Chapter 2: Leveling
How much time had gone by? He had no way of knowing. He awoke in the center of his chamber, same as the previous time. His stats were unchanged, and there was no sign of any intruders. His inventory was empty again. DM stayed in place and shivered for a while at the memory of how excruciating dying was.
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“Let’s sum up what we’ve learned,” he said to nobody in particular. He recalled the dog to his chamber already, but it wasn’t smart enough to understand thoughts like these. “When I die, I’m brought back to life in the same boss chamber. Judging from the console, the monsters respawn as well. The adventurers probably got the items in my inventory as well as anything else I dropped when I died.”
DM didn’t see any evidence of the sword around the room, so that swordsman must have taken it back or perhaps it got destroyed near the end of the battle. It was time to try an experiment with his spiders.
DM slithered to the entranceway and called over the spider monster. “Sorry about this.” He used his tentacle slap ability on it.
>12 damage.
>Spider defeated.
Oh, that was actually pretty effective. DM checked his stats… No sign of gaining experience. That was probably a bust. The last thing to do was to wait and see if the spider ever spawned again.
“Oh, that gives me an idea. Let’s see if I can change what spawns.” DM returned to his console.
>The following LVL 1 creatures are available: Goblin, Kobold, Slime, Gnoll, Jackalope, Imp, Spider, Zombie, Dog.
DM selected goblin. A few seconds later, a LVL 1 goblin appeared on his map in the entranceway. DM summoned it.
The goblin entered the boss chamber and approached DM. “Are you able to speak?” DM asked. It didn’t respond in any particular way. “Well, that was a bust too.” DM turned his gaze to the goblin’s equipment. It had a rusty dagger. “Hold on a moment.”
DM grabbed the dagger with his appendage and activated his absorb equipment ability. The effect felt much quicker when DM wasn’t under attack. After a short while, the dagger crumbled to pieces.
>Absorbed dagger (Tier 1).
>Learned ability, Poison Touch (Tier 1).
>Gained 1 STR.
“HAH! Now we’re talking!” DM wandered back over to his lonely treasure chest and looted it again. “Let’s see if I get anything from this leather wrist guard.”
>Absorbed leather wrist guard (Tier 1).
>Learned ability, Poison Guard (Tier 1).
>Gained 1 DEF.
>Gained 1 MDEF.
“I wonder if these boosts persist through death. Well, honestly, I don’t want to find out!” DM returned to his console. He played around some more and realized he can make room for new monsters by deleting the current ones. Hopefully it wasn’t as painful for them as it was for him back when he was slain.
He hardened his heart and made the decision to treat his summoned monsters more like things than feeling creatures. He’d have to rethink that if he could spawn creatures capable of speaking with him later on.
Each goblin he summoned was equipped the same way. He didn’t seem to derive any benefit from absorbing the identical equipment. He wasn’t sure if that was because it was the same model of dagger, or because it was summoned from another one of his own LVL 1 goblins. He also wasn’t sure when he’d get to try testing that.
DM summoned kobolds and gnolls. The kobolds didn’t carry anything. The gnolls possessed a small mace each. He absorbed one.
>Gained 1 STR.
He’d take it. He decided to defend himself with a lineup of one goblin, one gnoll, and a dog. They would stay with him in the boss chamber and fight as a group. The dog would attempt to circle behind the enemy. He couldn’t afford to be nice anymore.
While DM was browsing through options for how to redesign the dungeon floor itself, he received an alert. “Crap, it’s already happening again.”
After a few minutes, two adventurer symbols appeared on the map. They were both human. “Huh!? One is LVL 21! The other’s LVL 14, too!”
DM started mentally panicking. He didn’t think there was anything he could do to defeat such high-level enemies. As it was, four LVL 2 teenagers did him in, even if he had been holding back. He’d gained a bit of combat strength since then, but not much.
“They’re just staying at the entrance? Wait, they’re leaving!?” Indeed, the two adventurers retreated out the entrance. DM decided to investigate this himself. With his three minions in tow, they marched to the entranceway. There, sitting in front of the passage out of the dungeon, was a small stack of adventurer equipment.
DM watched the equipment carefully from afar. It seemed to be sizzling, as though it was being attacked by his absorb equipment ability. As the handful of weapons and armor reached their limit, they each shattered at slightly different times.
>Dungeon has reached LVL 2.
>Dungeon Master has reached LVL 2.
>Learned ability, Charm Touch (Tier 1).
>Dungeon Floor 2 now available.
>Additional creatures now available.
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“Hm…” It seemed like abandoned equipment got absorbed by the dungeon and then turned into experience. Further, some experienced adventurers intentionally left cheap equipment in the dungeon. Was DM being fattened up like a turkey? For now, he retreated back to his console.
“Let me assess my stats and then upgrade my dungeon.”
Name Dungeon Master Species Tentacle Monster (Tier 2) LVL 2 HP 105 MP 125 STR 10 DEF 9 MAG 6 MDEF 7 AGI 6 LUCK 0 Abilities Tentacle Slap (Tier 1), Regenerate (Tier 1), Absorb Equipment (Tier 1), Poison Touch (Tier 1), Poison Guard (Tier 1), Charm Touch (Tier 1)
“This ‘Tier 1’ crap is kind of annoying. Is there a way to shorten it?”
>Tier 1 is now denoted T1.
“Oh, that was easy. Regarding my new abilities, I’ll need to test out the effectiveness of poison touch and charm touch at some point. Wait, can I read more about them?”
>Poison Touch (T1): Chance to poison target while in physical contact.
