*Sniff*
A change in the air... No! In the flow of mana. There is a great change.
…
My scouts tell me of a strange dungeon, some of the pack enter but get killed attempting to exit.
…
I have sent some to set up dens within the dungeon, I will need more minions after the ritual.
…
The blood of my brethren flows thick in this dungeon. Tonight, four nights before the full moon I appear in front of this dungeon. My body is but a half corporeal form.
I sniff its entrance but find nothing so I enter and sniff the first room as my minions have spoken of, it is safe from traps.
This smell... this familiar smell... a dungeon of a maker. One has appeared and... this smell... Moonlight Azure Blossom! It seems the maker hunts my kind…
…
It has been a century... maybe this can be a good home for her... yes this maker is smart and cunning yet kind. I can feel that from the dungeon.
I call my minions and tell them to not attack the maker when he comes, avoid him.
I lead my minions inside but the torch flames injure my body. Flames have been an enemy of my kind since the the beginning. The flame is the symbol of the sun and of Yang, the moon is the symbol of Yin and we counteract each other.
As I step forth three pairs of two runes appear before me. These runes speak of my very being. 'Moon' and 'Light' these runes hold my power and only those who have watched and studied their profoundness know how deep such simple runes can be.
They float into the flames causing the 'Fire' rune to appear. My runes merge with the other rune and instantly the red flames turns into a dull white flame.
The sweet feeling of moonlight washes over me. The flames surprisingly release moonlight energy aiding in the reconstruction of my body.
Walking forth the corridors eventually become dull as all the torches undergo my treatment.
Soon we reach the final room. A large door with a small Moonstone at its center stood before me. Placing my paw upon the smooth round gem it glows and spreads to the sides revealing a fertile dirt room similar to an enclosed jungle clearing. At the back sat a cracked stone platform which seems to be a bed for me. The cracked platform will make a perfect location to plant the seeds.
My eyes soon move up. On the ceiling were many small moonstones gently glowing like stars yet one in the very middle took my attention.
The moonstone was as big as a human's head and rests in the very center releasing dull moonlight.
Under the strong moon light rays of this moonstone my body reaches full corporeal state much earlier. The mana within this room is much greater, he has truly prepared a trap I am unable to resist as this is the exact type of environment the blossom requires.
Speaking of them, I shockingly locate two in the center of the platform with deep roots already ready to bloom. They were already shimmering as they absorbed the weak moonlight. The longer this flower sat under moonlight the greater the power held within.
Closing my eyes I feel my power surge and soon a single seed appears from between my brows.
My ancient race has always bonded with this plant and searches for others during their life to give to offspring but few are feasibly possible to locate.
The seed moves into one of the cracks in the platform creating a triangular form with the other two.
I feel the dungeons mana be sucked up drastically. If this was a common dungeon then it surely would have already sent a dungeon boss to finish me.
In a matter of minutes the flower reaches full bloom.
It is no wonder it could, with two other of its kind, it is impossible for this dungeon to not be completely filled with mana.
I howl to my minions to disperse leaving only the elites to remain within the room. These are the ones that soon shall ascend and thus require moonlight.
I lay down before the flowers awaiting the days until the maker comes.
***
Your dungeon has been modified by a wild boss monster. Change involves a known rune and an unknown rune.
The boss has settled into the boss room.
The dungeon is currently in control of the Ancient Alpha Silver Spirit Queen Wolf, Veria. To take back the dungeon you must conquer the dungeon.
Due to the dungeon being under the Ancient Alpha Silver Spirit Queen Wolf, the dungeon has adapted to her, all torches now burn with ******** flames and the strength corresponds with the phase of the moon.
"Wow, I never expected a boss monster could take your dungeons!" Misaki said.
"If I'm not wrong, only highly intelligent monsters can take a dungeon, especially natural ones, as their den and take the position of dungeon boss and conscious allowing them to alter the dungeon to themselves." Charlotte said.
