Chapter 16 - Time to choose!

Demon Town Dungeon: Oh sure ask away.

I quickly type in all my selections and asked Demon Town to give me a description of them.

Demon Town Dungeon: I'll go through the easy ones quickly. Automatic Repair is pretty self-explanatory, your dungeon repairs itself when damaged at the cost of ambient mana. Spawn Timer is similar, with this you'll resummon monsters that have died at set intervals. Dungeon Instance just puts your dungeon into a small pocket dimension and allows multiple parties to challenge you separately. The knowledge series gives you a certain amount of summon/creation options but are limited to stuff that is your rank or lower. The knowledge series are repeatable so you can take the same one twice for more options.

So the knowledge series are basically themed loot boxes? As if this wasn't game like enough already.

Demon Town Dungeon: Naming is a bit more complicated, you spend mana to give a creature a false soul which is then tied to your own allowing you to revive them at the cost of mana.

Plant Dungeon: Is that it?

Demon Town Dungeon: No not really since a soul is important if you want to have stronger minions. It's impossible to surpass Master Rank without a soul since the requirement for Legend is a Soul Imprint and having a soul makes creature evolution a lot better.

Plant Dungeon: Fae said all creatures needed a soul for evolution?

Demon Town Dungeon: That's not necessarily true since dungeon summons are basically like soulless golems however a soul improves the quality of evolutions and leads to more optimised and efficient paths.

Plant Dungeon: So naming is for creating powerful soldiers later down the line?

Demon Town Dungeon: That is correct.

Demon Town Dungeon: Bosses are different. You pump mana into a creature for an immediate evolution or strengthening and create a boss room around them.

Demon Town Dungeon: Bosses are greatly strengthened within their own zone and will automatically revive in them after death for a set amount of mana. However, they are no different from your normal summons except for the fact that they're stronger and that they become severely weakened when they leave their own zones.

Demon Town Dungeon: Personally I recommend bosses since you need an immediate powerup.

Plant Dungeon: What are the costs of Naming and creating a Boss?

Demon Town Dungeon: Bosses are adjustable and only need a minimum of few hundred mana depending on how strong you want to power them up. Naming is more costly, potentially taking up a few thousand mana in one go.

What is with those absurd costs! Now I know why there's a revive function. If you spent a thousand mana on something only for it to die then you'd absolutely look like an idiot.

Plant Dungeon: That sounds really expensive... Is there no way to lower costs?

Demon Town Dungeon: Bosses are adjustable however if you want a decent boss you need to at least pump 200 mana. For Naming, you could get rid of costs entirely but you need to cut off a bit of your soul.

The f**k is this Horcrux sh*t! Now I know why Naming is so important for monsters. If someone is dumb enough to spend that much sh*t to name you then they're probably worth leeching off of.

Demon Town Dungeon: Named creatures are generally stronger than Bosses, however, that's only when they're given time to strengthen themselves. Bosses are more static, they rarely become stronger.

Demon Town Dungeon: Oh yeah, you don't need to spend pure mana for these abilities including resurrection, only the normal stuff you absorb is really needed.

Thank god! I was almost going to have another seizure if I had to use pure mana for this. Oh yeah, what about the other two?

Plant Dungeon: Senior, you haven't mentioned Increase Evolution Chance or Increase Stats of Selected Race?

Demon Town Dungeon: Those are abilities that grow alongside you. Increase Stats of Selected Race allows you allocate extra stats to a race based on your rank, increasing by one for each rank.

Demon Town Dungeon: Increase Evolution Chance becomes more potent with the more types of mana you have absorbed, it also allows you to unlock a few more abilities such as Elemental Evolution, Targeted Evolution, and Evolution Path Modification.

Very interesting, undoubtedly most of these are late game stuff. Though the decision seems to fall between Naming and Bosses. Naming allows for stronger creatures down the line, however, that's the problem. I've already stacked so much late game stuff with my Lesser races and Hive Queens. It's nice cashing in all the value but that's only if I live to that point. Bosses not only are cheaper, their best point is adjustable mana costs, 200 mana may be the recommended amount but I can easily mass produce side bosses if I just split the 200 into four monsters. Or I could save up and create a monster that is immediately stronger than a named monster despite costing the same.

I won't take the other late game stuff for the sole reason that they're late game. Knowledge is ok but I can just rely on the asshole to get me some herbs. I don't need Material Knowledge because I'm doing pretty fine without it. Traps I could probably make better ones just relying on my rune book. And architecture? If I wanted to turn my dungeon into an art gallery I would but I'm not so bored to do that right now.

Plant Dungeon: Senior what about the races?

