A while later, once I’d stopped myself from just admiring my new strongest Guardian, I moved on to checking my own status. I wanted to see how much Experience I’d gotten from the woman’s visit, as well as making the finishing touches to the Floor layout, and Naming Obelisk.
I wished I’d remembered to have checked it before doing those second and third things, but I’d been too eager to get started… A lesson for next time. At least I remembered before finalizing the Floor, which was the thing that actually had the System notification for giving me Experience. Which I hoped meant it was the more important thing as opposed to the actual building process.
Now let me see here… I had 1189/4000 Experience. That was pretty good. Better than I’d been expecting, certainly. I’d gained over 1000 points since the visit, as manually increasing the level of my creatures naturally didn’t give me any Experience. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to get from finalizing the Floor, but I wasn’t going to waste time trying to work it out with calculations. I would just finalize it and see.
Floor finished!
Experience Gained…
Level Up!
[1 New Dungeon Perk Available]!
Skill [Swift Descent] available!
I almost let out an excited yelp as I felt the System enhancements settling into the designs across the courtyard, strengthening them and locking them into place. I actually really leveled up! A part of me had hoped, but mostly I hadn’t been expecting to actually be able to get enough Experience. I really had to thank that ‘Katherine Verantz’ once she came back. Thanks to her I could proceed with my fourth Floor as planned. I already knew what I was going to be doing, and was eager to try to see if I could do an even better job than I’d done on the third…
Shaking myself I forced my mind back to the present. I wasn’t going to rush ahead any longer. I was going to think things through properly. I checked my status again, and confirmed that finalizing the third Floor had given me 3000 Experience. Maybe that was the pattern? Finalizing a Floor gains 1000 times its number? Or maybe it’s 100 times the maximum level?
Those two might sound the same, but I noticed that the requirements for reaching the next level had once again doubled from 4000 to 8000. Having the Floor number determine the gain would give me much more Experience on later Floors compared to having it be determined from the level of the creatures, assuming the doubling of the requirements continued and I’d be forced to make more and more Floors per level. Which I had no reason to doubt it would. I suppose I’d have to wait and find out once I finalized the fifth Floor, because I didn’t think just making this fourth one was going to be enough to reach the next level unless there was a sudden influx of new Experience from somewhere.
Moving on from there I still managed to resist the urge to activate [Swift Descent] and instead moved onto selecting my new Perk. No more forgetting and accidentally having the Perk be deleted, thank you. This time I took my time reading through the various options, really stubbornly fighting the everlasting battle against boredom to try to get the perfect Perk that would help me create my Stories.
It took an hour, but eventually I managed to find and narrow it down to a list of three candidates.
[The Power In A Name]
Dungeon Perk, (Uncommon)
Increases the strengthening done by a Core’s Naming by 15%. Naming costs 25% more Mana.
[Spatial Contraction]
Dungeon Perk, (Uncommon)
Reduces the minimum size of a Floor by 50%.
[Vampiric Blessing]
Dungeon Perk, (Rare)
Core minions attuned to both the Death and Blood elements gain +15% Mana and Health, and recover Health based on damage dealt to living creatures outside the Dungeon’s control.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find any Perks regarding Edicts or Emissaries, but considering how rare the woman had said those things were, that wasn’t that surprising. I even tried to find ones that would increase my own Experience gain, or reduce the requirements needed for a new level, but again had no luck. Still though the ones I did find were pretty interesting in their own right. I was especially drawn to the first one, though I was also a bit hesitant since I wasn’t sure what that was going to do to the Names I’d already given. And it might be overly sentimental of me but it didn’t feel quite right to leave them out of it. Then again there were the Guardians of the first few Floors; they were meant to be the weakest of the lot. And besides, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that it wouldn’t apply to them, either. It was a risk, and a downside that slightly dulled my interest in the Perk. The main downside though was the increased cost, as I wasn’t sure how readily I’d be able to get enough Mana Crystals to be able to Name my higher level Guardians in any reasonable amount of time. And even with my increased resistance to boredom I still didn’t especially like waiting around, hoping for enough people to come Challenge me so that I could find someone that had spare Mana Crystals laying about.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Maybe I could send out a Quest? “Mana Crystals wanted. Paying in talent points?”
It might work, though I had no idea how valuable either of those two things actually were. Argh damit, I definitely should have asked the woman about that while she was here. As it was taking that Perk was a risk, in that not only might it not actively improve my current power level, but I might also find it difficult to use the Perk at all. But it was the most open ended Perk that both strengthened and would help tell a variety of Stories if it did work out.
On the almost complete opposite end of the spectrum stood the [Vampiric Blessing]. It was the most straightforward power-increasing Perk of three, but was severely limited in whom it would actually benefit. Right now the only creature that would actually get strengthened was Obelisk. None of my other Guardians had that combination of elements, and neither did any of my ordinary creatures. Not even the ones from the third Floor. But what it would do, and why I was interested in the Perk in the first place, was that it would boost what I was planning to build on these next Floors. And that was the Story I was most invested in at the moment. The middle option was just a solid all around benefit that worked well with the Perk I already had, and would greatly increase the variety of types of Floors I could develop in the future.
