Kill Emile Gestaff:
The baker's wife has placed a contract on the head of her unfaithful husband
He can be found in the Silver Moon brothel in the town of Dune
Reward:
1 contract point
Eliminate the contact whilst he's in the building and paint the walls with his blood to increase the Syndicate's fame
Return with the target's body to unlock the Baker class and earn additional rewards
Light understands that this mission is important.
His master specifically told him so.
What he can't understand is why his master would allow a regular human to accompany him and Dropper.
What he finding even harder to grasp is why his master only gave him, his partner, and their human tag-along, two horses.
Two. Not three. Just two.
Currently, Sophie has her arms locked around Light's waist on the back of one horse. Dropper, who can't help but grin due to the reversal in situation from Katrina, is alone on the other.
'Is The Master trying to set me up with this human? Why would she do that? Although, I suppose she is quite beautiful or is that due to the exposure of being close to The Master. It's hard to tell. Either way, it's just... Strange. That's what it is! Strange,' he thinks, taking small peeks back at the woman holding tight behind him as they emerge from the woods onto the path heading toward Dune.
"Are you okay over there?" Dropper calls over, her tone is laced in sarcasm and she struggles to control a snicker.
"I'm fine! Why do you ask?" Light snaps back, assuming her jab is meant for him as they so often are.
"Oh. I wasn't talking to you, Light. I'm sorry. I was talking to Sophie," Dropper can't keep it in and she laughs at her partner.
"Oh, now you wanna start cracking jokes. I remember when a certain someone had a certain young apprentice hanging from her waist. Wasn't so funny then was it?" trying to shame his partner in their battle of words, Dropper laughs it off.
"But right now, you are living the dream. Are you not?" Looking at Sophie nestled into Light's back, Light sees her eyes drawn to the woman behind him and he realises that he needs to be watch his words. He can endure the hard, yet soft, grip for the sake of the mission. In all honesty, he doesn't actually mind the strangely-infatuated woman, clutching him tightly as if he may disappear at any moment.
"Sophie, why do you cling to me the way you do?" Sophie lifts her head from Light's back at his words and places it on his shoulder.
"You're strong. Like, really strong, right? Isn't that all any girl wants? A strong, handsome man," she pecks his cheek at the end of her words and he blushes brightly while looking towards Dropper for aid. Unfortunately, he finds no help as her mouth is wide open, she is almost more shocked than he is.
With no assistance being shown from his partner, Light gazes back at Sophie who has nestled back into the comfort of his back but finds he is lost for words.
"H-handsome?" he eventually stutters as Sophie lifts her head back up. The rest of the ride there, she whispers sweet words, of the life they could have together, into his ear.
-Light, Dropper, and Sophie, Syndicate Assassins
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I'm not going to lie.
After being confined to the dungeon for so long, it's really strange being outside, watching five, burly-looking men tend to a field. The sweat dripping off their shirtless, chiseled physique under the midday sun is enough to make a girl weak at the knees.
If you had knees.
You're getting pretty quick these days, Me.
It's pretty damn sweet, this Core's finally got herself some eye candy. Even if it does still fall under the strange factor. Choosing the Shadow Walkers as a base for my farmer class, everyone summoned so far has been male. It's making me question if gender is really random, or if The System is screwing around with things. Even though I'm not sure, I'm still inclined to go with the latter.
It's frustrating to say the least.
After summoning a Shadow Farmer, he was given the title of High Cultivator and I cheaped out by using that as his name. Even better, the other four farmers, I left in his hands and bid him good luck. I doubt they'll end up like the Sweets, but you never know.
The High Cultivator was granted lost magic on how to efficiently sow, keep and reap the best harvests from any crops.
Humanity would wage war for the knowledge and techniques the High Cultivator has been granted. They're absolutely absurd on a different level. I was honestly curious at first and wanted to know how long dungeon crops would take to grow, but I should have just guessed.
After they spent the majority of their first day planting seeds and infusing each one with mana, the five farmers retired for the night. On the second day, the High Cultivatorspent the morning in the fields alone. He spoke to each seedling as he watered them and moved on. And that was it for the second day.
I was super confused at that point, but I don't know squat about farming and dungeon'in is a tough gig so so I let him do as pleased and said nothing. To my surprise, come evening the magical crops looked almost ready to harvest. It took another day for the High Cultivator to teach his four companions how to correctly cut, remove, and then store, each of the bountiful resources he had blessed.
