Chapter 10: To delve once more
[Dungeon is currently not occupied by a [Party]]
[Repopulating mobs]
Lethe watched as his slimes started spawning throughout his dungeon once more. First, the three [Acid Slime]s in the first room rose from the bottom of their pools. Then the [Stone Slime] in the first tunnel sank out of a wall and moved to the ceiling as he had previously instructed. Finally, the slimes for the central room, each of them spawning and returning to their positions. The chipped rocks, the footprints on the dusty floor of the cavern, the frayed vines that the party had used to scale the walls, all repairing and returning to how they were, as if time itself had reversed.
[Jones and Folks] had made decent progress, with essentially the last leg of the floor left to conquer. In retrospect though, most of his mob points went towards the mobs that they weren't able to face. The large [Stone Slime] in the second tunnel was the biggest obstacle in his opinion. If they were able to defeat the rank 3 slime, they would be able to face the boss, hopefully with some losses. From what he knew, he would need 1 adventurer to be killed to get enough XP for the next floor. He wasn't aware of how the adventurer's spent their XP, but it seemed that he received XP based on the rank as well as the adventurers. He would then be able to upgrade his mobs for the first floor enough so that they wouldn't just be basic rank 1 threats. Although, doing so for the already upgraded mobs would be more difficult. He guessed that mob points were limited as they gave him the complete value whereas XP that he received or assigned to a mob were only the leftovers from the soul being harvested. Regardless, Lethe switched his attention to his first floor. He didn't want to change anything about the floor yet; however, he could think of a few improvements. As he started going through the details of his dungeon, investigating what he would want to alter, time seemed to ebb and flow without notice.
Soon enough, Lethe's attention drifted back to the entrance of the dungeon. He saw with his limited view of the outside that [Jones and Folks] had returned. The party seemed to be doing much better in terms of morale since their escape the day before. However, the dungeon core also detected a sense of determination from them, as if their delve yesterday had only been a scouting trip. Without so much as a word, their [Acolyte] took the lead and entered the dungeon followed closely by the rest of his party. The spectating core was shown a repeat of yesterday's performance, the group instantly going into formation as they strode forward to the first room. Before the [Acid Slime]s could engage though, an arrow and a [Flare] hit each of the two mobs, with the [Shieldbearer] grabbing the attention of both. The party didn't wander into the room either, staying near the entrance so that the range of engagement would only cover their melee combatants.
Like a well-oiled machine, the party mowed through the two [Acid Slime]s, harvesting the coin, and moving onto the third one, the [Shieldbearer] at the lead. As soon as the man reached the threshold for the [Rule] to trigger, the [Acid Slime] launched itself at him before being rebuffed by a block from the shield that had it sink into the floor of the cavern. A couple of minutes later, the room was cleared. Without any preamble the group headed into the tunnel, performing another pre-emptive strike against the ceiling-borne slime, which Lethe noted he should establish a rule for it to change locations frequently perhaps. Being stretched out as it was, the encounter had no more risk for the party than their first room, and soon enough, they were on the precipice of the second central room. Tuning into what the party were talking about, Lethe noted that they were debating whether to kill the [Stone Slime]s or let them merge once more. Considering that they would get bonus experience if they let it merge and were able to keep the encounter controlled, it could be a worthy farming tactic. And seeing as it was unlikely for them to have increased their level yesterday, they would once more have to retreat from the rank 3 [Stone Slime] in the second tunnel.
Soon enough, with the talking completed, the group descended to the floor and engaged the [Acid Slime] at the center. The formation was somewhat different though, with both melee combatants staying close to the [Acolyte] while the two ranged started to burst down the [Acid Slime]. Soon enough, the [Stone Slime]s from the walls launched themselves at the group and were lured away by the melee combatants. For a moment, Lethe thought that the [Stone Slime]s would not merge as they had the day before; however, when the pace of the engagement was set, the same maneuver that they used yesterday repeated itself. Both of the [Stone Slime]s retreated from combat and merged together. Different from their last encounter with the upgraded mob though, this time the [Shieldbearer] didn't stand and wait for the slime to engage. Instead, he charged at the slime just as it was finished with its transformation.
As the encounter continued, Lethe noticed that the [Shieldbearer] seemed to be able to handle the mob much better today without as much strain. Thinking on it further, the dungeon core realized that it had to do with initiative. As the [Shieldbearer] had been the one to initiate combat this time instead of having to hold his ground, he was able to dodge strikes instead of only being able to block them. Soon enough, the monster was brought down and a shower of coins and cubed stones dropped. After taking a few minutes to rest and gather the loot, the party headed back the way they came and were soon out of the dungeon once more, this time without any tribute.
An interesting point that Lethe grasped after seeing the [Stone Slime+] mob once more was the difference between his [Level] and the [Rank] of mobs. From what he gathered, his levels and XP needs were only relevant for creating new floors. Any increase in his [Level] would not contribute to an increase in the mob point's rank as they were two separate systems. For a mob to have a higher rank, they would have to either be combined or merged, at least for [Slime]s. Whether this would hold true for other types of mobs, he wasn't sure yet. Another fact that he observed were the skill ranks, which he guessed demonstrated mastery of a skill. He wondered what would happen if he increased a skill rank to its maximum. From observing the party, he understood that adventurer's also had different ways in which to increase their powers but it seemed to be a mix of both his leveling system and the mob-based rank system, with [Rank]s being the threshold and [Level]s being the steps.
A pulse of mana spread throughout the dungeon with all of his mobs repopulating once more. Looking out of his entrance, Lethe guessed that about 2 hours had passed since [Jones and Folks] had left. And as if on cue, he saw the same group trekking up to the entrance once more to delve.
