208. That number on the door signifies the room I have claimed since my return to the territory two days back. 'Day and time? Thanks.'
Thursday, 30 December 2043.
Day ten of System integration, I had lost count when my phone broke… Forcing my eyes to move away from the door, I went downstairs to get breakfast.
"Kak Zen!" Linda approached and sat beside me on the bench, a plate of food in her hand while I sat alone nursing my breakfast whilst lazily texting my sister, Tiffany. I'm satisfied to hear that things are getting better there.
"Hi! How are you? Been making good use of Mana Sense and Magico Disk?" I grin at her.
"Yes, thank you." Her face lit up like a christmas tree. "I can more easily find hidden enemies now, I even managed to find a hidden treasure. My current level is also among the top, you know. One day, I'll be the richest and strongest and most beautiful treasure hunter lady there is!"
"Awesome! Then what are you gonna do when you've become all that?"
"I'll keep the rest of humanity safe. And discover every treasure in the world!" Her face turned serious, before once again breaking into a cheeky grin. "By the way kak Zen, I have quite a bit of Creds now. Eyang said I should get myself a spatial storage or something like that. Do you have one?"
"I do," I tell her, re-Inspecting both Novice Repository and Pocket Suspense to reread their descriptions. "Two even, both are spells."
** DING **
Novice Repository. You can't look fashionable carrying a massive bag of supplies on your back. Spend 90% of your mana to construct a one cubic meter personal spatial storage, bonus size also provided according to 10% cm of mana spent on a random side. Cost of withdrawals or deposits are drawn from ambient mana. The spell may be recast for another 90% of your mana to reconstruct a new space anytime, collapsing the old space and losing anything inside, it will change its size to accommodate the recent mana spent.
Pocket Suspense. Three in one, stay sharp! Rip a bubble of space and time to preserve and store your belongings, it resided in and is anchored to your soul. The bubble may be configured to half, quarter or halt the passage of time, each will respectively hold as much as 75%, 35% or 5% the mana invested in tearing the bubble plus the strength of your magic, in cubic centimeters. The bubble will hold an item within the limits regardless of shape.
She inquired about them and I read out to her the descriptions and my opinion about them, as well as what else is available in the Store, including enchanted bags or rings. All I accomplished after a while was to convince her to not take Pocket Suspense, yet. As that is more cartered to people with an overabundance of mana. Not that she has the means to, with the amount of Creds she has, all she could afford is Quasi-Inventory, the one where she needs to attune a bag or container. I offered to cover the remaining, to which she refused. "I know just the right bag!" She said, "my favorit!" The next moment, she's gone and I end up having to clean up her breakfast along with mine.
All alone, my thoughts snap back to Pocket Suspense. Three in one huh… Knowing more about magic now than when I first casted the spell. Space, Time, and Soul? Really, who made this spell? I'm starting to doubt it's actually for storing things and is instead some kinda hidden knowledge or something. I probably sat there for fourty or so minutes with a blank look on my face, a few times, someone would come talk to me for a while before going off to find their friends. Thanks to Parallel Thoughts, I could both converse and repeatedly cast Pocket Suspense at the same time.
With only twenty mana per cast, I kept recreating a pocket with its time suspended. The pocket this creates is maybe only about one centimeters in diameter. But, it is the process that's important this time! Within the first ten or so casts, I noticed that this spell isolates and pulls space from our reality into a container. Which in this case, in my own soul.
"Oi! What'cha doin?" Roys booming voice snapped me out of my focused state of mind.
"Wha.! Oh... Nothing, just analyzing a spell I have."
"As expected of a magic nerd!" He chuckled, "we're planning to get rid of the musa tree thingy, then do a couple dungeon runs, you in?"
"Heck yea!"
---
Besides two Fire Teams to protect the territory, those incapable of going due to their condition or jobs and the very few who refuse to go---or made to stay like Jennifer and, well, not Linda. She'll be too busy hunting the surrounding creatures to participate---72 people embarked on a journey to hunt the evil tree. "I said its giving me an eerie feeling, not that its definitely evil, okay!" I clarified for the nth time today.
The Musa Phasma Treanter turns out to be a level thirty unique variant of a Treant, a banana tree person, that was disguised as a tree. Attuned to necromancy, it uses the spirits of creatures that dies within its domain as slaves. We just had everyone bombard it with spells or ranged attacks. Killing it with numbers. I admit seeing it get struck by VLoS is soothing, did I mention the thing is eerie? Didn't stop me from casting Snatch'a Soul-inator to grab its soul, part of it at least. I figured most people do not take notice of a soul.
Slayed Musa Phasma Treanter lv 30
0 syscred and 7 exp awarded
Strength + 1
Constitution + 1
Intelligence + 1
Wisdom + 2
Will + 3
Divided 72 ways… yeah, seems about right. Though the gains I got from devouring its soul is delish~.
