Chapter 26

A few days in, Pan still hadn't had a batch of testers for the new floor. His pride wouldn’t allow him to let undeserving adventurers through to the next floor. The loss of the B-ranked group had caused a stir in both the dungeon and the town, and many people were now afraid to face the third-floor bosses. Pan was reluctant to increase the rewards for killing bosses, but if nothing changed he might have to. Deciding to try one more thing before changing anything, he contacted Yagaru.

Yagaru, do you have any ideas on how to get more people past the third floor?

The previously sleeping crocodile mumbled as it awoke, forcing Pan to repeat his question a few more times. The lazy beast had been sleeping for the past fourteen hours, and Pan refused to wait for him to wake up. He was almost certain the reptile could sleep for days if nothing disturbed him.

Well, you could make them not have to kill me to receive the token. Maybe give them a test or something?

You don’t want to fight them?

Of course not, it takes too much energy. Have them do something I can sleep through. Like a test.

Yes. I get it. A test. But what kind of test?

Base it on their class. I guess I’ll officiate it, ensuring rules are followed.

Well, then how about you come up with something and if I like it, I’ll make it.

Yagaru proceeded to grumble and complain, but Pan could sense the pride he felt over being trusted to change something within the dungeon. It might take a while, but he knew that the intelligent reptile would come up with something interesting.

Now that that was taken care of, or at least no longer Pan’s problem, he could do something he had been waiting to do for a while. Make the fourth boss. After seeing the mistake he had made with Yagaru, well not mistake, he rather liked the cantankerous beast, but his power posed a definite roadblock to adventurers, Pan decided he needed to make a defeatable boss. There were plenty of options to choose from, but he decided to go with his gut. One of the anacondas would become the fourth and final boss. He had wanted to use the goliath catfish, but he had a different plan for them.

He found the perfect candidate, a massive female anaconda that had taken the lives of seven adventurers, always snagging them from hiding as they passed too close to the water. He had it all planned out, and all he needed was to decide on a name. As always, his first order of business would be increasing her size. In this case, the already thirty-foot long beast hardly needed any more length, so he would only push her up to forty. He would make her much girthier, giving her massive body a diameter of five feet, easily enough to swallow an adventurer whole. He would improve her scales as well, armoring and transforming her into a shimmering silver and blue serpent.

His next order of business would be giving her magic, and he decided to go with his newly acquired water element, with a tinge of ice magic. She would be able to use her powers to greatly increase the density of fog surrounding her, creating a natural version of the concealing mist spell. She would throw ice bolts at intruders, or cover them with a wave and freeze them. She would be a pain to fight, but she would be fightable, unlike Yagaru. All he needed was a name.

He had decided that she wouldn’t be as smart as Yagaru or Elaria, as he had some ethical issues with creating a sapient creature that would be forced to die over and over. It was something he had never even considered until he talked to his most intelligent minions, and once he realized their capacity for thought and emotion, he felt guilty for not having realized the implications earlier. In that sense, his own creations were more human than he was. Even Adul was on the borderline of making Pan uncomfortable, but that hunter loved his task, so Pan’s guilt was mildly alleviated. So no, he wouldn’t make this newest beast a match for his most intelligent, and he would name her to show it. A name something like Behemoth or Sentinel that carried no hint of intelligence. He would name her Assailant.

Pan did just that, giving her a name and making all the changes he had decided on. When he was done, he was left with a beautiful serpent that would defend her area of the swamp, specially marked to let people know what they were getting themselves into. The name was perfect for how he envisioned her methods of fighting, and he couldn’t wait for her first battle. She was a solid challenge for C ranked adventurers, without being a pushover. All that was left was to put her plaque in the fourth-floor doorway, which he did in stylized silver with blued steel mixed in for effect. The serpent eating its tail was an image as old as time, and he felt pride when he looked at his own rendition. He had never been an artist, but to him, it was perfect.

He felt a great sense of relief as he finished the main parts of the third floor. There would, of course, be more tinkering as time went on and new issues presented themselves, not to mention whatever scheme Yagaru cooked up. One of the minor housekeeping things he needed to take care of was spreading more ore veins across his two new floors. For the third floor, he decided on gold and silver veins, alongside the already present iron, copper, and moonstone. With the new metals, he needed to create new turtle variations, and he set to work on that. Hopefully, by the time that was finished, Yagaru would have something workable.

For the gold turtle, Pan decided to go for a magical route. Gold wasn’t known for its strength, but it was a good metal choice for magical uses. The gold turtles had a softer shell than the others, but they had powerful light magic. They could store power in the metal of their shells, and when aggravated they could release it in a powerful beam of light from their mouths that could sever the limbs of an unwary attacker. They should be quite the annoying enemy, especially since they were aggravated by anyone touching their gold veins.

Silver, another incredibly magically conductive metal, had similar issues to gold, but Pan decided to take their magic down a different path. Much like his queen, he gave them special runes that grew in their silver shells. The ore guardians would be able to channel stored mana through the runes causing different effects, such as speed, strength, or shell reinforcement buffs. These turtles were actually one of the most challenging monsters to create, since he needed to make the runes grow on successive generations, and any imperfections would cause issues. It was made easier by the fact that any imperfections caused the magic to fail, sometimes catastrophically, quickly weeding those members out of the gene pool.

