《The Paradoxical Dungeon》Chapter 8: Empires Scouts
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I was waiting around in my dungeon thinking about what to do if Saphire stopped listening to me when I noticed something. There were people at the entrance of my dungeon again. Looking them over they seemed to dressed in fancy clothes and all of them have the same sigil on their chests. Looking them over they seem to be people from the empire that the hunters were talking about earlier. Knowing that I probably need to know what they are saying I decide to upgrade my translator skill.
Having decided this I get ready to upgrade the skill when the box pops up.
-Translator(advanced)
Lets the user learn any language at the cost of Mana. The more Mana you spend the more you will learn
level 1: 25 Mana. You can understand words here and there
level 2: 100 Mana. You can understand most sentences and speak a few words
250MP
15LP
-Must be at least LV 10
-Must have learned at least one language
Y/N
I spend the small amount of mana and Life Points it takes to upgrade while taking not of the other requirements to learn the skill. After getting the skill I use it so that I can understand what they are saying.
(Man 1) "This is a dungeon right?)
(Man 2) "If it wasn't a dungeon why would the general send us out here to scout it out?"
(Scout 1) "I don't know. Maybe the villagers lied to us about it."
(Scout 2) "Ya, they lied to the empire to hide a dungeon from us. Why wouldn't they do that."
(Scout 1) "I don't know. I was just asking."
(Scout 3) "Alright you two, we got more important things to deal with. We need to enter the dungeon and gather anything that might be useful in conquering it."
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(Scout 1) "Should we really go in it. The villagers said that the 6 adventures went in it and only 1 came back and it's been 3 days since then. It has probably gotten stronger since then."
(Scout 2) "Stop being such a coward. In three days a dungeon can only grow so much. At most, it added a room or two and a couple of monsters. This dungeon probably doesn't even have a floor boss yet."
(Scout 3) "He's right. This is a new dungeon, those five that died wore probably just careless. We will take it slow and if we see any monsters we will just leave."
After saying this he started to walk towards my dungeon and the other two followed close behind him.
Knowing that they are just scouts I decide to go over the new things I added to my dungeon while I wait for them to reach the monsters.
The first thing I did was add evolution paths for the normal beetle workers to take. There were 4 in total and they got to choose themselves which path to take. The four paths they could take are Defence, Offence, Scout, and Regenerator. Defence gives them a much thicker exoskeleton and lets them use their mana to make it even harder but are much slower. Offence gives them stronger and sharper pincers with higher muscle mass and can use their energy to make themselves stronger. Scout has had its exoskeleton and pincers reduced and their leg muscles strengthened to make them much faster but much more vulnerable to attacks and can use their energy to move faster. Regenerator gets a small boost in defence, speed, and strength and can use their energy to heal most wounds. Once a beetle evolves into one of these classes they become a warrior.
Next, there are the special beetles. These are Bolt, Aqua, Blaze, and Gust and are the head warriors of their clans. Though Bolt is the only one that has evolved so far. I have plans for all of them. Also in total Bolt and Aqua's clans each have 60 workers while Blaze and Gust's clan each have 40. With these many monsters at once, I can tell that the floors Mana can only support about 1000 beetles, so each clan will be limited to 100. I chose such a low number to let them evolve and gather Mana to replace what they use in battle.
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After going over all the changes I made to the beetles I look over to see how the humans are doing. Finding them right about to run into Aqua and knowing that this is a good chance to test how strong humans are, I don't bring in any more monsters.
When they notice Aqua in front of them they draw their weapons and start to move towards him. Noticing that he is not moving, two of them start to run at him with their swords while they last one draws his bow. As they get closer the two in the front both swing their swords at Aqua but are stopped by his pincers. Noticing that their attack failed the two men jump back as the one behind them fires an arrow at Aqua.
Ignoring the arrow, Aqua just runs at the two men in front. Panicking they swing their swords at him but he just ignores it and jumps at the man on the right. Seeing his friend being attacked the man on the right starts to swing his sword like crazy but is unable to do anything as Aqua crushes the man and turns to his friend. Knowing there is nothing that he can do he takes about a crystal and crushes it. As soon as he dose this, the crystal starts to glow red and explodes.
