“An... Exp crystal is a type of mana crystal that... can give you exp to level up your base level, skill level or even other things depending on your class...” the head mage said from behind me.

“Kid what class does the crystals work for?” the knight captain asked expectantly.

“Dungeon maker so my own class. Guess I will keep these on me until I figure out exactly what to do with this,” I said as I pocketed both crystals.

All the men looked a bit depressed hearing me say that, but if it wasn't for my class, I would probably need to hand them over with the kind of strength these guys have that I still couldn’t fight against. If I could, I wouldn’t hand it over even if the queen told me to.

“So, I guess this is mission accomplished,” I said.

“Yes, you have done a great service to our nation by stopping the swarm. The mages have already charged the teleportation stone, we will remain here longer to make sure everything returns to how it was as well as push forward towards the areas attacked by them,” the knight captain said.

“Then let's go,” Misaki said not caring much.

The last two weeks were a bit rough on her as she had done a rather large number of clumsy things and even walked into the bath without knocking which was the biggest blow to her especially when I didn't pursue the matter.

Truthfully, it was funny seeing her clumsiness. It reminded me of that classic anime joke with airheads. Also, her blushing embarrassed face was really cute.

The villagers took care not to address her about the clumsiness and just looked out for her, but she seemed to take it to heart.

Truthfully, I imagined her in a maid outfit once, the thought was very stimulating, but I kept it to myself out of fear for my own safety.

Since we had fulfilled our purpose, we headed to the town for a final goodbye before going to the stone and stepping on the middle. It activated instantly and we were both teleported.

***

Far in the east stood a black castle over a massive badlands filled with magma pools. From these pools, occasionally small scrawny imp infants would crawl out before they began to attack their brethren for food. Normally five survived and left to hunt soon after.

The air smelled of sulfur and was covered in black clouds. Demons ran amok eating imps and lesser demons.

Within the castle, sitting atop the throne, was a single man. His look was almost purely human except for the two black horns protruding from his forehead. He wore a simple black silk shirt and black dragon hide pants. His skin was ghostly white while his hair was abysmal black. His eyes were like two black holes sucking in all light. The aura released by this man screamed only one word. Death.

This man with the aura of death was none other than the Demon Lord. His name lost in history, only he could tell you.

Within the desolate chambers, a small pool of shadow formed and took a humanoid form with head arms and legs but no distinguished features except for the pure white eyes.

This was a demon from the shade race.

“Your highness,” it said bending over.

“Speak,” the man said bored.

“I have come to report on the new generation of heroes,” the shade replied.

“Speak only of the ones with the class hero or those who show great promise.

“Yes, Your Highness. From the elven nation, the hero is a female minstrel. Her world was one of peace and, she trained her magic with music and upon using it in combat she fought alone, and her music formed vibrating blades which is a unique magic to her world. There are four others that show promise, but far too little to be of interest to you your highness.

“The dwarven hero is a giant of five meters, but in the world he comes from, he is like a dwarf compared to other races. His skin is harder than tempered steel and he wields a hammer that can cause earthquakes. He was summoned alone due to his size and power. As a giant his limits are 150 all around, and in two weeks it rose far more.

“The beast men summoned forth a werewolf from Hell's pits. A descendant of Cerberus but due to the summoning ritual, his power was restricted to the max value of 80 all around, but in two weeks his power rose to over 150 all around and he decimated our 50 minotaurs that were sent... alone. As you may have guessed but his power made him be summoned alone.

“Finally, the humans... to be honest, the human hero is pathetic even in human standards. He has no strategic thinking and during the battle against ogres he was easily blindsided and only got out alive due to the human knights killing the ogres and getting him out.

“That said, the humans have two powerful men, one is a swordsman that decimated half an imp swarm alone and killed the rest with strategic superiority while the other is a dungeon maker and used strategy in the Jagged Mountains to force 1000 goblins into a maze of death and lost not one life,” the shade said.

The demon lord's eyes seemed to glow as a small smile appeared upon his lips.