Then we separated, where three teams of five, me included, but also not included among the five, departed for the Druidant's Dungeon. While everyone else goes back to do what it is they are tasked to do. Kirana, Dianti, and three other unknown guys, as well as myself, make up team one. The second team is Roy, Agus and another three unknown people. I do not know anyone in team three besides a girl that I remember to be part of the wall building team, never got her name.
Antrum de Druidants (uncleared)
Level 1 - 20 Dungeon
Party limit: 5
Party Limit: 2/2
Cooldown: 24 hours
Slot Available
Enter as a party?
Yes / No
"Alrighty, everyone ready? It's assumed we can all enter." Kirana took charge while I'm checking out the gate. "Third team, above, you're up first. Team two on the ground, give them ten minutes. My team will follow behind on the ground, focusing more on harvesting and as backup."
"Kirana wait, it says here party limit, two of two."
"What?" She looks at me, "and what does that mean?"
"Uh, probably that only two parties of five may enter."
Hearing that, Agus approaches and touches the gate. Kirana looks at him, "yep," he says while nodding. "I would wager Zen is right."
"So only ten of us and one him." She confirmed while looking at Agus and pointing at me. Agus nods.
"Alright, let's break up the party then." Kirana said. "Dianti because she's the reason we're here. Agus, Roy and I due to our experience with it. So we need six more members, everyone okay with that?"
I, again, did not bother getting myself involved and instead once again busying myself with spam casting Pocket Suspense……. "..EEENNN!!" Kirana's voice broke me out of my semi-enlightened state, I... I was so~ close!. "We got the two teams sorted, let's go."
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"Couldn't you have taken longer?" I mumbled to myself.
"Sorry?"
"Did you say something?"
"What?" I feign innocence, stupid stats giving people better hearing. "Let's go then! What's the plan?"
"Are you fine with taking a back seat approach?" Kirana asks me.
"No! My expe--," she STARES at me. "--I mean, yes of course!"
"Good! Team one that is Roy, Agus, Yuliana, Natasha and Ayunda will fight the Sentries up top." She tells me, "ten minutes after. team two, that is, you, Dianti, Shinta, Robert, Joko and I. Will tackle the fields. Dianti, Shinta you two just do what damage you can from back here, then harvest whats available after battle. Team three make your way back, be careful of the weird tree."
"Cool!"
---
I eventually understood that they needed to figure out a way to do this Dungeon without me, as it is no secret that I'm leaving for my family soon, so that's fine, I guess. The Dungeon this time around is different, more alive with how the creatures fidget and move, they startle, and interact with the world or each other. Looking at it from the elevated view of a Disk-drone, I find the scene beautiful.
The above team performed well, Roy got himself a skill to Taunt an enemy through sight, creatively named Taunting Glare. This allows them to control the battle by only pulling two Sentries—the target and the next one—at once, their calls for backups are easily enough dealt with using the good-old smack on the face, the ground floor team has it even easier, they continued making use of the strategy Henry came up with. Though the backlines took some damage this time on account of their livelier mind, nothing went beyond their means. During a refilling march for the sentries, we regroup in the Safe Zone.
These Druidants have slightly larger souls now, around the size of a Ping Pong ball.
I'm bored out of my mind! I get it, I'm the backup, but geez. Not attacking means no kill rewards, which is fine I guess. Worst is getting positioned too far away and missing out on a few bites of Attributes. The only saving grace being how I am free to experiment with Pocket Suspense.
"What are you doing?" Kirana caught me on one of my pondering moments where I would physically freeze up as my mind went into overdrive.
"Wha.! Oh... Nothing, just analyzing a spell I have."
"As expected of a magic nerd! You're in a Dungeon!" She reminds me. Deja vu!
"It's fine, you all totally got th—" strong winds interrupted my reply before a Sentinel landed on the ground.
"Taunting Glare!" The creature turns to look at Robert, "Earth Stance, Heavy Bulwark." It rushes at him with a familiar Lunge, but is stopped dead on its track. Defeating it was easy after that. Robert has earned my respect.
I had to Mend his shield and Lesser Heal a few puncture wounds, but all is well. I think a little bit of spell casting would give him a boost. "You should get yourself the Coat spell, it should be pretty cheap. Will help increase your shield durability, assuming you master it well. Maybe Mend too."
Now that we know a Sentinel would fly and patrol by once in a while, no more trouble befalls us. The run eventually comes to an end. I even got the chance to solo-kill another Sentinel while they handled the other, it was delicious. The boss fight was even less interesting with an eleven on one, as all ten Druidant Youngs are pretty much useless.
I'm currently in the rewards room. Which is the room where I always find myself standing in after passing through the Dungeon's exit. 'Updates please.'