It was more than strange. The amount they harvested was just ridiculous. Even now, I just...
I'm glad they got a lot, but...
Ignoring the oversized warehouse I had to create myself just to store the crops in, Wheeler and Aaron left my dungeon with a dozen Shadow Walkers as escort. It's safe to say that they were extremely pleased with their new guard detail and travelling companions.
Wheeler set off with the intention of talking-up Varona as he restocks his wares. Once he's gathered some stock and spread the word as much as possible, he'll return with anyone that wishes to relocate before heading out again to repeat the process. That's how a travelling merchant usually operates, but he's eventually aiming to settle down here.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I should consider myself lucky that he stumbled upon my land during their escape. All that it has cost to recruit his lip services was the promise of a large building where he can sell his wares tax-free once Varona is a bustling DP Factory. It's likely to be a good few weeks before they return and in that time my goal is to improve the town outside my mountain.
The remaining guard Sophie decided to stay with Light and follows him everywhere like a lost lamb. Currently, she is out with him and Dropper on a Syndicate mission, not that she knows it's for the Syndicate or even why they're travelling so far away. She isn't contracted to me so it was the best idea I could come up with to get her out of my dungeon while I made some changes.
The Academy of Dark Arts had to be stored away before Wheeler and Aaron left. Nor because I was worried about them seeing it, they'll definitely see it when they return, but because It would have been hard for them leave the mountain with the new feature in the way. Plus, it would have been one of those conversations. Especially considering its size and how soon the feature was constructed shortly after their arrival.
It wouldn't have been stranger than watching Noir store the entire thing in his spacial storage though. He did that before I had chance to tell him that I could have stored it in my own dungeon inventory. He laughed it off, sweat dripping down his face before he teleported to the designated spot and unloaded the burden promptly.
Poor Noir.
Staying on the subject of strange, The Syndicate has managed to reach level 4. Thats obviously not the strange part. I don't need DP to level this building, making it the only one of its kind that I possess. It also doesn't have a building and jus seems to be a dungeom feature. Maybe because of how I tried placing it? I don't know. Each level up requires twice as many contracts be completed as the last, which doesn't seem much different from anything else that goes on in my dungeon.
Yes it starts cheap, but will eventually cost me a fortune soon. For The Syndicate to get to level 2, all it required was the completion of one contract. Then, it took two contracts. After that it was four and now it's eight to reach level 5.
That means for it go from level 9 to 10, it will take 256 contracts. That seems like some right ridiculous shit to me. How is it even fair since it only gets steeper after that? Why do I have this awkwardly-scaled leveling system anyway?
Whatever.
Currently, this is the level of my strangeness.
The Syndicate:
Level 4
All associates earn a 40% boost to all stats regardless of location
All associates are able to use Dark Magic fluently even if they are unattuned to the element
All associates physical and mental skills inflict an extra 25% damage and status effects last longer regardless of enemy buffs
Cloak of Night:
Turn invisible for 60 minutes once a day
Does not cost mana to cast and has no upkeep
Does not require a physical skill to use
Once activated can be deactivated at will
Once deactivated cannot be used again until the cool down period is over
Contracts until next level:
7
Contracts can be acquired from:
Taskmaster Talia
The Chef Abi
Potion Master Lucinda
The Swindler Jack
Cloak and Dagger Tara and Lara
It's just ridiculous.
But at least it's in a good way for once.
If it wasn't for the boosts and special abilities provided The Syndicate already, I would be kicking off big time at the buildingless feature. Since I do have them, however... It's a major game changer. Especially when you consider the other home ground advantages that we have.
Then again, where were these boosts when I was still human? I seriously missed out, didn't I? Then again, it's not like we weren't on the lookout for a supporter to join us. The problem is there just aren't enough people with a buffing class for every party to have one. Hell, it's probably around one-in-twelve, not that I know the actual figures.
Either way, now that I'm a Dungeon Core, I still don't get to appreciate these awesome buffs! I can grant them to people who form a contract with me and anyone or anything that I summon gets added to The Syndicate's ranks automatically. I know, it's great, but I still feel like I'm missing out on the action.
So yeah, strange has been the name of the game these last few days.
