“YOU CAME!!!” – I saw Nicolas wince hearing my mental greeting – “I wasn’t sure you were going to show up. Is Maisoon all right? I couldn’t reach him for over 12 hours now, and I have been trying every couple minutes. You are sure that it is all right for you to be here? If he needs help, I will understand… on the other hand, as you just arrived it would be waste if you went back now! I am sure Masoon will be fine after all he…”
“Arnar!” – I focused on the source of the interruption, the elf, I think this one was named Folwin Zy-something. – “Please stop. Maisoon had to use mind blank spell to get any sleep after you kept him up for over 80 hours making sure that we were indeed coming today to test the garden!”
“Oh well, let’s not dwell on such trivialities after all you are all here ready to enjoy my breathtaking ingeniously created alchemical garden!” – I had a peculiar feeling as if Areth was glaring at me at that moment but a quick scan showed she was nowhere near my core. Strange. – “So come in, come in, let me welcome you to the incredible mushroom garden. Hihhihihihi *Ahem*. Yes please kindly enter.”
I saw Wilidion startled conjure the light bow and whisper to Cassin – “What was that terrifying sound?”
“I think dungeon giggled. Are we sure it is sane? Maybe we should withdraw?” – Knight replied.
Although I wanted to scream “NO” with all my might, I barely stopped myself. Saving whatever was left of my dignity was much more critical than some third-rate adventurers running away after being spooked by perfectly normal and dignified display of happiness. After all, they weren’t going to run. RIGHT?!
“Arnar you should already know most of the team.” - Hallvard said ignoring the interplay – “It took us little longer to organise as we had to replace Hasanati. So please meet Bunneck Teundefinedamdast, a gnomish sage and quite a renowned herbalist and Druarloshk a half-lizardman and a master alchemist” – They bowed toward my projection when their names were mentioned, and a quick inspection revealed both were of delta rank and had an aura of an expert around them. Pity as Hasanati was quite amusing but I could see how shaman throwing lightning left and right at slightest provocation may not be an ideal person around delicate and valuable resources.
“Lord Nicolas, will you be joining us for this evaluation?” – Folwin asked hopefully, and I held my breath. Well not literally, being a floating crystal but nevertheless, I was waiting impatiently for the answer.
“I guess I could spare an hour or two. Arnar has such a novel ideas” – I definitely wasn’t going to tell him it would take at least a day to explore the garden. I almost drolled thinking about all the mana I would drain from all of them today. After all, it was he who asked me not to share any details before first evaluation.
They checked their equipment and entered the room with a door to the sub-dungeon. Well, it was actually a portal to extra-dimensional space rooted in both past and future but with a strong enough anchor in the present to allow the time flow to match and every action inside would still affect current continuum. As neither of them was time and space mythic I skipped explaining the intricacies. I am sure they would be awed by my brilliance but time was money, and I wanted to see how they ranked my precious garden.
I have expected my explorers to just cross the first cave and start the test from the corridor, but enlightened Bunneck Teundefinedamdast opposed the notion vehemently. You would never expect less than a metre tall creature to command such respect among seasoned adventures, even Areth was impressed by unmovable conviction shown in this short but quite intense quarrel. I believe at one point Cassin also attempted to lift the sage and move him physically towards the back of the cave. All it took for him to stop was a look full of indignation and outrage.
And yes, sage Bunneck Teundefinedamdast insisted on using his full name every time he was to be addressed with a list of acceptable titles including; master, sage, enlighted, learned and few even more obscure that caused only confusion for everyone but Nicolas. I wasn’t sure how screaming that in the fight was even plausible with even esteemed sage being a mouthful.
Apparently, someone tried once shortening his name to “Bunny” in some particularly challenging skirmish only to found himself banned from ever entering any gnome city. I was told that he was lucky as if it was during some more formal occasion the unlucky warrior would have had difficulty escaping alive.
Eventually, the team plus my favourite saint spent little over two hours in an attempt to discover every possible way to collect all the mushrooms in this cave. What could I say… I was a fan!
All that yummy mana I got in the meantime made it worth it even if slightly dull to watch.
