Chapter 22

Pan watched as the no longer hungover group made their way back into the third floor, but paid them little attention after seeing that they were in perfect condition, and their chances of dying were quite low. He would have to prepare the bosses soon to give them a real challenge. He instead turned his focus to the entrance, where many more adventurers than usual were pouring in. It seemed that the rich spending of the intoxicated party had sparked interest in the third floor, and many wanted to try their luck. There were already nearly two hundred people lined up outside, and only the guilds insistence that the parties be paced out kept them from all attacking at once. Pan was slightly disappointed, since a large group moving at once would give him an excuse to increase his own numbers, and maybe pick off some of the mages to get the powers he desperately wanted. But if they played fair, then so would he.

It took nearly half a day for everyone to be allowed in, but at that point there was less than two hundred in the dungeon, mostly due to higher than average rates of attrition. It seemed that some parties got careless, figuring the large number of people clearing the dungeon ahead of them would mean there would be no enemies. Most deaths came on the second floor, but after a few survivors warned newcomers, the death rates fell dramatically. At least until they reached the second half. There, the massive jaguars had a field day, and by mid afternoon they were all so well fed that they didn’t even bother hunting the adventurers, much to Pan’s annoyance. However like every other biological process in the dungeon, their digestion worked rapidly, and they were back to hunting by the evening.

All in all, over forty adventurers died in that one day, Pan’s new personal record. He suspected it would be a while before that one was broken. All told, nearly one hundred and fifty adventurers were now in the safe room, which Pan had spent the day upgrading to meet the needs of the massive influx. There may not be one hundred and fifty there the next day, but being prepared for a lot seemed like a good idea. His renovations were extensive, and should provide him with extra mana to boot.

He had greatly expanded the sleeping rooms, with enough bunks for two hundred people of each gender. At the end of each bed was a chest, large enough to store most goods. The chests weren’t locked, unless the adventurer put twenty-five mana into it, “binding” it to them for twenty-four hours. In reality, most of the mana went straight to Pan’s pool, while a very small portion did bind them to an enchantment that locked the chest. They could pre-pay for as long as they wanted, and claiming a chest also claimed the bunk, which would give a painful jolt to anybody else who tried to use it without the claimant's consent. Of course, if the adventurer died, Pan would receive all their items as well. That modification wasn’t cheap, but it was the least expensive of his changes. Pan knew that it would pay off in the long run, and he had to spend mana to make mana.

Pan made another hallway, easily expandable, with a row of private rooms. One side of the hall had single rooms, sold at a price of two hundred and fifty mana per twenty-four hours, and the other side had suites that could fit a party of five for six hundred mana per twenty-four. The private rooms had better furniture, and the doors locked as well. The only problem was that he needed to use mana crystals to collect the mana, and those needed an anti-theft system. At each door was a mana crystal that the renters would fill, but if they were tampered with, the metal piece they were set in would deliver a fatal shock at Pan’s command. Once claimed, the room would only let the people in the party open the door.

Pan also made private crafting rooms and baths, paid for with mana of course, that were of higher quality than the public ones. All in all, he decided that the “inn” he had made would net him a substantial amount of mana as long as he had adventurers in it. By the time the first wave started trickling in, battered and bleeding from their fight with Adul, he was putting the finishing touches on the safe zone. He was surprised to see that he could make changes to the safe zone even with people in it, which was a relief. He had expected to need it empty if it ever needed expansion or modification, but it seemed that as long as the room had no dangers, and he wasn’t trying to create something intended to injure or kill an adventurer, it was allowed.

The newest party looked around in wonder, seeing the new safe zone in all it’s glory, nothing like the first party had described. They cleaned themselves up in the public baths and had a meal, before setting off to explore the next floor. While they were gone, Pan added the final change. He made a massive chest at the back of the room, with a token dispenser beside it. Adventurers were instructed to take a token, and then everything they killed on the floor would be recorded. When they put the token in the chest, they could collect all their loot at once, instead of needing to find a chest on the floor and carry the loot around. They could still use the old system if they prefered, but this would make it simpler for them. It had the added benefit of only requiring to create loot for people who redeemed the tokens, since if they were lost, so was the potential loot. Of course you could redeem a dead person’s token, hopefully encouraging a few conflicts in the future.

