When Izuku allowed Toga to go out and hunt a rabbit, he didn’t expect her to return half-dead, dragging a (definitely dead) corpse of a woman with antlers on her head, almost completely covered by dirt gathered on the way, all stuck to her with what looked like resin.
What the fuck
Himiko, what happened?!
“I was just trekking through the woods, and then she attacked me.” Toga replies. “I won.” She then falls forward onto the ground. “My back hurts like hell.”
We can see that
Himiko, your entire back is soaked in blood. I, errr…
I think that you’re bleeding out.
“That explains why I’m feeling so weak.” Toga sighs. She liked blood, and she was alright with bleeding a little, but that felt like way too much. “Any chances for a quick death and resurrection? I think it’ll be faster than trying to heal me.”
Sure, we’ll assimilate you both
and then bring you back
“Okaaay.” Toga says meekly. “Have fun.”
***
Resurrecting Toga happened without any troubles. The same couldn’t be said about dealing with her prey. Which turned out to be… somewhat troublesome.
Obviously, both Midoriya and Shigaraki moved straight into [Entities] category the moment an assimilation happened. There they’ve found a completely new category, called the [Wild Courts].
Inside of it, was a single entry, called [Lesser Hamadryad]. That told them what exactly Toga managed to slay, but there were further complications. There was no cost right next to it. In fact, the whole thing had a different, red color in the panel.
What’s going on
No idea.
Come on, System, be nice to us. Tell us what’s the problem the… oh.
What?
Looks like Luna expected us to stumble about it and set the System to display a short message explaining the situation the moment we stumble upon it, but for some reason only to one person.
What Toga slew was apparently a ‘daemon’, spelled/written with ae.
A physically materialized one, which means a large-chunk of wood and plant matter that was possessed before being shaped and warped until its current form.
So?
The Dungeon has devoured the daemon in question, including their very soul.
They’re now a part of it.
We can summon it. Exactly one, though.
So we can’t just randomly spawn it like the other creatures, but we can, errr, press the one soul we have into our service?
Yes.
They will be forced to obey us, although I don’t think that they’re going to like it. They’re also a sapient being, which makes it morally questionable.
They also tried to attack a person the moment they’ve seen it
Fuck it, I say (just not literally)
Anyway, there is also an option to spawn it in its true form rather than the physically manifested one. This is why the option has a different color, when you try to place it somewhere, it forces you to choose from the two options.
And what are the differences?
They are going to look pretty much identical, but a ‘physical’ form means more loot for the adventurers (like magic-warped wood for some special type of crafting) and an ability to leave the Dungeon.
The ‘spiritual’ form can’t survive for long outside of the heavily-magical area that the Dungeon is, but it’s cheaper to summon and can stay indefinitely on the inside.
Both are pretty much equal in terms of combat strength.
So, what you’re telling me
Is that we can either have it as a normal mob
Or as something more akin to a player character summon with a limited time of existing around, which can be prolonged indefinitely thanks to how magical a Dungeon is?
Errr, I guess so?
Makes sense.
Anything more?
Give me a second.
Oh.
Check the Locations!
In [Locations] there was now a completely new [Room], called the [Growing Area]. This seemed to operate on the same logic as the [Mining Area], allowing them to make a room where things could actually grow.
How does the sunlight there work? No idea, they were yet to create one. Still, that was potentially useful… as an even better bait for outsiders. Or if they wanted to grow some berries to enrich their servants' diet in case they didn’t want to (or couldn’t) leave the Dungeon.
Which, on second thought, might be useful if someone decides to settle right in front of the Dungeon for better access to it, making them no longer able to just visit and hunt out there.
However, there was something more. Namely, they managed to partially unlock their first [Hall] and [Lair]! The former was called [Underground Ecosystem], the latter was called a [Hamadryad’s Grove]. Both were at 75% unlock.
Sweet
Hey, Toga
When you found that woman, were there any other creatures there?
“Uh-huh.” Toga nods. She was already back alive, although it cost them a chunk of the Residual Mana they were gathering for the 2nd Level expansion. “Two walking bushes she sicced at me. Tried to lash me, but they weren’t Ochako-chan or Izukun, so I got away.”
Great.
Now go back, kill them and bring their corpses back
And if there are any weird looking plants there, bring them back too
“Eeeh?!” Toga freezes on the spot and wails. “But I don’t wanna! I’ve already brought something cool for Izukun, now I have to go catch something tasty for Ochako-chan before she wakes up!”
Himiko, I appreciate what you achieved. I really do.
And I’m sure that Ochako will be impressed if you unlock the first Hall and Lair while she’s asleep, you know?
