Chapter 21

Pan was impressed with the current batch of adventurers in his new safe room. At least with one of the adventurers, who seemed have gained command after another member of the party had died. Pan had noticed something off about the man from the beginning, and his actions on the third floor had confirmed his suspicions. The man was much stronger than he allowed the other members of the party to see, and Pan had no doubt that the man had engineered the situation with the snake to gain a leadership role in the party. After all, a traumatized group would flock to the safety provided by a much stronger ally if they believed he could help them survive. Since the incident, the group had changed their process quite a bit, turning from money focused adventurers, to training focused survivors. After all, who needs money when the dungeon provided room to live, with more amenities than an inn outside, not to mention the free food all around them. The party hadn’t left the dungeon for a week, and were already far deadlier than when they had entered.

Under the tutelage of the suspicious man they all called John, a name Pan believed to be an alias, they had become hardened adventurers, well on their way to reaching the higher ranks. They were much more aware of their surroundings, the first lesson the man had drilled into their heads, and their teamwork was improving rapidly. Improved awareness may not seem like much, but in a dungeon like Pan’s, it was everything. They were rarely caught off guard now, and that allowed them to deliver the first strike, even if ambushed. Landing the first injuring blow usually ending the battle before it truly began, even if it lasted minutes longer. Their newfound success didn’t bother Pan, instead, it showed his weaknesses, and highlighted areas he needed to improve. Once he finished figuring out the boss situation for the new floor, he would worry about plugging the smaller holes left in his defenses.

He had decided on a new idea for the boss fight on the floor. Instead of one boss guarding the last room, there would be four bosses on the floor, each dropping special tokens as well as the regular rewards. Once all four tokens were collected, the group could place them in a structure that would give them access to the fourth floor. But before he could enact his plans, he needed bosses. He wanted to continue his process of promoting from the ranks, only naming creatures who had performed a noteworthy deed. It was a shame that the snake had died, but it was no matter, it had been ultimately unsuccessful, and it’s death had only shown its shortcomings. He would just have to wait, which was unfortunate, since he wanted to move his core behind the door. The first-floor monster farm was feeling too exposed with the high number of adventurers in the dungeon. By now, it was normal for over one hundred adventurers to challenge his dungeon in a day, and the number was only growing as more and more people visited the new city.

No other group had made it to the new floor yet, but a few had come close. Pan fully expected another group or two to reach it in the next week, and since the majority of new arrivals were C ranked parties, it shouldn’t be long before the safe room was reasonably well populated. Already the new room had been paying off, and the sneaky man’s alchemy practice had given Pan new insights into his own research. The man was obviously more skilled than him, though perhaps by only a rank or two. Despite the skill gap, Pan’s potions were always much more potent, due to his abilities to control every step of the process nearly perfectly. Pan considered it only a matter of time before he reached a level in alchemy that would be impossible for mortals to contend with. He spent some time copying the man’s processes, improving his skill and learning a few new recipes to boot. He was really just trying to burn time until he could purchase his twelfth level, since getting a fourth floor and protecting his core better were now his highest priorities.

The new third floor had the added benefit of increasing his passive mana regeneration, and he now collected around eight thousand mana per day on average, including adventurer deaths. It would still take him around a week to reach the needed mana for the next level, and ten or more days if he practiced his skills while he waited. He had decided to practice his skills, and over the week he observed the adventurer party, he had made good progress with his levels. Pan had also collected over two-thirds of the needed mana, and was only a few days away from the next level up. He continued his work, experimenting with, and improving, his enchanting and alchemy skills, until after three more days he had enough mana for the upgrade. He spent the fifty thousand mana, and was pleased to see the new level also came with a new skill, the first he had seen in a while.

