"When we reach a point where we can kill monsters above our level, I'll stop trapping monsters to myself," Nero said as they finished clearing the goblin army that kindly came to fall into his trap shelter mark 3. He had to recreate the shelter every time as his method of collecting the drops was to dismiss it.

Nobody prompted him to make that statement, but he wanted to let them know his way of doing things clearly. There was also the fact that the rest of the party with their high levels was a drain in the Essence drops. He got almost twenty times more Essence this way.

They cleared the camp the same way as before, by setting bombs and blowing the heck out of the goblins. The goblin general surprisingly stayed at the blue-grade. This time Altia, Hefalina, and Crystal gained Accolades from the boss, leaving a couple of nereids with a sour taste in their mouths. They understood it was random but at least they were happy their princess gained Accolades again.

There was one thing bugging Nero. The rate of Accolades for this boss was too high. He pondered for a while as the rest of the party went into the garden shelter to rest after a hard day's work, talking about the fight against the goblins. Loolah came to a pause next to him and Nero scanned the goblins shaman. Five-foot tall, dressed in cured leather clothes and several bone fetishes hanging from strings around his neck. On a whim, Nero thought he didn't have a weapon and used a green level fifteen [Staff] that would give him five extra mana and some Attributes with a [Permanency III] card. It shouldn't work but the weapon appeared nonetheless. Puzzled, Nero saw it didn't register in his Arbitrium as a two-handed weapon. The bracer was still showing only his shield and rifle.

"Loolah, take this," He handed the staff to the shaman.

He checked his combat pet's Attributes. His reason went up by 2 and Willpower by 3, the Staff's bonuses.

He finally understood. These goblin leaders were people once! That's why the Accolade rate is so high. The other goblins, the foot soldiers were Dungeon creations. That might also be the reason they were able to develop consciousness after a long spell without dying and respawning. It also meant he could equip Loolah to improve his efficiency.

"Go to the shelter and guard the portal," Nero said. Loolah nodded and walked through the portal. Nero had another place to go. The trap shelter.

He shot one fireball down the pit and waited for a minute. [Victoria Ignis] kept him aware of the deaths as these days his mana pool of over eight hundred never filled even when he slept, as he would only recover his Willpower worth of mana over eight hours of sleep. He glanced down at the pit and some goblin lieutenants limped and groaned in pain from the fire. Nero shot them in the head and moved to the collection box to dismiss the trap shelter and get the drops.

"Goblins were people once," Nero repeated to himself. The whole race was imprisoned in Dungeons all over the world. The Goblin boss of the Dungeon next to Hom might've been a scout or an assassin once. What did they do to deserve such a fate? Would Loolah know?

He would know what the students chose for him when he returned to the Lyceum. He hoped they weren't all joke Skills. He had his hands full juggling and making counterfeit expensive wine for Crystal and could really do without the jokes. But given the nature of people, he was sure there would be submissions that didn't even exist.

The machine finished tallying his Essence. Seven million eight hundred thousand. Not bad, not gad. Nero opened a wide grin. Just a few more resets and he would have enough Essence to pay for his card press. He wanted one no matter what. The costs for high-tier cards were prohibitive but to him, it was doubly pointless. Make that triple. He had a reliable way to get loads of Essence, he had no need for high-tier cards, and his absorption rate was nonexistent. In fact, he needed to calibrate the press and reduce the Essence ratios to work with his absorption rate, or he'd risk higher grade cards and higher cooldowns.

The goblins were a treasure trove now. Once they farmed their hearts' content out of the dungeon and knocked the grade down a peg or two, it would shrink. No more thousands of goblins although he suspected it would still be a lot. Shrugging these worries aside, Nero joined his party in the garden shelter for a well-deserved rest before they attacked the boss' camp again. The only reason he'd refrained from cooking the swamps was Altia's ever-present need of fresh Essence-infused clay for her bombs. Too bad they would vanish once they left the Dungeon.

