Year 180

“Nine of them spotted.” Kei spoke via long range message. “All of them are around level 80s, and they are still challenging the champions. The King seemed content to let them do so, and continued its destructive acts.”

It’s a pattern, repeated since long ago. The King almost always waited for the heroes to level up. This was a quirk that I did not understand. Was it a rule? Or are the heroes ‘invisible’ before they turn level 100? But clearly the demon champions are able to find the heroes. So why?

It really feels very game-ish. One instance suggested some observational flaw or quirk. But now after numerous demon kings, it really felt like this pattern suggested a ‘game-like’ arrangement between the demons and the gods. I really hope the Aivan church agrees to send the triumvirs over. I do want to interrogate the damned Aivan God why the fuck are we playing this game.

But there was that hero that did the whole-sneak attack thing, but that was because there is an existing group of surviving heroes. If so, the demon king must have a trigger to engage in their hunt.

“No luck on the missing hero?” The missing hero... was still missing. But if say he is alive, and he is levelling up, he can’t stay hidden for long. Not with the demon king’s divine-hunting sight. I recall Harris once said that the demons can sense their presence, and the higher levels they are, the stronger they glow to the demons.

“No.” Kei sighed. “I hope he’s fine. The other heroes have attempted to contact him but he refused all communication.”

“You’ve made contact with the heroes?”

“Yes. We spoke a bit.” Kei said. “At level 80ish they are able to spot me. There was no way I could remain hidden for long.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“Almost everything, really. But nothing about you.” Kei was quick to repeat. “Just about hero stuff, really. About the things we’ve seen... I mean, about life as a hero... and our lives after we win. And the gods.”

“They didn’t kill you there and then?”

“They seemed to mumble something about Ken saying the same thing. Ken’s the missing hero by the way, and he’s.. Uh, he pretty much went cold turkey and had no contact with the rest of them after the first week together.”

“Huh.” Ken, eh. “So... how are the heroes taking to their new roles as saviors of the world?”

“Quite enthusiastic. It’s actually quite embarrassing to hear it. Was I so naive and innocent?” Kei sighed.

“Yes. Yes you were. In fact, you still are.”

“Ugh.”

-

Roon and the others kept at their dungeon raids. The dungeon at Level 120 was large, and their foes were a mix of giants. According to their post-raid reports, the space after the dungeon gates were significantly larger than before, and the dungeon exhibited some kind of spatial distortion which magnified it’s size.

I too, have some spatial abilities with my [Secret hideouts] and Subsidiary Tree rooms.

Roon and another of the Matreearchs managed to hit Level 135, so they are only 15 levels away from their own domains.

The monsters were large, but ultimately they can be defeated. Still, after my earlier experience with the collapsed dungeon, I started work on another set of ley lines, and I hope to have a new dungeon active before this one collapses in the future.

These dungeons, their rewards are mostly the remains of the dungeon monsters, and they are often set aside for my blacksmiths and mages to experiment, to craft into weapons and armors. There is a gradual upward drift in the quality of the equipment among the Valthorns, as they get a wider variety of equipment over time, instead of just my own items. Things I made, or blessed by me personally are strong, but my items tend to have anti-demon effects. Equipment made from the monster’s remains in the dungeon tend to be more varied.

Those who made a living outside the dungeon also soon made more ‘mobile’ setups, once they were informed of the temporary nature of these high tier dungeons. These were pretty much the best craftsmen and smiths the entire continent have to offer, and it’s something we noticed, that the higher levelled they were, it is more likely that they have passion in what they did.

For these level 80+ craftsmen, they relished working with the unique materials that a high tier dungeon provided, and so they moved where the materials were. That said, for these craftsmen, almost 80% of their time is spent making equipment to process the materials, and only 20% on the materials themselves. There’s a whole lot of preparation work that goes on before the craftsmen lay their lands on the harvested items.

Many of these higher tier monsters are ‘new’ to us, since the dungeon generated these monsters somewhat randomly, so even ‘harvesting’ the monsters took a lot of experimentation. At higher tiers, the dungeon monsters resemble more like frankenstein-ish mixture of creatures, materials and skills. In fact, I would personally say most monsters look their best at around Level 80, where they conform to what I believe is usually considered a monsters’ ‘normal’ appearance.

At level 120, take a cerberus, would have strange laser-eyes, teeths or claws made of some rainbow metal, and sometimes, even heads that regrow when chopped off, as if its some lovechild of a cerberus and a hydra. It’s like the dungeon system has an archive of what items or effects it considers as a high level effect, and just mashed them together to form whatever random miniboss. They usually had a few gimmicks too, like a cerberus where one eye used lasers, and one of the heads caused explosions.

