Captain Kal POV

Walls made of dark metal and red stone loom over us reaching over a hundred feet high. Spires continue upwards beyond them piercing the sky and challenging gravity itself. The peaks of the towers have large magical arrays on them that seem to suck up the power of the burning red star that hovers in the sky. The entirety of the fortress casts a shadow over us as we approach the large portcullis which slowly raises to allow our entry.

We’re escorted by Bazzle and his forces, a force that I thought to be reasonably sized considering the three dozen Orcs and half dozen Ogres along with equal numbers of beasts, however those numbers are completely dwarfed by those within the fortress.

Hundreds of Orcs, Ogres, and Hobs filled the fortress and every one of them had at least one bonded beast. Not only that but I couldn’t find a single standard variant anywhere. All of them had tags that were worrying me, I knew that a normal Orc was on the lower end of the Superior spectrum, but these were unknowns.

Trained Orc (Superior)

Orc Expert (Superior)

Orc Master (Superior)

Trained Hobgoblin (Greater)

Ogre Brute (Superior)

Ogre Enforcer (Superior)

The tags were only made worse by what they implied. Monsters who had training of some kind. It reflected in the way they carried themselves. I could tell that many of these Orcs were trained in their chosen weapons and it seemed like all of them were trained in beast taming as well. Although that did make me wonder why none of them had more specific modifiers such as Orc Beastmaster. Perhaps it was because it was still their race and not a full class? I shuddered and changed my line of thought before it fully formed. I did not want to think about monsters with classes, it would be the end for us if our greatest advantage disappeared.

I kept my guard up and noticed that the rest of the raid was on edge as well. It's not like we could do much considering that the lowest level monsters here were in their 40’s and the average level of our group was high 20’s to 30’s. We could normally fight monsters higher level than us since we were still in zero star and we had our classes, but with their variants and far superior numbers we wouldn’t stand much of a chance.

I steeled my resolve as the portcullis slammed shut behind us. We were escorted deeper into the heart of the fortress going through two more walls before reaching the innermost keep. This fortress was the main base of Bazzles faction, the Beast Breakaz. We had to travel for eight hours straight and that was with Bazzle’s soldiers sharing their mounts to speed things up. I estimated that we were two days away by foot, likely more considering we would have to know the exact path as well.

The innermost courtyard was the smallest of them and was cast in permanent shadow due to the massive walls, spires, and connecting bridges that towered high above us. The Orcs and Ogres that were moving about this inner keep were all high leveled and had what I assumed to be higher quality race variants. There were a few beasts roaming with the patrols but less of them than elsewhere in the fortress.

As I was just wondering where their beasts were I heard a loud screeching sound followed by the sound of metal tearing. I watched as several Ogres started running over towards a large barred gate that was currently shaking. I was able to see a short glimpse of dark hair and chitin from which I could get the creature's tag.

Viper Tarantula (Superior) Level 48

The first thing I’ve seen on this floor above level 45. From what the groups who delved into The Lost Mines told us the dungeon restricts the levels of the monsters with the only exception being Bosses. What worried me is that the leader of these orcs was supposed to be another orc, which likely makes that creature its beast companion. If that’s the strength of its companion, how strong is the boss?

A large set of dark metallic doors were opened for us by two ogres and we continued forwards into the inner keep itself. A grand throne room is what awaited us. Large enough to fit a Primal Wyrm and decorated with enough treasure to make the king himself green with envy. I had to send several meaningful looks to warn my companions away from trying to pry the gemstones out of the walls.

We walked down through the center of the hall and towards a massive throne at the end. The throne stood out starkly from the rest of the room as it lacked any form of gold or glitter. No gemstones bedazzled its surface, nor bands of platinum or gold. The throne was a large construction of dark steel with several metal pipes and vents coming off the back of it. It was made out of the exact same material as the walls of the fortress, a metal I had never seen anywhere else before.

As we passed the last pairing of pillars we came to a stop in front of the throne. The orcs and ogres escorting us all got down on one knee and gave some kind of a salute, pounding a closed fist over their heart.