A combination of wine, Accolades, and the more than ten million worth of Essence Crystals Nero gathered after a dozen runs convinced the party to stay and farm until the Dungeon dipped into the gray grade. Nero learned the hard way what "Entrenched" meant in the Dungeon description. This Dungeon used massive amounts of Essence to respawn itself. So it stored Essence and greedily absorbed Anima to keep itself cycling. He noticed it because even among tens of thousands of kills, he got not a single Anima crystal.

Nothing could be perfect, could it?

But his spartan regime of Accolades kept his party from leveling up too much. Only Altia, Crystal, and the twins gained a single level each, moving up to twenty-three. Rodther stayed at twenty-seven, sulking for the lack of Accolades from most monsters, Moira also didn't level, remaining at twenty-five. Hefalina stayed at twenty-four. They gained between sixteen to twenty-six more Attributes through Accolades each.

As for Nero, his harvest was good. Very good. Not only he had enough Essence to buy his three card presses with enough leftover to actually use them but he also gained around two hundred Attribute points. It evened out his Attributes, allowing Strength and Charisma - that he didn't use as much- to catch up.

Strength +25

Vigor +19

Endurance +23

Agility +25

Dexterity +20

Reason +22

Willpower +19

Perception +20

Charisma +27

Failed level ups: 127

He swept the hundred-plus failed level-ups aside. They didn't bother him anymore. He noticed that as his Attributes rose, he would have to put more effort straining his Attributes or he would get more of them as the strain threshold rose. There might be a time where he wouldn't even get more Attributes. He would need to downgrade his equipment and start delving naked. Despite that, his Status was looking good. He removed his Class card and checked his raw Stats.

Nero [ Jester / Dungeon Keeper 0/0 ]

Strength+118 (+126 in a Dungeon)

Vigor +155 (+163 in a Dungeon)

Endurance +140 (Stamina: 190)

Agility +135 (+142 in a Dungeon)

Dexterity +158 (+165 in a Dungeon)

Reason +142 (+154 in a Dungeon)

Willpower +143 / Mana 974 ( in a Dungeon: +155 / mana 990)

Perception +152 (+159 in a Dungeon)

Charisma +121

[Jester]:

- Special: Ignores Class level requirement up to the first-tier (level 49 and lower).

- Special: Allows the Jester to equip and unequip a tier I Class and Skills to bind to that particular Class. All Attribute bonuses from that Class and linked Skills are halved. A Class card is bound to the Jester upon activation.

- Special: No Class information will be displayed or shown.

[Dungeon Keeper: Leonal's Prince Shame]:

- Special: All your Attributes are doubled inside the Dungeon: Leonal Prince's Shame.

- Special: Spend 100 points of mana. Set the entrance portal to the Dungeon: Leonal's Prince Shame Dungeon. This can be done only once.

- Special: Spend 100 points of mana: Teleport into the Dungeon: Leonal's Prince Shame Dungeon from anywhere. Upon [Egress], return to the same spot. This ability can only be used once every hundred days. This cooldown cannot be reduced by any means.

Skills:

[Chains of Kherghak] - Your level cap is divided by 5. Add 15 to all Attributes and 25 to all resources.

[Heart Bond] - After spending 24 hours no further apart than 2 yards from a willing target, form a heart bond between both. If the target dies, the bond is broken and this Skill is erased. The user is immediately rendered unconscious for 24 hours. As long as the target remains no further than 1 mile apart, 60% of any damage suffered by the target is absorbed by the user. If either the user or the target's resource pools drop to less than half, the other party has the option to shoulder half of the cost. As long as both are alive, they can tell direction and general distance to each other regardless of range.

[Dungeon Breaker] - When activating a [Egress] card with the Dungeon Boss dead, you have the choice to pay one point of mana and stamina per person to bring you and everyone holding hands with you in a chain either to the external gate of the Dungeon or force the Dungeon to respawn all monsters and teleport everyone to the entrance chamber. The time inside the Dungeon won't reset if you chose the latter.