"Seems I can't activate traps against the wolves but they also won't activate against us. Technically, I can't put the dungeon away anymore but it still belongs to me. I just can't attack the direct minions of the boss." I said.
They both let out a sigh of relief for not having to be careful of the traps.
"How will we fight them?" Charlotte asked worried.
"These last three days I have been training my puppets. I already have two other dungeons open to train them. The mage in particular have been teaching me a lot of combos with runic magic." I said.
Not to mention the massive bonus that was being stored up in the wolf dungeon and the practical bonus my book gained. I already have two exp crystals condensed on the book cover.
I already used another one I got to make a large room equal to four wooden rooms. The walls were left wooden and the floor was changed to dirt. I put a second room in front of it were crushed bone, unusable organs etc were placed and I dumped some dirt over and the farmers would regularly move it around spreading it and piling it up. This was a fertilizer I was preparing. High mana concentration dirt created through nature molding, grey wolf bones, goblin bones, animal bones, cut tall grass that the puppets keep short, all waste items we take from the inn. Everything is there and is making a lot of heat as it decomposes but has been turned into a strong compost.
The farm as well has been left alone until the fertilizer is covering the ground so that it makes good crops. The field corridors on the other hand are a different story.
Back on topic, the new puppets I gained I set as fighters but each in different areas. I had 3 learn magic, or in their case runic magic, and train it with the guardian. It first I had no idea how to start until I simply had them draw runes with the ambient mana.
First the basic elements, the elements with shape. When that happens they underwent an evolution into Wooden Acolyte Puppet.
I took one of these and with the recently successful test of the nature molding, gave it the robe and staff from a mage I killed.
The test had the equipment buried in the dirt and craftsmen puppets, who have yet to evolve since the requirement needed them to learn different crafts and they would be one type of craftsmen, anyway nature molding when used on crafted items causes them to slowly evolve into what I am calling nature items.
Their capabilities raise from 5 to 15% and provide greater bonuses. The armor also has an awesome look that makes the equipment gain a kind of green vein like etching on its surface.
The robe fell onto the puppet and the staff in hand soon glowed as the veins soon changed into runes and had a subtle pulse.
This greatly enhanced the strength of the puppets magic and I found that mage class puppets gain wisdom and intelligence but can't speak. Unless I upgrade them to low grade through exp crystals, which also has to be medium and above or they level up tremendously to cover the exp gap, I won't have other low grade puppets.
Other puppets were left with archery and craft skills. 3 archers and 3 more craftsmen were made but not evolved. As for my warriors, I found they needed nature armor made of iron to evolve plus the helmet.
I was able to evolve all three and now the table of puppets is like this.
Current minion Overview
Warrior
Acolyte
Archer
Swordsman
Warrior (Halberd) Level 13
Warrior (Spear) Level 10
Warrior (Spear) Level 9
Acolyte (Leader) Level 7
Acolyte Level 5
Acolyte Level 5
Archer (unevolved) Level 2
Archer (unevolved)
Level 2
Archer (unevolved)
Level 1
Swordsman Level 12
Farmer
Craftsman
Beast
Farmer Level 18
Farmer Level 17
Farmer Level 17
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Craftsmen Level 1 x6
Armored Canine Beast Level 14
Armored Feline Beast Level 15
Armored Rodent Beast Level 10
As probably guesses, Farmers and Craftsmen are kept away from battle but an interesting fact about this world is that craft or production classes gain exp through doing their jobs. As the craftsman haven't evolved, they don't get this bonus.
Something else to notice are the beasts. I figured out the conditions for evolving them. They must have the skill 'Quadruped Movement' and must be bathed in over four liters of blood from any four legged animals.
The evolution causes their body to become similar to a small member of their group, the head becomes like the animal giving them jaws with fangs, the hind legs become animal like, triple jointed I think it’s called and the front hands become paws but the human shoulders remain as they are monsters giving them the edge in movement.
It’s a pity though that the armor becomes their skin and can't be removed. They all wore wooden armor and the evolution happened when I added a helmet which transformed into the animal head. The normal head is below and unchanged.
