The next day, Five woke up, still lying on the floor at the end of the labyrinth. He lived a frugal life and did not mind sleeping on the floor. In the past, he had to sleep in much worse conditions than that.
He woke up just in time to see a group of barbarians appear at the entrance. He quickly shook his head to remove all traces of sleepiness and focused on the screen.
The barbarians were carefully entering the mine with the few leading ones carrying their axes. Aside from the first five, most of the rest were carrying pickaxes, shovels and large bags. They clearly came here with the intention of mining as many ores as possible.
Seeing the barbarians, Five felt relieved. At least, they were not scared to death to the point where they would not come to the mine again.
He quickly glanced at the first floor and saw that there was still a lot of ores spread over the mine. However, the majority was hidden beneath the surface. If the barbarians wanted to get them, they would have to use their muscles.
Since he had a lot of DP, Five decided to spend some to place a few ores at the surface, to encourage the barbarians and make sure they at least get back with something.
The barbarians quickly got to work and started mining near the entrance. They stayed as a group and were on their guards in case some monsters would attack them.
From their facial expressions, Five concluded that they were not very satisfied with their job. They were after all powerful hunters who could easily kill the beasts of the forests but now, they felt like they had been demoted to simple miners.
While they understood that it was for the good of the tribe, they still felt like they have been punished to work in this dark and humid environment while a few other barbarians were still able to go hunting.
However, although they were not very happy, they were still very efficient at mining. Their large muscles were not just for show and they were easily able to break the walls. But since they were mining near the entrance, only a few ores had been placed there.
Five sighed since the barbarians were mining in an area where only a few ores were. He could only quickly play with his interface to add a few ores where they were mining.
He spent the entire day watching as the barbarians were tirelessly mining through the first floor. At first, they were all mining close to each other but as time passed, they slowly understood that there were indeed no monsters there and increased the distance between each other.
A few barbarians kept watch with their ax ready, but the tension visibly decreased. Five was glad to see that they were sticking to the first floor; it seemed that Dreidus made the proper decision and only scared them enough to keep them at bay.
While the barbarians were mining, Five had to constantly add ores and coal, here and there. He did not mind adding those since the DP he was getting from the barbarians, largely outweighed the cost of the ores.
Furthermore, Five was internally laughing when he saw how the barbarians were enlarging all the tunnels. It felt like they were working for free for him by doing so. Five never planned to use the first floor for monsters but if the barbarians enlarged it enough, then he might be able to do so.
After a while, Five looked at his DP balance and was overjoyed. He had already collected 230000 DP and that number was still increasing.
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He made the right choice in founding his dungeon there and using the barbarians to gather DP. Not only did the barbarians produce 3 times the amount of DP a normal player would but they also were not even killing any monsters. If the barbarians suddenly decided to go and kill the skeletons, then he would inevitably face some severe losses as the barbarians did not even need one second to kill a skeleton; a single strike was enough.
Fortunately, the barbarians were satisfied with just mining for now but Five clearly knew this would not last for long. The dynamics of the game were centered around the players. They represented the majority and sooner or later, they would come to his dungeon. He needed to cater his dungeon for them and that meant to turn the place into a huge pool of exp for them to harvest.
...
An hour later, it was finally the time Five had long been waiting for. He quickly opened his interface and paid 50000DP.
His dungeon core suddenly shone and turned completely black. A few seconds later, a black sphere moved out of the dungeon core and fell on the ground. Without the black sphere, the dungeon core returned to its usual appearance with its blue galaxy swirling at its center.
The black sphere slowly became larger and larger until finally, it took the shape of a skeleton.
"Ahh... Greetings Master!" said Dreidus with his usual expressionless face.
"It's good to see that you are fine Dreidus. You should have warned me! That last attack was too reckless..." said Five as he observed the skeleton. After being revived, Dreidus was back to his usual appearance; he looked just like any other skeleton but with two bright lights in his eye sockets.
"I am sorry but there was not much time for explanations at that time. Now that the dungeon is clear, I can explain everything to you," said Dreidus.
Five nodded, he was very curious about the abilities displayed by Dreidus, "Then, first explain to me the battle form you talked about."
"When I became your monster, a connection was formed between me and your dungeon core. This connection is proof that I have been acknowledged as one of your monsters, but it can also act as a link to give me power! I can use the link to borrow power from the dungeon core. For example, I used the dungeon core to increase the strength of my magic attacks, but I could also use it to increase my stats, use special skills or even defy death."
"As soon as I use a bit of that power, I can turn into the battle form... It sounds amazing, but I found that using that power has a terrible cost. While I was using it, I felt like it was slowly harming me. It is hard to explain but it’s like suddenly having all the temptations of the world. Even with just the little bit of power I used, I almost lost control and went completely berserk."
"This was why I said that I would only use it for 1 minute. Any longer and I would have probably lost my sanity. Maybe I just need to get used to it but unless absolutely necessary, I am not willing to use that battle form again," explained Dreidus. He turned to look at the dungeon core and frowned.
Five's expression also turned dark when he heard the explanation, was it even possible for such a thing to exist even in a game? "There is such a thing? Mmm if you can, avoid using it then. Even if you die, I will just revive you. There is no need to take unnecessary risks."
Hearing that, Dreidus shook his skull, "Since we are talking about revival, I would also advise to not send your boss monsters to their death or if they happen to die, at least, revive them as soon as possible!"
"What? Is there something else I am unaware of?" asked Five.
"Indeed... I am not sure of myself, but during the 24 hours I was dead, I felt like I was imprisoned in a dark room. If I am not wrong, that room is found inside your dungeon core and I felt like I was slowly being devoured. It is hard to explain but it is as if, an unseen creature was constantly circling around me, slowly absorbing something from me."
"I don't know if I really lost something, but I am certain that a creature was there trying to drain me. As a necromancer and a lich, I am very sensitive to this sort of thing, I could feel that the monster was eating a part of me. Although it only lasted for 24 hours, I felt that if you took longer to revive me, that monster might have taken a larger part of me!"
Five frowned. "There is indeed a monster inside the dungeon core, but I don't know anything about it..." He looked at the dungeon core with suspicion. But the latter simply blinked a few times as if saying that it is innocent.
"Then it is better to be safe. At least, don't just send your boss monsters to their death!"
Five nodded, "Well, enough of these gloomy talks. Can we go near the barbarians' corpse now to take the items? I was not sure that the black cloud did not have any hidden effects, so I did not dare to go there."
"Yes. It is perfectly safe now. That skill can only last for 1 minute. After that, the black gas will just decompose by itself. I would just like to say that these skills are all powerful necromancer skills and I am only able to use them because I learned about them in my past life. But as you saw, my mana pool is not large enough for now!"
"I don't need to know your secrets. Everyone needs to have a few trump cards! Let's go and pick up the Necromancer's Death Wand!" said Five.
The two quickly made their way to the center of the labyrinth. Once they got there, Dreidus quickly picked up the wand and caressed it like it was a treasure. Meanwhile, Five made his way to the corpses and stored all their equipment in his inventory. The barbarians were actually using Grade 2 equipment which could be considered a luxury to Five.
"By the way, Master... Do you have any plans for the corpses of the humans?" asked Dreidus.
"Not really. I was just going to dispose of them. Do you need them for something?"
"I can try to turn them into undead monsters, but the skill required has a heavy downside! It can only be used once per day and if I use it, I will be unable to fight for at least 24 hours!" explained Dreidus.
'More undead monsters?' Five quickly became excited at the idea of getting more monsters for free.
"Then go ahead! As long as you are still able to speak later on, you can do whatever you want. I will need you later to make the 3rd floor!"