We were in full preparation mode.
A week had gone by since the adventurers had left.
Everyone was out in full force, I had one of the teams of warriors as lookouts in the trees almost a day out in the forest to give us advanced warning.
During the week of preparation, one thing of note did occur. One which left him a bit flabbergasted. The goblins… the ones he had sent out to collect… food… meat… had failed miserably. To begin with, they weren’t too intelligent, but the degree to which they had failed was incredible. They had brought in first a huge brown log saying it looked like meat, which was wrong! Then they brought in a flower that smelt like rotting meat… because it smelt like rotting meat… And then! They brought in a rotten carcass of a deer! For all the good that is in the world.
Then they brought in… with the curious help of Eva and a team of squirrels and hares… a massive hive. They brought in a beehive almost as large as the dungeon entrance, dragging it along. Eva was slowly burning branches at the hive entrance as well to keep all the bees knocked out.
Yes, there were still bees inside the beehive. A total of 481 bees came with the hive. And they became part of the dungeon. In fact, I even offered the queen bee a [Contract], while the rest of the bees just got the dungeon [Contract].
A contract has been offered to ‘Queen Bee’.
A Contract has been formed
‘Queen Bee’ has been added as a Lv1 Contracted
The power of the contract flows between contractor and contracted
Queen Bee has unlocked the Skill ‘Hive Sense’
Queen Bee’s intelligence has increased by 4 points, strength by 1 points, agility by 4 points, vitality by 1 point and magic power by 3 point
The power of the contract flows between contracted and contractor
Contract Summoner Alexander has unlock the ability to feel wind magic
Contract Summoner Alexander’s agility has increased by 2
The power of Dungeon Contract has been invoked
The creature summon ‘Queen Bee’ has been unlocked.
The creature summon ‘Wind Bee’ has been unlocked.
The elemental affinity ‘Wind’ has been unlocked.
I looked at the slightly bed-draggled goblin crew… there was a story there. I know it. Well regardless, as members of the dungeon, they were included in the merit system… actually this was probably the first big merit they had. They literally brought in a brand new species and 481 of them… all by mistake. Sure they needed help to do it but that didn’t change the fact that they had unwittingly did something impressive.
I shook my head. Some of the squirrels and hares were working their asses off to get better rewards and these 5 stumbled into it. They even had enough to get the grand prize. Sure enough, they weren’t the smartest but they didn’t disappoint.
‘Master, please give us a name… we need a leader.’
The thought from them was, with Max leading the squirrels and Levine leading the Hares, they needed someone to lead them as well. So far, of the 3 factions in the dungeon, the goblins were the weakest, by a large margin. Firstly there were only 5, and basically any squirrel or hare could do better than them right now.
‘Alright, you have enough for naming but only for one of you. So pick amongst yourselves to see who is going to become your new leader.’
Surprisingly they didn’t fight about this… hey [Aura of Knowledge] really does work.
The nominated goblin looked quite confused but came forward. I had absolutely no idea how differentiate between any of them… seriously, they all looked like green mini-me’s with long pointed ears.
‘I name you Tolk the Wise, with your wisdom you will lead your tribe. With your wisdom you will discover secrets and create a dynasty that will last through the ages.’
Maybe calling him wise will help him out a little bit...
‘Errant Goblin’ has been granted the name ‘Tolk the Wise’
Name bestowal has been invoked
Errant Goblin has now been named
An mutation has occurred naturally caused by the will of the creature and the power of the dungeon master
Tolk has mutated into 'Noble Hobgoblin'
Tolk’s strength has increased by 19, agility has increased by 13, intelligence has increased by 15, magic power has increased by 11, stamina has increased by 14
Tolk has unlocked the skill ‘Goblin Leader’
Tolk has unlocked the skill ‘Voice of the Tribe’
Tolk has unlocked the skill ’Noble Hobgoblin’
Well that was a surprise. I have a feeling Rox is going to be mad at me for ruining her evolution experiment…
‘Master, I live to serve.’
