Ava POV
We went all the way down and into the dungeon but hadn’t found any changes so far. Jay swears that the maned prowler is a different one from before, but I think it's in his head. After all, the boss looked the exact same, had the exact same abilities, and acted more or less the same. Jay said he could see it in the eyes and it's true that the glare of the boss didn’t feel as strong, but we also had all increased in power since our last delve.
We had done several quests to increase our levels and skills, as well as to level up Hal and Jay after their class upgrades. Hal used the Legacy Tome I gave him and became a Steelforged Protector (Superior) skipping greater rank entirely, the penalty for this would be a slower leveling speed until the experience cost of using the legacy was paid off. Jay managed to rank up his class into a rarer variant of a Blizzard Mage called Blizzard Wizard (Greater). Everyone but Jay found the class name hilarious and we made sure he knew it, we had made jokes about it for 3 days straight after he had finished his rank up. Jokes aside, it was a powerful class variant that made him even more of a monster at spell casting.
Over the time we spent questing we managed to raise our levels a decent amount (even with Hal leveling slower). It was to the point where we were confident to take on the next floor, provided the dungeon had one.
We finished our walk back to the central plaza and entered Wyla’s interior space. I immediately noticed that the spiral staircase in the floor was locked away under a system barrier. I looked at the rest of my party to confirm we were all seeing the same thing, you can never be too sure. Everyone nodded at me, good not going crazy yet. Z walked right up to chip after motioning for the rest of us to wait a moment.
“Hey there Chip! How’s business, anything new?” He said leaning on the counter of Chip’s alcove.
“Yep, yep, yeppers! I’ve got a whole bunch of new things in store for the reopening of the second floor! Don’t you mind the barrier none, I’m sure Lord Eternal will be finished soon. So want to take a look?” Chip bombards Z with his childlike excitement, adorable voice, and cutthroat business acumen. Z figured out pretty quickly that Chip is a big talker so long as you’re a good customer. Z made sure to always buy something everytime we came through and I doubt this time will be any different.
“Of course I want to take a look! In fact our group finally saved up enough for some of your larger purchases, I just wanted to ask a few questions to figure out how best to spend our money.” Z says tricking Chip into giving him more information about the various items in the shop. They talk until we only have 10 minutes left in our delve slot, when Lia gently reminds Z that we have to leave soon.
Z and Chip say their farewells, but not before we use the group funds to buy the party integration feature for my system. I tried to tell them that I could just wait and buy it on my own, but they were having none of it. After Z learned that only the party leader needs to have it for it to function for everyone, he was adamant we get it now. I look once more at the new party system as we’re walking back towards the entrance.
Party: Ava’s Own
[Ava] Druid (Greater) Level 16
[Hal] Steelforged Protector (Superior) Level 5
[Lia] Paladin (Greater) Level 17
[Z] Shadowsneak (Greater) Level 17
[Jay] Blizzard Wizard (Greater) Level 11
There were several helpful functions: Health Display, Mana Display, Tag Display, as well a feature that let me customize the tags which is how I added everyone's names. I could also change how loot was distributed and make a shared group account which is what we had done. We all agreed that it would be better to simply put everything in one account so that no one would frivolously spend anything. It would also let us make larger purchases without needing to shuffle around money first. The person who was the party leader (me) had full control over everything, but could place restrictions on themselves, which is what I had done. Everyone else in the party could see all the rules and restrictions in place from their own party tab, however if they ever left the party they would lose access since they didn’t have the party integration themselves.
Enough fiddling with the party system. Thanks to Z we managed to learn a lot of information about what’s going to be added to the second floor. It seems that the system integrations offered will be integral to the next floor, which is why we saved the rest of our EC for later. The Second floor would have lots of new features including a floor large enough to need a system map and a quest system that would let you earn EC by completing tasks.
As we left the dungeon we began to walk straight towards the large building that was currently housing the Guildmaster and his assistants. We needed to report this straight away so that a group could be sent in each day to check when the second floor was ready.
