Dungeon?

System: Elitia?

Elitia: Yes, System?

System: I have some questions about dungeons.

Elitia: It is too early for you to be thinking about dungeons.

System: I want to prepare.

Elitia: Hmm, very well. Tis not a sin to be prepared.

System: I want to know, how I can make the first tier of the dungeon as large as possible?

System was struggling with having large numbers of adventurers, yet very little for them to do. Adventurers were dying in suicide squads, robbing other adventurers and crossing the borders, because of the lack of jobs. System might be irresponsible, but he was not without awareness. He needed to fix this problem, lest he loses all of his adventurers.

ELitia: The maximum size of a tier is limited by the number of tiers of a dungeon.

System: So I should create as high tiered dungeons as possible?

ELitia: No, that would be a disaster. You should start with a single tier dungeon and learn from that.

System: Why?

Elitia: Dungeons are inherently perilous. Better to slowly acclimate your population to the idea. Dungeons slowly spawn more monsters, until the dungeon overflows, causing a dungeon break. If the dungeons are too high of a tier, then the nearby population is massacred on the first dungeon break. But if a lower tier dungeon is too easily found, then adventurers clear it, before it has created enough monsters to earn back its purchasing cost. You see, dungeons cost a lot of MM's to create, but the monsters slain earn us back some of the MM's invested. The strategy us elites have thought up, is to create small hidden dungeons. These will cause adventurers to congregate and clear the dungeons. Making them hidden allows them to generate enough monsters to earn back the costs. Once the local adventurer community is prepared enough, we create a visible dungeon, that is of a higher tier. This will attract higher ranked adventurers. Then we start hiding dungeons of that tier and so on.

System: So, a dungeon is kinda like a MM power plant. I think I will start with a higher tier dungeon, so that it keeps generating mana for a while.

Elitia: System! You must not! Consider the consequences!

System: How about if I create a tier 4 dungeon?

Elitia: *yells* Don't even think about it!

System: That bad huh?

Elitia: That spells disaster for the continent! Somebody needs to be able to kill those monsters. Westwoods inherited his lands overrun by high tier monsters. His residents have been trying to clear his lands for decades. For Easteria, high tier dungeons are the reason the country has become completely militarized. Are you trying to have humanity go extinct? Besides, where do you expect to get all the MM's?

System: So... roughly how much MM's do dungeons cost?

Elitia: That depends on a lot of factors. Us systems have a lot of freedom in designing our dungeons, but every choice we make has a cost associated with it. As you know, the peasant class costs 50MM to assign. Placing a single tier 1 monster, costs about 50-200MM. Adding a tier 1 spawning pool, would cost about 500-2000MM. Claiming the land for the tier 1 dungeon would be anywhere from 4000 to 50.000, depending on how much land you claim.

System: Hmm... I see. I see. I see. Yeah, dungeons are rather expensive.

Elitia: Indeed, so just start with a tier 1 dungeon to get some understanding of how it works. Remember, after placing a dungeon, we no longer have any control over it. With your first few dungeons, you can slowly start saving up. Maybe someday you will be able to build a tier 4 dungeon, like me.

System: Ah, thanks for your help, I will see what I can do. I gotta go check on Ai now.

Elitia: Ai?

...

Elitia: He understood me right? He got the message right? He won't be creating a tier 4 dungeon, right? Please tell me it will be okay. Ah, he doesn't have the mana. It's going to be fine. It should be fine. Please tell me it will be fine! My poor, poor reputation...

* * *

System: Westwoods?

Westwoods: Yes, System?

System: I'm thinking about creating a tier 3 or tier 4 dungeon.

Westwoods: Have you lost your mind!?!

System: Well, it's near the border of Easteria, so nothing you have to be concerned about.

Westwoods: What!?! You can't just... Hmm... Maybe that's not as much of a problem. I see...

System: I just want to know how bad tier 4 is. Elitia tends to overreact a lot.

Westwoods: Well... Tier 4 basically means you are creating an area on the map that is permanently uninhabitable.

System: That bad huh?

Westwoods: Elitia's adventurers would probably be able to clear it, but on our continent? It would be hopeless.

System: So there is no one on our continent that is capable of clearing it?

Westwoods: There's a few that might be capable, but whether or not they take action...

System: What about tier 3?

Westwoods: Tier 3 is... Tier 3 dungeons can be cleared, but... I guess the whole continent would have to come together.

System: That sounds like fun!

Westwoods: Ah... yes... hmm...

System: *scheming smile* Let's keep this a secret from the other systems, shall we System?

Westwoods: Oh, I have all the answers I need. I think I'm good now!

System: All right, good luck! Make sure you place it on the border as far away from me as possible!

Westwoods: Will do.

* * *

Three young boys have gathered at the "farm lovers" inn in Farsille. Naldo is behind the counter, working as a cook for Innis. Innis was initially sceptical about having a cook working for his inn and Nathan had to do some convincing/begging to get him hired, but Innis quickly changed his attitude after more and more villagers started eating at the inn. This was mainly due to word of mouth advertisement. Innis is already considering a take out service. The dining area is starting to feel rather small.

"I guess the cooking bonus really is worth hiring him for", Innis thinks.

Even without the cooking bonus, Naldo was a considerably better cook than Innis, but Innis would never admit that. Especially if he has such a convenient excuse.

