Ergo’s life settled into a routine over the next week as he continued to farm the dungeon, and acquire more samples of the local wildlife for Crys to experiment with. Thanks to bureaucratic delay in the spread of information, no adventurers had shown up to farm the dungeon yet; giving Ergo ample opportunity to fight to his heart’s content. It wasn’t until day eight that Ergo finally reached level one hundred, earning his first perk point. Pulling his claws out of the dissolving slime, Ergo quelled a childlike burst of excitement as he opened his perk menu. The menu was arrayed in a series of branching nodes that seemed to extend infinitely beyond his capacity to perceive. Focusing on the nodes that were within his perception, Ergo used a feature of the menu to flag the ones that genuinely interested him. When he was done, he viewed his resulting choices as an itemized list. They were a fraction of the options at his disposal, but were the best suited to his current situation.

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Perk Bookmark List

-Growth Potential 1

Stats grow an extra 5% across the board per rank of this perk. Stats are still reset as normal upon prestige

-Focused Potential 1

A chosen stat gains an extra 10% stat growth per rank of this perk. This perk may be chosen multiple times per stat, but each stat is treated as a different perk line. This bonus does not affect base stats. Stats are still reset as normal upon prestige

-Strong Base 1

All stats gain 2 base points per rank of this perk. This bonus is added to your base values, and is not reset upon prestige reset.

-Focused Base 1

A chosen stat gains 5 points per rank of this perk. This perk may be chosen multiple times for per stat, but each stat is treated as a different perk line. This bonus is added to your base values, and is not reset upon prestige reset.

-Improved Intellect 1

Gain 5% bonus XP when XP is earned per rank of this perk. Additionally gain a marginal increase to your mental capacity. This does not affect your intelligence stat.

-Territory Gate

Available due to owning a magical territory. Open a gate anywhere in your territory to anywhere else in your territory. This gate allows any entity to travel from one gate to the other, but requires a mana cost per entity as well as an initial mana cost. Improving the “Magic Gates” skill will reduce the mana cost.

-Dungeon Summoning

Available due to ownership of a dungeon core through greed perk. Allows you to absorb object and monster blueprints. You may alter and summon these blueprints within your territory in exchange for mana. Nothing may be summoned outside your territory, but once summoned, they may leave your territory. Note that this perk is independent, and fundamentally different from the summoner class, and related variants.

-Mage Mastery

Unlock a new class from the list of available mage variants. Also increases base intelligence stat by 5.

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Ergo knew it was a long shot, but after some deliberation, he put his perk point into the “Territory Gate” perk. Suppressing another spike of emotion, Ergo felt knowledge about the structure of space flow into him. Concentrating on this new knowledge, Ergo constructed a gate spell; doing his best to connect to his territory in his home world. A half hour passed before Ergo sighed in frustration, and released the half-formed spell. There was simply nothing to lock on to. Either his territory on the other side had dissipated in his absence, or there was some other variable he needed to provide to the spell to expand his search.

Growling, Ergo stood from where he had curled up in his draconic form; transitioning back into his humanoid form. Due to accepting the perk point, Ergo had reset his class level; again choosing mage. Stalking angrily forward through the dungeon, Ergo resumed his farming with unusual ferocity.

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Another two days passed this way before Ergo felt something enter his territory. Luckily, it happened while he was resting in his bed of scales so it was only a curiosity rather than a threat. Ergo looked upward, though the physical act was unnecessary to his territorial sight. After a second, several more creatures stepped into view. In total, four humans walked into the dungeon. Ergo settled down into his bed to watch them, both curious and amused when he guessed that they were rookie adventurers. They were loud, boisterous, lacking both the casual intensity of the truly powerful, and the quiet, analyzing gaze of the experienced predator.

Ergo noted that they held what the forums would consider a classic distribution of classes. There was an archer, a warrior with shield and sword, and two mages; one in a brown cloak, and one in white. Ergo guessed that one of the mages would be a healer, though he wasn’t sure which. Though he didn’t much care, Ergo noted that the fighter and archer were both male, while the mages were female.

With gusto, the small party set themselves to their task. Though individually, they were much weaker than the first duo that had visited, they made up for that by virtue of the fact that four people were better suited to face the hordes of slime than two people. Ergo noted that the mages used only the spells they had unlocked through the class system. It turned out that the mage in the white robe was the party's healer. When she used a healing spell to cure an acid burn on the fighter’s leg, Ergo took the opportunity to study her spell.

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New spell learned:

Healing:

Basic level 1

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Ergo smiled a toothy smile as he watched the adventurers with a predator’s eyes. They may be inexperienced, but they were a treasure trove of information. Over the next hour, he learned two new spells gleaned from the healer; “Ball of Light,” and “Cure Poison,” which both did exactly what the title suggested. With a flick of his talon, Ergo shot a one-foot diameter glowing ball to stick gelatinously against the ceiling. It would last for ten minutes, and was enough to light his bedroom cavern without blinding him. Ergo snorted in approval at his new light source before turning his attention back to the adventurers. They were walking down the stairs to the second floor now, and Ergo found himself irritated by their inane lack of caution. Except for the healer, he liked her.

“Are you sure we should be going to the second floor? The dungeon guide said only the first floor was rated for prestige-less adventurers like us.” The healer asked in a pleading tone.

