Chapter 32

Pan decided that his next course of action would be to add in more floors. Something that had bothered him for a long time was the sharp increase in difficulty between each floor, making it hard for low-level adventurers to progress farther than perhaps the first floor and a half. He had been worried about adding weaker floors because of the mages, but it would only serve as more distance for them to travel before they could directly attack him. Besides, if he wanted to he could bring stronger creatures up to repel an unnecessarily powerful force.

With all the mana at his disposal, it would be a waste to not use some on basic housekeeping that had seemed too expensive to bother with before. It would take one hundred thousand mana to buy a new floor, and he intended to stick it between the first and second, creating a more gradual transition into what he considered his true dungeon. It would also have the added benefit of separating his captives from the mages, as well as the surface.

This new floor would be nothing special, and he didn’t want to create too many new monsters for it. He decided that it would be best to stick with the jungle theme since the current first two floors were already jungles. While he waited for his mana to reach the level he needed, he worked on drafting the layout and any new species in his experimentation rooms.

He decided to make the new second floor a long winding path with a river in the center. Following the river to the center would be the way to the boss fight and the exit, but would also be the easiest. Along the river, various tributaries would flow into it. Following them upstream would lead to more dangerous areas, as well as greater rewards. It also allowed him to hide reserve troops behind enemy lines if a large force tried to push straight through.

He already had plenty of creatures to place in a jungle floor to make up the base of the ecosystem, so he only had to make a few new predators to provide a reasonable challenge for adventurers on their way through. He worked on different ideas until at the end of the day he had enough mana to buy the new level. Without a second thought, he purchases it, signaling to the system where he wanted it. It connected between floors seamlessly, and he felt the mana rush out of him. He was also surprised by a new window appearing in his vision.

New Achievement: Adept Dungeon

Congratulations Dungeon, you have advanced far enough to contain five levels, the first major achievement on your path as a dungeon. You have survived the trying early times, and the path forward is now open to you. Be prepared, as future advancement will come slowly and incrementally. Good luck.

Titles: now available

Name: now available

Other effects

Pan was shocked. He was now an adept dungeon, meaning he was considered basic by the system before this. Of course, his circumstances were different, which had allowed him to be much more than a regular dungeon, but still, it felt a little insulting. But when he thought about it, it made a little sense. He had never heard of a dungeon with only four floors being as challenging as his was, and once they grew beyond five floors, they were supposed to increase in difficulty more quickly. What surprised him was that he had now unlocked the ability to receive a name and titles. He hadn't known that they were locked, and hopefully, he would have one or both soon.

The ominous part was the intimation that the path would grow harder and slower as he went forward. He saw the first signs of this when he looked at the cost to make a new floor. One million mana. It would take him ten days to gather that much, and he couldn’t even store it. It might take twice as long to get the levels needed to reach it. At best, it was three weeks away, not that he needed it now anyway. Resigning himself to much slower growth than anticipated, he began his work on the new floor, shifting the rest down by moving the stone around it like a massive esophagus.

Peter was in his private room practicing his magic when it happened. The event started with a massive surge of mana, seeming to rush up from far below. As the only magically awoken person in the dungeon, something his grandfather had done for him without the guilds knowing, he felt the pressure more than anybody else. The absurd amount nearly knocked him out of his chair, the pressure of it all caused the edges of his vision to darken, and by the time it was over he felt as if he was staring at the world through a pinhole.

He tried to stand, but doing so caused his vision to darken again. He was forced to wait, and while he did so he noticed a barely perceptible change in the mana of the dungeon. It seemed stronger, denser, and more energetic. More importantly, it seemed to be flowing. It was like a river the size of a lake, but flowing so slowly that a small stream could move more water. But it was flowing, and he noticed it.

