Sitting alone in the meeting room, Ariel was nervously watching one of last year's blockbusters. Her eyes were glued to the screen; the secret plot of the movie was about to be unraveled. She was so nervous that she unknowingly started biting her nails.
While the harpy liked to watch tv, especially with the current set up that turned the meeting room into a cinema, she felt like something was missing. The movie was very entertaining but unfortunately, she had no one to watch it with. As enjoyable as watching tv was, it could not be compared with the time spent with her sisters.
During the past few days, Ariel would barely see Angela who spent most of her time studying; during the day, she would sleep and read some books while during the night, she would go out to learn from the Shaman. As for Alice, she usually spent her time with Ivan, playing different games. Ariel would occasionally join them but would spend most of her time training or resting.
However, there was a limit to how much one could train per day, overdoing it would cause more harm than good. Normally, Ariel would usually spend her time with Five but a few days ago, her master randomly decided that he would start learning to craft too!
Since Angela was learning everything but smithing, Five decided to give it a try and since then, he spent most of his days locked up in a specially made room. As a result, Ariel often found herself alone; she wished she could ask Five to summon more harpies, but she did not know how to make this request.
Fortunately, everything would end tonight! One week has passed since Harriet left the dungeon and tonight, she should finally return. Ariel was looking forward to meeting her; it had so long and she wanted to share the development of the dungeon with her.
On the screen, the protagonist of the movie was desperately trying to escape from a secret organization. Ariel watched as the protagonist was running through a building, causing panic to spread everywhere. He barely avoided the gunshots of the guards and eventually, he reached the very top of the building. The protagonist quickly locked the door to the roof and quickly started to look for a way out.
"Boom! Boom!"
While the protagonist was looking around, the men of the secret agency had already caught up with him. Only the door stood between them but it would not hold for long. Loud kicks could be heard and the door was visibly shaking and was about to give up.
"Boom! Boom!"
The protagonist was trapped; there was no way out! "Oh no..." murmured Ariel as she watched the dramatic scene. If the protagonist was caught, who knows what kind of torture he would go through; that was something Ariel definitely did not want to see.
"Crack!"
A loud cracking sound was heard as the door exploded! Ariel was so focused on the movie when coincidentally, the door to her left was flung open, blinding the harpy with the light of the corridor. She jumped in fright and retreated to the corner of the room; instinctively, she folded her wings over her body to protect herself.
Trembling in fear, Ariel peeked through the gap of her wings, only to see a tall dark silhouette standing at the door. Slowly, as her eyes adapted to the luminosity, she recognized that person. "Master, you scared me... Sorry about that," said Ariel as she quickly stood up and straightened her dress.
Five was confused, he blinked his eyes and simply said, "Sorry about that, I did not think someone would be here. Are you still using the dungeon core? If so, I can come back later..."
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Oh, no no, please take it. May I ask what you are planning to use it for?" asked Ariel as she tried to hide her embarrassment.
"For the fifth floor. We got quite a few DP this week, it's time to complete the plains."
Ariel's eyes lit up with excitement, "Can I come with you then?"
"Sure, you can do whatever you want."
...
On the fifth floor, Five stood at the edge of the plains with Ariel and Dreidus. The night cycle had just begun which meant that he could now do the modifications he planned.
"Before we start, did anything unsual happen today?" asked Five while looking at Dreidus.
The latter shook his head, "Nothing abnormal. 80 barbarians came to the dungeon but just like the previous days, the majority stayed on the first floor to harvest the ores and they brought in some kids to train. They still did not go beyond Lyra's floor..."
Five nodded, things were mostly going as he expected. The Shaman was holding his end of the deal but the one detail Five did not expect was that the barbarians would send their children there to train. It was not harmful to the dungeon but it was reducing the amount of DP he could generate as the children were still relatively low in level.
