Chapter 30
Koenraad Hartjenstein stood on the bow of the ship, resting against the gunwale, as he stared into the distance. The cold wind ripped past his face, blowing his shoulder-length hair behind him. He didn't even seem to perceive the cold or the wind blowing across his eyes. On the very edge of the horizon, he could just see the lone mountain, resting in the endless plains. With his S8-ranked cultivation, he could easily perceive the thick mana swirling around and out of the mountain. He quickly channeled mana to his eyes, activating his Mana Sight. The mountain glowed like a bonfire in the midst of a dark night.
As this first magical view of the future for his family, Koenraad frowned deeply. That mountain is spewing far too much mana for a new dungeon, he thought. Ever since arriving in the airspace above Central Fantisa, Koenraad had been disappointed and discomfited with the land that was to be his family's new home. The mana in the atmosphere was so much thinner here. Despite finally finding a region with enough saturation of mana in this desolate place, Koenraad remained unhappy. So, why is a new dungeon able to throw off as much as a high C-ranked dungeon would in Fantisa? Have the demons and devils led us here for another purpose?
He was beginning to have some misgivings over this venture, for which he had moved his entire family. He had picked up all 200 members of the family, including the staff, and all the wealth they could carry, coming all the way to a new continent, with only the word of the demons and the family's only other S-ranked cultivator, Friedrich. He is an arrogant and pompous moron, though. Still, there's no one and nothing in this entire continent that should be able to overcome an S-ranked major affinity Soul mage, he mused. And he has written back, saying the dungeon is under his control. So, why is my danger sense going off so strongly?
As he pondered this, Adalwen burst out onto the deck with a panicked expression on his face. Quickly hurrying to the family head, he threw up a quick air shield for privacy, before saying, “Sir! Friedrich's life slip has just shattered.”
Turning sharply, Koenraad asked, “Are you sure? You checked the slip itself? It is definitely his?”
“Yes, sir. When the guard of the life slip vault contacted me, I immediately went and personally confirmed that the shattered pieces of jade were broken naturally and contained the exact mana signature of Friedrich. After contacting him by mana relay for so many months, there's no way I could mistake it.”
“And did he manage to send a last-minute transmission? Any clue as to the cause?”
Adalwen shook his head grimly. “No, sir. From the amount of shattering and the large number of pieces, it appears that he died extremely quickly, without panic or even knowledge of an attacker.”
Koenraad's misgivings suddenly jumped much higher, as he began yelling questions aloud: “What the fuck is going on? Who could possibly do this? In order to overcome Friedrich's danger sense, it would have to be a higher cultivation S-ranked Soul mage or an SS-rank. There's no one in this continent capable of either. We checked, multiple times. The only SS-rank we ever heard about was that Ravenlord character, and he's just a rogue, for gods' sake.”
“And those rumors of a silver dragon,” added Adalwen.
Koenraad just gave him a withering glare, saying, “If there's a dragon of any kind on this continent, I'd be willing to eat my hat. And a silver one, at that. There hasn't been a sighting of a Space dragon or any higher-element dragon in over two millenia! And that's on Fantisa.” As Adalwen visibly cowered, Koenraad continued ranting, with a wry tone conveying extreme sarcasm, “But even if it there was a Space dragon, are you expecting me to believe that Friedrich, though stupid and arrogant, was idiotic enough to engage a silver dragon, with SS-ranked cultivation, in a Soul link, without feeling any danger whatsoever? And he had no knowledge of what killed him? And between now and when he wrote back to us only hours ago, he engaged a gods-damned DRAGON? Look around, Adalwen, where's the fucking dragon? Maybe it's a dungeon monster!”
Wisely, Adalwen kept quiet in the face of the usually stoic family leader, who had lost all control. Pulling out his mana-enhanced spyglass, Koenraad stared at the mountain that was growing closer in the distance. Noticing a blockade surrounding the large entrance tunnel into the mountain, Koenraad took a closer look at the individuals standing guard. Next second, Koenraad grew deadly still and quiet. Through clenched teeth, Koenraad said only a single word: “Drow.”
Adalwen slowly backed away from his leader, as the S-ranked mage started leaking mana with a visible aura, due to his tremendous fury. Koenraad then stepped up onto the railing and leaped off the deck of the airship, before hurtling himself through the air towards the drow guarding the dungeon's entrance like a meteor. For a moment, Adalwen almost felt bad for the drow, before remembering their vileness as sub-humans.
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Dorn, for the first time in at least the last millennium, suddenly became a little panicked. He yelled out, “Shit! The Hartjensteins have arrived. Quick, tell me what you figured out before I have even more S-ranked, demon-allied cultivators in the dungeon. The drow are already fighting on floor 7!”
