Chapter 25

Pan’s attention was drawn to a commotion on his third floor. There were two groups of adventurers facing off, one made of three mages, and the other was the original three who had reached the third floor. It seemed like the mages were getting the better of the group, but Pan figured that the leader would survive even if the rest of his party died. That man was more skilled than the rest by far, and it looked like the mages were underestimating him. Pan was proven right when the man neutralized the fire mage who had pinned him down using a potion he had created from the assassin spider venom. He then quickly killed the final two mages with a similar method and a sneak attack, netting Pan access to both water and ice magic.

Pan was excited, it seemed like his plans to introduce conflict between adventurers had been a success, and it had killed some of the mages in his dungeon. He had noticed a rise in the number of mages he had in his dungeon recently, but that was good news. Every mage was another chance for more magic. The survivors returned to the safe room, with all but the leader looking distraught. He looked frustrated, probably because he had still wanted to continue to the boss fight. Pan respected the man’s tenacity, even if he was the shadiest person in his dungeon.

As he was thinking of the man’s lost opportunity to fight Behemoth, he saw the B rank party enter his dungeon. They hadn’t shown up since he had swapped Behemoth and Yagaru, and if nobody warned them, they should be in for a nasty surprise. Sure enough, they started down the path to Yagaru’s new arena, unaware of the massive crocodile that awaited them. They only paused when they reached the bridge, and after discussing the new scenery, they decided the dungeon had modified the boss area, and they walked across.

Theodore searched the strange muddy island, looking for the massive bug with the valuable metal carapace. As his party’s scout, he should easily be able to find it, but it was nowhere to be seen. He heard the party grumbling about the missing boss, and redoubled his efforts, but it was pointless. There was no place for something that massive to hide on the flat island, and they had already searched it thoroughly.

“Search the water,” called out their leader, Paul.

Just before Theodore could yell back that it was a bad idea, one of the other warriors dove into the deeper waters off the back of the island, which were thankfully much clearer than water on the the rest of the floor. The man intended to swim down and look around, hoping to spot the telltale gleam of the metal carapace of their target. All Theodore, and the other three party members saw was the giant jaws of an enormous crocodile burst from the water, removing half of their companion.

“Fall back to the center, formation three, move now,” Paul shouted, as he turned from the water’s edge to retreat to safer ground. They immediately grouped up around their healer, putting themselves between their most important support members and the massive boss. Unfortunately only Paul and the other warrior were melee fighters, as Theodore used a bow. He figured the piercing weapon would be ineffective against the obviously well-armored boss, unless he managed to get a miraculous hit on its eye.

The crocodile heaved itself out of the water, and started lumbering towards them. A low rumbling growl emanated from its throat, and it hissed menacingly at them. Theodore was sweating, and he could hear members of the party swallowing nervously. It was a testament to their courage that none ran, and Theodore surprised himself when he didn’t either. Instead, he drew an arrow, and knocked it to his bow. As he drew, he invoked the skill Drill Shot hoping that he would be able to penetrate the armored head of the beast.

He released the arrow, it’s mana charges shaft spun rapidly, as it closed the distance between him and the monster. Just as he had suspected, it hit the scaly head of the beast, and glanced off. He sighed, and drew another arrow, knowing that of brute force didn’t work, he would have to use precision. As the beast came closer, he fired more arrows at it, hoping to land one in its eye, or stick one down its throat. Unfortunately, the crocodile avoided each strike, by either blinking at the last second, or turning its head just right. Theodore was unnerved by the seeming uncanny intelligence of the creature, and he could’ve sworn that it was mocking him. But there was no way the grin on its face was from anything other than the way it was shaped.

As soon as it was within twenty feet of them, Paul called for them to begin the next step of the battle. Their healer retreated further, ready to render aid to anyone who required it, although anyone hit by this brute was unlikely to survive. Their two melee warriors ran to either side of the crocodile, and Theodore followed Paul around the left side, hoping for better angles as the fight progressed. The two ran in from each side, and were shocked, literally, when they attacked the scaly hide of the monster. They both grimaced when lightning arced across their blades as soon as they came in contact with the enemy.

