Day 5… Expedition…

The expedition left the dungeon in earnest early in the morning of day 4 and took sight of the surrounding area. The dungeon was situated on a rocky hillside in the tail end of a rocky mountain range going North East. The entrance is situated on the West of the small mountain, to the North East are sporadic hills or mountains that get placed more consistently as the range spreads on. To the North West only a few hundred meters away is a dark green forest, To the South the same distance to the forest is a flowing river flowing West downstream being 25ft wide at the most. The river originated somewhere to the East but another stream feeds into it from the mountain where the dungeon is situated.

However, it is to the West that interest was seen as there was the remnants of a walled settlement situated due west from the point where the stream from the mountain feeds into the river flowing West. From the signs, it looks to have been abandoned or attacked a few decades prior and there has been nothing but wild animals visiting it for the past decades or more. The village was about a half kilometer walk from the dungeon entrance to it but the expedition opted to scavenge elsewhere instead as they wanted to ask for permission before exploring past the quarter kilometer max range from the dungeon that Tier had allowed them.

The area around the dungeon except for the obvious North East were plains of grass with a few scattered groves of trees or fields of other plants. The river was also accessible and even a bit beyond it thanks to a fallen tree creating a 20ft tight bridge to cross a point directly south of the entrance about 148m away. The expedition could easily cover a lot of ground in the tight 5-hour time frame they were given but for now Kaide ordered them to stick together and to stay safe.

“alright then, remember our formations, me and Hraeta up front as we both have the scout class, anyone designated as melee will protect the ranged skirmishers in the middle alongside our only real magic user, no offense Kirja but you aren’t as good as Taika and we only collect stuff when both scouts deemed the area to be safe, any questions?” Kaide asked “… none? That is good, I want to clear the area of any dangers we can handle for now and if you see any living things, try capturing it instead of killing it was Tier’s order so ready up and move out”

The expedition made some headway as they opted to sweep going North first where there are only some open grasslands with a few trees, small inclines and tall grass in the area. They started by collected some weeds, blades of grass, long grass, some kinds of roots, a few twigs, a few insects and even a branch they cut off of a tree. There were some threats in the area from serpents or other monitors or the rare slimes but due to their numbers they intimidated even the dumbest creatures to back off as there is virtually no point in attacking a big group that can get you killed when there is easier prey to snack on.

Of the few times they had to fight anything were when they had to fight some slimes which they dealt with by having a spear user stab the crystal core of the slime to instantly kill it which was something they figured out when interacting with Blackie or when they asked Aenirus sometime before. However, they avoid fighting slimes as they are not worth it to kill as the core crystals just becomes unusable if they are destroyed and the only time they even got a core crystal was when one jumped the group from an unsuspecting angle which caused Taika to panic and shock it with a lighting bullet making the slime explode giving them a core but wasting some of Taika’s mana reserves as she channeled from her own mana reserves instead of the environment.

They then reached a field of tall grass in which they decided to go West instead as they do not want to be in a place where the only ones that can see a thing were the vespers and only because they can fly. Kirja actually recognized the tall grass because it is where she came from and was born which made her hissed happily to return to her original hunting grounds again before hissing sadly that they weren’t going there.

The West held a forest just out of reach but the few groves of trees dotting the landscape does provide the expedition with something to make up for it. They dug up some root plants, managed to tag a Ravitaci or two (rabbits), a lot of common Insectivoids, a couple of outside reptilari and even managed to get a Avikari (a bird). The biggest prize of the trip to the dotted groves were the wood they got from the trees… they got three different kinds of wood. Firstly, was a type of wood that seemed to be very nimble, flexible yet oddly resistant to their attempts to harvest it so they found a sapling version and dig it up instead. The second was a long Y shaped branch from a kind of very hard, tough, yet oddly light wood that they can’t even chip away at with an axe so they just collected some branches and leaves. Finally, was wood from a type of tree that creates a lot of nuts, they collected many nuts, acorns, leaves, etc… from many types of trees but didn’t opt to chop anything down for now but they dig out a stump from one of the dead nut trees.

