Unknown Adventurer A: What is the best Dungeon in the world? I’m talking full review of all they offer which one is the best?

Unknown Adventurer B: Maybe Elnor’s “Elantra” Dungeon? It has incredibly well-done progression – you can skip to floors you’ve been to with special doors and each zone of 3 floors is themed differently, so you don’t get bored. It's one of the older dungeons so even though it has plenty of floors that are perfect for young and inexperienced adventurers, it also has some nigh impossible to complete ones if you go down far enough to really challenge the veterans. Yeah, I think Elantra’s is the best dungeon and I stand by that statement.

Unknown Adventurer A: Personally, I’d go with The Great Metal Dungeon. It’s a newer one but because of that it hasn’t yet balanced its rewards. Plenty of gold and masterfully crafted relics in that dungeon that are even given out to noobies for less than a few hours work. Mmm yeah, I can’t wait to return to that golden goose of a dungeon.

Unknown Adventurer B: That does sound nice…if you like having stuff handed to you. I stand by Elantra… you can find it a good day’s ride by either horse or mage buggy to the east and I promise you can raise your skills to the roof by moving there.

Excerpt taken from the completely “natural” reviews loudly made all over towns and cities neighbouring Elnor.

Innearth: Hey Bringer are you ready to review each others’ monsters?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Just a bit more time I need to tweak this a bit first. Not that it's not already perfect but I want to show my best.

Innearth already knew which monster he was going to send. He was planning on giving him the flying crystal in the hopes he could get some honest feedback from a Core using what sounded like primarily flying monsters?

Trying to see if there was anything he could improve on before sending it he thought about how Amy’s monster used multiple “almost cores” to help with the control of its limbs.

Reverting the design from the option that simply dropped spikes to the previous arced blowgun facing forwards and slightly upwards he tried making a small crystal core at the side of the tube. He wasn’t sure quite how large a difference he had to make so he decided to start off on the lower end making a pure core roughly 25% bigger than the Crystal core.

Sparking it with life he saw the spark flew towards the larger core and, after sending a second spark to fill the second core, he watched as the crystal righted itself. Everything looked like it had worked however a few cm into the air the crystal suddenly stopped. Waiting for something, anything to happen, Innearth stared curiously.

He wished he had a mind magic connection he could take advantage of, because nothing of the crystal's internal struggle was obvious to him. The smooth crystal wasn’t able to communicate its emotions or thoughts and he started to get bored watching it make zero progress.

Are you good? Shoot the wall if you can hear me.

Nearly immediately the crystal made a faint smashing noise as it broke off a spike and seconds later shot it off. The shard hit the wall but after indicating its existence the flying crystal went back to floating silently above the ground.

Yeah this one’s a dud.

Looking around he saw one of the turtles and felt conspiratory as he nudged it and politely asked if it would shoot the failed flying crystal. Sic em

Seeming happy enough with its task the turtle loaded a shot and sent it careening at the hovering crystal. This shot hit true and sent the flying crystal careening sideways towards the wall.

It would take a while for the first turtle to grow an extra shot, so he looked around and found a second one to fire. TODO: note to self. Add more shots to the turtle so it can rapid-fire…Maybe set up a way for it to aim the shot without moving its whole body while I’m at it.

The second shot hit the crystal just as it was righting itself and pushed it back into the wall. A crack rang out on its body but the crystal itself still held.

It would be annoying when I want to scrap a failure but honestly, I think Crystal mana is slightly more brittle than Earth mana, so I want to try and fix that. Like it's definitely harder and stronger but it's cracking much easier. Second TODO: Figure out how to strengthen the crystals used in armour. Something with absorbing or dispersing the force maybe?

The first turtle had regrown its ammo and fired again unprompted. This shot smashed the crystal back into the wall, a large crack running down the middle of its length.

Okay, I need to think more about what Amy mentioned about giving each monster a purpose. Currently, I paired the flying crystals with a turtle and snake, but it seems kind of redundant to have a mobile ranged monster attached to a landbound ranged unit. It would be better to pair it with a melee unit that can either distract or protect it with a tougher body. I could pair it with a snake, but they seem to work better as a surprise attack/quick in and out fighter. I should work on setting up a monster that pairs well with them. The first thing of course is to improve the flying creature. Third TODO: Make a better pair for the flying crystal.