The momentary pause was all the time needed for the beast to lash out, striking them with the very arms they had attacked. Paul was attacked second, and was able to recover in time to avoid damage. The other warrior, however, was not so lucky, and was sent sprawling when a massive forelimb connected with his chest. The beast turned to Paul, who was still getting up after his mad leap out of the way. At that point, Theodore knew he was in trouble, so he did the only thing he could. He turned and ran, grabbing the healer as he did so. As he looked over his shoulder, the last thing he saw was Paul’s angry glare, and the crocodile's tail slamming down on the incapacitated warrior behind it. Theodore only ran faster.

Pan was pleased with Yagaru’s first fight. The only issue was the survival of both the healer and the scout, but it was only a small issue. If they wanted to send B ranked parties, he’d give them B ranked threats. He watched Yagaru finish his snack, and complimented him on his performance. The lazy beast only grunted in acknowledgment, before laying down to sun himself on the island, which had decidedly little sun.

Refocusing on his fourth floor, Pan felt that he was finally ready to begin finalizing it. He had spent a lot of time on the floor, and was quite impressed with the results. Days of work had gone into it, and he had created something that looked natural, but seemed to be pulled from a fantasy. The hardest part had been getting the colors right, but the final effect, while a massive change from the rest of his dungeon, was stunning. He had made an entire floor that seemed to be a canyon that cut through a desert plateau.

The entire floor was carved into the walls of the canyon forcing adventurers to cross narrow ledges or stone bridges to pass. Some areas were hidden away up a barely climbable cliff face, or in a cave covered by a ledge. The floor was the tallest yet, and the cliff faces the adventurers traversed would have a fifty-foot drop or a forty foot climb to the top. At the bottom of the cliffs was a slow moving river, tinged a deep green by minerals he had specifically introduced. The top was a large plateau, where he would have all the monsters live. The canyon was a maze carves out of the rock, which Pan had spent hours turning the perfect shade of red. It took a lot of iron, and some other minerals, but he had created a red and orange dessert. Now all he needed was creatures to populate it and a way to keep adventurers on the paths he had made along the canyon walls. And a way to light and heat it so it felt like a desert.

He had a few ideas to take care of the lighting and heating issue, mostly based off enchantments and his Environmental Manipulation skill. The latter could take care of the heating, but he wanted to use enchantments to make localized hot spots scattered across the floor. For lighting, he used an enchantment based off the magic torches wealthier adventurers often used. They were low-quality mana stones enchanted to use mana to create light, much like the bulb plants he had been using. Instead of the pale white light created by light stones, he ramped it up. His enchanted stones produced a harsh light, bright enough to temporarily blind anyone who looked at them. He then scattered these lights across the ceiling in such a way that there were very few shaded areas on the floor. One benefit of his overcharged mana stones was that they also produced a not so insignificant amount of heat, adding to the feel of the floor.

For hotspots, he used the same technique that he used in the swamp, and enchanted steel plates which he hid inside underground holes, or attached to large rocks. It created strange shimmering mirages around the floor, or superheated rocks that were traps in their own right. It was like he had a bunch of frying pans scattered around the floor, and random holes belching clouds of hot air. It was the most inhospitable environment he could think of, and he had to populate it.

As always, he decided to start with the plants. As this environment was completely new, he would have to make it all from scratch, something he was excited about. He went through the dungeon store, purchasing any desert flora he could find, as well as a few new species, just to see how to modify things to survive in a desert. Most of the plants he found were covered in spines, something he decided to stick with. He would create a forest of thorn, at least up at the top. The plants should deter adventurers, but those that braved the dangerous plants would be rewarded.