Done with the boring administrative work, Pan turned to watching the adventurers face the dangers of the new third floor. There were now two parties challenging it, with a few more close to reaching the second floor boss fight. The new party on the third floor was having much more trouble than the original, already in full retreat mode. They had run into a giant catfish, narrowly escaping with all their members, only because the fish had targeted their rogue. His reflexes had helped him avoid the massive jaws, but he had been damaged when the fish landed on his leg. They were currently dragging him back to the safe room to regroup and recover.

Pan chuckled to himself, things were finally looking up. He would soon have a plethora of people to watch, all struggling to survive the third floor. Not just the one group methodically figuring out the best way to face each and every situation on the floor. Soon, there would be deaths, and with those deaths would come boss monsters. Pan couldn’t wait.

By the evening, more than fifty adventurers had made it to the safe room, the rest had turned back, choosing to get better and face Adul another day. Nobody else challenged the third floor, deciding it was too late in the day, and had settled in. Three parties had chosen to get the suites, netting Pan nearly two thousand mana. The rest were in bunks, but all forty-three chose to get a secure chest, netting Pan another thousand mana. The changes were already a quarter of the way to paying for themselves, in only one night. It was more successful than Pan had hoped for, but he realized that mana was worth far more to him than it was to adventurers. When the original party returned, they also rented a suite, choosing not to associate with all the newcomers.

In their room, they complained about the loss of their monopoly on the third floor, but it was to be expected. Especially since their show of wealth had attracted lots of attention. Parties had banded together to face Adul, easily taking him down when they faced him fifteen to one. Pan let it slide, knowing that they would disperse on the third floor, not wanting to share the wealth. They would not be up to the standards of the floor, and Pan looked forward to their deaths.

The morning came, and most people opted in to the loot token system. Carrying a token was much more convenient than the physical items, and Pan had built up enough trust with the people that they believed the tokens would be exchanged for loot. His chest system had done that for him. It was amazing to Pan how easily these people believed him, but his honesty in dealing with them had built a level of trust. He was obviously the winner in all of the transactions, at least to him, but his convenient services had adventurers clamoring over them. He had a few more ideas, but he would implement them in later floors as an incentive to push ahead. He watched the adventurers face the floor, looking for ways to improve his dungeon, as well as chances to snag a mage for new types of magic. Luckily for him, there was an air mage on the third floor, and a water mage was outside his dungeon with his party, waiting to enter. The third floor was new, so a mage dying would be chalked up to a surprise that came when an overconfident party with a mage pushed ahead too eagerly.

As Ben cast another spell, gust, pushing back the horde of far-too-large frogs, his partners descended upon the stunned and tumbling monsters, killing them quite quickly. Before the blast of wind had even dissipated, the group of slightly over a dozen had been dispatched. The group paused to take a breather, slightly winded from the surprise attack. All except Ben, who had only had to throw a few spells around, not even using fifty mana. One of the perks of being a skilled air mage. If he had had to use some of his damaging spells instead of crowd control, he may have had some issues. He was still working on his proficiency with lightning spells after all.

As a skilled air mage, he had some strong air based attacks, such as wind blade or air dart, but the best spells were lightning, one of the advanced elements based off air magic. He had recently gained access to lightning magic, and had traveled to this dungeon to train in it. It was easy for a mage to find a party, and this group was all too happy to secure his protection. He was waiting on trying his new spells since he had just recently learned them, and it would take a lot of energy to cast them. It was a waste to cast a chain lightning spell on a group of frogs, especially when it would take half his mana. He wanted to save it for something powerful so it would raise his proficiency faster. Killing strong monsters was the fastest way to raise a combat spell’s proficiency, and thereby decrease its cost and increase it’s damage or usefulness.

