Chapter 5 – The Hare in the Hunter’s Trap_The Dungeon King

Requirements have been met to reach the next level.

Dungeon level has increased to level 5

To reach the next level 500 Mana and 50 souls are needed

The dungeon ability [Create Special Rooms] has been unlocked

The dungeon ability [Create Structures] has been unlocked

The mana ability [Create Mana Stones] has been unlocked

The mana ability [Create Elemental Stones] has been unlocked

The soul ability [Name Bestowal] has been unlocked

The fate of a dungeon lies in the hands of the dungeon master and is shaped by his or her will

The great achievements by contracted creature Maximus the First has led to the discovery of the purpose of the dungeon owned by dungeon master Alexander

Due to the title ‘Void Traveller’ the Crystal of Knowledge has been awarded as a special award.

The dungeon has been granted the name: ‘Cave of the Apprentice’

One message after another filled my vision. They had started once the Boss Rat had been killed by Maximus. There was so much information it was difficult to take it all in… so I just ignored it. I had stuff to take care of! I said that but Max was making sure the rats were leaving the cave.

After the rats had left the cave Max stopped moving. He stood frozen at the cave entrance as if he was transfixed. The reason for that was immediately obvious because all the surrounding air was suddenly stripped of mana and a halo of light surrounded him.

One of the dungeon inhabitant is undergoing a natural evolution due to meeting special requirements

‘Maximus the First’ has evolved into the new species: Beastman species: Squirrel Folk

A great achievement!

A new species that has never been seen has emerged from your dungeon

As the creator this species, the dungeon will be heralded as the origin of the new species and the species will always have a special affinity to the dungeon

The Title: ‘Cave of Origin’ has been attained

The skill ‘Aura’ has been upgraded to ‘Essence Aura’

All ‘squirrels’ in the dungeon will naturally evolve into the new species over time

All squirrels in the dungeon will evolve immediately into ‘Elite Giant Squirrels’

All new squirrels summoned will be ‘Elite Giant Squirrels’ at no extra mana cost

50 Achievement points have been awarded

100 Dungeon points have been awarded

Holy dung beetle! Maximus is the best! He was now the size of a human, not as tall as the swordswoman was but definitely much bigger than he was. This is great! The rise of my squirrel empire was eminent!

The situation in the dungeon wasn’t really in tune with my optimism. After the rat horde left, we took a tally of the damages and things looked grim. There was virtually no squirrel left uninjured, and we had lost more than half the group. Simply summoning more felt insulting to Max… I mean they were his family. They were considered inhabitants of the dungeon but they weren’t like Max who had given part of his soul to me. When they died, that’s it, they were gone. The ones I summoned, I don’t know what he would think if I summoned them. So I’ll hold off for now, at least let him have this period of time to perhaps mourn or something.

One thing I do know however is that we are woefully unprepared if those rats came back. I doubt they would as they are leaderless and all but regardless we were pretty vulnerable. Even if I summoned more squirrel folk to defend the cave, I don’t have enough mana to summon enough. So harsh as it sounds I gave Max and his most fit squirrel fighters a task. It was one he was familiar with, finding plants and life forms in the forest to bring back to the cave. This way I’ll build up my mana and souls faster and hopefully we’ll have recovered to a decent fighting strength to handle what may come in the future.

The squirrel expedition started in full swing. After making things clear with Max, he said it would be great if I summoned more squirrels as his original group was down to less than 50 total. He set off with 20 of his kin into the forest with my sword strapped across his back and the dagger he used previously tucked in his belt. I had given him the clothes that I had been wearing when I came through the void. So he was now decking out in full gear.

Now was time to take care of everything that I didn’t have to time to address while we had a slight rodent problem.

First up, I started summoning my new squirrel army.

‘RISE MY MINIONS! HAHAHA’ he went cray-cray. If dungeon’s had eyes, he would probably be showing a crazed hungry look, probably as he fantasizes about taking over the world. I wonder if I should tell him that a squirrel army probably won’t be able to take down… well almost any monster. Even a slime could take out a dozen squirrels… but Alex taught me something that was shocking to me. As a dungeon fairy, we are taught the basics of dungeon management, so the way he’s doing it is… well it sounds subpar, but get the genius of this man. He sends his creatures out to collect stuff, seriously, and he sends them out and brings back more creatures that become a part of the dungeon! Pure genius! No mana spent, no we gain mana from all the good stuff that keeps being brought in! Would other dungeons do this? Sure, when they’re much higher leveled, they’ll start sending monsters out as waves to raid and kidnap humans and others of the intelligent races. After that, it’s a race against time for those dungeons, to become strong enough to fight off then absorb the retribution from those races or to perish beneath their blades… of the ones I know, only the 72 dungeons owned by the demon lords are able to operate without fear from those races. Instead the armies of humans, elves and dwarves built huge fortresses up to defend against the monster waves.