All in all, they managed to snatch a lot from one of the groves including many types of insectivoids, woods, smaller plants, small animals and more before they decided to head South to the place just south of the dungeon. The south held a river and even a fallen tree that can act as a bridge to cross said river but they didn’t want to cross just yet nor do they have the tools to collect anything from the river so they decided to just collect stuff from their side for now.

Two of the kobolds including Kaide managed to spear a couple of fish as the others went to collect some of the many plants different wild plants and vegetable found in the area and even Kirja caught a different type of Varmilleon but she sadly killed it. They wanted to go the direction of the village but called it off once they realized that their packs were already very full so they decided to just call it a day and head back to the dungeon three hours after they left.

…

Three hours earlier…

Tier was still a bit at a lost on how to create a new floor after he revised the boss system with the help of Asur. He thought he only needed to dig down but that was surely not the case so he asked the system instead ‘hey, how can I make a new floor?’

Simply designate an area as a separate floor or restrict the area of your first floor.

‘okay… you know what… let me just try it here’ he thought as he went on controlling his mana throughout his dungeon, it started with him weaving them then separating his mana into twain and then released and it did not re-merged itself and stayed as two different parts of the dungeon.

‘there we go… I have absolutely no idea on the second floor yet so I’m just going to revise the first floor a tiny bit before I started to truly make the second floor’ He decided before going back to eyeing the first floor…

His entrance was fine but he moved the three giant varmilleons back to the long cliff room before looking at the hallway leading to the first room. The traps were fine there but felt unfair so he gave all three traps a visual indicator and remove the spikes from the final trap and added mud to all three of the hidden pitfalls instead.

He did not add any indicators to the other two pitfalls on the floor nor did he remove the spikes on the last one but he did put mud on the first one though. He thought about the puzzles again before swapping the first puzzle with the end puzzle and changing the puzzle in the first puzzle room to something much simpler. The puzzle changed to one where you simply must rearrange some letters to the word ‘Open Sesame’ in middish but he also added too many letters on the floor next to the puzzle door to make it a bit more difficult. If anyone tries to bully their way past the puzzle by strength alone which may or may not happen with the 2ft thick bronze reinforced stone door… the entire 40ft hallway to the rocky snake room will be filled with remodeled arrow traps moved from the hallway to the long cliff room that now shoots sharp armor piercing projectiles and the floor will be filled with mud to make any brute’s life way more difficult.

For the long room… he expanded the 50ft long by 20ft wide by 50ft high room to a 75ft long by 40ft wide by 60ft tall room with a 35ft tall mini cliff with a ladder made from rope made from vines and twigs. He populated the southern part of the room with a clear pool that connects with the water pool system of the boss room for… added countermeasures so he could call on Asur to deal with any major threats quicker. The room was now 25ft South to North wide, 60ft high, 75ft West to East long with a 35ft mini cliff that takes the last 15ft of space whilst also spanning 30ft North to South and that is only the land area. The water pool he made was 40ft deep, 75ft long and 20ft wide with an array of finis, other water creatures and whatever plants he could put in the water.

He made the red helm mushrooms spawn randomly across the entire floor except the entrance or boss room and made it so that at least two mini groves of a dozen each spawn in the long cliff room with one spawn on the cliff and for a maximum of 8 mini groves to spawn elsewhere… he then remembers to set it to not spawn in the private areas for his creatures but he did spawn 4 mini groves on the big private room and two in the small room to the North of the entrance connected via a secret passageway that will automatically collapse if anything not from his dungeon enters it.

The blood moss only spawns in the private rooms, the long cliff room and the boss room… in decent amounts. He moved the moss on the side of the cliffs protected by the two monitors inside the room which he put some bronze armor on to increase their survivability. He then ordered all creatures in the room to only attack if any of the invaders attack them or move to collect the moss or scale the cliff or attack the new stone door which was a copy of the door in the puzzle room but requires a key to open which can be found in the chest on the cliff. He wanted to spawn a couple of kobolds for some ranged firepower but decided against it until Kaide and the others return and wait on his plan to add the second key as well.

