When Elduin Corylus woke up he was all alone. This didn't surprise him. He would have done the same. So he simply picked himself up and powerwalked as he tried to find his Party.

The 2nd Floor started with a much bigger room. I'm never gonna find them in here. Uhm… I guess I'll find the next room and wait there…? Unless it looks like they kept going that is.

Unfortunately, Elduin was under the misguided assumption that his Party would already have activated all the traps and thus only looked for monsters. Falling into a hidden pitfall - this one with stone spikes on the bottom rather than the wooden spikes of the Floor above - and getting dive-bombed was something he had tried before. But there were two major differences this time: His Party wasn't near him. And it wasn't dragonets dive-bombing him.

The brown feathered wyverns stunned Elduin with one scream after another stopping him completely from attacking them back.

The wyverns had their first feast that day.

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Yes! It worked! When I had first learned about the forest wyvern's ability to stun through their screams, I had wondered if having the wyverns scream one after the other would leave someone completely paralyzed. And it did! I had first tested it out on the other three elves, but it seemed to have only half the effect when used on multiple people, so they hadn't ended up permanently stunned. But as several lung dragons had been nearby and cursed the Constitution Classer with bad luck before attacking, Paeral had still ended up dying. Just not due to my wyverns. Watch out for friendly fire guys! To Paeral's now extremely bad luck he had stepped into the path of one of Jaonos' crossbow arrows. His chainmail armor protected his chest well from slashing claws, but the arrowhead simply passed through and penetrated his heart.

When the remaining two elves attacked the lung dragons in their territory, they were hit with several bad luck curses each and ended up killed as well.

Bad luck is a powerful thing indeed!

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"Sergeant Tilia. The portal has opened again. Most likely the Dungeon has a 2nd Floor. We would like to request permission for the 4 of us to enter the Dungeon, sir."

Sergeant Tilia looked them over. "For what reason do you wish to enter the Dungeon?"

"To train our situational awareness, sir!" The soldier lied. He and his friends actually wanted to collect some BO's and sell them for extra money. "It might only have two levels, but it is still a Dungeon we've never been in before, sir."

Sergeant Tilia nodded, believing his story. "Good initiative soldier! I'll have a talk with lieutenant Alnus and come back to you. He might have someone else in mind who needs extra training."

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The sergeant came back soon after and gave them the go ahead.

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The next Party of elves didn't fare any better against the power of bad luck. This Party didn't end up separated but when they entered the bā zú lung dragons' territory they still ended up dying. I'm pretty good at giving my creatures strategies to follow if I say so myself! Even with the power of luck it would still have been unlikely that my creatures would have won without helpful tips and tricks from me.

As the 3rd elf of the 2nd elven Party died, I tiered up.

You have tiered up!

You are now level 10!

You can now make your 6th Floor.

You can now make 2nd tier traps and puzzles.

You can now pick the environment for your 2nd tier of Floors.

New Environment Desert Mountain River and lake Volcano

Awesome! What environment do I want this time…? Hmm… I can't see how 'river and lake' would give me anything new for my environment. I can already make streams and ponds - though not very deep ones - and I don't have enough room for rivers and lakes. So why would I- Uhh! The forest environment meant all my level up dragons were suited to the forest environment! 'River and lake' would then give me water dragons! Well I already have 1 in my lightning sea serpent. So do I need more? I mean more water-types would be nice but would 'desert'-, 'mountain'- or 'volcano'-type dragons be better?

Then the last elf died, and I got my - no longer halved - EXP.

1 level 17 sapient has been killed in your Dungeon.

2 level 18 sapients have been killed in your Dungeon.

1 level 19 sapient has been killed in your Dungeon.

You have gained 7,200 EXP.

First of Your Kind rewards you 1,440 EXP.

Status!

Personal Status Level: 10 EXP needed for level up: 4,100/4,100 Additional EXP: 15,219 Mana payment needed for level up: 1,130/1,200 Mana: 21.5/600 Mana regeneration: 210 per hour Floors: 3/6 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 4 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

I'm almost ready to level up already! I had been saving up mana since the first elven Party arrived. And with that fast a mana regeneration it will be in minutes!

What was this about 2nd tier traps and puzzles?

2nd tier traps can only be found through Skills or Abilities. A 2nd tier trap can only be used on a 2nd tier or higher Floor. 2nd tier puzzles can have the possibility of harm if a sapient fails to solve it. A 2nd tier puzzle can only be used on a 2nd tier or higher Floor.

Nice. But I should get back to the question of environment. First, I'll ask myself: what is my current goal?

Defending the Tribe by killing the elven slavers.

Then: what environment would best help me achieve this?

My first instinct says volcano due to fire's destructive tendencies. Mountain dragons are likely tough and might have powers over earth and stone. Desert dragons are likely good at camouflage. Water dragons - or sea serpents - are typically gigantic… and water is associated with healing… Which I definitely want but is not really helpful to my current goal.

Then I'll pick one of the others this time and 'river and lake' next time.

…

Mountain still sounds incredibly boring to me…

…

Desert dragons might help me ambush people but the environment itself sounds really boring too.

…

Give me some magma then! I pick the volcano environment!

Volcano selected.

I immediately tried to add some magma to The Trap Corridor.

Only one environment theme can be in effect per tier of Floors. Environment themes can not be changed later on.

Fuck that! New Rule: Environments can be mixed and don't have to be the same for the entire tier of Floors!

New Dungeon Rule: Mixed Environments: All rooms on a Floor have to mainly follow the same environment theme but can have some aspects of other environments mixed in.

Huh… Close enough. Magma was soon dripping from the ceiling at various places in The Trap Corridor.