Emelia, realizing the seriousness of the situation, quickly said, “Quick! Purchase up to level 50.”
Dorn mentally gaped at Emelia, saying, “Emelia, four more floors really isn't going to fucking help at the moment!”
Screaming at the top of her tiny little lungs, she replied, “It's not for the gods-damned floors. Just DO IT!”
As Dorn pulled up his status screen, Emelia seemed to remember something as she zipped through his shields, landed on his crystal, and turned herself invisible. She quickly yelled out, “As soon as you reach level fifty, I'll be sent into a temporary state of hibernation, as the gods release the locks on my memories. Once you reach it, go to the dungeon store and look through the new options for custom-made traps. You'll be able to instantly use your knowledge of Space magic and SS-ranked cultivation to create an impossibly strong trap design, and the dungeon store will allow you to build it just as quickly; remember to completely surround the glyph and the tree.”
In too much of a hurry to ask about the sudden existence of memory locks, hibernation, or why the dungeon store previously showed locked future properties but didn't show them now, Dorn repeatedly slammed his finger onto the plus sign next to his level, twenty times.
Status
Name: Dorn'axial
Dungeon Name: A Dragon's Dungeon
Dungeon Level: 50 +1 for 110,000 DP's
Floors: 17/21
Dungeon Points: 24,583,271
Dungeon Rating: C6 – Hope you survive!
Snorting at Emelia taking the time to write him a note in the middle of a potentially dungeon-ending crisis, Dorn was annoyed that once his dungeon level hit 50, the cost of the next level doubled in price. Glancing up at the seventh floor, he watched as his dungeon avatar was getting its ass handed to it by some A-ranked drow. Gods, that's embarrassing, thought Dorn. Looking closely, he watched as the empty region containing the stand-off between the two S-ranked matriarchs and Warley suddenly erupted. The shock-waves were enough to cause most of the other battles on the floor to temporarily halt as everyone tried to protect themselves from becoming collateral damage of the high level mage battle. In the middle of everyone's shock, the other matriarch immediately took off through the rest of the floor, bypassing all the fighters. Within a minute, she had already reached the eighth floor.
Dorn gave a quick sigh of relief for the most desired outcome occurring. Despite this, he was still working under a massive deadline, literally, so he quickly called up the dungeon store, clicked on Properties, and looked for new options. He was about to get really annoyed with Emelia when he noticed there was only four properties, including the old Dungeon Traps, Dungeon Puzzles, and Dungeon Stairs. When he saw the last box, however, his metaphorical eyes widened. Curiosity blazing, he clicked on “Advanced Dungeon Properties.” An absolutely enormous list popped up, coupled with bizarre comments and absolutely outrageous prices.
Advanced Dungeon Properties
Ask the Gods!
Variable
Can't find the answers to life's mysteries anywhere else? Send a question to the gods and receive a price quote within 24 hours! Limited to one question a month.
Beast Cores
10,000,000 DP's
Lacking meaningful conversations with non-sapient dungeon monsters? Sick of being a no-friends loser with only a pixie to talk with? Purchase Beast Cores today!
Beast Modifications
15,000,000 DP's
Want to try shoving wings into the back of your bear beast? Adding water mana to your fire elementals? The sky's your limit with Beast Modifications!
Beast Re-Spawn Devices
100,000,000 DP's
Want your hard-cultivated dungeon beasts to learn from fights to the death? Want your bosses to learn strategy? Beast Re-Spawn Devices are a must!
Book Creation
1,000,000 DP's
If you want to write your own books, you better build yourself a printing press! Or just buy Book Creation and instantly create books from you knowledge for free!
Book Reading
5,000,000 DP's
Want to learn stuff from books but hate reading? Wish you could learn through osmosis? No idea what osmosis is? Buy Book Reading and get instant reading and knowledge of any book absorbed!
Change Avatar Affinities
Variable
Your new avatar got shitty affinities? Finding cultivation at SS simply too difficult? Simple; just swap out your affinities with anything you want, with Change Avatar Affinities!
Change Beast Affinities
Variable
Give your wind elementals Earth affinities and watch the fun and craziness unfold! (No Refunds Allowed)
Change Core Affinities
Variable
You cultivate your core? Wow, good for you! How about changing your affinities?
Dungeon Avatar Modifications
20,000,000 DP's
Your avatar a bit on the, ahem, small size? Wish you had some wings or some other way of compensating? Try Dungeon Avatar Modifications today!