“We greet the Warlord Grobnozz!” The orcs and ogres chant in unison.

The orc on the throne, Grobnozz, lifted a single hand making a gesture to rise and all of the orcs and ogres stood up again. Grobnozz slowly stood from his seated position and walked down the steps of the raised throne platform until he was on the last step. Towering above us, looking down on us with his calculating gaze. I took the chance to check his tag.

Orc Warlord (Legendary) Level 50

I managed to hide any reaction, but internally I was screaming. A Legendary monster that was also 12 levels above me. It would be possible to win despite our level disadvantage, but we would definitely lose at least half our number doing so. I resolved myself to not start combat even if things were going poorly, hopefully their sense of honor will keep us safe.

“I am Grobnozz the Greedy, Warlord of the Beast Breakaz. Why do you come to my home on this day, human?” Grobnozz spoke, he seemed to be actively working to speak without his accent that all the other orcs and ogres have.

“Greeting Warlord Grobnozz. I am Captain Kal, leader of this raiding party. We come to you this day to offer our services as mercenaries in your conflict with your rivals.” I say

Grobnozz sits down on the third step with his feet still planted on the first. He places a hand over his chin and seems to be seriously considering my proposal. After several moments of silence the Warlord speaks up again.

“And what cost would your services incur?” He asks

“We seek contribution points, as given by the du- Eternal Lord” I say, quickly fixing my mistake of saying dungeon. All of the creatures in this dungeon call it the Eternal Lord, so it’s better to play into it.

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Grobnozz smiles, a smile that looks menacing despite the lack of bloodlust.

“Very well, I will accept your raiding party as mercenaries for the Beast Breakaz. You can speak with my Captains for further directions from now on.” He says and turns to walk back to his throne, dismissing us.

I manage to hold in my sigh of relief. The negotiations were short and we pretty much got what we wanted, but that Warlord terrifies me. Especially the implication that every other faction will be led by a similarly strong Legendary creature. This floor will certainly be interesting.

Notice: Your Raid has joined the Beast Breakaz faction

You may now receive quests, events, and rewards unique to this faction.

You will now be considered hostile by the Boggerz and Smashaz factions

Notice: New Quests Available

Notice: New Events Active

Notice: Achievement Unlocked

I quickly dismissed any more of the notifications, I could look at them later. Right now I needed to focus on deciding the raid's next move, which meant talking to the Warlord’s captains and figuring out how to get the maximum amount of contribution points from this. We still had over a week left before our planned return to the second floor.

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Eternal Dungeon POV

I felt a small twist of mana leave me. Huh looks like the systems I set up on the fourth are working properly. I shift my attention away from the fifth, trusting my partner to finish things up while I investigate the fourth.

As my attention lands on the fourth I quickly do a check through my aura recordings to see everything that happened before I got here. Once I’m caught up with that my focus shifts over to the raiding party that is currently spread out through Beast Breaka Fortress.

The raiding party is currently looking at the faction exclusive rewards that the Beast Breakaz offer while their leadership talks to the captains to learn what quests and events they can do. I’m happy to see that everything was working as intended. I was a little worried that my orcs would be uncooperative and wouldn’t want to work with `pink skinned weaklings`, however they accepted my requests as easily as the Spiritkin did.

I suppose it only made sense for them to do so since they’re my dungeon creations, but they displayed enough individuality that I honestly thought them sapient like the Spiritkin. The system never gave me a notification about it though, so I can only assume that all orcs already had the potential for sapience and they don’t count as a sapient species for some reason. Actually, I can just ask.

“Wyla is there a reason the Orcs and their evolutions don’t count as Sapients despite some of them clearly being sapient?”

“To be considered a Sapient species, an average of 92% of living adult specimens must have a full soul and exhibit the signs of sapience. This is why Wyrms aren’t a sapient species despite their incredible potential for intelligence as well as the reason Orcs aren’t one. Most of the race won’t ever develop a full soul and will be stuck in a sort of animalistic in between common of the more intelligent monsters.” Wyla responds back instantly through our connection.