Thinking about those elite dungeon makes me sigh, it’s such a far off goal. I mean, my dungeon master is literally training a bunch of squirrels. They’re the evolved elite giant squirrels sure, but at the same time, they’re also just SQUIRRELS…

Now Maximus, I don’t know what to say anymore. I was sooo mad at Alex for naming him, and now? He is the most brilliant subordinate that I have ever heard about. Just through his collecting alone, he’s managed to raise our mana by hundreds! Even now, a few squirrels come in and drop stuff off at the entrance and Alex sucks it all up, I swear he’s purring.

About half the new squirrels were put on collecting duty while the others have been tasked with building houses and to fix up the wall in the last dungeon room around the crystal. Can’t be too careful.

That reminds me, ‘Hey Alex! What was that skill you got called Aura? And what is the crystal of knowledge? I’ve never heard of them before.’

Right, you can never be too careful but before we face more enemies we need to know ourselves.

Alex brought up the two screens and showed them to me.

Essence Aura (Rank B, Passive Ability) Lv 1 Mastery 3.1%

When a soul was crying out, a voice was heard, and when the voice spoke a powerful force could be felt, enveloping and sheltering the crying soul. The very mana in the air itself shook and traced its way into the soul with the will of the voice.

If special requirements are met, this skill can evolve

The mana around the skill’s master will contain a trace of the owner’s will

Allies of the skill’s master will receive a boost to stat increases

Crystal of Knowledge (Very Rare Unique)

Permanent use equipment – once used, this crystal will become a part of the user and will disappear upon death of the owner

Intelligence permanently increases by 5, crystal of knowledge also increases intelligence by 5

Gain +1 intelligence for each passive skill

Crystal of knowledge may have different effects in combination with other skills or equipment

The power of the Crystal of Knowledge has evolved ‘Essence Aura’ to ‘Aura of Knowledge’

Aura of Knowledge (Rank A, Passive Ability) Lv 1 Mastery 0.0%

When a soul was crying out, a voice answered, and as it spoke, the words of truth filled the minds of the crying soul. The will of learning permeates the very mana itself.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

If special requirements are met, this skill can evolve

The mana around the skill’s master will contain a trace of the owner’s will

Allies of the skill’s master will receive a boost to stat increases

A boost to intelligence will be received by any who spends long periods of time in the Aura of Knowledge

Beating up that rat horde really was a gift that keeps on giving! Maybe we should bring them back… HAHAHAHA, no ways, rats smell and wriggle and are absolutely disgusting, so no.

While we were checking out all the goodies that we got, Max had returned, his first batch of plants were mostly healing plants so that he could help to heal the injured squirrels. He truly is the best of us isn’t he? I’m gonna have to think of a way to bring his noble and honourable ass down a notch or two, he’s making us look bad.

To prove my point, without even resting he marched out with even more squirrels to scour the forest for stuff.

‘Hey Max, don’t forget berries and fruit trees!’ while dungeon crystals can’t eat, I for one certainly can and when the mighty dungeon master finally heals that body of his he’ll be starving like a trio of wise-cracking hyenas. Mana healing always makes you hungry enough to eat a hippo. Wait, the fuck is a hippo? Must be some of Alex’s memories leeching into me…

‘Hey Max, don’t forget berries and fruit trees!’ the lady of the dungeon seems to want sweet things to eat. Those are found a bit further away, perhaps a 3 hour march. There are also more traces of humans, or at least one of the intelligent races out that way. Well, she is co-master of the dungeon so what she says goes. Has a bit more of a temper and a much more vulgar tongue when she’s angry compared to Alex but who am I to complain? They saved my life, saved my family and gave me a home. It’d be poor form to think ill of them.

I brought a troop of 6 squirrels with me to help with the harvest. I am slightly impatient for them to evolve all the way to beast folk, they can’t manage human speech in their current forms even though their intelligence seems to be adapting at a vigorous pace.

The forest here was more sparse than around the around our dungeon. The trees were slender and there were a lot of bushes around. Most of these seemed like new plants so the harvest promised to be good.