His first were small spherical cacti, which he made deadlier. He modified their thorns the most, giving the plants the ability to pull the iron from the sand and soil they grew in and reinforce their spines. The process was very slow, as it was hard to make something that could quickly turn rust back into iron, but it worked. The already slow growing cacti would take a long time to create proper iron spikes, so only the oldest plants would have full sets, but Pan decided it was for the best. The oldest spheres would be able to grow to over six feet in diameter, and the iron spines would provide a stalwart defense against any would-be invader attempting to steal the water stored in the plant’s reservoir. The iron would also be incorporated into the structure of the cactus once the spines finished growing, creating invincible bastions of thorns. All but the exterior would be transformed, as it needed to remain clear to soak up the energy from the lights. Pan planted these around the dungeon, and used some mana to accelerate the growth of a few, setting up the perfect seeders for future generations.

Thinking of future plant generations, he bought a type of desert bees, and with very few modifications, he released a few queens into the floor. The cacti produced small flowers guarded by the needles when they had stored enough energy to create seeds, and the bees would pollinate them. He worked on more plants as he let the new creatures get situated, adding many small varieties meant to be food for small herbivores, and produce enough flowers to support the colonies while the cacti grew. They were small hardy plants, a few low leafy plants, and some sturdy tufts of grass. He spent mana to ensure the plants spread quickly, setting up the base for the new environment.

The next special plant he created was based aloe, but had razor sharp teeth along the leaves. The inside was full of a gel that was actually a very potent burn remedy, able to quickly heal all but the most severe burns. Pan felt that it was only fair, considering the oven like temperatures the adventurers would be subject to. The gel wasn’t easy to get to, because just like the cacti, these plants reinforced themselves with iron. Only the most iron rich plants produced the burn salve, so an adventurer would have to be very careful when attempting to extract the remedy.

He made another similar plant, but it didn’t have the thick gel-filled leaves of the aloe. It was small and low to the ground, with long blade shaped leaves radiating from a central point. At that center, was a massive thorn, again reinforced with metals. He made the plant an extremely durable one, able to grow nearly anywhere on the floor. He purposely grew them along the paths the adventurers would walk on, so any inattentive person might end up with a three-inch spike impaled through their foot. The spikes were coated in a mild poison, that nevertheless would need to be treated if the victim wanted to keep their foot.

He made a large variety of other thorny plants, and spread them across the floor, all of them able to leach the metals from the ground to reinforce their bodies. He now had a dense forest of cacti on top of the plateau, enough to discourage all but the most insane adventurer form attempting to avoid the canyon ledges by crossing over the top. But he had one final plant to make before he moved on to the monsters he would populate the floor with.

He had found a strange plant that fit the description of thorny desert plant, but it wasn’t a cactus. It was a large woody tree with spine covered branches. The branches were covered in little leaves, all protected by the rows of vicious spikes. They looked nothing like a normal tree, seeming to be bare of leaves. He modified these further, putting into action something he had thought of long ago when originally designing the plant traps he used on previous floors. If something bumped into the branches of one of these trees, they would curl up quickly, impaling and trapping the victim with thousands of iron hardened needles. Each needle was hollow inside, and the tree would drain the blood from the victim, feeding and watering itself with their body. The rest would be slowly digested by special roots that would grow from the thorn, allowing the plant to extract every bit of nutrition from the husk that it could.

Even Pan was a little disturbed by what he had created, especially when he tested it by spawning a rabbit and commanding it to run headlong into the waiting arms of the tree. Within a few hours, all that was left was a skeleton, which dropped to the base of the tree. He supposed the future pile of sun-bleached bones would be warning enough to warn adventures away from the vampiric trees, but that was the punishment for leaving the intended trails.

He finished off the flora of the floor by creating a few varieties of alchemical ingredients. Some were flowering cacti, requiring a skillful hand to pluck the petals without impaling a finger or two. There were other things, such as magical tubers or other roots, flowers, and leaves. The end result of his creations spree was a lush topside to the floor, twenty feet below the glowing lights. The paths he had laid out for adventurers were more sparsely covered, but there was enough that he thought it aesthetically pleasing. The cacti that grew along the paths stored water for any adventurer brave or desperate enough to hack past the thorns.