"I am still worried we might not get far with these numbers." Charlotte said.
"The corridors aren't extensively large and Cross-san has added foliage which restricts their movement as much as ours. We can only hope for the best, pray and fight." Misaki said.
"She is right, also I will simply put the guardian as tank which should scare them away." I say.
"Alright, we should finish preparations and close the other dungeons before going." Charlotte said.
We agreed and after eating we did just that. It allowed me to get level 17 since the puppets let not a single animal, bug or beast escape so I got the 1/5 exp reward.
And 2 more exp crystals, 1 was formed by the mana in the book plus the others, the other was from the gathered mana combined with the previous dungeon.
With four exp crystals I could work with I decide to bump up my skills. First was mana manipulation due to my class being heavily reliant. One crystal is 20k exp and mana manipulation is at the start of level 7 with 42/4200 exp. It jumped from level 7 to level 10 with 5646/6000. Also I felt knowledge spin in my head showing me a level of comprehension of that skill at that level.
Next was crafter skill, the overall skill made me curious as to how it worked. The result shocked me, the skill didn't level at all, instead a flood information rushed into my head. It was all the most basic information on many craftsmen jobs. Blacksmith, Carpenter, Sculptor, Engraver, Alchemist, Scribe, Tailor, Tanner, Chef, Farmer, Painter, Enchanter, Jeweler, even Bone Carver. Information on all these jobs entered my head and when it finally settled the crafter skill window appeared showing all the skills... no the jobs, the crafting skill encases all the crafting jobs into a skill, all of them were level 1 and my head was hurting as I organize the information.
Following that I level the Runic knowledge. All my magic users depend on this skill so leveling it up will obviously unlock more runes. With this skill at Level 6: Exp 2340/3600 using the 20k exp in the crystal I punched the level to level 10: 4340/6000. Instantly the knowledge of 78 new runes flooded my brain and appeared in my book. One hundred and twenty was the amount of runes I got for getting 72% of level 10.
It will take me a long while to digest all the new words and go over their combos.
With so much information swirling in my head I didn’t know what to do with the last exp crystal so I stored it back until I could get used to the new skills. Sword mastery is the most likely to get the boost though but still my magic has been boosted a lot by the new 78 words.
"Urg..." I curse and lower my aching head.
"Ace, are you alright?" Charlotte asked.
"Upgraded skills... to much info, give me a sec..." I mutter.
"Start meditating, it will help clear your thoughts and help control the flood of information." She said.
I activate it and soon my head stopped hurting as I analyze the information. Tools, workshop sizes, processes to doing something, all the necessary information was put together and after a long hour I finally finish.
I let out a sigh and open my eyes, I find the girls playing a board game and talking. The voices that I haven't been hearing at all entered my ears and soon everything was back to normal.
"So... what's with the board game?" I asked the first thing on my mind.
"Oh, you're done, took you long enough, we got bored and the inn is in low movement hours and the waitress here just happens to have a chess board we can play." Misaki said.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
"One... no two hours." Charlotte said.
"Damn, we should go get ready... also now with so much new info I know how to make so many crafting jobs." I say.
"Do them later, go buy us potions and sell some herbs so we can have some spare money." Misaki said and moved her queen like a bishop checking the other king.
I look at the waitress that was sitting watching really enthralled.
I sighed and get up and she notices.
“Um sir…” She says and I look at her.
She pulls out a small sheet of parchment and hands it to me.
“They said to hand it to you.” She said while pointing at the girls.
I look confused and took the small piece of paper and looked at it. The next moment I froze for a very long time as I looked at the paper before I put it down and glared at the girls that were no longer playing and looked any other way but at me.
“75 silver in food and drinks!” I shout!
“You're the man so man up!” Misaki shamelessly said proud of herself.
“You're going to get so fat in the future.” I say bluntly to her face.
“Hmpf, my daily training leaves me really hungry, also if I do gain weight, it will naturally only increase my charm since it will only fill where it needs.” Misaki said with a smile.
