Chapter 33: Leveling After a Good While

DM continued sucking experience out of the poor scorpion. Since it was only LVL 4, it didn’t provide much when compared to how much experience was needed for DM’s dungeon to progress to LVL 7. The scorpion was forcefully reduced to LVL 3, and DM continued to suck experience out.

It became more difficult to extract experience. He kept pushing, trying to get it all. Eventually, the scorpion was LVL 2. He had to occasionally re-apply paralysis as it would wear off over time. Even after the scorpion reached LVL 1, DM continued to use the experience touch ability.

The scorpion provided more experience. When the scorpion’s experience value finally reached 0, it would be at the starting point for a fresh LVL 1 creature. DM did some mental math based on his results so far and how much experience he thought the scorpion had remaining to extract. He could get it all, if the current pace was maintained, after an hour or so. It just wasn’t worth it. He gave up and smacked it with a tentacle slap.

“It seems extracting experience gets harder as the target goes down in level. The ability is probably most effective if the target is about to ascend to the next level. I guess I need to find more victims and see what happens.”

The charmed minotaur toured around, encountering monsters left and right. Each time, DM absorbed experience until the rate got frustratingly slow. At first, it seemed like he could keep this up indefinitely. However, he was starting to notice the effectiveness of his ability was decreasing as he targeted more monsters.

After clearing the entire dungeon this way, he returned the minotaur to the boss chamber and manually spawned some LVL 5 monsters using the console.

“I’m not sure if it’s worth continuing anymore. This dungeon was more accommodating than my own, but it apparently limits how much you can abuse this mechanic. Still, I’ll consider two level-ups a win.”

>Dungeon has reached LVL 8.

>Dungeon Master has reached LVL 10.

>Dungeon Floors 7 and 8 now available.

>Additional creatures now available.

“How am I doing?”

Name Dungeon Master Species Tentacle Monster (Tier 3) LVL 10 HP 872 MP 2525 STR 104 DEF 81 MAG 76 MDEF 65 AGI 50 LUCK 2 Abilities

Offense Touch (Poison T1, Slow T1, Berserk T1, Mana T1, Charm T6, Pain T1, Pleasure T1, Health T1, Ability, Paralysis T1, Experience T1, Stone T1, Confusion T1, Sleep T1), Projectile (T1), Ice Shot (T1), Affection (T1), Tentacle Slap (T2), Ice Spear (T1), Lightning Bolt (T1), Air Blast (T1), Earth Spike (T1), Fireball (T3)

Defense Guard (Poison T1, Fire T1, Ice T1, Charm T2), Reduced Damage from Monsters (T1), Reduced Damage from Males (T1)

Utility Bonus Damage to Monsters (T1), Infect, Heal (T1), Sense (T2), Antidote, Regenerate (T2), Absorb Equipment (T3), Disguise, Float, Spawn Tentacle (T2), Howl (T1), Hide

The biggest difference was DM’s tier. He was now a T3 tentacle monster. Examining his stats and abilities, it seemed like only his appearance was affected by the tier change. He grew an extra meter or so taller, and his skin changed color from purple to red. He seemed to be able to form more appendages and reach them a bit further as well.

“I guess normal tentacle monsters reach tier 2 at LVL 10. I’m running one higher as a dungeon master.”

DM also noted that he was continuing to gain a level every time the dungeon gained a level, one-for-one. He had the option to revert the setting and funnel the experience solely to his own leveling, but he couldn’t think of a good reason to do that. With every level the dungeon gained, DM could summon more diverse and higher level minions in greater quantities. He also gained the ability to grow the dungeon, distancing himself from would-be intruders.

When he had the opportunity, DM intended to ask the Guild about how the world monitors the progress of dungeons. Does it have to do with that dungeon crystal? Barney implied the depth of a dungeon was revealed by a dungeon crystal. Thaw also mentioned it, but DM was too focused on other matters to ask about it at the time, and who knows what Thaw would have revealed anyway. If bigshots in other cities were keeping an eye on dungeon levels throughout the region, they’d surely be interested in DM’s home. He still felt it was safer to quickly empower himself than to try and hide in obscurity for a while longer. That ship had already sailed, he figured.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Well, that’s enough about me. Let’s have a look at my new subordinates. Any female dark elves? Succubi?” DM perused the information available to him. Once again, the presentation was complicated due to the various choices for whether to spawn many monsters at tier 1 or tier 2. As he was previously promised, the first additional monsters he gained access to where aquatic in nature.

“So I can spawn water levels with sharks, squids, octopus, and fish-based monsters? That’s neat, but wait a second.” DM re-read the text before him. Yep, the next choice on the list was a siren. “Oh, that’s promising!”

DM stopped reading the list and immediately spawned a LVL 7 siren right outside the entrance to his chamber. Releasing the dungeon console, he sprinted to the door, curious to see what sirens were like in this world. It wasn’t quite what he expected. It had both mermaid and fish features, with a human head. It looked male.