Level 12

Unlock skill: Mental Communication

Need 100,000 mana for level 13

+50 Dungeon Points

Mental Communication

Allows for more powerful and direct conversation with created organisms

As soon as the skill was unlocked, Pan felt a flood of connections form in his mind. Many were small, like motes of dust floating through a beam of sunlight. But a few were much more powerful, and he knew these to belong to his named creations. The rest were minute, containing no appreciable intelligence, and belonged to the larger creatures and monsters that patrolled his dungeon. He reached out to them, feeling a much deeper connection to his creations than he had ever felt before. Without the skill, communication with his creations had been crude and imperfect, mostly one way. His named creations could sometimes impress their thoughts upon his mind if they worked hard enough at it, such as Adul during the invasion, but now, their minds were almost as easy to reach as his own. The basic connections gave him raw concepts and feelings, such as hunger, fear, or stress; but his named monsters were truly astonishing.

He could feel their thoughts, like a voice far away that couldn’t be understood, but was easily heard. He was glad it was not distracting, or else this skill would have been a negative instead of the positive he believed it would be. The true power of the skill was shown when he reached out to Adul, and felt their minds connect, just as the skill’s name implied. Pan felt a flood of emotions flow through the link, startling him as he hadn’t felt anything so strong since becoming a dungeon. Before, he had been able to “converse” with his named creatures, but now, communication was beyond a simple conversation. Instead of “words” being shared, he received whole thoughts. In an instant, and entire conversation could be had, with concepts and emotions bridging the gap between creator and creation.

Pan could feel Adul’s dedication. The monster revered him, and after receiving a name and immortality, he worshiped him. Pan sent back thoughts of pride, finally able to thank Adul for his help during the invasion. The beast reveled in his master’s feelings, sending back more thoughts. To Adul, the new method of communication was orders of magnitude better than the old. When he asked Pan for help with the invaders, he had had to focus on the concept deeply, willing Pan to notice it. Now, sharing an idea was as easy as breathing, and Pan knew that in future invasions the skill would be one of the most useful. It allowed him to exert some influence on the dungeon while adventurers were around.

Pan reached out to his other named beasts, and was struck by their individuality. His queen was much more refined than Adul, owing it to her greater intellect. She greeted him with reverence, and he could feel a similar weaker link flowing from her mind to each of her workers. It seemed the dark magic he had imbued them with had expanded upon their natural hive mind, and the colony was able to communicate through magic instead of pheromones. The implications were incredible, and Pan made a mental note to experiment and expand upon the ability in the future when he revisited his original monsters.

Behemoth, on the other hand, was an intellectual slouch. Pan had never put a focus on his most massive creation’s mind, and it showed. It was an issue that he’d have to fix later, once Behemoth gained enough mana for another modification. As he was, Behemoth was running on instinct and whatever instructions Pan sent to him. Now that Pan was able to send more detailed instructions, he needed to improve behemoth enough to follow them. A new conversation partner would go a long way towards improving Pan’s life as a dungeon as well, even if it was another monster who worshiped him as it’s creator.

Having something to talk to, even if they were simple, awoke feelings in Pan he hadn’t thought he still had. There was a spark of loneliness that came from his secluded life as a dungeon, and connection to his creations filled the hole. Now, he thirsted for more. His creations now were amazing, but he wanted truly unique individuals. He wanted something to talk to, not just share feelings and concepts with. He wanted truly sentient and sapient beings in his dungeon, and it was only a matter of time until he worked his way there. He wanted something unique, something that came from his dungeon. Nothing too smart, maybe goblin level, otherwise he feared they would be able to remove themselves from his control, and he didn’t want to waste time creating something that had the ambition to desire freedom.

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Pan turned his focus back to practicing his enchanting and alchemy. He had some new concepts he wanted to try out, stuff that would take a long time to see any benefits, but would be worth the investment when they came to fruition. Eventually, when he got to the adept level at fifty, he would be able to buy perks from the relevant tree. For now, he would have to improve his craft the old fashioned way;many hours of practice, and a trial and error. He did learn a lot from the man in the safe room, although it was mostly about poisons, there were a few new recipes he wanted to try. The most exciting was a speed boost potion, something the man had used on one of his solo expeditions to avoid an ambush Pan had set up to test him.

