Ian prepared to summon the rest of his creatures, but the nag at the back of his mind kept pestering him to look at some of the dungeon systems. With a sigh he stopped what he was doing. What should he look at? ….Loot. He needed to see what kind of loot his monsters dropped. Yeah, that was a good compromise. The back of Ian’s mind facepalmed.
Ian observed his two monsters: the jelly that continued to run around his core and the clear spider that sat in the corner staring at him. Now, how did he bring up the loot menu? While staring at the jelly, Ian thought ‘loot menu’ and a window appeared.
Loot Menu
Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-]
Drops per Kill:
1
Common Drops
G- Attributeless Mana Heart
40%
Clear Gelatin [G-]
40%
Uncommon Drops
Flammable Jelly [G-]
20%
The drops and drop percentages seemed in line with a wild Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-] outside of the dungeon. How to add something? Basics first. “Add stone coin.”
To Add a Stone Coin Drop Please Reconfigure Drop Percentages.
With pleasure Ian increased and decreased the percentages with abandon and noticed the total percentage couldn’t go above one hundred percent. The common drops could be any percentage from one hundred to zero, but when they reached twenty percent they became uncommon, at five percent they became rare, at 0.1 percent they became epic, and at 0.001 percent they became legendary. The flammable jelly, an uncommon drop, could have its percentage decreased but it could not be increased above the original twenty percent. Ian presumed this was to prevent items that would greatly influence civilization from flooding the market. What Ian didn’t know was how the rarity of the stone coin, a item that jellies didn’t usually drop, was determined. It was considered to be a common drop, since Ian could make its drop percentage one hundred. Ian settled on the percentages and dropped both the clear gelatin and flammable jelly to ten percent and added the stone coin at forty percent.
Loot Menu
Inferior Jelly (Lesser) [G-]
Drops per Kill:
1
Common Drops
G- Attributeless Mana Heart
40%
Stone Coin
40%
Uncommon Drops
Clear Gelatin [G-]
10%
Flammable Jelly [G-]
10%
Gelatin and flammable jelly were used but not in the numbers that would make twenty percent worthwhile. If there started to be deficits in those items, he could increase the percentages back up or make more jellies.
Ian had a little more anticipation for the Clear Web Spider, since it was a monster he hadn’t seen before.
Loot Menu
Clear Web Spider [G-]
Drops per Kill:
1
Common Drops
G- Attributeless Mana Heart
50%
Clear Spider Fang [G-]
30%
Uncommon Drops
Clear Spider Venom [G-]
10%
Clear Spider Silk [G-]
10%
The spider’s drops confirmed that the monster’s status menu only gave Ian the basic description of the common dropped items. So whether the monster was a Clear Web Spider or a Tsuchigumo, the common drops would both say Spider Fang in the status menu. Ian added the stone coin at thirty percent, changed the mana heart and spider fang to twenty five percent each, and kept the venom and silk at ten percent. His changes were good for now, without adventurers he didn’t know what the surrounding nations were lacking.
With loot out of the way, Ian could get back to his creatures. He rubbed his pages together in anticipation, but his damn nagging subconscious was back. ‘You haven’t done the loot for the biotic spiders!’ it said, ‘You haven’t even glanced at the trees!’ it pleaded. Ian’s book slumped back onto the pedestal as he summoned the egg sack, baby spider, and web spider. As Ian attempted to bring up the loot menu for the egg sack a new window appeared.
This Creature Cannot Drop Loot.
While Ian knew biotic creatures always disappeared without dropping anything, he had thought he could change that with the presence of a common drop in the Web Spider’s status. The addition of a mana heart was probably the deciding factor.
Loot Menu
Web Spider
Drops per Kill:
1
Common Drops
Tiny Attributeless Mana Heart
100%
It only dropped a mana heart. This didn’t bode well. Ian attempted to add the stone coin, but a new window appeared.
No Additional Loot May Be Added.