They continued along the gravel path, which had been miraculously mud free up to this point, a rarity in this cursed swamp. There were a few more packs of frogs, and those pesky giant dragonflies, but with his skill in air magic, nothing could approach them through the air. The first major obstacle they came across was a massive snake, easily over twenty feet long. Finally, a chance to try out my stronger spells, he thought to himself as he readied the spell lightning bolt. He had to will the mana in his body into the proper pattern, and speak the trigger word to release the spell once prepared. As he improved his proficiency with the spell, he would be able to cast it faster, and eventually wouldn’t even need to speak. A lightning bolt was a basic spell from the lightning element, but it still took him three seconds to cast due to his low proficiency and level in lightning magic. He was an adept with air magic, easily able to cast the equivalent spell, air dart, silently in a fraction of a second.

He cast the spell without a hitch, sending a streak of blue-white electricity into the waiting predator. The actinic flash produced by the spell left streaks across his vision, and the thunderclap, while not as loud as those produced by nature, still shocked him. Luckily, the snake was shocked more, and the smell of burnt flesh brushed his nostrils. The snake laid there twitching, and the lead warrior walked over and decapitated the beast, not taking any chances.

“Damn man, warn us next time you’re about to do that. I’m half deaf from your flashy spell,” complained the healer next to him.

“Seriously, that noise scared me more than the snake,” added the scout.

Ben just grunted and scowled at them. These ingrates, I just killed that thing with one spell and all they can do is complain. They should be happy I decided to join their pathetic party. He continued the monologue behind his sour face, and told the group to shove off. He had joined them to improve his spells, and if they didn’t like it, he’d find a different party. Didn’t they know how lucky they were to have a mage?

The only consolation was that his spell proficiency had increased by two, getting him to fourteen. Spell proficiency was exactly the same as a skill’s level, even having the same ranks. He had made sure to get each lightning spell he knew to at least the apprentice rank before entering the dungeon, and that had taken days of casting at stone targets. Killing things was a much better way to improve.

Since the group had decided to use the chest token system, they only stopped at the snake carcass to collect some materials from it, namely some scales and its eyes. The rest was useless, at least as far as they knew, and it was better to keep going than to waste time collecting too much more. They pushed ahead, crossing a few bridges and only facing more frogs and snakes. There was one incident where a particularly well hidden viper bit one of the warriors, pumping him full of its incredibly toxic venom. Their healer had to cast dispel a few times to clear him of the ill effects, but that was the most excitement they had before they reached the wall of the cavern. Once there, they decided to walk along it, looking for stronger enemies.

Unfortunately, they reached the end of the path, and rather than deciding to turn back, they chose to cross the water to reach another path they could see, only a little over one hundred feet away. To clear the way, ben cast a lightning bolt into the water, causing a few fish to float to the surface. He really didn’t want to swim, but he wanted to be left behind even less, so he swam. At first, it went well, but at the halfway point, that all changed.

Something massive and slimy bumped into Ben, and before he could shout, he watched one of the warriors, Ralf he thought his name was, give a yelp as he was dragged underwater. Ben caught the scream in this throat, and powered ahead, trying to reach land as quickly as possible. Beside him, he watched as the healer, who had even less physical stats than he did, lagged behind. He passed her quickly, not even giving a second thought to his decision not to help her. He finally felt his foot hit bottom, and he powered forward, trying to force his way to dry land. He saw the two other members reach firm land, and when he got close, they pulled him ashore. He turned back to look at the healer, who was bleeding from a few scrapes. There were tears running down her face and she screamed for them to help her, but nobody was brave enough to get back in the water.

Ben noticed a surge of ripples behind her, and she began to scream. She was only ten feet away, waist deep in water, but she had stopped, and was thrashing about. The water around her was a bubbling mass of fish, and even through the mud, they could see it was turning a dark red. Her screaming intensified as her violent struggle grew weaker. They could only watch in horror and the second member of their party died in the murky waters. Ben considered it a blessing when she slipped into the frothy water, drowning out the pleas for help that would surely haunt his dreams. The only ones left were him, the scout, and the warrior.

They backed away from the bloody water, watching as the frothing mass of fish spread, knowing that more and more were collecting to devour every scrap of the petite healer. The scout, who Ben knew had been sweet on the girl, was in tears, and even his arrogant self had trouble judging the man for the tears streaming down his face. The warrior only looked at Ben with cold, hollow eyes. He had been childhood friends with the man who had been dragged under.