He took a moment to stare at his creation, basking in the primal beauty of it. He had created something that was as magnificent as it was deadly. During the minute he took to look at his newest creation, he started to notice the first issue. The insane heat of the floor was rapidly evaporating the water at the bottom of the canyon, creating a cloud near the top of the cavern. He had a simple solution to the problem. He created a day-night cycle with his enchantments, letting the room cool off enough for the water to precipitate or condense and soak into the ground. It worked amazingly well, and the water provided a way for all his plants to easily hydrate themselves. The cooler nights might attract adventurers, but Pan had ways of discouraging that.

He started on his first monster, a massive scorpion with a powerful venom. There wasn’t much to say about it, it was just a massive scorpion. He did improve its claws, which were powerful enough to endanger any adventurer. The giant six-foot long monster would scale the canyon walls, and attempt to either sting adventurers, or ambush them from the sides, pulling them over the ledge. All the monsters would have to be able to climb around the canyon, both to get water and face off against adventurers. He had included watering holes, areas where the walls were easier to climb, to provide access to the more vertically impaired creatures, as well as much more dangerous areas for adventurers.

He created a variety of small snakes, lizards, small birds, and rodents to provide food for the scorpions, and the monsters that would come. For now, he wasn’t in too much of a hurry to create monsters for the floor, since nobody was even close to reaching it. He had a few more ideas to implement, then he would add more over time, adjusting the ecosystem as he went to keep it running smooth.

The second monster he made was definitely more dangerous. He took a small, flightless bird and grew it to an enormous size. The new monster was six feet tall, and very agile. It had to be if it was going to run through the cactus forest he made. He gave it a powerful beak, reinforced with the abundant metal of the floor. It could use it as a club from the end of its long neck, or pierce its enemies with the hooked end. Its powerful legs had massive three-toed feet, ending in wicked sharp claws, nearly talons. The monster wouldn’t be a climber, but it would be able to scamper up much steeper slopes than someone might expect. To reach the bottom, it could glide on its small wings, which while not large enough to fly, gave them a decent range. Their large plumes of feathers kept the thorns from reaching their skin, as well as insulated them from the heat.

Pan was pleased with the newest monsters, and let them settle in. Over a few days, the populations stabilized, and Pan was left with a self-sustaining, but incomplete fourth floor. For now, it would suffice, but he wanted more time to think of the future addition he would make to the floor. He made modifications to many of the creatures, tweaking the manner in which their bodies worked to help them survive. It was much more difficult to make creatures that could survive temperatures that could actually cook meat. The day-night cycle helped with that as well, making the dark much more dangerous as everything was out hunting or foraging. The only way he could get his monsters to fight during the day was to make them territorial enough to attack adventurers that strode into their territory. But at night, they would actively hunt them.

All in all, it was shaping up to be the deadliest floor yet, and Pan couldn’t wait for the first batch of testers to make it through.

Blake looked to his lieutenants, a broad smile crossing his face. They were about to make more money than they had ever dreamed possible.

“Gentlemen, our guild has been hired by the mages guild to perform a special task,” he started the briefing, “I will need you to gather all of your companies, as well as call back those already out on assignment. This is big.”

“What is it?” Asked the commander of the third company.

“I am not at liberty to discuss it at this time, but I will say that like all of our contracts, it is shady as shit, despite the clients being more prominent members of society. We are being hired to provide support in an upcoming campaign. The mages will do most of the work, but we need to keep the foot soldiers off their backs.”

First company's commander spoke up, “I’m in. If we’re with the mages, how can we lose? More importantly, how much money are we talking?”

Blake smiled. Vikker always knew to ask the important questions.

“Fifteen thousand gold."

All the eyes in the room widened in shock.

"Per company."

Greedy smiles broke out around the table.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 12

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 11,630/100,000 (+1000)

Soul Energy: 23.6/500

Rooms: 125

Floors: 4

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 34,827

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 45], [Enchanting: Lvl 41], [Dungeon Ore Vein], [Mental Communication]

Dungeon Points: 372

Achievements: Evolver, Legend Slayer, Boundless