Requirements have been met to reach the next level.

Dungeon level has increased to level 9

To reach the next level 6000 Mana and 600 souls are needed

I smiled at this message. We had unlocked a bunch of skills at level 8 so I didn’t expect more at level 9.

I had a gleam in my eye as I looked at the skills I now had. Traps! And Items! I had used the create item to make the platform for the Naming Ceremony.

I looked at the [Create Treasure Chest] skill… I frowned, why on earth would I want those hooligans inside my dungeon? Lure adventurers, fuck why not invite a dragon or an elder lich? At least they will come right to your face and tell you’re they’re here to kill you.

Putting that aside, traps!

‘Hey Rox! Let’s make a crap ton of traps! We can even make a trap room! The whole first floor can be a trap floor, that way we won’t lose mana if people come and try to kill off our dungeon folk.’

Rox grinned and had a slightly wicked smile.

When she smiled like that, all the folks she was training shuddered and doubled their effort in their training… er… they were building stone walls? They were running to where the mining was happening, grabbing rocks and bringing it here to make meter high walls.

I looked around, this was the third room.

‘Rox, why are you building walls inside the third room?’

‘Never mind that, it’s only for training. Let’s get started on making traps!’

Making traps was FUN! We started making traps from the fourth room onwards, first only pitfall traps, but then from the sixth room we added ceiling fall traps. At the eighth room we added the arrow and at the tenth room the spear traps. After that it was all of them, plus we were going to add some slimes to the mix. It was glorious.

‘Alex let’s do this, we’ll make a branching trap room, and after inside the trap room will be a secret room… that is ALSO a trap room! But only through that way is the true path to the dungeon crystal room! We’ll be much safer!’

Like the voice of an angel! Those were good words, so we did it. The path without the secret rooms, led all the way through over 30 trap and monster filled rooms and reached… a dead end! I couldn’t wait to see someone’s face when they thought they got to the end and there’s nothing!

‘Alex if we gain another level, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to open up another floor. I think that should be our priority for the next month of so.’

True to her word, she even got those doing the training to join the collecting process. The fighters were stronger than the non-fighters not to mention all the squirrels and hares in this group had evolved to full beastman now. So sending them out to collect materials, plants and creatures more than tripled our mana collection speed.

While the insane collection fest was going on, we finally hit a vein of metal! At last! It was in a secret room off the 4 room coming in which surprised me. So close to the entrance? We had mostly been concentrating on the deeper rooms.

The best part? The metal they found was iron! Iron ore! So with create item, I could copy out the daggers and sword that Max and Levine used. They weren't as good, they didn't have the options for stat increases but we finally had some half decent weapons. They would be put up as prizes for merit points as well!

I also wanted to make some other types of weapons. Thinking back on how Max divided up the troops and used them during the Siege, he played to the strength of the species, squirrels with their great climbing ability while the hares with their powerful hind legs. These traits were still true in the evolved beastfolk, the squirrels would scurry up trees to look for stuff to bring back while the hares were dashing about without even breaking a sweat.

I would have to think harder about this… also I’m totally going to have to see Eva about trying to heat up the iron and mixing with other stuff. I knew steel was iron and carbon but I didn’t really know how to make it so I would have to experiment.

Talking about experimenting, Rox’s experiment on the Goblins wasn’t going too well.

‘So no evolution yet? It hasn’t been very long you know, you don’t have to be frustrated.’

‘You don’t understand Alex! If my Theory of Evolution is true, then we can evolve every single cheap summon animal, saving massive amounts of mana and have great achievements and I would be known as the best dungeon fairy in the world!’ She sighed, ‘Although I have to say, it’s only in your dungeon this could be possible. Most dungeons will specialize in something specific like undead, which will make all undead cheaper and make undead spontaneously arise from dead bodies or something. But your specialty seems to lie in making those under you stronger, case in point your aura ability! Even though it’s an ability from your human body, it leaks out into the whole dungeon because you are both human and dungeon master. It’s incredible!’

I didn’t know what to say at this outburst… Leaking dungeon crystal didn't sound flattering...

So to resolve her issue with the slow evolving goblins, we summoned out more squirrels and hares. The dungeon didn’t let us summon out full beastman, it appeared there was some restriction to doing that. Perhaps being considered one of the members of the intelligent races gave immunity to manipulation from a dungeon… or perhaps we just hadn’t unlocked the ability yet.