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

His dimensional pouch smallest dimension reached eleven feet ten inches. Funny enough it was Reason that lagged behind now. He also burned most of the trash cards into mana for his [Fireball] just for the sake of topping off his timepiece.

[Arcane Magician's Timepiece of Randomness +6] - purple Accessory (clockwork).

[...] Tallies mana spent during a Dungeon delve. For every 106 mana spent, temporarily increase your maximum mana pool by 7 until your limiter engages again.

- Total Mana Spent: 11,663

- Mana Required for the Next Increase: 11,766 mana

- Total Increases: 110 times

- Mana Pool Bonus: 770 mana

He would be even higher if he didn't take off the accessory for the sake of testing if he would reset the tally. It did. the clock now would remain forever in his pocket. The seedpod days were numbered. It was par for the course, as the [Enchant] enhancement failed. If it didn't, the seedpod would be an awesome Stat-enhancing Accessory. Maybe he should look for another. No. His second Accessory slot was destined to be a gadget of his own making.

Loolah and the pets were sent to a transition box. There was no need to expose them to the outside world.

He made everyone take a whole day and two nights off in the shelter before it was time to depart, as it was a policy he knew would greatly enhance their safety upon setting foot outside. They spent more than a month inside the Dungeon. After the last clear showed that the boss was indeed gray-grade through an Accolade diagnosis message, Nero held everyone's hand and used [Egress]. His clock rang midnight as they took in their surroundings. Nobody in sight.

"Finally out!" Fotia sighed. "Even with the shelter, I feel uneasy with a lot of murderous monsters around me."

Hefalina put a hand on the eanling girl's shoulder. "Not that out here is much different. At least the monsters inside are honest," She gave the swirling portal a glance.

Knazer puffed and straightened his shoulders, willing to show he would protect his little sister. Fotia chuckled.

The others joined the light banter while Nero gave the Dungeon a good stare.

Name: Glorious Battlefields of Yrkandia

Rank: IV

Grade: Gray

Condition: Recharging.

Occupants: many

This one was never at risk of overflowing but he needed the information for his report to the guild. Seventy-five thousand Essence might seem too little now that he had enough money to buy three copies of one of the most complex contraptions ever made but his nature and upbringing drove him to see through his commitments.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Altia brought her face inches from him, startling Nero from his musings. He kissed her as if it was second nature.

"We need to find a place to settle down," Nero said. "Maybe instead of buying my machines, I should invest in some land. However," He turned to look at the smirking face of his sister, "Someone wants to make me King. So I can't become a landowner."

Crystal snickered. "Nevermind the fact the person can create land on a whim!" She crossed her arms. "Seriously, can you make a shelter covered in ripe wheat fields? Like right now? C'mon, do it. An experiment."

Nero froze for a moment. "Only wheat?"

"Yes. As big as you can, wheat everywhere. And before you 'forget', make ten equal layers."

He closed his eyes and reflected on the challenge for a moment. "Okay." Nero changed Classes and paid the Essence to make a temporary shelter just like Crystal asked.

"Please use your [Gadgeteer]'s [Improved Math] to calculate how many acres this thing has," She requested after they looked at the field of golden grass spreading through the portal.

Nero smelled a trap. He did the math anyway. "About two hundred thousand acres."

Crystal snorted and grinned. "At an average yield of twenty bushels per acre, that's four million bushels of wheat. One hundred and twenty thousand tons of wheat. For how much Essence and mana?"

Nero blinked. He didn't answer. Instead, he reached through the portal, plucked an ear, waved it around, and drew his arm back. The ear disappeared as the hand crossed the portal.

"They aren't as nutritious as real wheat. They also don't exist out here. So we have one hundred and twenty thousand tons of nothing," Nero protested.