After the few minutes it took him to process this, the event truly started. It started with a shake, and a massive screeching sound, as if the very stone of the earth around them was in pain. Then, a rumbling started, and his stomach dropped. It felt as if he was being swallowed by the earth, and he would have been more terrified if he had known how close he was to the truth. For minutes, everything shook, not violently, but far from imperceptibly. Nothing fell, no stones cracked, the dungeon walls were far too strong for that. Even massive earthquakes were unable to break the magically reinforced stone dungeons were made of, at least from what he’d heard. But this was no earthquake, it was something different.

He had no idea what was going on, but the massive rush of mana left no question in his mind over who was responsible. It was the dungeon, but he had no idea what it had done, and that worried him. Finally able to stand, he rushed out to find Jack, and maybe get some sort of clue as to what was going on. He rushed through the halls to the central doughnut-shaped area around the tree, seeing nothing but people in a controlled panic. Nobody was injured, but everyone was worried and had questions for him. Questions he couldn’t answer.

He finally found Jack in the center, calmly organizing people and reassuring them. Peter got there just in time to hear him send a few healers out to run around and make sure everyone was alright. Things were calming down, but Peter still found a table to stand on and grabbed everyone's attention with an air magic enhanced clap. With the room silenced, and people gathered, he asked that they remain calm, and carry on since as far as they knew, nobody had been hurt and nothing had been damaged. There were questions, but he had no answers. He promised to keep them updated as more information came in.

His speech over, he leaped down from his makeshift stage, and went to find Jack. When he found him, he found him in a huddle with the healers he had sent out, along with about two dozen other people standing off to the side. He waved, catching Jack’s attention. The old man smiled and walked over, grasping Peter’s forearm in a friendly greeting as he said, “good speech, you seem to have calmed the people down. Now come my boy, there have been some interesting developments.”

“What developments?” he queried as he allowed Jack to guide him over to the group.

“Well,” he started, “I doubt you missed that massive surge of mana before all the rumbling.”

“I should think not, all that damn power nearly knocked me out.”

“Well, it had another effect on a few other people. You are no doubt well versed on mana and magecraft. That massive surge served to awaken a few people, and we now have twenty-one untrained mages in our company.”

Peter’s eyes flicked over to the group of bystanders he had observed before, and when he glanced back to Jack, the man nodded, answering his unasked question. Mages were awakened in two ways, either a mage tested them, and after finding them talented, used their own mana to awaken theirs, or it awoke in a life or death situation. It seemed that the massive surge had pulled the latent energy out of its slumber in the talented individuals they had with them. The question now was how talented they were, and if they had awoken with any spells.

If a person was particularly talented, they may awaken with a basic spell, maybe two. The spell would always be of their specialty, so a fire mage might awaken with a fire spell. It wasn’t common, but neither was it rare, so he expected a few. Two in five mages awoke with access to one spell. If they didn’t receive a spell on their awakening, further tests would be needed to determine which elements they were suited for.

Magic and skilled worked in largely the same manner, and were woven together tightly. Spells had their own level, but it had a cap. The real power of a spell was determined by the skill level the caster had in the governing elements, such as fire magic. Most mages had a few different elemental magic skills, as most spells had minor components from different elements, but their specialty would always be much higher leveled. That specialty was determined by their talent level.

Everyone had a talent rank in every skill, ranging from abysmal to genius. Their talent determined how fast each skill leveled, and one needed at least an average talent in one magical skill to awaken their mana. Above average talented individuals had a chance to awaken with a spell, and genius ranked people were guaranteed one. If they were talented in more than one element, they could receive more spells, meaning maybe one in two hundred mages had multiple spells upon awakening. Peter was one of those one in two hundred. He had been awakened by his grandfather who had been distrustful of mage guilds, a reasonable worry in light of recent events.

The other part of talent ranks was that there was a chance that they’d drop upon ranking up a skill, depending on the person’s suitability for each rank. Someone might be above average in the adept rank, but only average upon reaching expert. Abysmal was the lowest possible talent rank, and if that point was reached, the skill could no longer be leveled. Each higher rank had a much lower chance of dropping at level up. The whole thing seemed random, but was actually based on each individual's ability to learn a skill.