I wondered whether a level 150 or 200 dungeon will look more ‘proper’, once every part of the monster is upgraded with higher tier materials. It’s just a theory of course. According to Edna there’s no great difference in their appearance between level 120 and 130, just more skills, more gimmicks, tougher, and stronger.

The whole ‘moving’ ley lines thing also made me think of that volcano I acquired early on. If there are natural sources of energy, I suppose using my own world knowledge, the greatest power source right now would be the sun. The stars and the sun would generate the most power, so I wonder what level would a sun-powered dungeon be?

Could I even ‘create’ gods outright? I mean, if a dungeon had level 150 monsters, wouldn’t that mean these monsters are mini-gods in their own right? If so, how can a dungeon contain them?

This suggested a few likely outcomes.

One, is that it is impossible to create dungeons beyond level 149, unless the dungeon itself is some godly being.

Two, it is possible to create level 150 monsters, but controlling them is impossible, so a dungeon break must happen.

Three, it is possible to create level 150 dungeons, and it is possible for the dungeon to still control level 150+ creations despite their domain, or perhaps, these creatures do not have a domain. It is possible if the monsters are ‘soulless’ despite having that kind of power level, that they are just super strong automatons with strength at that level.

Which made me wonder...

“Any of the druids attempted to ‘enslave’ or ‘tame’ the dungeon monsters before?” I mean, the dungeons generate high tier monsters, but druids and beastmasters naturally have abilities to acquire ‘companions’”

I also remember that old story of the elven hero with the ability to ‘enslave’ spirits, including spirit trees. It was something that I am still afraid of, even if I have the domain as a shield. I wondered when a hero’s skills and a domain clashed, how does the system resolve the conflict? Like, a hero with a special spirit-capture ability, against me, a spirit tree with a domain?

Anyway, the druids soon explained that they have attempted to capture the dungeon beasts, but have only managed to tame those in the lower tier dungeons, around Level 80 or so. They have not had any success with the monsters from the higher levelled dungeons. They suspected that it’s due to their diversified focus, and so their success relied on their huge level differentials.

A pure monster-tamer. That sounds like something from an isekai story. If I am able to ‘convert’ a demon, could a very powerful monster tamer or beast master control the demons, and at even higher levels, take control of the demon champions and kings? It’s essentially the same issue with heroes and me, isn’t it? If a powerful beast master can control the demon king, a hero must be able to control me.

“That train of thought implies the demon king to be a [domain] holder, which, from our data thus far, nothing seems to suggest it is a [domain] holder. In fact, we don’t even know if the demon king has levels.” Because the King doesn’t talk.

-

The heatwave meant druids and mages were in huge demand, as they had to help use their weather abilities and skills to help ‘reduce’ the impact of the heat. Our master builders had to rush to the shores, and areas that suffered huge floods and rainfalls to help redirect the water, on top of my trees. My trees soaked up the water easily, after all, my roots naturally transported water and I used this to great effect, to help direct water from areas that faced torrential rain and floods, to areas that faced exceptionally dry weather.

The response to the weather changes were mixed. Some just moved to places where the effects were milder. Like Freshka itself, it is quite insulated from the effects of the heatwave due to the presence of many druids’ skills that helped ‘soften’ the effects of the demon king’s energies, on top of my own heat-channelling abilities.

The farmlands within the same region as me pretty much survived the heatwave unaffected, at this distance my abilities easily overwhelmed the global effects of the heatwave. Further out, there’s been some fires and destruction of farms. Small damage, generally, as my influence wanes somewhat at a distance.

That said, the nobles and royalty were generally pretty pissy about the weather, and they’ve hired mages and druids to keep the weather pleasant. Strange that they get so pissy. I observed less of such behavior from the older kind.

One group that I needed to assist a little more were the treefolk. They seemed rather sensitive to the weather, and needed to consume more water to offset the increased evaporation and heat. Trees generally help to cool their surroundings through evaporation, but that does mean that they lose more water and treefolks needed to constantly replenish water, a problem when the rivers themselves are drying up.

