Today was finally the day. A group of adventurers have arrived at my entrance. Time to see what my dungeons made of.
“Kronos what's your thoughts on our first adventures?”
“I since great potential in some of them, but far too weak at the moment. They will not make it to the first boss.”
“Well, that’s disappointing he could have used the experience. Oh, looks like they come with offerings.” many deferent kinds materials and creatures were piled up in my entrance way. Good thing I expanded its size so much, it barely fit everything. Even with most of the creatures being babies to keep the size down.
They were really investing in my dungeon. This must have all cost a fortune, but that just meant they planned to get interest back on their investment. Eventually they even threw the storage ring it was originally all stored in.
There were so many new blueprints compiled before me that if I had a body I would be drooling by now. As thanks I gave them a hint so they didn’t fall into the first pit. And started absorbing, just letting the notifications role in.
*New plant blueprints acquired: palm tree, cherry tree, mahogany tree, red wood tree, apple tree, orange tree, Banana tree, cherry blossom tree, pine tree, oak tree, peanut, birch tree, cactus, berry bush, Mana flower, stamina flower, blood flower, mandrake, poison ivy, rose bush, weeds, honey suckle, lavender, truffle, sugar cane, corn...*
Wow, the list just kept going. I guess they want me to be a nature dungeon. I mean I don’t blame them. What better dungeon than one filled with rare plants, and food. I'm sure more than one dungeon was stuck with the same style floor plan because of their limited materials and imagination from being selectively fed.
But I'm no ordinary dungeon. I'll make a few forests I'm sure but I will not be only making forests, I have more pride than that.
I moved on to the materials and items given. Unfortunately, I already have a lot of the base materials. But there was still plenty new.
*New material blueprints acquired: glass, mana potion, stamina potion, health potion, storage ring, night vision potion, strength potion, oil, rope, cloth, cork, silk, antidote potion, pixie dust, arcanum*
There was a small piece of mithril which was nice of them, but what I was really excited about was the arcanum. There was little more than a pebble of it. And based on its description it probably cost more than everything else combined.
*Arcanum: A legendary material that is theorized to have gained a small amount of intelligence. It perfectly adapts to whatever task it is used for and is considered by most, nearly indestructible when properly forged. Created when mithril absorbs large quantities of arcane. The majority of arcanum in the world is found in ancient mithril heirloom weapons used by many generations of hero. *
I tried recreating the pebble, the cost was staggering. It took nearly all my mana. Hm guess I'll have to wait a little before I can start experimenting with arcanum.
Checking back in with the adventurers it looks like my note may have spooked them a bit and they are waiting till morning.
“Well, I have plenty of time to recharge then.” Time to see the creature donated.
*New Creature blueprints: dear, squirrel, raccoon, monkey, gorilla, ocelot, bear, fox, wood pecker, horse, tiger, bald eagle, harpy eagle, hawk, falcon, crow, chicken, boar, bull, mocking bird, duck, goose, turkey, lion, cheetah, tuna, boa, great white shark, squid, sword fish, puffer fish, pirahna, dolphin, eel, jelly fish, crab, lobster, clam, octopus, crocodile, moose, vulture, owl, porcupine, turtle, frog, toad, buffalo, peacock, mice, mole, goat, ant eater, beaver, rhino, elephant, giraffe, lynx, skunk, cat fish, honey badger, wolverine, kobold, bees, wasps, treant, dryad, pixie*
Wow now that’s a hall. They must really be expecting a lot out of me. But... “what's with all the fish?”
Kronos, “were neutral territory and the open sea is comparable to a forest, to merfolk. Everyone wants their own familiar territory's and Resorces from you.”
Too bad for them I'm not just some renewable resource. While they may think most of these mundane creatures will be useless to me on latter floors, they are wrong.
I'm going to show them just how badly they messed up this time. My chickens will be feared my fish revered and my elephants shall be worshipped... eventually.
I'm still thinking of how to speed that along. If half the stuff Krono's says is true, it will probably not take too long for someone to come along or just grow strong enough to cut threw floor 2s bosses diamond slime armor like cardboard.
Kronos has mentioned that he wasn’t always a god. You turn into one if your core level reaches 100 and that peoples strength grows exponentially every 10 levels. He said the only reason his fight only created an island and didn’t destroy the world is because attacks don’t only get bigger as you get stronger, they also get denser achieving feats and strength usually considered impossible otherwise no matter how big the attack. Happy they didn’t send anyone high level, I returned to my work.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I'll keep the corridors to the floor 1 cavern clear from the new creatures for it doesn’t feel like I'm slapping them in the face with their gift. But I trusted Kronos’s opinion on the adventurers and started putting a few new creatures in the first cavern and 2nd floor as my mana came back.
A few bee and wasp nests so no one gets too comfortable. Some frogs and toads, and ant eaters to keep the insect population down. And of course, some squirls, racoons, ocelot, fox, bald eagle, geese, boa, purana, porcupine, turtles, mice, moles, skunk, cat fish, honey badgers, and wolverine to add some much-needed variety and danger.