Pulling himself from those thoughts, he decided to see who awakened with what spells, and then determine everyone’s talent level with the skills. He realized that he had been absently staring at the new mages while he thought, and coughed to cover his embarrassment. “Line up, and we will see what you all got.”

They rushed to follow his orders, and he started at the right end, with a short girl, maybe twelve years old. Why had they brought children with them into a dungeon? It was madness. He sighed, and asked her, “did you receive any spells?”

She shook her head, and he pulled a small enchanted mana stone from his belt. “Push your mana into this,” he ordered. Meekly, she asked him, “how?”

“Reach into yourself,” he started, loud enough for everyone to hear, “find an energy in there. Will it to obey you, and push it into the crystal.” He didn’t have much to say, one they found the mana in them, controlling it would be instinctive. Spells were the hard part of being a mage. Even he had never gotten a spell past level six, and he was a genius level fire and earth mage, with average talent in dark and air. If he had joined a guild, as was required by law, he would have progressed much faster, and could have become one of the more powerful mages in the kingdom. The strongest mage in the kingdom, Faltrar, and the man Peter presumed was his enemy was reported to have received four spells upon awakening. A genius in fire, water, air, and light, with some skill in dark and earth.

It took a few minutes for the girl to figure out how to do what he asked, and he could see the others doing the same. A few had smug smiles on their faces, probably those who had received a spell. When she finally got it to work, the crystal glowed a pale brown, signaling an average talent with earth. He told her this, and moved on to the next person.

At the end, there were four earth, two fire, three water, seven air, two dark, and one light. Nine had received spells, three air, one fire, one water, one earth, both dark, and the light. He sent them to practice their spells, and looked to those who didn’t have a spell.

“I can only help a few of you, those with air, fire, and earth. Everyone else needs to go elsewhere and practice with your mana. Try to form it into your element. With enough time and practice. You should gain the skill for whatever mana you have. One you reach the beginner rank, you will get a basic spell, so practice hard.”

They seemed crestfallen, but they had magic, and with enough practice, they could gain spells, allowing them to advance their skill faster. With those he could help, he first helped them gain the skill they needed, and from there a spell or two. It took hours, but they all eventually had the skill and at least one spell to practice with. Luckily, there were practice rooms to rent, and they excitedly left to use them.

The difference between an awakened mage and a regular person was the ability to use their mana. A normal person could push it out of them, like those that bought stuff from the dungeon, but a mage could access their source, and actually, control the mana. It sounded like a small distinction, but the implications were massive. While a normal person could only push it out, a mage could grasp it and shape it into something, bending the energy to their will. Only someone with the talent could ever have the ability to do that.

They used spells, which were simply patterns of mana that executed different actions. A fireball was a packet of mana that traveled in a line at a target. As a mage grew more skilled with a spell, they could modify the packet of mana to hold more energy, run more efficiently, explode, travel faster, or a myriad of other effects. As such, one mage's level five fireball spell might operate far different from another's, but they had both reached the requisite level of understanding of the spell to get it to level five. Spells were gained in four ways, they were taught by a master, a long process, but the most common, developed by a master mage, learned at rank up, or learned from a spellbook.

He had taught the most basic spells in hours, but he knew that anything more advanced could take days or even months to teach. As of now, they had small spells such as ember, sand, or breeze. Basic spells that only helped them learn to manifest their element, or light a campfire in the case of ember. Hopefully, they could gain a useful spell when they broke out of the beginner ranks, because he didn’t have the time to teach twenty apprentices.

Pan laughed at the people as he moved their floor. It reminded him of kicking an ant mound and watching as the workers hurriedly scurried around, surveying the damage. They recovered quite quickly, and Pan was surprised when he noticed how the massive rush of mana he used to buy the new floor awakened a few mages in their midst. None were anything special, as was expected from such a small sample size, but the fact that he had awakened a few was surprising. He filed that little tidbit away for later, as it may have potential future uses.