“What the!?” Thinking back, perhaps sirens were not female in all Earth mythology… He was hoping for a beautiful woman with beautiful songs. What he got was a bird-fish-man that caterwauled mind-numbing gibberish.

“Please stop.” DM hooked an appendage around the siren’s body, absorbing the song ability.

>Unable to learn ability, Sing (T1).

>Charm Guard has increased to T3.

“I guess it’s no surprise I’m unable to sing. Being able to charm from afar would be nice, but I can’t really complain. I’m quite adept at applying charm as it is.”

DM did consider it a small comfort that he was more resistant to charm. Perhaps it was hypocritical, but he never wanted to be subjected to such a terrifying ability.

He finished reviewing the list of new monsters at his disposal. In addition to the water-themed creatures, bringing the dungeon to LVL 7 gave him access to living armor, raptors, lava slime, and wasps. LVL 8 gave him access to new monsters as well. Specifically, orcs, stone spirits, minotaurs, demon slime, and salamanders were all available.

“These aquatic monsters all have the same ability…” In addition to their ability to directly attack intruders, they were enriched to provide nutrients to whoever ate their meat. DM could not for the life of him think of a reason why he’d want to absorb an ability that makes him more nutritious, so he didn’t.

The living armor was intimidating but actually possessed the same ability as used by cat monsters: bleed. Bleed would deal additional damage over time for any edged damage dealt by the body of the user. The living armor’s weapons were considered part of its body, and cats obviously used claws. In DM’s case, the swords he sometimes wielded wouldn’t count, so there was no point for him to learn the ability.

The raptor was a different story. DM wrapped a tentacle around its leg and absorbed a certain ability without delays.

>Learned ability, Sprint (T1).

Sprint allowed the user to move quickly for a short burst. He tested it out by activating the ability, in exchange for some MP, and racing across the boss chamber. Presumably, raptors used this ability to rush their enemies from afar, startling them. DM had to wait about six seconds before he could use it again.

The exciting question was how quickly DM could move while floating if he also activated sprint. If the boost was simply a multiplicative factor compared to normal movement speed, then even while sprinting DM wouldn’t be able to move particularly quickly through the air. He activated float and lifted himself about a meter into the air.

“Here goes nothing.” He sprinted through the air towards the other end of the boss chamber and crashed into the wall.

>312 damage.

Peeling himself off the floor, he rubbed the top of his body (the head?) with an appendage. “Note to self. Don’t sprint indoors while floating.”

The good news was, he could move even faster when sprinting through the air than he could slithering along the ground. Apparently, the speed of sprint was determined only by whether the creature was on the ground or in the air. Later, DM would test how moving through water worked, but that seemed low-priority for the time being.

“I definitely got something good out of all this, but let me check out the remaining minions.” The only ability he could gain from lava slimes was the tier 2 version of fire guard, so he absorbed it.

>Fire Guard has increased to T2.

He’d take it. Wasps could use fly and poison strike, both of which he already knew. He wasn’t able to increase the tier of his poison touch ability or learn anything by absorbing fly again, so he moved on.

The orcs carried knuckle weapons and the minotaurs used axes. He had already absorbed identical knuckles from one of the adventurers before so he couldn’t derive any benefit from absorbing them. He absorbed the ax.

>Absorbed ax (T1).

>Gained 4 STR.

Of the remaining creatures, the salamander was most useless. DM could tell with his sensing ability that the tier of his fire abilities wouldn’t increase, so he dismissed the salamander. Instead, he spawned a stone spirit and a demon slime.

“Oh, these are good!” He wrapped an appendage around each, although grabbing the stone spirit with an ethereal body was somewhat challenging.

>Learned ability, Shield of Protection (T1).

>Learned ability, Bonus Damage to Humans (T1).

The shield of protection would absorb incoming damage, up to a set limit, for a few moments. It was effective against both physical and magical attacks, although the total protection was quite limited at tier 1. Still, DM would accept any ability that strengthened him. The other new ability was self-explanatory.

To sum up the result of DM’s experiments this day, he could absorb more experience from monsters in another dungeon than he could from minions in his own dungeon. If he could level up his experience touch ability, perhaps he could teach it to the girls or other allies of his and have them try siphoning experience off of the Upper Gordu Forest dungeon monsters as well. At the moment, he wasn’t able to do that and he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea regardless.

Anyway, the rate of experience absorption slowed both as the target lost levels and as the number of dungeon monsters targeted increased. He had already passed the point where he’d be better off just killing these particular dungeon monsters than trying to absorb their experience. Now that the dungeon was LVL 8, he wasn’t getting much for the kills, though.

More than ever, DM wanted to travel to the other dungeon and try manipulating the console. He felt the odds were high there would be something useful he could do. He needed the Guild to reach back out to him so he could start the negotiations.