I only put some of the other animals like deer, tigers, harpy eagles, hawks, falcons, chicken, boar, turkey, lions, cheetah, vultures, owls, peacocks, goats, lynx, and 4 bears on floor 2 as an increase in diversity and challenge. I thought about how strange it was to have all these creature's fighting right beside each other but decided that didn’t matter. It’s a magical dungeon who cared if a wolf fought alongside a lion.
While I was re arranging a few things around my dungeon to better accommodate my new creatures, the adventurers finally entered my halls.
They took my words to heart and are moving slowly and carefully... a bit too slowly. I must have really spooked them. This is going to take a while.
Even with them taking it so slowly I watched their every move and learned from my mistakes. With a spike too slow here, floor to strong here, and trap to obvious there. I realize how much I needed to learn.
With everything I make from now on I need to properly test and rework if need be. But I wasn’t too hard on myself. How can I with all my earth sensibilities have ever new that healers are so OP. They would have all died many times over by now if it wasn’t for that damn, healer. Even the one in the back of the group who didn’t seem to have much experience kept being ripped back to the living every time he makes a ‘deadly’ mistake.
I'll have to discuss with Kronos how to deal with this. Because I will need to design my dungeon to instantly kill with every trap and creature otherwise and that doesn’t sound very fun for me or them.
When they eventually made it to the last room without even one of them dying, I gave a mental look at Kronos. “Just wait he said.”
Rolling my imaginary eyes, I kept watching. He was right they finally made a mistake they couldn't recover from. The one who seemed to be part lion instantly died while the fishy one was teetering on the edge.
That’s when the healer came rushing in to get in the way of my XP once again. I wasn’t going to allow it this time. I ordered the lava crab to attack. It worked perfectly and it looked like I just might get the healer too.
But that’s when the weakest one ran to the chest and franticly dug it out. I didn’t understand why until he pulled out a health potion. “Huh, well isn't he quite the lucky one.”
Having gotten plenty of revenge on the healer I decided to let the rest go. Once they fell asleep, I focused on my moral dilemma or rather lack of one. I just killed 2 people and I don’t feel a thing.
Was it because I'm a dungeon now or have I always been like this and didn’t know...? I don’t know the answer but that doesn’t mean I can't compromise. And I liked the show and appreciated the help in making my dungeon better. So, I created some gifts for them, when they woke up and announced they wanted to leave I teleported it up to them.
By their reaction I might have gone a bit overboard with the quality of the storage rings. I'm shore it will be fine. If more come with greed in their hearts that just means more XP for me. Speaking of XP.
*Core level 5*
*New ability's awarded: Create pocket dimension, time dilation*
*new title: Quick learner*
*Create pocket dimension: move a section of space to a new separate dimension or create new space with mana*
*Time dilation: temporarily seal off a pocket dimension and dilate the time inside to move slower relative to normal time passage*
*Quick learner: as a young dungeon with only 2 floors, you not only defeated your first adventures but learned from them. All constructs and spells will be slightly more powerful than they otherwise would have been*
Quick learner seemed useful but it was only a slight increase. I'll have to see what kind of changes it will make if any to my creatures and traps. For now, though I want to know more about these new spells.
“Hey Kronos what do you know about these new ability's?”
“They are well known dungeon abilities. The first is used for space management. Not all dungeons can keep digging down and even if you can you can only dig so deep.”
“while the other is to help the dungeon create floors between raids and increase its creature's strength.”
“Wait how does it increase their strength?”
“Well, the old-fashioned way of course. Years of fighting and slowly increasing their level.”
“Oh... well let's give it a try then. I could use an extra 2 or 3 weeks before I'm raided on an annual basis.”
But first I wanted to expand my borders down as much as I could one last time. With my new level I was faster than ever before.
I expanded from directly underneath floor 2 in an upside-down bowl shape. I reached my limit 2 days later. The new area had a diameter of 20 miles.
Unfortunately, no new cavern to just build in, so I will have to dig it out myself. But once I create my own hyperbolic time chamber, I'll have plenty of time to dig it all out.
Ok first step, make my territory its own dimension. As I watched the spell activate, I felt a strange since that it could do so much more. But right now, wasn’t the time to experiment. So, I fed it just enough mana to get the job done.
Once that was done, I waited for my mana to fully recharge.
“Ok Kronos I want lots of time to optimize my dungeon and creatures so I'll be pouring everything I have into this spell. Maybe we will even get a whole year out this.”
“sounds good. If we have some spare time ill teach you some more enchantments. I was one of the best enchanters in history you no.”
“Well, if we have the time. Time dilatation activate.”
*Time affinity detected, increasing dilation*
*Pure Arcane mana used, increasing dilation*
*time related blessing detected, increasing dilation*
*quick learner title detected, increasing dilation*
*Void touched title detected, increasing dilation*
*Calculating dilatation...*
“Oh... that can't be good.”
*dilatation calculated: ‘Real Time’ 1-day, Dilated Time 10,000 years*
Kronos, “Well... I think we have time for that enchanting lesson now.”
“No shit!”