The first thing that Tsar did was name the rat Chibi. Then he experimented with its range. The Wisp for some reason could go about thirty feet away from Tsar before it kind of just stopped doing anything. Chibi was different. Chibi could go as far as Tsar’s music reached. Which as best he could tell was about 700 feet. The absolute uniformity of the celestial dungeons first room made it fairly easy to estimate the distance based on the aggro range of Chibi’s former brethren. Chibi now outclassed the other Cherubic Rats by a tremendous margin. Tsar didn’t even need to lift a finger as Chibi methodically murdered his former friends with prejudice.

Tsar was keeping track of his EXP notifications. Every rat that was killed was giving him 1 EXP. But Chibi was getting 10 EXP for every rat killed. Meaning that they would need to kill 35 rats per level for Chibi. That wasn’t a huge issue as there were exactly 100 rats in the first room of the first floor of this dungeon. Meaning that Chibi managed to reach level 2 and received +10 total to all his stats. 5 per level to all of its unlocked stats. Chibi’s leveling mechanics were exactly the same as any other C+ Tier life form. By the time he got Chibi to level 30 Chibi’s stats would be 150 pints higher than when he’d first gotten him. Was Tsar going to evolve the rat right away? No. He’d be taking this rat down a Lateral evolution chain that would turn it into an absolute beast.

Another thing that Tsar tested was whether or not there was a respawn mechanic in the Dungeon. So, he’d settled in in the middle of the room with his Grimoire of Lightning and started working on it some more. There was a reason why he hadn’t gotten very far the night before. He’d skimmed through the very first area of the book as he always did when something struck him. A couple of Ideas for different experiments to see how electricity and mana interacted had suddenly grabbed his attention. He’d started experimenting generating tiny amounts of electricity using his mana and playing with different phenomena to understand it more. He was on to something, something that would make everything even better as he continued. He was sure of it. He lost track of time doing experiments writing down the results and then fixing them as he went along.

Two hours later the rats in the room respawned and Chibi took about ten minutes to slaughter them all. Gaining a couple more levels. There was a respawn mechanic. This room represented 1000 EXP for Chibi every two hours. It was highly inefficient. But also, good to know. Another good thing to know was that once he left the room he couldn’t go back. If he tried, he got a message asking if he would like to leave the dungeon.

The next room was basically the same thing as the first room, but in the place of the rats there were [Celestial Horned Rabbits]. Tsar was very tempted to take one of the rabbits as another bond but stopped himself. Before he bonded anything else he wanted to get the weakest creatures from each of the Dungeons and see what they all had in terms of unique skills like the celestials did. Then he would design a team of creatures based on their strengths and weaknesses.

Tsar didn’t know this, but he could have just gotten a copy of the book ‘Monsters of the Dungeons’ and read through it to figure out the answers to these questions. Everything he could have hoped to discover about the monsters, and more was available quite easily, but he didn’t know because he hadn’t asked.

Each room was exactly the same as the last. The only differences being the creatures that occupied them. the fifth room was the only one that was different. Instead of a portal to the next room there was a staircase going down which then led to another portal into the second floor. Chibi had already reached level 16 and was halfway to level 17 already. Meanwhile Tsar had gained a total of 599 EXP during the whole shebang.

The second floor was a carbon copy of the first floor except that the base stats of the monsters had risen by 20. If that trend continued, then the average base stats at floor Ten would be 205 which sounded right for copper Tier difficulty. Floor fifteen was supposed to be where it started being silver ranked difficulty, which also seemed right if the stats of the monsters progressed by 20 per floor descended. But he wondered if it was different for the different Tiers of creatures. If the C+ tier monsters were going up by 20, would the B Tiers go up by 30? The Dungeon was meant for teams of five or six and the encounters were spaced far enough apart that it didn’t seem unreasonable.

Progressing through the second floor Chibi murdered everything up to the entrance to the third floor he was level thirty already and banking 260 EXP. Tsar was relieved to see that he indeed did get to pick whether it evolved and could choose its evolution. If the creatures on the next floor gave the same exp as these ones, then Chibi would be ready to evolve laterally by the time he reached the first room of the fifth floor.