We summoned enough that we had a total of 500 squirrels and 400 hares counting the ones before. The new summons were put into training to see if they would evolve. Time would tell if Rox’s experiment worked.

In the meantime, I was working on making or at least designing weapons. For the hares, I designed a new type of weapon. It was a special kind of reinforced shoe… with a metal spike protruding from it. I had first gotten some of the hares practice different kind of kicks in front of me then tried to make the shoe so that it could increase the damage. It didn’t come with any options on it but well I’m not a blacksmith.

Reinforced Spiked Shoes (Rank E)

Made from the iron, this equipment is designed to maximize damage when kicking

As for the squirrels, I was trying to make them clawed weapons but I wasn’t having much luck. I had to get Eva’s help to try and mold light but sturdy metal claws that could be wrapped around the forearms of squirrels and not get in the way when they’re climbing. Eva’s a quiet girl but she’s smart, must have gotten the smarts from Rox… hope she doesn’t get the sass too. It took a while before I got something decent. It was a blade that was attached to a band that wrapped around the forearm. It stuck straight to the side of the forearm so it would take a bit of training from the squirrels to get used to it.

Metal Side Claw (Rank E)

Made from the iron, this equipment is light yet durable while sustaining a good attack power

It took a few more weeks before Rox’s training was starting to show some results. In that while, I had started noticing a different issue.

‘Why is the food so bland!’

The food we had was… just vegetables and fruits! Nothing substantial, nothing to sink my teeth into! Max and Levine looked at me… well right those two are by default vegetarian right? Oh crap they might even be vegans… I looked around for support…

Fuck the ones who were nodding along with me were the goblins??? Well fuck it, we’re together in misery so we’ll fight together!

‘Ok guys, we’re alone in this… I want you to go into the forest and find… more interesting food… um… if you’re going to hunt to try for something big only…’

So began the secret mission to find more types of food. Not necessarily meat, but definitely meat... without offending the dungeon folk. A bit tricky.

Then when Rox was almost about to give up her experiment… it worked. The hares and squirrels, day by day some would evolve into full beastman. This brilliant dungeon fairy had cracked the Theory of Evolution in this world.

She didn’t stop there, straight from the evolution, she kept them working and training, with their increased power, they were trained differently, and more intensely.

Some of the hares started showing aptitude for mana control as did some of the squirrels so Rox expanded their training to include mana control classes since we had Eva as a precedent.

Although Eva seemed a special talent, the others were definitely on the path to mana control. I could start sensing some specialization here. Some of the squirrels were better at speed and mobility work, some at strength and manual dexterity and there was the group with mana control. The same with the hares, there was the speed based, strength based and mana control. In both groups, the speed groups were the largest, mana control second and strength last.

The goblins on the other hand seemed to have gotten stronger… but that was basically it. I had a suspicion.

‘Rox, for your Theory of Evolution, I have an idea. I don’t think it’s just any two stats that need to break the limit… I think that for each species, there might be a specific combo of stats that need to break the limit. These goblins are stronger and faster… but… anyway I want you to try teaching them mana control.’

My suspicion was proved right. After the first goblin learned mana control, it was surrounded in a bright light.

One of the dungeon inhabitant is undergoing a natural evolution due to meeting special requirements

‘Gobin’ has evolved into the new species: Hobgoblin

The monster ‘Hobgoblin’ has now been unlocked

Awesome! This was great! If we can solve the evolution criteria like this, then we could have a huge evolved army!

The good news didn’t end there. The hares that were talented in mana control, their mana started being tinged white. Rox said they had found an aptitude to the holy element. It seems we’re either getting paladins or priests out of these guys. I couldn’t stop from grinning non-stop!

It was quite a few weeks later before I got the message I had been waiting for. All our future plans had been based on this, so now, finally finally we could start putting them into action.

Requirements have been met to reach the next level.