Tier didn’t change much about the rocky room or the room where the new puzzle where you need to add pieces to create a picture of a random creature found in his dungeon was but he changed the nature of the hallway leading to the boss room. The shower of arrows will be lethally sharp and have poison in them if any decides to brute force their way through the puzzle by smashing the 2ft thick bronze reinforced door. For the boss room… Tier eyed the double door with the gem on the lower left side with holes for three other gems in the other three sides in the square in the center which when all four were inserted would let the double doors slide open two the sides. He made the doors 4 and a half feet of very hard and tough bronze which intricate patterns to look a bit more ancient and mysterious which he does because he has too much free time.

‘If anyone manages to break though these doors… then they really deserve to go deeper as I doubt Asur would be able to stop those monsters’ He thought deciding not to put any traps for breaking the door ‘but then again… if they were that strong than they should be able to take some punishment’ He changed his mind instantly and added nine large arrow slits firing nine arbalest sized arrows with the deadliest venom he could get down the 5ft wide 20ft long hallway before taking a right to the current core room where the stairs would be ‘I’m not going too far I hope’ he thought before making these slits fire at random intervals and constantly as well.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘now then, to sit back and wait for the expedition team to come back home’ Tier thought as he checked his internal clock ‘two hours and fifty minutes since they’ve left’ he thought to himself as he tried something he did once before and looked out of the eyes of Kaide as they were heading back to his dungeon ‘seems like they’re returning… with a lot of loot in hand as well… things should be fun once they returned home’ he thought to himself before adding some last minute changes including making the Tuto mushrooms the poisonous mushrooms grow basically everywhere in small numbers alongside the red helms and edible mushrooms to make any harvester’s life a bit harder.

…

Five minutes later…

…

The expedition team has returned bearing goods “so… is there anything worrying to report out there?” Tier asked “there is an abandoned village outside of our range that we want to explore next” Taika managed to get out before any of the other kobolds “agreed, there are many… good things in the… village” Verk added being a bit unsure of his language skills.

“granted, I’ll let you guys explore the abandoned village next time… actually, I might have some fo the vespers or flying kanids go out and scout the village first from the sky” Tier agreed “anyways, go get yourself a good long rest, if any of you do not like to go out just speak up and I’ll make some changes, if not expect to go out again tomorrow morning”

The team dropped off all of their containers filled with goodies as they talk to each other about how they can do better or what they can accomplish next time as they enter the expeditionary setup room to go to the big private room.

Tier eyed the contents in the bags gleefully as he set out to let his mana through to claim all of it including the few critters that the team snagged

You now have access to the blueprint(s):

Hopper Varmilleon

Sparrow

Brown Ravitaci (brown rabbit)

Mud Skink

Field Salamander

Weaver Spider

Milipede

Paederus Fuscipes Curtis (threat rank 0.2 due to poison)

Common Grass Serpent

Common Digger Serpent

Mantis

“nice selection of… why is one of these different than the others?” tier said amused “hey… P… I can’t spell that… Curtis thingy get over here” Tier ordered and the young new critter that exited from one of the open air bags like the others head to his presence instead “now then… why do you have a threat rank…” Tier pondered as he opens the thing’s status screen…

Name: Curtis

Gender: Male

Species: Paederus Fuscipes Curtis

Age: 2-weeks old

Stats: all stats are a 1 or 2 with destiny being 5 for some reason

Traits: Weak poison (the user contains a weak poison that can cause severe skin irritations if contacted and may cause problems if it enters the body)

“huh, well my curiosity is satisfied now… you know that wasn’t a nam… screw it, you go have fun now as I spawn some more of the other critters… some of you guys just don’t fit in…” Tier pondered “I’m going to have to make you guys better environments for some of you guys to work… but that is a job for later so for now the ones that won’t work can stay in either of the private rooms before I make something but you can be anywhere I guess… I’ll even add a couple of your species in as well so go have fun I guess and enjoy your new life” Tier told a literal bug before spawning approximately… a dozen more around the dungeon and the… Curtis went to join his brethren in the dungeon as the sparrow and the others that don’t fit enter the private rooms.

