110
Agility 220
Intelligence 60
Wisdom 40
mana 80/80
Skill Torpedo Strike (Active)
Description Once this skill is activated gain 300% Agility bonus, but you cannot change your irection once this skill activates as you shoot out like a bullet and don''t stop until you hit your target or your mana runs out. This skill consumes 20 mana on activation and additional 5 mana for each second passess.
Skill Hunter of the Ocean (Passive)
Description Your nose is the greatest in the ocean as you can smell the smallest amount of blood in the water even 30 km away. (18.64 mile)
This creature is similar to sharks, but its body is sleeker than sharks, and its fins are much sharper than normal swords. But not enough, as I needed more. Titanic squids as they would latch onto them.
Name Nameless
Race Titanic Squids
Titles None
Skills Titanic Strength (Passive), Monstrous Speed (Passive), Titanic regenation (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Titanic Lifeform (Passive)
Strength 221
Agility 155
Intelligence 20
Wisdom 20
mana 30/30
Now something not only scares them in size but truly brings terror. The next one is similar to anglerfishes as it has a mouth full of teeth and a small lantern in front of it.
Name Nameless
Race Anglerfish
Titles None
Skills Dash Strike (Active), Luring Light (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive)
Strength 133
Agility 188
Intelligence 50
Wisdom 50
mana 40/40
Skill Dash Strike (Active)
Description Dash forward while attacking dealing 300% of your attack to anyone who stands in your way.
Skill Luring Light (Passive)
Description You constantly emit a faint light in the darkness to lure your prey to yourself. Anyone seeing your light will enter a hallucination state and will slowly drift towards your light.
Soon I felt I could not express my creativity, so I threw small fishes into a plus and some snacks for them. The next one is a monster similar to lizards but with fins and hard armor on their bodies, as their size varied from 5 meters to 50 meters. (16.04 - 164.04 ft) They also had special attacks as they could release elemental attacks. This was water or lightning. But they were blind thanks to there being no light in the deep sea, so they relied on their sixth sense, sonar. Thankfully, they can locate any creature with their inbuilt sonar.
Name Nameless
Race Sea Drake
Titles None
Skills Behemoth Strength (Passive), Behemoth Speed (Passive), Elemental Beam(Active - Limited), Behemoth Defense (Passive)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Behemothic Lifeform (Special), Sonar (Passive)
Strength 185
Agility 142
Intelligence 67
Wisdom 66
mana 140/140
Skill Elemental Beam(Active - Limited)
Description You can unleash a beam of elements from your mouth (Limited to water and lightning). Consumes 1/7 of your total mana each use.
Trait Behemoth Lifeform (Special)
Description You are a monster bigger than any other create ever existed on the land ever. With such comes drawback, but not to you as you are a special among even among Behemoths.
Trait Sonar (Passive)
Description You emit a powerful sonic pulse that travels trought water and localte any creature hit by this skill effect.
Soon I created some creatures that fight in groups, and these are Gripwraiths. Their whole body was a fish, but their head was full of sharp teeth, and they had hands instead of fins on their side. They had extremely dark colors to be scarier with white eyes. These creatures moved close to the surface and grabbed their prey that did not pay attention and would drag them down to the deep sea to feast on them. Their size is twice as long as humans and twice the width.
Name Nameless
Race Gripwraiths
Titles None
Skills Inhuman Agility (Passive), Inhuman Strength (Passive), Fast Catch (Active)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Stunningly Ugly (Passive)
Strength 144
Agility 177
Intelligence 77
Wisdom 80
mana 200/200
Skill Fast Catch (Active)
Description Upon locking on your target and activating this skill you gain a 200% agility boost for 1 minute, if your capture fails this skill effects double until you catch your target with an upper limit of 1600%. The skills cost also doubles every time you fail to catch an enemy. It costs you 1/8 of your total mana.
Trait Stunningly Ugly (Passive)
Description Any creature that glances upon your body will be stunned on the spot how can such an ugly monster ever be born? The stun I mean literally, they will freeze from the shock for 30 seconds.
The next one is Deepfiends. It had legs near the head, 3 pairs. Each leg looked like a spider leg and had a massive mouth with 8 sharp teeth pouring out while many small ones created a living grinder out of its mouth as nothing would survive. The end of its body, instead of a tail, had 9 octopus-like arms.
Name Nameless
Race Deepfiend
Titles None
Skills Behemoth Strength (Passive), Behemoth Defense (Passive),
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Behemothic Lifeform (Passive), Fiend of the Ocean (Passive)
Strength 199
Agility 193
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 10
mana 10
Trait Fiend of the Ocean (Passive)
Description Any creature that glances at you will feel terror from their bones as they know you are the terror of the ocean and you showcase this by the brutality of killing your enemies by grinding them to the bones while they are alive.
Now creatures that can create a civilization and can live side by side with these nightmares. These should be focused more on mental attacks than physical ones as they need to tame these monsters and others that live in the sea. Deep Sea Dwellers. A monster with a swelled head that is transparent, as you can see his brain while tentacles on the side of his head hang. Two extremely big, dark eyes with a mouth full of razor teeth. They have two arms like humans with pincers under their arms. Instead of legs, they have crab-like legs, which they use to move around.
Name Nameless
Race Deep Sea Dweller
Titles None
Skills Telepathic Dominance (Active), Command Pulse (Active), Enrage (Active)
Traits Aquatic Lifeform (Passive), Rulers of the Deep Ocean (Special)
Strength 44
Agility 58
Intelligence 144
Wisdom 132
mana 870/870
Skill Telepathic Dominance (Active)
Description A creature whose mind is weaker than yours can easily be dominated resulting in them becoming your slaves until you die. This consumes mana based on your willpower and your opponent''s willpower difference.
Skill Command Pulse (Active)
Description Dominating others is easy, but controlling them is? You will consume mana based on how complicated your orders are.
Skill Enrage (Active)
Description Enrage all dominated creatures under your command as their intelligence and wisdom stats will be halved and they gain 50% of their total stat for the rest. This skill consumes 20 mana for each dominated creature under your command.
Trait Rulers of the Deep Ocean (Special)
Description As the uncrowned rulers of the Deep Ocean, dominating other creatures will be much easier by halving all skills consumption and costs that relate to other creatures.
With these completed, I went back to my room to sleep while the head butler and head maid waited outside and stopped anyone from interfering in my sleep as the mana I consumed this round was close to 10,000. After all, stronger monsters consume more mana to be created, and intelligent creatures skyrocket this consumption. The difference between intelligent and not is abysmal. One can create plans to hunt down bigger creatures while the other uses its instincts to hunt for prey and would not plan for its future. 23 - Amulet of Doom Walking down a corridor decorated with all kinds of items from monster heads to swords to armor. Each trophy was collected by its user through many years of hardship. The person who is walking down the corridor is not human, as he has 2 huge bat wings on his back, but his whole body is black with no clothes on his body at all, but a red gem in the middle of his body that could charm everyone to take it for themselves, but those who know who he is would instantly end themselves so he would not be able to see their memories of what they thought. His face, like his boy''s, is black with no nose, only a mouth and 2 eyes, like a human face, with his ears being pointy. His hair is purple and reaches his back. He walked, occasionally stopping as he remembered some of the best fights he had against other foes that brought great pleasure to him. Soon he made his way through the corridor and entered a room. Inside the room were other people. First was a green ooze that was eating something constantly, next to him slept an angel with black wings and a sword next to her as she gripped it even in her sleep. These two sit on the other side of the table, and opposite them is a flower with extremely beautiful flowers that bloom constantly and give off a scent that could mesmerize anyone who smelled it. On the left side of the flower is a holographic projectile of a giant made out of magma with a crown on top of his head made out of countless ores. The light shone on it, it could mesmerize people for its beauty. On the flower''s right side was an entity made out of bones with a scepter in his hand and a bone crown on his clear imitation of the giant crown. Soon the person took his seat, making the whole place a triangle as each faction took their place, but one seat can be seen empty as it would have created the fourth alliance. ¡°Where is Wrath?¡± Asked the person who walked in. Curious why I didn¡¯t show up. ¡°Do you need to ask this? Wrath is always angry about something and will vent his anger on it, and he might not show up at all, as he came late always and missed the last two meetings.¡± Said the giant, as he was not happy about Wrath. ¡°We all know wrath is temper, so let''s focus on our meeting and why it was called. Can you tell us why you called this meeting Pride?¡± Said the flower, as it did not want to waste its time with this meeting. ¡°Hmph! Don¡¯t push me, Lust. I will say it when I want to say it, but I will look over it for this time as we have more important things to do.¡± As he said this, he was irritated by Lust, as no respect was shown to him at all. But he continued after a short pause as he looked at the sloth as she slept and made Gluttony wake her up only for her to open her eyes for a short time and go back snoring the next second. Some even were curious how Angel took up the position of Sloth in the first place, but clearly, no one cared about it as they were enemies in the end. ¡°As you know, our setback on Peran caused a lot of trouble for all of us and hurt our pride as demons as we had to lift some restrictions on the demons in that world for fastening up the corruption.