Anyway, with the aid of The Syndicate, and thanks to my diligent subjects completing their missions, I've managed to unlock a few new subclasses to aid me in the creation of Varona. They'll be beneficial for the town's start up, bakers, farmers, librarians and more.
I don't need help with construction since features appear from the awesomeness of nothing. What I need and what my town needs are real people to start bringing the points in. Hopefully, in the near future, Wheeler will be able to convince people to make the trip to my towm. If not, I'm sure the Shadow Walkers that I sent with him will inspire a few curious people to venture our way.
Tired of being caught unaware since people keep stumbling upon us by chance, I purchased two more plots of land. Creating more space and laying foundations for the town outside my mountain. For now, I'm just going to hide the true dungeon away from adventurers and other nayer do wellers behind the school. Once I'm raking in the DP and my dungeon is a lot bigger, I'll reopen it to the public.
The Academy of Dark Arts now sits in front of the entrance to my true home, the unreasonably-beautiful mountain. From the large gates, that are closed to all except students, I have paved the floor and filled the street with buildings. Each one is a direct copy of the features I currently possess inside. For people to believe that we're a thriving, startup town, buildings like a church, a tavern, restaurants, hotel and shops are needed for credibility and believability.
Fortunately for me, the secondary buildings are exact duplicates of their originals. Unless I decide to alter them myself, they only cost a fraction of the price the originally did. I don't even know when I unlocked the ability to duplicate, but it has sure come in handy. Not that it wouldn't still be useful if wasn't so cost effective.
What isn't cost effective are homes and I put a lot of points into housing, for my people aswell those that might show up with, or before, Wheeler. I know some of my summons are staying at the Privacy Palace and that won't do. They should all have their own homes by now with how hard they work. Plus, I need those rooms to fleece travellers and merchants. In the end, I almost bottomed out on points after I had finished creating more homes than necessary.
I even created a small residential district. Just incase an absurb amount of people arrive. Prevention is better than the cure, although I'm sure if that applies in this scenario? It was better to get it done before they show up too since I might not be able to build in certain areas when they do.
It was alright asking Kat to leave for a few minutes back then, but I can't exactly tell a town's worth of people to bugger off for a bit whilst I upgrade shit, can I?
I didn't realise how fast my body count was rising, or will continue to rise, until I was actually making homes for them. I mean, know how many people there are. When I was actually creating the living spaces though, it added a certain clarity to the numerical figures.
Anyway, the mountain town of Varona is starting to look good. With the buildings I've duplicated, it looks quite busy too. My family have swapped indoor features for the outdoor ones, or whatever you want to class them as seeing as they're still in the dungeon. It's even helped bring Kat out of the mountain that she has been so reluctant to leave. Not that she's left dungeon territory yet...
With some houses lining the street between the different establishments, I gave Kat one next to Ali's restaurant. She spends a lot of time with our culinary genius so it was a no brainer keeping them close. Plus, it's easy brownie points with my mate Kat.
Eliminating the need for me, I decided to improve the High Cultivator's farming teams by a considerable amount aswell. Not with Shadow Walkers this time, however. The Archer class I unlocked, which is like a super long time ago now, has sat there gathering dust due to me not making full use of everything available.
As usual, I summoned a batch of ten Archers and unlock the next tier, The Ranger. I get a mixed bag of gender and don't complain. A batch of Rangers later and I unlocked the Wood Walkers. Again, another mixed bag. Maybe she did listen to me?
It doesn't stop from complaining at The System though. Not with how cliché her choice of names are, until Me reminded me that the names come from my mind. The System just takes and uses them. So... I've gotta get better at this naming job? Why is there so much to name as a dungeon? Maybe I should try and come up with them in advance. Should I keep a list?
Either way, the Wood Walkers are just as strong as the Shadow Walkers with only a few differences in their stats so they became the new farmers. I also made a few dozen teams and sent them to Hana and Mira to be assigned shifts. The Archers and Hunters were mixed in with the Shadow Walker guard detail adding to our overall defence.
Anyone that makes their way here will now find an ordinary town sitting beneath an anything-but ordinary mountain. The next step out here will be further expansion, once my next scouting parties return. I need to increase the amount of land too so that we can grow this popsicle stand and accommodate even more visitors.
Then again, I can only hope that the people I'm trying to accommodate for will actually show up one day.
It would be a shitter if they didn't...