Novels2Search

Chapter 6

"Well that was somewhat less impressive than I'd hoped" shaking his head didn't know what to think about that encounter. On the one hand one on one his goblins could possibly take out an elf of the same level that's only if they landed the first strike. On the other hand they were killed in basically a single hit or two from makeshift weapon. "I guess the fragile part of the description was accurate".

Shifting thoughts to the leader elf gaining tattoos Steve was pleasantly surprised. It seemed the dungeon had its own loot system that had a chance of triggering for all goblins when an sapient creature killed one of his creatures. At the moment Steve had little control over it but got a feeling that once he gained more power both in the specific dungeon and the realm as a whole he'd have more influence. Eventually his power would expand allowing for the control of more dungeons as well as greater control over them.

Have sapients discover the dungeon was exciting but Steve felt that he was completely un prepared for more visitors. He needed to find a way to balance the growth of his dungeon while still challenging those who enter. The fight earlier had actually drained slightly more energy than the dungeon gained from the elves fighting because of the loot drop triggering. "Maybe if I find a way to prolong their stay they'll filter more wild energy for me" Steve slowly nodded to himself slowly an ideal standing to form.

Spawning a fresh trio of goblins Steve ordered the to grab as much mud, branches and rocks they could gather. Once they started piling them up Steve used a small amount of dungeon energy to form a goblin sized mud hut. It definitely wasn't pretty but the fact he'd used dungeon energy made it a lot sturdier than it's appearance would lead one to believe. Constructing a wineding path and adding a hut or two every now and again gave them a reason to follow where he wanted them instead of just sticking to the shoreline. Steve planned to continue building but he'd run out of energy to spawn more goblins so he could only play in his head dreaming on jungle pyramids with goblin tribes roaming the chaotic jungle paths.

While he lost himself Null was the first in the dungeon to reach level 10. His opinions were a lot more varied than most of the goblins from the third dungeon but all just as interesting. The most basic options were to either condense his energy making his frost energy more potent or increase the amount of energy he could contain. The first was basically a damage increase letting him quickly dispatch his opponent while the second let him use his power for longer. The other options added versatility like adding a permanent cold aura around him slowing enemies, shooting icicles and most interesting in Steve's opinion freezing a small patch of ground within line of sight.

Null ended up picking the icicle shooting ability quickly testing it out on some nearby birds. Impailing the unsuspecting bird put a massive grin on Null's blue goblin face. Steve was very glad he was a spirit right now.

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Douglas proudly walked into his father's office pushing the large double doors apart. He'd rushed to him as soon as he got back. Eagerly he told the story of the strange little monsters in the jungle. "That's not all Father I gained a perk" Douglas released a bit of lightning from his palm causing the tattoo on his neck to flare. "You hit level 10 from three little monsters " jacoby said said surprised tinting his voice.

Jacoby Cane had a right to be surprised since even he had only reached level 12 from his time working as a mercenary before starting the Cane merchant house. Even with all his connections he only had a handful of guards that had gotten their perk. "No father I only reached level 5 but the one of the monsters I killed dropped a crystal that gave me this" Douglas said excitedly pointing to the lighting bolt tattoo on his neck and flared the sparks in his palm for emphasis.

Leaning back into his chair with a thoughtful expression he spoke as if to the air "if we could find more of these monsters we could potentially gather an unlimited number of perks to use or maybe even sell". With a greedy and almost manic expression "gather the house guard were going monsters hunting"

Setting the goblins spawn points from the center of the dungeon to the mud huts and surroundings the area slowly started filling with goblins ranging from level 2 to 4. Steve could use more energy to increase their spawn levels but this was the noob area of the dungeon as well as it being more cost-effective to slowly hunt for levels. Steve set it that once any goblin hit level 8 they'd venture deeper into the dungeon. He thought it would be a clever way to balance the fights and reward his goblins. Right now Null could be considered the dungeons boss being the only dungeon to reach level 10 but hopefully some of the other first generation goblins catch up soon.

With some down time and a little remaining energy Steve dived into the custom tattoo option. It seemed like he could create a tattoo that represents an element or complex form of energy from level 1 to 9 and then choose a perk at level 10. It seems ten was his limit since that was this dungeons highest level monster. Steve was disappointed he couldn't spawn a level 1000 goblin overlord but that was probably for the best.

Testing out the limits of complex energy Steve designed a clock and trying to give this goblin the power over time. The system seemed to actually except the design but when I tried to add it to a goblin it didn't work. The system was weird because instead of just telling him in exact details he got the vague impression that he didn't have enough dungeon energy to spawn even a level 1 time goblin. Currently he had just enough energy to spawn another level 10 goblin if he let the system randomly allocate the tattoo yet that still wasn't enough.

Experimenting with different concepts from healing to kinetic force to poison energy the amount of energy depended mainly on complexity of the concept and the effects it had on reality. Healing and poison are something cost roughly twice as much as a basic element per level while kinetic force was actually the most expensive at roughly five times as much as a basic element. Making each of them at level 1 cleaned out a lot of Steve's energy stores so he set the group of three patrolling th jungle together around one of the back huts. With nothing left to do Steve went to check out his first dungeon. "I wonder what there up to"?