The first thing that Nero did when he entered the green-grade Dungeon was sigh. Maybe it was caused by its reputation as a killer, maybe because Adventurers outgrew rank-I Dungeons too fast. People weren't culling it enough and Rafflesia was once more growing in power. He switched to [Monster Tamer] and let his pets out.

"Loolah, I'm going to sleep. Keep guard around me and kill any trippers that spawn too close. Do not leave the clearing, any of you."

The badgers, Kefira, and Loolah went to kill the trippers next to the clearing. Nero took a cot from his dimensional storage and some blankets. He laid down and soon was asleep.

Lack of foresight had him awake at the first rays of the sun as the Dungeon made the illusionary sky become a new "day". Nero groaned but it was impossible to sleep under bleeding sunlight. Looking around, a small pile of crystals and cards waited by the foot of his cot.

He paused to sort his thoughts. Delving almost every single day messed up with a person's sense of time, along with other things. Physically he wasn't yet seventeen years old, but adding up all the time he spent inside a Dungeon in the months since activating his Arbitrium, he had years to add on top of that, At least eight, but his tally was not precise. What's worse, these repetitive solo delves didn't leave a big impression on him. The memories blurred together and all he got was the product. It was as if the delves were dreams if not for those.

He could rest and relax. Paint. Draw his blueprints. Fight and exercise. Collect accolades. The latter was getting hard. In these last five months, he earned some but the number of times his Attribute strain wasn't as high were many. More than once he'd earned two levels back-to-back. He earned fifteen points of Agility, ten of Strength, Perception, and Reason, six on Charisma and Willpower, and five on Dexterity and Endurance. Vigor didn't go up by a single point because he wasn't getting hit or damaged.

He checked on his pets. The badgers had some minor scratches he healed but Kefira, Mr. Peebles, and Loolah were unscathed.

"How are you doing, Loolah?" He asked the goblin [Shaman]. The greenskin monster met his gaze and his lips curled in a faint smile. There was intelligence shining underneath. Loolah needed more time before he could communicate but he's getting there. Slowly.

"What do you want to do, Loolah?" The goblin shrugged. He then pointed at the flower meadow. "Go wild. If you want to kill shamblers, get Kefira to go with you." The level forty-nine lioness could probably solo the rank-I Dungeon. He wasn't going to find out.

But with his pets out, he couldn't switch classes. Normally, one could have only a single combat pet. His currently equipped [Monster Tamer] Class allowed him to have one more for every fifteen points of Charisma. He needed to switch Classes and paying the Essence cost to switch them to combat mode was ramping up. Especially with Kefira.

The solution was to spend another Skill slot. Sorting through his ever-growing repertoire of cards, he found one that fit the bill.

[Mind over Monster] - Purple Skill. Requires level 44. +40 reason.

+20 Reason

"Strength of intellect shall overcome the beast's mind."

Effect: You now use Reason instead of Charisma to interact with pets. Increase all your pets' Attributes by 5% of your Reason. You can have one extra combat pet for every 20 points of Reason. Ignore conditional modifiers to Reason.

With his current Attribute values, he had eleven slots for combat pets and each would gain ten points on each Attribute. Now he could safely switch to [Gadgeteer] or any other class. He went with the former.

Nero needed to polish his gadgeteering. With a bit of self-reflection he decided he needed to bush up his ability to put instructions in the devices' controllers. He wanted to do modifications to his timepiece and goggles but he was afraid to damage the purple-grade devices. Therefore, something to cover that subject. Inspiration hit when he looked at the forest. An idea came to mind. Why not make machines to process the wood?

He didn't see the schematics for one but he didn't doubt it existed. He set to draw a device that would take in a log and removed the bark, cutting it in rough planks. it had to be compact to fit in his dimensional storage. With that in mind, he drafted a basic crawler. It had a rectangular frame with folding parts that could expand and contract. The device would clamp down on the log and walk along with it, stripping its limbs and bark. Then it would get a series of saw blades with teeth like his sawing sword and run along with the log a second time.

He didn't want to make two specialized crawlers for that but maybe he should. Less detachable parts and he could process the wood in double the time. So a couple of crawlers. One to remove the bark, another to cut the planks. And a third to plain and polish the wood. He drew the starburst ring for the folding clamp and the legs. The crawler's eight legs had four ratcheting wheels in front and another four to the sides. The first set would clamp down on the wood and turn the wheels, pushing it forward along the trunk. The second set would go along rails deployed on either side of the log. Spikes...