“I’m going to go take a walk” Z says as he heads off in the direction of the inn. He really doesn’t trust any security other than his own, which makes sense considering his previous occupation.
“Ok, just don’t kill or maim anyone” I say to him as the rest of us continue towards the Guildmaster. He waves me off before using his stealth skill to disappear from our sight.
As we enter the building the sounds of activity can be clearly heard. The large building contains living and working space for up to 8 people, right now it's at maximum capacity. The Guildmaster is taking up half the space just with his and his assistants' work. We walk straight to his office space and I knock on the door.
“Guildmaster Tor, it’s Ava Brahm. I’m here to give a report” I say, I only have to wait a moment before I’m told to enter. As I enter the room I can immediately tell why it's so hectic around here. Piles of papers and folders fill the room along with various color coded strips of cloth which struggle to maintain some semblance of order in the chaos.
“Yes, over here, just sit on the most stable pile of junk you can find” I hear the Guildmaster say as he walks out from behind a filing cabinet that’s overflowing with reports marked blue. I move over and manage to unbury a chair, dislodging the various files and reports that have covered it and placing them on the floor.
“Are you sure that you don’t need more administrative help, Guildmaster?” I ask him while he begins to carefully clear the area around his desk so that he can pull out his chair.
“I’m fine, just a little behind. Unless you're personally offering to help of course” he says to me with a grin. I shudder before quickly shaking my head in the negative. “A shame. Anyways, I take it by your tone that there were no worrying changes?” He says
“No sir, in fact quite the opposite. It seems that the Eternal Dungeon is going to be recovering its second floor soon. I suggest we send in a group every 12 hours to check on the progress.” I tell him in response.
“Fantastic, thank you for volunteering your party’s time” The Guildmaster says with a smile.
“Excuse me. I refuse to volunteer for anything, if my group is doing this we’re getting compensated” I say refusing to let my party's time be wasted.
“Fine, fine, how about we guarantee the slots for you and compensate each of you one gold a day?” He says. It’s a fair offer, a gold a day is easily enough to both live off of and profit from even compared to what adventurers make. However, that's not what we need.
“We’ll agree if the monetary compensation is in Eternal coins and if we can dive the dungeon should the second floor unlock when we check.” I say. I can see how the threads are aligning, the dungeon is creating its own economic system and when revival magic is in play; the dungeon’s currency is worth far more than our own. Over the past weeks the ratio of EC to physical coin hasn’t changed once, other people think the dungeon is just paying out, they are fools. Converting EC to silver is a one way road, there’s no going back. The fact that the dungeon hasn’t upped its conversion rates tells me that it knows that EC is going to be easier to get soon, otherwise it would be worth far more than a measly 10 silvers. Regardless of this EC is still going to be worth more than silver so long as the dungeon keeps growing. After all, what price can you truly place on your own life?
The Guildmaster seems slightly surprised, but then narrows his eyes in thought. It seems like I’m not the only one who can put things together, he likely just didn’t have enough time to think about it until now. “Very well, we’ll pay you each 5 EC a day in compensation. Although I’ll warn you, the guild will likely be updating its fees and taxes soon. As for the second floor dive, you have my permission.” The Guildmaster says.
Fine by me, he’s giving me a tip off because I brought the true value of EC to his attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Guild starts offering better prices on the coins now rather than later. If I had money to spare I’d do the same, unfortunately all our assets are tied up with paying off what remains of the debts we accrued. My party’s only money is what Lia specifically set aside for living and emergency costs. We have no room for any extra expenses, we’re broke. But only as far as silver is concerned, soon we’ll be rich in EC.
It’s been 8 days. This is the longest I’ve ever seen a dungeon take to finish its second floor. All it’s done is make everyone anxious and excited to see what such a floor will hold in store for us. We’ve been doing the routine 12 hour patrols every day, doing one in the morning before breakfast and at night before dinner. We’ve also been selling our 2 priority slots for 25 EC so we’ve managed to rake in 75 EC every day.