So, he needed to add mana hearts to the web sack and baby spider if he wanted them to drop anything. However, what they dropped would be worse than a G- mana heart. Some would probably find the presence of a new type of mana heart interesting for a while, but eventually no one would make the effort to pick them up. He had seen the same happen with G- mana hearts because the time it took to pick up the small mana hearts wasn’t worth the reward unless they were low level adventurers. Ian needed to either find a way so adventurers and dungeon divers didn’t have to pick up their own loot or he had to make low level monsters drop worthwhile loot. The later option was stupid since he didn’t want high level adventurers killing off all of his low level monsters. For the first time Ian opened the Dungeon Shop.
Dungeon Shop
What do you wish to search for?
“....No list?” It looked like shopping would take a little more effort than he thought. “Let’s see….loot.”
Dungeon Shop
Loot Collection
1,000 DP (Prerequisites Required)
Loot Absorption
1,000 DP
Loot Destruction
1,000 DP
Explosive Loot
10,000 DP
Ian looked through the three he didn’t need first. Loot Absorption absorbed the mana used to create the loot after it was left for a certain amount of time. Destruction instead of absorbing the loot destroyed it sending the mana back into the Greater God’s universe. At first glance there didn’t seem to be any negative side effects to Absorption, so Ian wondered why anyone would choose Destruction. Explosive Loot caused the loot to explode into shrapnel and damage any surrounding creatures dungeon created or not, but this only triggered after the loot sat on the ground for a long time. Now, Loot Collection.
Loot Collection: Loot that is normally dropped where a monster is killed is instead collected inside of a treasure chest in the Entrance Hall of the dungeon. All members of a party must tie their mana signature to the chest in the entrance hall. The inside of the chest is tied to separate sub dimensions that prevent different parties’ loot from mixing.
Prerequisites:
Entrance Hall Room
Entrance Hall Treasure Chest Upgrade
Entrance Hall Sub Dimension Creation Upgrade
Entrance Hall Instance Upgrade
Entrance Hall Sign Upgrade
Entrance Hall Translation Upgrade
Entrance Hall Mana Signature Upgrade
What the hell was this? ….Oh no, of course. There was always a room at the beginning of every floor that was perfectly safe for intruders and at the end of every floor there was a boss room. He should have known. There was no way some of the high rank dungeons kept those two parts the same even on the lower floors unless they were forced to. Ian focused on Entrance Hall to make sure he was right.
Entrance Hall: For every entrance there must me an Entrance Hall. After the creation of the first floor, the Entrance Hall and Boss Room appear. On floors without an entrance, the Entrance Room appears. The Entrance Hall is upgradeable and with its presence Rooms and Decorations can be purchased in the Dungeon Shop. Unlike the main floor of the dungeon which is fully malleable through the dungeon’s mana, the Entrance Hall and other Rooms can only be changed by mana and DP purchasable upgrades.
Prerequisites:
First Floor Created
Ian was torn about Rooms. The idea of purchasing upgrades, ideas that he might be unable to think of on his own, intrigued him, but he disliked the restrictive nature of them. Well, he was getting ahead of himself. He had no idea how restrictive the Rooms would be without examining them. Since Rooms weren’t available until he created his first floor, he would have to wait. However, a thought hit Ian like a ton of bricks. There was one room that every dungeon had. Ian used his mana in an attempt to reduce the ceiling height of the core room, instead a window appeared before him.
Core Room
Level:
1
Available Upgrades
Reshape Room (Dimensions)
100 DP
Mana Pulse
10,000,000 Mana
The options given to him by the windows seemed to be heavily influenced by his thoughts and actions. Only two upgrades, one directly related to exactly what he wanted to do and the other the same mana cost as the amount of mana he just spent. All the loot upgrades in the dungeon shop had to do with getting rid of excess loot in some way, the problem he was worried about. This was worrying, the windows also gave him the evolution options. If those were also restricted by his thoughts and actions….wait….he already had a monster he’d never heard of before. Was he overthinking this? Possibly, but the idea of limiting his evolutionary options pissed Ian off. He would have to try really off the wall stuff to increase the possible evolutions.
Ian checked the level of the core room, and it required mana in the same way his dungeon level did except way more at ten thousand mana. He had spare mana, so he infused ten thousand mana into his core room. After infusing his mana into the core room, a new requirement for leveling up appeared.
