"This room is interesting! Lots of bits and bobs, but I need to do my job, so let's see these reports here... Oh... Okay... Mmhm... Wow... Huh... Alright, I'm all caught up. Flip this switch... Type this sequence in... And press the button. There! Oh wait. No. That's too strong. Delete the previous sequence, type in a NEW sequence... Aaaaaand done! He's back to the regulated levels of blockage."
~A newly promoted employee's ramblings to himself
The traps I have created, I stared at. Good good. I thought to myself, internally nodding. Now, onto the second fl-
I was rudely interrupted by the sound of a boat. Not a rowboat, but a proper wooden ship with a sail and everything. The previous group of people were there, even the one holding the compass(and yes, he still had it). But, there were also two other groups, a group of five, and a group of three. The group of five were heavily armored in metal gear. All of them. Even the man holding a staff, though he looked a bit uncomfortable and sweaty. The group of three however, was more of the classic setup. A woman with a bow wearing leather armor, a man with a staff wearing robes with glowing runes on it. Hmm. How would I go about creating that? And, a short bearded man, a dwarf really, who wore thick plate armor.
The apparent leader of everyone, the man with the magical device, opened his eyes wide at the big mound of stone fragments around my entrance. He turned around at everyone and shouted, pointing at it.
I suppose I'll have my first real delvers. I internally smirked wryly as I enacted a plan I secretly concocted. And I'll have my first group wipe too.
~~(Jorn)~~
"It has emerged! Team 1 will enter first!" I shouted at everyone aboard the ship, pointing at the pile of rock on the island ahead, not needing the compass or the magical beacon planted on it to know we had arrived in the correct location.
After a short while, the boat bumped onto the sandy shore of the small piece of land. "Go go go!" I shouted at Team 1, the ones who had accompanied me on my first trip to the dungeon island.
Sheila grumbled, as she usually did, but followed along with the rest of her team, clambering on top of the unstable hill of stones.
I watched them until they got to the entrance and slipped down. I turned back and sat down on a bench. My right hand slipped into my pocket and got my notebook. Meanwhile, my left hand entered another of my shirt's pockets to retrieve my quill.
I flipped to a new page and started scribbling.
~~(Dave)~~
Alright. I muttered in anticipation, staring at the adventurers right at my doorstep. Let's see how my defenses will fare.
~~(Sheila)~~
We stood at the edge of the entrance, peering down into the bright blue glow of the dungeon.
"Sheila, go on ahead and scout the first room." Todd, the leader of our group ordered.
I rolled my eyes but snuck in. I logically knew that as the Agility and Stealth focused member, that I would be the one called upon to scout the dungeon. Yet every time, I grumbled, groaned, or otherwise complained.
I shook my head and slowly continued forth, wary of traps. There is something weird going on. I thought. The ground seems too hard for a Tier 1. I stopped for a moment to touch the wall. The walls too.
By that point, I had reached the first room. I squinted my eyes and widened them again. I cursed in my mind. Tier 3?!
I slowly retreated, trying not to catch the attention of the buffaloes. Once they were out of sight, I ran out of there as fast as I could. I was only Tier 2 after all.
"Tier 3s!" I almost shouted. "There are Tier 3s in the dungeon!"
Garwin grunted, and to no-ones surprise he said, "I'm gonna check." He jogged down there, and quickly sprinted back up with a pale face. He cursed and spoke. "Tier 3s."
~~(Dave)~~
That was... anticlimactic. I commented. They didn't even try. I shook my core in disbelief. And now they're sailing away. What counted for my eyes stared at them incredulously as the ship practically zoomed off and I could see the leader shouting at them in their weird language.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
My plan... I muttered in dissatisfaction. No...
I sighed and called on the meerkats. Come on out of those tunnels. They left. They squeaked and shuffled through them back to the second floor which was still half full of rubble. But discounting that, it was massive. Like, an actual 300 meters on each side! If it was a cube. But since it was circular, the amount of space inside was a bit lacking. Yet it still was big. Very big.
Alright. I murmured looking up at the already giant mound of rock pieces surrounding the entrance. I suppose I better absorb the excavated stone chunks, and at the same time have the meerkats and buffaloes move some out to quicken the process.
I mentally stared down the sea of stone. Time to get to it.
~~(4 hours later)~~
That took less time than I expected. I said, attention split between 2 things. The first was the nice debris-free second floor, and the second, was this:
Congratulations!
You have upgraded an Improvement to Uncommon rarity due to absorption of a minuscule amount of extremely high Tier material and excessive use!
Increased Material Mana 5 (UC)
Increase absorbed materials given Mana by 2% of its Base Value per level taken. Maximum is 100% increase to Base Value.
Current:60% Material Mana absorption Increases absorption speed by 50%.
Probably partly because of the additional effect. My mind went through a few different thoughts and landed on an idea. I absorbed things mostly the same way, so it took this long to upgrade. I can't imagine how much longer it would have been without that Earth Mithril. What if I do it a different way? A way, that is quicker for example.
I experimented with a section of stone in my territory. I tried sucking it in quicker by commanding it with my mind. It might have been faster, but that might have been a placebo. I next tried swirling my dissolving and absorption force around, but that just made random pieces of rock get absorbed instead of making it faster. So, then I attempted to add a big chunk of Mana into the mix. I marveled at it. Not only did the rock disappear into Mana more rapidly, the Mana itself shot into me like a bullet, including most of the Mana I had used. Except at the speed of sound. I contemplated whether bullets normally did go at that speed before shaking myself out of that train of thought.
I waited a bit for a notification, but nothing appeared.
I sighed and decided to go for broke. I set a mental template to absorbr th that would make the second flooe size of my territory and put all my Mana into making that happen. It wobbled, wiggled, writhed, and... some other W-words, trying to escape my grip. But I tightened it even further. With only an additional small twitch of protest, it began.
Yesss. I hissed, watching that ball inside of me grow larger and larger, expanding past its previous limits. A few notifications popped up.
Congratulations!
You have upgraded an Improvement to Rare rarity due to increased understanding and developed usage!
Increased Material Mana 5 (R)
Increase absorbed materials given Mana by 2% of its Base Value per level taken. Maximum is 100% increase to Base Value.
Current:60% Material Mana absorption Increases absorption speed by 100%.
Congratulations!
You have upgraded an Improvement to Uncommon rarity due to increased understanding and developed usage!
Increased Mana to Max Mana 8 Increase exchange rate by 2% increase per level taken. Maximum is 100% increase in base value
Current:66%Mana->Max.Mana
Ability to increase speed of exchange by 500% by worsening ratio by 90%
Current:6.6%Mana->Max.Mana
I chuckled. So changing the method and getting to know the Improvement is more impactful. This is good. Very good. But, a horrible thought came to me. Does this mean that I have to take these Improvements less frequently because of their increased rarity?!
Short answer:No. Long-ish answer:No, because they started off at a lower rarity so the amount I can take is still as if they were Common Improvements.
Okay, phew. So it's safe to train them without removing my options. I thought to myself, relieved. But to get Improvement Points, I need levels, and to get levels I need EXP, and to get EXP... I paused for a moment because of dramatic effect.
I need to kill people.