“Shinigumi-san!” Charlotte exclaimed blushing.
“You were planning on me paying?” I asked anger very present in my venomous tone.
“Of course.” She said proudly.
“Miss, you can take this girl as a dishwasher or something.” I said.
“Eh?!” The waitress exclaimed.
“Hey! You have lots of crops and stuff! It wouldn’t kill you to sell that stuff! Just pay them in crops!” Misaki said flustered.
“Oh~? So now you're worried about it. I wonder what it would be like if I didn’t have such a convenient class.” I said.
She frowned and lowered her gaze as she realized I have actually been paying a huge amount of money for them to be comfortable.
The next moment she looked up at me with a teary eyes but I just simply brushed it off.
“If you can’t be responsible for your own screw ups then things may get complicated miss maid samurai.” I say.
The moment I said that she gazed grew fierce.
“Alright alright, let's end this, miss, would you take the bill in fresh crops?” I asked.
“Eh? Um… only if they are quality goods or else father wouldn’t accept it.” She said.
I open my book flipping through the pages examining everything going through the crops which are quite numerous already.
I pull a single one out of each crop and present it to her.
Her eyes widen at the variety and she looked it over and asked to see the innkeeper.
I was already preparing a good amount to sell them when the man came running out.
“Sir, are you the one that raised these amazing crops!” The innkeeper and chief said.
“It is, my class allows me to keep them fresh in a secure space.” I say.
“My daughter says that these young ladies built a debt of 75 silver coin. If I can have 50 of each of the root crops, not only will it pay for the debt I will pay you 2 gold coins extra!” He said excited.
“3 gold and I will accept it.”
“2.5”
“Done!” I said and he shakes my hand.
“Quick go grab some containers to hold them all.” The innkeeper said.
“Don’t you want vegetables as well?” I asked.
“We are a farming village so we produce plenty of those but root crops are rather rare and hard to raise here due to the wildlife and having small farms.” The innkeeper said.
“If I remember correctly the farmers just plant the crops randomly on the field right?” Misaki suddenly said.
“Yes, is there a different method?” The man asked confused.
Misaki and I looked at each other with a wry smile and then at the man and nod.
“We will look into spreading it soon enough but I doubt the nobles will agree to it if we suddenly spread it randomly so we will need the support of nobles before we can do anything.” I said.
“Ah yes, of course, if you are interested search for Lord Holenser. He comes from a humble background and is a man of vision and experiment with farming villages but he doesn’t get much success in many ideas.” The innkeeper said.
“Thank you.” I said and when the girl returned with a few boxes I deposited the carrots and garlic first then the Potato and Onions next.
The man’s eyes were shining at all the root crops. Food truly is the greatest exchange token in small villages. A world that has been in war for over 1000 years, to get out of this we first need to upgrade all the nation's infrastructure before trying to tackle the actual war.
Once this was done I went to the alchemist.
“You want alchemy equipment? Why is that boy?” The Alchemist asked.
“I recently learned some about it and want to make my own potions without the need to worry about purchasing things.” I said.
“Sorry but I don’t have equipment besides what I use here and what I have made or purchased for my disciple.” The alchemist said rather annoyed before his eyes suddenly shined as he got an idea. “Here is something, boy take this brat as part of your groups alchemist. Though he can’t compare to me in experience, his talent is far beyond this old man and knows almost everything this old man knows already.”
“What!” The boy shouted.
“What do you mean ‘What?’ Don’t you see a golden opportunity to join a hero.” the old man said.
“Wait how did…” I say but he grins.
“Boy you think I’m so dumb. I have heard tales of what a Dungeon Maker is, that is what you are right, it’s written on that magic book of yours. A class that is rare even within the hero summoning.” the old man.
“REALLY! A HERO!” The apprentice said.
“Okay okay shut up both of you, I was told not to rely on that title so I need to push my own weight so come on, I need the equipment.” I said.