** DING **
Combat summary
Enemies slain, Participants: 6:
Druidant Sentinel lv 18 x 1
3 syscred and 31 exp awarded
Will +1
Slayed Druidant Sentinel lv 18
18 syscred and 185 exp awarded
Intelligence +1
Wisdom +1
Will +1
Dexterity +1
Slayed Druidant Young lv 5 x 3
15 syscred and 43 exp awarded
Combat summary
Enemies slain, Participants: 11:
Queen Druidant lv 25 x 1
2 Syscred and 32 exp awarded
Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 23 > 24
Skill level up, SYMPHONY 10 > 11
Skill level up, Soul Sense 9 > 10
I only managed to nibble on the Soul of the first Sentinel, while the second I got quite a lot more of. Though it's too time consuming to devour their physical body which is why I only got a few bites. The Druidant Youngs only managed to boost my regenerations. Seriously, devouring stuff for Attributes is addictive. Is this bad? If only I know how it is they calculate my attribute gains from this.
** DING **
Contract offered by The System
Zane Fair Prayoga (Zen) shall cease consuming souls of Dungeon creatures owned by The System. In exchange, his inquiry for the calculations behind devouring creature attributes shall be answered. Failure to comply will result in up to two warnings before complete annihilation
Can't believe I'm starting to get used to System boxes popping up willy-nilly…
'So their physical body is fine to devour?'
Yes
'Can I know why? And can't you ease up on the punishment? Total annihilation, geez…'
Souls are expensive
Failure to comply will result in up to nine warnings before physical annihilation
That's, not much different… better I suppose? Ah well~, 'fine, sure, why not. Hopefully, I scratch your back so you'll scratch mine.'
You have entered into a contract with The System
Zane Fair Prayoga (Zen) shall cease consuming souls of Dungeon creatures owned by The System. In exchange; A devourling calculates devoured attribute gains by volume consumed, in percentage. Its body provides physical Attributes, its Soul, mental.
At nine percent and below of total volume consumed, one may be acquired on consumption, always the high-most. Ten to twenty four percent consumed, one percent of each Attribute. Twenty five to four-nine, three percent. Then up to seventy four, six percent. Seventy five to nine-nine provides twelve percent of each attribute. And lastly devouring every single piece grants twenty five percent. All rounded down
Had to read that multiple times before anything made sense. Then I opened The System's version of Sheets and made a simple table for future reference.
Roll?
Y/N
'Yes.'
[56] Awarded:
1 Potent Druidant Mana Concoction
1 Shovel
1 Hoe
Roll?
Y/N
'Yes again.' Please be better this time!
[39] Awarded:
2 Chilit seeds
1 Potato Giganto Seed
1 Gypshophilia Faecana Seed
2 Sacks of Druidant Loam
1 Sack of Druidant Fertilizer
1 Lotus Detoxiflora
1 Bambreeze Shoot
1 Bambreeze Spear
[27] Awarded:
1 Boots of Minor Dessication
Title: Antchemist
[62] Awarded:
1 Lesser Stamina potion
1 Potent Druidant Health Concoction
1 Sickle
1 Pitchfork
Those are pretty lame. Wonder what happens if you're awarded a Title or Trait that you do not want?---'39 please and thank you.' Maybe I should bring some seeds with me to the other shelter, I thought while collecting the items then exiting the room.
At my behest, after we dropped Dianti and Shinta, our two non-fighters. The rest of us went and tackled the Chamber of Goblins. There are changes made to the layout of the Dungeon as I happen to find multiple corridors leading away from the main chamber. The ordinary Goblins tend to occupy the main humongous chamber, while higher leveled variants occupy the multiple side chambers. The Boss no longer shares a room with the Dungeon Core, and is now only accessible by fighting our way through some of the side chambers and after encountering multiple dead ends. The Dungeon Boss is a Hobgoblin Mage, accompanied by a squad of variants, including a Hobgoblin Bruiser, Patrol, Raider, and several Goblin variants. No Mini-Boss was encountered. I've also managed to learn how to differentiate some creatures by tracks. 'Updates please. For combat just the total Creds and Experience. Thank you.'
** DING **
556 syscred and 4030 exp awarded
Skill obtained Tracking
Skill level up, Poison Resistance 6 > 7
Skill level up, Shield Proficiency 4 > 5
Skill level up, Dagger Proficiency 8 > 9
Skill level up, Parry 3 > 4
Skill level up, Unarmed Combat Proficiency 10 > 11
Skill level up, Dodge Roll 4 > 5
Skill level up, Tracking 1 > 2
Title awarded No Green but Kin
I got lucky in the first roll; getting a Stirring Pin of Distilling, that simply distills liquid when used to stir it, and a Title called No Green but Kin. Which seems to decrease their hostility towards me, I was allowed to decline the Title, I didn't. The second roll only gave me one mundane gear, and several beast materials like skins, teeth, and tendons. All of which I plan to offload on Henry, including the Pin.
If you're wondering, I did not eat any of these creatures this run, yuck!
All done, we returned and I continued helping with developing Rumah, as well as ponder Pocket Suspense, before calling it a day. A few more Goblin massacres tomorrow, before I depart!