Turning back to the execution he found the flying crystal had been smashed enough times that it was lying on the ground one of the rods responsible for flight crunched into its center and both of its cores exposed to the room.

Still not done?

At that point in time, a random water slime jumped out of its hiding place behind a pillar and landed on the fallen flying crystal. Globing over the fallen form, it seemed to bash the already shattered crystal just enough to finish the job, surprising both Innearth and the turtles.

…How long has that slime been alive?

Why is it still alive actually? Is it the same one that gave me the idea to build this room?

Staring at the slime as it seemed to triumphantly dance upon the shattered corpse, he reviewed the memories obtained from the monster.

He had already kind of guessed the fact, but his cores were too close in size. The whole time they had floated in the air the two had been locked in a furious struggle for control. The pure core would command the Crystal core to do something and the Crystal core would yell at the pure core to “do it yourself”.

Remaking the monster, he increased the pure cores size slightly and decreased the Crystal sub-core to the absolute lowest he felt he could functionally make it.

This time after seeding the monster it seemed to work. The crystal flying up and exploring its new home, without any visible signs that something was wrong.

As if Bose had been waiting for him to finish, he finally responded that he was ready.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Hey can you promise to hide the urn somewhere before testing this? Also, send me it back afterwards even if it breaks this is just a test okay. I’m ready.

Innearth: Yeah of course that’s fine I’ll set up the trade.

Setting up a trade window for the crystal he had just made he sent it off and seconds later, received Bose’s counteroffer including his spirit and urn.

Accepting the trade and picking an empty portion of the hallway, he disposed both monster and urn near the wall.

Feeling kind of silly for helping set up the monster he was then going to attack, he dug a rectangular hole into the wall and lifted the urn up. Sliding it partly into the wall before stopping to observe it closer.

This urn was a silver black and red, modelled vase shape. Up and down its length were several scribbly runes that glowed with Fire mana focused into light somehow instead of heat.

Light mana, I guess. I don’t think they have much of a purpose? And I can’t see light doing much.

Peaking inside he saw a single large pure core suspended, perfectly centred. The core was attached to the inner walls with several pink Mind mana rods and “painted” with several metallic glowing runes which also didn’t seem to have an actual purpose.

Pushing the vase the rest of the way into its cubby and sealing up the wall, he turned to observe the wind spirit himself.

A pure white mask hung in the air covered in 3 black gems arranged artfully for eyes and a large red and jagged mouth surrounded by several intricate swirls of faint pink. Focusing on those swills he saw some connected to the urn a meter or so away and several had a faint feel of importance.

Not that they were actually important, and it was trivial for the Dungeon Core to stop focusing on them, but he could tell they were meant to make the mask seem more important. Maybe they work stronger on something physically there? I wonder if my monsters will care.

The whole time he was checking the monster out, it sat there, as if it could feel his scrutiny.

Well, no point in putting it off. Let’s give it a proper review.

Sending the nearest monsters to attack – a single nameless crystal snake and a turtle that had wandered this far – they entered the entrance to the hallway and engaged. Sending off a shot every 5-7 seconds the turtle made spikes of crystal shoot down the hallway and pass through the spirit.

Each shot that passed through his spinning body was diverted and flung to the side and after the 3rd shot, he seemed to be able to react to them. Picking a crystal spike out of the air and turning it to face the snake sliding towards him, he sent it off as a makeshift return fire.

The shot hit the top of the snake, but its scales and harder innards made with liquid crystal rendered the shot mostly moot. The shot sliding along its back harmlessly and shattering as it hit the ground.

Reaching the spirit a few seconds later the crystal snake struck – rearing back and stabbing forwards with its head.

Hitting the edge of the spinning vortex the snake’s head was twisted to the side as the snake was whipped around, dragging its tail 180 and depositing the snake on the other side of the spirit.

It was at this moment that the spirit began fighting back for real.

Gliding forwards it picked up the shards of the tips of living crystals that had shattered near it and ignoring both of Innearth’s monsters seemed to be contemplating what to do with them.

As if making up its mind, it started spinning each shard faster and faster before suddenly shooting them out – half aimed towards the snake, the other half towards the turtle.

Both groups hit Innearth’s monsters at such a speed the shards shattered into dust. Most were brushed off the turtle’s shells, but some struck the hole it was shooting out of – crushing the ammo spike backwards both damaging the turtle and its means of attack.