Nathan: *jokingly* Professor! All settled in?

Naldo: You were right, it is considerably easier to level my class working as a cook here.

Nathan: No regrets?

Naldo: None!

Nathan: This is Cooper, I wanted to introduce you. He's a cook like you.

Naldo: Well met!

Cooper: Likewise!

Nathan: Cooper is from one of the few nearby villages that have an inn. He actually wanted to be a cook, so I thought he might be an interesting person to talk to.

Naldo: Well, I do have one question that is bothering me.

Cooper: Ask away!

Naldo: What's the best way to level the cook class?

Cooper: Well, the easiest way is to prepare lots of meals, they have to be consumed for it to count. You can't just prepare food and trash it. I'm actually jealous you know?

Naldo: How so?

Cooper: That big old pot of soup you are preparing is about what we prepare in a week.

Naldo: I did notice XP raising faster over the past weeks, so I guess that's because of the increase in customers, huh?

Cooper: Farsille has more travellers and the village is larger. You get to cook for so many locals!

Nathan: It might not stay that way, everyone is pretty excited over the novelty.

Cooper: Still, my class progression is at a crawl. Just how many years will it take for me to hit the XCAP?

Nathan: But there's more to it than just cooking lots of meals, right?

Cooper: Yeah, there's a bunch of factors that influence XP gain. The amount and variety of meals prepared, quality and rarity of ingredients, the novelty of the dish, the difficulty of preparation, presentation, etc.

Naldo: Ah! I never would have thought of that. Not all of those are possible when cooking for poor farmers, but still. It should give me some inspiration. I think I will start experimenting with a daily menu or something.

Cooper: I feel ya! I'm tired of preparing bread and soup.

Nathan: Guess you will still have to catch those horned rabbits, huh?

Naldo: I think the wild boars and horned rabbits have all but been brought to extinction with all the copper rank adventurers running around these days.

Nathan: If only there were a dungeon nearby.

{ You may come to regret those words. }

Naldo: I think the country is still too young for dungeons to start spawning

{ Maybe for other systems. I have almost saved up enough for my tier 3. }

Nathan: I want you guys to try one of these apples.

Naldo and Cooper are both handed an apple and they take a bite.

Naldo: So good! I could use these for a luxury desert.

Cooper: Where did you get apples this good?

Nathan: I grew them.

Cooper: I didn't know the apples from the Farsille orchard were this good?

Nathan: They aren't anywhere near this good.

Naldo: You achieved this through nature magic?

Nathan: *proudly* yup!

Cooper: So you were just flexing?

Nathan: *proudly* yup!

Naldo: *laughs* So you're creating Farsille's next export product? These would do well with the nobles!

Nathan: Naldo, that's the problem I wanted to talk to you about.

Cooper: Problem? These are amazing!

Nathan: I can only grow a couple of apples per day. I can grow more if I lower the quality, but I don't want to.

Cooper: That's still a thousand a year.

Nathan: Yeah, but I can't transport them one by one. Also, if I eat one and Naomi claims one, there isn't much left. I have 80MP and I can only grow a few apples. I feel a little lost. Can I actually make money on this?

Cooper: *grins* gotta keep the wife happy I guess?

Nathan: Shut it! Half the village is already planning our wedding.

Naldo: Nathan, did you say 80MP? How? What level are you at?

Nathan: 19

Naldo: *exclaims* prodigy!

Nathan: Wait? What? Growing a couple of apples makes me prodigy?

Naldo: You don't get it! Most mages take years to get past their apprentice tier. You've almost cleared it in a matter of weeks!

{ These mages are supposed to be useless for years!?! Fuck me! I turned half of this village into nature mages! }

Nathan: Then why are mage classes so popular? Aren't they useless?

{ My thoughts exactly }

Naldo: You don't get it! The mana pool of a mage grows rapidly per tier. *professor mode* One of the leading theories on why, unlike most other classes, mages have an apprentice tier, is that the massive mana needs of the class require building up the vessel or the soul of the mage. Spells for the mage class appear to be randomly assigned per tier. So, once a mage reaches a tier, said mage is required to have the mana reserves to cast all spells of that tier. Novice tier spells require more mana than most non-mages build up in a lifetime. Thus the theory argues that the apprentice tier is specifically aimed at enlarging the mages mana pool.

{ I'm bored, where's Ai? }

Naldo: At the end of the intermediate tier you are guaranteed to have more than a thousand mana. There are records of greater archmages reaching more than a million mana, but such records are hard to verify. Just wait until you hit the XCAP. You will receive a huge boost to both MP and intelligence. For higher tiers, the boost is even bigger.

Cooper: *wide eyed* Is this the real Naldo? Or was the previous Naldo the real Naldo?

Nathan: This is the real one. The other one's a fake.

Naldo: Who are you calling a fake!?! Did you want to know this or not?

Nathan: My apologies, honored professor Naldo.

Naldo: *nods* Study well, young apprentice.

Nathan: A thousand mana eh? I would be able to grow a crate of apples a day.

Naldo: Probably more. If you level the skill, the efficiency will go up. By that time you might also have some arcane skills that raise general mana efficiency.

Nathan turns around after he feels a tug on his shirt.

Naomi: Apple!