¡± Sad pride, as he has chosen his words so as not to hurt his pride. Everyone knows it was Pride alone who lifted the restrictions on Peran, as he could not take the humiliation of being defeated by others. So in anger, he lifted the restriction, which caused him to suffer for it, like Wrath, who is always under this effect. ¡°So you gathered all of us to help you out in conquering that world?¡± The giant had a smile on his face as he would get great rewards for conquering this world, but he wasn¡¯t the only one who eyed this opportunity. Gluttony also pays attention to Pride and so does Envy the Skeleton. ¡°Hmph! Don¡¯t think I couldn¡¯t conquer it at all, but there is another reason for it entirely.¡± Said Pride was dissatisfied with their attitude of not showing any courtesy towards him, the strongest of the sins. ¡°The corruption in the world suddenly sped up many times, and I found a dungeon that is responsible for it. So I want to ask which one of you did it. Many were a bit surprised at this but did not show any emotion as they all wanted to pretend it was their doing so they could get leverage from Pride. After all, Pride was the one who invaded this world first, and now he is facing setbacks as his followers were defeated one after another, but this wouldn¡¯t shake Pride''s position as they invaded numerous worlds beforehand, and Pride is currently invading more than 30 worlds at the same time. The main reason this world is special is because of the extremely rich mana it has.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Once a world is corrupted, it can be incorporated into one''s dungeon or body to strengthen it many times. The more mana that was corrupted, the more they gained once they incorporated it. But no one has chosen to incorporate it into their dungeon, as it was a waste of energy, as they would gain more as they are the final defense of the dungeon. ¡°What was more infuriating is that I felt chaos energy in that dungeon!¡± Said Pride changing the whole room temperature from hellish heat to cold, and even the angel awakened once chaos was mentioned and paid attention to it fully. Now they don¡¯t want to claim it at all for themselves. Everyone knows here what chaos means. Chaos and the Hell have been natural enemies since the beginning. Both are the same, trying to incorporate more worlds into themselves and trying to defeat the other. Chaos always won when they clashed, but the reason they weren¡¯t destroyed is the same reason chaos. Chaos simply operates with whims. If the chaos felt like it would do it even if it did not benefit it at all or would do things that would bite back later for it, like how chaos supported the seven sins to conquer numerous worlds. With the chaos taking nothing from it or invading Hell outright without warning. Now a demon working with chaos is unheard of. As everyone who works with chaos will instantly turn into a mindless monster on the spot, there are exceptions to this, but those creatures never leave chaos as they feel the world outside of it is impure for them. If someone is being transformed by chaos, they would lose their ability to govern over the dungeon, but clearly, that dungeon did not get destroyed by chaos but survived it and even incorporated it into the dungeon. Instead of feeling happiness, they felt fear. Another person who will reach their realm, and this time it was closely related to the chaos. ¡°So how should we get rid of it? That is why I called this meeting.¡± Said Pride revealing why he called this meeting, but everyone became quiet until a snorting could be heard, but no one paid attention to it. ¡°What if we let Wrath handle it for us? He always hates something, so we can just let him take care of it for us.¡± Said Lust as it looked towards Pride. ¡°Let Wrath take care of it, after all, I, as Pride, the strongest, shouldn¡¯t deal with a weakling and let my followers deal with him.¡± Said this extremely arrogantly as he looked at everyone, and others could only hide their anger as everyone knew about Pride''s strength. With everyone agreeing to it, they would let Wrath take care of it. After all, no one wants to irritate the chaos, as they can be revenge targets. As they concluded their meeting, they did not see an eyeball floating above their heads as it looked at them. *** As I Got up from my bed and finished my morning exercises, like doing some push-ups, each successful one resulted in one person''s tendon being removed. One successful lap around the castle will result in molten iron being injected into a person''s veins. This is how I did my every morning, as I couldn¡¯t wait for the next day to start so I could enjoy the screams as I did my exercises. The best of my day came to an end, and the worst came up. The dungeon is empty, only the monsters are moving around, or their constant fight echoes through the floor, as no one has come inside the dungeon in the last 2 days. Not even a soul. Likely my dungeon is being blocked by what happened to the previous 2 raids. Not being able to even reach the Dungeon Lord likely put a lot of pressure on the people outside. I knew I could not gain any more terror points this way, so my only choice was to return to Hell and challenge other dungeon lords for their core. But I can¡¯t go back to hell until I become a greater demon. I only have 6000 terror points, far from the desired amount. Others can challenge lower demons, that¡¯s why I was dragged there, but lower demons below a certain level cannot challenge stronger demons at all. I can only torture the people being kept in my dungeon and not let them die so I can gain my terror points for my next evolution. As I looked over the floors, I saw on the Sixth Floor the Deep Sea Dwellers. They already started taming other monsters, and infighting happened about who would become their ruler. I can easily say it would last for a long time as they fought amongst themselves, and all parties were equal. They had the same stats and abilities, the only way for the balance to tip was if a creature much wiser than his kin emerged. But when will such a creature appear? I don¡¯t know and I don¡¯t care about it. All I see them as is nothing more than tools that can farm me terror points. I can only wait until I reach Greater Demon for anything to happen, and until then I can only stay here bored. *** At this moment outside the dungeon, a person appeared clad in black clothes as he looked at the portal in front of him in the deserted street. The whole street is deserted, and no one is allowed to enter this street under military authority. Looking around to make sure no one was watching him, the person took out an amulet that had a skull on it and golden trims around it. Soon information about the amulet appeared in front of the man.
Amulet of Doom
Passive Effect The wearer will experience misfortunes after misfortunes throughout his life with hardship being a daily norm as the user experiences these hardships until his death which is caused by misfortunes. Once the user dies because of the amulet his misfortune will be stored in the amulet. Misfortune will be stacked the more user dies, because of the amulet. Currently stored misfortune: 110,346 (Each misfortune is one person)
Active Effect (1) To activate the amulet, the user has to die by his own hands and not caused by the misfortune of the amulet. Once the user dies unleash a catastrophic event near the user that will target everyone regardless of foe or friend. The catastrophe will be strengthened based on how many misfortunes were stored.
His face showed no hesitation as he drew his dagger and stabbed himself in his throat as blood gushed out, and the last light dissipated from his eye, the amulet activated and turned into dust. The dungeon''s original red color turned black, and eyes started appearing around it as if something otherworldly wanted to enter this world, but something was holding it back, making it angry as it thrashed around trying to remove the thing blocking it. In frustration with not being able to enter this world, the monster let out a shriek as monsters started coming out of the dungeon and flooding the streets, with many more coming out, each stronger than the last, with deformed bodies. As a monster did not stop coming out of the gate, its strength differed from the weakest, only having around 1 for all of its stats, while the strongest had 1000 for all of its stats. 24 - The mission A man was sleeping on his bed when a phone beside him started vibrating. The caller''s name is ¡®Boss¡¯. Soon the man woke up after being woken up by the caller. ¡°WHERE ARE YOU, ETHAN?!¡± Soon, a voice roared from the phone, instantly shaking our guy out of sleepiness. ¡°I was sleeping?¡± Said Ethan is confused about what he is being blamed for. ¡°You are on battle readiness right now! You have 5 minutes to get here before I am kicking your ass! I have been calling you the whole night!¡± Said the other person, extremely angry at Ethan. ¡°Okay, okay. I will be there in a few minutes.¡± With that, he ended the call as he leisurely got up from his bed to pick up his equipment and weapon.
Strompiercer
Passive Effect Every fifth attack causes 300% damage to anyone being hit by the attack this includes the user!
Active Effect If the passive effect is stored up to the Fourth stage and activating the spear it releases a lighting that strikes all enemies in its way. The attack damage will be based on the user''s Wisdom stat.
Radiant Bulwark
Passive Effect Any ranged attack that hits the shield will be reflected on the caster with the skill retaining 70% of the original attack damage.
Active Effect Temporary surrounds the user with a light shield that immobilizes the user, but in exchange makes him invincible for 3 seconds and gains a damage reduction buff that reduces all attacks by 90% for 1 minute once the buff timer is up instead of disappearing it comes back with a -10% effect with the same time and this effect happens until the debuff reaches 0%.
Stormfang Helm
Passive Effect (5/5) The user becomes immune to mind-affecting effects 5 times a day. The charges for each protection are counted from the moment it was used.
Active Effect Temporary enchants the user''s next lightning attack by 40%. Users can consume charges to grant it an additional 20% boost and each boost stacks on each other.
Aurora''s light
Passive Effect Illuminates the surroundings with light granting the user and anyone considered to be an ally a 10% boost to all light elemental skills.
Active Effect Upon activating the skill, a bright light will burst out of the user blinding enemies and allies alike and causing the user¡¯s allies to receive a buff ''Radiating hope'' which boosts everyone''s stats by 10% and enemies receive a -10% debuff for all stats.