The explosion engulfs Aqua and almost reaches the archer that is behind them. Thinking that it is over the Archer starts to relax when Aqua jumps out of the smoke and starts to crush him. Right as he is about to die he yells out
(Scout 2) "Dungeon, the empire is coming for you. You are going to pay for this" And with that his life ended.
Now that Aqua had gathered enough Life Points to evolve he starts to glow white. While thinking what I was going to do about this empire I start to modify him.
After some time I have finished his evolution. It is very similar to Bolt but instead of having electricity, he can shoot a thin blade of water that should be able to even cut steel. I also made his exoskeleton harder to price since I didn't have to make it resistant to electricity.
As the glow fades, I notice something interesting. Aqua still has the wounds he got from the explosion even after he evolved. The wounds aren't too deep but are still clearly visible. Burn marks here and there and a small hole and the side of his body that was facing the explosion.
Looking him over I tell him to go rest as two blue boxes put up telling me I gained two levels. Ignoring it as it's not, important I start to get ready for the next group that enters my dungeon.
Name:???
Race:DungeonClass:MageSub Class:N/A
Lv: 13
Rooms:93
Floors:1
MP:1058
LP:198
Mp/h:98
Titles +
Reincarnated Human
Dungeon Lord
Hero Candidate
Demon lord Candidate
Paradoxical Existence
Questionable Sanity
Mana Hoarder
Late Bloomer
Prodigy
Genius
Unbound
True Dungeon
Overlord
Merciless
Human Slayer
Skills +
-Stats
-Shop
-Dungeon Sense(novice)
-Create Room(novice)
-Create Monster(novice)
-Edit Monster(novice)
-Mana Sensing(novice)
-Mana Gathering(novice)
-Mana Circulation(novice)
-Mana Activation(novice)
-Magic Aptitude(novice)
-Create Trap(novice)
-Upgrade Trap(novice)
-Upgrade Wall(novice)
-Telepathe(special)
-Item Box(novice)
-Translator(advanced)
-Skill Grant(special)
-Destroy Room/Hallway(novice)
Spells/abilities +
Mana Arrow(F-)Jobs +
(Authers notes) I got some bad news guys. After many years of being with me, my computer chair died last night. May it rest in pieces.
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The Joy of Evolution
"Alright, so I have this idea, a completely original one by the way, never done before." I say. "Alright, lets hear it." You reply happily. "What if you got trapped in the body of a tentacle monster that looks like a virus in a world that is like a videogame, with skills and... whoops slip of the tendril there, what I meant to say is Mutations and Levels as you evolve your way up from being that lowly creature into a slightly better lowly creature, all the while, an evil devil person watches over you for entertainment purposes." I say making weird hand gestures across the table. "Oh and that main character used to be a human male and uses its past experience as one to survive in this new world as a little mass of flesh." I pull out a little ball with suction cup tendrils and show you. "So, what do you think?" " I dont know seems, a little sameish, I think Im gonna go." You say as you start to get up from your worn but still plush velvet chair. "Wait" I sigh, " I didnt want to do this but you leave me no choice, I promise you an extremely diverse harem..." The door closes as you leave. "They'll come back." I say hopeful. Cover: https://phil.cdc.gov/Details.aspx?pid=21073
8 232Dominion Expansion (a 4X LitRPG)
Clay is one of the world's top players of 4X games, a genre where the goal is to eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. He's also one of the only players in the world to so stubbornly stick to the one city strategy, a favorite tactic of his that involves only ever using a single city or planet depending on the game's setting. All that matters to him is winning with his favorite strategy, but earning the respect of his fellow players for taking a sub-optimal strategy to its highest level has always been a nice bonus. And now it is because of his skill and entertaining determination that he has been chosen to represent a higher realm in a strategy game where the fate of Earth and dozens of other worlds are at stake. To the victor goes the spoils, and the spoils include entire worlds and billions of lives. That's how he ends up representing the ascended realm of Hell in a grand "game" between an entire pantheon of godly beings and other higher powers. But while it may just be a game to those overseeing it, it is a genuine war for survival to those participating in it where billions of real lives will go to the victor of whoever wins, and many will die before the game is over. Quick Author's Notes: System inspired by Civilization, Endless Legend, Stellaris, and Crusader Kings 2. Combat mechanics inspired by the Total War series. Slow-paced with many long-term plans. Protagonist has a personality heavily inspired by Ron Swanson. Know who that is and love him? You should like Clay. Know who Ron Swanson is and hate him? You'll probably hate Clay. Planning on writing every single day (turn). Days with important things happening will have the system/game mechanics be the priority of the chapter. Days where there isn't really anything important happening will be more slice-of-life and focused on character interactions. Designed a dice-based randomized map generator to create the world as the story goes on, so I don't even know myself exactly what's going to happen as a lot is dependent on world generation. Tech tree with hundreds of technologies already designed. There is a "harem," but it's not the main focus, the girls won't be cardboard cutouts, and I'm not going to completely forget about any previous women in the relationship whenever a new one comes along. One last thing. The "game" starts off with primitive technology level. The current plan is for the "endgame" tech level to be equivilent to WW2-era technology. After that and war just gets boring until you end up in space. Cover is temporary and made from royalty-free stock images while waiting for the real cover's commission to finish.