Pan’s effort in copying the potion was rewarded with a weak speed potion, boosting movement speed by seven percent for three minutes. After a few iterations, he was able to double the effect. The successive attempts showed marginal improvements, but he couldn’t help but feel that something was missing from the recipe. The potion lacked binding, and the magical effects of the ingredients didn’t properly combine, losing much of the potency. He added other ingredients, but nothing seemed to cause anything more than a minor improvement. He compared it to other potions he knew, looking for the missing piece. What it was had been staring him in the metaphorical face all along. He was missing a catalyst. With nothing to speed the reaction along, the magical properties leached from the ingredients dissipated. If he could speed the reaction up, he would be able to create a stronger potion. Every other recipe he knew had some ingredient that facilitated the reaction, and bound the magics together in the potion, while having no discernible effect on the final product.

Unfortunately, he had no idea what to use as a catalyst in a speed potion, and the man hadn’t used one, so Pan assumed there were no proper catalysts present in his dungeon. He would have to experiment on his own. First, he observed the reactions he knew, and followed the process. He was looking to see how the catalyst worked on a magical level. If he could figure that out, he could find, or even create, a proper substitute. As his alchemy skill improved, he found himself better able to think of ways to improve or create ingredients in his dungeon. The most basic were easy, but stronger plants were harder to improve. It all seemed to be based on the way the ingredients interacted with mana, and while every plant drew in mana, only ingredients changed and stored it.

This imprinted mana could be released by alchemical processes, or biological ones if the ingredient was consumed, which was less efficient. Alchemy refined the mana, and bound it together so it stayed concentrated. When consumed, the mana was released like a spell, and the effects would take hold. But to make it more difficult, some of the ingredients had physical properties as well, mostly poisons. There were non-magical potions, magical potions, and the worst of all, combination potions. Some ingredients had beneficial properties as well, but they were much weaker than magical buffs. It was harder to create than to destroy after all. Pan just needed to figure out how to make things store and change mana, and once that was done, no potion would be out of his reach.

He followed the process on a magical level, watching the way the ingredients interacted with mana. They would create patterns of mana, and store the patterns in the biological material that made up the plants. In the same way mana crystals stored mana, these plants stored special configurations of mana. More potent ingredients could store more of the patterns, or would have more efficient patterns stored. This breakthrough spurred Pan to leave his experimentation with alchemy to focus on the ingredients.

Instead of improving one aspect of the plants, he combined them, using the best parts of both. He combined the best at storing mana with the best patterns, creating a number of never before seen high leveled rare ingredients. None could compare to the one Mythic ingredient he had, its abilities in both aspects were beyond the best he could create. He didn’t mind, it gave him something to aim for, and as long as he knew he could improve, he would strive to do so. His biggest success was created in his effort to make a catalyst for his speed potion. He compared the catalysts he had, and drew the best parts from all of them to create a powerful ingredient. It was almost a mythic ingredient, and was much more potent than the rest of the rares he had created, but still far from a true mythic. It wasn’t a specialized catalyst, and its properties were listed as General Catalyst. It was not only the strongest catalyst he had access to, but it worked for all applications.

It was massively successful, and once he tried his speed potion again, the bonuses were astronomically better. It could improve speed by forty percent for five minutes, a trump card for any adventurer. The only issue with his potions was the fact that they far surpassed anything he could reasonably give as a reward, since their value was greater than most non-boss fights in the dungeon were worth. The only potions he felt safe giving out were diluted with water, but that felt wrong to him after working so hard to create the strongest possible effects. He had no desire to be flooded with powerful adventurers looking for powerful potions in a dungeon they had heard gave rewards too easily. At least he had the option in the future.

He decided to spread his new ingredients across the floor, hiding them in difficult to reach places. The muddiest ground, the tallest trees, or high up the wall on the edge. For the general catalyst, he turned it into an underwater plant, and grew it in the deepest pool in the swamp. He restricted it to the one area, making it a danger to get. The pool was a rare patch of clear water, and its current kept it that way. But there were large walls of muddy water ringing the pool, concealing any number of massive monsters. It would be interesting to see if anyone risked diving to retrieve the valuable leaves. To entice adventurers, he modified the plant further, causing the leaves to glow a mystical light blue, and have slightly reflective leaves. That should catch any treasure hunting adventurer’s eye.