Level 1
10,000/10,000 mana Complete; 1 Upgrade Needed
With DP to spare Ian purchased the Reshape Room (Dimensions) Upgrade.
Reshape Room (Dimensions): Allows the dungeon to change the height, length, and width of the core room. The volume of the core room must stay the same.
Core Room Level 2: Higher Tier Upgrades Will Become Available.
Achievement: Core Room Leveled Up for the First Time.
+1,000 DP
Core Room Level 3 required 20,000 mana, but the only upgrade available to Ian was the Mana Pulse upgrade so he refrained from infusing mana into his core room. While Ian could have attempted to find other upgrades he was qualified for, he didn’t want to spend an unknown amount of time and effort on something that had unknown value. ….He was okay doing that with monster evolutions however. Ian changed the dimensions of the core room but nothing felt right with how empty the room was, so he returned it to its normal shape. The Clear Web Spider seemed to give him an exasperated look as it went back to remake its web that was destroyed during the room reshaping. The Rooms were something he would focus on after building his first floor, for now it was back to his creatures. True, his subconscious kept saying, ‘Trees. Trees. Trees….’ on repeat, but those could wait.
It was time for Ian to make the second twin of versatility. The slime appeared on the core room floor. Unlike the ball of jelly, the slime looked like a bulbous puddle of water. If the slime was gathered together, it would be the same size as the jelly. The center of the slime contained its core which protruded upwards to keep the core away from the ground. The rest of the slime curved downwards away from the center with bumps here and there. Thankfully basic slimes didn’t leave any residue behind when moving.
As Ian opened the slime’s status, it grew interested in what the jelly was doing and started imitating it. One would think they were trying to summon the combined jelly and slime god or maybe just exercising.
Race:
Inferior Slime (Lesser)
Rank:
G-
Attribute:
None
Development:
0/100
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Titles:
None
Skills
Mana Perception
Absorption
Description
The most basic form of the slime monster tree. It is born with the lowest levels of Mana Perception and Absorption the two skills that every slime has. Even the most basic of slimes have acidic bodies but their low amount of fluid makes it harder to absorb creatures. They are mindless creatures that will suck up anything smaller than them in an attempt to grow larger. Luckily the most dangerous part of these monsters, their versatility, does not begin until they are D- rank. Be warned even though the slime monster’s physical form may not change until D- rank the skills they can learn are various.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart
Slime
Slimes are considered more difficult to fight than jellies because it is much easier to slice a piece of jelly off of the main body than a piece of slime. To be killed both require their cores to be destroyed, but every missing piece of slime or jelly makes the core closer to the outside and easier to hit. However, the more solid bodies of the jellies allows for more nimble movement and harder hitting physical attacks.
Ian decided to round out the Other category of monsters and summoned the Inferior Water Elemental (Lesser) [G]. A small faint blue light floated in front of Ian’s pedestal. It quickly started zooming around the room checking every little thing out. After getting a good look around the room, it slowly floated over to the slime and hovered near it. Its light was somewhat fainter compared to when it was first summoned. With a chuckle Ian took the liter of water out of his inventory and place it in the corner opposite of the spider’s web. The presence of water perked the elemental up, and it zoomed over with a much brighter light.
Race:
Inferior Water Elemental (Lesser)
Rank:
G
Attribute:
Water
Development:
0/100
Titles:
None
Skills
Water Creation
Water Sense
Water Shot
Description
The lowest rank water elemental. A newborn elemental that perks up at the sign of any amount of water. These monsters will naturally spawn near sources of water even when the density of ambient mana is low. While categorized as monsters, they will not attack unless provoked. However, the simple act of being near their chosen water source will be seen as a provocation. They can create, shoot, and sense water.
Common Item Drops
G mana heart
Water
Ian felt that having only one of each creature was lonely, so he made four more of the monsters currently in the core room along with five of each spider stage of life. The water elementals all rushed to the water in the corner and started flashing their lights at one another. The clear web spiders all went to the corner with the original clear web spider and started making their own webs. The biotic spiders all went to a separate corner with the females carrying the egg sacks he created. The new jellies and slimes seemed disinterested in the first two he had created and explored the room by themselves. Ian was worried that they would eat each other, even though the jelly didn’t eat the egg sack until he ordered it, so he ordered them not to just in case.