Sure enough, thirty-five creatures killed on the fifth floor by Chibi had the lateral evolution option pop up for him. The options, however, were weird. [Dungeon Forged Jackalope], [Dungeon Forged Celestial Cock], [Dungeon Forged Celestial Mouse], [Dungeon Forged Celestial Spider]. And those were just some of the options. The options were all over the place! But they all seemed geared towards a Celestial version of regular animals, although Tsar was pretty sure Jackalopes were made up. Why was his minion getting all kinds of awesome crazy different options when he only got frogs or toads? Why couldn’t he have become a spider? Or a snake? That was one of the options, Celestial Snake. He was going to save the Snake one for last. Snakes were either venomous or constrictors. Having a Constrictor as a tank may very well be the way to go.

Anyway, Chibi got to evolve into a spider first. Mainly because spiders are creepy, and he wanted to get the spider faze out of the way. Watching something undergo evolution for the first time was an interesting experience. Chibi instantly collapsed on the spot, then slowly morphed into a silvery spider that actually looked more like a robot spider than an actual one. Once the transformation was complete Chibi got up as if nothing had happened. Then scuttled around like he was looking for food.

Tsar had Chibi run around and do a bunch of jumps, had him attack the trees, and was horrified by how terrifyingly strong the spider was. At an effective 912 strength the thing was able to rip the trees right out of the ground. It would have been enormous for a spider back on earth. Its main body was about the size of a chihuahua but with the legs, Chibi was almost four feet wide.

Tsar wanted to hurry and get the Chibi to not be a spider anymore. He didn’t like it. He would go with the mouse option next. Yes, the mouse option would be much better. Really anything that didn’t have eight legs would be preferable.

Sighing to himself Tsar checked Chibi’s Stat page to see what had changed.

Name: Chibi

Race: Dungeon Forged Celestial Spider(C+)

Race Level: 0 0/350 Banked exp 0

[Racial bonus: none] Bond Bonus: Gain Shaman’s Unlocked Stats as a modifier to the corresponding stat. Additionally Base regeneration rates of resources are based on the Shaman’s base plus modifiers. Unlocked all Stats that the shaman has access to.

Strength: 185(912)+727 from bond

Dexterity: 185(907)+722 from bond

Constitution: 185(912)+727 from bond

Toughness: 185(897)+712 from bond

Fortitude: 185(897)+712 from bond

HP Regen: 185(897)+712 from bond

Vitality: 185(907)+722 from bond

Lifespan: 185(901)+716 from bond

Attributes

Intelligence: 185(1,232)+1,047 from bond

Wisdom: 185(1,232)+1,047 from bond

Perception: 185(1081)+896 from bond

Charisma: 185(1,183)+998 from bond

Willpower: 185(2,731)+2,546 from bond

MP Regen: 185(897)+712 from bond

MP Capacity: 185(897)+712 from bond

Soul: 185(897)+712 from bond See Next Page 1 of ???

Resource Pools

[Sp 4,560/4,560] 14.95spm

[Hp 22,675/22,675] 149.5hpm

[Mp 4,485/4,485] 14.95mpm

(Note: Sp regeneration is based mana consumption. Dungeon Forged subsist on mana alone.)

Skills

[Celestial Vitality lvl.N/A] [Celestial Regeneration lvl.N/A]

[Spider Silk lvl.N/A]

[Venomous Bite lvl.4] [Tackle lvl.5]

Spells

N/A

The new skill Spider Silk was interesting, but Chibi would be losing it when he evolved. It required the race to have the physical capacity to use it. So that was out. But the Venomous Bite was an upgrade from Bite, and it would stay so that was a bonus. Tsar wondered how that worked but decided not to question how a mouse might be able to have venom but not silk. Anyways, it was time to commit horrifying mass slaughter beside a spider.

+++

3 evolutions later and floor fifteen. Chibi was an absolute monster. He’d gained 480 stat points in everything and literally nothing could stand before the now Mighty Celestial Cock. As the name suggested he was a rooster now and because of his frighteningly high stats he could easily fly with those majestic wings. However, Tsar had hit a roadblock. Kind of. It was something that made sense in an arbitrary kind of way but it was still a mite bit frustrating.