Let's see what else I can do with this!

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You have leveled up!

You are now level 11!

Karmic smoke drake pattern obtained.

You can now create creatures of level 11.

The new Rule had meant I had ended up waiting an hour and a half before leveling up. Maybe I should have waited till after I had leveled up before making the Rule… But never mind that now! At least I had something new to do while waiting. I had decided to make certain areas drip magma from the ceiling but rarely and randomly. This way it would depend on people's awareness or - as people rarely looked up - their luck. And with your luck being tied to your karma level while in my Dungeon… Bad guys beware!

I couldn't mix the environments too much but that didn't really bother me. The biggest change I had wanted to make anyway was to change the far corner of The Wood of Rebirth to something fire themed. And I could do that just fine! Said corner now had cracks filled with magma and several plants constantly on fire. Good thing I can stop the fire from spreading.

… And that it doesn't actually consume the plants as both the plants and flames are a part of the environment.

Hmm… Should I focus on leveling up some more now that I can or should I work more on my Floors instead? Leveling up gives me more mana regeneration which lets me finish my Floors faster. But right now my goal is to protect the Tribe which leveling up won't help me with but more creatures, traps and puzzles would. But if I finish the 4th Floor it would be… well… it would be finished and thus the Tribe would be in between my Core and the elves.

… Hmm…

I think I'll almost finish the 4th Floor for now and then we'll see what the situation is.

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"The 1st Party should have been out by now." Lieutenant Tanithil Alnus had called a meeting with the two sergeants when the Dungeon Portal opened once again without any elves having left the Dungeon. "The Dungeon might have gotten a 2nd Floor by now, but it can't possibly have gotten a 3rd." Tanithil might not have studied Dungeons but he knew more about the elven controlled Dungeons than your average elf, as he had been quite fascinated by them in his youth. And no elven Dungeon had ever gotten a 3rd Floor only two weeks after their Portal appeared. "That means the entire Party somehow died despite them being a whole tier above the Dungeon's."

The two sergeants looked doubtingly at each other. "And you don't think they simply got delayed?" Sergeant Tilia suggested. "Maybe they found something interesting and stopped to examine it?"

Sergeant Castanea huffed, sounding annoyed. "Or maybe they've decided to simply disregard the orders of a swift return and instead took a break in there." Then his speech turned into mumbles. "Disrespectful soldiers. Every. Single. One of them!"

Now the lieutenant was the one looking doubtful. Tanithil shook his head. "Then the 2nd Party would have been the one to return instead." The lieutenant turned to look at sergeant Castanea. "Unless you are suggesting that the 1st Party is disregarding their orders so they can be lazy and the 2nd Party decided to wait for more than an hour for the 2nd Floor to clear without getting worried or annoyed at the long wait. And how exactly do you explain the Portal being open again if the 2nd Party is on the 1st Floor?"

The sergeant sighed and answered politely, the challenge reminding him of his lower rank. "I can't, lieutenant Alnus. Sorry for doubting you, sir."

"Then I suggest I report this anomaly to Captain Gleditsia." The sergeants agreed and the meeting was concluded.

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"A completely new Dungeon killed two Parties of high-end 2nd tiered elves?! Blasphemy! The rare loot must be alcohol and they want to keep it to themselves! Send a 3rd tier Party in after them before they drink it all!" Came captain Gleditsia's bellowing voice from the Communication Orb.

"But sir! The Dungeon can't possibly have more than two Floors!" Tanithil tried to defend his logic. "And yet the 1st Floor is ready for us to enter despite none of the Parties-" The lieutenant was cut off by the captain.

"Send a 3rd tier Party in to get my alcohol or I'll have you demoted!"

Tanithil closed his eyes tightly in frustration. "Yes, captain Gleditsia."

"Good! And don't disturb me again unless you got my alcohol!"

"Yes, captain Gleditsia." The line was cut abruptly making the rune covered Communication Orb go from glowing purple back to its softer blue glow.

Tanithil had only recently been promoted to lieutenant and hadn't been told anything about his assigned captain other than his last name. But now the pitying looks he had gotten from several elves made more sense. Clearly captain Gleditsia's main feature was that he was an alcoholic. Which in turn made him an awful captain as he didn't find his duties as important as his alcohol. Most likely the only reason Gleditsia was even a captain instead of a common soldier was due to him being a noble of some kind.

Not that Tanithil knew this for certain, but that's how he interpreted it.

There wasn't anything the lieutenant could do about it at that point in time, though. When the platoon returned, he would report it to the inspector general. But if the corruption stretched even there it would likely be deemed a "personality conflict". Then Tanithil would probably just be moved to the command of another captain, so he would at least be rid of captain Gleditsia himself. Hopefully it'll be dealt with properly, so he can get an actual punishment. He's putting lives at risk!

For now though, he had to obey his captain's command. Whether he liked it or not.

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In the 3rd elven Party three members were level 24 while the Fighter was level 25. They are sending higher level people in. They must have realized I killed the other two Parties then.

The 4 elves held the Classes of Scout, Fighter, Tank and Mage. Mage! I'll finally get to see magic then! I laughed mentally. And see it backfire!

While the Scout had a karma level of 67% the other three had levels under 25% but over 10%. As such none of the Party would be immediately attacked but three would get a bit of bad luck, 10% extra damage and would activate the traps as well as getting extra damage from them. And with the Mage's karma level being 11% it wouldn't take much before he gets attacked on sight. It all depends on how he reacts to peaceful 'monsters'.

The more balance in the Classes of the Party, combined with the higher levels makes me think the elves have decided to take me seriously.

…

I don't know if I'm ready for that…