The wide scale renovation of our home and dungeon is taking place. Along with all the mana Max managed to bring in, we are going to start expanding!

Max and the March Hare are setting out to try find the March Hare’s family to bring back to the dungeon. Although the squirrels are more highly evolved and thus much stronger at the moment, there’s no telling how the Hares will develop so calling them will only help us, besides if they’re willing to become inhabitants of my dungeon, I’m not going to say no.

So the plan for the dungeon was to have ten rooms before you get to the dungeon crystal room. According to Rox, ten was ideal for the first floor, like a rite of passage for dungeons and one of the requirements if I want to add another floor when I eventually get that ability unlocked.

I didn’t make too many changes to the room by the entrance, just making it big enough for 50 people or so to fit in at once comfortably. Each room will be connected to the next with a corridor that can only fit 2 people abreast at once just in case we get attacked by a mob again. The squirrels may be evolving to become human sized slowly but we still need to make the place defendable.

Apart from the cliff room as the second room, I added secret rooms to the second to last and last rooms. I made them massive as well, more caverns than rooms, and that’s where the squirrels could make homes for themselves. It didn’t take long for them to increase the size into a small warren like structure that could hold all 400 of them. I was starting to be quite proud of the dungeon.

Several days had gone by before Max and the March Hare returned. They brought with them 40 other hares as well as, surprisingly a host of vegetables. Is it… racist to find it amusing that hares would think to bring carrots with them? Well they did, as well as a huge selection of things that I had no clue as to the identity. They were apparently edible and even delicious judging by the glazed look on Rox’s face.

When they brought everything in, I got a new message

Requirements have been met to reach the next level.

Dungeon level has increased to level 6

To reach the next level 1000 Mana and 100 souls are needed

What the fuck? The requirements for the next level up are insane! Shit

‘Roooxxxxx, why did the requirements for the next level jump so high?!’

‘What did you think would happen? Stronger monsters and beasts give hundreds if not thousands of mana when they die. Besides dungeons grow qualitatively, not just quantitatively.’

‘So in English, they become better as well as bigger. *sigh* I guess that means we have to ramp up our work. Also no skills at level 6? What cheap skates.’

‘Dungeons can grow to the hundreds, you think there are an infinite amount of skills? The skills learnt are only those you have an affinity with, you know. For instance, neither your dungeon abilities nor your human body are suited for physical skills like sword skills.’

‘Don’t I know it. The fact that I don’t have affinity for those types of active skills is almost insulting since even the most common animal can learn them, but noooo not me.

As we were chatting, the March Hare brought his family and suddenly kneeled down in front of me.

‘Oh great dungeon master! I have brought my kin to seek sanctuary in your dungeon, please accept us as inhabitants…’

This guy… perhaps he…

‘Also, since you already have a named squirrel leading your squirrel group, it stands to reason to have a named lead the hares. I volunteer for this arduous task, and I vow to always fight valiantly against all your mighty foes, why I shall prove my valour and…’

‘… And strike fear into the hearts of those who dare…’

This was an art form I had never seen before. I looked at Alex, wow if crystals had eyes, his would be glazed over. None of the enemies we had could faze him but this shameless hare had made him powerless! The hare was actually asking for a name! How brazen… his whole family looks like they want to bury themselves!

‘… I am the bravest of my kin, I hold the heart of a lion…’

This came from the guy who bolted when his family was attacked…

‘Ok, ok enough,’ even Alex had a breaking point. I helplessly giggled, I think having this Hare around would make him more grounded in reality instead of thinking all serious things.

‘Rox what do you think?’

Alarm bells! He’s trying to foist the decision to me! I can already see that infernal hare preparing to start talking to me, no no no.

‘Of course we should name him! Such a brave, uh silent warrior would be appreciated as one of the vanguard of our forces,’ oh I do have a silver tongue if I do say so myself.

Alex is looking at me accusingly, well excuse me rock head, I’m not going to stand around and get talked at for half an hour like you. It’s funny when it happens to Alex but not if I have to suffer too.

If crystals had eyes, Alex would be rolling his at me heh. I could tell he liked this hare though, for all his faults. His tongue was sharp which meant his mind was sharp as well, we could always use more quick witted allies.

Alex shared the screens with me as he invoked [Name Bestowal] on the March Hare.

‘March Hare, I grant you the name Levine the Brave. Through the best and worst of times, you will be the anchor for those around you to keep them, and us all, striving for something greater.’

