Chapter 5

Treasure of the Dungeon

In the game of Royal Road, there are approximately 1,700 dungeons. When a dungeon is first discovered, the individual or party that discovers it receives fame, the opportunity to be the first to plunder the riches of the dungeon, and several other useful benefits.

At this early stage in the game, new dungeons were being discovered about once every three days. Though that is just the discoveries made public.

Overall, this became a problem for me. To train my enchantments to the point I needed, I have

to be in a large party, preferably a raid party. But the largest groups always moved around when a new dungeon was discovered. The goblin dungeon was practically deserted within a week of the discovery of a lizardman dungeon. That one was left empty a week after the discovery of a den of bandits that dropped good loot. And I of course had to follow the crowds to best train my enchantments.

Hard work does pay off though. Two months after the now infamous Hermes Dungeon Red Ogre Raid, my Enchant skill reached intermediate level 5. I knew for a fact I had risen it faster than anyone else in the game so far, mostly because I did nothing but enchant. I did not fight monsters or collect loot or explore on my own. I did nothing but party with groups of six or more, enchanting them every step of the way, for sixty days in a row. (I still logged off once every four days, but that is besides the point)

Status WindowExitAvatarCuriAlignmentNeutralTitleNoneLevel81ClassFirelight EnchanterFame96InfamyNoneHealth360Mana4570Strength10+20Agility10+20Wisdom140+20Intellect302+20Leadership0+20Luck60+20Vitality10+20Attack20Defense3Magic ResistancesNoneAll stats +20

Wisdom +50

Intelligence +50

Enables you to learn magic to the stage of advanced.

Enables you to learn all Enchantments to the stage of Master.

Enables you to learn secret skills based on your level in Enchantment.

Enchant Intermediate [5] 2%

Can learn and use enchantment spells.

Can stack up to 4 enchantments.

Enchantment effects increased by 20%Efficient Enchanter [7] 23%

14% chance to not use a component when Enchanting[tr]Identify [1] 0%

Mana Cost: 30Enchant Dungeon Intermediate [2] 22%

Cast Firelight Enchantment on Dungeon Area

Effects Available:

Change Monster Spawn Rate (31%)

Change Monster Drop Rate (31%)

Change Monster Strength (31%)

Change Dungeon Experience rate. (31%)

Change Monster Intellect (31%)

Change Monster Speed (31%)

Duration: 30 Mins

Mana Cost: 950

Additional: Occupants of affected areas have Health and Mana regeneration reduced by 120%Red Thorn Enchantment. Intermediate [7] 53%

Weapon Enchantment: Wraps target weapon in the magic of piercing thorns.

Mana Cost: 15

+35 ATK for 30 minsStatic State Enchantment. Intermediate [4] 89%

Weapon Enchantment: Charges target weapon with electricity.

Mana cost: 19

+65~85 Additional Lightning magic damage. for 30 minsWind and Water Enchantment Intermediate. [8] 11%

Body Enchantment: Surrounds the body with natural energy to move more freely like wind and water.

Mana Cost: 52

+84% Movement Speed for 30 minsBear’s Strength Enchantment Intermediate [2] 76%

Body Enhancement: Increases target strength.

Mana Cost: 180

Component cost: Bear’s Tooth

+62 STR for 30 minsMana Channeler Enchantment Intermediate [3] 6%

Body Enchantment: Opens body channels to receive mana

Mana cost: 180

Component cost: Mana Stone Dust, Fairy Hair.

Increases Mana regeneration by 136% for 30minsInfuse Strength Enchantment Intermediate [4] 40%

Body Enchantment: Fuses power into the core of a target

Mana Cost: 540

Component Cost: Giant’s Toe, Troll blood, Ruby.

+42% Strength. Permanent effect, lasts until character diesMystic Enchantment. [1] 0%

Weapon Enchantment: Firelight Enchantment that alters the weapon's existence, forcing it from the physical plane

Mana Cost: 250

Permanent effect: Converts 5% of physical damage dealt to magic damage

Health and mana regeneration of wielder reduced by 1%

I stayed pretty active. I actually ran out of materials for Infuse Strength, but it didn’t take too much for me to ‘find’ some more money to buy more supplies with. You may have noticed as well that I obtained the skill Efficient Enchanter. This is a skill only those of the Enchanter class can gain and gives a small chance of not using a necessary component when Enchanting. Needless to say it became immediately useful. Gaining money the way I do is very risky so I prefer to avoid it. As I gain a higher skill level I will be able to learn more Enchanter exclusive skills that will make my work superior to mage enchanters. Also, you may have noticed that I added a few points to my Luck stat. This is because it increases the chance of good things happening. And the higher the chances, the less I have to alter to change those chances in my favor.