Dungeon level has increased to level 10

To reach the next level 10000 Mana and 1000 Souls are needed

To reach the next level the dungeon must have more than 1 Floor

The dungeon ability [Create Floor] has been unlocked

The soul ability [Bestow Sentience] has been unlocked

‘Boss Room’ has been added to [Create Special Room]

Create Floor (Dungeon Ability) Lv Max Mastered

Allows the creation of a new floor

Mana will now be able to flow through multiple floors, allowing for the creation of new floors as well as the creation of staircases and paths to the new floors

To consolidate the flow of mana, a ‘Boss Room’ must be included at the top of every entrance to the new floor

Every 10 floors a ‘Overboss Room’ must be created

‘Overboss Room’ will be unlocked when the number of rooms reaches 10

Greater number of floors will require other rooms to consolidate the flow of mana

Bestow Sentience (Soul Ability) Lv Max Mastered

Sentience is the dividing line between man and monster, sage and animal

This is an ability unique to your dungeon

Can only be used on subjects not already bestowed with sentience

Greatly enhances intelligence when used

The further away the subject is from sentience, the greater the amount of mana and souls needed

Can be used multiple times on a subject if sentience is not awoken in one attempt

This was it, the milestone. We were now level 10!

I knew I was getting the ability to create a new floor but that second skill looked very interesting.

I brought up the dungeon menu.

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:

10

Floors:

1

Mana:

1/10000

Souls:

33

Dungeon Points:

53

Achievement Points:

60

Dungeon Abilities:

Absorption

Expand Territory

Create Room

Create Special Room

Create Structures

Create Trap

Create Treasure Chest

Create Item

Create Floor

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

Bestow Sentience

Special Abilities:

Dungeon Map

Dungeon Contract

Dungeon Store

Special Summon

Inhabitants

905

Creatures:

902

Named Creatures:

3

Boss Creatures:

0

Special Creatures:

0

Plant-life

0

The dungeon menu was starting to look like a behemoth.

I exchanged smiles with Rox.

‘Create new floor!’

‘Are you sure this is the way? We’ve been trying to find this place for a week now!’

‘You’re going to doubt the strongest adventurer in our guild? Are you crazy? She’s Rank B man, she could kill us with a sneeze!’

‘What I want to know is what she was doing all the way out here. This is the middle of nowhere! There aren’t even any monsters to hunt! If the Guild wasn’t paying a nice reward for this, I wouldn’t have picked this stupid mission.’

‘Hey its easy work right? New dungeon, guild report said wolves the first time and a few slimes the second time. We just need to see what the dungeon specializes in and we’re out.’

‘I hope it specializes in precious gems like that dungeon near Salt Creak City.’

‘Or maybe it’ll give magic items like that one near Red Goblin Ridge.’

‘Shut up, dungeons like those are rare. Probably it’ll be a dungeon focused on undead or goblins or something.’

‘Fuck I hope it isn’t undead. I visited the one in Korin City once. Why they keep that disgusting undead dungeon inside the city is beyond me.’

‘Well regardless of what, we’re getting paid 50 silvers each for this job. The dungeon was discovered a few months ago and the report said there was nothing special about it so far. Just slimes and wolves, so probably too early to tell if its useful.’

‘Do you think the Guild would care if we destroyed the dungeon and grabbed its core? Those cores fetch a very good price.’

‘Yeah? And what will you do if SHE finds out that the dungeon she wanted evaluated was destroyed by us huh? We’re on commission by the adventurer’s guild. Not some noble, the GUILD. If we cross them, then we’re done.’

‘I was just saying, I didn’t mean it…’

‘Look lively chaps, we’re about 3 days away judging from this map.’

‘Alright, just because it’s a new dungeon doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous.’

There was soft laughter all around at this statement.

A team of adventurers, sent from the city by the adventurer’s guild.

Average Rank: E

Known as: The Fuller Brigade

Named after their captain: Jerimiah Fuller, an Ox beastman, who claimed he had some Ogre blood in his ancestry.

Number of members: 6

And they were on their way to a new dungeon that the adventurer’s guild had posted a mission for. The mission was a reconnaissance and evaluation mission. They were to find this dungeon and explore up to the dungeon room and see if there was anything useful for the adventurer’s guild to take advantage of.

Most dungeons would start developing treasure chests or mana stones in various quantities. It was their duty to figure out how much worth the treasures were.

Finally in the evening of the third day, they reached the outside of the dungeon.

The team captain looked at his group, ‘Ok we’ll camp out here tonight and tackle the dungeon in the morning. Probably won’t take too long, but it’s possible it might take more than a day so we’ll set up a camp here. Stick, you and Jon are lookouts for tonight.’

The two members he pointed out grumbled. Everyone set up tents from their bags and started collecting firewood before starting to cook.