Solarstride Leggings
Passive Effect Increase the user agility by 5%.
Active Effect The user receives a 40% agility boost for 5 minutes upon activating the ability.
Tempest Walkers
Passive Effect Leaves behind the user a trail of green lights which boost allies¡¯ movement speed by 30% as long they follow the trail of the user. The trail disappears after 7 seconds.
Active Effect Upon activating the ability, the trail disappears behind the user, and the user temporarily gains the ability to step on the air. The amount of steps the user can take before falling onto the ground is 4 steps.
Stromgrasp Gauntlets
Passive Effect The gauntlets passively take each attack 10% damage and store it inside up to 1000%.
Active Effect Your next attack will unleash all stored attack power at once with all elements that were stored with each attack too.
Eclipse Ring
Passive Effect Mana and health regeneration is sped up by 60%.
Active Effect Upon activation in a radius of 10 meters, all enemies will be stunned based on the user and the opponent''s Wisdom stat difference. (32.80 ft)
He changed his weapons and equipment from his last hunt, as he got extremely lucky. By sheer luck, they found a rare monster whose parts sold extremely high. Not only his, but his teammates got new equipment too. Looking at his status before embarking on his way towards the teleportation station.
Name Ethan Ark
Level 55
Class Thunderstuck Paladin - Epic
Titles Dungeon Conqueror IV
Skills Lightning Thrust (Active), Thunder Dash (Active), Eye of the Storm (Active), Chain reaction (Passive), Overcharge (Active)
Traits Greedy (Passive), Harbinger of Storms (Passive)
Alignment Neutral Evil
Strength 144
Agility 173
Intelligence 162
Wisdom 168
Mana 370/285
Stat points 0
Class Thunderstuck Paladin - Epic
Description The user gains lightning, light, and wind elemental affinity that empowers each of their attacks and deals an additional 20% more damage. For each level up the user gains additional stats to strength agility int. and wisdom +6 +8 +5 +3. The user also deals additional +50 damage against evil creatures.
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Skill Lightning Thrust (Active)
Description The character thrusts their weapon forward with electrifying speed, channeling a surge of lightning through the tip to strike the target with devastating power dealing 150% of the base attack.
Skill Thunder Dash (Active)
Description The character dashes forward with the speed of a lightning bolt, shocking enemies in their path for 7 seconds.
Skill Eye of the Storm (Active)
Description All enemies around the user will be pulled to the user resisting this skill affects the enemies'' doings so will be attacked and suffer the user 5% basic attack damage for each second.
Skill Chain reaction (Passive)
Description A rapid series of electric strikes that leap from one target to another, chaining damage to enemies in the vicinity. Each attack that is transferred loses 20% of its original attack''s damage.
Skill Overcharge (Active)
Description The character channels excess electrical energy into their weapon, supercharging the next attack with overwhelming force. The charge-up takes 3 seconds and deals 400% damage to anyone hit by it.
Trait Greedy (Passive)
Description The user covets other people''s possessions without end. You gain 30% more experience if you are around other people and they receive 30% less experience for each monster they slay.
Traits Harbinger of Storms (Passive)
Description The user always encounters unlucky events that spiral out of control and engulf everyone around him in it.
This place allows anyone to teleport to another city instantly, but not to other planets, as there are clear limits that were not broken for them to be able to teleport to another planet. As he made his way and showed his badge being hired by the military, he was not stopped to be checked and teleported to his location. As he arrived at his destination, in just a few seconds he could hear the artillery fire, but no explosion could be heard as they were just so far away from the spot they were constantly firing at. Even after a few minutes, the firing did not stop as if the world was coming to an end. Soon he entered a big tent that had two soldiers guarding it outside and had to show his identity so he could go inside. People normally can walk around the tents, as only people with authority can teleport here in the first place, but you need special authority to enter different tents. Inside the tent, there are several figures all wearing their gear. None of them were familiar party members, as they dissolved their party a week ago due to unfavorable distribution of loot. Their party was close to 5 years old but broke up over one item, and he can understand, as he was the reason for it. His greed was the result, but it paid off as his new equipment was extremely good for him and his level 55. He is the youngest person to ever reach level 55 and most likely will hold this title for a long time. The empire military recruited him the moment news of his party was dissolved. In the military, he had a good life, but some people approached him to sway him toward the emperor, and he did so. The emperor''s terms were just too generous to refuse. But coming back to reality, his boss came in right after he entered the tent and made him sit down in the corner and reflect on himself for being lazy. His boss is known as the Glacier General. He has gray hair that can barely be seen as he cut it to military standards. His uniform is like all other generals but with icy blue clothes as a base. ¡°You might have heard about the situation of what is happening as the dungeon experienced a sudden surge of monsters.¡± As he said this and pointed behind him, images appeared behind him. Each showcased a monster of different sizes and strengths. ¡°So far we concluded all these monsters have a variety of degrees of levels from level 0 to level 60.¡± As he paused for everyone to hear, many had dark experiences on their faces. But soon the screen changed as red lights appeared in the sky, engulfing all the monsters and killing them. In the dungeons their strength might be limited, but not outside of it. They can use the Empire¡¯s Pride ship, the Titan, and with ground artillery support, they can wipe out the monsters easily. As it concluded, some monsters remained, those with the best defense barely survived as people appeared and started bombarding the monsters with their skills and weapons and soon retreated. ¡°Your job is to become the spearhead for the battalion to reach the gate and seal it, using this crystal.¡± Soon the general took out a crystal the size of a handball, and inside the crystal, you could see white lights moving around in a chaotic order, but everyone saw what this crystal did.
Sealing Crystal
Passive Effect The user will be immune to all mind-related effects no matter if it is positive or negative.
Active Effect Seal an area behind a space crack for 30 days and anything inside will receive constant spatial attacks non-stop.
Just how did the empire get their hands on something like this? ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. The empire treasury gave us this.¡± Said helplessly, as he too had never seen such an item. ¡°We also give you these items too.¡± As the general said this, he signaled to the soldiers to give each person a necklace.
The Gods gaze
Passive Effect The user will always feel being watched so in case the user is ambushed gain a 20% stat bonus for 2 seconds.
Active Effect All enemies in the surrounding of the user will be revealed and will receive 800% damage of all stats combined.
No one could say anything about it as this item was just too overpowered. Gulps can be heard as people see the necklace effects. ¡°Hey, old geezer, you said it is the typical job, and what is this special operation all of a sudden?¡± Ethan can only say this as the general never said anything about this to him. ¡°Hmph! You would never show up if you learned you need to do additional work without plus payment.¡± Said the general as he checked Ethan''s past and how he worked under the military in this short time. Ethan could only turn back towards the corner as he grumbled under his breath for being tricked, he knew he couldn¡¯t leave now as it would be treason, and no matter how talented he was, the Empire would surely go after him. ¡°I know you all might be uncertain, but the Empire¡¯s Pride Invictus Prime will give you support from the skies.¡± Said the general extremely pridefully as his nose rose. The Invictus Prime consumed 27% of the Empire''s income for 10 years. All the equipment with the best materials and with the best engineers is worth the cost for the Empire, as the ship length is 44 kilometers long and 27 kilometers wide. It is equipped with a planet destroyer weapon, the Maron¡¯s lance. Maron was the founder of the empire, as he created the first golden era for the empire. From a commoner to an emperor, his life was a clear myth you can only hear in fairy tales. But let¡¯s skip this part and concentrate on the situation at hand, as this is extremely strange. The military is currently trying to find out how this happened and why the satellites were down when the dungeon went crazy. This clearly showed someone did this behind the scenes, likely one of the marshals, as their influence reduced drastically as the Emperor gained control over the guilds and made them his puppets. The situation got drastically worse for them, so someone most likely did this so he could undermine the emperor. Who can be so brave as to do such a thing? It is unimaginable for everyone, as even if the generals lost their power struggle, they wouldn¡¯t be executed or dismissed, at most, they would be stationed at the colonies to oversee it. So he had another reason to do this, but why? They are grasshoppers in this big game. Soon they left the tent to begin their operation. *** In a room where few people can enter, a person is sitting as he looks over the folders full of information about all kinds of operations and the latest one, ¡®Operation Narxon.¡¯ Narxon was the First Emperor''s best general, who never once in his life suffered defeat. Narxon died in a battle that had overwhelming odds of 8 to 1. Using his life and his men to give the Emperor a chance to attack the coalition forces who banded together against the rising Empire to kill it before it grew up. Such a coalition was so engrossed in killing Narxon that they forgot where the emperor was, only to be ambushed, killing all the commanders and causing chaos in the coalition forces, resulting in a defeat and moving the way for the Empire''s glory. Using his life for victory, he was the only person who was buried in the sacred lands of the Empire that later housed all the future Emperors, making him the only exception. No one knows what is in that graveyard, as only the Emperors themselves are allowed to enter it, and they have to bring the former Emperor''s casket with them and bury it. Such actions were created by the First Emperor so they can all remember their roots being humans no different from others. Let their predecessor casket be this example they are no different from the others around them and not some divine being''s descendants. Smiling at the folders, the man took out a camera, took a few shots, and got up and left the room. Outside, the soldiers did not pay attention to him or how he left the room, as all soldiers had unfocused eyes. None of the soldiers present knew what was happening as they were in a trance. What an upheaval there will be once this spell ends! No one knows as the heads will surely fly up in the sky for such a place being raided. This place is the Empire Intelligence Agency''s secret information hideout. Normally people will think this place is a small military place, as even the equipment is outdated and the soldiers are extremely lazy. Such a thing is painted on the surface, but once you go inside, everything changes where the man came out. But for this man in strange pink clothes that hid his whole body, it did not matter. His job is done, and he needs to bring the information to the people who need it. *** In a crumbled city, you can see people fighting against monsters and explosions happening ahead of them as they are being covered by the military so they won¡¯t be overrun by the monsters that flood out of the gate. Ethan moved among the monsters skillfully as he unleashed the new skill he mastered. ¡°Lightning Thrust!