“Seems this generation has brought some interesting toys. The dungeon maker in particular will allow them to advance into my domain for the first time in centuries since I destroyed all information within my grasp of runic language. Let us see how much he can learn before he arrives,” The man spoke to himself out loud as his hands waved and runes appeared before him as, black book rose from his side. Flipping through the pages, he pressed a page and an icon that formed a magic formation in front of him forming a complex man of wood and glowing green through the cracks in his eyes.

“Master?” he said bowing.

“Travel to the human nation of Heavenlight, watch the dungeon maker and keep track of his progress, you don't need to get near, just news that spreads is enough,” the demon lord said.

“As you wish,” the man said and he turned and left the room.

“Monitor all heroes as before. Not all of them have adapted to this warring state and when they do their mental processes will change. Now go,” the demon lord said and the shade vanished as it came.

***

Within the castle throne room, both king and queen sat on their respective thrones with Marian, her twin and the crowned princess Charlotte on the right.

Before Ace and Misaki reported their adventures, they were told the results of the other heroes that had finished earlier.

Ace made a small smile when he heard the longsword guy was so powerful. A good rival was better than none. That said, he was unable to contain his laughter when he heard that Richard, the pretty boy hero, had been blindsided by a lower rank ogre and had sustained three broken ribs, and his left arm, which received the impact from the iron club in full, had broken in seven places.

He was under heavy medical care and had received an elixir from the treasury to aid in repairing the bones. The second princess was watching over him which was why she wasn't present.

After that, the other parties were reported to still be fighting.

Once the two had been informed they shared their own tale. The slow preparations, usage of materials, how deadly the dungeon was and finally how 60% of the resources were paid back in dire wolf pelts and they would most likely search for the remaining funds promised soon.

“That is quite a sum you used Mr. Ace,” the queen said with a slight frown.

“It is only this first time. Maybe. I already have a three-floor dungeon and many traps. Until I further level up, I will require fewer resources for small things such as my magic experiments and research,” Ace said.

“That is good, we will see to repaying the town smiths and carpenters for their aid as contribution to the war effort,” the queen said.

“Is it wise? It is a large sum,” the king commented.

“Bleeding our nation isn't the way to make us strong. For now, you focus on growing. Shinigumi-san, since Mr. Ace will be training his magic, I can assign you to a guard unit for monster hunting missions. From what we gathered, Mr. Ace doesn't get a hint of experience unless it is gathered from killing in his dungeon, and since there aren't demons attacking we can't deploy him as most monster attacks are handled by the army,” the queen said.

“If your highness would do such for me, then I will accept but I will still be regarded as part of Cross-san's party. I will only regard this as a training trip,” she replied.

“Then it is settled. You two may leave to rest,” the queen said.

“One moment please!” Ace said as he saw the royal family getting up.

“Yes Mr, Ace, is there something else,” the queen asked.

“Actually, it's about my dungeon, it may seem stupid, but I thought that since I have a dungeon maybe I should be able to summon minions or monsters to fight so that I can kill more monsters within. I was wondering if you had magic for this, or maybe something like artificial monsters or something,” Ace asked.

“We don...” she stopped midway as the crowned princess poked her.

“Mother, there is 'that' in the treasury. Maybe he can use it,” Charlotte whispered.

“He has yet to earn such a thing,” she muttered back.

“Killing the 1000 members of the Dire Wolf Goblin Tribe means he killed 2000 beings in total without spilling the blood of our armies, and even worked to repay more than half the work and resources taken. I believe he deserves a reward,” Charlotte said.

“The reward would have been 100 gold coins which would have been reduced due to having to repay the workers. If you want me to give this to him, I will not pay him for his work,” the queen replied.

“This is on the account that he can use it right?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes,” the queen said after a pause and a smile appeared on her face.

“Um, is something wrong?” Ace suddenly asked.

“No, I was... negotiating with my daughter on something. It is like this, Ace Cross, I will lead you to an ancient tool in our treasury if you can activate it and agree to not receive the reward of gold coins then you can keep it. If not, we will simply give you your monetary reward. Do you agree?” she asked.