They weren’t aware of the eyes that were watching them from high up in the trees.

This section is not needed to enjoy the story, only for those who, like me, are interested in the technicalities

Spoiler: Spoiler

This time I’ll cover how skills develop/evolve etc

The idea behind skills and their formations is inspired in part by the concept of formations from wuxia/xianxia type novels but the better inspiration is from the formation of proteins.

The way proteins form is from small units, folded in specific ways (waves, spiral, helix, etc) to create something that has a specific task (a folded protein). Multiple of these bigger units can join to become another even bigger unit (multiple sub-unit proteins) and so on. I applied that to magic and skills. Mana, moved and folded in certain ways creates an infinite number of effects. And to ‘grow’ bigger skills, you need more sub-units in some way.

So what’s that word waffle mean?

How skills change and interact:

Skills and magic spells form from a certain structure imbued on bodily structures that forces mana to move/flow/compress/expand/etc in specific ways.

Skills can ‘grow’ naturally overtime with use because they expand on the structure that is already in place however there might be a limit to that growth

Ie a skill like [Cross Slash] will have a max lv of 10 because that’s the limit for the growth of that specific skill

Skills can ‘mutate’ either because there is a special event while they are growing and they will turn into a skill of the same rank but with a different effect or if perhaps another skill is added to the same part of the body and they interact

Ie a skill like [Cross Slash] gains an element such as fire and becomes [Flame Slash]

Skills can ‘evolve’ again through a special event or interaction with another skill, the difference this time is that the skill ranks up and if two skills were interacting, they will disappear

Ie a skill like [Cross Slash] interacts with a skill like [Burst] and becomes [Explosion Slash]

Skills can also ‘devolve’ or in the worst case ‘cancel’ each other out. If they are opposing elements, or if they very bad compatibility, they will both become worse or disappear

Ie a skill like [Cross Slash] is a blade specialized skill meant for attacking, it will not react well with a defensive magical ability in the same arm, so if you added [Water Shield] to that arm, instead of them complimenting each other, now you have both a defensive and offensive ability in the same arm. Thus [Cross Slash] would turn into [Water Slash] which is a rank lower vs [Wave Slash] which would be same rank or [Pressure Slash] which is a rank up.

If you had two opposing abilities like [Firebolt] and [Icebolt], then they would interact and disappear.

Now this isn’t to say abilities can’t have a bit of overlap in the body. They can as long as they are not opposing elements or purpose, then they can share. A lot of mental abilities share this property, as do a lot of resistances.

e.g. [Fire Resistance] can be in the skin alongside [Lightning Resistance]; but to have both both [Fire Resistance] and [Ice Resistance] is not possible unless you have something tying them together like a [Elemental Harmony]

How skills are acquire:

Tare two ways to gain skills, naturally or artificially. Naturally is through the system, achievements or when evolving/classing up. Some species are born with specific skills like the slimes with their innate abilities because those are needed by them to survive. These types of skills you won’t have much control over where these skills are on the body but there is a general rule

Resistance skills appear in the skin, active offensive skills in which ever body part does that attack, mental skills in the brain, recovery skills in blood producing organs, etc there has to be a bit of logic for the skill being there, there isn’t a point to having the skill [Minor Heightened Hearing] on your feet because your feet can’t hear (and no the skill won’t turn into new ears on your feet, maybe if the skill was something like [Vibroacoustic Sense]… maaaybe)

Artificial skill acquisition is also possible, such as through [Skill Bestowal] that Alex has, or how the Demon Wolf was given a skill by a Demon of Rage

A few other words

I’d love to hear what you guys think of for skills and skill combos

One point for combining skills, Rank matters. If you have a Rank D fire skill [Greater FireBall] and try to add a Rank F wind skill [Wind Cutter] nothing will happen because they are too separate in effect but add a Rank E [Fierce Wind] and the skills combine to become the Rank C [Firestorm] but if you add a Rank D or higher wind skill like Rank D [Whirlwind] or the Rank C [Tornado] then the fire is suppressed by the wind and doesn’t grow.

There’s also a special rule for Rank B upward. Starting at Rank B, the skills, instead of becoming just stronger, they also become more varied in ability. So say a fire mage has collected [Fireball], [Fire Resistance], [Combustion] and a lot of other fire related skills. They can all combine overtime to create the Rank B skills [Fire Arts]