‘March Hare’ has been granted the name ‘Levine the Brave’

Name bestowal has been invoked

March Hare has now been named

An evolution has occurred naturally caused by the will of the creature and the power of the dungeon master

Levine has evolved into the race Holy Hare Folk Warrior

Levine’s strength has increased by 12, agility has increased by 16, intelligence has increased by 18, magic power has increased by 19, stamina has increased by 19

Levine has unlocked the skill ‘Holy Warrior’

Levine has unlocked the skill ‘Moon’s Blessing’

Levine has unlocked the skill ‘Silver Tongue’

Magic light surrounded the newly named Levine. The mana around him had a slightly pearly tinge to it, probably the holy essence acting up. I wonder if he’ll become even more talkative, that skill Silver Tongue worries me. I’m almost tempted to ask him what it is, but it’s bad manners to ask people what their skill descriptions are…

As the glow of magic faded we could see that he was like a half beastman, not quite as tall as Max but obviously on the way to evolve to full beastman too.

With that, plans were made to expand some more rooms to as a home for the new additions to the dungeon.

‘Hey Alex, show me the dungeon summary, how are we doing for mana and souls?

‘Honestly, we’re almost dry, we need to send some more people for collection.’

Dungeon Name: Cave of the Apprentice

Titles: Cave of Origin (the birthplace of the squirrel folk species, +affinity to squirrel folk, all squirrel folk in this dungeon get a bonus +2 to all stats, stat increase rate up)

Rank:

6

Floors:

1

Mana:

157/1000

Souls:

46

Dungeon Points:

143

Achievement Points:

55

Dungeon Abilities:

Absorption

Expand Territory

Create Room

Create Special Room

Create Structures

Mana Abilities:

Mana Absorption

Create animal

Create monster

Create undead

Create plantlife

Create Mana Stones

Create Elemental Stones

Soul Abilities:

Soul Absorption

Enhance creature

Name Bestowal

Special Abilities:

Dungeon Map

Dungeon Contract

Dungeon Shore

Inhabitants

442

Creatures:

440

Named Creatures:

2

Boss Creatures:

0

Special Creatures:

0

Plant-life

0

‘We have a quite a few dungeon points now, why don’t we unlock some monsters? We have to unlock the earlier ones for the more advanced monsters to be unlocked anyway.’

Alex agreed.

The Monster ‘Slime’ has now been unlocked.

The Monster ‘Goblin’ has now been unlocked.

We spent 100 dungeon points and unlocked the two beginning monsters.

‘You want to summon a slime or a goblin? Slime is 50 mana, goblin is 100 mana.’

Alex wondered about it for a bit, then decided, ‘Let’s go slime first and see what we’re working with.’

‘Create monster!’

What monster would you like to create?

Creatures available

Squirrel (animal)

1 mana to summon

Giant rat (animal)

3 mana to summon

Hare (animal)

4 mana to summon

Wolf (animal)

40 mana to summon

Slime

The lowest cost monster that can be summoned by a dungeon

Under control of the dungeon

Mutation and evolution possible

Offensive ability lowest, defensive ability low

Has high resistance to physical attacks

Intelligence rating Negligible

Magic ability - minor magic absorption only

Soul increases ability and allows monster to leave dungeon

Weak to offensive magic

50 mana to summon

Goblin

The lowest cost tribe monster that can be summoned by a dungeon

Under control of the dungeon

Mutation and evolution possible

Offensive ability low, defensive ability low

Intelligence rating Low – increases with a goblin leader

Magic ability - magical perception only

Soul increases ability and allows monster to leave dungeon

Weak to mind magic

100 mana to summon

Kobold

Locked – unlock with 50 dungeon points

Orc

Locked – unlock with 100 dungeon points

Skeleton

Locked – unlock with 50 dungeon points

Zombie

Locked – unlock with 50 dungeon points

Imp

Locked – unlock with 100 dungeon points

‘Wow! We opened up a lot more options! Let’s summon up a slime first, since it’s cheap and all. Summon one slime!’

After the blob of jello came out, came something unexpected.

A new achievement!

The first monster has been summoned to your dungeon

The creatures that live in a dungeon are the blood that keeps the heart of the dungeon from faltering

The dungeon ability [Special Summon] has been unlocked

‘Special summon? Rox, what is in special summon?’

Honestly I didn’t know, but I had some idea of at least WHY I didn’t know.

‘Well Al, it goes like this, every dungeon has a flavour or a unique fragrance about it and according to the dungeon and the dungeon master, they will sometimes unlock special features that have a high affinity with the dungeon or its master… but first you have to fulfill a specific set of requirements that we don’t know about like maybe we had to be rank 5 and have summoned one monster, or have 1000 inhabitants in the dungeon and it’ll unlock. Basically the better you perform as a dungeon, not just pure on masses of monsters, I’m talking about the nitty gritty making things efficient and work smoothly kind of dungeon keeping, will make it easier to unlock stuff.’

‘That basically means, the better I work, not just as a dungeon master but also by doing things my own way, the more special things I can unlock?’