Dungeon Forum
1,000,000 DP's
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Talk to, sell to, and buy information from all the other dungeons out there in the Lower Plane!
Dungeon Point Insurance
10 DP's per 1 DP stored
Worried about hitting zero points and having a dungeon break? Afraid of losing all your points in an inter-dungeon battle? Nothing can give you peace of mind like Dungeon Point Insurance!
Custom Dungeon Puzzles
500,000 DP's
You genius, you! I bet you can come up with some great puzzles, if only you were allowed to. Make your own with Custom Dungeon Puzzles (All New Puzzles Copyrighted and Trademarked by the Gods)
Custom Dungeon Traps
500,000 DP's
You genius, you! I bet you can come up with some great traps, if only you were allowed to. Make your own with Custom Dungeon Traps (All New Traps Copyrighted and Trademarked by the Gods)
Enhanced Dungeon Rules 1
500,000 DP's
Force up to C-ranked cultivators to follow the Dungeon Rules.
Enhanced Wall Durability 1
500,000 DP's
Make dungeon walls un-breakable by cultivators up to C-ranked.
Extra Avatar 1
1 billion DP's
We've had one yes, but what about second avatar? Ever wish you were in three places at once? Now you can with Extra Avatar 1! Suck at cultivating and stuck in the SS rank? Just get another avatar!
Flying Dungeon
5 billion DP's
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a… giant flying magical underground training facility and mana production factory called a dungeon?
Infernal Detectors
1,000 DP's
Worried about those no-good, evil demons and devils sneaking into your dungeon? No more, with Infernal Detectors!
Interstellar Flight
100 billion DP's
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
MURRPPHHHH! *BRAAAM*
Mini-Instances
300,000 DP's
Yes, you've instanced your floors. But what about your huts, buildings, roads, and whatever weird, dungeon-y stuff you spend your time building?
'Skip' Floors
50,000,000 DP's
Ever wish you had a floor that adventurers would skip by, and you could use as a private reservation for farming, experimenting, strip poker, or orgi-
We apologize for the fault in the comments. Those responsible have been sacked.
Virtual Abilities
10,000,000 DP's
Want to build virtual playgrounds? What kind of sick, perverted acts of a twisted mind are you trying to arran-
We apologize again for the fault in the comments. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.
Despite the seriousness of his current situation, as well as the small amount of time before the arrival of the drow matriarch, Dorn simply had to marvel at some of the abilities available and the prices of certain abilities, not to mention the incomprehensible and astoundingly moronic comments. Oh my gods, oh my gods, I can change affinities. I'm not dreaming, am I? He was so shocked and excited, that if he still had a mouth, he'd be drooling. Until now, the rules of elemental affinities were immutable, constant, and fully understood. If he wasn't in such a time crunch, he'd probably spend the next few days or weeks simply looking through the options and prices for changing his affinities. This changes everything, Dorn thought. Shit, even cultivating in the SS rank will be easier with the ability to change affinities. If they're affordable, that is. And if they can be used more than once...
The next thing that snagged Dorn's attention was the prices for extra avatars, flying dungeons, and interstellar flight. He started giggling, somewhat creepily and in a not-entirely-sane manner, when he saw the 100 billion price tag for interstellar flight. Heh. Heh. It's only 100 billion Dungeon Points. That's nothing. That would only cost the deaths of forty Perfect Core cultivators. Hehe, totally doable; easy! It's not like they're the strongest SS9-ranked beings in the entire Three Planes Universe, just a single step from ascension. Hehehe…
Getting a little alarmed at his deteriorating state of mind, he started reading through some of the descriptions. What the hell? Who did the gods get to write these? Is this another stunt by Emelia? He was puzzled, because while the descriptions matched her level of stupidity, the whole sales pitch feeling was not her style. It sounded like the owner of a stall in a bazaar trying to 'advertise' or over-state the usefulness of his or her wares. Although, the Ask the Gods feature, this so-called Dungeon Forum, and Virtual Abilities will come in really handy. Trillions of dungeons on billions of planets; I might find some really interesting cultivation methods or abilities and spells in the forum. And Virtual Abilities, I've got an idea for my first dungeon floor following B-housing and B-mining. Plus it'll be a great addition to the Colosseum. And I'll finally be able to ask the gods about the Demon and Devil Plane.
Realizing he was wasting time, he hurried down and purchased the Custom Dungeon Traps property for 500,000 DP's. Noticing the addendum to the ability, Dorn started grumbling, I guess that explains why the ability is so cheap. The gods shamelessly steal our trap designs before turning around and selling them to all the other dungeons. No wonder there are such a ludicrous number of trap designs available for purchase.
