'Please Inspect Ladle of Lethe.'
** DING **
Ladle of Lethe - Early. Master Rank. 300 mana / ladle. One man's curse, another man's boon. Conjures a ladle brimming with water from the River Lethe, its presence heeds comprehension onto a soul, be they sip and forget or may they linger and wane.
What's that if not a little ominous… the River Lethe, Greek myth if my memory serves me right, one of the rivers in the underworld. Something about souls forgetting everything after drinking from it. This spell seems to do the exact same thing.
We suggest you first leave the dungeon before further exploration of thy Mindscape
Time to expulsion: 00:00:09:52
51.. 50.. 49.. seconds. So about nine more minutes… 'Umm~, sorry to bother you again. How do I exit the Mindscape?'
By thy will
'Righty O, thank ye'!" I grin and exit the Mindscape with a thought, getting better at this desire thing, I think!
I blink and find myself back in the stone chamber, now empty besides the floating Core and I. The exit portal offered to me during the previous conversation with ex-Core, still hovering right where I last saw it.
** DING **
Roll?
Y/N
Yes?
[31] Awarded:
A Rusty Shortsword
A Goblin ShortBow
A Lesser health potion
The items appear before me in a lidless treasure chest. Neat! I collect them into my repository for later purview and once again observe the only portal in the room.
'Hi, umm, do I use that to exit?' I mentally indicate the portal in question.
Yes
'Thank you.'
Assured, because there are infinitely simpler ways for The System to damn me over forever, I approach the portal and step through… only to find myself exiting into another stone chamber.
** DING **
Roll?
Y/N
This again..? More loot? 'Yes~!'
Please select your reward
[66] Awarded:
A Branch and Tendon Sling
2 Lesser Mana Potions
A Lesser Stamina Potion
A Skillbook: Battle Orders
[55] Awarded:
A Leather Vest
A Leather Boots
A Lesser Health Potion
A Skillbook: Battle Orders
[97] Awarded:
A Rusty dagger
A Wooden Club
A Rusty Spear
Choosing one reward from three options… this is definitely one of the new titles at play! That last option is totally lame, which leaves the former two, ignoring the familiar skill book, a sling weapon and some potions, or armor and one potion? Offense or defense?..
'The middle one please, number 55.'
** DING **
[55] Awarded:
A Leather Vest
A Leather Boots
A Lesser Health Potion
A Skillbook: Battle Orders
I stored everything from the newly spawned lidless chest in my repository. The potion I would keep for myself, the rest I might just donate to the territory. As with the existence of my spells, mundane gears now feel kinda bland. Though I would need a good belt pouch or bandolier to hold key items like artificial infusions or potions. Or~ maybe, I can give my Conjure Trilattic Swarm a dimensional pouch like feature… that would be awesome!
The chest sinks into the ground and another portal opens up on the wall right ahead of me, as nothing else occupies the chamber, I step through and, this time, find myself standing before a familiar double door. My hand subconsciously rises up to touch it.
** DING **
First clear achieved!
Title awarded [Depthblazer 1]
Chamber of Goblins
Level 3 - 15 Dungeon
Party limit: 4
Instanced: 3 / 3
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Entry Prohibited
Enter solo?
Yes / No
I mentally tap no.
Hmm~, so I got a title for being the first to get in? Eh, but it says first clear? Definitely needs a clear. Which is why the uncleared indicator is gone… Though, I wonder if it's possible for the others to come here and grind for level now that it's changed hands. 'Excuse me, System. What's gonna happen to the Dungeon now? Is it gonna be closed forever or something?' The answer did not come after waiting for a few minutes, so I shrugged and decided to make my way back for now.
After fighting with a village of Goblins, making my way through the streets between the Dungeon and Garuda Hospital feels more like a leisure walk. The few hostile rats, roaches or mosquitoes that did come for me were easy enough to locate with Sense Mana and disposed of using one of my disks.
Soon after, I arrived – very late into the night, startling a pair of guards. But, besides causing a bit of a ruckus from the night shift having to wake some higher ups to confirm my identity and allow me entry. The night came to a peaceful end. Though, I have a feeling that I've forgotten something back at the mall.
I lay on a bed in a random room after locking the door and making it doubly secure with a bit of Shape Stone, anyone I know is asleep… Ah~, clean sheets, clean room, clean me! 'Updates please and thank you.'
** DING **
Combat summary
Enemies slain:
Goblin lv 5 x 16
Goblin lv 6 x 18
Goblin lv 7 x 15
Goblin lv 8 x 20
Goblin lv 9 x 28
Goblin lv 10 x 13
Goblin lv 11 x 2
Goblin lv 12 x 4
Goblin lv 13 x 3
Goblin lv 14 x 2
Goblin shaman lv 15 x 3
Human, CoG modified lv 1 x 6
Human, CoG modified lv 2 x 3
Ogre lv 30 x 1
1062 syscred and 6629 exp awarded
You are now level 7
Skill level up, Inspect 10 > 11
Skill level up, Taunt 6 > 7
Skill level up, Fear Resistance 7 > 8 > 9
Skill level up, SoulSense 20 > 20
Mindscape discovered
Combat summary
Enemies slain:
Giant Rat lv 2 x 1
Huge Mosquito lv 3 x 3
DarkRoach lv 6 x 1
17 syscred and 38 exp awarded
Skill level up, Mana Sense 12 > 13
Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 18 > 19
Skill level up, Heavy Armor Proficiency 6 > 7
'Is something wrong with Soul Sense?' I asked The System, but no answer came… So, Level seven, nice! Though I feel that even though we're still in the early stages, the level ups are kinda slow. Almost one week now, and it's been barely a level each day, though I guess if a video game has such a slow progression rate, it would be kinda boring to play… my mind wanders around randomly and gradually fades into slumber.