There was one rather unpleasant surprise, the alchemist sprinkled something into my mushrooms, and they froze. Not like froze, froze but I lost any connection to them, and they couldn’t attack even when plucked from the ground. Fortunately, some minuscule amount missed the mushrooms and landed on the bare rock so I could have absorbed it. To my astonishment, I was unable to reproduce or even guess what it was but at least I had modified all the mushrooms so they should be if not immune then at least highly resistant.
When they had reached the corridor, they assembled into proper formation with two melee classes up front, sage, alchemist and healer in the middle and the archer in the back. When asked why not keep healer at the rear I learned that it helped avoid ambushes and boosted survivability.
I couldn’t help and wondered if other dungeons were that dumb? I merely made a note to attack from the flanks. Well, not this time of course but my main dungeon was bound to have such surprises including attacking from bellow and monster dropping down from the ceilings. Predictability was boring anyway.
When they reached the welcoming committee, they spent few minutes trying to bait few centipedes to leave the leading group and failed. I made sure they would ignore the weak attacks as those could be quickly healed by the new species. If they received serious enough wound, the whole group would engage at once.
The party as always tried to draw out the fight to check the capability of my mobs and adequately assess the danger. They had quickly determined only new challenge was the healer, and it wasn't limited by the number of heals like previous centipedes, so they decided to swiftly eliminate the enemies and proceed with the exploration.
Two of the elites were killed almost in an instant, and the rest were sure to follow them when suddenly the adventurers discovered a severe design flaw in my planning.
While they were fighting the time for the monsters to reset come and for some strange reason the rule, I set recognised all mobs currently engaged as dead, so it spawned the new set of monsters on top of those presently fighting. It also acknowledged that the corridor wasn't cleared, so it added extra centipedes and healed all present bugs. It has even respawned the dead from the original squad.
So my guest not only had to deal with almost triple adversaries than a few seconds ago but due to fighting they have pushed further into the tunnel. Consequently, the new danger appeared precisely in the middle of the group. I think one of the centipedes actually materialised under the healer shirt.
I swear I have never imagined any being would be capable of reaching such a high register but Folwin exceeded even his teammates' expectations. The ensuing shriek managed to startle even my cute guardians who froze unsure how to react.
Except for the light centipede as it was closest to the source of the sound it panicked and unleashed all its mana as a bright flare. It actually revealed other imperfection I failed to foresee. Giving a bug, with nothing even approaching rational brain, a mana pool of epic ranked adventurer may not have been the smartest choice.
In my defence, I made sure none of its skills drew much of the mana it possessed and with the forced cooldown no one could even guess its capability. I just wanted to make sure it could heal other centipedes for as long as it took. The healer unable to restore health was slightly more useful than a heater in hell.
So it not only managed to blind everyone primitive enough to rely on sight to locate threats, as it is self-evident that higher being light myself should never put any faith in such imperfect method, but also managed to explode itself in genuinely spectacular manner and spray the whole party with bits and pieces.
I pondered briefly if I should make its chitin harder to work as shrapnel while I observed the ensuing chaos. Wilidon noticed guardian sneaking up on the sage and split it in half with an arrow, unfortunately, the upper half of the centipede landed on the sage's head making him jerk his hands up in surprise and miss the champion with the fireball he just released. He instead managed to hit Hallvard square in the face.
At the same time, Druarloshk was trying to lob a bottle of repellent at the most prominent clustering of enemies, yet he failed to anticipate Cassin charging in to help the elf with the splattered centipede. The potion must have had an acidic property as the knight's armour started dissolving with a hiss producing a copious amount of smoke in the process.
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I am not sure how this would end if not for Nicolas who has used the stop rune to freeze everything in place. Or almost everything, I am not sure if it worked only on the living or the piece of the centipede that was sliding down the healer pants was too small to register. Actually, calling it a piece was too generous as it was nothing more than revolting sludge of meat and green blood similar to the colour Folwin face was becoming at that moment.
As an excellent host that I am, I chose to give face to my guest and focused elsewhere for a few minutes until they managed to get themselves somewhat presentable after this debacle.
"ARNAR! WOULD YOU MIND EXPLAINING WHAT THE HELL THIS WAS?" - The angry shout of the knight. I gracefully decided not to mention his armour appeared to still release small puffs of acrid smoke through his wild gesturing.