¡± His spear glowed with whitish light, and lightning ran through the spear body extremely fast, as soon as the spear body touched anything, this lightning was discharged into it, killing any monsters on the spot. ¡°Ethan, cover me! I am going in!¡± Soon a person with red hair and a strange accent with an ugly face with two short swords jumped into the monsters, and on his back was an iron box that could weigh down anyone, but for the man this amount of weight was nothing. ¡°Corrosive Infusion!¡± As soon as he said this, his weapons were covered in a green light, and once a monster was stabbed by him, it died on the spot, and the green light on his weapon became stronger from killing the monster in one blow. As he killed more and more monsters, he became stronger and faster, not stopping at anything. They are getting closer and closer to the gate as they kill monsters blocking their way. All kinds of flashy skills and attacks were released on the monsters. But as they got closer, an eye was watching them constantly, clearly happy for food coming to it willingly. 25 - Fight for the Gate (1) My name is Rennard Corz. I came from a poor family with little hope of ever breaking out of the cycle that my family lives in. My family was killed by monsters when I was 13 years old and with nothing left, I decided to become an adventurer. After countless years of blood and sweat, I am an adventurer who achieved level 57 and is one of the most powerful people on the planet. After reaching level 50, I was recruited into the military to work for them, and I happily accepted it. Looking back, when I first started, I made great progress. I did not have a talent for anything; all I had was my will to move forward through my life. Many hurdles were placed in my way to reach the top, but this might have been fate, as against all odds I won. Today wasn¡¯t my most dangerous mission, as all we had to do was seal a gate with the item they had given us. The monsters spotted were not too strong compared to our levels, and most of them were extremely distorted to the point they could not move. Sounds easy? I thought so too until we met that monster. I was assigned the temporary captain for this mission. Everything went so well at the beginning. Just as Rex was getting closer to the gate. (Red-haired dude.) I saw an eye next to the gate sneakingly looking toward him. Sadly, I was too late to warn him about the dangers as a tentacle moved at a speed I could not comprehend and pierced Rex''s head. ¡°Ethan, back off!¡± I could only roar at Ethan as he was shocked at how Rex, not far from him, was pierced through his head without the ability to fight back or react at all. ¡°Emily, Lala! Come to me!¡± I called out to two companions of mine as they heard my voice, juked the monster they were facing, and came to my side. ¡°We need to use our skills to defeat that monster. Lala, can you protect me and Emily while we charge it up?¡± I could only turn towards Emily, as she is the only person I trust to watch my back here. Emily was a purple-haired beauty with a charming look that could melt mountains, and many people tried to ask her out, but they were rejected mercilessly with no second chance. On the other hand, Lala was a blond, long-haired woman with no extraordinary feature that would make her stand out from the crowd, unlike Emily. ¡°No problem, Rennard!¡± As I saw Emily smile, I held hands with Lala as we used our skills, but as I turned towards the monster with Lala, Emily behind us had a dark and cold look. Lala has the skill of amplification, while I have a special skill, ¡®Decagon Beam of Light¡¯.
Skill Amplification
Description Amplify an ally''s next skill by 200%. The longer the user amplifies a friendly user skill the greater the mana cost and the strengthening effect will be with an upper limit of 600%. Mana''s cost will rise the longer the skill is used.
Skill Decagon Beam of Light
Description The skill can be cast instantly or charged dup. Instantons attack will only equal a 10% attack of the user, but the longer the skill is being charged dup the stronger it will be with a 500% increase. The damage is based on the user wisdom and intelligence stat. Once charged up a light beam will be shot out in front of the user and the more the ability is charged up the more light bulbs appear around the user with a maximum of 10.
Normally this skill is not strong and is not good to use, but with amplification, it will become much stronger. Soon lights started gathering around us as we both concentrated. I charged up the skill while Lala amplified it. Holding hands isn¡¯t a must, but it is much easier, even though it is extremely embarrassing doing so in front of many people and declaring our relationship to the world. For others, it wasn¡¯t easy as monsters were around and attacking our unit, so they had to stop them from getting to us, and Emily killed all the monsters that tried to get close to us. The box that held the crystal was not far from the gate as Rex''s body was dragged into the cracks around the gate and likely eaten. Ethan is coming back from the gate and looking at me for the next command, but you can see fear towards the monster that lays around the space crack around the gate. Soon my skills charged up. ¡°Everyone out of the way!¡± With that said, I put my hands together in front of me, and 9 light beams appeared around my hands and one light in front of me as they connected to the one in front of me. Soon a huge light burst out of the light bulb, incomparable to its previous size, and annihilating everything in front of it. Except for the gate, which stood there without any fluctuation. I did not see the eyes around the gate likely got affected by them. ¡°Ethan¡­ go and grab the box!¡± I could only yell, but my body suddenly felt weak as I almost collapsed from the lack of mana. I used up everything to eradicate the monsters. Thankfully, the box was not damaged at all in the attack. As Ethan heard my voice, he moved forward and grabbed the box. Before he could take it away, a black energy wave went towards him. As he dodged to the side, a person appeared from the space cracks.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Black hair with a purple line in it. Eyes void of any light with the same face as Rex. He was not a handsome dude, but still above average. His skin changed from white to charred black. His upper body was barren of any cloth, and only his trousers were left together, but his shoes were burned as his leg emitted a constant heat that melted the ground whenever he stepped on it. As it moved, you could see ash flying off from his body. With one look, I knew he was not a normal monster at all. It possessed Rex''s body. As it lifted its blades, they soon melted into its hands and turned their hands into blades. Blue flames flickered on it as he moved them around in amusement. Soon I saw it move; no, I did not see it. It appeared in front of Ethan with a look of delight as it looked at him with a grin. ¡°Ethan, get back here! Everyone prepare for Boss raid formation!¡± I could only yell at the people to get them together as everyone was stunned by the monster''s sudden speed. It slowly walked towards him and transformed back one of its arms to indicate to Ethan to attack him. Ethan, using the monster as a jumping board, kicked it and leaped away, but the monster just smirked at him, not doing anything. Ethan was pissed, but not crazy enough to know he is no match for this monster. ¡°Appraisal! Someone appraise the monster!¡± I could only yell at the mages at the back after I drank 2 bottles of mana regeneration potions to prepare to face off against that monster. We need to know the monster''s strength so we can properly face off against it or retreat if it is too strong, but currently, retreat is the better option. Even though I waited for the mage''s reply, it never came and never will, as I looked away from the monster and the back I saw blood fountains rising as the monster severed their heads. Looking in front of me again, the monster disappeared. Afterimage! The monster''s grin faded away as it looked towards us again, indicating to attack it while it chewed on one of the mages''s arms while showing an expression as it tasted some kind of godly food. It is toying with us. I knew we couldn¡¯t defeat it, and as I reached for the backup caller, I felt danger and dodged to the side just in the nick of time as a bolt of black lightning flashed past me. Soon pain assaulted my brain as I could no longer feel my right arm. Looking to my right side, blood is gushing out of the place where my arm should be, but only a clean cut was seen. ¡°Ugh!¡± I could only grab the missing spot where my arm should be to stop the bleeding as I looked at the monster while gritting my teeth. In the monster''s hand, no longer a chewed arm, but the crystal that sends information back to the military asking for backup. I could no longer speak with them or hear them after I got close to the gate. I first thought it was because of the high mana density in the area, but it was this monster that blocked information from getting out of there. As the monster smiled at us, I saw part of its chest turning into dust and drifting away, upsetting the monster as it moved towards me again with great speed. Raising my shield with one arm, I prepared myself to block its attack. Soon I felt great force hitting my shield as I was sent flying but got caught by Lala as I would crash to the ground. ¡°Oh my god, Rennard, you are bleeding too much! You need to get back and see a healer.¡± Sai Lala, as she worriedly looked at my arm and tried to stop the bleeding. ¡°If I leave, you''re all going to die to that monster!¡± I could only grit my teeth as I looked at Lala, and soon Emily also came to help me. I can see the worried look on their faces, but what can I do? Who can stop that monster if not me, the commander? As everyone finished killing the monsters and started encircling the monster, it looked around amusingly. ¡°Everyone helps Ethan reach the gate and seal it no matter the cost!¡± As I said this, I raised my left hand and saw the shield being broken from just one attack. ¡°Tetrabind!¡± As I moved my arm up and showed my palm, light lit up on it, and soon light appeared under the monster, and chains wrapped around its arms and legs, restricting its movement.