Sadly, only the original group had reached the third floor, but they had left the dungeon that morning, so Pan assumed more would attempt the boss fight to reach the reported riches of the third floor, not to mention the high-quality safe room. Hopefully, the news would spread outside the town as well, drawing more and more adventurers. As it was, Pan could sustain at least two hundred and fifty individuals in his dungeon without breaking a sweat, and currently had less than half that many inside. His entire third floor was empty, a situation he hoped would change in the future. He really needed some death so he could promote a few bosses, the current party was just too well coordinated to die from any normal occurrences in the floor. Maybe the silk forest would pose a deadly challenge. He had no desire to antagonize adventurers by killing them unfairly, especially the wily leader who he was sure would make it out alive of almost anything he threw at him.

He kept track of the party outside his dungeon through the use of his spy flies, paying attention to what they told outside adventurers. He couldn’t hear much outside the dungeon, but with all the free time he had, he taught himself to read lips. They did a good job of alerting people to the new floor, as well as the amenities provided by the safe room. Pan could follow the waves of excitement as the news spread, and he prepared for many more deaths the next day as unprepared parties attempted the boss fight. Hopefully a few made it, but he refused to artificially inflate the third-floor adventurer population, there would be no nepotism in his meritocratic dungeon.

He watched the group as they sold their loot, turning quite a profit from their eight days of work. Especially the leader, who sold plenty of potions to different groups. One potion, something Pan recognized as having been made from the venom of the assassin spiders, was sold to an excited apothecary for a staggering sum, along with a few vials of unrefined venom. Pan left some spies to watch the man, hoping to learn something from him and see why he had been so excited and willing to part with gold. He always had spies watching the skilled craftsmen, adding to his knowledge of the crafts, but they were imperfect, and didn’t help much unless a book was left open. Hopefully, something would turn up this time, since Pan needed to know what effects his creations were having on the outside world.

The man also sold a bundle of refined spider webs to a tailor, bargaining for clothes made of the material later on, along with a supply cut from the dungeon. Pan had been unaware of the value, but decided to leave it be for now, since attracting adventurers was his current goal. After their errands, the group turned to shopping, acquiring a few items for themselves before gathering at one of the few taverns that had sprung up around the dungeon. They proceeded to get heavily intoxicated. Despite their leader's presumably high constitution, he got the drunkest of them all, blacking out by the end of the night. The man seemed to have a vendetta against his liver, and Pan was surprised that this was the same cold calculating man who had avoided death in his third floor. Maybe he should set up a still to encourage this debauchery. It may lead to a few more deaths on the floor.

They eventually returned to the safe room, stumbling down the long hallway. Unfortunately, they successfully navigated their way back, and did not accidently turn right into the first floor. They crashed hard in their beds, waking up with pounding headaches the next day. Unsurprisingly, the alchemist had a powerful hangover cure, and within minutes they were all feeling good, and commenting on the delightful taste of the remedy. Pan felt it unfair, when he was a human none of the hangover cures ever tasted good.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 12

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 15,134/100,000  (+1000)

Soul Energy: 45.1/500

Rooms: 122

Floors: 3

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 12,113

Skills: [Dungeon Menu], [Dungeon Manipulation], [Dungeon Absorption], [Dungeon Creation: Level 12], [Dungeon Expansion], [Dungeon Summon], [Targeted Evolution], [Monster Imbuement], [Dungeon Map], [Name Bestowal], [Drop Assignment], [Floor Creation], [Environmental Manipulation], [Dungeon Soul Trap], [Alchemy: Lvl 38], [Enchanting: Lvl 22], [Dungeon Ore Vein], [Mental Communication]

Dungeon Points: 407

Achievements: Evolver, Legend Slayer, Boundless