The Guild very quickly increased the tax on money brought out from the dungeon, but they offered a tax break if the Guild members used the Guild to exchange their EC for coins instead of the dungeon. Most people don’t care where the money comes from, only that it does. All the groups that have completed all three of their runs are either taking a vacation or doing quests elsewhere. Most of them are waiting for the second floor to finish.
“Alright, is everyone geared up? Make sure you have everything, even if it's still closed we need to be ready on the chance it's open.” I make sure to check up on everyone after I finish getting all my gear together. I watch as Hal picks up the large bag of food that is our breakfast with the same delicate touch one might use on a maiden. We’ve taken to simply eating our breakfast in the central plaza since all we have to do for our patrol is walk into Wyla and see if the barrier is still there or not. It has the added benefit of us still getting to eat if the barrier isn’t there.
As everyone affirms that they’re ready we head out into the pre-dawn light and move towards the dungeon. The guards on duty simply give us a once over before waving us through, we are on official Guild business after all. We head into the dungeon and simply walk down the safe path straight to plaza and head straight into Wyla’s interior.
We all stop dead in our tracks as the first thing we see is an unblocked spiral staircase leading downwards in the center of the space. I motion to Z to begin with his portion of the agreed upon plan. He nods to me and walks towards Chip.
“Hey Chip, is the second floor open now?” He says with a smile
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“Sure, sure, sure! It most definitely is! I got lots of new things in the shop for it! Even have new bundle deals with discounted prices for bulk buyers! Big bargains here and waiting!” Chip rattles out as he excitedly scurries around his alcove moving between various shelfs that are filled with nuts.
“Fantastic, we’re looking to spend big with the new floor opening” Z says and I can see the squirrel's eyes light up with greed. The two of them begin their negotiations, Chip tries to sell while Z tries to learn information. The rest of us look through the integrated shop so we can see what new options are available.
New Deal: Second Floor Beginner Bundle - 150 EC
Contains an integrated second floor map and an integrated quest log
New Deal: Second Floor Advanced Bundle - 300 EC
Contains an integrated second floor map, an integrated quest log, and an integrated inventory with 10 slots plus 2 save slots
New Deal: Second Floor Expert Bundle - 500 EC
Contains an integrated second floor map, an integrated quest log, an integrated inventory with 10 slots plus 2 save slots, and 3 more revives
New Bulk Deal: Second Floor Expert Bundle - 1500 EC
Includes 5 Second Floor Expert Bundles for the price of 3
There are Bulk deals for all 3 levels of the bundle, but the expert one is what draws my eyes. This would cost us almost all of our hard earned EC, but it would give us the best chances on the next floor. Something I expected we would need. I notice Z looking at me so I inform him through the party chat function of what we need to buy. Chip is more than happy to take our coins.
With our new integrated systems and extra lives on hand we group up into formation and move down towards the second floor. It’s time to finally see what took the core so long to finish. The excitement I feel is shared by my entire party based off of Z’s grin and Hal’s humming. I can tell everyone is ready for this. We move down the stairs towards the second floor. As we reach the point where the old core room was I feel a shift in the mana.
Jay and I look at each other before quickly moving back up the steps and walking down slowly again.
“It’s seamless” Jay says in wonder, carefully examining every surface available to him.
“It is, I wouldn’t have noticed if not for the Aether Mana” I respond also enthralled by what I’m experiencing. The dungeon has created a portal that perfectly melds both ends together. The others couldn’t even tell that they had walked through a portal, the staircase and walls are completely continuous through the whole thing.
“Wait, doesn’t this mean the dungeon has an aether affinity as well” Hal says from the front, he’s so focused on his role he doesn’t even turn around to ask his question, keeping his eyes on the stairs ahead for signs of danger.
“It could be that or it could be a feature it has access to. Dungeons are strange like that” Jay says in response while moving farther down the staircase to continue his examinations. “Dungeons can just sometimes have features or powers that don’t match any of their affinities, although it usually shows up as a single feature that is often replicated on every floor. Like the artificial sun and moon of the first floor” Jay finishes happy to educate Hal further on the intricacies of dungeons.