Anyways, those endless dungeon days are now that’s behind me. For now I don’t need an Enchant skill higher than Intermediate 5, so I don’t have to follow the crowds and party up. And as for dungeons, there’s an undiscovered one I need to pick something up from.

I can imagine that the day I stopped showing up at the dungeon was filled with confusion. To this point I was practically an accessory of the dungeon life. But I could not continue that path. After intermediate level 5, the Enchant skill became exponentially harder to train. There was a dead end coming up soon. Just as when I could no longer train solo, now, I can no longer train while weak. As the groups I join increased in strength, the monsters they fought would become stronger. Too strong. The physical weakness of the enchanter class had to be overcome if I wanted to survive this world.

The dungeon I picked was one related to a quest about an ancient kingdom that fell to ruin. Of course the quest was B rank, not something I could complete even with cheats. But the dungeon was accessible by accidental discovery.

In a abandoned ruins that held little interest to anyone was a secret passage. I had to access it first though so I brought a shovel.

I found the spot above the buried entrance and started digging. After ten minutes I realized I made a small mistake. I had no strength to dig. Or stamina. The permanent enchantment I had that increased strength increased it by percent. So the more you had, the more it gave, while it gave almost nothing to me. I had to use Bear’s strength every half hour just to prevent myself from keeling over. I did the only thing I could do. I toughed it out and kept digging.

I finished about five days later. The volume of dirt and rock (a lot of rock) I had to move could fill up five school buses. The game however reward my effort a bit. My Strength and Vitality stats increased a bit. Doing repetitive labor was one means of strengthening a character, but it was not the means I had in mind.

The door to the dungeon looked like an intricate relief sculpture to hide its true nature. It was locked by something of a puzzle. Although the quest that brought you here had the main clue you needed to solve the puzzle, I could see the answer in the door’s Object data. I moved a few pieces around and the door swung open.

Dungeon:

You have discovered the Tomb of the Fallen King.

+2000 Fame

You have received title: Lucky Explorer

+30 Luck

New Stat: Insight

The first monster killed will drop the best loot.

2x Experience and Drop Rate for one week.

I waited for a few moments.Then a few more. Then I took a relieved sigh. The goddess hadn’t noticed me. I was watching her programming, to see if any red flags were triggered. But it hadn’t.

The title was probably generated because I found this place without help from the game. The new stat was actually the rarest stat in the game. I seemed to be the first in the game to receive it. It is usually born from very high wisdom and intellect, but in rare circumstances it can be awarded to those who discover hidden ruins.

The stat had an effect very similar to many of my cheat abilities. It allowed one to see the true nature of things, to see a bit into the future, and to see hidden things. The stat was also a pre-requisite to learning the most powerful spells and enchantments. The stat could not be increased by stat points, but increased on its own when I demonstrated insight. A simple thing for me.

At this point you might think I’m gonna leave. I got the Insight stat, what more could I want? Well, Insight was only a part of the reason I came here. The true goal is in the very bottom of this dungeon.

This dungeon was actually one of the few that had no monsters. Instead it had hundreds of traps. 415 to be exact. If you got to the end, there was a mighty treasure trove and a curse. Of course the curse only activated if you took the treasure.

The traps themselves were likely devised by a genius, or a psycho. Sometimes I can’t tell the difference between them. Sometimes there is no difference

I walked through the place like I was strolling through the park. I could tell where the trigger to each trap was so I could avoid most of them. Without the disarm skill my chance of disarmed any of them was zero, so my chance manipulation would fail even if I knew exactly how to disarm them.

It took about five minutes to find one I couldn’t walk past. It was a pitfall trap that extended down the length of the hallway. It was impossible to walk down the hall without falling in.

Of course I came here knowing there would be traps I couldn’t just walk past. I knew I would have to cheat. But cheating too much, too often would get my avatar deleted. I could make a new one, but I would not be able to get the Firelight Enchanter class again. (The class can be acquired in other cities, but the quests to get them will not be available for years.)

I had to cheat as little as possible.

I choose to change the interaction data with the surface of the wall and the surface of my hands. My hands would be able to grip the wall like it was a rock and I was a mountain climber.