Skill Tetrabind
Description Light up the ground below the targeted enemy in a 5 meter radius and chains will come out of the ground restricting the opponent''s ability to move and draining mana from the opponent while doing so. The longer the skill is being activated the more mana it will cost to keep it up. The base cost is 50 mana. (16.40 ft)
I hoped it would buy some time for Ethan, but the monster just moved a little and broke free from it. Soon, with one movement, as if trying to cut me down, a force descended on my head, but before it could slice me in two, I felt someone pushing me away from the horror that crept up on me. Who was it? I saw a face full of fear and tears. It was Lala as she pushed me away and sliced her in two. Being pushed onto the ground, I felt everything just became quiet and dark. ¡°Please¡­ Save¡­ me¡­¡± I could see Lala''s face tearing up as she asked me to save her as blood gushed out of her body. ¡°Rennard¡­Everything is... so dark.¡± I can feel the heat leaving her body as she is dying. I could not move as tears blurred my vision. My left hand was shaking as I saw a small box dropping pockets. Putting the black box away, I got up and looked at the monster as it killed people around it, no longer caring about me. It was just a miscellaneous fish, and I was prepared to give it my all to kill the monster, but a force soon hit my neck, and everything turned dark for me. *** ¡°Can you connect to any member of Operation Narxon?¡± Said a person in a room with extremely advanced tech equipment and many people sitting and speaking in front of them as they operated the beast they were in. The place they are is the flagship of the Empire! Invictus Prime. ¡°No, sir, I tried to connect to them and even see the situation around them, but we couldn¡¯t make out anything as the mana density around the gate distorts any image or sound we try to capture.¡± Said one of the soldiers who operated in front of the commander as he tried to connect to the group. ¡°Keep trying and send some resonance units in so we can know if they need any help, but make sure if the situation doesn¡¯t look good for them, the reinforcements are there immediately.¡± The commander could only make use of what he had. They bombarded the gate not long ago, and they cannot do another bombardment, as the group will be caught up in it, and that time he will be the person responsible for the unit being wiped out. So he can only wait for the resonance unit report before he can decide his next move. Each minute without information was an eternity. Soon information came back of the group being engaged with a monster that is slaughtering them. ¡°Move all units that can support them to reinforce them and not let the crystal be destroyed! The remaining forces start the encirclement of the monsters and wipe them out.¡± As the commander said it, he was unhappy hearing the news. ¡°Commander units 3, 4, and 7 can reinforce Operation Narxon.¡± Said one of the operators as he awaited his orders, not turning towards his superior at all. ¡°Move them at once; the more, the better.¡± Said the commander as he nodded and imagined the results of why those groups were able to reinforce them. ¡°How long until they arrive?¡± Said the commander, as he knew the monster would likely finish off the Narxon group if it took too long for them. ¡°11 minutes and 34 seconds, sir, until they arrive.¡± Said the operator as he moved his hands on the computer under him, it showed the image to the commander as they moved closer and closer to the gate, but the image getting worse and worse. ¡°Can anything be done to fix the image?¡± Asked the commander as he looked at the image with a frown. ¡°The technical department is working on it but has not made any progress until now.¡± Said the operator while sweating as the commander''s gaze became sharper as it fixed on his back. ¡°I will remember this.¡± As he said this under his breath, he turned away and went out of the operation room. ¡°Sir, where are you going?¡± The operator was shocked at where his commander was going. ¡°Where else? To the battlefield. Those guys down there can¡¯t defeat that monster at all, and even the reinforcements don¡¯t have any powerful person to take care of that monster.¡± While saying this, the commander''s voice became much quieter as he left the room, and the doors shut after him. Everyone in the room was shocked by the commander going out personally. He did not even appoint anyone to command instead of him! Who is going to give the orders now?! 26 - Fight for the Gate (2) Ethan POV ¡°Huff, huff.¡± I could hardly breathe anymore. This monster is just too much, and the commander also disappeared. With no one giving orders, the monster was slaughtering us, and it knew we were aiming for the box, but it did not give us any chance, as every time I got closer, it would appear in front of me and attack me. Thanks to the others, I survived, but our number was barely above 10. No mages, only close-range fighters to fight against this monster. We can¡¯t even distance ourselves from it as it will instantly appear in front of us. I tried to land a blow, but the monster always dodged at the last second. Soon I saw his fist closing on my face, and I knew if I got hit, I would die on the spot with my head flying into the sky. But my body was just too tired after the fight and could barely move as my whole body was covered in sweat, and even my equipment abilities were triggered, already making them useless. I could only close my eyes as I awaited my doom, but nothing happened. ¡°Hey, kid, will you be standing here all day?¡± I could hear a voice that time did not spare as it was hoarse from the countless times spent smoking. When I opened my eyes, I realized in front of me was a man in a sweater with casual pants, and in both of his hands were brass knuckles. The monster was standing in front of me with his arm raised and looking at the old man. Somehow he stopped the monster from attacking. ¡°If your dilly-dallying is over, then leave already, I have to take care of this monster myself.¡± As the old man said, he threw me away like nothing and hit the monster away with one punch. Looking at the old man, his whole body is covered in scars with extremely defined muscles that years of hard work created. Short silver hair with deep blue eyes and a mutton chops beard with a small mustache. Boom. I saw where the monster landed, the ground cracked in as it jumped at the man with speed far surpassing what I could see. As I wanted to see what would happen, my vision was obstructed by the dust that was stirred up. Soon I felt my eardrums explode as the monster moved at such a speed that it created a sonic boom. As the dust settled, I saw the man standing in front of the monster without moving and the monster being stopped by some kind of force as I saw it trying to punch the man but couldn¡¯t move at all. ¡°You had your shots, now it is my time to punch.¡± Said the man as he raised his left arm and prepared to punch the monster in the face. Seeing his fist moving forward, but as if the space itself got distorted, his punch landed on the monster''s face, instantly sending him flying away. ¡°It has been a while since I got such a good punching bag.¡± Said the man gleefully as he walked towards the monster, but the next moment he appeared in front of the monster, punching him in the gut and caving him into the ground. But soon an explosion happened, and the old man was sent out flying with a trail of smoke after him. The monster came out of the smoke, and one of his arms turned into dust with a raging expression as it hated being toyed with. Getting up from the ground, I saw the old man spit out a mouthful of blood as he was hit by the explosion from the monster. ¡°Damn it, I hit the sandbag too hard, and it flew back and hit me in the face. Thankfully those old guys are not here to see my embarrassment.¡± I heard the old gay saying this to himself, but also to us who are still alive, not to talk about this to anyone. ¡°Hey, kiddos, leave the monster to me and seal the gate already. We wasted too many lives for this operation.¡± Raising his voice high enough so everyone could hear him, he said, while not turning his vision off from the monster. With a scream, the monster charged at the old man again with a sonic boom following closely after the monster. For the first time, the old man dodged to the side and he kicked the monster away as it was next to him, sending him into the debris of a house. But soon after, it jumped out and tried to ram the old man, who, using his ability, stopped the monster again, punching him away. The monster after each attack became stronger and faster as it did not care about its injuries, but the dust that slowly drifted off from its body became more and more. It slowly started becoming more and more desperate as it could not land a blow on the old man. But the old man was not faring too well, as each punch of the monster could, at minimum, break his bones or be fatal. What tired him out was dodging the monster explosion that it created with just its body and the flames on him. Those flames can burn anything to dust. As they fought, I tried to get the boy, but the monster, seeing what we were doing, turned its attention to us, stopping us from doing it. The old man did not let the monster run away from him as he used his ability on the monster, stopping him in his tracks, but as he wanted to punch the monster, the monster moved for the first time. Overcame the old man''s ability. Feeling the danger, the old man dodged just in the nick of time as the monster''s remaining arm barely scratched across the surface of his face but still drew blood out from the wound. ¡°Congratulations, you abomination, you deserve a reward.¡± Said the old man as he backed away, and soon both of his turned blue and gave off a chilling feeling to anyone who saw it. ¡°Eat this! ¡®Cryo-Nebula¡¯!¡± The old man used both of his fists to hit the monster at the same time, sending it flying towards the gate into the space cracks around it, and who knows when the monster will stop from the strike it received as I saw the monster, half of its body freezing instantly.
Skill Cryo-Nebula
Description Cover the user''s hands in the nebula''s light, causing anyone who comes into contact with it to begin freezing at the point of impact. The ice slowly spreads, engulfing the target. While being engulfed by the ice, the user will experience severe pain and radioactive radiation at the site of the strike, which cannot be healed normally. This skill consumes the user''s mana, with a minimum consumption of 20%, which can increase up to 100%. The damage dealt is based on the user''s Wisdom and Strength stats.