This monsters haaaaaxs, worse than Amy’s I actually don’t know if there’s anything I can do? Can any of my current monsters beat it?

I don’t really think so. Potentially if I tell them to attack the wall where the urn is hiding it might be destroyed…but currently, I don’t think any of my monsters can dig there and it feels like cheating besides the fact.

Unless they can find it themselves there’s no real point.

Watching as the wind spirit smashed the turtle against a wall and moved towards his snake, he wondered how to counter them.

Staring closer he traced the Mental mana connection from the wall to the mask sitting in the middle of the whirlwind.

Maybe it will be banished if its mask is destroyed? He mentioned connecting them with Mental mana before he mentioned adding the mask…and I can’t see how a mental connection would pass any power between the urn and the mask…but it’s the best I’ve got.

Telling his snake to retreat while it still had a life – no point in losing work when it was obviously outmatched, he instead looked around for another monster that could attack.

There was actually a jumper relatively close by, but they had never listened to him (without a core they couldn’t hear him and even if they could they probably wouldn’t care)

So, not finding any convenient monster nearby he spent his mana pool making most of a new turtle at the other end of the hall and tried to figure out how to give the spikes it shot more weight.

The living crystals were somewhat standardized in size. Each spike varied in width and height by 25% or so between the smallest and largest spikes, but the plant didn’t seem to grow any truly large or small crystals.

He could obviously just make as large of a shard as he liked using Crystal mana. The reason he was using living crystals in the first place however, was that if the top was broken off it would regrow, giving the ranged monsters an endless supply.

When Bose first described his monsters way back in rank 1 he had mentioned spinning Air mana around a central Air mana core of sorts.

If I break through to the inside will it disperse? I don’t know if anything’s changed since then with the external core…and now that I think about it, I can’t see any part of it that looks different.

Is there any way to disrupt its body? Break its spinning? Does it need to be attacked by mana? None of my monsters can use magic yet and I don’t know how to make it so I can. There was that one time with the earth golem, but it honestly seemed like a fluke I don’t yet know how to make a caster.

Cheating somewhat he finished the turtle normally but fashioned a large single use spike out of iron and Crystal mana compressing it as much as he could and letting it stick far out of the turtle’s tube. The shard was grey and glossy but not much different than any other crystal material when formed.

Seeding it and commanding the turtle to attack, this spike shot true and actually managed to penetrate the spinning spirit's body without being immediately spun away.

As it reached the center this shard chipped the side of the mask, a large crack running down the full length before the spear exited the other side. As it exited its tail end being whipped to the side spinning it several times before shattering the shard on the ground.

I’m supposed to review it but honestly, none of my monsters can even touch it. I could keep manually making spears – or I could pretend to be an adventurer and try to fake a spell by throwing mana at it.

But the mask clearly chipped through those squiggly runes and it didn’t break any enchantments proving they are just for show and more is happening.

It really is worse than Amy’s monster, I think I…I think I give up.

I’m going to send it back with full stars.

Innearth: I’m stumped. Hopelessly outclassed, how are you supposed to kill these? Either way, I think it's an incredibly strong monster. Can do roughly the same amount of damage as most of my monsters but its defence is through the roof. It's almost like it doesn’t have a defence with how stuff passes through it. Well done, I guess? 5/5 stars

Reopening Bose’s chat, he sent off a trade request with his monster and then waited. Idly watching the spirit juggle broken crystal shards, he didn’t have to wait long before Bose responded both to his trade request and message.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Marvellous I’m glad you agree. You aren’t meant to kill the eternal. They are simply there.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Your crystal isn’t dead yet, if you want I can send it back? It's currently being chased around my fabled halls.

Innearth: How does it fare against your monsters? I want to improve it so give me your honest thoughts. I'd like it if it could be returned in one piece - no sense killing it just because.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Ah yes, alright.

Responding to the trade request he retrieved a very jittery flying crystal

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Let's see. How to review how to review. Your crystal is fast enough. It's reasonably agile – could turn sharper if you figure that out but it dodged most of my monsters’ attacks so I can’t fully fault it. I’d tell you to swap whatever weird stuff you are doing with Kinetic mana and replace it with Air mana because that’s much stronger but that’s just a personal preference.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Obviously it did no damage to any of my monsters though…They looked sharp and dangerous, but most didn’t penetrate into the stone so…if an adventurer has armour it will probably be blocked.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: The worst part however is it has no style! It's boring! You need to make it look cooler. Maybe add some gems in a face pattern on it or give it wings – even if it doesn’t use them it’s how they look. Also, that blowhole is unsightly. Even if it's functional as a weapon you should try and hide it or decorate it somehow. OH, Maybe you could make it look like a mouth so all the spears come flying out of pursed lips.