‘now then, on to the non-living(ish) blueprints’ Tier thought as he starts to absorb all of the things inside of the containers…

You now have access to the blueprint(s):

Common grasses

Common grass seeds

Common weeds

Common weed seeds

Ironwood branch (ironwood has a hardness and toughness value similar to iron whilst still as light as wood

Nimblewood (a very nimble, flexible and surprisingly durable wood and whilst rare is used regularly in many kinds of ranged weaponry)

Snare Twigs (a type of twig with qualities perfect for making snare traps, used extensively by hunters

Arkir Wood (a common type of wood from the Akir tree, it is as durable and good in many crafting recipes as most other common woods)

Arkir Wood nuts (edible nuts from the Akir tree, can grow into actual Akir trees)

Ironwood acorns (acorns of ironwood trees, can grow into ironwood trees

Coil Vines (a type of vine that is highly elastic, not used for much due to various reasons)

Hemp

Kanidtail millets (foxtail millets, it’s a real edible alternative to rice, look it up)

Wild Cotton

Sol flowers (a yellow flower that makes lovely nectar, loved by bees)

Karrats (carrots)

Road Roots (a type of edible root plant commonly seen across the world with minor environmental differences, not worth planting in farms but is a good source of food for those who travel a lot given that they are able to forage effectively for them (looks kinda like a mix of turnips and potatoes))

Green Dwarf Apple (a green dwarf apple, can grow into a green dwarf apple tree)

Blueberries

Olives

Blind Caps (a white mushroom that has a poison that can blind you if you rub it in your eyes)

Puff Caps (a mushroom that grows near or inside dead trees, a rare delicacy rich in mana)

Clover

River Bulletfinis (type of finis that swims fast especially downstream, commonly found in rivers)

Whitetail Cod (a decently big finis with a white tail found in rivers or lakes)

You now have access to the pattern:

* Lesser Plains Slime (basically a lesser cave slime that lives in Plains and is green instead of blue… everything else is identical)

“oh boy… that was a lot of stuf… *hnng!* it feels like I just ate too much… I guess this is the feeling of absorbing too much mana huh” Tier said out loud “… it’s worth it though” He then begins to spend some of said mana that seems to overflow into his reserves and starts doing stuff.

Firstly, he added 4 small groups of Puff Caps around the dungeon, he then spawned a lot of all the materials and other food and made a lot of them in the private rooms for the others to experiment with. He planted many different types of plants in certain places for his herbivores to eat but not too much that it would impact the atmosphere of the cave as the green edible moss was still the main food with now a few extras for company. He created more of the new critters around the dungeons hoping that none of them will overtake each other in numbers. He spawned four new kobolds in the private room for the others to acquaint with and he let them talk before he would give them orders later.

After all of that, he finally felt the mana stop overflowing and went on to spawn many of the two new finis he had in the bodies of water he had particularly in the long cliff/lake room. He then spawned to modified finis from both the whitetail cod and the river bulletfinis… The first was given hard scales followed by a long whip like tail capable of inflicting actual damage whilst also growing to 2ft long, the second became 1ft long, gained a stronger body and a more camo scale patterns as it is now much faster and harder to see. One fish has a very reflective scale pattern reflecting light from the many Shine mushrooms in the ceiling acting as mini stars with a tail capable of snapping lines and a strong body, the other a faster, harder to see black speck with non-reflective material. Both of them once caught will spit out identical keys to the one in the chest on the hill being two other ways that one can advance through the room.

It was perfect to Tier and the way he made up for accidentally creating a floor six boss as the first floor boss and he was excited to see the many people who would be perplexed on how to get past this part of the dungeon in which he put a sign from the new Akir wood that he had that literally told them that all you have to do is catch some finis whilst putting another sign outside simply saying ‘Beware, Danger Ahead”

‘alright, enough about fishing, I need to go equip the four new kobolds… it seems they are acquainted well with the rest already… Aenirus is still asleep… okay time to give them their orders and give them their weaponr…’

You now have access to the blueprint(s):

Slingshot (ironwood + Coil Vines)

As Tier looked inside of the room, he saw Verk proudly presenting his newest invention and shocking the newcomers… ‘I do need to give them proper clothing and armor instead of the… makeshift stuff they’ve been wearing’ Tier thought ‘which I can now do thanks to both having access to Hemp and Cotton… I’m pretty sure I remember how to make leather now as well’ he thought.