As the monster disappeared, I sprinted towards the boy, picked it up, and took the crystal out. The crystal received zero damage as the box can stop it from receiving any damage outside of the box in the first place. Channeling mana into the crystal, it soon started glowing in my hand as I felt it being charged. I threw it towards the gate, and soon it stopped right outside the gate, floating as the space started cracking with an extremely bright light, blinding everyone from looking at it directly.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I could hear screams that made my ears bleed and even the ground shook as a shockwave came from the dungeon that made me fly out and land heavily in the debris of a house with others who were near me. As the flashing lights disappeared, I looked where the gate should be, but there was nothing anymore. ¡°Well, fuck I shouldn''t have sent him back into the gate.¡± I heard a muffled voice, and as I turned around, I saw the old man walking towards me while looking where the gate should be. ¡°I might get demoted for this.¡± Said the old man as he scratched his head, he sighed and escorted us back. I couldn¡¯t understand what this old man meant, but I soon understood it after hearing the news. *** -Dave POV- I made a big mistake and accidentally killed all the humans in my dungeon, leaving me with nothing to entertain myself. Who knew they broke so easily? Just a little push and they became emotionless dolls. They did not react to any type of pain at all. I didn¡¯t like human meat at all, so what am I supposed to do with them? I could give it to Vorzath, but he already has a ton of material for his art, so I highly doubt he needs something like this. As I was lying on my throne from boredom, the servants around me did all kinds of things to make me happy, but it was boring without anyone coming into my dungeon. Just as I was about to go on a walk around my chamber, I felt the whole place shaking, and I did not know what happened, as this only lasted 2 seconds, but Vorzath was already next to me to protect me from all dangers. But nothing happened as I waited for what was about to come. Soon Vorzath went back to continue refining his art while I went around my garden. Just then humans came into the dungeon! I was so happy that I went back to my room to watch it. I had the impulse to go there personally and enjoy myself to the fullest, but I held back. I shouldn¡¯t rush to drink this fine wine. As I was watching them, I saw them looking around curiously as if it was their first time entering this dungeon. The whole party was decimated by the first floor. I did enjoy it, but it was strange that recently the people raiding my dungeon were so strong, so why are they so weak? Even if the people entering this place go solo, they always rush to the third floor instantly without stopping. Looking at their equipment, it was rubbish and made me wonder if the humans outside exhausted all their resources conquering this dungeon. After the first one did not come back, a second one came in with slightly better equipment. This time from the 20 people, 3 made out. Using their teammates as bait, they successfully escaped. Soon more and more people came inside the dungeon trying to explore it as much as possible, and I did not know how much sensation this brought to the people outside the dungeon. Seeing people flowing into my dungeon postponed my plans about going into Hell to fight other dungeon Lords. But what surprised me was that the people did not stop coming in and all had the same look of endless greed! Not caring about it anymore as I enjoyed the show in front of me happily. But I must prepare enough humans for the next time no human goes inside the dungeon. So the humans who were left behind by others were kidnapped by Vorzath and put into their new sweet home! I could dance from happiness all day seeing my farm going from 0 up to 100! Those broken dolls were also placed back into their homes and let the humans know what a fantastic new life was coming for them! I stopped dancing around as I destroyed several of my art while I did not pay attention to my surroundings. Instructing the servants to clean it up, I started thinking about the next Overseer. Not the Floor Guardian, but the next Overseer, as I need a way to go outside the dungeon and gather information, and seeing so many humans coming inside and going out is the best time to blend in and go outside. I don¡¯t need someone to fight for me, but someone who can do espionage. He can¡¯t work alone, so he needs a way to have servants. As soon as I formed the image and my farming started making terror points for me, I had the leisure to make my new overseer. Soon my mana started being drained, and I had to use terror points to make up for it, and this lasted for 10 minutes before it stopped. I could barely stand, but I could see her as he knelt on one knee and greeted me. ¡°What is your wish, my Lord?¡± Said Strix. A regal figure with flawless, ashen grey skin and glowing crimson eyes with long dark hair that resembles the night sky with crystal decorating her body that contains eerie light. She wore armor that hid her body behind it, and only her head was not hidden away.
Name Strix
Rank Rank 1 - Overseer
Title Second Overseer of the Dungeon Of Terror
Skills Seal of Domination (Active), Chains of Subjugation (Active), Pact of Eternity (Active), Echo of the Master (Passive), Soulforge Creation (Active)
Traits Master Manipulator (Passive), Sadistic Master (Passive)
Alignment Neutral Evil
Strength 440
Agility 570
Intelligence 710
Wisdom 775
Mana 62400/6240
Evolution Condition 45000 Terror Points
Skill Seal of Domination (Active)
Description Mark a person who was subjugated by the ''Chains of Subjugation'' turning them into puppets who will live the rest of their lives to serve you alone. This skill consumes the user mana based on how strong is the individual.
Skill Chains of Subjugation (Active)
Description Cast chains around a person you wish to subjucate and the person or creature in qeustion will experience a slow drain of mental energy that exhaust them over time and weakening their mental defense. This skill will last as long the person or creature is being targeted by the user or escapes the influence of the user. This distance is measured by the user wisdom stat. For each wisdom stat it is 0.5 meter. (1.64 ft)
Skill Pact of Eternity (Active)
Description Offer deals to individuals who are not under the effect of ''Chain of Subjugation'' or ''Seal of Domination'' in exchange for accepting the offer the individual will transform into a monster that grants her greatly boosted stats and will live until the user lives. So in case the user of this skill dies all the people who accepted this offer. Once the user is resurrected so will all the people who accepted this offer.
Skill Echo of the Master (Passive)
Description Allows the user to see, hear and even speak through the user''s bound servants.
Skill Soulforge Creation (Active)
Description Use the subjugated individuals under your command and mesh them together to create a new entity entirely that serves you until death. The new creation''s strengths, skills, and traits will be based on the merged individual''s abilities. You cannot use this skill on those who are under the skill effect of ''Pact of Eternity''.
Trait Master Manipulator (Passive)
Description You are skilled in manipulating others to your bidding and exploiting your enemies'' weaknesses. You hardly show emotion to others so they cannot guess your true emotion and motivation.
Trait Sadistic Master (Passive)
Description You reward those who work hard but punish severely those who fail you. All your subjects fear to incur your wrath.