As for the fact that a lot of the barbarians were staying on the first floor, it all fell within Five's expectations. In fact, it was one of the tricks Five came up with. Ores were not very expensive compared to the monsters; having the barbarians focus their attention on the first floor was maximizing his profits. Quite a few barbarians were also roaming the forest's floor in search of herbs that Five added after consulting Angela
With the sudden influx of barbarians in the dungeon, the daily revenue soared. As a result, two rooms were added dedicated to crafting, one for Five and one for Angela. The rest of the DP was being saved and was about to be all be used.
Five's DP now amounted to 237000. It was quite a sum, especially considering that it only took a few days to collect that amount and that no one died in the dungeon during that time.
Ariel excitedly stood at the back as she watched Five manipulating the transparent screen. She enjoyed watching floors being created; while she was just a spectator, she liked seeing things appear out of nowhere and move under the command of Five.
Unfortunately, to her disappointment, the next second, several tall figures appeared on the plains. Ariel's face changed to one of disgust; the monsters that just appeared were tall and burly, similar to giants, but their bodies were twisted and deformed, giving them a horrifying appearance. Those were level 21 Abominations.
25 Abominations were summoned in total and without a word, they dragged their heavy body and scattered around the plains. Abominations were monsters having a lot of physical strength and vitality. Compared to the Death Knights who were fast and could deal a considerable amount of damage, Abominations were more suited to act as tanks but their attacks should not be underestimated. According to the lore, they used to be normal humans but fell victims to human experiments resulting in their death and the monstrous change in their body.
Ariel frowned, she was clearly unhappy at the appearance of the new monsters. She had nothing against Abominations but the plains were where the harpies would usually play around and where they would train during the day. They liked this place precisely because no scary monsters were found there. The Death Knights were undead monsters but all their features were hidden by their armors and they were very friendly.
Ariel would naturally prefer to stay away from the Abominations but they had already 'invaded' the plains. She was about to complain but it was too late; Five had already pressed the screen and more summoning circles appeared.
This time, several ghosts, having the appearance of children, appeared and started looking around. While they looked like innocent children, they were far from being harmless! Ariel absolutely did not want to get near them!
"Master... Why are you summoning so many undead monsters here..." asked Ariel with a frustrated expression.
"What do you mean? It is the theme of the dungeon, aren't there undead monsters on all the floors? I am just going with the flow," answered Five with a confused expression.
"But... Where will we spend our time now? I don't have anything against them but isn't the floor a bit crowded now..." said Ariel. She could not criticize others' appearances out loud.
"I think this is fine. Don't you like the Mylingars? I thought women usually liked children," asked Five. He could feel that Ariel was not very happy but he could not point out why.
The Mylingars were precisely the ghost of the children and were level 22 monsters. They were the souls of children who passed away at an early age, left to roam the world until someone would kindly bury their bodies in a proper graveyard. In the dungeon, they appeared harmless but when an adventurer would get close to the ghost, they would immediately become enraged and recklessly attack. Compared to other ghosts who used magic attacks, the Mylingars preferred physical attacks as they would materialize claw-like hands and viciously strike their enemies.
Ariel did not know what kind of monsters they were, but her instincts were telling her not to mess with them. "Hmmp, nevermind then... Just continue with what you planned," exclaimed Ariel as she crossed her arms.
"..." Five frowned but did not say anything. Now was not the time to argue with Ariel; he made a mental note to have a short discussion with her after finishing this floor. With the monsters now in position, Five moved on to the decorations. He wanted to keep this floor simple but at the same time, he wanted to add in a secret room.
As such, he improved the background by adding a few standing stones. He initially wanted to arrange the standing stones in a similar fashion to Stonehenge but after further consideration, he decided to simply spread spawn a few here and there. Only a small cluster of standing stones was made and hidden beneath it, was the entrance to a secret room.
All the adventurers had to do was to simply push any of the 5 standing stones arranged in a circle. As soon as any of the stones would move, the hidden mechanism would immediately activate, revealing the secret room. While the mechanism was quite obscure, Five also decided to remove the grass lying around that particular cluster, to arouse the suspicion that something was different about that area.