Name: Chibi

Race: Dungeon Forged Celestial Cock(C+)

Race Level: 9 ( Base Stats may not Exceed base stats of Shaman banking EXP until Shaman meets requirements.) Banked exp 5000

[Racial bonus: none] Bond Bonus: Gain Shaman’s Unlocked Stats as a modifier to the corresponding stat. Additionally Base regeneration rates of resources are based on the Shaman’s base plus modifiers. Unlocked all Stats that the shaman has access to.

Strength: 710(1,437)+727 from bond

Dexterity: 710(1,432)+722 from bond

Constitution: 710(1,437)+727 from bond

Toughness: 710(1,422)+712 from bond

Fortitude: 710(1,422)+712 from bond

HP Regen: 710(1,422)+712 from bond

Vitality: 710(1,432)+722 from bond

Lifespan: 710(1426)+716 from bond

Attributes

Intelligence: 710(1,757)+1,047 from bond

Wisdom: 710(1,757)+1,047 from bond

Perception: 710(1,606)+896 from bond

Charisma: 710(1,708)+998 from bond

Willpower: 710(3,256)+2,546 from bond

MP Regen: 710(1,422)+712 from bond

MP Capacity: 710(1,422)+712 from bond

Soul: 710(1,422)+712 from bond See Next Page 1 of ???

Resource Pools

[Sp 7.185/7,185] 23.7spm

[Hp 35,800/35,800] 237hpm

[Mp 7,110/7,110] 23.7mpm

(Note: Sp regeneration is based mana consumption. Dungeon Forged subsist on mana alone.)

Skills

[Celestial Vitality lvl.N/A] [Celestial Regeneration lvl.N/A]

[Natural Weaponry lvl.N/A] [Natural Armor lvl.N/A]

[Venomous Bite lvl.4] [Tackle lvl.5] [Evasive Movement lvl.3]

Spells

N/A

Chibi had gotten ridiculously powerful very quickly. But he was stuck at level 9 because leveling anymore would put his base stats higher than some of Tsar’s. Still, most of Chibi’s stats would be considered high gold rank with the modifiers from the bond. And then another thing had happened that would stall progress even further. At least for Tsar.

Congratulations

You have killed 5,000 creatures below your tier.

Reward

There is no reward… it’s a penalty. You will never again receive EXP for killing a creature below your tier. Pick on someone your own size you bully!

So, he’d needed to get down to a floor where the creatures started giving EXP for him again. Honestly, he’d only been in the dungeon for about six hours. And in that time, he’d gained an ally that was technically more powerful than him now. He knew that he wouldn’t want to tangle with Chibi. His two new skills came from when he became a tortoise, because Tsar thought it would be funny. And from his current evolution. Natural Weaponry added his total strength as extra damage dealt by claw, fang, beak… Whatever an animal would use as a weapon it got extra damage. Natural Armor added his toughness value to feathers, scales, hide, shell, whatever it may be that acts as a defense, as a sort of ablative effect, like the soak mechanic in dnd. If whatever hit him in an armored location wouldn’t have 1422 damage it just bounces off him. But momentum is still transferred, and he could still be hurt even if the damage threshold wasn’t met, but it was a significant increase to his tankyness.

But just grinding Chibi’s level wasn’t the only thing he’d been doing. He’d been doing research on electricity for his Grimoire of Lightning. And he’d gone ahead and made a Talisman of spirit holding. It was now dangling on his chain along with his Talisman of Warding. Its effect was simple, it had seven spirit slots, one of them needed to be occupied at all times, while the other six were [storage slots]. The talisman was a way for a Shaman to keep Spirits on his person. Spirits stored within could be used as backup mana using mana transfer, and the spirits could be released at any given time. It was essentially supposed to be a way for the shaman to keep a stock of wild spirits to drain without having to use up attunement slots. The first Slot needed a spirit to maintain the talisman in its form and could not be removed from the Talisman once bound to it.

Owl Talisman of Spirit Holding

Material quality: (Legendary)

Workmanship quality: Masterwork

Description:

A Talisman depicting an owl in flight created by the grandmaster woodworker Iggy, The World Tree Sapling. Completed by the Shaman Tsar Bomba.

Effects: +1 Spirit slot. +6 Spirit Storage slots for Spirits.