Innearth: Okay, Besides the decorations do you have anyway I can improve it?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: You really aren't getting what I'm saying. The decorations are VITAL. listen. Most adventurers don't care if they die. They try not to obviously and would much rather reign as kings - many just do it because of money - but do you know why most adventures do what they do? They become adventurers because they want to look good. There are plenty of jobs out there that are safer, adventurers are adventurers for the Clout. I already suspected as much from the initial information we received but I've confirmed all of this when I bought a guide about adventures recently.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: The point is. Adventurers don't mind if they die but if they do they want to go out with style. They want bards to tell stories of how valiant they were fighting dangerous-sounding monsters. No one wants their friends to go back and tell everyone they died by a faceless rock that shot them by surprise in a dull cave. You can ignore me now but you'll be much more popular if your monsters look better.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Also making it turn faster. Right now, it kind of curves in the air and takes corners kind of widely. Oh, and if you can improve the damage it would be good too.

Innearth: Okay. Thank you. I’ll talk to you later.

Innearth left the chat feeling slightly annoyed. Partly it was because he was hoping to get a bit more from this exchange than he had. Bose had made some fair points but without any actual advice on how to fix them, it was kind of useless. And the decorations didn’t seem to be that important. Like sure he'd do some of them...he had made a few logical sounding points and Innearth wanted lots and lots of adventurers when he grew up but it didn't seem quite as important as the Core had made it sound.

He's weird anyway, going off about the eternal or whatever and then talking normally like he's forgotten he was playing a character...I'm sure adventurers want serious logical dungeons and not just some frilly decorations. Besides he didn't give any ways I could make them stronger that's what I was hoping for.

Like sure he hadn’t given Bose any advice either but that’s because Bose’s monster was hacks!

How can you even begin to improve that? Is it not already perfect? He obviously knows how to make a strong monster why couldn't he have slid some of that advice my way. Stingy little pebble.

The other reason he was annoyed was more of a "him issue".

Both Amy and Bose's monsters seem so much stronger than mine. I want to catch up. I'm outmatched. I want to do better.

I...to be honest, I kinda thought I was doing better than them. I reached this point before either of them! I levelled much faster! But...does that even mean anything? If I'm this much weaker I should have just stayed with Abe. He finally admitted to himself.

I ignored it slightly with Amy because I won in the end. I thought she spent more time making a bigger monster so if I spent the same amount of time making a bunch of smaller monsters it was fine. But…I don’t think I can ignore it with Bose. I don’t even know how to beat it given time to prepare. It's invincible! That’s unfair. Unbalanced. Maybe he’s a genius?

That would make sense. Bose is a genius and I’m still great!

Except Amy’s monster was stronger too.

Sigh.

I think I can make a single monster as strong as Amy’s if I just focus on improving it? But I don’t want to have a single strong monster and nothing else – I want to make a good dungeon with varied creatures.

He turned to observe his newly returned flying crystal and wondered if he needed to improve it. Or even if he could improve it. Maybe he could make a new monster? Is there a monster he still had that he could improve instead of the flying crystals? Is there a concept he hadn't tried working on yet that could help bring him up to their levels? His consciousness flicked between every single possibility he had for improvement. And for the first time in weeks, Innearth stopped thinking. He stopped expanding, stopped watching his mana pool to make sure he wasn’t wasting a single point of mana and just sat there for an extended period of time, while he considered what he actually wanted.

I think.

No, I know I want to improve myself.

I don’t even have to be the best; I just don’t want to be left behind. Finally piecing together his feelings he turned to his goal.

I think. I think I could probably catch up to them if I bought a bunch of info. I could buy some monster schematics that are similar to my current monsters and steal ideas to improve mine.

But I don’t really want to buy all my information. I want to be different! Reaching the point they are at by standing on others' accomplishments won't feel as satisfying as doing it all on my own. So, I guess. I guess if I take a bit longer to reach the point they are at it's okay. I want to reach it, however. And I want to reach it on my own.