“Whatever it is, we can’t stop now. Remember we’re still in a safezone so the dungeon can’t hurt us so long as we don’t break any rules.” I say to keep the party on task and moving forwards. Everyone nods their heads and Jay peels himself away from the walls to keep up with us.
We learned a while back from other groups that breaking any dungeon rules or attacking from inside the safezone would deactivate the safezone mechanics. It proved our theories correct, but it cost the deaths of two parties to learn. Luckily they just revived with less experience. One group was less lucky, they’re the ones who learned that if you really piss off the dungeon it won’t bring you back. They didn’t actually die, the dungeon just marked them for death and they quickly left before anything too strong decided to come for them. I’m still not sure what exactly they did because they refused to tell anyone but the Guildmaster and the Guildmaster kept it mostly confidential.
As we reached the bottom of the stairs we found ourselves inside of a room with a single archway that led towards a more open space. We carefully walked forwards until we were all past the archway at which point we paused to stare in wonder at the scene before us.
We were still inside of Wyla’s trunk but we went from walking down the center to coming out the side. The interior space of the tree was now bigger than the Guildhall, possibly bigger than the Brahm mansion. Instead of alcoves with counters there were now full sized 3-4 story buildings built into the sides. In the center was a large crystal obelisk that floated above runic formations I couldn’t comprehend, the whole thing overflowing with mana. But best of all was the view, we were at the top most level of what looked to be 3 tiered levels of Wyla’s interior space. From where we were standing I could see through clear windows in the trunk to the outside, to the second floor.
The second floor was enormous! I could see a massive plain that stretched out for miles before the plants got larger and larger until it was all forest. Directly around the base of Wyla’s trunk was a town that seemed to actually have people in it, although I couldn’t make out any of their features from up here. The whole town had a foreign feel, hell the whole floor invoked the feeling of stepping into another world entirely. From our vantage I could see a huge lake in the south that seemed to be flooding the surrounding area. I could also see large mountains surrounding the edges of the entire space. Looking up clouds drifted lazily by being pushed by currents of mana that swirled through the floor.
“We should keep moving, we’ll have plenty of time to explore the floor” Hal’s voice breaks the rest of us out of our stupor. If I didn’t know this was a safezone I’d think that an enchantment spell was cast on us.
“Right, good call Hal. Let’s not get too distracted, we’re in a safezone still but we should stick together until we know more.” I say focusing my mind back onto the task at hand.
“So, should we head down? I’ve never been up this high before” Hal says while slowly inching towards the staircase. Oh right, Hal has a fear of extreme heights. I can’t believe I forgot something like that, the only thing keeping him calm right now is likely the fact that we’re still on solid ground. Well, solid floor, same thing really.
“Yes, let’s go down to the ground level and see what this place has to offer. The stuff on the higher levels seems to be mostly recreational” I say and we begin to head downwards. The level we came out on just has a large observational area with benches and tables, likely a place to enjoy the view of the second floor. The level below it seems to be made up of a massive inn that has a park in the middle and a large water feature of some kind, as we pass by we notice that the entrance is sealed by a system barrier that requires one to pay before entry is allowed. Z wants to investigate further but I make him stay with the group for now.
The ground floor is where we get our first surprise, the moment we step onto it all of us get a system notification.
One Hidden Reward has been unlocked. Please move to the Town Hall to claim the reward or to the Central Pylon to learn more.
Looks like the hidden reward we earned on our first run is claimable on this floor. It also seems that the massive magical crystal obelisk that runs through the center of this entire space is called the Central Pylon, which implies other pylons also exist elsewhere.
“Town Hall or Central Pylon?” I ask quickly looking to get the parties input. 2 votes go to each, of course Z and Hal just want to claim it while Lia and Jay want to learn more first. I swing the vote towards the Central Pylon and we move towards the ominous construction of unknown magical ability. Maybe I should’ve voted the other way? Too late for regrets now, besides this might be another major feature of the dungeon that’s important to use.