“Hmmmmm.” Toga thinks it over for a moment. “Alright then! That makes sense! Going there now!”
Wow, that was a cool way to exploit her crush on you
I didn’t exploit anything.
I just found a way to motivate her to do something important.
Riiight.
At least buy her a dinner in the future for this
…
Anyway
It just occurred to me
She just killed something and brought it home to present it to you and wanted to be praised for this
She’s literally a cat and you’re her owner, with Uraraka as the co-owner
Stop that.
No
Sigh. What about that Hall and Lair? You think that we’ll be able to use them anytime soon?
I think so. If Toga managed to slay a hamadryad in a single combat, it seems that they aren’t impossibly strong.
I think we can - to some degree - rearrange levels, so we could, at some point, place a mostly creature-focused level between current 1st and 2nd Level
Place a Lair there, have the creatures wander around and so on
Alright.
***
This time they did observe Toga on her way up the slope. It didn’t take her a lot of time to get to the place where she fought the hamadryad. Then things got a bit complicated, as she quickly discovered that there was now a fire in the forest.
“Oopsie?” She says, staring at the flames. “I guess throwing that torch at the plant lady had… errr… unintended consequences.”
Sigh.
Just put it out while it’s still small.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
There is dirt under your feet, just grab it and throw it at the flames.
It took her a few minutes to get it done, but eventually, the flames were buried in the dirt. Hopefully that would be enough.
She then continued walking until she arrived at a small grove. It was… it looked pretty nice, Izuku decided. He has a feeling that Shiozaki-san from 1-B would have liked it. He himself wasn’t a big fan of nature.
Toga quickly found the two ‘walking bushes’ that she described. They looked… well, like walking bushes, really. Izuku wasn’t sure how to describe them differently.
The big problem with them was that they weren’t easy to kill. It might have been easier with a woodcutter’s ax - fairly sure that if they got one and armed Uraraka with it, she would one-shot them. But with two knives?
Those creatures just didn’t seem to have any logical weakspots on their body, forcing Toga to practically cut them into small pieces, all while enduring lashes from them. And she wasn’t very tough.
She got annoyed pretty quickly and retreated, before getting another torch lit. She then charged at them with a torch and a knife, with the creatures being clearly afraid of fire. This allowed her to limit their lashing counterattacks, and cut them until they stopped moving.
She seemed annoyed by it and by all the lashings she received, until the words came.
Great job, Himiko!
Then her spirits were instantly uplifted and she began to hum loudly while packing the bits and pieces of the creatures into her backpack, alongside samples of every plant she could find in the grove.
***
The creatures that Toga slain were called [Lesser Lignomorph]’s, also of the [Wild Courts] subcategory. Unlike the [Lesser Hamadryad], they didn’t seem to classify as daemons and thus could be summoned in larger numbers.
Unfortunately, they required an Ambient Mana Level of 1.2. Fortunately, it seemed that every subsequent level of the Dungeon improved the Ambient Mana Level by exactly 0.2, meaning that those creatures could be spawned freely on the 2nd Level.
By now, they could more or less understand the mechanics behind the Ambient Mana Level and the Estimated Threat Level of creatures.
1st Level = 1.0 AML and 10 ETL.
2nd Level = 1.2 AML and 12 ETL.
3rd Level = 1.4 AML and 14 ETL.
And so on.
Node Rooms (at least the Basic one) made it possible to place a miniboss creature there, as it increased the AML of the room by further 0.2 and thus allowed placement of a creature that was 2 ETL higher. And so:
1st Level Node Room = 1.2 AML and 12 ETL.
2nd Level Node Room = 1.4 AML and 14 ETL.
3rd Level Node Room = 1.6 AML and 16 ETL.
And so on.
In the meantime, the [Level Change] Room seemed to do twice that, compressing the mana flowing through it much further before spreading it much more equally through its Level. And so:
1st Level Change Room = 1.4 AML and 14 ETL.
2nd Level Change Room = 1.6 AML and 16 ETL.
3rd Level Change Room = 1.8 AML and 18 ETL.
And so on.
Hmmm.
So, hypothetically
Do you think we can put a Node in a Level Change Room?
Probably not? That would require putting two [Room] designations on a single room.
But we’re going to try, right?
Yeah, sure. If it doesn’t work, we won’t lose any resources, right?
Attempting to put [Node Room] on top of the [Level Change Room] ended up proving to them that yes, it was possible to stack two designations. It’s just that it created a third, completely separate designation.