This worked for about a third of the way down the hall. I was climbing like a human spider. Then my less than decent strength came back to haunt me. My avatar’s arms were getting too weak to hold on. I fell off the wall and hit the floor. As I heard the tale-tell click of the mechanism to release the hatch, I decided to go for broke. I jumped forward and turned my avatar’s gravity to zero for a moment. I sailed through the air to the other side where I turned it back on.

“Oh dam.” I sat down and closed my eyes.

I had little choice but to hack into the memory system that recorded everything that went on and make it forget that I get cancelled gravity for an instant. Doing this without getting caught is tricky since I’m not allowed to touch the goddess’s code. It took about 25 hours to completely wipe clean.

The only reason it worked was because gravity in this game is not a data of the world, but a data of the objects in the world. So I just changed my Object data’s gravity to zero.

The rest of the dungeon was a bit easier. Though looking through all the traps made me feel very bad for the unfortunate group that came through here the hard way. There were a few more traps that could not be avoided, but I handled them well with some clever, yet subtle cheating.

The game did not know I was cheating, but it did know I was progressing through a dungeon filled with traps without activating them. For this it rewarded me.

Insight increases by 1. (+1 INS)

By the time I reached the end of the dungeon, three days had passed, and I gained 21 Insight points.

If I had the skill to do so and tried to manually disarm the whole place. It would take about two months. That’s because I would likely fail four or five times, killing everyone, and we would all have to restart back at the entrance where all the traps would reset themselves.

The treasure room had more gold, powerful weapons, and jewels than the amount of dirt I had to move to get here. To put the number in perspective, If I sold it all for a fair market price, I would have enough money to buy every enchantment spell sold in stores, and enough component materials to use each one enough to advance them all to Advanced level 10, or Master level. And still have enough left over for a nice dinner.

Of course I couldn’t touch any of it. The quest that ended here required only a single item from this. I saw it in a corner. It was a green jewel a bit larger than a fist. The jewel was blessed by the game’s earth goddess and any land where that gem resides, (above ground) would have the earth goddess’s blessing. This made the land more fertile, prevented famine, and even made dead soil come to life. The quest was to be given by a king during a future event where that king’s land would become dead and infertile. With the exception of that gem, every other item in this treasury had a curse.

Here is a bit of a back story. This dungeon is the burial crypt of a man who was once a pretty good king. But the kingdom had a lot of problems. Aggressive neighboring kingdoms, poor quality land, and a lot of monsters. The king needed help, so the court mage summoned and bound a spirit being. Using the spirit’s knowledge, the kingdom became strong. It knew the locations of secret treasures and artifacts. The green jewel with the goddess’s blessing was one such item. Then things went bad. Other kingdoms heard of the objects that brought the kingdom prosperity and went to war to claim them. The kingdom could not defend itself and lives were lost by the thousands. The king became disparate and went to see the spirit himself. When he returned, he was changed. He used powerful weapons the spirits located and armed his army before leading them into battle himself. The war lasted three years, but the king emerged victorious. Just when everyone thought things would be ok, the king declared he would set out to conquer the neighboring kingdoms. The king became cruel and wicked. He used the items that once gave his kingdom prosperity to destroy lands and end lives. The king eventually caught an illness of some sort and died. His treasury was buried here with him.

He didn’t actually die of illness though. In addition to seeing this place’s written history, I could see the data for what really happened. Truth was the king had contracted with the spirit to acquire power, and the deal literally ate away at him because he was too weak. And it turns out that the spirit was a dark spirit, a demonic entity that gave the kingdom knowledge of treasure knowing it would lead to war.

The curse of this room came from the fact that other kingdoms trying to take the objects in this room is what started the war in the first place. If I took it, the wrathful spirit of the king would emerge and kill me. And I couldn’t kill him even with cheats. He was a part of a larger quest chain and his health bar was locked by a code written by the goddess herself. There was a way to get the treasure, but it involved a Rank S quest and required at least four thousand fame and high familiarity with a certain royal family to get.

I however did not come for the treasure.

Near the back wall of the treasury was a secret door. I opened it and walked through into the deepest part of the crypt. Here lay the corpse of the king himself, and my true target.

At the bottom of the stairs was a simple door without traps or tricks. I opened it and saw the king’s stone sarcophagus next to a ornate stone pedestal with a quarter sized black gem on it. This was the container where the dark spirit was imprisoned.

I picked it up and felt a cold chill from the stone.

-What is it you seek? Wealth? Fame? Power? All can be yours..