After going through her ridiculous stats and evolution price and her skills that made me remember Vorzath''s status I could only have a dark expression of how weak I am compared to my servants. ¡°I command you as your lord to make servants that can be sent out of the gate to gather information of the outside world for me.¡± I told her what I wanted, as I was too tired to care about it anymore. I went back to my room to sleep a good one, as draining my mana and being pumped with mana again tired my whole body. ¡°Do not worry, my Lord, I will do it flawlessly.¡± As she said that, she waited until I left to get up from kneeling and looking at the servants to escort her away, as she did not speak as she viewed everyone below her. To her, anyone who is not an Overseer or her lord is viewed as ants not worth her time. But she did glance around the palace corridors, memorizing everything so she could understand her Lord''s taste better. 27 - Strix ¡°Oh, great Emperor, please save us!¡± Murmured a person with a disheartened look as he was constantly shaking after experiencing the torment that the previous group who were locked up here went through. Others looked at this person with fear and stayed as far from him as possible in the small room. Those monsters cramped them together. Even though others want to say everything will be alright as the others might already notice their absence and might try to rescue them, those were wishful thoughts as days passed as more and more people were dragged away. Only this man came back from all those who got dragged away. Many people wanted to ask what happened to him or others, but he did not answer, only murmuring into the air. His spirit has broken, becoming a body without a soul. People asked him to stop murmuring or quiet down, but he did not stop like a tape recorder repeating the same sentences over and over. Just as everyone started getting fed up with the man, footsteps could be heard from outside. Not small and quiet, but heavy and loud as if someone wore iron boots, and the owner does wear iron boots. Soon the door opened, and a person came in. His body has an iron suit with only his head that can be seen in a green fluid that he is swimming in with sometimes bubbles coming up. His face was constantly melting and regenerating, and just as if it was mocking them, he also wore a butler outfit. Coming inside, he looked at the people present and started searching for one that would be good for his order. Soon he picked the crazy man and 2 other people. A woman and an old man. The woman was around 30ish with brown hair and an unremarkable face, while the old man might have looked handsome in his younger days, but now his face is full of wrinkles with white hair. They tried to resist and were successful until the butler broke their legs and dragged them away after locking the door. They were dragged across the floor, and the floor wasn¡¯t normal but a rocky surface, resulting in them suffering bruises and even bleeding if the broken leg wasn¡¯t enough already. Soon, the butler stopped in front of a door and let go of their legs. Knocking on the door, soon a voice sounded. ¡°Bring them in.¡± An enchanting female voice sounded from the other side of the door with a bit of laughter in the mix. As the butler opened the door, inside was a torture chamber designed for Strix. All kinds of torture equipment were on the wall for men and women separately. The woman and the old man looked around the door, seeing so many devices. One of the devices on the wall was a pair with a screw at its end. Just looking at it makes people wonder what it is used for. (The Pear of Anguish was a metal device that was put into people''s mouths or other parts of their bodies and was slowly expanded when the screw was turned.) In one corner was a metal chair, but instead of the normal flat top, it was pyramid-shaped. The Judas Cradle was a torture device where the person was lowered slowly on top of the pyramid, which caused great suffering and prolonged mental trauma. It was used on men, and their family jewellery was inserted on top of the pyramid. The two people did not recognize these devices, after all, they had seen nothing similar and were banned, but the blood around the equipment had already given them the answer to what it was used for. Soon chains wrapped around their necks, making it harder for them to breathe. Looking around where it came from, it was connected to nothing, and they couldn¡¯t even unshackle it as it was glued to them. ¡°My little bugs, will you submit to me, or do I have to make an example out of one of you?¡± Said a Strix as she walked around them, caressing their necks with her finger, but it left a blood trail after it. Taking it out of a cloth, she cleaned her finger from the blood and threw it away. Neither the old man nor the woman spoke, but another person. The crazy guy from before. ¡°The Emperor is with us! We will never submit to you monsters!¡± As he said this, he kept thrashing around, not caring about his broken legs, as both of his legs were broken by the butler.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He wanted to get up and punch the woman but unsuccessfully fell back to the ground in agony but just kept doing it like a crazed beast. ¡°Oh, I remember you. I tested one of my abilities on you. How long can my ¡®Chain of Subjugation¡¯ affect a person, but didn¡¯t I tell you to get rid of him?¡± Asked the woman as she turned towards the butler. The butler kneeled as he asked for forgiveness, but the next second a splash was heard, and the butler''s glass helmet exploded, and the acid sprayed on the unlucky crazy man, melting him. But he did not have to worry as he wasn¡¯t dying alone, as the butler was already dead. Strix diverted her attention away from the butler''s corpse, as she knew he would be soon reborn and would come here to clean it up. She just warned him that there won¡¯t be a next time. His fate was saved that he served Dave, otherwise, if he were under her, he would experience a thousand times much worse than this. ¡°Now, now, where did we stop? Oh, right torture!¡± Said Strix as she remembered the two other bugs. ¡°I submit!¡± said the old man, knowing just how ruthless she is with her underlings. His fate will be a thousand times worse. The woman wasn¡¯t slow either, as she submitted. As both submitted, soon a mark appeared on their heads. A circle with 6 segments. One in the middle and around it 5 others. The one in the middle was a red eyeball, with the one above it a crystal, and on the right and left sides of it were daggers, each facing the middle segment, while the bottom two were screaming heads. As soon as this appeared, it soon disappeared. ¡°You guys don¡¯t know how to enjoy the fun, but I should train you to be at least a decent throw-able puppet for me.¡± Said Strix as she picked all kinds of equipment down and assessed which one would be good for this situation. ¡°Please don¡¯t, I will never betray you!¡± said the woman with the old man, affirming it too. ¡°Oh, my, I am not scared of you guys betraying me, I just do it for my amusement and as a preparation to showcase my abilities later for his lordship.¡± Said Strix as her lord mesmerized her, congratulating her for her abilities in her mind from the future as if it were set in stone. But soon her smile disappeared as she remembered Vorzath and how he was the first one and not her, making her jealous. As she thought about it more and more, the torture device in her hand broke, waking her up and remembering how she had to train in the new bugs. Later she doesn¡¯t need to do it as they would do it instead of her, so she can fully enjoy it with her Lord. Soon Strix started humming happily while screams sounded from the room, making it extremely terrifying for anyone passing by it. Outside of the room, the butler was already back waiting for Strix''s order, until then, he guards the door so no one will interrupt her except the Lord if he asks for Strix''s presence. *** I opened my eyes as I was in my bed, and as I got out of bed, I felt dizzy from overexerting myself so much. ¡°Call Strix, I want to be informed about her progress.¡± I called out, and soon movements sounded from the other side of the door as maids and butlers came into the room. The head butler, Varrick, and the head maid, Selene, both bow and instruct one of their personnel to call Strix, and I can already see both of them forming a rivalry so early. They won¡¯t show it in my presence, but their eyes tell me everything I need to know. I did not care as long as they did not hinder my happiness, they could do whatever they wanted, even killing each other. After dressing up, I went into my throne room and sat on my throne as I enjoyed hearing the suffering of people who were currently being tortured outside my window. What can be a better start to the day than hearing the suffering of others so early in the day? Soon I heard footsteps as the door opened and Strix came in. Kneeling, she greeted me. ¡°My Lord, what is your wish?¡± Said Strix. I could see lights sparkling in her eyes as she looked at me. This left me with a bad taste in my mouth, as I was not interested in such low things as love. Who cares about it anyway? ¡°I asked for you so you can tell me the progress of your job, how many people you recruit, and what is the progress of it?¡± I did not beat around the bush, as I did not want to waste my time with this. ¡°I currently enslaved 20 bugs, and I can do more if the Lord wishes, but I do not see it fit to enslave more than the rest is for the Lord''s enjoyment.¡± Said Strix, trying to cosy up to me as much as possible, but I did not care, hearing I had fewer people to torture did not sit well with me, but I needed to get information about the outside world after all. ¡°When can they be dispatched?¡± I asked as I looked down at Strix. ¡°Currently I am training them, but if the Lord wishes, I can dispatch them at once. If they fail, we can recruit more later.¡± Said Strix while not caring about their lives at all. ¡°Did you find anyone noteworthy among them?¡± Remembering that there should be useful talents among the humans who specialize in these kinds of things. ¡°3 individuals have the potential, my lord, to be more useful pawns for you.¡± As she said this, she paused shortly to continue again. ¡°These 3 bugs had previous training as spies beforehand, and their pain tolerance was higher than the others, but they too needed a bit more training, and I am sure these 3 bugs can do what you want, my lord.¡± As she said this, she got up from kneeling after I gestured for her to do so. ¡°Good, then train them until you find them prepared enough and send them to gather information for us.¡± I said this as I got up and left the throne room. Outside, I saw people being put into wooden caskets with iron pumps leading into them as they channelled vapour into them. Not only were they locked into a casket, but hot air was channelled into the caskets, so even breathing was painful, and I saw the butlers putting some sort of chemical mixture into it, making the people scream their lungs out. Normally, hot air is unbearable, but not to the extent where they scream their lungs out, likely something to do with the butler''s experimenting. I manifested with my mana a glass of wine as I sipped it. I can manifest anything I wish inside my dungeon as long as I have enough mana for it and space. Imagine manifesting a battleship in a bedroom, it will instantly crumble anyone in the room to meat pasta. Soon I heard screams coming from another part of my castle, knowing well Strix started her work. Hearing the people below me and far away both screaming made my day so perfect I could enjoy this forever, but I knew it would not last, so I must enjoy it to the fullest. 