Too complicated. He scrapped the rails and changed the design to allow the crawler to pull the log up. It wouldn't lift the log but that would give it enough traction to walk on the ground without slipping. The legs would fold inside the hollow space in a two-by-two-by-two pattern. Two days later, he had the design ready. Each folded crawler would occupy sixteen cubic feet, A square for on the side by one deep. He used green-grade components and put himself to build them. The trio of machines would walk from tree to tree, leaving the polished planks behind.

Since they were too dumb to find the trees on their own, Nero made a small device that would work as a beacon for them. With some care as to where cut the trees, he would attach each device to the bottom of the log and the crawler would find the beacon and process the wood. Each crawler would prime the beacon for the next in the trio and he would retrieve it from the planks later.

The device was nothing more than a modified lamp that could emit four colors of light along with an Essence signature. He added switches in case he wanted to stop the process before the three crawlers worked on a particular piece of wood. An Essence sensor like the one in the automated doors of the gadgeteering department at the Lyceum would lead he crawlers to the trees.

One week of work at the anvil and workbench and he was ready to try them. Nero took his lumberjack ax and went to the treeline harvest wood. The wood from Rafflesia's forest was very good. Outside of elven-grown wood, it was superb if not the best. Too bad it couldn't be taken outside without a massive effort to infuse it with mana. That was the second part of his plan.

He had three Skill slots from the [Shackles of Kerghak] and one in his [Skill Booster]. The latter halved the numerical Attribute bonuses, but there was a Skill he used all the time that he could benefit from having regardless of which build he was using. He drew the card and read its values to see if he would have a change of heart. This Skill was in Hye-Sung's inventory and was useless to him before yesterday.

[Autonomous Spell] - Orange Skill. Requires level 35. +50 reason. +50 Willpower.

+15 Reason

+15 Willpower

"Impose your will upon magic. The breath of creation is yours to use."

Effect: When casting a spell, spend [50 * the mana cost squared] Essence in addition to any other cost. The spell will work with its own parameters and your Attribute values without straining you. If the spell has upkeep, you must provide 50 Essence per point of mana at the time of casting. You cannot pay the upkeep later and the spell will run on the mana provided until it runs out. The spell can take a set of instructions no longer than forty words which it will follow. The spell can recognize its environment as a person with half your Perception. You can dismiss the spell anytime.

The improvement from yellow to orange-grade was immense. Not only it cost half as much Essence, but it also allowed him to give the spell instructions. It would make the copies of [Autonomous Spell] he placed in his shelter and portal builds obsolete but it also had the added benefit of making portals without needing to swap builds. He activated the card on his Arbitrium, using up one of the bonus skill slots. Giving orders meant he could use manipulation spells without his concentration.

His first test was with [Essence Manipulation]. He felled a tree, then paid fifteen mana and a hundred-fifty Essence to use the Skill with the full boost from [Overcharge] to increase the duration to three hours and twenty-four minutes and pay for two upkeep cycles.

"If you are not working on a tree, follow me. For this tree here and every other tree I fell, infuse it with my mana signature to make it able to be taken outside the Dungeon."

Thirty-six words. The spells' effect was invisible, but he used [Essence Analysis] and saw the imbued spell as a cloud of Essence engulfing the felled tree. Nero took his timepiece and measured how long it would take for it to finish imbuing the whole tree. Forty-five minutes. The spell detached from the tree and hovered by his side. It was too damn slow. Nero dismissed the spell and placed the beacon on the bottom of the cut trunk.

The first crawler whirred with the gears cranking fast. Blue light shone on the conduits mounted on the outside through the frame. The rear set of wheels split and detached from the hollow, the arms swiveling to put two wheels in front and two behind. The square frame opened and parted at the bottom, widening to six feet wide and tall. The machine moved to the bottom of the tree. The outer arms opened and clamped on the bark. The ratcheting wheels pulled the frame and the crawler embraced the trunk.

The teeth around the frame buzzed and shredded the bark. Nero saw the first design flaw. The splinters and pieces of bark flew everywhere. He would have to install protections, flaps to keep them from hurting someone as they shot around. Probably add something to direct the sawdust from the others as well. No doubt there would be a horrendous amount of sawdust produced.

Using [Essence Analysis, he saw that the bits of bark and limbs were attuned to himself. That was a waste of time. He would make [Essence Manipulation] act only after the first crawler was done clearing the trunk. He would change the main controller on the beacons to only flip once the spell had time to infuse the wood.

