Five slowly bent down and picked the item. It was a short black staff with a skull at one end. The staff was made of some sort of wood, it was carved to make it look like the body of a snake was wrapping around the entire staff; the head of the snake was entering the skull from under. In short, it looked like it belonged to one of those ancient shamans who made human sacrifices.

[Necromancer's Death Wand (Grade 2)]

Magic Damage + 5

Skills Cooldown - 10%

Skill: [Death's Feast]

[Death's Feast (Grade 1)]

Absorbs the Mana out of corpse: recovers 20% of remaining Mana of the body before death.

Cooldown: 1 hour

"A good item!" exclaimed Five. It was just a pity he was not a mage, but he could change that in an instant by purchasing skills in the dungeon shop.

His current DP amounted to 56149. Right after he ran away from Etora Town, he noticed that his DP suddenly skyrocketed which could only mean that the harpies encountered a strong opponent.

But before anything, Five checked if nothing was hidden under the dust and dirt of the chest. And effectively, his diligence was rewarded as he found a small ring completely covered by the dust.

[Rusty ring (Grade 1)]

Vitality +1

Note: This accessory has been eroded over time. After significant maintenance, it will regain its former appearance, grade, and stats.

"Mmm better than nothing! A ring like this would cost at least 2000 DP," said Five to himself as he equipped it.

Having obtained the treasures of this place, Five went back near his torch. "This looks like a good place for my dungeon. The environment is quite nice and well hidden. There is a village not too far away. I am guaranteed to get people to quickly come to the dungeon."

He especially liked the idea of having a waterfall nearby. With his dungeon core, he would be able to easily dig through the rocks and use the waterfall to his advantage.

And so, Five took out his dungeon core.

The latter shone brightly in his hands; it was eager to build the dungeon.

[System prompt: You have activated the function of the Core of Madness. Do you want to proceed forward? Bear in mind that the process is irreversible!]

"Yes!" declared Five.

As the word came out of his mouth, the dungeon core suddenly started to shake violently! A bright light was emitted as Five felt an invisible wave coming out of the dungeon core. The wave went through his body and covered the entire room, but it did not stop there; it continued to diffuse into the ground.

It continued for a moment and suddenly stopped. Suddenly, Five felt a strong connection with the surroundings,

[System prompt: Congratulations player Five for founding your dungeon. You are the 1396th player to found a dungeon. Please name your dungeon.]

"A name?" thought Five as he heard the system prompt. He was still overwhelmed by the sudden change. He could feel the excitement of the core as it was releasing the wave and felt that this entire place now belonged to him.

It previously felt like entering an ancient hidden place, but now, this place felt like home.

"I am bad at naming... What about the dungeon of Black Iron? The tribe of the barbarians is the Tribe of Black Iron. It is like calling Kroff's dungeon the Algate Dungeon because it was found next to Algate City."

In truth, Five did not really care about the name of the dungeon. And so, he hurriedly entered "Dungeon of Black Iron" but at that moment, the core shook as if expressing its disapproval.

"What? You have a better idea?" asked Five.

The dungeon core flashed for a moment like it was speaking in the morse code but Five had no idea what it was trying to convey. After a few seconds, the core finally stopped trying this method and suddenly, letters started to appear on his interface.

"Dungeon of Madness"

"Tsssk! You call it like that because it's your own name! But fine. I don't really mind." Five pressed the confirm button.

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five for naming your dungeon. You are awarded a reward to help you get started. Reward: One Monster Lottery Ticket]

The dungeon core trembled before starting to float in the middle of the room. It stopped just on top of the table next to the skeleton and stayed there like it was its spot. The dungeon has now been founded; it could no longer leave the cave.

"Well. Since we started, let's set up the dungeon properly before those children arrive but first, let's use the Monster Lottery Ticket," said Five.

‘This should be what Gaia talked about. After letting go of the harpies, it should be something good!’

The Monster Lottery Ticket was an item that cost about 100000 DP. It was used just like a lottery and always gave out a prize. As its name suggested, it would provide a monster and it would also allow the user to purchase that type of monster from now on.

To purchase monsters with the dungeon shop, one first needed to unlock the monster by paying a fee and then one would have to buy the monsters individually. Currently, Five could only buy harpies which had been automatically unlocked since Harriet was his monster.

It was one of the perks obtained when unlocking a Boss Monster; it would also unlock the normal version of the monster. Harriet was a harpy queen and by having her, Five automatically unlocked the harpies.

An important detail about the harpies that Five did not miss was that they all had black wings! And that was because Harriet came from the Black Wing Clan. If he wanted to purchase other types of harpies, he would still need to unlock them in the dungeon.

Five took out the Monster Lottery Ticket and decided to use it. It was better to see what he could obtain now and possibly implement the monster to the dungeon. It would be a pity if he started building the dungeon and the monster obtained would turn out to be inappropriate for this environment.

The Monster Lottery Ticket was activated and in front of Five, the interface showing all the monster races he could purchase opened. A small yellow box appeared and framed the icon of the monster at the top left of the screen. That monster was naturally the weakest one: it was not even a monster but a beast; The Level 1 Rabbit.

The yellow box then blinked before quickly moving over all the other icons. The box moved extremely quickly but eventually, it started to slow down. It spent a brief amount of time where the powerful boss monsters' icons were but as it slowed down, it once again returned to the region of the beginner monsters.

The box moved from icon to icon, the further it went, the stronger the monster Five would obtain and eventually, the yellow box completely stopped moving.

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five. You have unlocked the Boss Monster: Level 5 Firefly Queen, this monster can now be purchased at the dungeon shop. One Firefly Queen is ready for summoning]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five. Due to unlocking the Firefly Queen, you have unlocked the Monster: Level 1 Firefly, this monster can now be purchased at the dungeon shop]

"What? Wasn’t I supposed to obtain a powerful monster that would replace Harriet and the other harpies? F*ck… At least it was a boss monster..." said Five to himself.

The Monster Lottery was naturally just like the lottery in real life. The probability of getting a powerful monster was quasi-null. The ticket would give out monsters below level 10 in 80% of the cases; it could already be considered lucky to obtain a boss monster since that would mean unlocking two monsters.

The worst part was that it was possible for the yellow box to land on a monster already unlocked; playing a lot would not increase the chance of unlocking a powerful monster. In that case, the player would simply be able to summon the monster immediately.

So why even purchase the item? Because just like the lottery in real life, there was a small probability of earning big. Unique monsters that could instantly kill someone like Harriet could be obtained if one was lucky enough.

Five quickly used the dungeon shop and summoned the Firefly Queen. Instantly, the room became brighter as the monster appeared in front of Five.

It looked no different from normal fireflies, except for its larger size and brighter light. It danced in front of Five for a moment before buzzing.

"Looks like you cannot speak. But that's fine! You are the first monster I summoned. I will give you a name. Since you emit a lot of light, I shall call you: Lumen!" declared Five.

...

Outside the cave, the beasts who were calmly drinking down the stream all raised their heads as Five founded the dungeon. They all felt a change in the environment and looked with greed at the waterfall.

They could feel that something that could help them was lying there. They needed to obtain it! But now was not the right time. Many beasts stared at each other with hostility before quickly returning into the depth of the forests.