Seeing a more catastrophic than normal failure sparked a devious idea in Pan’s mind. He made one intentionally imperfect rune on each turtle, which was their weapon of last resort. To defend themselves or their familial territory, a silver turtle might detonate its shell in a powerful magical explosion, sending shards of shell dozens of feet with enough power to kill or maim anything nearby. The antics of the suicidal turtles gave Pan a chuckle, since he hadn't got the instincts right at first, causing some to activate the self-destruct sequence with very little provocation. After finalizing the new species, he moved them from his experimentation chambers to the new ore veins he had created for them to defend. The first batch of miners should be in for a nasty surprise.

Creating all of the new variants had taken him the rest of the day, and he decided to ask Yagaru if he had decided on a plan. Reaching out, he connected to him, and asked his if he had something workable. The deep rumbling reply came, well first, you need to make another one of those token doors. I don’t want anyone who isn’t worthy bothering me.

Pan could only sigh and acquiesce to the lazy beat’s demands, fine, I’ll do that. But do you have anything else?

Yagaru scoffed before replying, of course I do creator. What do you think I did all day?

Sleep?

Yagaru huffed, and looked around. But he had nowhere to direct his ire as Pan’s crystal was far away and Yagaru had no way of knowing where Pan was looking at him from, if he even was looking at him. Mentally sighing, Yagaru continued, no, I did not sleep all day. And I do have an idea for the actual test. I want four different tests. A test of endurance. A test of strength. A test of intelligence. And a test of luck. Each member of a party will need to complete one test to receive the token.

I like it. Do you have a plan for the actual content of each test?

You can see the stats of adventurers right?

I can make something that can, why?

Well for the strength test, I would like it to be just at the edge of the test taker’s ability, forcing them to push themselves. There should be a large stone in the center of the testing room, and they are required to lift the stone in order to get a key to leave the room.

That seems like a good idea. I’ll make it so they need to press their palm to a plate to initiate the test and open the door. The plate will also read the attribute we are trying to test. What about the other tests?

Well, for intelligence I was thinking of having the key placed on a warded stone. The challenger will have to break through the ward to get the key. For endurance, we can have a flooded hallway that they are forced to swim through to retrieve the key. For luck, they would have to spin a wheel, and hope it lands on the right color.

I like it, but there is one change I’d like to make. Each test should be on a timer, forcing them to complete it quickly. The strength room should grow progressively hotter the longer they take to complete it. The intelligence test should let a new monster into the room every minute, each stronger than the last. The endurance test doesn't need a timer, but the luck room should punish them for standing around.

Yagaru agreed to the idea, and Pan set to creating the tests. At the end of the bridge connecting to the dungeon, Pan created a door that required the three other boss tokens from the floor to open. It was in the same style as the fourth-floor door, and even had replicas of the carvings. He turned the central island into a solid piece of earth, and built a foundation on the island. Then, using his powers, he sunk the middle of the stone deep into the ground, creating a massive bowl of smooth stone. Around the circumference of the depression, he created a ring of massive arches, ten feet tall and eight feet wide. Pan modified the bowl, turning it into a large colosseum. A row of stairs led down from the main entrance to the center of the arena which he had covered in sand.

Yagaru would be able to enter from a large entrance in the back, if he needed to be present for the tests. There were four doorways set in the edges of the area, carved out of the bowl, one for each test. He had the strength and endurance tests to the left and right of the entrance respectively. The luck test was to the right of Yagaru’s entrance, with intelligence in the remaining spot. Before each room was a bronze plaque that the adventurers would have to press to open the door. The plaque was enchanted to read their stats, and as far as Pan knew, nothing could hide them from his analyzation. There would be no cheating the tests, and if someone tried Yagaru would have words with them.

The strength test required them to lift an enchanted stone that grew heavier depending on their strength stat. For intelligence, the ward grew stronger if the stat was higher. The endurance test was a long underwater obstacle course that grew harder further back. The key would be placed at a location in the hall based on the endurance and agility stats. Luck was simply a massive stone wheel with a chance of giving them a key, or a chance to activate enchantments that would superheat the room. There were other things on the wheel too, like random rewards for the luckiest testers.

Pan decided that Yagaru would be in the arena when adventurers took the test. They could choose to attack him, but that was nearly suicidal. When each member of the party presented him with a key, he would give them a token. He was there to ensure rules were followed, and as a reminder of Pan’s strength. Hopefully, this would be enough to get people through the third floor so he could begin ironing out the flaws of the fourth.

Yagaru was especially pleased with the new setup, as it didn’t force him to expend too much energy. Pan liked to complain about the beast’s lazy tendencies, but he couldn’t help but find it endearing. No matter how much he griped about it, he felt a sort of affection for his intelligent creations, flaws and all. He supposed after creating all this for Yagaru, Elaria would want him to create something special for her. When the time came, he would. But for now, he had plenty of other things to attend to.

