Five was anxiously waiting at the end of the labyrinth. It has been two hours since the children safely left the cave but until now, no one came back. "Did these children keep the ores to themselves?"
The children spent about two hours in the dungeon which resulted in 7500 DP. This small influx of DP was greatly welcomed by Five. He was in desperate need of more DP and was wondering if he made the right choice.
The way he designed the second floor was extremely expensive; normally, he would simply use DP to remove the dirt and create tunnels and rooms which would cost about 3000 DP. But Five went for a greedier design and created a large room which drastically increased the cost. Adding in the cost of the labyrinth wall, this floor was as expensive as the higher floors of Kroff's dungeon.
With the 7500 DP, his balance was back to 17500 DP and was ready to spend them; he needed to summon some skeletons to protect his dungeon! The reason Five did not immediately summon monsters was that he wanted to keep 10000 DP as an emergency reserve.
Harpies were the most powerful monsters he could summon. They cost 10000 DP. In case a powerful barbarian was to come, he wanted to be ready to summon a harpy. Although harpies were usually summoned at level 20 and had growth potential, it was possible to summon one at level 33 but doing so would result in the harpy unable to level up anymore.
Being able to summon harpies was his trump card and his last line of defense. He was naturally reluctant to summon a harpy whose level was capped but if his dungeon core was in danger, then he would have to.
"Dreidus. I'll summon 50 skeletons. Use them accordingly," said Five and quickly, his finger pressed the confirm button.
A bright light shone as 50 silhouettes materialized themselves. 50 perfectly immobile skeletons stood in front of Five and Dreidus. They looked very similar to Dreidus’ current appearance. They were slightly smaller, whiter and did not have bright lights in their eye sockets.
The lich nodded, "I will immediately position them accordingly." He raised his hand and spoke with a hoarse voice in an unknown language. He walked right into the labyrinth and a few seconds later, all the 50 skeletons suddenly started to move and followed behind him.
They strangely did not make any sound but the sight of a line of skeletons was quite creepy. Five nodded at the scene as he leaned against a wall to rest. Two floors were completed but he could not create the 3rd one yet.
"I hope it will be enough, I wonder where the children are..."
Lumen was quietly flying around Five. She gently landed on Five's knee and closed its eyes to sleep. Five was amused at the scene but he allowed the firefly queen to do what it wanted. The queen felt more like a pet than a monster; Five had no reason to push her away.
He sat down and opened his interface. A notification could be seen that 50 skeletons were bought, and on the map, he could see green dots moving around the second floor. The dots represented the skeletons. He saw the skeletons divide themselves into groups of 2 or 3 and a few roamed the labyrinth alone.
The way they divided themselves were based on their levels. Compared to the other types of monsters, some undead did not have a fixed level. For skeletons, when they were summoned, their level was randomly generated; their levels could lie anywhere between 10 and 16 but the majority were at level 13. The levels could be described by a Gaussian distribution. According to the lore, the skeleton's level would depend on what it did when it was still alive.
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A single skeleton would cost 100 DP which was quite cheap for a level 13 monster but that was because skeletons needed weapons to display their real potential. Even cheap daggers or swords could increase their lethality but right now, Five could not afford them. Even without weapons, the skeletons could still prove to be a threat to the children and players.
As for the reason Five summoned only 50 of them, that was simply because despite being undead monsters, skeletons still needed to feed themselves. They were different from other monsters who literally needed to eat food; skeletons simply needed to absorb dark energy to restore themselves and that energy was provided by the dungeon. One skeleton would typically absorb 10 DP's worth of dark energy daily.
It was the same for Dreidus, he only needed to absorb energy, but he naturally needed a more substantial amount.
An hour later, Dreidus finally came back.
"Master, the skeletons are well scattered now, I spread them in such a way that the group of skeletons can help each other!"
"Good job, I already looked at the map. It looks alright, all we need now is to wait for the barbarians to come," said Five.
...
Another hour went by and according to the interface, it was already noon and Five bought some food from the dungeon shop. It was cheaper to purchase ingredients and make his own food but unfortunately, Five was a horrible cook. He could only buy some ready-made meal for 10 DP.
At that moment, the interface in front of Five finally showed some movements. On the screen, a group of tall and burly barbarians could be seen just outside of the entrance. Leading them was a young man that previously explored the dungeon. Five immediately recognized him since he looked like the one who was making all the decisions for the children.
"They are finally here... Fiouf, I really thought everything was going to go to waste." Five heaved a sigh of relief. It was yet another gamble he took when choosing this location. There was no guarantee the children would bring back their parents there but, in the end, it paid off.
At the entrance of the dungeon, Zeke stopped and pointed at the small hole. "It's in there. Beyond this hole, there's a long tunnel and it is where we found the rocks!"
"Good job my son!" loudly declared Toba as he tapped his son's back.
"Pak!" While it was not intentional, the light pat looked more like a horrifying slap that could disable normal people.
Without waiting, Toba took off the huge hammer behind his back and dropped it on the ground. "You all take a step back. I'll make a real entrance for us! There is no way I'll crawl to get in this sh*t hole!"
There was a total of 20 barbarians behind Toba. They all backed off a few meters. They were previously hunting and carried bows and spears but after speaking with the Shaman and Achi, about half of them were not carrying hammers and old pickaxes. Compared to their usual weapons, these tools looked like they were purchased at a clear off sale; some rust could be seen on the pickaxes as the handle of the hammers looked completely distorted.
However, despite their appearance, the tools were extremely resistant.
"Boom! Boom Booomm!!"
Toba flexed his muscles and violently swung his hammer a few times. Everyone watched as he slowly widened the entrance; the wall of the cliff was not very resistant and, in a few seconds, the entrance became wide enough to allow Toba and the other barbarians to casually enter the cave.
"Now that's better! Let's go!" shouted Toba. He did not look tired at all after swinging the heavy hammer a few times and quickly made his way into the tunnel.
While the entrance was enlarged, it was not the case for the rest of the tunnel. Toba, who was taller than an NBA player would often have to lower his head along the tunnel. But the real problem arose at the intersection where the children marked the entrance with the direction they should take.
When they looked at the tunnel the children picked, they could see that it was slowly shrinking. It was not a problem for the children but for adult barbarians, it would be a hassle to go this way.
"Anyway! Since you guys already explored this one, let's have a look at the other!" said Toba. Fortunately, there was still the other tunnel which was larger and did not seem to become smaller.
The other barbarians quickly nodded. They also did not want to have to bend or crawl down. They followed Toba who was opening the way with a large burning torch. Compared to those used by the children, these torches were much larger and even looked more like cudgels; they emitted more light, allowing the barbarians to see farther away.
...
On the second floor, Five and Dreidus was quietly watching the barbarians as they made their way through the tunnels.
"Dreidus, do you think the skeletons would be able to stop the barbarians?" asked Five. On the screen, he could see that even the weakest barbarian was already level 20 while the strongest one, Toba, was level 32.
"They will definitely lose in a one vs one but as a team, in the labyrinth, they might be able to kill some. As for stopping all twenty of them, skeletons alone would definitely not be enough," answered Dreidus with his usual emotionless voice.
Five nodded. "Got it, a few should be enough then!"
Saying that, he gently nudged Lumen who was silently sleeping, "Wake up Lumen. It's your time to shine!"