Mark and Amelia cheered and hugged each other jumping in excitement, before Mark realized in horror that the units in their own dungeon were still alive. The half dozen bronze guardians that had been fighting to pull out the dead scorpion were standing still as the interface worked to switch them over from dungeon creatures back to the neutral faction. Mark hurriedly took control and had Emperor move back behind the bend of the dead end tunnel. It was all he could think. When Crassius had been defeated, the orcs attacking their dungeon had been frozen for a good 5 to 10 seconds. Then when they woke up they were confused, and the normally battle driven creatures were forced to retreat before the far weaker goblins due to the confusion.
Amelia’s excitement died as she realized what was going on. Mareth was defeated, but their dungeon was very much still under attack. They watched with wide eyes as the constructs began moving again. Less than 10 seconds had passed since Mareth’s core had been shattered, when the constructs began to move again.
Mark sighed in relief when they just meandered about. They had seemingly forgotten what they had just been doing with the reupload, and since Emperor was back around the tunnel’s bend they should not be able to sense him. Over a hundred units were still alive on the sixth floor and an additional 50 were on the fourth floor making their way up.
“I can’t believe this!” Amelia exclaimed. “We wiped out a dungeon, and still might end up dying.” She collapsed back into the couch in disbelief. “How much time till our units respawn.?”
“Well it is the sixth floor, so 6 hours for the normal defenders. Since it has only been 15 to 20 minutes since the last of them were killed, we have a good five and a half hours…” Mark responded matter of factly.
“Your kidding me, so we just have to sit here for that long, hoping that the constructs don’t find the guardian?” Amelia asked exasperated.
Mark nodded. He was just as frustrated. They sat there in silence as they watched the constructs meander about. They were all scattered and seemingly had no clue on what they had just been doing, but Mark knew if they were able to kill Emperor, then they could still end up dying today.
The more frustrating part was that they were going to have to wait a long time to potentially resolve this situation, and not necessarily just six hours. It could easily take several iterations to finish off the remaining attackers. The real question was if and when the scorpion’s body would dissolve into the dungeon. Was it just time based, or not till all enemies on the floor were gone. He hoped it was the latter, because he had witnessed it occurring within a couple of hours in all previous instances, although every other time there had not been enemies still on the floor.
Mark watched for another minute or two before he decided he would go mad, if he sat here for the rest of the day. He gave the scorpion directions to start the tug of war game if the constructs started pulling the dead body out. Of course, Mark hoped that Emperor could just stay behind the bend in the tunnel. Perhaps the constructs would not sense him regardless due to the dead scorpion in the way, but he would rather not chance it.
Mark would definitely keep the feed up, but there were definitely things that they could look at or do. After all, all of the constructs were all inside the dungeon so theoretically Amelia and he could even go outside, the portal taking them right to the surface. Not that they would, however Mareth had not destroyed the buildings, so it was an easy thing to let the researchers and dedicated crafters out. They might as well get back to work in case they survive. Ezekiel would be among them, once again he had survived in the compartment through the attack.
Mark was eager to see what their unique reward would be, but they still had a good 54 minutes to wait according to the counter, so Mark went to the next thing on his agenda. Of all the units that they needed to replenish, there was only one group that had a time limit. Mark summoned 10 new red hobgoblin spiritualists. Luckily, the summoning worked without issue since there were no enemy units alive within their territory.
Mark would have loved to unlock another level of mage to increase the capacities further, but the MP they would receive from defeating Mareth’s forces was held up since there were still plenty of her former units hanging out in their dungeon. However, Mark did not know whether the same would hold true for the dead bodies strewn about on the surface. The ten spiritualists immediately went to work, each rushing to find the best corpses to add to their spirit army.
Mark then resummoned the archer division. No reason they could not get back to work making more arrows and other goods. With just over 17,000 MP Mark could not due too much else. He summoned 100 yellow hobgoblins to send through both sides of the barracks. In just over a month, he could have a 100 regular yellow mages all for the cheap price of 17,000 MP right now. He only had enough MP to give half the Mage class, the rest would have to pick it up in the barracks. That drained their MP down to the dregs, but hopefully they would have the MP from the battle should Gale send a force to attack later in the day.