-------
Phoebus, the local star, had already set over the horizon while a canvas of ebony spread across the heavens, distant celestial bodies blinking across the night sky. Lethe watched as the party went outside of the dungeon once more, doing a total of 4 delves for the day. As he watched the [Acolyte] exit, Lethe couldn't help but wistfully remark the lack of tribute. Perhaps they could only provide tribute to a dungeon once? As he sulked by himself, he noticed that the group reentered and each of them gave a bow.
"Honored dungeon core, please accept this tribute for the trials that you have allowed us to participate for the day." Lethe turned around and watched as the [Acolyte] was bowing towards the first room. "Just between ya' and me, we figured we should send the tribute afta' we finished all our runs and got the bonus from the system hehe." the [Acolyte] stated, his tone reminiscent of a sly fox. As each of them gave him a bow, they stepped out of the dungeon, while a slew of notifications bombarded Lethe.
[Ding! Tribute XP received from party [Jones and Folks]]
[136 XP received!]
[XP 153/100]
[Ding! Core is ready to level up! Warning: Increasing levels will close access to [Dungeon] until the process has finished.]
[Increase level? Yes/No]
Reading the notifications, a moment of confusion gripped Lethe. He had calculated how he received 17 XP the day before, even though it was just 1 run they had completed instead of the 4 runs today. If he received the same percentage as tribute, he should've received 85 XP. Yet, he received 136 XP instead! That's almost 1.5 times the amount he should've received! The party had killed the same amount of mobs per run as they had the day before, which would be a total of 680 XP. Thinking back to what the [Acolyte] had mentioned, Lethe realized that they were actually receiving a bonus from the system. He didn't know exactly what percentage of a bonus they received, but since he received 136 XP, and each of them still donated 10%, then that means they had each given him 27.2 XP. Extrapolating further, this would be 10% of 272 XP, which is the total each of them received after 4 runs. So for each run they would have each received 68 XP, which is exactly double of what they should've received based on his tribute from yesterday. This would mean that they received a 100% XP as a reward after exiting the dungeon!
Being able to finally solve the dilemma he had suddenly encountered, he started to notice a large sense of pressure on himself. He realized that the pressure was due to him carrying more than the allowed XP, which seemed to be growing stronger every minute. Not wanting to find out the consequences of oversaturating his core, Lethe accepted the prompts to increase his level. Instantly, he saw that the opaque veil at the entrance of his dungeon had become dark while chunks of green and grey motes of light emerged from his core, sinking throughout his dungeon. He felt his territory solidify, which he instinctively knew meant that the territory for his first floor had just become immutable. He would still be able to change around the rooms but he wouldn't be able to add any further territory at least relating to his first floor. Furthermore, he started to feel his gem, his body, his core, start to shake and tremble. He watched as the emerald gemstone started to float away from the loam that had hidden it, glowing in a viridescent shade. He felt himself grow larger and saw that a new layer had enveloped his body, before burrowing into the bottom of the floor and tunneling through the dungeon. The small path his octahedron core created filled itself automatically as he exited at the ceiling of the final room and started to float behind the [Locked Chest] in the small alcove he had created. Before he could observe anything further, a weight descended onto his mind, his perception slowly sinking into the gem. The last thing he saw was a brilliant, deep green flash of light and felt himself sinking into the soil once more.
------
Jones was a happy man tonight. A jubilant smile was plastered on his face as he drank from the limited amount of liquor that the group had. Looking around the campsite, he felt a flutter in his chest upon seeing the similarly happy expressions of his brothers. They had farmed the dungeon four times today and Jones could hardly believe that he had received enough XP to level up again! He was also halfway through to level 7 as well, which he should be able to reach by tomorrow.
"Oy, you guys!" Jones exclaimed, gathering the attention of his party members. Seeing as all of them were looking at him, he continued. "We gonna have this XP boost for five more days. Shame we basically wasted it on the first day but what can ya do. How about we continue to grind tomorrow and the day after as well, try to get five runs in this time, and try ta tackle the next part when we gots 2 days left? We should all be level 8 by then, I think we can take it on then."
A murmur of nods and grins made its way across the small camp as they all agreed to the plan.
"Hoorah! I'll drink ta that!" George yelled, standing up from the stump he was sitting on. In his hand was a small cup filled with an ash-grey liquor, a local Deshvit brew they were able to get their hands on when they still had some coin left over. He threw the alcoholic concoction down his gullet as the rest of the party lifted their cups with him and drank with him. A sense of cheer and expectation to the future hung around the group, each of them talking about the monsters they slew, sharing what they felt when they were fighting.
As he finished his own drink, Jones sat up and looked up to the hill that their fortunes would come from, barely able to see the entrance to the dungeon. Suddenly, he noticed that the usual grey glimmer on the entrance that was even evident in the middle of the night had changed, shifting to a dark obsidian, as black as the midnight sky. Soon after, a squall buffeted the surroundings, knocking Jones down on to his back where he felt a slight tremor going through the ground, pebbles and twigs bouncing and vibrating across the clearing. The rest of the party noticed the changes as well but before they could figure out what could be going on, everything stopped. The wind became calm once more and the shivering of the earth ceased. The group looked at each other and then as one looked towards the entrance of the dungeon, seeing the grey shimmer once more.
"Think I drank a lil' too much ta soon Jonesy." George said. "Aye, think we all might've or it might that our local dungeon there got an upgrade." Jones replied, standing up and brushing the dirt off of his robes.
"Think it's still safe ta go there tomorrow Jones?" Harry asked. "It'll be fine. Now y'all, I'm gonna hit the hay, we'r doing 6 runs tomorrow up and early! Wake me up when its ma turn ta watch!" Jones replied, sliding into his bedroll and turning away from the fire.
"Well, ya heard him. George, first watch's on you." Harry replied, doing the same as the rest of his party members bar George.
"Why am I always first...."
------