He spent hours working on his new floor, creating a massive river system compacted into a few square miles. It was like a massive fountain, and all the water was pumped back up to the beginning through the use of enchantments. The whole thing flowed rather slowly, as his enchantments couldn't handle too much water, but it was enough to keep it mostly clear. He populated it with fish he already had, including the piranhas, as well as a few water snake species.

The whole floor was muggy and humid, but utterly silent. He fixed that with the annoying drone of millions of mosquitoes. They weren’t deadly, at least along the main river, but deeper in along the tributaries he had clouds that could completely drain anyone caught by them. There were a few concessions made, and he had a few herbs growing that could repel them if properly applied.

The edges of the river were clear enough to walk along, but were hemmed in by dense jungle that extended for a few dozen feet. At it’s widest, the river was two hundred feet across. The beach was ten feet at the narrow points, and much more where sandbars extended it. Pan created a few species of crab to guard the sandy paths, some burrowed down, hiding in plain sight, while others would attack from the water. The largest was four feet across, and would be a reasonable challenge for D ranked adventurers, slightly easier than a stone centipede to defeat. Along the side paths, however, they were much more dangerous, growing harder shells and stronger claws. These crabs might give a C ranker a tough fight when in groups, which they were.

He also added plenty of birds, which had plenty of room to fly above the river. Deadly eagles, which he had been forced to buy, swooped down to pick fish from the slowly moving river. They could also harry unattentive adventurers, and a lucky strike might be deadly. Again, those along the smaller streams were deadlier, able to carry people away with a little help from air magic. Jaguars also hid along these paths, brought up from the floor below.

After finishing the monsters, he added the necessary filler creatures, such as various insects, amphibians, and rodents. There were the capybaras from the third floor, now the fourth, present here as well. Once done, it looked like a sunny jungle river, complete with the drone of insects and chirps of birds. But something was missing. It was a river, surrounded by trees. If someone made a raft, they could avoid fights entirely. That just wouldn’t do.

About halfway down the river was an especially narrow and shallow stretch, surrounded rocks and rapids. In the center, he made a small gravelly beach, with a large copper vein abutting it. But this wasn’t just any copper vein. It was a hidden boss, designed to stop anyone attempting to pass the floor on a boat. It was a massive ore guardian, appearing to be so ancient that it had turned into the very thing it guarded. It looked like a rock poking on the edge of the beach, but it was actually the tip of a twenty-foot wide tortoise shell.

He had to slightly restructure the beast to make it work, but the final version should prevent anyone from using a raft. At least after the first group tried. It had a sort of blowhole on top, allowing it to stay submerged. But when a raft came down the river, it would stand, damming the river, and forcing the group into a fight they could not win. It wouldn’t even bother with anyone mining its shell, but who would dare to touch it once they realized what it was. The ancient looking beast, tinged green from the aged copper on built into its body, would be a powerful deterrent to anyone attempting to cheat the system.

Pan decided to forego an actual final boss on the floor, allowing people to pass directly to the next floor. They could always choose to fight the hidden boss if they wanted that sort of challenge. That massive beast also had a few hidden features to provide a significant roadblock to any large groups of mages attempting to penetrate deep into his dungeon.

It had taken him a nearly a day to finalize construction of the floor, and he was amused to see adventurers poking around the walls he had in place while he made the floor. He quickly dropped them, allowing them access to the floor, but only from its real entrance. It wouldn’t do for them to experience it in reverse.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 14

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: Pending

Titles: None

Mana: 3,591/500,000 (+1000)

Soul Energy: 1.1/500

Rooms: 181

Floors: 5

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 42,002

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:472

Achievements: Evolver, Legend Slayer, Boundless, Adept Dungeon