Arriving at the hall, I was greeted by a giant holographic screen. The same silver haired youth was displayed on it, holding a glass of red wine.

“Gather around, children whose aim is to win the [Dungeon Battle]! We will be starting momentarily so please, help your selves to some fine dining before we start!”

The moment he said that, the hologram vanished into thin air.

Just like he said, dungeon masters all around started feasting to their hearts content. Following his words, I helped myself to some food on the table. Ahh… How I want to learn how to cook this food.

I ate with great relish until my belly could support the food no longer. Just as I was wiping my mouth with a napkin, the hologram reappeared, along with the silver haired youth.

“Now that all of you have satisfied yourselves, let us start the main event! Let the [Dungeon Battle] begin!!!”

Roars, cheers and applause resounded through the halls. The loud sound nearly ruptured my eardrums, damn…

Just then, a magic circle appeared beneath my feet, along with some of the other dungeon masters. Perhaps they are some of the other dungeon masters who will participate in the Dungeon Battle.

A moment later, I found myself in a pure white space with nothing inside except for myself. Actually, scratch that, there is a pedestal right in front of me. It screams ‘Touch me!’

I held out my hand and touched the pedestal. Soon after, a holographic screen opened up with the number of my current DP and three input choices.

[Dungeon Market] [DP: 50,000]

[Dungeon Management]

[Dungeon Customization]

It appears to be the three most important functions in a dungeon creation, along with the currency to operate. I opened the Dungeon Management tab to start with the appearance of my dungeon. Selecting my preferences, all of it for free since this is just how your dungeon looks like first, I clicked the OK input and my dungeon began to take shape.

The space around me distorted and the next moment, what appeared was a cave-like texture, actually, not cave-like, but literally a cave. I customized it to look the same as my dungeon back home.

Now that I established the looks of my dungeon, I started creating the floors. First, I created three floors with the total cost of 2,000 DP. Second, I created the typical 15m³ rooms, about 3 of them per floor, and also the passage ways, three on the first floor and two on the second and third floors, bringing it to an expense of 6250 DP.

Next is placing some monsters and spawners. On each room, I placed some orc spawners, each costing 500 DP on each room, bringing it to 4500 DP for all orc spawners. I also placed goblin swordsman spawners along with the orc spawners. Each of them costs 400 DP, bringing it to 3600 DP.

Now that I have placed the spawners, next is placing the sure-win strategy in my dungeons, traps. Dungeon difficulty may vary not due to the monsters, but the traps, if the traps are lethal, and hard to discover without a high level scout or thief, than you can say goodbye to your life.

Looking for the trusted pitfall traps, making all of it 4 meters deep and also commanding some of the goblins to dig an area for them to position themselves and throw away the corpses. I placed them all over the dungeon, totalling about 60 pitfall traps, totalling 12000 DP. And in those traps, I placed two goblin swordsmen in each pitfall trap, equalling 6400 DP.

I added another floor with the same three 15m³ rooms with two passages, added an orc and goblin swordsman spawners in each room, placed 20 4-meter pitfalls with two goblin swordsmen in each, totalling to 15300 DP.

My extra DP now totals 11950 DP. Using all of that DP, I summoned some things and items that can help in the Dungeon Battle.

***

All of the participating dungeon masters were given about 2 hours to create and cutomize their dungeons. Some had their dungeons as majestic castles. Others had the plain dungeon such as swamps, marshes, and caves. Mine is of the cave types.

Now, let me explain the rules that were given to us while we were busy creating our dungeon. There is a time limit of three days, the same as the dungeon survival. Also, there was a rule stating that the 50000 starting DP was only to be used in the creation and management of the dungeon, nothing else.

A new rule was given to us as we were creating our dungeon. It states that we will be given 15000 DP to use for the attacking force. I’ll save this for a later as I will wittle the attacking force of other dungeon masters so that their attacking force will not merge with their defensive force.

The style of the Dungeon Battle is a battle royale. If you want a simpler explanation to this Dungeon Battle, it will be like fighting against all countries in a free for all. No rules, just strategy and strength. Well, except for the rules about using skills.

All of us will be staying inside the core room and are not allowed to go out until the Dungeon Battle is over. The dungeon masters will be given food three times a day, the same as the food from the feast back in the ballroom.

To knock out a participant in the Dungeon Battle, you must either kill the dungeon master, or destroy the dungeon core. Also, those who died will be revived so there are no worries about dying. For each dungeon you knock out of the battle, you will be rewarded with another 15000 DP to add to your attack force. Because of this rule, I will play the police. (Game language in the PH where you come in late in the battle and steal the kill)

Dungeon masters are advised to not resist nor attack so all of the races will be participating in one battle royale.

The last dungeon master standing will be the winner and will be crowned champion of the Dungeon Battle of this year’s annual Dungeon Games.

After reviewing the rules once more in my head, I focused my eyes on the timer. It showed 00:01:00, meaning one more minute until the start of the battle.

I commanded the defensive troops to prepare themselves. Those in the pitfalls stood ready and pointed their swords at the place where the enemies will land when they fall in the pitfall.

The orcs raised their huge clubs and the goblin swordsmen readied their stances. Making it seem like they are prepared for war.

00:00:30

30 seconds left before the battle starts. I stood attentive and looked at the screen. There were some black shadows moving about in the corner of the screen. They were ninja goblins, a sub-species of goblins where stealth and information gathering are their forte.

They numbered 50, each of them costs 80 DP, totalling about 4000 DP. Along with them were goblin assassins, a sub-species of goblins where stealth and killing their target are their forte. They might be the same as their brothers, the ninja goblins, but assassins are different. A skill of theirs, can intantly kill an unsuspecting enemy, as long as they were able to hit the vitals.

They numbered 50, also costing 80 DP each, totalling to 4000 DP, bringing my 15000 DP for the attack force to 7000 DP.

Their jobs are to relay information to me, and the goblin assassins, and the job of the goblin assassins are to follow my orders to kill a dungeon master or destroy a dungeon core, or make use of a chance to bring an early result. It not need matter the process, the result is important in this battle. But process is important sometimes if you want to minimize casualties.

00:00:10

10 seconds left. The silent room, make it seem that the ticking of the timer was louder than my heartbeat.

00:00:05

I calmed myself and lowered my heart rate to ensure that I can give out precise orders.

00:00:00

“Now, without further ado, let the [Dungeon Battle] start!!!”

The voice of the silver haired youth marked the start of the battle where the management and strategy skills of the dungeon masters will be tested.