6 Spirit Storage slots available

Spirit Slot Effect: Spirit [Celestial Marmot] This amulet has 100/100 charges of the effect [Celestial Regeneration]. When activated, the wearer gains the Buff ‘Celestial Regeneration’ which moves the decimal point in the hp regen stat to the right by 1 for 1 hour.

Charges expended will replenish by 1 for every 24 hours passed.

He’d made the Talisman on the first floor using a Celestial Marmot. Those things had been so god’s damned adorable that Tsar had almost bound one to himself just to keep it. Now it was the spirit maintaining his spirit holding talisman and because of his new Shaman skill Enhanced Spirit Bonds it even gave charges of a selfheal that would drastically increase hp regen for an hour at a time. Which would basically put Tsar’s regen at 16,400 points regenerated an hour. Tsar wished he had the same skill that Celestials seemed to be born with. If he did then his natural hp regen right now would be 16,400 per hour and this talisman would shift it over to 164,000 an hour when in use, or 45 hp per second. Which would be broken admittedly, but it was still something he wanted. And Tsar was pretty sure that people like Radgar already had Regen factors even higher than that, He had seen Radgar put a fucking sword through his own skull once just to prove a point.

Wishful thinking aside, Tsar didn’t know if he should continue deeper into the Dungeon, or head out and go to the other dungeons to fill out his roster of Tali’Mon now… You know the six monsters he put in his talisman? It worked with Chibi. When he willed it, Chibi would burst into a cloud of rainbow-colored lights which would rush to the talisman and disappear inside of it. Then he could just, Will, him back out and the process reversed. So, Tali’Mon… He was not… I repeat Not, just trying to live out a childhood dream… But he already had a chicken… all he needed was a bipedal turtle, a really big bird, some kind of amphibious creature, a dragon, and a fairy and his roster would be set… ok maybe he was trying to recreate something. But hey a man, er, frogman had to have some kind of failings. Couldn’t be too perfect. It was too bad he didn’t have Seven slots in the Talisman. Then he could store one of each from The Big Seven. But honestly Tsar didn’t want to fill up with too many Attunement Slots with just monsters. The five more would leave him with 6 Slots remaining, And Tsar was hoping he’d find a few more things like the Explorers Map that could add tons of functionality to his build.

Speaking of, He really needed to add spirits to the Explorers Map, and the Grimoires of The Explorer and The Doctor. For those Tsar wanted to just use Wisps. They were ideal for the functionalities provided. They were fast, could remain mostly invisible, at least to those without mana senses, and could operate 24/7 without rest. Which hopefully would mean that Tsar could use them as an easy EXP harvester for his Intrepid Explorer Class which seemed to receive EXP for him going places and seeing new things. If the Wisps counted as him going places, then it stood to reason that he’d be gaining EXP like mad if he had a total of 300 Spirits exploring the world for him. And he would even be able to use 200 of them to harvest things and deposit items from his Soul Vault at a distance. Which might have actually solved one of the problems in returning to save Radgar. All he needed to do now was get ahold of a Class removal item and he might be able to just deliver it without having to step foot in the swamp…

Hopefully it was that easy. Tsar had a feeling that it would be anything but. The way that this world worked seemed geared towards taking its simplistic mechanics and making it harder than it had to be. Conveniently there happened to be literally thousands of Wisps in the Dungeon. He wasn’t going to spend all day binding all three hundred right now. But he did bind ten of them to the Grimoire of the Explorer and begin testing them.

Yup, his plan for a remote delivery and collection service was shot down right off the bat. Anywhere that was within range of his music was where the Spirits could use his Soul Vault, which made him think that the range of the music was based either on his Soul stat or his Aura Stat. He couldn’t be sure which. It was still a useful function if he kept a whole bunch of them around, but his goal was to send them off to explore. Which was another experiment he needed to run.

Sending one of the Wisps to the exit he had it go invisible and ordered it to leave the Dungeon and go off exploring. It worked, and the Wisp popped through the portal, started to move, then was promptly destroyed by a mage nearby. Tsar had been watching through his minimap. And he felt indignance rise up in his chest. He promptly exited the Dungeon to confront the stupid mage, the other nine wisps somehow safely inhabiting the Grimoire of the Explorer in a similar fashion to his Spirit holding talisman. Chibi flashed into the Talisman just before Tsar exited the Dungeon.