“At least Ralf died easy,” the warrior mumbled when Ben met his gaze, before turning away from the weeping scout and stumbling into the trees behind them. Ben turned to follow the man, leaving the scout to mourn the loss of his lover alone. They trudged through the trees, quickly finding the other side of the island. And that’s what it was. An island. If they wanted to escape, they’d have to swim again. Ben turned to leave, but something caught his eye. Resting in the shallows of the water was the biggest reptile he had ever seen.

The massive draconic beast was nearly thirty feet long, and it was slowly gliding towards them. He turned to the monster, pointing it out to the warrior, but when he looked back to see what the man was doing, all he saw was his back as he ran away. No matter, Ben would take care of it. After all, a weak lightning attack instantly killed the snake. The monster was three dozen feet away when he started his spell. He chose lightning surge, and with its ten second cast time, it was surely powerful enough to fry the massive reptile.

It was twenty feet away when he finished powering the spell, and he released the massive attack with glee. The enormous boom, and actinic flash would have stunned him if he hadn’t been ready for it. Lightning surge sent a powerful blast of electricity towards any enemies within thirty feet, stunning and delivering massive amounts of damage to anything caught in its blast zone. He blinked away the spots and turned to look at the carnage he had wrought on the beast. Past the blue spots in his vision, he could just make out the gaping maw of the pissed off crocodile, coming straight for him.

Pan chuckled as the man’s mana collected in his pool, and mentally smiled when he received not just the knowledge of air magic, but lightning magic as well. He went through the information, and almost as an afterthought ordered the successful crocodile to find a safe place to undergo its promotion. With the air magic, he would finally be able to create the flying monsters he dreamed of, and having access to the lightning element was a cherry on top. It may give him insights on creating advanced elements without the need to wait for the death of someone with the skill to use them.

He would save that for later, right now, he needed to fix his monsters and create the first of three new bosses. He decided to modify his basic creatures first, to get a feel for the possibilities offered by the new magics. He chose the dragonflies as his first subjects, since his plans for them were the most basic. He selected two varieties he would give magic to, one a sapphire blue, the other a pale blue with white highlights. He chose to start with the lighter one, since its powers would be the simplest.

He gave it basic air magic, creating a much more agile hunter. The dragonfly was able to move significantly faster, and could perform maneuvers that would make even the previous best look like a lumbering fool. They would also be able to create gusts of wind to throw prey off balance, as well as the basic air dart, which could harm an unarmored foe. They should be a danger to unsuspecting adventurers, especially if they attacked in a group.

The next variety also received air magic, but just for instinctive use. He increased their size as well, taking advantage of the extra lift air magic could provide. They weren’t as fast or agile as the previous creation, but they were larger and stronger, and could potentially lift a dead adventurer if they focused all their magical power into it. They were six feet long, with an even larger wingspan, limiting their hunting grounds to the more open spaces. Their real power was in the lightning magic he gave them. They couldn’t throw bolts of electricity at adventurers, but they would be able to deliver a paralyzing shock if they got in contact with them.

They would instinctively land on an adventurer, delivering the spark through their feet, and attempt to fly away with their immobile victim. Any fighting with them would be difficult, especially with metal weapons. People would learn quickly to aim strikes away from their legs, or just use arrows and magic to bring them down. Pan released them into the dungeon, ordering them to increase their population before hunting any people. While they went about following his commands, he would create the first original third-floor boss, a super crocodile.

The crocodile was on a secluded island, ready to be named. It was already a fearsome and powerful beast, hardly needing modifications to be a threat to an entire party. Pan couldn’t wait to turn it into his new masterpiece. But first, he needed a proper name. It was too bad behemoth was already taken, because his plans for this beast would make that name fitting. Eventually, he settled on one.