“hey guys, I’m going to give you guys some better clothing and armor now… or do you want to try and make it yourself?” Tier asked them “ah… sure… I’m not as… well with… wearables” Verk responded in still broken Middish. Taking that as a they are fine with it, Tier got to creating some new stuff for his kobolds beginning with some new clothing.

From the hemp and cotton, he created two different kinds of fiber way better than the plant fiber he could barely get from plants in the beginning. From the two different fibers he let the kobolds each pick one type they like the most… all said that either is okay so he… made the decision to try making clothes from both at the same time. He made them some tunics, actual pants, some straps, actual sheaths for their weapons, wrappings for the arms and legs… and a new belt made from leather and copper…

You now have access to the blueprint(s):

Clothing (cotton + hemp fiber)

Leather Straps (scaled leather)

Wrappings (cotton + hemp fiber)

Belt (scaled leather + copper)

Sheaths (scaled leather)

He then went ahead and started creating some armor for them, starting with a good old gambeson, armor made from layers of textiles which added decent affordable protection and defence from the elements. Tier could’ve made it from Kevlar or spidersilk, two materials way stronger and tougher than even steel… but he wanted to be fair to the people living in this world as from what Aenirus was able to tell him… they probably don’t have firearms yet except maybe in small obscure circles…

Either way, he went and made a gambeson for all of the kobolds using the two textiles and couple of leather straps. He then went on to create a custom made bronze helm made with different tin to copper ratios until he got one which he liked. The helmets should protect the head, sides of the necks and provide the most protection from the back down to the bas of the neck. They also do not obscure vision, hearing or smell but do not provide protection for the front of the neck, ears, the bottom of the muzzle and jaw but he really can’t do much without obscuring their vision, making it unwieldy and uncomfortable but that is just the nature of armor.

For extra protection and/or comfort in the head, he gave each kobold a coif made from the same thickness of textiles as a gambeson. He also gave each one a pair of arm bracers and greaves for added protection that did not hinder movement at all despite the common misconception that armor would slow you down a lot… it just makes it harder to do things at the same speed as before and isn’t exactly very comfortable most of the time.

He contemplated giving them some other forms of protection but some required some other materials or isn’t as viable when using bronze so he didn’t give any of the kobolds any other pieces of armor netting him some new blueprints…

You now have access to the blueprint(s):

Gambeson (cotton + hemp)

Coif (cotton + hemp)

Arm Bracers (bronze)

Greaves (bronze)

“alright then, I don’t want to force you into a single path but… for what you guys are going to do, I’m going to need you guys to get some ranged weaponry” Tier told the four new kobolds “and it looks like Verk just made a new type of ranged weaponry that should be good in close quarters situations such as this” he also commented.

He told each of the new kobolds to pick a type of ranged weaponry that they like and they all choose the slingshot because that’s the only one they’ve seen in action. Tier let Verk make their ranged weapons for him giving him some tips on how to improve the weapon and eventually they made the slingshot into an actual deadly weapon that can kill… better than before especially with metal ammunitions. Tier had the kobolds moved into the long cliff/lake room where they stand guard with their new ammunition and weaponry including the short arming swords that all of them opted for… for some reason. Tier created some training dummies about their size so they could continue practicing their proficiencies and gives them the same orders as the other creatures like the two monitors.

All in all, after a few minor changes Tier forced himself to stop improving the first floor and stop being lazy and to start on the next floor. ‘I really should start on the second floor now, don’t want to slack off or anything’ he thought before he went to where he left off in the spiral staircase in his core room which heads down to a dark abyss…

…

Edit: picture here as well about the area around the dungeon:

[https://i.vgy.me/zMyvpK.jpg]