“This is only my part of the money and not Shinigumi-san's right?” he asked.

“Yes, this is your reward we are talking of,” the queen replied.

“Then I agree,” Ace said.

“And I don't. You are actually allowing him into our treasury! What if he steals our treasures besides 'that?’” the king blurted out, but he received a hit on the head with the fan from the queen. It actually made a strong thud showing it was made of metal as the king was clearly holding his head in pain.

“This is not up for you to decide, you already favored Hero Richard by giving one of the four elixirs we have despite him spectacularly failing his mission. Since I am taking Ace to the treasury, and if he can gain control of it then I plan to benefit the other heroes that do a satisfactory job this once,” she said and opened her fan and waved it. “Come, Shinigumi-san may follow, and if you locate a treasure of your liking a similar offer to Ace's can be given.”

Misaki nodded and they followed the queen, Marian, and Charlotte while Marian's twin remained with his father.

We walked through the castle and soon arrived at a large door that had a large lock that could fit a human’s closed fist inside. There were nearly a dozen teeth exposed inside and next to the door was an old man.

“Open all the seals up,” the queen said.

“Her Highness wishes to see 'that'?” the elder asked and the queen nodded.

With the nod, the old man pulled out a large key and stuck it into the keyhole. With a turn it automatically pulled inward, a different turn as if unlocking a safe lock the key soon pulled into the third section.

This went on until the final one where the key entered the lock completely and the door opened.

“Come!” the queen said quickly and walked in followed by everyone else.

The door soon closed behind them and soon they found themselves in a room filled with mounds of gold bars and coin.

“Come,” the queen said not even batting an eye at this and walked on.

There was a door in the back, and they walked through.

There were ten other rooms filled with treasures, potions, medical herbs, magic weapons, magical artefacts, and more. At the last door it was open, and as they crossed inside there was a drastic rise in mana. Each room had been filled with more and more mana, and the final one made it feel hard to breathe. This place would be a magician's dream training ground.

As they walked inside, there was only a single thing standing in the room.

Old, with a wooden body exposed and old dented metals covering a few places while the rest was on the ground after breaking off, was a large wooden puppet. He was two and a half meters tall with large arms and human hands. The face looked like some strange head with no eyes.

“This was once called a Dungeon Guardian. In ancient times, dungeons were regarded as a sentient race and these puppets guarded their entrances. Today, dungeons have the demon lord's seal on them so we can do nothing, not even speak with them.. We have tried to activate it, but our knowledge of dungeon beasts such as this is small, and we will not put this inside a dungeon to test it,” the queen said.

Ace walked forward and looked up at the puppet then down at the fallen pieces.

His book slowly rose and opened before shining like the sun.

When it settled down a window floated above the puppet.

Low Class Dungeon Guardian Level 75 (12)

Damage sustained 95% of body corrosion. 50% of armor corroded and fallen off.

Guardian unbound and without a power source. To bind this as a minion, place the Runic Pen over his chest in a small empty circular area found near where the human heart is located. A small crevice is found there. Insert the pen and slowly turn until it is pulled in on its own. Once all 5 seals are unblocked, replace power source and binding and repairs will commence.

Ace looked at the instructions above and looking at the book that was at an empty page, he removed the pen from his pocket and located the crevice. Putting the pen inside and slowly turned.

It was like the key the elder used, but with his pen. As the final one connected, the chest trembled and the pen popped out so Ace removed it. Following it, a magical formation appeared on the chest as the black circular area moved out.

What appeared before his eyes was a small gem.

“This is an exp crystal...” Ace muttered and put his hands on it and pulled it out. He could see it had no mana inside.

“Too bad, who knew it ran on exp crystals. Such an expensive fellow,” the queen said.

That was until Ace pulled one of the ones he obtained.

“Now I get why my dungeon produced this,” Ace said with a grin.

“Where?” the queen asked stunned.

Obviously, Ace and Misaki didn't know the true value of this small low-class crystal. Low class exp crystals only came from killing dungeon bosses from a dungeon with 5 to 20 floors or breaking a piece of a natural dungeon’s core.