Heeey, the newly mutated hobgoblin could speak fluently! This would make life easier.
‘Master, I have a request… we the goblins are the least numerous of the races in your dungeon. With your grace, could you summon us more brethren for our tribe?’
I looked at him suspiciously. I wonder how much time this guy spent around Levine…
Anyways, I didn’t see the harm in it and with the mana rolling again I decided it was time to add another group to my growing dungeon. This time I summoned 200 goblins, and they were to build a goblin village in the secret second floor. I also sent them to get trained by Rox and Max…
‘You fucker! You know I was experimenting with the goblins! How will I know what makes them evolve if you can’t keep your grimy hands off of them?!’
Yeah Rox wasn’t happy. To be fair, she had been experimenting with them for weeks now with no results.
‘Come on Rox, they got the merit points, they played by the rules. What was I supposed to do? Not let them get their request? Besides…’
I grinned, ‘They brought in a beehive. A beehive! Which means you get as much honey as you can eat! Alright?’
Bribery works, plain and simple.
We had installed the beehive in the second floor as well, the non-hidden side this time. Hell, they floated through the entire second floor, which was why I had to keep them separated from the others. I had to plant a series of flowering plants to keep them happy.
----------------------------------------
It took a lot longer for the adventurers to return than I thought. It was roughly 7 weeks after that first group had left before our lookouts announced that they saw people headed towards the dungeon.
By that time, we had developed a lot more than I thought we would. As a precaution, I had increased the size of the rooms in the second floor to absolutely massive proportions. Once inside, they would feel like they were lost inside an actual forest.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
The squirrel folk had their treetop village, the hare folk their warren village and the goblins their village too. The training of the troops had gone well enough that I had confidence in handling the adventurers whether they turned out to be friendly or hostile.
I sent Max and a scouting team to go spy on them from the rooftops. These scouts had taken the skill [Minor Heightened Hearing] from their merit points so they were ideal for this task. And so I waited.
We heard them long before we saw them, noisy as they were and seemingly unafraid of anything within the forest. Truth be told, none of the dungeon folk were scared of anything around the dungeon either. We hadn’t run into any monsters, not even a single slime. Knowing Alex, if we had, he would have made us kidnap any monsters we found and then put them to work in our dungeon. I don’t quite know what to describe this behaviour as. (Author’s note: hoarder, definitely a hoarder, definitely a x99 potion at final boss type character)
We kept up above in the trees. We had on mostly leather equipment with leaves sown on to help us with camouflage as we hid with the foliage. These adventurers were really obtruse.
When they arrive in the clearing before the dungeon entrance, they started setting up their camp, talking loudly. Damn… there were more than 50 of them and I couldn’t assess their strength.
That wasn’t the end of it, a few hours later, a second group arrived. I could see that both groups were mostly mages. There were some with swords and armour, but most of them wore robes and held staves as they walked around. When the second group arrived, the tension in the area rocketed up until it was almost palpable. It seems they were not all friendly with one another.
I already didn’t like the first group. Before the second group had arrived, they first group had sent about a dozen of their number into the dungeon. My body froze as they came out with one of the dungeon's goblins. It must have been caught before it could retreat into the secret caves and then go to the second floor.
Rescue was not an option at the moment… the reason? Because they tied the poor goblin up to a tree trunk then used a bunch of strange items that shone with the light of mana. They seemed to be experimenting on the goblin. On one of our dungeon folk.
Anger unbidden rose within me. There must be a reckoning with this group.
The second group was definitely not friends with the first group. I snuck closer to listen to what they seemed to be arguing about.
‘… dungeon is for us to use however we so want! Who are you to restrict us Magister?! This isn’t back in the city where you are head mage. This is in the wilderness!’