From afar, he counted how long the crawler took to delimb and strip the tree. Two hours. The spell took less time to convert the naked timber. Forty minutes. It was too damn slow and messy. He felt he would have to redesign the crawlers but he finished making the 2x4 planks anyway. To cut the planks the second crawler took two hours as well and the finishing took three. Three logs per day was a bother. At least the shamblers that wandered near his operation paid for the Essence the machines used.

He went back to the blueprint. He added a skirt to stop the debris from flying everywhere and energy converters to add "wind elemental" or "sonic" energy to the cutters. It would add strong vibrations through the teeth of the saws, making the job faster. He also increased the speed of the teeth. Five days to design and craft the modifications, hammering and milling the metal plates to weld into the crawlers and changing the circuits to accommodate the converters and the extra speed. The last step was to change the beacons. They would call the first crawler to strip the log, but when the crawler tried to call the next one, the beacon would wait forty minutes before sending the signal to the second crawler and then the third normally.

It didn't quite work as he intended. More tests and modifications ate another two weeks. Finally, a tree became polished boards in three hours from the moment the ax struck bark. The autonomous, programmable spell's instructions were "Follow crawler number one when you are done working on a tree. From idle, once crawler number one detaches from a tree, remove the Dungeon's Essence signature." Twenty-seven words, thirteen left for covering eventual issues.

He did some calculations. In a nine-hour workday, he would process nine trees, with the last crawler finishing twenty minutes after the ninth hour. The plus side was that he only had to work until the nine trees were down with a beacon each. Then he could do something else, like reading his textbooks or painting until the crawlers were done.

On the first day of work, he timed how fast he could do his part. With his Strength score and the ax that dealt double damage to wood and plant beings, he was done with the nine trees in an hour and a half. He decided to craft another stripper crawler and run two instances of [Essence Manipulation]. His workload rose to three hours cutting eighteen trees. He made a temporary salt flats desert shelter with scalding summer sun and no night cycle to store the planks and raw trunks in. That would dry the wood the fastest.

The fourth week closed and Nero watched the pile of stripped logs and timber growing in the salt desert. He added a third stripper and two woodcutting crawlers to his workforce, freeing himself to study and paint.

What was better, neither the automata nor the pets needed to rest so the work went on through the night. He just needed to adjust the autonomous spells' orders to keep them from following the same crawler and top their Essence containers with high-grade crystals. It also gave him a way to get rid of those too-big-to-be-true crystals with more than ten thousand Essence. He kept the biggest ones with more than twenty-five thousand though. They were good to prove they came from him as almost nobody could farm that much Essence in a single crystal.

He was finishing a picture of Altia wearing a green and gold party dress in a balcony overlooking a vast valley when Loolah grunted to catch his attention.

"What is it, friend?" Nero asked.

The goblin [Shaman] smiled and pointed at the stripped forest. There was a horde with dozens of shambers greedily eating the sawdust and scrap wood left behind by the crawlers. Bruce, Maria, and Kefira were growling at the shamblers, heckles raised. Their orders were to attack only the monsters that were targeting the crawlers and keep away from the others.

"I see it. I'm going to take care of it. Thanks for letting me know."

Loolah nodded and grinned, revealing a row of jagged yellowed teeth.

"And after I'm done, I'm making you clean those teeth," Nero nudged the goblin. Loolah covered his mouth with both hands, making a hurt face.

Nero changed to [Archer], summoned his trusty rifle, and loaded. He aimed at the biggest shambler, about the size of the ones they routinely fought back when the Dungeon was orange-grade. He shot and the shambler's head and shoulders shattered ina burst of frozen moss and vines, dissolving into motes of white Anima moments later. The shamblers halted their feeding frenzy and rushed Nero.

Rushed in the best way shamblers could do. The moss brutes stomped into the flower meadow as Nero unloaded his rifle on them. He reloaded as fast as he could and saw a ball of purple flaming tar fly from the goblin's hand. A shambler caught on fire and started to dissolve into sludge at the same time. Nero was glad the monster couldn't scream. Loolah kept firing at the shamblers, apparently happy to engage his fellow monster.

'Maybe not so monstrous anymore,' Nero mused.

He didn't reload a third time. Instead, Nero turned on his bayonet and hacked at the few remaining shamblers. When the last shambler died, he heard the goblin clapping his hands.

"Good, good. Now, go pick the drops while I finish my painting," He ordered the [Shaman].

Loolah grimaced. When Nero pause to wonder if he'd done anything to offend the goblin, Loolah snorted and chuckled. Waving a hand at the perplexed minnid, the goblin went away to pick the drops.