Normally, each of the crystals held at most 20,000 exp and had a 0.1% chance of appearing. Yet, because of his successful hunt and the closure of his dungeon, Ace gained two, it was obvious he wouldn't think this was highly valued because of the words 'Low Class.' He wouldn't look down on it, if he had known that these crystals not only allowed base levels to rise but skills as well, and it was an extremely important tool for him in particular as some skills only leveled up through the crystals.

“When I kill enough monsters. I think these things condense from the magic hole used to open the way to the dungeon,” Ace said as he slid the new crystal into the small socket.

As soon as it was inside it started to glow and the area on the chest closed sealing it.

The table above changed instantly.

Place the Runic Pen over the empty circle and prepare for the binding ritual to begin.

Probably guessing something like the archiving was about to happen, Ace drank one of his last potions and put the pen over the chest.

As the pen made contact, a shock wave was released and the body of the puppet shook as the book waved its pages until it ended on an empty page.

Slowly, ink marks appeared and four new words.

“Minion page!” Ace exclaimed but another shock wave ran through the room.

Then the armor pieces that were on the ground began to slowly lift up under the glow of the book and Ace removed his hand from the chest as a large piece chest armor slammed on and the runes appeared. He put his pen back on the empty space as the armor reattached.

All the while, the runes were pulsing as mana ran through the creature. Slowly, faded or destroyed ones appeared again and when all of them appeared, a seal appeared on the space where the pen was placed. It glowed with strength.

The next moment, lines along the body, head, eyes, and cheeks lit up. A line between the glowing cheeks formed a mouth that slowly opened and closed. It looked more or less like a skull.

“What master needs of me... I shall abide,” a deep powerful voice called.

Binding was successful. New minion has sustained heavy damage and will return to the minion page where it will feed off the mana within the Book of the Dungeon Maker.

The skill Dungeon Archive has been upgraded to archive minions.

The activation words are ‘Archive Minion.’

You may only store 3 types of minion.

By obtaining your first Minion you have gained a new skill.

Minion Summon

Level 1

A dungeon maker is a person who uses dungeons to combat monsters. As such, these people also possess their own minions. When minions aren't within the dungeon performing a job for their master, they await within the Book of the Dungeon Maker. The dungeon maker can summon forth his minion to battle or do his bidding.

Can summon 1 Minion Monster

Once all the messages vanished the puppet began to glow and became a bright light ball that shrank and entered the book.

Where it entered, an icon appeared showing his image and beside it his health which was critically low.

It was clear this puppet was nearing the point of unsalvageable.

“Wow, this was almost unsalvageable,” Ace said playfully.

The royal family, girls, and queen had their jaws hanging a bit.

Then the queen opened her fan and began to fan covering her face.

“Truly all the most mysterious items we possess are easily used by you,” The queen said in a playful tone.

“It simply makes it easier for your highness to reward me after each conquest. Still it might take some time for it to recover from the damage. As for the agreement, as you said, if I can activate the puppet, I can keep him but don’t receive money. Since I got him then I don’t need money,” Ace said.

“For me, I was interested in a set of armor in one of the rooms we passed. It looked like true samurai gear, and I would like to possess such honorable armor,” Misaki said.

“If you wish for that then I can still give you money since the armor isn’t of use to our knights, and we really have no use for such armor,” the queen said.

Misaki smiled and started running toward the room.

Everyone started walking back and found her admiring the armor and slowly putting it on after removing the poor excuse of samurai armor.

As the final part was put on her body—all of them being too large—they began to glow a bit and floated over her body eventually shrinking to her body size.

“Neat,” Misaki said.

“All magic armor and swords have magic that resize to the wielder's size though the weight doesn’t change. Still, it is one of the appeals,” the queen said.

“Well we have what we wanted, I will be heading to the library to experiment with runes and study more,” Ace said.

“I shall go rest, and can go to the knights tomorrow,” Misaki said.

“If that is what you want then we may leave,” the queen said and soon after they exited the treasury with a monster minion stored and a set of samurai armor for a modern day shrine maiden turned samurai girl.