It created the [Floor Guardian Room], which was a completely new type of a [Room] that they just unlocked. And by their quick calculations:
1st Level Floor Guardian Room = 1.6 AML and 16 ETL.
2nd Level Floor Guardian Room = 1.8 AML and 18 ETL.
3rd Level Floor Guardian Room = 2.0 AML and 20 ETL.
And so on.
Nice.
My Sen’s Fortress recreation is further delayed, but you know what? I’ll take that
That’s useful af
Some additional quick calculations proved that Throne Room surpassed the ATL improvement level of the Floor Guardian Room. Depending on what level it’d be, it would have:
1st Level Throne Room = 1.8 AML and 18 ETL.
2nd Level Throne Room = 2.0 AML and 20 ETL.
3rd Level Throne Room = 2.2 AML and 22 ETL.
And so on.
You think that putting a Node Room in a Throne Room would create a [First Guardian Room]?
Probably. And it likely has a whole 1.0 AML above the Level number, to keep things neat and orderly. But we don’t have the RM to check it out right now.
For now we should move Uraraka and Toga’s living spaces from the Node Room to the 1st Level Floor Guardian Room, so that the former could pick up all of her abilities
I agree.
It might be useful during the hunt for the giant spiders.
But I’m still curious as to what the whole ETL means and how it’s calculated.
I have a theory there
Huh?
Can you imagine a decently built but unequipped man defeating an unarmed skeleton?
Yes, I think?
What about one equipped skeleton? With a spear or a bow?
That’s… unlikely.
So my theory is as follows: ETL 10 is ‘peak baseline human performance without additional enhancements’. We talk ‘the strongest quirkless man alive ever’. 5 is just an average Joe without any skills and equipment
Combat skills and equipment push you above that
Toga and Uraraka have a baseline of around 0.8 because for their species, that’s the equivalent of human ETL 5 (the species average for healthy adults) because they have improved senses, reflexes etc.
That’s…
That would make a certain degree of sense.
Astral Slime is 6 because it’s not super dangerous but it can strangle you, but it falls easily to equipped humans.
Astral Shard is 7 because it can break a rib if it hits very well, but again - hit it with a pickaxe without any magical skills, and it dies. And it’s possible to dodge the projectiles if you don’t fight it in the dark or too many of them at once.
Lesser Lignomorph is 12 because it’s hard to kill without tools and its lashes can easily kill someone with no skills and with no protection.
It only makes Himiko’s achievements greater as Hamadryad is marked as ETL of 15, while she has 11.
She was always skilled at combat, duh.
So yes, I guess it works pretty much like this, good point.
I was always good at stuff like that
Reducing humans to little more than numbers?
Well… kind of?
But I don’t like the way you put it.
You shouldn’t.
***
They’ve ended up making a major modification to the 1st Level of the Dungeon, mostly as an experiment on whether they could move a Level Change/Floor Guardian Room, and how it would influence the 2nd Level.
All while expanding the ‘secret shortcut’ section into something much larger and one-sidedly connected to the [Floor Guardian Room].
It turns out that it didn’t influence the 2nd Level at all.
In short, despite the exit from the 1st Level being moved away, the entrance to the 2nd Level didn’t move an inch. That was…
How’s that even possible?!
By my calculations, considering the depth of the shaft in the [Floor Guardian Room], it’s not as deep as the shaft in the slime trap. But it doesn’t register at being on 2nd Level.
Those are completely separate pocket dimensions then?
Looks so to me.
We all perceive it as a shaft/elevator/staircase, but it’s actually more of a dimensional passage.
Cool
So I guess we can theoretically go pretty wild with altitude difference within a single Level then
That will make my Sen’s Fortress 2.0 be even better
But you’re still not going to tell me what it will be?
Dumbass
Think about it for a second
“Fuck it we ball”
And me being overjoyed that it can get better because of wider ‘altitude difference’
BALL
Oh.
Yes, I’m going to make most of this level to be a massive rolling ball trap and I have great ideas on how to make it worse for all the intruders, sigh
Now let’s get those spiders, please
I want additional unlocks asap
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZAYRG4N.png]
1. Entrance, 2. Narrow Passage, 3. Secret Passage, 4. Slime Trap, 5. Projectile Trap, 6. Empty Node Room, 7. Shortcut/Flanking Tunnel, 8. Toga/Himiko boss room/Core Location
***
Uraraka woke up just to discover Himiko was with her in her bed, hugging her closely. Thankfully, she was fully clothed. That stopped Uraraka from just straight up killing her on the spot.
“Hi there, Ochako-chan!” Toga gives her a wide and cheeky grin. “How are you d…” She failed to say a single word more due to Ochako’s arms wrapping around her neck. And starting to strangle her.