It was just getting light outside, so she would know soon enough. There would not be any hiding it. Hopefully she would also see the notice that Mareth had been defeated, so would once again err on the side of caution and not send an attack force their way.
However, Mark was needlessly worried about the other dungeon in their area attacking them today. Not that he would ever know. They had only minutes left on their unique reward counter. The enemies in their dungeon were once again meandering about, searching for a way to open the door to the sixth floor. The rock and flesh golems had joined the others on the sixth floor, and a round of defenders had respawned.
Mark got one answer to his question, defender bodies would dissolve quite quickly once they respawned. Mark had sweat pretty hard for a bit when the body had dissolved. However through some careful coordination of the other 24 Mark had drawn all the enemies to one area with the sounds of battle. Meanwhile he had snuck one of the scorpions the opposite way to retake the position at the hole’s entrance. It was still alive, but whenever the constructs found it, hopefully it would once again die in place blocking the hole.
The sad part was that Mark was going to have to do this more than once. Over a hundred of enemies still roamed their sixth floor, so Mark could easily imagine needing several more iterations of this tactic. Each time the shuffle would risk their floor guardian being found.
But having successfully managed it once, Mark had been watching the counter tick down for their unique reward when the new notice popped.
[Notice: a Contender has reached dungeon level 3. New features have been unlocked.]
[Notice: The In-battle contender chat feature has been unlocked. Contenders will now be able to message with one another provided they have encountered the other dungeon.]
[Notice: The limit on sponsorship has been reduced for all contenders. Limited status: three sponsorship support packages per a week. Contenders can elect on which support they would like to receive and when to receive it.]
Mark stared for a moment at the notice. Someone had leveled up their dungeon to level 3. Once again new features were unlocked for everyone, regardless of their dungeon level status. They were both worrying additions to the battle. Now other dungeons could receive three times the support from outside of the dungeon. The in battle chat feature could potentially allow alliances or coordinated attacks.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
But after thinking about it for a minute perhaps the in battle chat feature could be beneficial for them. After all, when considering the various super powers still in existence who would coordinate to take out a supposedly weaker contender like Amelia. The opposite was more likely. Who would not want to team up with a supposedly weaker dungeon that they felt could be taken out at leisure. If they played it right perhaps they could team up with others until most of the others were taken out.
Mark could not dwell on it for too long. The new notice for their unique rewards would be on its way shortly, but Mark had also noticed something else. A prior notice, he had not seen. It arrived an hour ago.
[Congratulations: One of your elite units has received a unique title, Relentless. Each of the 100 titles can only be given once during the succession battle. Each unit can only have one title. (Titles still available: 91/100) ]
[Relentless: The relentless title recognizes a unit for continued perseverance through grueling circumstances, and will increase their ability to push on. The unit's endurance will be increased by twofold, and the unit’s vitality and toughness by 25%. In addition, contenders can pick one among the following.
1. Added stat points, attack, and defense
2. Special skill
3. Added essence ability: (essences currently available: toxic, electricity.)
Time remaining 60:00]
Mark and Amelia looked at each other in shock. Normal units could progress through five different experience levels: conscript, recruit, regular, veteran, and expert. Before the battle this morning, Henry had only been a veteran, but at some point during the battle he had not only leveled up to expert, but had pushed beyond to claim one of what had been 92 unique titles remaining.
But Mark could not be shocked for long. Like the unique reward component this notice had a one hour timer, and both of them had started Now that he had reviewed the notice the timer had started.
“Don’t open the unique reward notice till we settle this one,” Mark directed.
“Not like we will need the full hour,” Amelia huffed, but she closed her interface anyways to only pay attention to the screen he was sharing. “My vote is for the essence ability,” Amelia immediately stated after rereading all the options.
Mark rolled his eyes. Just like her to go for the most flashy option without much thought. He sighed though after only a little bit of thought. She was probably right. The stat point option would be nice, but it would not add much besides increasing the power rating. The skill option was more enticing. A special skill had to be better than the four basic skills they had been offered once they upgraded their dungeon to level 2. Henry already had the soak ability. Another even more powerful skill would certainly be enticing. Perhaps if he knew what the stat option or skill would actually offer.