"Yes, I will gladly do so" - As they say, it's time to bullshit through this mess - "I see you have discovered my newest design. I dare to say it went splendidly!
"Placing exploding bugs under people clothes is your design?! - Folwin demanded to know in brief break between puking his guts out - "This is insane."
"Minor oversight I assure you. I will make sure no mob will appear closer than one meter to the adventurer." - Seeing their doubtful gazes, I added quickly - "You see the light centipedes are quite timid, so they blind their enemies and run, those have slightly more mana end their weak bodies are unable to shoulder the stress of releasing it at once. As long as you let them heal the guardians several times, they won't explode."
"Then what's about the extra bugs appearing in the middle of the fight?"
"That, Mr Druarloshk, was your bad luck" - Before they had time to protest I had a stroke of inspiration" - It's a unique... feature of this garden. The corridor resets twice an hour, and if it isn't cleared, it increases in difficulty. I didn't want it to be too easy, so I set a time limit to kill all mobs. If someone tries to game the system it punishes them by doubling the enemies they have to face".
After they got all the details and made sure there were no more surprises the team continued on led by now hairless and slightly charred Hallvard. When Bunneck found collection method mattered, he muttered something about youngster having to finally learn the proper way to handle ingredients and grinned like a madman until Wilidon accidentally triggered prickly mushroom and obliterated a sizable group of fungi.
After few hours the group managed to convince the sage to speed up which actually meant he collected only one of each specimen. I suspected the main reason he agreed were the catalysts in the second area. They have confirmed what I suspected, they were 100% unique and crazy herbalist couldn't wait to experiment with them.
In the end, it took them two days to reach the end of the third zone, and I was tempted to let the spores kill them but the reason won, the short-term gain of killing few epic-rated adventurers was nowhere near worth the damage it would cause. The look on their faces when I told them was actually worth missed mana, plus I got to leech Nicolas energy for the whole time they were exploring.
They promised they would make this information easily accessible and if someone was too stupid to do the research or keep time while delving, then they could only blame themselves.
Getting access to the last cave required an experienced group of epic adventurers, and then either S ranked team would have to keep the corridor clear or second epic-rated group to clear it again in the evening. If anything they seemed happy, not only collectors would profit with that setup. They were sure someone would set up a company to organise the process. The single change requested was to cap the additional mobs at seven days in the unlikely case no one cleared it in a while.
The last thing to do was to lead them to one of the chests and let them see the sample reward. The alchemist, seconded by the sage, vehemently disagreed with giving out recipes. Apparently, all the joy was in the discovery. Adventurers were weird.
On the contrary, the alchemic pills caused much more enthusiastic response than I anticipated. The only modification they proposed was to give more tablets of the same kind instead of one of few types. They argued that opposed to the blacksmith's blueprint they couldn't be easily identified and was single use while the blueprint could be used up to five times by skilled craftsmen before it lost its energy and become a scrap of ordinary paper. The upside was that they released all their power at once and that resulted in much more profound effect.
I wasn't going to allow some unimaginative amateur to stop people from appreciating my ingenuity to the fullest. So we settled on releasing one recipe a week with a random chest, changing daily, containing the second one.
"Mr Arnar, if I may presume, there seems crucial type component missing." - Bunneck Teundefinedamdast continued after making sure I wasn't offended. I should endeavour to promote such a respectful demeanour in all adventurers. - "Usually before such advanced plants or in this case mushrooms appear the dungeons allow for small amounts that are used for potions permanently increasing some attributes. The boost is small, and you can't take more than a couple of them in a month as the toxicity builds up, but over time it adds up. Hunters go crazy for them. I do have few samples if you are interested."
I allowed myself to be convinced, after all, who would say no to free samples. My only condition was that I would only introduce them after I converted them to mushrooms. Branding was of paramount importance.
"Arnar if you don't mind. Why did you set up the mine and the garden?"
I couldn't understand what Nicolas meant - "Why? You have asked me to make them, didn't you?"