‘Why do you think I haven’t stopped you from doing weird and crazy things? I think you’re onto something, heck you may be a genius! What do I know, dungeon fairies only get one dungeon so everything is new to me.’

‘Let’s look at that special summons page while we’re at it’

Special Summons

Certain individuals, leave a mark on history, or in the souls of those around them. This permanent mark leaves their essence and their soul drifting in the world. Those with special summoning ability such as dungeon masters can tap into and summon those they have great affinity towards, for a price. Special summons are vastly more powerful than most normal summons and thus have a much greater price. If special conditions are fulfilled related to the souls in question, they can be summoned for a cheaper price or perhaps without any price paid by the dungeon master.

Select rank

Rank Ex

None

Rank SSS

None

Rank SS

24 Available

Rank S

100+ Available

Rank A

100+ Available

Rank B

100+ Available

Rank C

100+ Available

Rank D

100+ Available

Rank E

100+ Available

Rank F

100+ Available

Rank G

100+ Available

‘Holy cantaloupe, is this legal? This is insane... Alright, let's check out rank G.’

Even I was astounded when I saw the list that popped up after. Monster after monster, animals, demons, undead. They were all listed, though they had two things in common, they were ridiculously expensive, even for rank G, on average about 800 mana, and they were also… all named creatures.

‘Alex… what… what are these? They’re all named creatures, this is impossible!’

‘I recognize some of the names! Oh my god… they’re all the creatures I fought with back on Earth. You remember Rox? I told you how the planet I lived on used to be without magic, but then one day a huge war broke out and due to the effects of the war huge rifts opened up all over the world. Out of these rifts came monsters and creatures but also most importantly, came magic. When humans got hit with magic we were drawn into the system and we started being able to level up. These creatures, these are the ones I’ve fought with before!’

I looked at Alex in shock, he killed with so many? The screen clearly showed rank SS, Rank S and Rank A as well…

‘Alex… you fought with Rank SS creatures?’ my voice may have trembled a bit. Rank SS, that was the rank of dragons and titans, heroes and devils.

‘No, I definitely wasn’t strong enough for that. Ok let’s check it out, Rank SS special summons.’

Then he went silent.

It felt like his dungeon crystal was going to crack.

If crystals had eyes, his would be showing anguish, horror, shock? What’s going on?

‘Alex, Alex! What’s wrong? Alex?’

He didn’t say a word. He couldn't.

‘Alex, Alex! What’s wrong? Alex?’

I could hear Rox’s concerned voice echoing in my head. I wanted to answer, I wanted to move… but how could I? I was transfixed, I couldn’t compute. I felt like lightning had struck me. I just couldn’t think, I couldn’t process what was going on. Memories flooded me.

I was only 14 when world war 3 broke back on earth. How did it start? Well…

The year was 2058 and the Allied Axis Federation, made up of old allies from the Second World War, had declared war on the Blood of the Brothers, a faction that had arisen from a collection of groups that had allied together made up of mostly terrorist groups that were prominent in unstable and war-torn areas across the globe, as well as a few extremist and supremist groups. How the racial supremist groups justified working with others not of the same race was purely political, they were mutual in their hatred of established governments... and thus they fought together.

The conflict started due to the assination of a political figure somewhere in the Eastern Europe, and then to all intents and purposes ended, with the invention of a new weapon, codenamed the Star Cluster Bomb. A new weapon that disintegrated matter and would theoretically create a black hole with the resultant destructive forces estimated around the size of a medium sized country. The problem was that the new weapon had been stolen away by the Blood Brothers, who promptly launched it, right there in Eastern Europe. The aftermath was where everything changed, a new level of energy tore open the very foundation of the universe, splitting matter and releasing power equivalent to compare to the energy of a supernova.

The destruction ignited the ozone layer around earth, changed all the weather patterns around the globe, spewed radiation into every particle, destroyed a third of the world's landmass but worse of all... The theoretical blackhole did indeed pop up, except it wasn't exactly temporary. Instead the blackhole absorbed continuosly for 3 years before it transformed into a dimensional rift... And through this rift came a message.

[We are waiting for you]

Everyone got this message that whispered in their minds at the same time.

Lights shot out from the dimensional rift and electricity started to fail. It took a long time for us to realize why, that is mana and electrical circuits don’t mix. Mana agitates electrical current and the electrical circuits melt… of course all we knew was that it felt like the world was ending.

We don’t know who the first to enter the system was. It was abrupt, when that first status screen appeared in front of you. We didn’t know how to unlock it, but soon everyone had this odd ability to measure their stats.

About a year after the rift open was when the next ‘event’ happened. We called it Monster Fall, because… well monsters fell. From the sky. Literally, these monsters were ejected from the rift and started falling from the sky, and those that survived the fall started attacking anyone and anything around them.