Realizing he really didn't have much of a choice, he hurriedly opened up the newly available screen for designing traps, called the Dungeon Designer. After selecting the floor of his core room, a 3D-rendered image of the floor popped up. Dorn was able to zoom in and out, spin the room in any three directions, and look through walls. The whole manipulation was surprisingly intuitive and easy to use. He was given the direction to highlight the surfaces and area that his trap should cover. He carefully covered the entirety of the floor, with holes only for the teleportation glyph, his core and shields, and the celestial tree. He quickly selected the option for the trap to activate in three dimensions, so that even flying over the trap would trigger it.
He was asked to think a description of the nature of the trap. A screen in the Dungeon Designer explained:
First think of the type of trap: teleportation, imprison, summoning, killing, mechanical, etc…
Next think of a trigger mechanism: proximity, mana detection, life detection, sound detection, mechanical, etc…
Next choose either a magical or mechanical based effect. Poison and acid traps require patterns to be used. Mechanical traps require the resources and patterns of objects used (such as stakes or giant, rolling, stone spheres)
Next, for long-lasting traps, choose a means of de-activating the trap: time, defeating creature, solving puzzle, finding a well-hidden de-activation switch, etc… If no de-activation method is chosen, price will increase precipitously.
Finally, think of any additional features or requirements: activates slowly, immediately instances those within, walls start shrinking, etc…
You will be prompted to use the mana and element of any magical features prior to ranking and price calculation.
After calculation, you will be given the rank, price, and price break-down of creating the trap.
Dorn decided to think of the best, most complicated trap he could think of. He would then get rid of the things that make it too expensive. Immediately, Dorn thought of an imprisoning trap with a proximity trigger, Space magic shields surrounding the trap area, and no de-activation method. For additional features, Dorn thought of banning teleportation, the loss of any magic/racial resistances, and immunity from the danger sense of A-ranked and higher cultivators. When prompted, Dorn built a Space magic shield with his SS-rank cultivation, followed by the spell for a proximity trigger, teleportation restriction, magic/enchantment restriction, and racial magic/damage resistances de-buff. After a nerve-wracking, 10-second-long calculation, the following screen was displayed:
Price Break-Down:
Imprisoning Trap Base Price: 10,000 DP's
Trap Size Price: 500,000 DP's
Proximity Trigger Price: 1,000,000 DP's
SS-rank Space Shields Price: 10,000,000 DP's
Banning Teleportation: 10,000,000 DP's
Racial Magic/Damage Resistances Removal Price: 200,000,000 DP's
Danger Sense Immunity: 1.37 Billion DP's
No De-Activation Method Multiplier: X10.0
Total Cost: 15.9151 billion DP's
Build?
Yes/No
Damn, Dorn thought, I'd have really liked the danger sense immunity. Guess I'll have to hope she's too fixated on the tree to notice her danger sense. Plus, the trap's not exactly dangerous per se, so it should cause a weaker reaction than a killing trap.
Carefully selecting No, as he was unsure what would happen if he accidentally hit Yes, Dorn quickly began to refine his trap designs to make it cheaper. After getting rid of the danger sense immunity, he eliminated the magic resistances removal, figuring that for an S0-ranked cultivator, it really wasn't necessary. Plus, I can't afford it anyway, he thought wryly. Then he started testing various de-activation methods to determine the effect on the multiplier. He was able to get a X1.0 multiplier for a pedestal with a button on it, resting in the middle of the room. Snorting, Dorn thought, It's such a terrible idea, it would probably convince her it was also trapped, and she might be wary of pressing it. Any type of puzzle he tried came created at least a X2.0, including a X5.0 multiplier for a decryption puzzle. Well-hidden switches were out, in Dorn's mind, as they would be easily noticed by a drow matriarch; the drow were masters of creating, setting, and disarming traps. A creature offered the same problem as creating an S-ranked defender.
After pausing for a bit in thought, Dorn remembered the examples that the Price Break-Down offered. Hmm, I've never seen or heard of an imprisoning trap that has no danger and simply vanishes after time… unless it's a 10-year or longer trap, and that length of time would probably have a X10.0 multiplier or higher. Hesitantly, he started calculating how long it would take him enslave the S0-ranked matriarch. He looked into his dungeon to check the matriarch's progress and affinities. Oh shit, she's only two floors away, Dorn thought a bit panicky. But thankfully, she doesn't even have a minor affinity in Soul magic. The elves' natural Soul magic resistance plus the drow's extra resistance, she's the equivalent of an S0-ranked human mage with a major affinity for Soul magic… Shit, I'll need three minutes at a bare minimum, but I would prefer five to feel safe.