---
The dungeon shall, as according to the rules, be available on the morrow, and will be as its name dictates; A Chamber of Goblins
Parameters indicate Soulsense is working as it should be.
I wake up to a blue box hovering right up my face, pleasant if you're weird and enjoy a bit of eye-hurt in the morning, I don't. But the answer feels like good news, hmm… 'are you still there System, I just woke up and got your reply. It just occurred to me, are the Goblins going to be leaving the dungeons premise?'
I shall arrange for them to stay within, gaining access to an infant dungeon has allowed me much progress. Think of this as bonus reward
'Thank you.' I guess that is fine, maybe we ca-- the door to this room suddenly makes a rattling sound, someone is trying to get inside?
"Open the door, I know you're in there!" Came the familiar voice of someone that likes to be way~ too noisy in the morning. Exercise this, eat healthy that, while she swings her boken a hundred times.
"He's probably still asleep, Jen." I can't help but smile a little bit, yep, it's those two… Jennifer replied "what did he do to lock the door?" After which more door rattling ensures with increasing intensity. When a moment of peace for the door came, I reached out with my Shape Stone spell and returned everything to how it used to be. Instantly, the door got wrenched open, extra hard, and a certain someone almost fell through. But she's got great reflexes, so everything's fine.
"Hey, long time no see." I call out to the others, though it has only been about two days. Felt much longer to me. A couple, a grandpa and his granddaughter are standing outside the door. Hmm, I never found out what Mr. Herman and Linda got with their System Point.
A busy day ensued. First of all some catching up, that took the rest of the morning. They managed to connect the territories, and while there was some close call with dangerous creatures, the teams managed to escape. The four territories that house these dangerous creatures are currently left untouched and under watch.
The population also grew from the initial 85 people to 157, which is almost double the previous count, as people notice the commotion during their fights and their coordinated teams and thus decided there is safety in numbers with these group of monster huntin' people. 8 more patients got healed thanks to the doctor and nurses getting the capability to use magical means for healing and treatment, with a few more on the way to recovery.
Mr. Herman seems to have cooled down a little, so I took the chance to apologize for being too hasty with my decisions regarding Budiman. After a few minutes of listening to him lecture me, he gave me news about my family. Which reminded me to try and charge my phone, which turned out to be in vain as it is unfortunately broken, maybe dungeon shenanigans. He and Henry then told me about VCS, a Virtual Computing System, something resembling our PC but run through the system and how it can send messages across the multiverse.
Everyone seems to be transitioning from using their phones to getting one of those, it all started when Mr. Herman heard about it from my parents. They wanted him to pass on a message which contained their explanation about VCS. That information got to Linda and Henry before me and they decided to try it out, then Linda told Annastasia, then she told someone else… In a few hours, everyone knew and the ones who could, got one.
A lot of things from our old world suddenly stopped working. Machine parts break down, buildings collapse, roads crack and various other damages to random things. They found this to be true the further away the item is from humans, it's like the world is moving back in time, Linda said the planet has grown more beautiful since when seen from the skies.
Turns out Linda used her point to buy a skill called OmniProjection, it allows her to project an avatar of herself to a location she can see. She can then use that avatar to do almost anything she herself is capable of, like cast spells or look around, it can also be invisible and incorporeal at will though it is incapable of moving. The avatar has 10% of her health, but shares the other resources with her no matter how far. It sounds amazing, she's been using it to scout from up high. I suggested she try to use it to hunt by shooting at land enemies from her position in the air using Magico Disk.
Jennifer is healthy, so is the kid in her womb. She complained about getting bored of being stuck in the hospital and only being allowed to exercise or lightly hunt nearby, air quotes. Henry had injuries from his adventure to claim the territories, but has since healed. He's managed to make a new spell that interfaces with a person's VCS, where an incorporeal bubble would form around the caster and magically maintain his/her condition while they sleep or meditate, or whatever it is they want to do. It's called EnviroShroud.exe, and seems to sell alright.
Mr. Herman spent his point on a pseudo ego gun, it's made of something called Slimerge Alloy. The gun can eat mundane guns to learn its form or eat random objects to recover any damage or produce bullets. As an alternative it is also enchanted with Mana Bullet, allowing its user to infuse mana directly into the gun to shoot out unattuned mana.
I've still got the collection of items from the dungeon to sort through, which reminded me of the extra unused gears that I planned to give them, so I did. And to browse the CredStore for a VCS, as well as check the sales on my spells. Mr. Herman has kindly agreed to inform my family of my well being and my plans to get one later. For now, I decided to postpone all that as the assault team has plans to tackle the four hazardous buildings after lunch and I wish to help.
Lunch was pleasant business, I managed to educate Henry about the awesomeness and versatility that is Magico Disk, before all too soon, the assault started. Henry now leads a fireteam consisting of him and another three volunteers, Mr. Herman leads another team with three of the eleven securities, while the last eight form another two individual fireteams. Three will embark on the assault, while the last team and a bunch of the civilian volunteers will stand guard. I updated all their Magico Disk spells to the peak mastery during the pre-mission briefing, then followed Henry as his team, along with Mr. Herman's and one other, embarked on their assault.