"Very interesting. I thought this battle would be our next trial but it seems like the system has something else in reserve. It is probably because we are not the target but rather the Musclewood Tribe is," commented Five after he listened to Harriet's report.
The Harpy Queen had been spying on the barbarians from the sky and picked up a few interesting conversations.
"Did you get to check the dungeon of the Bramble Deer Tribe? If they planned to join hands with the barbarians to attack us, it will be better for us to know what kind of monsters they have."
"I did not. I cannot get close to a dungeon without them noticing me. However, I believe this dungeon consists mainly of fire-type monsters. I observed the barbarians going in and out of the dungeon. They would often come out covered with ashes and burn marks. But don't take my words for it," answered Harriet.
"A dungeon that focuses on fire?" murmured Five. He had long noticed that dungeon tended to focus on a specific type or attribute of monsters. It was mainly due to the buffs offered by their dungeon cores, but the Core of Madness did not give him any buffs aside from an increase in DP and a few skills.
"Does that mean we should summon a few water creatures?" It was Five's first thought to deal with fire creatures. Unfortunately, the monster's attribute did not affect the damage they dealt or receive but the environment they were in could. A fire attribute monster would not feel comfortable and would be weakened in a humid environment.
"I don't think we need to concern ourselves with the monsters of that dungeon. Why don't we take advantage that their main force would attack our dungeon to sneak attack him and destroy their core? Once destroyed, all the monsters would disappear," said Dreidus.
"No. There is no way to guarantee that the dungeon would send all its strong monsters. Besides, without Harriet, it will be impossible to conquer the dungeon quickly and without her, I am not confident in protecting the dungeon either. Also, you must not forget that the raids were easy because of the absence of the dungeon masters. If they were there, they would have spent their DP to summon monsters and impede your progress through their dungeon."
Dreidus lowered his head. "I spoke too quickly. But still, I don't think the other dungeon will be a real threat. The real issue is the tribes. There will be so many of them and even Harriet won't be able to deal with so many of them. Why don't we attack the nearby hostile tribes now before they rally together?"
Five shook his head. "It is not that easy. The barbarians look defenseless but the actual strength of the barbarian villages lies in their totem spirit. The beast spirit protecting each tribe is different. Although we know they won't be at Noon's level, we should not underestimate them. I spoke to the Shamans. They did not reveal any information about their own totem, but they did confirm that the level of all the totem spirits lies in the range of forty to fifty."
"I see. Harriet can deal with a few but if ten totem spirits gang up on her, the situation might get ugly," commented Dreidus with a thoughtful expression.
"I still suggest going on the offensive," said Harriet. Her eyes beamed with confidence. "We already know that after this battle, a few tribes will inevitably disappear and get absorbed by the other larger tribes. There is no harm in causing some chaos. Why don't you ask the Shamans for some information about the totem spirit of the hostile tribes? If we have the ability to get rid of them, we should do so. It would avoid trouble in the future and considerably weaken the army that will be coming our way."
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Five sighed. He looked at Harriet and Dreidus. "You two are really excited after the successful raids you had. It feels to me that you just want to experience that feeling of power and conquest. But fine. I already said we should not stay passive for too long. We will gather information for now and if we can, I don't see why we should hold back. Destroying a village is in line with our plan to upgrade our Undead monsters."
"We shall do as you say, master."
"On another note, why don't you summon the Flame Scarab Warrior now? I know the volcanic biome is not built yet but since you have one available for summoning, you should let him start leveling up. He might be useful in the upcoming battle," said Dreidus.
"Maybe but now is not the right time. We will wait for the volcanic biome to be ready first," said Five. He has been holding back on summoning the Flame Scarab Warrior in his inventory. He did not have anything against the monster, but he did not want the presence of a new Boss Monster to affect the dungeon.
The dungeon was still relatively small. Having too many captains on board of a ship would only lead to disaster! At the moment, Dreidus was essentially taking care of all the Undead monsters while Harriet was looking after the rest of the dungeon. She delegated her job to Angela and Alice. The former looked after the crafting department while the latter oversaw the other monsters like the Nosferatu.
If a Flame Scarab was summoned now, he would have nothing to do and could break the harmony of the dungeon.
"In that case, we can only wait," answered Dreidus. He was not offended that his proposal was rejected. "Do any of you have anything to add?"
"I do." A timid and hesitant voice sounded from the corner of the meeting room. It was Ivan, the Nosferatu. As soon as he spoke, Alice shot him a glance, but the Nosferatu ignored her.
"It's like that. We are very happy with our living conditions but when are you going to summon the Corrupted Servants? We, the Nosferatu have been doing all the transportation work for now, but it is time to start looking for an actual solution, right?"
Five did not answer the question. Instead, he turned to look at Eto, the gnome.
The latter felt Five's stare and spoke, "I asked master to postpone the summoning of the Corrupted Servants. We are making a lot of progress in our research. We should soon have a fully functional robot capable of transporting items. By using robots, it will save the dungeon a lot of DP. We need to bite the bullet for the greater good."
Ivan wore a frustrated expression. "Fine, gnome. But don't take too long."
Five could already anticipate the future headaches he would have when trying to solve all the issues of the dungeon. 'The communication between the different races is not here yet...'
"Anything else you want to talk about?" asked Five as the meeting room became silent.
"No? Fine, then this concludes this meeting. Good work everyone."
Five sank in his chair as he watched the monsters leaving one by one. He sighed. In the end, the biggest problem of his dungeon was the lack of DP. Although he was earning a lot more DP than before, it was still not enough to satisfy all the monsters.
He promised the harpies to summon more of them, but he obviously could not afford to do so now. He promised Ivan to summon more Nosferatu and now that they were here, they were complaining about the job allocated to them. The goblins and gnomes were also asking for more material and equipment.
All these issues could be solved simply by having enough DP. At the moment, he was saving up his DP for the upcoming battle. Five now had enough to unlock the Goblin King and even an Elder Dwarf. However, he did not want to invest too much in crafting when his dungeon was at risk of being invaded.
"If only I had enough DP... The new monsters are too demanding. I miss the Undead who were always satisfied with what they had," said Five to himself.
At that moment, a buzzing sound resonated in Five's ears. "Lumen? Is that you?"
As Five opened his eyes, he saw the Firefly Queen buzzing on his shoulder. Lumen had been quite happy these days. Five summoned a lot of fireflies for her to play with and with the expansion of the dungeon, they had a lot more space to play. The only area they did not dare to go to was the room where the spiders were staying at.
Furthermore, Lumen was also in a good mood after having made a new friend. Five recently unlocked the level 5 Brown Slime. This monster was incredibly weak, but it had the ability to dispose of all wastes and fecal matter. As the dungeon was growing, they now needed a way to get rid of the waste and to keep it clean; this is where the Brown Slime comes into play.
"Bzzz Bzzz"
"What is it, Lumen?" asked Five. He could not understand the little insect; out of all the monsters, only Angela seemed to be able to understand the Firefly Queen.
Frustrated, Lumen loudly buzzed and flew out of the meeting room. A few seconds later, Angela walked back into the meeting room, carrying Lumen.
"What is it?"
"Master, Lumen is saying that she can help you get a lot of DP. She says the Fireflies are not useless."
"Of course, you are not useless. What is your idea?"