The next day

Nicholas woke up very early; he was jolted awake by his excitement of using the new feature of the system. He really wanted to try summoning a dungeon today since he couldn't have a chance yesterday, and because Maria agreed to cover for his while, he went to the forest this morning. He was really tempted by the idea of summoning a dungeon, so he quickly got up early and went to his office in the central market. He arrived at his office with Maria, and he immediately went out of the window right after talking with Maria.

As he arrived near the city gates, there he used his phantom phoenix pendant on himself to camouflage his presence to avoid the guards and directly went to the forest to try summoning a dungeon. He was running alone by the meadow, and the sun was still hiding from the horizon, but its rays can already be seen by the people. He mesmerized at the view and stared at the beautiful horizon as he was running.

Nicholas: "I wouldn't have seen this view if I didn't wake up early."

Nicholas didn't dwell on that matter for a long time as he was on a time crunch; he went faster, consuming his stamina since he lost a few minutes just staring at the beautiful scenery of the sun peeking at the horizon. He arrived in about half an hour, just a bit faster than his estimated time of arrival; he was soaked in sweat and panting since he ran all the way here. So he rested on a nearby tree for him to recover some stamina and mana since he used some in keeping the camouflage active along the way to the forest.

Nicholas: "Damn, sneaking out is really tiring; there must be a better way. Maybe I should build tunnels that connect from my office to the outside."

After resting and recovering his mana to full, he began wandering around the deeper inside the forest to find a suitable spot to summon a dungeon. It didn't need to be so difficult to choose a place since portals can appear anywhere in this forest.

After walking and spotting an inconspicuous spot between a large boulder, he decided to build it here. He opened his system panel and clicked on the dungeon administration button. The translucent panel changed to a different one, which is the panel Nicholas was staring at yesterday.

[Current Monster Cards]

[Create a Dungeon]

[Current Dungeon]

In his panel, he pressed the button to create a dungeon.

[Would you like to create a dungeon here?]

[Yes] [No]

A notification popped up on the panel; he clicked yes. Right after that, another panel appeared besides the current panel. It was a series of choices and statements in creating the dungeon.

[Welcome to the Dungeon Maker]

[Pick a dungeon size]

[Small] [LOCKED] [LOCKED] [LOCKED] [LOCKED]

He saw everything was locked except for one, seeing that he had no other choice. So he clicked on the small button, then proceeded to the next.

[Choose a preset field]

[Forest] [Cave] [Field] [Crypt] [LOCKED] [LOCKED] [LOCKED] [LOCKED]

There were several pre-set fields available to choose from, but he was just testing it, so he didn't even think of anything and chose the Forest pre-set field. After choosing the field and size, the panel changed into another one.

Seeing this, Nicholas felt that it would take a lot of time to configure the dungeon. So he decided to find a nice place to sit and rest. He walked around the area around the boulder and found a nice dry place within the forest to sit and design his dungeon.

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He sat on a rock and continued to check the panel. The current panel looks like a sandbox creator; he chose the forest type of dungeon, and then a terrain appeared in the panel, which is most likely what the dungeon will look like. On the side are tools to modify the dungeon; it was like a world builder in sandbox games where you can edit terrains and even add designs.

It was packed with features to design dungeons, but most are also still locked. On the bottom of the panels are icons of monsters; the monsters indicated in the icons are what he got from the Gacha rewards along with their mana cost to summon.

Currently, to summon a dungeon, a small version at that, it will take almost all of my mana to complete it. He can only summon a few weak creatures to guard it. He pressed the skeleton icon and saw a single skeleton appear in the terrain of the panel, then dragged it around the terrain to place it in position. He did it a few times after that.

Nicholas: "Honestly, a few skeletons to guard a dungeon. That's pathetic..."

He chuckled a little bit. He tried to drag another skeleton, but it didn't allow Nicholas to proceed. Since his max mana is indicated in the upper right part of the panel, which is already limited, only leaving him with 30 mana to spare. He clicked the complete button, then suddenly almost all his mana suddenly left his body as if something had consumed it.

It was a weird feeling; he felt his knees lose strength. Thankfully he was in a sitting position, and his legs didn't buckle. Quite far from him, an ominous sound was heard. It was from the direction of where he wanted to place the summons to the dungeon.

Nicholas: "It must have been the dungeon being created," he said under his breath.

He checked his panel to see if the dungeon had been summoned. There is a countdown ticking before the summon has been completed.

[24 hours]

Nicholas: "So it will take 24 hours to completely materialize a dungeon. I should take note of that."

He took note of it in the back of his mind. He didn't check the dungeon immediately because, first of all, he couldn't; his energy and mana felt drained. So he waited for a while until he could stand up and walk again. He couldn't help but admire the serene atmosphere of the forest.

Nicholas: "If only this forest wasn't littered with monsters, it would be nice."

It took about a quarter of an hour for him to walk again; he stood up and went to the location of his dungeon but saw nothing.

Nicholas: "Hmmm. Maybe it will materialize after the 24 hours. Wait, the sun is already up; I need to hurry back."

It took him a lot of time to recover, and so he needed to hurry up and go back to his office before anyone finds out. He rushed, but he was a lot slower than his departure to the forest. When he arrived, the sun had already risen.

It took him almost an hour to arrive near the city gates. When he was near the gates, he had recovered some of his mana, so he again used his pendant to camouflage himself to the surrounding area and entered the city unsuspectingly.

He immediately went back to his office, and luckily the tiny paper on his door, which he requested Maria insert, is still there, meaning there haven't been any people entering his office looking for him.

He entered his office and crashed into his couch; it took him almost 2 hours for the full trip. He was proud of his 'achievement'; he made a dungeon for the first time. But not long after sitting on his couch, a sudden notification alarmed inside his head.

*Ding*

[Story Quest 04: The Battle to the Top]

[Improving and getting stronger had been one of the desires of any living being, but endlessly slaughtering to gain experience and power was one of the most crude ways of acquiring it. It has been a way of life for most, but not until a higher being then introduced a balance-breaking method]

[Quest]

[Successfully create 10 dungeons] [0/10]

[Let a dungeon absorb the maximum amount of mana] [0/1]

[Rewards]

[Alchemy Book]

Nicholas: "Create 10 dungeons? And what's with the description?" He could help but ask himself.

He was surprised by the sudden appearance of a new story quest, and a weird one at that; the previous story quests are related to him exploring and finding more about this world. And to add to that fact, the reward is also intriguing—an alchemy book. Alchemy books are not rare books in this world since almost all famous alchemists wrote at least one alchemy book.

Nicholas: "What's must be so special for this book to be a system reward?"

He then became more curious about the reward of the story quest; that curiosity turned into excitement. He wanted to complete the story quest as fast as possible. Should he summon 10 dungeons immediately, but he still needed to wait for the dungeon to gather the maximum amount of mana for it to complete?

Nicholas: "At least the quest for the current story quest is not vague, and I can set an estimated time for it to accomplish." He wasn't as frustrated on the quest as he was on his previous one.

*Grumble* *Grumble* He heard his stomach grumble; his hunger finally got to him since he still hasn't had breakfast nor done his morning routine yet.

Nicholas: "I guess I should go home first." He went outside of his office and called for Maria. Maria immediately responded to Nicholas's call and request, so she called for the carriage and returned to her own tasks.