Day 10
Mike's POV:
When Mike left the dungeon, he couldn't believe that he was still alive. After carelessly stumbling in a dungeon, not only he came out unscathed, he even made a lot of money. When he thought about the dungeon, 'Neo' like he called himself, he was a little bit confused. The experience stood in contrast to everything he heard about dungeons. If the dungeon needed simple animals, it probably meant that it was a pretty new one, the same went for its location. An old dungeon so close to the village would've been discovered years ago. On the other hand, his parents told him that small dungeons rarely dropped coins and if so at most copper ones, but Neo showed him a hole pile of silver and gold.
Putting these thoughts to the side, he thought about the 'deal' he made. The compensation of ten silver for each animal was extremely well. If he'd be able to sell the bear and its fur it would've netted him two silver if he'd been lucky, now he could get ten silver for a deer or a fox. In the end the dungeon even gave him some advice about cultivation. It had been his dream for his whole life to become a real mana cultivator.
His parents had been D and C ranked, but after their death, the only manual he found was one for training the body. He asked the mayor, who was D ranked too, but he only learned the training method from the military and had to swear an oath not to pass on the method. He himself didn't want to join the military, from everything he heard, the count of Geldern was a petty man with a violent temper. There had been three wars about ridiculous issues over the last ten years. A lot of soldiers died unnecessarily, fighting against the neighboring nobles. He was not interested in joining them.
The other option had been to join the adventurers guild, but they wanted one gold coin for the registration. That was more than he made in five years and he was to proud to ask the other villagers for a handout, after everything they've done for him and his sister.
He came to the conclusion that this weird dungeon was probably the once in a lifetime chance for a country bumpkin like himself to achieve something great in his life. With this in mind he started his hunt.
It didn't take long to find his first prey, this part of the forest was pretty much untouched. He found a fox that just killed a small badger. He immediately fired an arrow and a smile formed on his face when it hit and the fox slumped to the ground. 20 silver for three hours work was not a bad pay. He went over, grabbed both animals an started making his way back to the dungeon.
Luna's POV:
Luna thought Neo was too rash. She told him how important the condensation was and he just contemplated a moment about the issue a short time and then immediately started condensing. Hell, there were only twelve stupid wolves and a small bear between the core room and the entrance. The rest were just sitting in the stupid room beside the entrance. If Luna was not vigilant these stupid wolves would miss an attack on the dungeon. Just before she could push herself into a real temper tantrum, she saw the stupid human entering the dungeon with a badger and a fox in his hands. Great he probably wanted his reward and Neo didn't leave any silver. With this in mind she sat down on Mr. Floppy back and rode to the dungeon entrance.
Mike's POV:
This time nobody greeted Mike when he entered the dungeon. He thought about the situation for a moment and then started shouting.
"Neo? Hello? Somebody there? Luna?"
"Be quiet human, I heard you. Neo is occupied for the moment so you have to come back in a few days if you want your reward. You can leave the animals here."
"Ahhmmm, what? That was not the deal, you promised me ten silver for each type of animal!"
"I did not promise you anything, besides he did not tell you when you would get the silver did he? Neo will probably be occupied for a few days, dungeon business. I don't have any silver and I cannot access his store. It's your decision to wait here, or to leave the animals here and come back in a few days."
Thinking a moment if the little fairy wanted to cheat him, he noticed that even if, there was nothing he could do about it. He decided to get back home and come back later. With the ten silver he already got, he could get a nice present for his sister.
"Ok little fairy, I will leave and come back in five days, but if I still don't get paid then, you will need somebody else to hunt your animals for you. Have a nice day."
Luna's POV:
That went better than expected. After watching the human leave she rode back to the core room and continued training Mr. Floppy.
"Who's a good boy? Yes, you are a good boy!"
After training her cute rabbit for a day they went to sleep.
When Luna awakened and she saw the dungeon core she was stunned. The core dramatically decreased in size and its new structure looked beautiful almost perfect. She could see that there was still some work to do, but it would not take very long. She woke up Mr. Floppy and decided to wait for Neo to finish.
Neo's POV:
Neo was drained. It seemed to take an eternity to condense his core. He could see that he was almost finished now, but it took his full will to not lose focus on the last steps.
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Then it was happening, he could feel it, the condensation was complete and he could hear applause.
"Yes, awesome! You did it and it looks beautiful. Quick look, how much is the regeneration bonus?"
Coming back to his senses he saw the little fairy sitting on Mr. Floppy and flying through the room. At first the thought he fell asleep and was dreaming, but then he remembered that dungeon cores don't sleep.
"Hello Luna, thanks. I don't know how I should ask it, but how is Mr. Floppy flying right now?"
"Luna was bored and a good mount has to fly, so Luna taught Mr. Floppy how to fly. That's not important right now. Quickly look up your bonus!"
Neo was speechless for a moment, but then he remembered the other impossible stuff Luna did, like creating a plate armor out of thin air and decided to not think about it. Instead he opened his status window.
Name: Neo
Species: Dungeon core
Affinity: None
Rank: F-8
Level: 4
Structural Integrity: 4/4
Mana: 368/368 (1132)
Floor area: 1500/1500 m²
Max dungeon extension from core: 93.7 m
Mana Regeneration: 1000 /h *2*50000% = 277.77 /s
Life Energy: 92.5
Life Energy generation: 9.2/d
"Wow, my mana regeneration doubled and structural integrity quadrupled."