Nero [ Jester / Dungeon Keeper 0/0 ]

Status:

Strength +136 (In a Dungeon: 145)

Vigor +167 (In a Dungeon: 175)

Endurance +160 [Stamina 197]

Agility +162 (In a Dungeon: 169)

Dexterity +175 (In a Dungeon: 183)

Reason +215 (In a Dungeon: 228)

Willpower +212 (In a Dungeon: 225) [Mana: 1047]

Perception +179 (In a Dungeon: 187)

Charisma +148

[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.

[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.

[Shackles of Kherghak] - Divide your level cap by 6. You gain 3 extra first-tier Skill slots. You ignore level requirements lower than forty-nine.

[Dual Class] - When equipping a Class, you can use two Class cards instead of one. If you do, their Attribute bonuses will be averaged then lowered by 15%. You must choose one Special trait from each Class to discard. There's a 20% chance to lose another special trait from one and 2.5% to lose one from each. The trait lost in this way is chosen at random.

[Overcharge] - Spend X mana. Increase the effect of a Skill or attack by 20% per point of mana spent. If you spend more than square.root(Vigor) points in a single-use, you take damage per extra point of mana.

[Autonomous Spell] - When casting a spell, spend [50 * the mana cost squared] Essence in addition to any other cost. The spell will work with its own parameters and your Attribute values without straining you. If the spell has upkeep, you must provide 50 Essence per point of mana at the time of casting. You cannot pay the upkeep later and the spell will run on the mana provided until it runs out. The spell can take a set of instructions no longer than forty words which it will follow. The spell can recognize its environment as a person with half your Perception. You can dismiss the spell anytime.

[Mind's Library (accessory)] - Spend 1 point of mana. Record a scene that lasts no more than (Reason + Willpower) seconds into permanent memory. All details your senses could detect are held with perfect precision. It takes one-hundredth of the memory's duration to relive it but you can spend any length of time inspecting the sensorial information. You can only have square.root(Reason + Willpower + Perception) such scenes at any time. If you try to record a new one without enough room, you forget the oldest one. You can pay 1 mana and relive the memory to cycle it to the front of the line.

[Mind over Monster] - You now use Reason instead of Charisma to interact with pets. Increase all your pets' Attributes by 5% of your Reason. You can have one extra combat pet for every 20 points of Reason. Ignore conditional modifiers to Reason.

Empty Skill Slot (From Shackles)

Empty Skill Slot (In Accessory)

Equipment:

Weapon:

["Ice Storm" - Frozen Clockwork Bayonet Rifle of Regrowth +2] - Blue-grade. Main Hand (Clockwork)

+3 Agility +3 Dexterity +3 Reason +3 Perception +4 Perception

- Add 17% damage for every clockwork item equipped, including this one (currently: 92%).

- Reduce damage dealt to this item is by 67%. Increase Durability by 260%.

- Self-repairs 3 points of durability per hour.

- Lightning damage: Willpower +5.

- Cold damage: Willpower +5

Bayonet (melee):

- Damage: Strength +5.

- 20 Essence per minute of operation.

- Deal damage to the opponent's armor or weapon upon contact.

- Reach: 2 yards.

Rifle (Ranged):

- Damage: Dexterity +5.

- Essence per shot: 10 +1 per stage of added damage Skills.

- Chamber capacity: 24 shots. Requires 1 second per shot to reload.

- Maximum rate of fire: 75 shots per minute.

- +2 Cold damage per stage of added damage Skills.

- Increase accuracy by half Reason.

- Range: Perception x 10.5 yards.

Off-Hand:

[Insulated Spiked Clockwork Shield of Regrowth +1] - Off-Hand (Nero)

+2 Dexterity

+1 Strength when blocking or attacking with the shield.

Essence cost per change: 15.

Modifiers Installed: Increase Damage [1], Enchant +1 [1], Self-Repair [1]. Increase Hardness* [1]. Resist Fire* [3]. Resist Corrosion* [3]. Ignore Defenses [2]. (*) Bundle discount of 1 point.

This shield attaches to the Arbitrium and expands to form any shield from the size of a bucker to a kite shield. The user can also make the shield grow or retract spikes on command. If not at its maximum size, the shield will expand on its own to help block incoming projectiles. Uses 15 Essence to activate and on every change. With the spikes extended, this shield deals damage to whatever is blocked, be it an enemy or their weapons, ignoring 20% of the enemy's defenses. While active, the shield reduces corrosion and fire damage dealt to the wearer and his equipment by 30%. Damage dealt to this item is reduced by an additional 50%. Repairs 1 point of durability per hour.