Demon Town Dungeon: The first 5 I assume you have encountered in the tutorial. Elemental Spirits are ethereal spirits that cost little but have little effect on the real world. You can summon multiple different elements but they are limited to what you have absorbed. You can evolve them easily if you just dump elemental mana into them. When they evolve they can become Elementals which are living embodiments of their element. But they are only strong based on how much mana they have.

Demon Town Dungeon: Dire Beast and Combat Bug allow you to choose a creature from a list. They are both usually enhanced versions of a normal beast or bug. Dire Beasts usually have a medium cost but have higher physical stats. While Combat Bugs generally cost lesser for faster speed and some nasty tricks like poison or venom.

Demon Town Dungeon: Dryads appeared because you have Lesser Dryad. You usually get the evolution options for a creature you already have. Dryads have mimic abilities and will disguise themselves as humanoid women to attract prey. They have limited movement since they are attached to a secondary living organism called a Home Tree, which they have a symbiotic relationship with.

Demon Town Dungeon: You can act as a proxy Home Tree for Dryads however it is more effective if they get an actual tree.

Demon Town Dungeon: Ents use Nature magic to support allies. A full Ent usually becomes the Home Tree for Dryads in the wild and they have good synergy with your Dryads. They naturally evolve over time as they age however they take up an increasing amount of space the more they grow. Unfortunately, Lesser Ents don't have any magic. Lesser Ents are very similar to Lesser Dyrads. They are immobile and mainly use vines to attack but have tougher bark and higher strength.

Demon Town Dungeon: Mushroom People I have little information about. They have about 1-2 lower physical stats than goblins however they utilize a strange magic. Which is based around area of effect and over time effects. They look like a bleached gnome or goblin with no hair and a large hat which is their mushroom cap. They do have legs which allow them to have free movement, which is a rarity among plant monsters. That it is all that I know since the last Mushroom Dungeon died ages before we made a centralized database with the pixies. And Mushroom People themselves went extinct in ancient times.

Plant Dungeon: Thanks for the information!

Demon Town Dungeon: Don't worry this was all supposed to be free but since Fae's group is taking their time to deliver a pixie I'll have to substitute.

Demon Town Dungeon: I'm on usually so just @ me if you need me.

What a nice guy.

The obvious selection seems to Lesser Ent since they have synergy with Dryads with their Home Tree stuff. I don't want to pick the Dryad selection since I could probably get it myself given enough time.

Dire Beasts, Combat Bugs, and Elemental Spirits are also solid selections. However, Demon Town mentioned something about specialization. I think I'll go down the nature route since I am literally called Plant in the forums. Those three could have good synergy with me, however, it might be better if I choose a plant-based race.

The original five, which sounds like an epic MMO Guild starter party, are too generalized or kind of clashes with my theme. Skeletons are literally dead, how could they synergize with nature? I don't even think Golems can be considered alive. I already have Slimes. Goblins I have had enough off recently and Kobolds don't have enough benefits to seriously consider.

Which leaves Lesser Ents and Mushroom People. Ents, of course, have the synergy with Dryads, however, I may be investing too much into late game stuff and Ents could reinforce that. And they are basically tougher Lesser Dryads at this point so I'm basically just getting a repeat species. Mushroom People are interesting. AOE magic is just begging to be used as a bosses special move. I think they are technically plants so they'll fit in with me.

God this is frustrating, I want to pick Lesser Ents, however, I need something to boost me through the early game. Not only that, Mushroom People had to be a Rare Extinct Race that could use magic. Goddamnit, you don't just dangle rare shit in front of a gamer and expect no reaction.

I suppose I'll just pick Mushroom People and Bosses...

My finger stops in mid-air as I feel a sudden influx of strange mana.

I move my perspective, going past the confused Goblin and landing at the entrance. Where blue bolts of electricity were flowing out of this... crack in the air.

The crack opens up and a woman falls out of the hole.

She was literally the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Smooth baby soft looking skin, perfectly straight white hair which is highlighted by her grey skin. A white dress which practically sticks to her body accentuating her curves. A small wooden case was strapped to her back, it looked like a guitar case but I haven't checked if such instruments existed in this world.

However, the fact that she's shaking on the ground in a fetal position kinda screws with the magic of the scene.

She's clutching her knees and muttering something.

I move closer and I caught some snippets.

"Goddam Fae..."

"Who f**king throws someone else in dwarven teleportation tech..."

"F**king Fae..."

"The f**k is that advanced tracking technique..."

"Burn in a f**king hole..."

"Hehe..."

She's repeating stuff like a chant.

Umm... What the f**k do I do in this situation?