As we approach the central pylon as soon as we cross the edge of the runic formation everyone else disappears from my sight. I panic and quickly back up just to see everyone else also doing the same. We all end up running into each other, everyone except Z who appears out of the formation with a grin as he looks down on the pile that is the rest of us.
“Good news, the formation is just an instancing barrier. No need to freak out” Z says with his stupid smile going even wider. We all disentangle ourselves and spread out some before walking back into the instanced area. Instance zones separate either individual parties or individual adventurers, it's a tactic used by dungeons to force people to work alone. It seems that this dungeon is using it for some other purpose, unless the Central Pylon is a challenge of some kind. I approach the pylon and reach out to place my hand on it, the moment I do I understand why it's an instanced area as my full status is pulled up on the crystal surface.
User: Ava_Brahm
Level: 16
Integrated Tabs +
Race: Human (Superior)
Class: Druid (Greater)
Mana: 312/320
Power Stat
Strength:14
Intelligence: 56
Control Stat
Agility:20
Perception: 32
Endurance Stat
Vitality :30
Willpower: 168
Skills: (Top 5)
* Dual Cast (Superior) Level 0
* Wyld Spellcasting (Greater) Level 8
* Enhanced Casting (Greater) Level 8
* Speed Chant (Greater) Level 7
* Leadership (Greater) Level 5
(+ Full skill list)
Spells: (Top 5)
* Mass Entangle (superior) Level 0
* Armor of Thorns (Greater) Level 10
* Rejuvenation (Greater) Level 8
* Unleashed Potential (Greater) Level 5
* Greater Heal (Greater) Level 3
(+ Full Spell list)
Abilities:
* Unbreakable Will (Legendary) Level 1
* Wyld Affinity (Superior) Level 7
I gasped in surprise at my actual stats. I hadn’t opened my full status screen in a while as seeing the growth all there really helped it sink in. I had raised the level of my impossible ability by 1. Abilities are special powers you’re born with. Common ones like the Affinities have well documented rules behind their leveling. For example, everyones racial rank was based on the racial rank of their parents and your affinity started at the same rank as your race. Every 100 levels you would get a chance to upgrade your race, although getting past superior is nearly impossible. If you never raised your racial rank, your affinity would be unable to raise as well and would be locked at level 10 forever.
My other ability was a complete unknown and I never told anyone about it out of fear. It was legendary, but I was unable to do anything with it as it was a passive and the only way to raise it was by testing my willpower. I was worried that if I had told my father he would’ve done something . . . drastic to raise the level of the ability. Since I already had the full status opened I decided to look closer at the ability.
Unbreakable Will (Legendary) Level 1
The user is imbued with an unbreakable willpower allowing them to fight through the worst of situations.
User gains +100 willpower per level of this skill
User is able to break all status effects using willpower alone
When user’s life is endangered the status effect `Will to Live` will be applied
It amazes me everytime I see it. Legendary abilities are just on a completely different level from superior ones. The points of Willpower alone would make this an amazing ability to have but everything else on top of that made it extra powerful. I haven’t used the status effect breaking feature much other than when the Guildmaster used his presence suppression on me. The Will to Live status effect was something I could see activated in my system logs but it was always for such a short time I couldn’t really tell what it did. For example it activated for exactly 0.8 seconds when I was ambushed from behind by the lesser prowler on our first dungeon run, I still don’t know what exactly it helped with, just that it did something. Since I could only view personal system logs that were more than a day old it was impossible to use the system to tell when any status effects are actively on you.
Well no point in worrying about it now, I know that my ability isn’t detrimental and that’s enough for me. I look through the integrated tabs to see that there is a new one in my system labeled `World Tree Link` I move to the tab and the first thing I see is a large image of tree with lots of a grayed and blacked out areas the only two I can see is one very close to the top and one a little ways below it. It looks like I can use the central pylon to teleport between the first and second floors. This link also has other features including ones that can provide information. I look through it for a couple minutes to learn what our hidden reward is before I close out of the system and step back outside of the instance formation.
It’s time to explore the rest of the floor, right after we claim our reward.