With all the monsters and animals running about, Ian needed some plants. Ian summoned the Green Cave Fern Spore, aged it into a Green Cave Fern Seedling, and aged it again into a Green Cave Fern.
Race:
Green Cave Fern
Gender:
Hermaphrodite
Attribute:
Nature
Development:
0/100
Description
A type of fern commonly found in shallow caves. The furled fronds of a young fern can be eaten. Is used as a basic green plant in potion making.
The large unfurled leaves of the fern were quite pleasant to look at, but Ian had made the mistake of growing it right in front of his pedestal. Ian imagined shifting the plant near the entrance and it moved according to his desires. Well, more like teleport. It didn’t uproot itself and walk over. Ian proceeded down the aging process for both his Green Cave Moss Spore and Phosphorescent Cave Mold Spore.
The moss and mold aged differently than the fern. The fern spore was one individual throughout the aging process, but a small colony of individuals formed upon aging the moss and mold spores and the next aging made both colonies one meter square mats.
Race:
Green Cave Moss
Gender:
Male/Female
Attribute:
Nature
Development:
0/100
Description
A type of moss found commonly in shallow caves. The moss is soft enough to be used as bedding and mat like feature makes it good for insulation. Used to produce a minor calming effect in potions.
Race:
Phosphorescent Cave Mold
Attribute:
Nature
Development:
0/100
Description
A rare mold found in deep caves. It can be used as an ingredient in health potions. Health potions made with this mold will be phosphorescent which may turn off would be drinkers.
Ian moved the two mats near the entrance and made four more ferns to go with them. Ian sprinkled the five spores and seedlings among the adult ferns, but didn’t produce any more moss or mold as they already took up quite a bit of space. Next Ian produced Moving Moss [G-].
Race:
Moving Moss
Rank:
G-
Gender:
Male/Female
Attribute:
Nature
Development:
0/100
Titles:
None
Skills
Spore Creation
Separation
Description
A sentient plant monster. It uses spores in an attempt to asphyxiate organisms, but the amount it produces is too small to do so. The spores can cause coughing fits and lung issues if left untreated. This monster is a collection of individuals and can separate themselves in an attempt at self preservation. The roots of Moving Moss allow it to slowly crawl across surfaces and onto dead organisms which it will then suck dry. Most often found in caves and forests.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart
Moss
The Moving Moss slowly started moving towards the gathering of plants at Ian’s entrance. It reached the plants after a couple of hours and settled down next to the non-sentient mat of moss. Ian thanked the monster for such a great idea for his first floor.
Ian summoned the white centipede egg, aged it to its larval form, then aged it to an adult centipede.
Race:
Zogon Serrated Centipede
Gender:
Male
Attribute:
Nature
Development:
0/100
Description
A common insect in the Zogon Jungles. The serrated part of this centipede’s name comes from combination of its jaws and the pointed edges of its exoskeleton. If eaten like its cousins, the eater will end up with a lacerated mouth and a bad day.
Four more centipedes were quickly created and they scurried off to hide in the plants. Now all Ian had left were the more intelligent monsters….well their baby versions at least.
Ian created the Newborn Goblin first. As it appeared in front of his pedestal, it was half the size of a normal human newborn, with green skin, pointed ears, and sharp teeth. The odd part however was the presence of a tiny loincloth. He was pretty sure creatures weren’t normally born with loincloths. At least, Ian had never seen one before. Was this a particular of dungeon created monsters? Was his subconscious acting again by saying that since it was humanoid it was required to wear clothes? Did the gods set it up to not offend the sensibilities of adventurers if they ever came across them? Even thought it was unusual, it was pleasant for Ian, since he currently had no clothes for his creatures to wear. He also didn’t have any hands to dress them.