8 129The Roleplayer
Riley Petesgeralt is your every-day suburban boy by day, but an avid gamer at night, soaring to the top 50 players in an MMORPG called World of Legends.However, after a spiritual encounter, his life turned upside down. Both his worlds has collide, and now, his life is a game?Follow Riley as he embarks on an adventure in adapting his new, unique game-like abilities in his every day life, where he discovers "life" isn't as normal as it seems.
8 197Heirs of Creation- A Supernatural Fanfic
While looking into a less than typical vampire case in Washington, the Winchester brothers run into a young hunter who just arrived from Europe and, while willing to help, always seems to be one step ahead of them. Sam and Dean are soon led down an unexpected road with dangerous questions and answers; some discoveries can bring out the worst in people. ***Some language and violence, nothing that wouldn't be said or shown on the show itself.
8 148SCION OF EVIL
Human beings since the dawn of civilization have always been the top of the food chain. With our wits and knowledge, we have dominated the Land, ruled the Sky, and roamed the Ocean, we are the only species that have dared to ventured into the space and explore the new horizon. Since time immemorial we humans have dominated the world around us with our technology. But what if one day all our technology becomes useless and monsters beyond and from our imagination comes alive. What if humanity suddenly is toppled from the top of the food chain. What if our myths and legend come alive into the reality one day? HOW WILL HUMAN SURVIVE THEN??? . . . . ' Among the trouble that humanity faced it also gained newfound powers and blessing in it. Follow the life of Our protagonist Rudra who will go through many hardships with his newfound powers in this era to kill slay his enemy take revenge and become the emperor extreme. I dont own the cover picture.. It was taken from the website below https://wallpaperplay.com/walls/full/5/a/0/190375.jpg or go to https://www.desktopbackground.org
8 195The Cracks in the Labyrinth
Evoking the paranoid tension of Rosemary's Baby and the unnerving atmosphere of the cult horror film Jacob's Ladder, The Cracks in the Labyrinth is a disturbing psychological thriller set in present-day Caracas, where the government has devolved into a "democratic dictatorship"-a creepy suspense novel meant to challenge your deeper, subconscious fears of losing control.It consumed the sanity of an entire country...And it was not from this world. It couldn't have been. Whatever caused the incident known as "The Red Christmas" drove Venezuela into madness.Even ten years since it happened, none of the survivors of that night dare to attempt to make sense of it all, including Adam. Living ostracized to hide from the brutal way of life in Caracas, he's working tirelessly as an online writer to help his brother and sister flee the country. Now, as he's about to have enough money to take them to safety, he receives an email from his old girlfriend ... which is remarkable, considering she's been presumed dead for years. Adam tries to think nothing of the email or the broken video file attached to it. He convinces himself that it has to be a computer virus of some kind until he discovers something terrifying: the video might link his sister to the worst night of his life, the night his girlfriend went missing, the night of "The Red Christmas". Then he realizes this could be a threat; his sister's life could be in danger. As he starts to investigate who sent the video, Adam begins to uncover dark truths about his neighbors and finds evidence that there might be a larger conspiracy at play. The problem is that he's starting to suffer from hellish hallucinations that make him question what is real. Soon, the only clear thing to him is that someone doesn't want him to dig up the past. Will Adam be able to stay sane long enough to find out what really happened the night of "The Red Christmas"? Will he succeed in helping his family escape the country?
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