“Pffftt! Bwa Hahahahahaha! Oh god, I can’t, I can’t stop laughing!” The spirit’s words caught me completely by surprise. It was the funniest thing I’ve heard in centuries. I will be the first to admit that the spirit’s story has similarities to many things I have done in the past. But I never gave power with the intention of corrupting. If my power corrupted someone, there was a darkness within them to begin with.

-... Why are you laughing?

It seemed the spirit didn’t get the joke, but that did not matter. Time to get to business.

“What I want spirit, is your cooperation and magic.”

-You want power? Very well, I can make a contract with you and grant you great power.

“No spirit, you misunderstand. I want you to cast your magic for me.”

-To cast magic, I would need to be free of this gem. But my kind cannot exist on your world without a container. If you wish for my magic, you must allow me to possess your body.

“I had something else in mind.”

I put the gem into my inventory and left the dungeon. The traps had a wonderful feature of only activating on the way in, so I did not have to worry about them.

I made my way to Owel castle, another city of Haven kingdom. There I made my way to the city’s auction house and waited. On certain days of the week, today for instance, this auction house auctions off the finest gems created by the most skilled of craftsmen. Of course the buyers were not the general public, but jewelers. They would buy the best of the gems, set them in beautiful jewelry, and sell them to customers.

There is something I should mention before moving further. The enchantment spells I bought are spells that can be cast on weapons and people. Most professional enchanters however focus on enhancements that can be used on gemstones. Such spells can only be cast on specific types of gemstones. For example, a simple enchantment can be cast on a cut aquamarine that increases Wisdom by 40 points. Necklaces, rings, and earrings containing such enhancements can be found in Enchanter’s shop. Enchanters are often thought of as magic jewelers. It should also be noted that as an Enchanter, the power I can give to a weapon is high, but a blacksmith with the skill Magic sword Creation can create a weapon that far surpasses mine, (even after maxing out potential stats with cheats.) The true power of an Enchanter is meant to be with gemstones. Several of the secret Firelight Enchantments I’m supposed to learn are also gemstone based, and are very powerful.

I waited until the diamonds came through. Eventually a diamond was put up for auction that was about the size of a quarter. It was flawless. Bidding began immediately.

-Four thousand!

-Six!

-Six and a half thousand!

-Eight! I’ll give you Eight!

After a few moments I raised my hand, “Twenty thousand.”

The other bidders went silent

-Sold to the pretty lady in the red dress!

After the auction was over I paid the man and went to work.

Besides a shovel, I bought a few other things before leaving Aean. I bought a spell book so expensive it was kept beneath a class case. The spell book, Spirit bind Enchantment, it required and Enchant level of intermediate 5, and was the goal of the months of training..

It was the same spell as the one originally used to keep the dark spirit inside its own gem. It’s main purpose was to capture nature spirits into gemstones, but it would work on this dark spirit as well.

-What are you doing?

I did not answer. What I was doing was changing out containers. What gem you put a spirit in greatly determined the effect. A black gem has a effect of warding evil. It prevented the spirit within from using any abilities, (since it was evil) that it had so it could only talk. The clear diamond however was different.

That being said, I intended to use Chance control and a bit of cheating to change it.

-Wait, if you fail I’ll die! Just let me possess you.

It figured out what I was doing. It was true that I had only learn the spell to do it and its failure rate would be high, but with chance control I would succeed as long as there was any chance of success.

“Spirit Bind!” The black gem shattered and a dark essence quickly filled the diamond, making it seem like a hollow glass piece filled with smoke.

You have created Dark Spell Gem.

- Yes, I can feel it. My power! I can use it. Wait.. No. What have you done?!

I smiled.

If another enchanter had done what I had done and succeeded, they would have a gem capable of using dark magic on its own at a set skill level, and the skill level would never change. The spirit would have a set amount of mana and when it ran out it would recover it.

This would be useful for a while, but eventually the spell’s would be too weak to be of use to me. I needed more.

What I did, was change it so that the spirit’s spells were not locked at a level and could in fact be raised with use just like a User or NPC. This however had a consequence of resetting the skills and spells back to beginner level one. I also removed the spirit’s stats. It could not hold or recover mana. It was powerless to use its own spells. If someone held the stone or wore it however, the spirit would be able to cast magic using the wearer’s mana and stats as if they were its own.

“Here is the deal. I will provide you with my mana to cast your spells. You will cast them for me whenever I ask. If you do not, I will make the rest of your existence very unpleasant.”

-What are you?

“I am the being who gives others wealth, fame, and power. I am like you, just a stronger version. Will you submit?”

-Very well... Mistress. I am yours to command.

“Good, we have a big day tomorrow.”

Chapter 6

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