It seemed the newborn goblin was taking a bit to get used to its situation. However, its scrunched up face indicated an imminent calamity. As Ian suspected, the newborn goblin started wailing. The spiders all rushed to the corners of their webs, it seemed like the moving moss may have jumped a bit, the water elementals didn’t seem to care at all, and all but the first jelly and slime rushed over to the newborn goblin. Ian didn’t want to see a newborn goblin get absorbed by a bunch of jellies and slimes, so he prepared to call them off. But rather than eat the goblin, upon reaching it they started to rock it back and forth. After a couple of minutes the goblin stopped crying, but rather than scatter back around the room the slimes and jellies made sure to keep within a certain distance of the goblin.
….What was that? First the slime and jelly that liked to run in circles around his pedestal and now slimes and jellies that took care of children? There was no way this was normal behavior. ….Well, it could be. While he was considered the premier researcher of monsters, he still didn’t know everything there was to know about them. However, monsters with acidic bodies taking care of children must be unusual. If these weren’t normal behaviors, then what caused them? Another part of his subconscious influencing his dungeon without his conscious’ say? His subconscious seemed to be denying that possibility, but it looked a bit guilty in his opinion.
Rather than his subconscious it might be his soul that was making the slimes and jellies behave this way. Tidon had said that a lot of his dungeon was determined by the composition of his soul, and if his soul was anything like him, then it wanted as many varieties of monsters as possible. Creatures performing unusual acts would be a good way to acquire unique evolutions, but it seemed to only be affecting the slimes and jellies. ….The Moving Moss getting surprised might be considered unusual however. ….Twins of versatility, the inherent trait of slimes and jellies to take on the traits of the things they eat and the surrounding environment, may be causing an increased correction on their nature. That meant his other creatures were likely affected, but besides the moving moss he couldn’t discern any major signs of unusual behavior yet. Interesting. Very Interesting. Ian had planned to mainly forcefully evolve his creatures but letting some of them evolve naturally would create new variants. The problem was they might be killed by intruders before they reached one hundred percent development. He should check the dungeon shop later for ways to keep development after death besides creating his Named Monsters.
Ian turned his attention back to the newborn goblin now sleeping peacefully.
Race:
Newborn Goblin
Rank:
G-
Gender:
Female
Attribute:
Neutral
Development:
0/100
Titles:
None
Skills
Stench
Description
A newborn goblin monster. As this monster has just recently been born, it is unable to fend for itself. Even though it is considered a monster, it poses no threat besides the small odor that emanates from it. Goblins are considered the most common monster. While not strong individually, their high breeding rate poses a threat to sapient race villages.
Common Item Drops
G- mana heart
Goblin Ear
He hadn’t noticed it before, but it seemed he didn’t have the ability to smell as a dungeon. Ian would have fretted on this point more if not for the fact that he would get an avatar at level 100. The Newborn Goblin was a good example of while ranks had a heavily correlation with the strength of a monster they weren’t directly related. The slimes, jellies, or moving moss could easily kill this baby. Ian had tested the mana capacities of different creatures searching for the direct link, but that had even less of a correlation than overall strength. Ian’s new knowledge that the entire universe was made from mana combined with his short time as a dungeon made him think that ranks might be related to how much mana is used to create them. He had been observing each summoning and each rank had the same amount of mana used to create the physical structure. More data points would be needed however to support his hypothesis.
Next he summoned the newborn oni. What appeared was a baby twice the size of a normal human baby. It had bright red skin, a single horn slightly above its forehead, pointed teeth with two large fangs pointing downward and outward, claws on its hands and feet, fierce eyes, and a spotted loincloth. Even though the fierce eyes made it seem older than a newborn, the moment it started crying gave away its age. Sensing the new crying newborn, the slimes and jellies went over to comfort it.
Race:
Newborn Oni
Rank:
F
Gender:
Male
Attribute:
Strength
Development:
0/100
Titles:
None
Skills
Fear
Claw Swipe
Bite
Headbutt
Description
A newborn of the Oni race of monsters. Unlike most newborns the newborn oni is not completely defenseless. While unable to move on its own and dependent on its parents for sustenance, it is able to defend itself from predators by clawing, biting, or headbutting them. Many have tried to befriend Oni due to their humanoid nature and fierce eyes that bespeak intelligence, but most end up dead. While intelligent, Oni are ruled by their anger and rage and will kill without provocation.