But it was true that essence was the succession battle's driving resource, so it would seem foolish not to go in that direction. However, they only had two options available. Mark could only guess it was based on how much they currently had on hand. If stone had been an option it might have been a really good pick to increase Henry’s survivability, but since it was not. Mark did not really have to consider between the two options. A certain superhero who wielded a hammer and could use electricity came to mind. If only Mark could rename Henry as well. Then he would be uh…. A much uglier version.
“Electric essence, then?” he asked questionably.
Sounds good to me,” Amelia agreed. She selected the option and the two looked at Henry’s status.
Colonel Henry the Relentless (1/45) Warhammer LVL 3 (Expert) Power lvl: 10.0 Morale: 82 (Cheerful) Strength 29 Attack: 5 Defense: 3 Endurance 42 Abilities/Skills Agility 19
SKills: Soak
Abilities: Jolt
Vitality 34 Intelligence 14 Wisdom 15
The title was added to the name column, and the ability Jolt had been added. Mark checked jolt in the encyclopedia. Henry’s attacks would send out electricity. Which could cause damage even if blocked and could potentially even temporarily paralyze enemies. They would have to see how it was in practice, but it sounded amazing. On top of the 25% experience bump to expert and the extra stats Henry had become frightening. Of course there was only one way for him to become more powerful now, class upgrades. He was still level 3 in his war hammer class so he could already get another 10% bump, but he could not become much more powerful.
Amelia enthusiastically went back to their new notice. After a brief moment for them to read it the counter started.
[Unique Reward: Choose between one of the three options
1. Take the money and run.
2. Skill Gymnasium
3. Essence Hoard
Time remaining 60:00]
The first option was the standard MP option. They would get an additional 2,500 MP a day. It was not quite a 10% increase since their current daily production was 27,430 MP, but it would be even less once dungeons moved on to dungeon level 3. Probably after all the production increases from level 3 it might only be 3 or 4 percent of a dungeon’s daily production. Still it was definitely more tempting than the 1,000 MP they had been offered last time.
The second option, the skill gymnasium, would allow units to train and receive skills. Ten units could train at a time, and each new skill would take one week. If that was all there was to it, then Mark would have immediately bypassed it. Adding a skill to a unit only cost 200 MP and even with the substantial mark up for additional skills for a unit, the cost would be less than what the MP option would give.
The real hook for this option was the second part. The gymnasium would allow him to bypass unlocking additional skill slots. The second skill slot by itself was already 100,000 MP. The third and fourth would be progressively more expensive. He would be able to summon units with one skill and then use the gymnasium to add additional skills, only dealing with the 10 unit limit. It would also allow him to add skills to already summoned units, say Henry. That by itself would make it tempting.
Mark was pretty much already sold on the second option but he gave the third option a look over. Essence hoard did not sound bad. It would give a seemingly endless supply of two new essences that they had not yet encountered. To sweeten the deal, the option would start them out with one method of use for each essence.
Damn, Mark thought. It was just enticing enough to make him think about it for a bit. Amelia and him discussed both options for almost the entirety of the time the counter was made available, but finally Mark selected the second option, skill gymnasium. Not knowing what essences they would receive or how beneficial the methods they would get, was the main factor.
They could potentially be game changing, but they could also just be so-so. Mark was not particularly interested in spinning a gacha wheel and hoping to get something good, especially when it was not actually up to luck. In this case the essences and methods they would get would be up to the succession battle creators. Mark was not willing to depend on their providence. He would go for the known quantity.
The gymnasium appeared in an area that would be protected by their outer wall. It just fit in with everything else. He had thought he had left quite a bit of left over space, but now it was looking like things were going to be quite cramped in their in progress fortress.
With everything decided, Mark treated himself to a good meal. He still had a long day ahead of him. They were still in a bit of a precarious situation. One wrong move and the enemy units on their sixth floor would finish them off. They might not be a part of a dungeon any more, but it was quite apparent that they would not leave the dungeon. They would either be wiped out, or they would destroy the dungeon. Hopefully, the succession battle managers would be a bit merciful since it would be a pathetic and non climatic end to a dungeon after they had actually won the battle with another dungeon.