I name you Yagaru, he spoke to the simple mind of the crocodile, activating the skill as he did so. The name was taken from the history of his own kingdom. Yagaru was an ancient court mage who had built the foundations of the capital’s magical defenses. This time, he noticed something different about the naming process. Now that he had access to soul energy, he saw that the act of giving a name used mana to strengthen the essence of the creature, creating a tie to Pan through soul energy. It seemed to be tied to how he could keep recreating the named monsters, even once they died. Their minds would be stored in Pan’s being, connected by the strand he created. Once the naming process was finished, the strand would disappear, which was why he never noticed it before, but the stronger connection to him was still there, as shown by the stronger connection to their minds over other creatures his new skill gave him. It was amazingly simple, and shocking that he had never realized it before. Pan pulled himself from his musings to focus on his newest defender.

The most important thing, at least to Pan, was his mind. He wanted someone to talk to, so he created one. He boosted the size of the crocodile, stretching him to over forty feet in length, just to fit a larger brain in the larger head. Once he created a properly intelligent creature, which was insanely expensive, he turned to the other attributes. First, was defense. Many of his creatures had powerful defenses and he saw no reason to change that pattern now. The scales on Yagaru were fortified with moonstone, giving him an albino appearance.

Crocodiles already had one of the most powerful bites, and the force this new boss’ jaws could produce would crush anything. But his jaws wouldn’t be the only danger. Yagaru would be able to charge his metallic scales, delivering a powerful shock to anybody who struck him while powered, or was foolish enough to approach to him while in the water. For now, Pan would leave it at that, but would revisit the beast when he killed that water mage who was on the second floor. The boss complete, Pan let him adjust to his new body before connecting to Yagaru. As soon as he did, he was flooded with the feeling of a powerful mind, and actual words.

Hello creator.

Faltrar, the Archmage of Rivan, entered the guild’s secret meeting room. There had been some very disturbing reports recently, and had called for a conference between guilds. As the archmage of the most powerful mage guild in the kingdom, and the current court wizard of the king, he was the de facto chairman of the congregation. His guild had also discovered the issues, and he had full access to the reports, as well as the mage who had brought the issue to his attention. He strode to the head of the massive stone table that filled the room, feeling the stares of the six other archmages. They had stood for his arrival, and waited for him to sit before they seated themselves, in line with guild meeting traditions. He cleared his throat, grabbing their full attention if the hadn’t already had it, and began.

“Archmages, I have some disturbing news. It is no small matter to call a meeting of the archmages, but in light of recent reports- reports I have personally confirmed I might add- I felt it to be extremely necessary.” He looked around the room, gauging the reactions of each man, and the one woman, during his dramatic pause.

“Get on with it,” grumbled Butran, the archmage of the second most influential guild. Faltrar glared at the offensive man, sure that he hadn’t been his usual outright hostile self only because of the gravity Faltrar had lent the situation. Nonetheless, he continued his prepared speech, hoping he could convince them of the danger this new threat represented to their way of life. He hoped he wouldn’t have to give them a hands-on demonstration.

“It has come to my attention that there is a new anti-mage poison on the market, produced from the venom of a spider in the recently discovered Borrander dungeon.”

He watched as faces paled, each archmage knowing the danger such a substance represented. Ever since the great mage war, and the deployment of an anti-mage poison, the guilds had worked to suppress the knowledge of even the possibility of such a thing. They may have lost the war because of it, but they had worked from their lowered positions to lose the discovery in the fog of history, and had been very successful lately. Now, with the knowledge gone, they had been working to retake their position at the top of the societal pyramid, aiming to return sovereign power to the archmages. Now, over a millennia of work was in jeopardy. After rewriting history, and regaining positions of power, their greatest weakness, thought to be eliminated, had returned.

“What will we do?”

“The only thing we can, either we take the dungeon for ourselves, or we destroy it entirely.”

Dungeon Menu

Level: 12

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 15,134/100,000 (+1000)

Soul Energy: 49.1/500

Rooms: 122

Floors: 3

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 12,113

Skills: [Dungeon Menu], [Dungeon Manipulation], [Dungeon Absorption], [Dungeon Creation: Level 12], [Dungeon Expansion], [Dungeon Summon], [Targeted Evolution], [Monster Imbuement], [Dungeon Map], [Name Bestowal], [Drop Assignment], [Floor Creation], [Environmental Manipulation], [Dungeon Soul Trap], [Alchemy: Lvl 38], [Enchanting: Lvl 22], [Dungeon Ore Vein], [Mental Communication]