A deep sigh sounded throughout the quiet cavern west of the Capital City. In a comfortable looking reclining chair sat a casual Skeleton, lounging around in warmups and a baggy t-shirt drinking a bottle of Mana Ale that was popularly sold through the Shop.
One of the first things Sammy did was set up a brewery for the stuff. He just got told that another Sam had joined the group and would possibly be confused on more than one occasion, however, no one talked to him in order to confuse the two.
What was so special about a pretty girly boy? He, Sampson Oakson, was a Commander over a hundred powerful Skeletons! But ever since this Mimic appeared, Sammy was thrown to the side. Sammy just lazed about with nothing to do. There were already the necessary 4 Floors to this Dungeon, but Sammy was needed to increase newcomers.
He controlled some of the Elites to sometimes attack the survivors, but never killing anyone. People would get angry and storm the Dungeon, but when they realized the possibilities of the Dungeon, they tried to keep it a secret. So Sammy had another entrance built. The two entrances would meet at the Third Floor so several groups would have the chance to fight the Dungeon.
There was also a secret entrance from above that messengers could use to drop off rewards and stuff Sammy could use. Unfortunately, nothing else came. He wasn’t talked to often…at all, actually. So he installed a secret pathway that connected every room and every floor to his room so he could travel around and watch the adventurers.
He picked out his favorites and made little gambles with himself if they would win or not. Of course, he used it to scope out the enemies. He still wasn’t guarded since he had two Skills already. He managed to get the Wind Essence and Split Skills. They worked really well with each other.
He combined them and made a Splitting Strike, a Combo that when used, the attack would split anything that followed the strike, sort of like a flying wind blade, but on a monstrous level. He could even split a house in two! In fact, the attack would travel for approximately 20 feet! So his room on the Fifth Floor was just one massive room.
He didn’t have a magic related Job, but he instead had a Royal Status. This allowed him to have Units. He became a Level 4 and the Dungeon became his Domain. The Mimic may have been a Level 4 as well, but it was a Unit so it couldn’t be a Noble.
Ha! I will show you! I can be great as well!
So far, no one has even beaten the first boss, much less gone past the First Floor. The set up was in a graveyard, something Andrew thought would be funny and ironic. It was to him and the others, but to Sammy, he could swear he would see movement at the edges of his vision at all times. He eventually got used to it, but the adventurers were scared shitless when Sammy tried having the Skeletons dig out of the ground.
He even made a sort of catacomb passageway with ‘tombs’ on the side. When a Human passed, the Skeleton would ‘waken’ and attack, causing the people that came to suffer a little insanity and check everything they ever walked up to.
Andrew was actually a major prankster at heart, apparently. He sent several chests, one of which was actually a Skeleton in disguise. There were little slots in the bottom for the Skeleton to stick its feet through. By doing this, it could even move about and chase after the unfortunate adventurer.
Sammy used this once or twice and had the other chests have some small tool or weapon. Sometimes, he would leave seeds or GP, which looked like little blue square shaped coins. When the adventurers had first seen this, their eyes had opened wide and they continued with vigor.
When the Chest Mimic was first seen, however, one unfortunate soul was lost. Since then, the Chest Mimic had taken another couple of lives. Unlike the Skeleton Mimic, the Chest Mimic was only a Level 1. Sammy didn’t know why Andrew chose not to enhance it either. But soon another Chest Mimic appeared. This time, the chest was golden in color and was brought along with other similarly golden chests.
Inside was a Level 3 Chest Mimic.
Sammy didn’t know what happened to the Level 2, but that could probably be fixed by the Level 1 evolving.
Since he was bored, Sammy made several separate rooms on the Fifth Floor that had other non-combative uses. He had a work shop that some low Level Skeletons used to craft weak clothes and weak weaponry. These would be for the Skeletons and count as Common Drops. The rewards that Andrew sent would be treated as Special Drops and the little GP and seeds and such would be Uncommon Drops.
Sammy may have been lazy, but he was enjoying his time.
Another room was for monster breeding. Sammy had earned several hundreds of GP from killing Clans by himself so he Summoned some Pets but got a Slime and a Vile Rat. He bought another Rat and started breeding them, feeding the offspring to the Slime, making it split.
The other Dungeon entrance had the Rats and Slimes for the First and Second Floors. After that, there was the Skeletons. Some really strong Slimes or Rats earned the right to walk around on the Third Floor, being Level 2, but no one came to the other entrance yet.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Maybe he should try and attack another settlement soon…
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POV CHANGE
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It was getting late when Dani was coming back to the little village that the nearby survivors had scrounged up. She was tired and hungry as usual, with no way to get stronger since the nearby Clan, the Fast Fists, found the Dungeon created by the Lich Lord. She wanted to join, but her parents said no. She was already 19, but that mattered little during the apocalypse, after all.
She came back to see several large black rats with piercing red eyes attacking the village!
“Mom! Dad!”
“Over here, sweety!”
She looked over to see her Dad scaring off one Rat with a pitchfork by waving it around in front of him. The rat stayed in place, but hissed before scurrying away. None of the rats or people had died, but some men chased after them because they needed the food.
It was surprising that they weren’t Undead, but it was a good sign, even if people were hurt.
After making sure her parents were okay, she, too gave chase. The four men and one girl managed to track the rats to a broken cheese store. It was tacky and a major stereotype to think that the rats came here, but when they entered the stinky building, they did see large rat droppings and teeth marks on everything.
They found a cellar door and entered, walking down the stairs. But when their feet hit the floor, they saw a massive hole in the wall.
“Is…is this a Dungeon?”
Dani heard something, but when she looked around, only the other three were there and none of them were what she noticed.
It felt like cracking from behind the walls…
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POV CHANGE
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After the four people left, Sammy was ecstatic. Maybe these people would have better luck! And he actually saw someone he used to know, which was weird. He should ask him who the girl was, she was rather pretty.
But enough about that! Time to get the place situated for visitors!
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Maybe about a week later, Sammy saw the second Dungeon being entered. However, it wasn’t the normal people, instead, it was the Clan guys from the first Dungeon! How dare they?!
These guys were the toughest of the bunch so they actually managed to get through the First Floor with ease. He guessed Rats wouldn’t be as difficult as Skeletons. But when they entered the Second Floor, they were forced to turn back. There wasn’t a lot of gifts and the Large Rat that was the boss of the First Floor only dropped a Rat Tail Whip.
There were no Uncommon Drops or even Common Drops. Was it because the Dungeon was weaker?
No, it was because Sammy wasn’t planning for the people to reach the surface. Why give them gifts if they weren’t going to live? The Whip was only because they beat the boss. Now, however, their path to the surface was blocked by several Elite Skeletons. They all died screaming like pigs, and Sammy enjoyed it. These guys were ruining business, after all.
These guys were only a secondary party and weren’t the actual champions of the Clan, however, they would probably know what happened to them by now. Sammy sent a Rat to the outside and it came back expressing to him through the Pet/Owner communication that the survivors outside were gone! There were no bodies, and there was no blood, but there must have been some people that took the locals here away!
Sammy was unaware that he didn’t have to get involved, but he was being influenced not only by his connection to Andrew, but by some deeper and more powerful urge.
His ego.
The sole purpose of creating a separate Dungeon was to have more people enter and these bastards ruined his plans! When someone else ruins your plans, it’s obvious that they need to be disciplined! Sammy went down to the Third Floor to ready his troops.