So far, no area has faced terrible droughts yet, thanks to my roots performing their role of distributing both heat and water to where they are needed. Funny that all my fire resistance and training from previous demon kings meant I could resist this effect relatively easily. Truly, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

The elves, humans and dwarves were uncomfortable, but they generally did well. The lizardpeople enjoyed the heat, but they preferred the ‘humid’ heat, not the ‘dry’ heat, so those close to the coast actually found the heatwave pleasant. The lesser races like those winged garudas and harpies didn’t enjoy the more turbulent winds from the heat.

Fishing was down significantly, as the heat made the waves more dangerous throughout the world. That said, if a fisher and sailor were to set out now, they would generally level... if they survived.

Trade was wobbly, and so was fishing. But the oceans were generally calmer out in the open oceans. A master captain with a great ship could still make the journey.

“Our pirates and privateers are stranded on the islands.” Well, one of the drawbacks of a land-based continental force is my naval forces aren’t amazing. Even with all the training and special centers, they just don’t have the opportunity to really challenge themselves for sea battles. Unless I do mock battles with Reefy?

Mock battles sounded like a good idea.

> Yes? <

> Practice... battles? < I shared images and scenes through our somewhat connected ‘roots’. Of practice duels, mock battles and so on. The purpose was to practice strategy and tactics, gain familiarity on whether combat is effective or not.

> Not enemies. Friend. Just to get stronger. <

Reefy seemed to struggle to process fighting their friends for a while. It seemed to have a rather convenient categorisation of friends and foes? Or did it just classify people to their threat levels?

I did so. Reefy still seemed rather confused.

-

In the meantime, since Aria and Aispeng are ice spirits, I wondered whether they have abilities that can offset the heat. They do, but it’s an aura ability so they can’t ‘share’ it. The northern isles, despite being naturally colder, had ‘stronger’ heatwaves, and this manifested in stronger blizzards and winds. In a way, this demon king’s abilities isn’t really a ‘heatwave’, but more of ‘extreme weather’. Did the demon king copy some climate change rulebook somewhere?

-

The heroes kept on with their battles and they had their first encounter with the demon king. It did not go well, but it seemed the demon king did not give much chase.

[Ellis Myers has died. You received a fragment]

[Jenna Kari has died. You received a fragment]

Kei had apparently attempted to help.

“You idiot.” Stella screamed over the message spell, she had two fragments too. “Don’t risk your fucking life.”

“I’ve already died once. What’s another time?”

“I thought you promised us!” Apparently Kei had a promise with the girls? Huh. I sure didn’t see them being so close.

“...I know. I feel like shit though.” Kei said. “I can’t just stand and let them fight.”

“Kei, we’ve talked about this. There are battles that are out of our leagues. Each of us needs to do our part, do what we’re good at.” Stella repeated. “I’m a [void mage], and I’m good with portals. That means I’m not going anywhere near a battlefield. You’re a [biocrystalline golem], and you can make crystals do all sort of stuff. But you’re not a 100% combat class, and you don’t have hero powers. Don’t fight battles you can’t do shit in. We all want this shit to end, but we need to work together dammit. Another act out of line and I’ll get Aeon to [recall] you.”

“...sorry.”

“Good.”

The death of two shook the group of 7 left. They were nervous and afraid. What seemed comically easy once they levelled, suddenly was hard again. The gap between the champions and the king was large, and only now they understood it.

Kei had to be their counselor. But in the south, there were other temples, and some heroes sought help from the temples instead.

“Should’ve sent priests here! Right now they need the calming abilities of the priesthood!” Kei complained. That was something I’ll take note of. Certainly Lumoof could help to provide serenity and calmness in face of loss. These are young teens in need of emotional support, and that’s certainly a neglected aspect of their journey.

-

“Do we have counselor classes?” I asked Lumoof and the group. Actually, if heroes get out of this with PTSD, is that why they end up indulging themselves in all their harems and all that? It’s a way of coping with the shit they’ve seen? I’m not in their place, and I’ve not seen their struggles. But on reflection, it does seem almost all of them are broken or chipped in some way.

I knew his answer before he answered thanks to our mental link, but I let him say it out anyway. “We do have [Priest of Tranquility], and certain skills like [Calm Composure], [Emotional Appeasement]...”

“Then we must find ways to train this further.” I’ve been growing class seeds all this while, but I suppose I needed to experiment and create these ‘counselors’ or ‘psychiatrist’ classes.

I looked at my own [Tree of Prayers]. These helped in the past, just as my [tea] did. I needed to make them mobile, without using Lumoof. The people of this world are naturally resilient and seemed to endure the destruction really well without emotionally breaking down, but the heroes clearly are cracking, even if they outwardly appear fine.