"What, a perfect condensation? That is not possible. The first condensations for new dungeons are normally pretty bad. Wait one moment, you cheated. Normally a new dungeon is extremely stupid when he does his first condensations, you have an unfair advantage, that's awesome!"
He saw a big smile on the face of the fairy and she flew to him and hugged his core. Not knowing what to answer to that he decided to level up after seeing his current life energy.
Upgrade dungeon level -> 5 Costs: 80 life energy
Upgrade dungeon level -> 6 Costs: 160 life energy
Name: Neo
Species: Dungeon core
Affinity: None
Rank: F-8
Level: 5
Structural Integrity: 4/4
Mana: 368/368 (1132)
Floor area: 1500/3100 m²
Max dungeon extension from core: 124 m
Mana Regeneration: 1500 /h *2*50000% = 416.66 /s
Life Energy: 12.5
Life Energy generation: 9.2/d
His dungeon started to get momentum. With the new 1600 m² he could build some real rooms.
"Did something interesting happen while I was occupied?"
"Yes, you idiot. Your pet human came with two animals and wanted his money. I had to put him off for a few days, saying that you were occupied. You should've just left me some money to pay him!"
"Good, don't worry he'll come back. Let me check the animals for a moment."
"Money first!"
"Ok, ok."
He started to create some emergency funds for Luna. One hundred silver coins and five golden ones should be enough for the moment. Then he absorbed the animals, they were not looking very good anymore.
Sickly badger
A normal badger, due to decay of the animal the blueprint is of lower quality
Rank: G2
Traits: weak (rank1)
Costs: 30 mana ; 8 kg animal material
Sickly fox
A large exemplar of a fox, due to decay of the animal the blueprint is of lower quality
Rank: G5
Traits: weak (rank1)
Costs: 60 mana ; 15 kg animal material
It seemed like the decay corrupted his blueprint. Neo immediately tried to amend that. You would not create substandard creatures in his dungeon, after all he'd always taken his pride from his work. It wasn't too hard to tweak the blueprint and remove the weak traits. The rank of the animals went up to G3 and G7.
Next on his ToDo list was the lighting. He knew it would be more efficient to extend his dungeon first and make some more creatures, so he wouldn't miss out on the additional life energy generation, but he already postponed the lighting more than once and wanted to get it done.
After two more days of tinkering, he came up with a working prototype. It would need a little bit steel, plant material and copper, but that was not a big issue. The design was simple and fed from the ambient mana. It would not inhibit his own regeneration. The only flaw in his creation was, that divers would be able to steal it. Thinking about the issue, he came up with a plan. He decided to make the lights a little bit more bulky and leave the rest in the hands of the divers. If he would not replace stolen lights for a few days, divers that had to stumble through his dungeon in the dark, would 'educate' the looters about their misdeeds pretty fast.
He was just done with it when he noticed his newest minion enter the dungeon.
Mike's POV:
Mike was in a bad mood, he had to make the burdensome journey between village and dungeon twice in the last days. Of the five days since the little fairy told him he wasn't getting paid, he spend three struggling through the difficult terrain of this untouched part of the forest. He swore to himself, that he would not come back again if he wasn't paid this time. Luckily he found a deer on his way which could mean ten extra silver. The downside was, he had to carry the extra 30kg for the last six hours on his back. With the spear ready he entered the dungeon again.
"Welcome, welcome my young friend. I see you brought a new gift. Your money is on the table, 35 silver. I generously decide to add a five silver bonus for your inconvenience. What's with the grumpy face, you should smile, it's always a good day when you get your reward for a good business deal."
Mike had to admit himself that the dungeon was right. He never earned so much money before on a single day in his whole life. He put down the dear and started pocketing the silver with a smile on his face.
When he looked around, he could not spot any changes in the room. It was still the same little hole in the ground with a low ceiling, entirely made up of dirt. He was a little bit curious what Neo's important 'dungeon business' had been, but he didn't want to intrude in his money source's affairs too much.
"So everything went fine with your dungeon business?"
"Yes, in fact it went perfectly, it just was just a little bit tiring. So what are your plans now? Will you keep on hunting new creatures? I told you, if you manage to bring me a goblin, I would give you something special, life changing in fact."
That sparked Mikes curiosity. He thought about the question for a moment. He decided he would keep on hunting for the dungeon. If he could get a few more successful runs, he could gather enough money to join the guild and get a mana cultivation method.
"Yes, I will keep on hunting, but I won't go after groups of goblins. Finding a lone one would be difficult, the same goes for finding the rare animals you want."
"Good, so small fry for now. That's ok, let me think about the scouting issue for the next days, maybe I can come up with something to support your effort and my profit."
After the discussion Mike immediately left the dungeon. Although it was getting late, he would not have his place to sleep in or even near the dungeon. Even if Neo seemed trustworthy, he was a dungeon after all and Mike had no idea what thoughts were in his mind. He shuddered when he thought about to be absorbed by the dungeon in his sleep only to wake up between a hole group of newly created 'dungeon Mikes'.