“Oh come on. You know slimes are weak against fire.” The mage replied dismissively.

“Besides, what kind of slime could beat a level fifty-two warrior? The warrior scoffed. The pair glanced at the archer, who shrugged.

“It’s not really the best dungeon for an archer, but I don’t think we’re in any danger.” the archer said.

“Alright, I trust you guys.” The healer said, biting her lip pensively.

Ergo frowned, resigning himself to their imminent death.

“You have to stop them.” Crys interjected into his thoughts.

“Why?” Ergo asked, glaring at Crys.

“Dungeons that kill too many people get a bad reputation. A death here and there is expected, but party wipes are frowned on unless the guild knows they were planning to do something monumentally stupid. A brand new dungeon wiping the first proper party that steps foot in the door? We might never see another adventurer again.” Crys complained.

“Good, that means they won’t bother us.” Ergo grumped dismissively.

“You don’t understand, I have to meet certain quotas as part of my contract with the empire. If adventurers stop coming, I might be executed for failing to live up to them.” Crys declared frantically.

Ergo pawed at his face dramatically, before opening a single eye to glare at Crys. “Fine, but you owe me.”

Crys sighed. “You theoretically own me anyway.”

Ergo snorted. “True enough.”

With that, he maneuvered through the hidden passage, and navigated his way to the second floor. By the time he arrived, the party was already fighting its first dragon slime; which had been deemed too strong for the first floor, and now began spawning on the second.

“What the hell is this thing made of?” The archer complained as his fifth arrow bounced from its hide.

The warrior managed a shallow cut as the archer was complaining, then swore as he narrowly avoided a body-slam. By now, the mage had found the slime’s weakness to lightning, but her spells simply lacked the power to do more than annoy the slime. As no one had been injured yet, the healer mostly sat on the sidelines, trying not to hyperventilate as her sense of doom came to fruition. Ergo eyed her sympathetically through his territorial sense, deeming her the only one with a proper survival instinct. Then he winced as the warrior finally suffered his first injury; the slime clipping his side with its sharp scales. He screamed in agony as he was sent flying, and the healer rushed to his side. Meanwhile, the slime began rolling menacingly toward the mage; who was throwing lightning bolts as fast as possible as panic began to overtake her. For his part the archer was beginning to edge toward the stairs, clearly torn as one arrow after another bounced harmlessly from the slime’s hide.

Ergo sighed as he finally passed through the entranceway into the room, and found himself faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, there was the mage, who had lost all sense of reason; screaming in blind terror as she drained her mana pool ineffectualy into the quickly approaching slime. On the other hand, there was the warrior. The healer was bent over him, crying, saying “I’m sorry, I don’t have enough mana. I’m so sorry.” A quick assessment confirmed the warrior might lose his arm without further healing, but the mage was in more imminent danger. With a huff of irritation, Ergo dual-cast channel lightning into the slime; which stopped accelerating. As it slowed, the slime began to jiggle at increasing speeds until finally it deflated into a puddle of goo and scales. A moment later, the slime corpse evaporated into motes of light until only a single dragon-scale the size of an index finger remained as the creature’s official drop.

Gritting his teeth in annoyance as the two active party members turned to stare at him, Ergo plodded over to the warrior. The healer was still oblivious, channeling every drop of her mana regeneration into periodic small puffs of healing. Impatiently, Ergo shoved her aside, and began shoving his considerable mana pool into the warrior’s damaged body until finally the arm had mostly knit back together. That was when the warrior woke from his stunned state with a scream of agony; desperately flailing at Ergo.

“Cease your struggles, or I will stop healing you, human.” Ergo announced in disgust.

When the warrior continued mindlessly clawing at Ergo, he made good on his threat; glaring at the three party members who still retained self-awareness as he stood from his crouched position.

“Who… what are you?” The healer asked, voice shaking, face puffy and red from the trails of tears on her face.

“Tell her you’re the dungeon avatar.” Crys interjected before Ergo could respond. Ergo glared in the direction of the core before replying.

“I am the avatar of the dungeon.” He stated after a moment of swallowing his pride.

“But isn’t this a brand new dungeon? I thought only old dungeons had avatars?” The healer asked, taking the unspoken role of representative for the party.

Ergo shrugged. “We developed one early.”

The healer looked at him skeptically, and Ergo turned to leave without another word. Before he could though, the healer interrupted him. “My name is Millith. What’s yours?”

Ergo turned back, and looked her in the eye. “My name is Ergo. The dungeon core’s name is Crys. Leave the second floor. The first floor is meant for the weak. The second floor isn’t.”

Milith visibly deflated, and Crys interrupted his second attempt to leave. “You’re being rude. Apologize so we don’t get a bad reputation.”

Ergo turned back to glare in the direction of the core, and growled a quiet rumble of thunder before turning back to Milith. “I am merely concerned about your safety. Your party should have at least two perk points, or be above level seventy before coming here.”

Milith nodded gravely, and glanced at her party members who were looking away sheepishly. When she turned back, Milith’s expression was determined.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we stay on the first floor.” She said.

Ergo nodded, and turned to go, then paused, expecting another interruption before simply walking away.

“Third time’s the charm.” Crys chimed in his head, and Ergo snorted a small curl of flame. Even he wasn't sure whether it was a snort of amusement or irritation.