Sigh.
In my defense, I tried to stop her, but I’ve also decided that pulling her soul out of her and making her instantly drop dead was a bit too excessive of a punishment.
Sorry for that.
“It’s not your fault, Izuku.” She replies, still strangling Toga who might or might not be into it. “I’m sure that you did your best. And now I’m going to do the same.”
We both know that if you genuinely tried to kill her, you’d just snap her neck.
Please, let her go. She did a lot while you were asleep, and you’ll likely end up having to congratulate her on it.
Uraraka sighs and lets Toga go, the girl ending up falling off her bed, gasping for air. Should she be concerned by how enjoyable that activity was to her?
The Training Camp injuries ran deep. Getting revenge for that was oddly enjoyable .
“So, what did she do?” She then asks while sitting on the side of her bed.
Went out to catch you something tasty to eat for when you wake up, and ended up running into a minor daemon called the [Lesser Hamadryad], whom she slew and dragged into the Dungeon right before bleeding out.
Then she went back there and slew two more creatures called [Lesser Lignomorphs].
All of that unlocked our first [Hall] and [Lair], and there were a lot more developments beside that.
You’ve been asleep for almost a whole day, I guess that’s the side-effect of going past your AML limit.
Uraraka whistles loudly. That was… actually a lot of achievements and a serious fight. That she missed out on! Damnit!
I might have said some words to Himiko that implied that you’d appreciate her attempts if she went back there immediately and slew the other creatures.
I don’t want to impose on you, but…
Izuku really was too nice for not just Japan but also this world, Uraraka decides. Toga was their joint stalker, and yet he still felt bad about the very threat of lying to her. She won’t let his fears come to fruition.
“Toga.” She says, the other girl raising her head, having managed to already regain her ability to breathe somewhat. “Judging from what Izuku said, you were pretty busy while I was asleep. Thank you.”
“N-no problem, Ochako-chan!” She replies immediately. “And then I did my best to warm you so that you’d sleep well and rest quicker!”
“Yeah, about that.” Uraraka sighs. They should have that talk finally and establish some healthy boundaries. “Don’t come inside my bedroom unless invited, alright? Would you feel fine if someone sneaked into your bedroom while you were asleep?”
“You and Izukun can do that whenever you want!” Toga replies immediately and smiles widely, as if expecting to have her head pet as a reward for correctly answered questions.
Uraraka manages to not facepalm. She also manages to not start strangling her again, but it wasn’t easy.
“You’d be fine if it was one of us, but would you be fine if the person who did that was Tomura Shigaraki?” She asks instead.
Wow, thank you for using me as a negative example.
I’d do the same.
Fuck you, Midoriya.
“Are you saying… that to you, I’m as bad as Shiggy is?” Toga answers with a question, still sitting on Uraraka’a floor. Looking clearly horrified by the prospect of the answer being yes.
I’m literally here, why do they keep dissing me?!
Look in the mirror.
Without making one break.
Fuck you a thousand times, Midoriya.
Even my own underling is dissing me ffs
You dissed her first.
Do you seriously expect your followers to be loyal to you if you aren’t loyal to them?
I understand that you were using Muscular and Moonfish as expendable cannonfodder, but you could at least try to break Mustard out.
It’s not like he was held at Tartarus, due to being a minor.
Did you try it?
…
Well, technically speaking, we didn’t have the time for that before Kamino, and then our situation was a bit… complicated
‘Technically speaking’, if I was in your place and it was one of my classmates that was captured, I’d make freeing them my priority.
And I’m sure that they’d do the same for me.
…
“Well… no.” Uraraka replies. Technically, she was a stalker more than a… well… attempted murderer, right? Right? “But I think that I’m not comfortable with things progressing as quickly as you want them to, and unless you want me to grow to hate you, you should take that into account.”
“Oh.” Toga blinks before collapsing onto the floor, landing with her back towards it. “That would suck ! I don’t want you to hate me! But why are all the cool things forbidden?! I can’t put some blood on anyone I like, I can’t sneak into your bed, boooring.”
“You also do not want any of us to hate you.” Uraraka replies. Hopefully this will work. “You want something from us, but you also need to offer something for us in return, right? It’s like a transaction. Or a deal.”
“Eeeeh, when you put it like this I guess that makes sense.” Toga sighs while standing up. “Fine, fine! The deal has been struck. We’re going to kill some spiders together today, by the way.”
“Sure thing, Toga.” Uraraka nods with a ferocious look on her face. “I’m looking forward to it.”