"Yes, but usually dungeons only make them a small part of the first floor. What you did is beyond complex, I am worried it will cost you floors that could attract Legend rank adventurers. Don't misunderstand me, this will be tremendous boost now and will expedite the expansion of the town immensely. The concern relates to the long-term growth of your dungeon."
This was one of the difficult choices I knew was bound to come when I made the bargain with the guilds. How much should I tell them? How much could I say? Eventually, I chose to ignore the jaded cynic that reared his ugly head in my mind. I opted for truth, it may have been silly, but that bond meant a lot to me, and I refused to be first to break it. I hoped that acting in good faith would ultimately lead to real alliance although that didn't mean I wasn't going to keep few aces in my sleeve.
"Technically this isn't part of my dungeon" - Seeing their shock I quickly gave further clarifications before they become suspicious - "This is a sub-dungeon subordinate to me and having a faux-core. I can set a layout, rules and mobs then it will maintain it according to my instructions. It can't grow or change anything on its own. Plus I can only maintain two of them with three floors each being the maximum." - Not to overdo I decided against telling them it gave all the gathered mana to me and how I created it. The slightest thought of sharing with anyone even Areth that I was incomplete and those cores were broken shards caused utter panic.
As they finished exploring, I decided to distract them further... I mean reward appropriately for their efforts. The alchemist got two recipes showcasing new potion types, strengthened weak health recovery potion and impure weak curse removing medicine. Despite the grumbling indicating I robbed him of the joys of discovery, he seemed genuinely pleased. I decided to have some fun resulting in unique skill crystal.
Advanced Skill Crystal of the Distillation [B] and the Alchemist’s Intuition [S] (Quality: Legendary)
Grants the skills Distillation [B] and the Alchemist’s Intuition [S] after use.
The item is destroyed after use.
Distillation [B]
Allows the user to attempt to distillate the potion of the common rank. If the skill fails, the potion is destroyed. Distilled potions have both positive and negative properties enhanced.
At level 1 the distillation ratio is 5:1 and potions can be distilled up to two times.
With each additional distillation, the chance of failure sharply increases.
This skill can be upgraded to make removing adverse effects possible (counts as two distillations).
This skill cannot be transferred, copied or stolen by any means.
Upon mastering this skill, you will be able to teach it to one person of opposite gender.
Skill Crystal (Legendary) bonus: + 5 to skill lvl, You will be able to teach this skill to three people of opposite gender upon mastering it.
Alchemist’s Intuition [S] [Passive]
Gives a small chance of discovering hidden properties of alchemic ingredients and potions.
Allows identifying alchemic pills.
Gives a chance of discovering the brewing process’s flaws.
There is a minuscule chance of epiphany during brewing process granting improved recipe.
This skill can be upgraded to make increasing the effects of alchemic pills possible.
This skill cannot be transferred, copied or stolen by any means.
Upon mastering this skill, you will be able to teach it to one person of opposite gender.
Skill Crystal (Legendary) bonus: + 5 to skill lvl, You will be able to teach this skill to three people of opposite gender upon mastering it.
The moment the alchemist used the crystal I was afraid I had broken him somehow. I found out that the strange and disturbing noise he produced was lizardfolk laughter. How they got spooked by my innocent giggle when they had THAT to compare to was beyond my understanding. When he managed to calm down, I learned that identifying alchemic pills was guessing game and even grandmasters wouldn’t be one hundred percent sure. Additionally by absorbing the ambient mana pills could be strengthened but each place had a unique aura that could introduce variation to the pill. Finally, no recipe was perfect and most advanced alchemists would spend countless hours trying to invent new ones or just improve existing ones. Anything that could cut that time even by few hours was a godsend.
As expected Nicolas was determined to learn those skills making me wonder if he was some weird collector. Restriction on passing the ability didn’t deter him at all, as he produced from his backpack a scroll allowing changing one's gender for 72 hours. He blushed when inquired why he even had it in the first place and promptly produced an excuse why he was needed elsewhere.
In a rush, he even forgot to pester me how I fit two skills into one crystal, something impossible with a skill book. It wasn’t that hard after I realised the stone quality was the issue, then I made small adjustments which boiled down to viewing both skills as one memory string instead of trying to force two separate ones into one crystal.