28 - Overtaking the city underworld Soon, a week passed since the spies were released. When they first appeared, they were disoriented and confused about their surroundings. The area around the gate had been restricted, and no one could enter without authorization from the city. The city in which I appeared is Norkfent city. Soon, information surfaced about their origins. They were from the capital, sent here after the dungeon had been relocated instead of sealed away. After extensive testing, it was confirmed they were not monsters masquerading as humans, but ordinary people. With no evidence of wrongdoing, they were set free. Sadly, they couldn¡¯t return to the capital. Instead, they were stranded on Resgong, one of the empire¡¯s colonial planets. This colony, the empire¡¯s second, was its poorest and most corrupt colony, even after such a long time of development. The reasons were no mystery. Resgong was more of a penal colony than a settlement. It was a dumping ground for criminals. Outside, you might be a notorious crime boss, but here, you¡¯re just another nobody. Flaunting your reputation is a surefire way to end up bleeding in an alley, robbed of everything you own. Chaos would reign if not for the empire¡¯s military, which maintained order through the constant threat of orbital bombardment. Suppression came primarily from the empire¡¯s fleet, capable of reducing entire areas to rubble with orbital strikes. From what I gathered, Resgong had no other gates besides mine, and people were flocking to it like moths to a flame, desperate for a way out. In the capital, levelling up followed the ¡®normal¡¯ path, but here, killing others granted experience based on their level and the difference between yours and theirs. After assessing the situation, I began formulating plans to lure people into the dungeon. But then I realized something else. I could convert them to my cause. Resgong was teeming with greedy, desperate criminals who feared death more than anything else. If I could satisfy their greed and protect them from harm, they would never betray me. With Strix¡¯s ability to enslave them, I could build a loyal army, one that would fight for me and generate endless terror points. The future was looking brighter with every passing second. But what caught my attention was Strix¡¯s report. She had gained a loyal subordinate, someone who would prove extremely useful. A ¡®good show,¡¯ as she put it, was scheduled to unfold in a few days. I decided to wait and see. If she failed, I¡¯d reconsider her place in my castle or whether she deserved to exist at all. *** Boss Raze, we¡¯ve got intel on those cultists!¡± A man burst into a dimly lit office, the weak glow of a lone lamp casting shadows that obscured the faces of those inside. ¡°Cough, cough!¡± The man doubled over, choking on the thick cigarette smoke. ¡°What did you find?¡± A raspy voice came from behind the desk, the chair still turned away. ¡°They¡¯re planning a gathering at a hotel in the east,¡± the man stammered, his eyes darting nervously to the shadowy figures in the corner. His former superior stood in the corner, silent and unmoving, alongside three others who had met similar fates to him. ¡°Which one? There are six hotels in the east.¡± The boss flicked his cigarette into an ashtray, the smoke curling lazily in the air. ¡°The Golden Garth Hotel, sir.¡± The man felt the tension ease slightly. Failure to answer would have meant joining his predecessors as another grim decoration in the boss¡¯s office. ¡°Mobilize the men,¡± the boss ordered, ¡°and spread the word secretly to the other gangs. Let them know about this cultist hideout.¡± The underling hesitated, confused by the order, but he knew better than to question it. Questioning the boss was a death sentence. His job was to leak the information discreetly, ensuring the other gangs would act without suspecting a coordinated effort. If they thought the cultists were a shared threat, they¡¯d unite naturally. No one wanted to be seen as collaborating with the enemy. Such a result would devastate the gang, reducing recruitment and crippling their influence, making future operations nearly impossible. These cultists kidnapped key figures and expanded their influence rapidly, disregarding the established gangs and the lives they disrupted. Soon, the gangs realized the cultists had grown from a minor nuisance into a significant threat. The cultist leader was the real problem. He was incredibly strong, easily defeating anyone who challenged him. Many speculated he was around level 25. But soon, he wouldn¡¯t matter. Tonight, the cultists would be wiped off the map. *** Near the Golden Garth Hotel, several figures gathered in the shadows.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Anyone who saw them would recognize them as the right-hand men of the city¡¯s most powerful gangs. Fifteen figures stood in the shadows, but only five commanded attention. The first person defied expectations. Instead of a muscular thug, he was refined and elegant, with glasses and slicked-back brown hair. This was Morong, the Green Fang¡¯s vice leader. Those who mocked his name rarely lived to regret it. Beside him stood Goran, the Red Ant gang¡¯s vice leader. Goran had no striking features, but his menacing aura drew attention. On the other side stood another pair, two women. They were the vice leaders of the Rose and Scorpion gangs, both all-female organizations that barred men from joining. The Rose gang¡¯s vice leader was stunning, her beauty almost otherworldly. Her piercing eyes and flawless features made it unthinkable to harm her. Next to her stood a towering woman, her muscular frame and height of 2.3 meters, making her an imposing figure. (7.54 ft) Her body bore countless scars, each one adding to her fearsome appearance. Her face was hidden behind a mask, adding to her aura of menace. Between them stood the Platinum Angels, the strongest gang and the architects of this alliance. Their leader was a thug in a tank top, his arms covered in tattoos and his shaved head gleaming under the light. His single eye glared fiercely, the other hidden behind a scarred lid. ¡°With everyone here, we can move forward,¡± said the Platinum Angels¡¯ vice leader. ¡°Scarface, don¡¯t think you can order us around,¡± Morong snapped. ¡°The five strongest gangs are here to wipe out these cultists. If you treat us like your henchmen, we¡¯re walking away.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t play games, Morong,¡± Helena said, her voice icy. ¡°We¡¯ve dealt with your schemes before. We know what you¡¯re after, and we¡¯re not falling for it.¡± ¡°Enough!¡± Scarface barked. ¡°Our job is to take out these cultists, fast. Rose and Scorpion cover the east and northeast. Green Fang and Red Ant, handle the west and northwest. My gang will lead the charge from the front.¡± He ignored Morong¡¯s attempts to seize control. With that, Scarface turned and left, dismissing the others without a second glance. After Scarface¡¯s dismissal, the others returned to their gangs to prepare for the raid. The cultists had prepared for this. They used low-level members as bait, luring the gangs deeper into the hotel. As the gangs advanced, they noticed the lax security but remained cautious. The ease of their progress made them uneasy, especially after the cultists¡¯ rapid rise in power over the past week. They moved closer, silently eliminating the guards outside. But as they approached the hotel, they could no longer remain hidden. They sent a low-level member ahead to scout. The cultists put up little resistance, retreating deeper into the hotel. Outside, the gang members watched cautiously, waiting for the trap to spring. Just as they relaxed, explosions rocked the area. Gang members screamed as shrapnel tore through the air, leaving many wounded. ¡°It¡¯s a trap! Fall back!¡± The vice leaders barked orders, desperate to save their core members. From the alleys, robed figures poured out, cutting off the gangs¡¯ escape routes. Trapped, the gangs had no choice but to fight. *** -Scarface POV- ¡®Damn it,¡¯ Scarface thought as he dodged an attack and stabbed his attacker in the throat. ¡®We walked right into their trap. Those informers sold us out. They¡¯ll pay for this.¡¯ Even though he was surrounded by his gang, cultists still slipped through and attacked him. The cultists outnumbered them three to one. How had they recruited so many so quickly? There had to be a larger force behind them. There was no other explanation. The cultists fought with precision and skill, their levels clearly above 10. Not only did they have numbers, but every one of them was an elite. They had to retreat now, or the casualties would be catastrophic. If he failed, the big boss would have his head. If he brought back even a fraction of his men, he might survive. The other gangs had suffered too, but their reputation would take a hit. The Platinum Angels might lose their top spot. ¡°Prepare for a breakthrough!¡± Scarface shouted. Behind him, cultists poured out of the building, attacking without regard for their own lives. As the situation deteriorated, Scarface led the elites in a desperate push to break through. The other leaders followed suit, sacrificing their weaker members to buy time for the elites. A fireball streaked toward Scarface as he ran, forcing him to dive to the ground. The fireball soared over his head, striking those behind him. Scarface scrambled to his feet and spotted a cultist in a different robe, a purple one. The cultist hurled another fireball, this time without a chant or regard for his allies. The fireball missed Scarface, striking a fellow cultist instead and killing him instantly. They couldn¡¯t escape until the mage was dead. Scarface signalled his elites to retreat and report to the boss while he dealt with the threat. Scarface weaved through the chaos, using others as shields, until he reached the mage. Scarface swung his blade, but the mage blocked it with his staff, his body surprisingly strong for a spellcaster. The mage was far stronger than he¡¯d let on. He¡¯d been toying with them, using weak spells to lure them in. As Scarface tried to retreat, the mage froze the ground beneath him, sending him sliding. The mage launched frost lances, each spell following the last in rapid succession. Scarface dodged most of the lances, but one struck his shoulder, freezing the surrounding flesh. He could still move his left arm, but the injury rendered it useless in combat. Thankfully, Scarface was right-handed, but the pain still slowed his movements and clouded his judgment. Scarface dodged another spell, but his foot slipped on the ice. He rolled to avoid the next attack, gritting his teeth against the pain. As Scarface struggled to his feet, he heard the roar of engines. Turning, he saw a convoy of cars approaching, reinforcements led by the boss himself. The boss had expected the cultists¡¯ plan and prepared accordingly. That was why he ruled the city¡¯s underworld. He always stayed three steps ahead. Scarface rose, relief flooding him as the reinforcements arrived. ¡°Reinforcements are here! Hold the line!¡± Scarface roared, trying to rally his men despite the overwhelming odds. The cars screeched to a halt, and the boss stepped out. But before Scarface could relax, the boss raised his arm and fired an ice bolt straight at him. The ice bolt struck Scarface in the stomach, sending him crashing to the ground. He coughed, blood spilling from his lips. Instead of aiding his men, the boss turned on them, aiding the cultists. Scarface was stunned. The boss was the undisputed king of the underworld, feared and unchallenged. Why would he betray his own? The boss approached, stopping just inches from Scarface¡¯s fallen form. ¡°Why?¡± Scarface choked out, staring up at the boss¡¯s shadowed figure. ¡°Nothing personal,¡± the boss said coldly. ¡°Just business.¡± He raised his arm, firing an ice bolt straight at Scarface¡¯s head. As the ice bolt flew, a glowing mark, Strix¡¯s subjugation seal, appeared on the boss¡¯s forehead, revealing his true allegiance. The boss had suspected something was amiss. Investigating further, he discovered the cultists¡¯ true strength. The purple-robed were his equals, the red-robed his superiors, and the white-robed, seen only from a distance, were beyond his reach. Even at level 29, he was no match. Captured by two red-robed cultists, he was forced to join their ranks. Resistance was futile. Using his influence, he helped the cultists recruit new members and secure resources. In return, he was promoted to a purple robe, with the promise of a red robe if he proved his worth.