Those who could, took up arms, with so many trials and tribulations. In the beginning, we were trying to reclaim earth, then we were just trying to survive, lastly we were trying to escape.

I was the key to escaping, with my special ability, I could tie someone’s soul to mine, so if I escaped? Everyone tied to me could escape. That’s why I was chosen for the mission, and that’s why all the others underwent such hardship just to keep me alive. Why even Bird and Cadet, the strongest humans on earth, my best friend and my sister did everything to keep me from the end.

We managed to survive for 15 years. But slowly, our numbers were being whittled away. At that point, everyone had made a contract with me, and with it, I could tell that everyone was alive. It was like a life insurance, as long as I didn’t die, no one else could. The secret to our success, and the reason we could hold out so long on a dying earth.

Eventually though, we started losing too many important players. They weren’t dead, that isn’t how the system was working. No, the reason everything was so fucked up was more complex than that. Basically put, Earth was collapsing. And some higher powers didn’t like that, they valued earth and humanity. And this wasn't higher powers like governments, I'm talking about Gods and divinity. Not the ones we worshiped in our religions, but strange and sometimes crazy gods. They weren't all powerful or all-knowing... but they were much more powerful than us, and definitely knew more than us too. Some of them liked humanity. Thus they were going to save earth, and they would save humanity but not all of us. We were given a task. We had to enter the system, and fulfill a minimum number of missions. Then, they would transport us to a new world. Some of us did more than the minimum needed missions, that was me and my group. There was more than a few hundred of us, however in the last mission, there was only 3. Me, Bird and Cadet. And when that mission ended, there was only me. I was the very last human on earth… and apparently there is a privilege being the last one, I met god, or at least A god. This one liked us humans so he struck a deal with me. I would perform one last mission for him. And he would make it so I could keep my contracts, while he kept everyone alive but unsummoned in the new world, and thus I could potentially find a way to bring my group to the new world with me, instead of scattering us throughout an entire strange world. He said the new world has 5 times the size of Earth and didn't have global transportation, but if I took him at his word, although I don't know what conditions would be needed summon everyone, that possibility still exists. What a deal right? The problem was that I had to travel through the void, just me. With my mediocre physical stats and non-existent protective skills. Sure the god would help me but it was a gamble.

Long story short, I woke up to the sound of Rox, and everything else is history. So I had two missions, gather everyone, and fulfill that god’s mission.

So right now I was godsmacked. I was shocked. I was speechless.

The reason for that? A simple table, Rank SS summons.

What Special Rank SS would you like to summon?

Summons available

‘Sword Saint Bird’

5 000 000 Mana and 5 000 Souls to summon

‘Life Reaper Cadet’

4 000 000 Mana and 7 000 Souls to summon

Locked

Spent 100 Achievement points to unlock more

I finally found out some of what had happened so he fell into the cave with an arm and leg missing on the cusp of death. It was… well an amazing story. I can’t believe he had gone through all of that. I’ve also never heard of some of the vulgar language he used after he finally started talking again. Well, I can’t blame him really, he finally found out how to find his friends and get them all together again… but even if we saved mana for the rest of the year, I don’t think it’s possible to save that much. So we’re right back where we started, expect this time we have a really focused dungeon crystal.

If crystals had eyes, his would like the gaze of an eagle, glaring.

I feel both happy and sad at his reaction. It’s childish of me to be a little jealous at the loyalty and dedication he gives to his friends and sister. I mean they fought through fifteen years and had to go through a lot of tragedy. And they gambled everything on him. On his ability, both his ‘contract’ ability and his own personal ability to survive.

I won’t be jealous, instead, I want to join in this happy group. We’ll do it, we’ll make this the most powerful dungeon in the world. We’ll grow, we’ll become as powerful as one of the intelligent nations and carve out a space for him and his friends. And I will be there every step of the way

Alex is going to step onto the path of a dungeon king, guided by the light of his loyal dungeon fairy.

Red eyes. The sign of a demonic presence, these red eyes were on the eyes of a wolf. After having been chased out of their new cave home by an adventuring swordswoman, after that humiliation, a demonic presence had taken root in the soul of the leader of the pack of wolves.

His pack looked at him in devotion and fear. When he evolved into a demonic wolf, he had grown to twice their size, dark grey fur adorned his body. There bony protrusions resembling spines along his back that shivered as the wolf prowled around. A dark predator’s intellect could be seen in its eyes.

It felt a desire, to take revenge, to mutilate that swordswoman, and take back control of the cave. There was something special about the cave, the wolf had sensed the dungeon. All animals have a natural instinct towards dungeons, and this wolf wanted to own the dungeon.

The demon wolf raised its muzzle and howled, gathering its pack. A pack of wolves thirty strong started making their way towards the cave they had been driven out from.