Alex led his party through the forest towards their goal. After their confirmation of the dungeon, their standing in the guild had greatly increased, and they were minor celebrities within the community. Ever since then, they had gotten the pick of missions, allowing them to make more money than they ever dreamed of, and with that came equipment that launched them to the next level. The now B ranked party was on their final mission before they returned to the dungeon where it had all started. The word was out, and the new dungeon seemed to be a challenge for even the most experienced of adventurers. Even its third floor was rumored to be lucrative for B ranked adventurers, and they couldn’t wait to return.

Their final mission was a basic subjugation one. They had been tasked with clearing rock trolls out of the canyons and caves of the Dunkall Mountains. The mage guild that hired them had been run out of the area by the fearsome beasts, and didn’t want to send any of their higher ranked members to the area. They had been in the area, and no capable mages had been within a week of the mountain range. The trolls had attacked apprentice alchemist's that were gathering ingredients in the area, and the journeyman mages weren’t able to do more than hold the monster off during a frantic retreat.

They finally reached the foothills of the mountain, and stared up at the cloud-scraping peaks. The Dunkall mountains were the tallest in the kingdom, and even after seeing them before, it was still a breathtaking to stand at the base of them. Looking at his map, Alex was able to find the location of the reported troll nest. The party quickly navigated to the proper gorge, and began the trek into the mountains. After an hour of walking through the narrow canyon, they reached the cave that the trolls had attacked from.

The group’s tank mumbled “I don’t smell troll,” and Alex stiffened. Something was wrong.

He was too slow, and as he pulled his sword from its sheathe, he heard a massive crack, and his body tensed up in pain. Lightning coursed through him, freezing all his muscles and leaving him a twitching mess on the ground. As he fell, he saw that the rest of his friends weren’t fairing much better. Their healer was frozen in place, screaming in pain. She’d be lucky of frostbite didn’t take her foot. Carl, the tank was laying beside him, similarly paralyzed. He heard the scout give a shout of pain, and the unmistakable sound of a body colliding with the earth came from that direction.

As the spasms slowed, and he started regaining control of his body, a pair of boots entered his vision. As his eyes flicked up, he caught sight of his attacker, and wanted to scream. He tried to move his slowly recovering muscled, and launch an attack. But it was too late, the staff had come down on his head, and everything went black.

Alex came to in a dark room, his arms shackled above his head. All of his joints screamed in agony, hours of holding his body up in an unnatural position had strained them to their limits. He blinked a few times, trying to clear the tears from his eyes. As he did so, his vision finally landed on something he hadn’t noticed. There was a person sitting in a chair a dozen feet in front of him. As soon as his eyes connected with the strangers, the man spoke in a disturbingly calm voice, “I see you’re awake.”

Alex could only barely croak out a few words, “who are you?”

“Wrong thing to say, Alex,” said the man in that same tone. He flicked his finger at Alex dismissively, launching a small fireball at his feet. Alex screamed as his toes were burned. The fireball stuck to his foot, the skin sloughed off as the fat melted, and the smell of burning hair and flesh singed his nose.

“What do you want?” He sobbed.

“Ah! Good question Alex,” said the man as he stood from his chair, “you see, there’s a certain dungeon we have an interest in. Can you guess which one?”

All Alex could do was nod, but as he did so the fireball finally went out. The man smiled, and showing the first signs of emotion, he grabbed Alex by the head. Alex felt a rush of power flow from the man’s hands, and he could feel the flesh of his feet knitting back together. His torturer was healing him. “Good. Now that you’re feeling better, you will tell me what I want to know. Yes?”

Alex choked back a sob, nodding his head again. The man frowned at him, then forcefully grabbed his chin, jerking his head up to look him in the eye. The man snarled, “I asked you a question Alex. The correct answer is yes sir. Now, tell me the correct answer.”

As the man talked, heat built up in his palms, singing Alex's face and causing his cheeks to blister. Tears streaming down his face, he barely managed to squeak out, “yes sir.”

The man smiled, immediately healing the burns. He turned and walked back to his chair, grabbing it, he started dragging it closer, making an awful sound as its legs dragged across the rough stone floor. As he walked he started talking, strangely calm again, “now, this certain dungeon has decided to pose a threat to us. A threat which can not go unanswered. But there is a problem. We have asked all over, and even sent some of our associated to investigate. But we still can’t find the core”

He finished the walk back, and on the last word, he lifted his chair and slammed it back down in front of Alex. He looked to Alex expectantly as he sat, waiting for an answer. Alex, still trying to control hi breathing, choked out, “the first floor. There are passages leading to a cavern. The core is in there.”

“Good, you understand that we’ll have to keep you here until we confirm it. I’m so glad we didn’t need the rest of that bunch.”

With that, the man turned and left, extinguishing the magelight behind him. Alex sobbed in the dark, hopelessness closing in around his mind.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 12

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 34,185/100,000 (+1000)

Soul Energy: 13.6/500

Rooms: 130

Floors: 4

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 34,912

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