I pondered for a moment, but discarded the middle one first. The effect would be nice, but I wouldn’t need it right away. The fourth wouldn’t be a small Floor after all.
As I was in the middle of deep contemplation a fourth Perk caught my attention. Not for the Perk itself, though having the ability to split a Floor in the middle, with each half getting one slightly less powerful Guardian would definitely be something potentially interesting for the future. No, the reason it brought me out of my thinking was the idea it sparked of splitting a Floor in two, in fact it was an idea I’d already begun accidentally with the courtyard and the castle. Instead of literally splitting the Floor, I’d split it narratively. Making the exit of the last Floor the entrance to the next one, and allowing the Story to flow seamlessly between them. That way I could integrate the higher Experience requirements of several Floors per level into the narrative, and I wouldn’t have to wait around for Challengers after finishing each one.
That possibility, combined with the risks of the first Perk being at least temporarily useless, pushed me the final way to selecting the [Vampiric Blessing] as my level four Perk. With two Floors of the castle ahead of me as well as the courtyard receiving benefits, I would definitely be getting enough value out of it for the Perk to be worth the slot.
With that decided it was time to get started on the new Floor. This fourth one would be the Upper Castle, and would end in a grand meeting hall, which would then allow the Challenger to descend into the Lower Castle.
…I felt like the order didn’t make the most sense, as everyone knew that the leaders of castles were typically found near the top, not at the bottom. But damn it castles weren’t normally made under the ground like this. But I should be able to make it work. I’d have to make some adjustments to the design and plot, but I could only work within my own abilities. Maybe if I made the lower section a prison of some sort… Yeah that could be a good strategy. I could work with that.
I activated [Swift Descent], and my surroundings blurred as I rapidly began descending downwards from the courtyard. I went much further this time, reaching almost a full hundred meters below the third before I stopped, but that was all good. I’d need the space to get the Floor I wanted.
Fourth Floor begun, would you like to select a Guardian?
Nope. This time I was going to make the design of the Floor first, and really make sure I was able to select the Guardian I wanted. I dismissed the notification and felt a gleeful surge of enthusiasm as I went to work claiming what would be the dimensions of the upper castle, starting from the initial staircase down and continuing with where the different rooms and hallways would be.
And there the final hall with the Guardian would be… and then the staircase could go over there… Oh right I need a proper set of tables for this room…
A faint buzzing to my senses and a call from Stalker pulled me out of my focus. There was once again someone outside my Dungeon. Several someones, in fact. Two men and one woman. A quick check of their status told me they were all at the cap of my second Floor at level 20. For once I wasn’t that thrilled at the prospect of a Challenge, but I still forced myself to pull away from my creation and pay attention to the group of three as they stepped inside my first Floor. I quickly signaled to both my Mantas and my Bats to stay away. No good would come from attacking this group anyway with the level difference. The trio walked down the slope, then stopped once they entered the first cavern and looked around.
“I told you that Katherine was acting weird.” One of the men said. “But to think she was hiding something like a new Dungeon from us…”
“What else can be expected from the Adventurer’s Guild?” The other man scoffed. He turned to the woman. “You ought to know better than anyone, having been one of that lot, right Lenore?”
The woman just shook her head, her attention instead focused on the cave around her.
“There is something strange about this Dungeon.” She said. “It doesn’t feel like a normal first Floor should.”
The first man frowned. “Now that you mention it there is something different about the air here compared to in Lash. You think that’s why they’re keeping it secret?”
“If they think they can exploit it for profit I wouldn’t put it past them.” The second man said. “Or maybe they just don’t know how to handle this stuff properly. You know, one time there was this adventurer who found a…”
“Would you focus, Trald.” The first man said, annoyed. “We have a report to make for the Bishop.”
“Yeah, yeah.” the man called Trald said. “Speaking of that, now that we found what Katherine was hiding shouldn’t we, you know… go make that report? Why did you guys even want to go in here?” He shivered and rubbed his hands against his arms. “This place gives me the creeps. And it’s just a standard freaking cave Floor anyway. There’s nothing interesting to even find in here.”
I let out an offended scoff. What did that man know about Dungeon design? Or design in general for that matter, considering his outfit. If he hadn’t been so high level for the Floor I’d have sicked my Bats on him, taught him a lesson. For now though all I could do was wait, and hope they went further down.
“Don’t be a baby, Trald.” The woman, Lenore, said. Then she frowned, and continued with a sigh. “But you’re right; we do have a report to make. And as much as I’d like to stay and Challenge for Tier 3, Katherine and the Guilders already have a several day headstart on us. Come on, let’s get going. We need to be a bit closer for a message stone to reach.”
The woman spun, leading the men back up the slope and out of my Dungeon once again. I was left a bit stunned as I watched them go, a strange mix of frustrations boiling up within me. At first I’d been annoyed when they had first arrived and interrupted my work. But now I was frustrated that they disturbed me and then just left without actually doing anything. I especially wanted that Trald guy to Challenge my second Floor. He didn’t have the look of someone who could handle it well, and was annoying enough that I was eager to see him brought down a peg or three.
…Anyway, whatever was going on up above didn’t matter to me that much, and it was time to get back to doing something actually worth my time. I had a castle to make.