>Charm Touch (T1): Chance to charm target while in physical contact. If successful, effect will persist for 1-3 minutes after contact is broken.
>Poison: Health decreases by 10% of maximum every 5 seconds.
>Charm: Target obeys commands from caster.
“That was surprisingly informative. I bet I’m well suited for these touch abilities. If a dagger is enchanted with poison touch, it only has a chance to poison on strike, whereas I can grab an opponent with a tentacle and continuously attempt to poison them. Nasty stuff. I wonder if a tentacle monster ever learned abilities like poison touch before…”
DM decided to focus on improving the dungeon next. The announcement from before said he had two floors to work with now. He pulled up the map.
“Hm? There already are two floors. It looks like my floor was pushed down to the bottom (Floor 2) and a new floor was randomly generated over mine.”
Indeed, the top floor (Floor 1) looked like this:
[https://i.imgur.com/60jGFeY.jpg]
“I don’t care too much about the arrangement right now, but the types and distribution of monsters is important. It’s probably not normal to do this, but I want to produce and recall all monsters to the boss chamber so we can make a maximum-strength last stand if there are any more intruders.”
DM inquired as to what new creatures are available.
>The following LVL 2 creatures are available: All creatures from LVL 1 as well as Cat, Crab, Fox, Rat, Scorpion, Gargoyle.
DM learned that his total allowable level count of minions raised from 3 to 12 as the dungeon reached LVL 2. That meant he could simultaneously control 12 LVL 1 minions, 6 LVL 2 minions, or a combination. He opted for a LVL 1 dog, a LVL 1 cat, and 5 LVL 2 creatures: goblin, kobold, gnoll, scorpion, and gargoyle.
“Hm, this setting is interesting.” He knew that passively absorbing equipment from fallen adventurers, or adventurers who retreated, resulted in experience for leveling the dungeon. The dungeon would, presumably, also level if he or his minions defeated enemies. He blundered into an adjustment that would allow him to control how leveling occurred. As the Dungeon Master, he had the option to redirect that experience to him instead of to the dungeon itself.
“If the dungeon levels, I also level, so I’d think it’s better to just level the dungeon. But if the experience goes to me, then I could be at a high level relative to the dungeon as a whole. If the outside world tracks dungeons according to their level, then raising this dungeon’s level too quickly could draw unwanted attention.”
For now, DM changed the setting to empower himself rather than the dungeon. He’d still prefer to absorb new equipment personally rather than let the dungeon do it because he’d potentially gain new abilities that way. He thought the direct stat boosts might pay dividends later, too.
While DM was finishing up a redesign of his boss chamber to create plenty of hiding places along the perimeter, he received an alert. “Oh, what now?” A minute later, a single icon appeared on the map. “That’s… not an adventurer. Hm? It’s a goblin? LVL 1, I see…”
Apparently, a random goblin from outside the dungeon had wandered in and was being treated as an enemy. “Everyone except for dog, hide. Dog, when it gets here, just evade.”
“Woof!”
The false walls allowed DM to hide himself while remaining in contact with the console. A few minutes later, the door opened and one goblin stepped inside. At DM’s command, the door slammed shut, causing the goblin to panic.
“Now! Disarm and capture the intruder! Bring its equipment to me.” DM’s 7 minions surrounded the goblin and quickly toppled and restrained it. The goblin’s dagger was confiscated. A minion began to reach for the goblin’s loincloth. “Wait! No, just no.” The loincloth was spared.
DM used his absorb equipment ability on the dagger.
>Absorbed dagger (T1).
>Learned ability, Slow Touch (T1).
>Gained 1 STR.
“Nice! That dagger was considered unique compared to the ones that spawn on goblins in my dungeon. Anyway, time to test out a few abilities.”
While the intruder was restrained, DM wrapped an appendage around its neck. After several seconds, his charm touch ability succeeded and the goblin stopped struggling.
“Are you able to understand me?” In response, the goblin grunted.
“Are you able to communicate with me!?” The goblin did not react.
“Damn! Oh well. I could order it to leave, but it would just return to its senses within a few minutes and possibly come right back. I’ll test my other abilities and then eliminate it. Everyone, continue holding it down.”
DM tried his new slow touch ability on the goblin’s arm. After a few seconds, he noticed the goblin start struggling, but as though it was in slow-motion. The low-tier charm effect was apparently cancelled by the successful application of slow.
DM switched to poison touch. After a few seconds, the ability succeeded. Based on the description from earlier, the goblin would be dead in less than a minute unless the poison effect was removed somehow. There was no need for the goblin to suffer further.
DM looked to the gnoll. “Do it.” The gnoll brought its mace down on the goblin’s head.
>Goblin defeated.
As planned, the experience went to DM. After a few seconds, the deceased goblin’s body turned to dust, leaving behind a couple of coins and a small green sphere.
“Oh, this is neat. What is it?”
>Goblin core.
>Copper coin.
“I don’t think I can learn anything else unless I gain some type of detection magic. I’ll just hold on to them for the time being.”
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DM spent a few more hours playing around with his console, figuring out new ways to modify the dungeon. His options were somewhat limited due to how small and low-level the dungeon currently was. When he got bored, he took the goblin core out and played fetch with the dog.
He toyed with the idea of trying to go outside the dungeon, but decided against it, at least for now. He didn’t know what the consequences of that would be. He could try sending a minion out, but there probably wasn’t much to gain unless he could spawn one with more intelligence and an ability to communicate.
DM received an alert. “Here we go again…” The party this time was… a human, LVL 5. “Just one? Still, LVL 5 is dangerous. I’ll need to be careful, here.”