‘So because we aren’t in the city you can break the law? You know the rules! This territory falls within the Domain of the City of Polux, you cannot claim it as your own! It is a young dungeon, if we interfere with it now, we could lose out on this dungeon’s potential! Listen! This is a dungeon, that, while young allows for a mage, yes a Rank E mage to gain a stat in intelligence after spending one day inside. This is unimaginable!’
The voices grew louder and louder. Mana started getting thicker in the air.
It seems the two groups were themselves made of smaller groups. One of the smaller groups started a fight with that of another while everyone just watched on. It looked fairly serious, although it hadn’t descended past a verbal conflict just yet.
The main divisive point seems to be on who owns the dungeon, and what they will do with the dungeon… These bastards, talking about my home as if it’s a trophy. I smiled grimly, we were prepared for them. Let's see if it's such an easy prize to win. The second group seemed like they could be negotiated with, but the first? By taking one of the dungeon folk they had already declared themselves our enemy. Even if they didn’t know it yet.
Things were starting to spiral out of control when yet ANOTHER group arrived. Fucking hell! Forgive my cursing but this makes more than 100 adventurers at our gates! This group was larger than both earlier groups put together.
As they arrived, the fighting stopped. It seemed this new group was quite important huh. Then I saw a familiar face. It was the swordswoman?? What’s she doing back here?! I crept even closer to listen carefully to what she announced.
‘This is a missive from the King of Polux City. This dungeon falls within the territory of the Kretian Kingdom and by Royal Decree this dungeon is now under the ownership and protection of the Royal Family.’
Those words came from the swordswoman as she held up what she said was the royal decree showing everyone. I looked closely at the leaders of the two groups. The first group’s leader seemed angry but kept silent while the second looked relieved. This swordswoman… she isn’t simple.
Suddenly, I felt someone’s eyes on me, my [Minor Sense of Danger] was suddenly screaming at me. It was the swordswoman! She was looking right at my position, with her hand idly resting on her sword handle.
Without making a sound I crept away as fast as I could. Once out of range of that terrifying woman I jump from tree to tree further into the forest. Alex had opened a secret passage into the second floor in the depth of the forest hidden under the roots of a tree covered with dense bushes. It would be close to impossible to discover unless you knew exactly where to look.
That was terrifying…
But I had enough information to make my report. I was also the only one left outside, I had gotten the scouts to go back after the first group had arrived.
I don’t know if the information I brought is a good or bad thing for Alex and Rox. Regardless, I was ready for them.
Listening to Max’s report, I again felt conflicted. Should we have risked it and tried to kill off the adventurer group? I understand Alex’s reasoning but my instincts were screaming at me at how dangerous our predicament was.
‘Alex, are you sure this is the right thing to do?’
I must have asked this 100 times.
‘Rox, you must have asked this 100 times…’
Well shit, we’re even thinking alike now.
‘Well, what do you expect? We have 100 of those beasts outside our doors and to make it worse, the ogre lady is back!’
‘How many times must I tell you, she isn’t an ogre… anyway, you know my reasons.’
Yes, I knew his reasons. Hell, I agreed with his reasons. Doesn’t make it any better though.
Alex’s reasons were very… precise is the best way to describe it. We were basically stuck within the middle of what sounds like three not so very nice groups.
Sigh… Alex’s reasonings were thus. We are not strong enough to take down a strong team of adventurers. Hell, he admitted that we had nothing that could take down that ogre chic. Also, we have been discovered. Which leads to our current predicament.
They know we are a dungeon that apparently specializes in raising inherent stats. Mages are not powerless with dungeons. Some of them would have ways of enslaving a dungeon, there are stories of this happening to other dungeons. There are also stories of dungeons becoming partners with guilds or kingdoms, that too is something that has happened… Sigh these are all stories passed on by dungeon fairies to their children and kin but who knows how true it is?
So what does Alex want to do? He wants to trick them. TRICK them. Fool them into thinking this is just a random young dungeon, so that they don’t send anyone too strong and so that they think they hold the advantage while we work around them. This is not a great plan!