“Sorry boy, I was telling the truth, this brat’s got the only other set of cauldron, beakers, and alchemy set we have, even the extremely rare elven magic formation which I have no way of using I handed over and the brat found out how to put it to some use. Want the tools, take the brat, don’t want him, cough up the coin and herbs.” He said shamelessly.
I sigh really deeply.
“I feel like I am surrounded by shameless people.” I say.
“Oi! Shameless is another word for honest! Don’t confuse the two boy!” The alchemist said.
“Fine, if the kid wants to come along then I will take what I can get. Just know that it will get dangerous fast but I have some ideas that may work for you to make. I just need to go over the information I obtained to make sure alchemy in this world and the one I know are compatible.” I say.
“Awesome! I’m going to be part of a hero's party!” he said excited.
“Before anything kid, name.” I said.
“Hermes Tris Flamel at your service Sir Hero.” he said smiling.
“Holy shit, is this guy the resulting combo of Hermes Trismegistus and Nicolas Flamel! Doesn’t that mean his talent is enough to make something like the fucking philosopher's stone?!” I thought.
Yes NEET wikipedia searcher has also researched alchemists due to interest gained by fictions, besides that…
“Ace Cross, just call me Ace. I’m not like that pompous moron with the Hero class.” I say.
“I can’t, you are part of the Heroes summoned group. Then how’s Sir Ace?” He asked.
I rub my temple and then begin imagining when he discovers the identity of the two girls in the party. I can understand he won’t be so shocked by Misaki but the crowned princess… yeah.
“Just Ace, I need to hide the fact I’m a hero anyway so just Ace.” I said.
“Okay, but when you are recognized or in the capital is it fine to say Sir?” He asked.
“I guess as a formality sake but only if necessary, I hate formalities.” I complained.
“Sure thing, now to gather all my things.” He said.
I began to think of something as to how to transport that workshops worth of things.
“Is there an empty room here or one with some open space?” I asked.
“Yeah there is the bedroom.” The old alchemist said.
“Good.” I say and walk inside.
Then I open my book and move a single unused room into an empty dungeon spot but remember that the dungeons magic hole are all used.
“Damn it. Old man mind if we pick the stuff up later.” I asked.
“Didn’t I bloody tell you not to call me old man, as for the other thing, sure, since you’re not leaving there is no need to pack everything.” He said.
“Good now trade me.” I said and began trading for lots of goods while giving him the now even higher quality herbs he was drooling over.
I got 10 gold off him from selling well over 100 herbs not to mention the large supply of Mana Drop Flowers which are growing splendidly in my dungeon with the fertilizer.
After a while I fill my bag with mana and hp potions and me and Hermes leave the hut and meet the girls in the inn where we introduce ourselves and I explain how this happened making Charlotte giggle and Misaki just look at him rather curiously after hearing his name.
From there we left town after distributing the potions, and making sure to tell Hermes where we were going and he choose to come as well.
At the entrance I had already summoned the guardian, fascinating the boy, and the Halberd puppet, the leader Acolyte, and the canine beast. The more canine blood he is bathed in I believe he gets stronger.
“Okay, be ready for the wolves, Hermes, don’t even think of running and don’t fear traps, this is my dungeon so I command the traps.” I said.
“Alright.” He replied nodding his head.
As we walk into the circle and appear in the first room a strong wind blows from the deep making the strange white flames burn brighter and all around us an ancient female voice appeared.
“You have come… Dungeon maker… ignore my kin and come to me.” it said sending a shiver down our backs.
“This is the Ancient Alpha Silver Spirit Queen Wolf. A legendary spirit, no wonder, it can speak human tongue. Damn I wonder if we can kill it!” Hermes said since he was already filled in on the situation.
“Who knows but since we should ignore them it makes it easier for us.” I said.
“Mn, let’s go.” Misaki said and we walked forward with the guardian at the back guarding our rear, Me, Hermes and the Acolyte in the middle, Charlotte and Misaki on the sides and the Beast and Halberd warrior in the front. Like this we move in to fight the Alpha wolf.