We had been harvesting for weeks now, our nest of squirrels was up to 400 strong and the injured had all recovered. About a third had evolved into beast folk as well, Alex had them building a dwelling area in the cave, and I think he’s starting to expand the number of rooms. That apparently needs a lot of mana which is why our mission was important.

‘Ok troop, we’re going to set up camp here, let’s split into pairs, one group remains here to build us a camp and the others start fanning out and getting fruits and seeds. These bushes are a bit too large for transport so far so we’ll have to leave this time.’

Unfortunately, with all the higher evolved folks at home, I didn’t really have anyone to help me out with commanding people. The 6 paired off and got about their tasks while I started exploring the perimeter to make sure there weren’t any surprises.

I had a pleasant surprise when I came across of small plants that looked like different kinds of healing herbs, I collected as many as I could.

On my way back to camp is when I heard it. A sort of, strange keening noise. It honestly sounded like one of those rats had jumped into a thorn bush and was stuck crying or something.

Ever since I had evolved, my capacity to make decisions had both increased as well as proved infinitely more difficult. Alex trusted me leading the troop outside the cave and far away because he said I had awakened autonomy, his special word for meaning I can make my own decisions based on thought and reason instead of instinct. The others were improving but as I was first I had the advantage.

So now I had to make the decision, investigate or return to camp. I settled on investigating, it would be bad news if it was an enemy which will attack us later, it wasn’t because of simple curiosity, truly!

It came from behind a thorn bush a few meters away. As I crept closer cautiously, the sounds got softer and I could hear the sounds of struggling.

Then a very strange sight came into view. It was… an upside down rabbit? No it was too big to be a rabbit. Way too big, I had already grown to the size of a small sized human yet this thing was a third of my size. What the hell?

I could see why it was struggling and crying out though, one of its feet seemed to have been caught in a noose from a hunter’s trap. What to do… oh crap, it saw me… no no no those eyes! Those accusing helpless eyes!

I decided that for the good of the dungeon, it was a good thing to bring in another species of animal. Perhaps they will be able to evolve like my folk have.

‘Hey little guy, I’m going to free you ok? Stop struggling,’ I reached over and slowly loosened the knot. I feel bad for the hunter but he’s not going to be eating this rabbit.

‘I don’t know if you can understand me but I want to take you with me to a dungeon, it’ll be safe for you there,’ most animals have an instinctual knowledge of dungeons as safe havens but I wasn’t sure if this rabbit understood me.

Well, it didn’t seem to be running away so I motioned to it and it followed me back to camp. It was nervous at first but when it saw the squirrels, it seemed to calm down. It’s probably because even though I smell like a squirrel, I looked quite similar to a small human. Completely understandable, my feelings were not hurt in any way.

I realized its leg seemed to be hurt as it was limping. I found some healing herbs but I didn’t really know how to use them. Back at the dungeon, the other squirrels were directed by Rox as to how to use them. Even the all-mighty Alex was clueless when it came to plants and healing.

As I looked helplessly at the herbs one of the other squirrels came over and using a rock ground up some of the leaves then rubbed it into the rabbit’s injured foot. It looked like it worked because its ears started moving in a comical way then… it raised one finger and gave us… was that a thumbs up? Rabbits can’t do that can they? This is a weirdo rabbit. I need to bring it back to the dungeon.

What else am I going to find? Sentient bees? A vegetarian zombie? I don’t think I’m evolved enough to handle all this yet…

This was one weirdo rabbit… er, actually my [Observe] skill tells me it’s a species called March Hare.

Name: (March Hare)

Race

March Hare

Rank

D - Holy Beast

Description

Holy Beast March Hare, known for its luxurious fur that contains essence of the moon, this hare is wildly prized by hunters.

There is supposedly a curse to any who hunt this animal as it is the Goddess of the Moon’s favourite animal.

My observe skills is pretty bare when I try to peek at things that aren’t under my control, but anyway, holy beast? This was the first time I’m seeing this.

‘Rox, what’s a holy beast?’

‘Well this hare is one…’

‘…’

‘Oi, take a joke you rock head. Anyway, you know how mana can be turned elemental right? And that there are such things as mana beasts? Well this is a special mana beast whose mana is of the holy affinity, that’s all.’

Hmm, interesting… but what to do with him. According to Max, he came from a hunter’s trap which means that side has humans or beast folk. Elves wouldn’t hunt a holy beast and I didn’t know what the other intelligent species are, they didn’t seem common in this region, at least that's what Rox told me. It was mighty convenient to have a walking encyclopedia.