‘Alex, this is not a great plan!’
‘What do you think we should have done? Kill off that first adventurer group? Should we have attacked and killed off the swordswoman? Rox, I hate to say this but we are not strong enough… even if I used everything I had to attack her, I would have failed. When we are faced with someone stronger than us, we have to bide our time and survive. Nothing else matters, we need to survive.’
When Alex said those words, he had that face again. The reason I agreed with him before. Yes survival… Why would I ever argue about Alex about what it takes to survive? By his own admission, he is a Rank B in skills but with only stats? He’s only as strong as Max…
‘So… we just wait?’
‘No, we have work to do. We’re going to send out teams into the forest to carry on harvesting by using the secret entrance. We need to make a third floor as soon as possible and to summon some more powerful monsters.’
So we got to work. I organized the squirrels and hares into shifts, they would work through the night as well as the day now.
Regardless of Alex’s reasoning, it was a gamble. A gamble between the greed of the adventurer’s against their wisdom.
I grit my teeth, we were betting on wisdom but we were preparing for greed to win.
This section is not needed to enjoy the story, only for those who, like me, are interested in the technicalities.
Spoiler: Spoiler
Last time I went over Skill alignments, I am just going to expand on that a little (btw I really like explaining this stuff. I made this system at the middle of 2016 and I’m pretty sure I spent more time on it than writing the story… Don’t know what that says of me…)
So here’s a question:
Why can’t I have my katana blade master psionic who can make kinetic shields wield inferno magic spells inside a domain of awesomeness?
Because it doesn’t make sense for a character to specialize into all the fields… much as I like MCs who are good at everything, I don’t think I’m a skilled enough writer to have an overwhelmingly powerful character AND still make the story interesting.
I digress, I’m bringing back the table
Magic
Physical
Mental
Law
Magic – the use of spell/skill formations that make mana flow in such a way as to create spells. These spells usually have specific effects, and of the 4 branches, is the most destructive. Magic is also special in that it can change the quality of the mana itself when it goes through the skill structures
The properties of magic skills lie in their higher utilization of mana to create specific effects outside the body.
There are also magical specializations or types
Examples of types of magic - arcane, divine, eldritch, elemental, nature/druidic, summoner/contracter, Qi, special categories (blood, lunar, solar, beast, demonic)
The most destructive type is magical - eldritch but they are not able to have much versatility, there is really no way to make Hellfire into a healing fire
The magic types oppose each other as well, Eldritch versus Holy beyond the obvious elemental incompatibilities, etc
Physical skills are the personification of the use of strength/agility/precision to deal damage/enhance bodily functions
The skill structures for this effect the constitution/function of the physical body
Examples would be physical attack skills where mana is channeled into the skill formations that briefly increase strength allowing for [Heavy Blow]
Weapons, once used like a part of the body are a natural extension of these skills allowing skills like [Wind Blade], [Blade Ki], etc
The main difference between magic and physical is that magic does not channel through any other part of the body except for the skill formation while physical does. Magical also relies on Magic Power and Intelligence to determine its power and effect while Physical is mostly on Strength, Agility and Stamina driven.
Laws are the special effects and powers - they deal with a concept but they have to stay within the concept – these usually manifest as a domain – they change the mana around the skill user to conform to a specific rule
Laws are incredibly powerful but also very restrictive
E.g. Law of fire - Augmentation - can only increase the power of fire
Unlike magic, Laws are mostly passives
Laws are limited in active skills as they would be considered too overpowered (at least from my own bias, I love passives in rpgs but they can make your characters truly monstrous)
In the story Alex’s Aura of Knowledge that gives him so much trouble is an example of a skill of Law – anyone within Alex’s field of mana is effected with a boost to intelligence stat increases, himself included
Mental encompasses mostly internal abilities
The usually increase the function/ability of the brain itself, and there is a wide range of abilities here, I won’t explore it in this small area.