“That’s a bit sad, isn’t it a little strict to require 92% though instead of just the majority?” I question

“How many humans do you know that weren’t sapient? How many humans have you seen without souls so far?” Wyla questions me in return

“Ahh, I guess that’s fair. For the entire species to be considered sapient then almost all of them must actually be sapient. Going by that metric it’s actually quite generous to only require 92% since that leaves plenty of room for outliers.”

I sense Wyla’s approval through our connection. Looks like I got it right.

Well at least now I know that if I don’t create the species myself it's unlikely I’ll be able to make another sapient race. I mean I guess if I made enough sapient orcs I would eventually skew the average to the point that they count, but that would require me to make way too many orcs. They are a naturally occurring species of monster after all.

Also I’m pretty sure that the system counts their entire evolutionary line as one race with different stages. That would mean that I would also have to make enough goblins and hobgoblins to raise their average sapience as well. It's just not worth it, especially since I haven’t even used my reward for making the first sapient species yet.

I refocused my attention onto Spirit Mountain to check in on things there. I was worried that the adventurers were going to completely freak out from seeing the rewards I could offer, but luckily I seemed to have trained them out of it. The rewards I can give are so good that they’ve become numb to it by now, quite useful considering that I’m 90% sure that no other dungeon on the planet has done what I have.

I learned that every time someone dies within my aura I gain a fragment of knowledge from their system. This means that each time someone dies I get a skill or spell and with enough time I can even get a class from them. I can’t use them myself, but I can make skill books and spell books as rewards. I can also make filled legacy tomes with classes.

Normally this ability isn't actually all that powerful as to gain a class it would require hundreds of people with that class to die within your aura. However I cheat by bringing them back to life again, this means I can essentially farm every adventurer for their skills, spells, and class. With enough time I’ll likely have more complete legacies than even the greatest of noble houses.

I didn’t plan on actually offering filled legacy tomes as a reward because I honestly thought they weren’t worth it. Maybe if I got a Legendary one or a good Superior one I would consider it, but at the moment it was just better to use my other discovery as a reward.

Upgrade Tomes.

I was experimenting with Wyla, testing out different configurations on the legacy tomes to see if I could luck into creating new legacies and I ended up with something even better, upgrade tomes.

These consumable items allow their users to sacrifice some of their skills and spells to combine them into a new class of a higher rank than their current one. There are also versions that allow you to sacrifice skills or spells to receive a related skill or spell of a higher rank/level. The best part of the class upgrade books is that they were able to ignore the class evolution level limit imposed by the system on sapients.

This means that someone with a greater class who is level 34 could use one of these books to get a Superior class despite being passed the evolution level of 30. At the moment I could only make class upgrade tomes that worked on zero star entities. There’s too much of a qualitative difference between the star levels to overcome the evolution limit at the moment. However I’m hopeful that once I reach one star myself I’ll be able to make a new upgrade tome that works.

In the meantime I highly expect my dungeon to become the most popular one on the continent, maybe even the world. Although I have no idea how good the True Dungeon on the seven star continent is.

As I was about to push the thoughts of the other true core out of my mind I was interrupted by a system notification

Level increased to 6 (New Perks available)

Level increased to 7 (New Perks available)

Level increased to 8 (New Perks available)

Level increased to 9 (New Perks available)

WHAT IS HAPPENING!

Four levels in a single instant?! I start rapidly scanning through my aura to figure out where all this experience is coming from. I can sense Wyla doing the same, likely having also noticed the sudden level ups.

I find nothing out of place within my dungeon, however when my attention turns to the Adventures Guild outpost just outside the entrance I finally get my answer. The decapitated corpses of several dozen bandits ranging in level from high zero star all the way to two stars. Looks like the guildmaster delivered his justice on the bandits.

Speaking of the guildmaster, I wonder how Aika delivered my message to him. I should really check on that before getting caught up in something else again. My gaze drifts towards the blinking notification telling me I have new perks available.

Maybe I’ll check on it after I select these . . .