Trying both three and five minutes, he got multipliers of X1.1 and X1.3, respectively. Three minutes would cost 23,661,000 DP's and five would cost 27,963,000. With only about 24,000,000 DP's, it looked like he would have to take the three minutes and work fast. Despite his large age and grand plans, he was desperately hoping for a solution. He watched as the matriarch made it to the end of his 15th floor. His DP's were going up too slowly from cultivators being in his dungeon, and it wouldn't take the drow very long to make it through the simplistic 16th floor. Gods, I wish I had continued the elemental theme and made an Earth floor for the 16th, instead of trying to get new underdark creatures so quickly.
Sighing in resignation, Dorn hovered a metaphorical finger over the Yes button in the Dungeon Designer screen, to build the three minutes Space trap on his core room floor. He decided to wait until the matriarch was two rooms away, while he kept a non-existent eye on his DP's.
As the matriarch reached the third-to-last room, Dorn was stupidly shocked when his DP's suddenly spiked four times in just a brief two seconds, jumping 10 million DP's to reach 34,000,000? What the hell just happened?
Without time to search or figure out what had just happened, he simply ignored his curiosity, changed the time for the trap de-activation to 7 minutes, causing a 1.5X multiplier, costing 32,265,000 DP's, and jammed the Yes button. The System placed the trap, which glowed a re-assuring silver, before disappearing. Literally a split-second later, the matriarch showed up on the floor's teleportation glyph.
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The matriarch stood on the teleportation glyph and slowly looked around the room. She grinned and started talking at the core she could see through the 11 elemental shields. “Well, hello, little dungeon core. How unique you and this dungeon are,” the matriarch said.
Dorn simply remained silent, giving the matriarch what she expected.
With an obviously-fake, saccharine smile, the matriarch lamented, “It's too bad you went and made a celestial tree, or I would have enjoyed taking this dungeon as my own, dominating it and raising myself and my clan above the other drow and even above the surfacers.”
“Hmm, but for some reason, my danger sense is going off for the first time since I've entered this dungeon.”
Dorn cursed internally, Fuck.
She gave a bone-chilling chuckle, and asked, “Did you do something naughty down here, little dungeon core? Walking to the edge of the teleportation glyph, she looked out at the floor as well as the tree in the distance. She turned her head towards Dorn's shields and strained to sense their power.
“There's nothing I can do about your shields. Looks like I'll have to go collect that bitch to help summon a devil for you,” she concluded. “But there's nothing surrounding the tree. Let's take care of that before I, unfortunately, must briefly leave you.”
Dorn simply watched as she started extending some fire mana in the direction of the tree. As the mana reached the space above the edge of the teleportation glyph, the mana simply vanished. Both Dorn and the matriarch were shocked.
“What?” asked the matriarch. Swinging her head towards the dungeon core, “You clearly didn't do anything. Was this a trap? But even then, you shouldn't be able to make the mana vanish.”
The matriarch pondered. Finally, she said, “I suppose this must be a restriction by the gods. Can't attack until I leave the glyph. Hmmm, should I test the trap or get the bitch? The trap doesn't feel very dangerous, but the fact that I can't see it or feel what it does is alarming.”
Dorn finally lost his patience and decided that he needed to act. He slowly reached out some SS-ranked mana and began to do one of the more difficult magics available to Soul mage users. While not as difficult as curing psychological conditions, it was possible to use Soul mana to subtly influence thoughts and actions. Ever so gently, he slightly suppressed her fear, slightly increased her greed, and released a very minor calming sensation.
With her Soul resistance and cautious intelligence battling against the manipulations and her greed, she was visibly wavering. Finally, Dorn drove the nail home, whispering a thought into her mind with her voice, as softly as he could, “I should at least take the tree; it has no defenses. My danger sense says the trap is not very dangerous, and I'm an S0-ranked cultivator. I shouldn't share the benefits of burning a celestial tree with her.”
Finally, the matriarch took a shaky step off the glyph. She raised her second foot, looked at the tree, and placed it beyond the glyph. As she left the space above the glyph, Dorn's trap immediately activated, throwing up silver shields. She immediately looked around and down. Seeing that she was beyond the glyph, she immediately turned towards the dungeon core shouted, “What the hell did you do?” She suddenly discovered the manipulations of the Soul magic in her head.
“You better pray that this trap kills me, or you will regret this for a very, very long time,” she threatened.
Ignoring her bluster, and without hesitating or monologuing, Dorn struck out with the full force of his Soul magic.