Common Item Drops
F mana heart
Oni Horn
Ian had chosen Oni as one of his starting creatures due to their high strength, intelligence, and the fact that they were monsters. While Ian loved creatures of all shapes, sizes, and intelligence, he knew that without someone intelligent to talk to he may become stir crazy. The problem with Oni was their anger and rage overrode their intelligence. Ian’s goal was to erase this part of them even if it resulted in a weaker evolution. If his changes only resulted in a change to the base Oni, he would keep the original anger driven Oni because he still needed strength. Why hadn’t he just picked one of the sapient races? Because as much as Ian was a monster and dungeon researcher, he was also the Saint of Life and previously human. He knew he was being a hypocrite by experimenting on the Oni race just because they were monsters, but the years of empathy he developed for the sapient races wouldn’t go away at the drop of a hat. But Ian knew he would have to get over his aversion to experimenting on the sapient races eventually. His unwillingness to experiment on beings he knew were sapient had also led him to pick the wyvern over the dragon.
Only one left, the Newborn Wyvern. The lesser dragon was one meter long with a wingspan of two meters. It consisted of primarily grey scales with a white underbelly. After looking around for a bit, it started calling out for its mother. The slimes and jellies immediately rushed over to it and nestled up to it. The wyvern seemed confused but layed down to sleep nestled between jellies and slimes.
Race:
Newborn Wyvern
Rank:
E
Gender:
Male
Attribute:
Neutral
Development:
0/100
Titles:
None
Skills
Flight
Scale Defense
Bite
Tail Swipe
Description
A newborn of the wyvern race of monsters. While much weaker compared to its adult form, unprepared low level adventurers are liable to die fighting one. As it is a newborn, it relies on its mother for sustenance. However, even as a newborn it is able to acquire food and water on its own. As a newborn the direction of its magic and breath attack is yet to be determined.
Common Item Drops
E mana heart
Wyvern Fang
As Ian looked over the three newborns laying on the floor of his core room, it struck him how odd it was he had to summon newborn monsters, eggs, and spores. The few times Ian was lucky enough to observe a monster spawn from ambient mana, they always spawned in as fully formed adults of the species. Ian surmised that as a dungeon he had to start from the bottom and work his way up. The fact that he had never encountered baby monsters in any of his dungeon dives did concern him, but it made sense that a dungeon wouldn’t want to summon any more baby monsters if they had the ability to summon adult monsters.
Ian summoned four more of each newborn along with a hundred slimes and jellies to take care of them. He observed the newborns as they cried out and were placated by the slimes and jellies. The scene caused Ian’s heart to sink. Everything Ian had been holding in the back of his mind rushed to the forefront. The kids he and Estella had planned to have after their adventuring days would never happen. He’d never hold the their children in his arms, he’d never rock them to sleep, he’d never fight with them over what to do with their lives, he’d never do anything with them as they would never exist. He missed Estella and the way her smile brightened the room. He missed Seth with his auburn hair and bulging muscles. He missed Nina with her long, black hair and nose always in a book. He missed Andre and Mackenzie with their stereotypical robes and mage hats along with their discussions on magic. He even missed the townsfolk who thanked him after he treated their wounds. The sense of loss that Ian had ignored overwhelmed him. Ian’s book shook as he sobbed to himself.
Many minutes later Ian had calmed down some. Ian liked being a dungeon and the last week and a half was one of the most enjoyable parts of his two lives, but no matter how enjoyable something was it didn't prevent him from missing the people he loved. Ian wished he could slap himself. He knew better than to keep his emotions locked away. Estella was the one who taught him that. As sad as he was about no longer being with Estella and his friends, and no longer having a future as a human with them, he shouldn’t and wouldn’t give up. At level one hundred he’d get an avatar, he’d find Estella, Nina, Seth, Andre, and Mackenzie, and he’d overcome the restrictions placed on him as a dungeon and let them know who he was. He was Ian Irwin, and he wouldn’t let death or godly restrictions keep him from what he wanted. For now, he needed to make a floor.