"What if a [Artisan] processes the wheat and infuses it with their own lifeforce through Skills as Altia did with the processed plants?" Crystal challenged him, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Do you mean grinding the wheat into flour infusing it with Essence? It might work." In fact, his [Gadgeteer] active Class was already thinking of a contraption that could do that automatically, that's why he said Essence instead of lifeforce. Crystal didn't miss his slip of the tongue.

"Yes, exactly!"

"It would be too expensive," Nero retorted.

"Yes, if supply is in order. But what if you find a place where a drought struck? Look, I'm not telling you to crash the wheat market. Wheat was just a proof-of-concept."

"I'm sorry to intrude," Rodther said with a very unapologetically face. It was getting easier to read his muzzle's expression. "But we just farmed enough Essence to live comfortably for life. Why are we - you - having this discussion?"

Moira elbowed and glared at him. Nero could almost hear she say "How dare you to question my Princess?" Thankfully her glare was silent.

Crystal smiled. "Because wheat is the cheapest thing Nero can make. I'm thinking of..."

Nero tuned them out and crossed the portal. He wasn't too interested in Crystal's future plans right now. They needed to have a future, a stable one first. He grabbed a bunch of wheat and ripped it. Using [Essence Analysis] and [Essence Manipulation], he did to the wheat the same thing as when he tried to tame a monster. Overwrite the lifeforce in the wheat with his own. He felt a few points of mana draining from him and the nature of the wheat changed. It was different from the rest as he looked around with his Skill. With a sigh, he walked out.

"... doing it for the profit," He picked Crystal arguing. "But to add value to Nero and guarantee our safety."

He was being ignored, so he tickled Crystal's auditory fin with the wheat. Giving her an earful of wheat, so to speak.

"Stop it, Nero!" She protested and turned to look at him. "Where did you get that?"

Nero shrugged and pointed at the portal, where the ripped patch of wheat could be clearly seen in front of the grass he trampled.

Crystal covered her mouth with a hand and laughed. It was cute and gracious but if you paid enough attention, you could tell she was cackling.

Going home was as easy as paying the ten points of mana for a news portal and walking through. It was past midnight, so everyone retired even though Nero made a point to make everyone sleep and rest until they were bored before [Egress]. The next morning, Altia was the one that woke up being grappled.

"Nero! I can't breathe!" She wheezed.

He relaxed just a bit. "Serves you right, night grappler," He teased. "Should I let you go?"

She gripped his arm. "No. Please hold me tight."

They kissed.

The couple was met with smirks and odd glances at the now cramped dining table. Thankfully, the elves left thick walls in the house-tree, more because a living tree needs thick walls to keep on living than privacy concerns, but the not-so-concealed thumbs up from Rodther gave away that Nero and Altia weren't fooling anyone.

"About time you joined us," Rhynne said. "Sit down. 'Lunch' will be served soon."

After lunch, people went their own way. Crystal sat with Nero, Altia, and his parents. "Nero, prince Aslanbek rode out of the capital with his knights, to intercept the invaders from Coriander," She looked distressed. "Please, help me save them."

"They murdered the villagers, sister. No, slaughtered them. Whatever fate awaits them, they deserve it," Nero crossed his arms and clenched his teeth after he stated his opinion.

"I need to talk to them. Please! I'm sure they had some reason to do so," She begged with tears rolling down her face. "I knew them for as long as I can remember. I learned to walk with them surrounding me. I'll make sure they pay for their crimes, but I need to talk to them. Please! You know the fight will be catastrophic."

Nero felt his insides churn. He didn't want to go, but he couldn't bear to see her crying.

"Did you buy the mirror she asked for?" Altia broke the awkward silence.

"Yes, three of them. They are in my pouch."

"If you join two mirrors and make the portal trick you did with the goblins, they won't be able to target you. And if they try to chase, there won't be any ground for them to step in. If the conflict can be avoided safely, we should do that. Please, husband."

"They won't attack us. I promise," Crystal added with glimmering eyes. Nero was mesmerized by the [Enchantress]. Nereid eyes were too damn beautiful.

Nero nodded. "Fine. I'll do it for you, sister."