‘Rox, I think I’m going to start calling you Wikiphedia! Or Roxipedia… na that doesn’t work. How about when I say Wiki Rox, you explain stuff?’

‘…’

Bewilderment and a trace of annoyance, yes that is similar to her normal face but her normal face usually also has a hint of distain to it.

‘Anyway, Rox, Max, what do you think we should do for this little Hare dude?’

‘I like bunnies,’ Rox is a bastion of reason and intellect.

‘Master, I think we should offer this hare sanctuary,’ oh Max, such eloquence! This is why you are the best of us!

‘I’ll admit though master that I also like bunnies,’

CORRUPTION, Rox is corrupting Max! How could I let this happen?!

Ugh demo-crazy rules although I chose to adopt bunny boy as well.

A contract has been offered to ‘March Hare’.

I would have been nice if we could talk to the hare.

The hare looked confused at first then started to glow. Then, the memories of the hare came rushing into me.

It was the youngest of its litter of three and lived with its family in a field of thorn bushes deep in the forest. The older hares were always on the lookout for humans as they were highly prized for their fur and a few of their family had been caught and taken.

It seemed a normal day when a hunter chanced upon one of his brothers entering the thorn bushes. The hunter had seen it, the elders were frantic. They got everyone to scramble and we started running in all directions. The hunter managed to nab three, including the hare’s brother, everyone else scattered in all directions. He also ran as fast as he could, not knowing where he was going…

And then, while running the world suddenly jolted and then everything turned upside down. I could feel the hare’s pain in his foot. He remained upside down for almost a full day before he saw… it smelled like a squirrel but it had a human face, but squirrel ears, squirrel tail. I realize this was the hare’s view of Max. Max freed the hare and brought him back to the dungeon, where a glowing pebble asked him a question. He said yes

A Contract has been formed

‘March Hare’ has been added as a Lv1 Contracted

The power of the contract flows between contractor and contracted

March Hare has unlocked the Skill ‘Loyalty’

March Hare’s intelligence has increased by 3 points, strength by 1 points, agility by 4 points, vitality by 1 point and magic power by 4 point

The power of the contract flows between contracted and contractor

Contract Summoner Alexander has unlock the ability to feel holy magic

Contract Summoner Alexander’s agility has increased by 2

The power of Dungeon Contract has been invoked

The creature summon ‘March Hare’ has been unlocked.

‘Thank you dungeon master,’ unexpectedly, the March Hare spoke! How? He hadn’t evolved yet! What a weirdo!

‘You won’t regret contracting me sir! Ummmm, can I go bring my family? Also, do you have anything to eat? Being hunted by a hunter, losing my family and my poor brother who’s probably a pair of gloves now *sob* makes me want to swallow my self whole, if fact I…’

I switched off. What the hell.

Turns out the new addition to the dungeon was shameless and overly talkative. Things are getting lively...

Create Special Rooms (Dungeon Ability) Lv Max Mastered

An upgrade of [Create Room] allows the user to create a specialized room that serves a different purpose than the general room

Current special rooms available: Secret Room, Puzzle Room, Boss Room

Create Structures (Dungeon Ability) Lv Max Mastered

Allows the creation of specialize structures that serve either functional or decorative purposes

E.g. Walls, fence, pillars, blocks, water pond, stalactite, stalagmite, etc

Create Mana Stones (Mana Ability) Lv Max Mastered

Through the condensation of mana, the formation of a mana stone can be achieved

Mana stones increase the ambient mana by attracting more mana

Increased mana stones is one of the primary ways to increase the mana that can be absorbed by a dungeon

Create Elemental Stone (Mana Ability) Lv Max Mastered

Through condensation of mana imbued with an element, the formation of an elemental stone can be achieved

Elemental stones change the surrounding environment slightly and give off ambient elemental energy

Certain types of creatures, monsters and plant life are not able to survive and grow over long periods unless the environment they are situated in has a proper balance of elemental energy

Name Bestowal (Soul Ability) Lv Max Mastered

Allows an animal, monster, undead or plant to acquire a name.

Said creature must have adequate achievements to qualify for a name or face obliteration if forced

The reasons for the name, and the task given to the named must be stated to shape the named

A name is an identity, and all those named enter onto the path of destiny

When there is a horizontal line in the text, its usually to depict a change of scene but also denotes that some time has passed.