Armor:

[Legion Officer Leather Armor +4] - Armor

+6 Strength +6 Vigor +6 Third-Highest Attribute +6 Second-highest Attribute

Armor value: 9

Special: You can wear another set of armor over this one, using the best Armor Value between both. Ignore other statistics from the other set of armor.

Special: +9 to the highest Attribute for every 7 allies wearing Legion armor in a range of 54 yards.

Special: +5 to all resources for every ally wearing Legion armor in a range of 54 yards.

Clothes:

[Self-cleaning Soldier Fatigues +2] - Clothes

+3 Strength +3 Endurance +3 Agility +3 Dexterity

Special: This item cleans the wearer's equipment and body over time.

Special: Increases stamina pool by 12.

Cloak:

[Sorcerer's Cloak of randomness +6] - purple Cloak.

+8 Vigor +8 Endurance +8 Dexterity +11 Reason +9 Willpower +7 Perception +8 Charisma

Special: Increase your armor rating by 7.

Effect: This item can store mana. Whenever your mana pool is full, spend X mana. Store [6 + X/2] (up to X) points of mana in the cloak. You cannot store more mana until this reservoir is depleted. Mana to pay for spells come first from this reservoir. If you remove the cloak, the reservoir empties.

Headgear:

[Arcane Dungeon Goggles of randomness +6] - yellow Headgear (clockwork)

+8 Strength +8 Vigor +7 Agility +7 Dexterity +12 Reason +12 Willpower +7 Perception

Special: Attribute bonuses from this item are doubled inside a Dungeon.

Effect: While your limiter is off and the lens are covering your eyes, you can detect Essence in the environment.

Foot:

[Lightfoot Shadow Boots of Stealth +3] - yellow Footwear.

+4 Strength +4 Vigor +4 Endurance +4 Agility

Special: Your passage does not disturb the environment or leave a mark under your feet if what you are standing on can hold your weight. You leave no tracks and increase the difficulty to track you by 103%.

Special (From lightfoot): Treat your weight as 78% lower to determine if you can stand on a surface and jumping distance.

Special (From lightfoot): Your terminal velocity when falling is reduced by 78%.

Special (from ...of stealth): Increase the difficulty to detect you by 23%.

Neck:

[Apprentice's Amulet +2] - Accessory

+3 Vigor +3 Dexterity +3 Reason +3 Willpower +3 Perception

Special: Your magical spells have one in three chance of using 3 less mana (minimum 0).

Ring 1:

[Ring of the Hare +2] - Ring

+3 Agility +3 Dexterity +3 Reason +3 Charisma

Special: Increase jumping distance by 12%.

Ring 2:

[Ring of Health +2] - Ring

+4 Vigor +4 Willpower

Special: Spend 3 stamina to recover wounds based on (Vigor + Willpower). This effect can only be used three times per hour. The effect triggers automatically if the wearer is unconscious.

Accessory 1:

[Magic-Proof Twin Skill Booster of Resistance +6] - yellow Accessory (clockwork).

+8 Endurance +8 Reason +8 Willpower +8 Charisma

Ths item must be attached to the wearer's bandolier or belt by a [Gadgeteer]. Once attached, it shares the Arbitrium's invulnerability. This item can be deactivated but is destroyed if removed. A person can only have one Skill Booster.

Special: Reduce all magic damage taken by 56%.

Special: Add half your Willpower to Vigor to resist magical damage.

Special: Add your Endurance to Any Attribute to resist the effect and/or damage of Spells and magical effects.

Special: Add half your Reason to Willpower or Charisma to resist the effect of mind-affecting Spells and effects, including illusions.

Special: You automatically spend mana to resist magic. This item will repeatedly drain 1 point of mana to add your Endurance as many times as it takes for the chance of your resistance failing fall lower than 11%.

Special: This item has two Skill slots. Attribute bonuses for the Skills attributed to this item are halved. Once set, a Skill cannot be removed.

Modifiers Installed: Enchant +6 [6]. Twin Skill Slot [16]. Magic-Resistance [3]. Spell Resistance [3]. Automatic Resistance [3].

Accessory 2:

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

+7 Endurance +8 Dexterity +17 Reason +14 Willpower +7 Perception +8 Charisma

Special: Increases your mana pool by 26% of your Reason.

Special: If you are below 16% of your maximum mana, spend X points of stamina. You recover [6 + X/2] (up to X) points of mana. This effect has a cooldown of twelve hours. Your Stamina regeneration is reduced to six for two hours and six minutes after using this effect.

Effect: Tracks time spent inside a Dungeon. Estimates outside the time of exit should [Egress] be used. 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. [Currently: +770 mana]