Title Name: Dungeon Master Acquisition condition: Become the owner and master of a Dungeon. Effects: If equipped as the main title for at least 24 hours: Gain 10 DP to the Dungeon every 24th hour as long as this title is equipped as the main title. If equipped as the main title for at least 24 hours: Grants 10% of the EXP obtained as EXP for the Dungeon as long as this title is equipped as the main title. If equipped as the main title: Eases the acquisition of negative Karma Value. Rewards: None. Description:

A title granted to the best, greatest, and most fabulous troublemakers in all of Terra Sol!! Now, go forward and show the world the might of the forces of Chaos! MWA-HAHAHAHAHA!! KWA-HAHAHAHA-*Cough, cough-COUGH*-!? Kuku...*groans*...

And now everyone knows who is writing these descriptions. I thought it was someone from Order's side, not the boss of Chaos himself.

Anyway, the title itself didn't come as a surprise. Sure, I hadn't read about it in any of the books back at the Velantas Adventurers' Union's library, nor in the Kigal-Note even, but I had the feeling that something like this guy would appear. You can never go wrong with the good old hunch.

The problem lies in this "Demon Lord's Starter Pack". That completely blindsided me. The name makes it easy to guess that it's related to the [Demon Lord] skill. The latter requires negative Karma Value, connected to the Ultimate God, Chaos. Is there a "Hero's Starting Pack" or an "Adventurers' Starting Pack" for the good Karma and neutral Karma Extra Skill-versions of [Demon Lord]? From what I can see regarding Chaos' personality, I doubt that, but it's not impossible either...

Gah, that's not important right now! What is it that this "starting pack" does? To find the answers to that, I touched the Dungeon Core in the hope of some "Dungeon menu" appearing.

Dungeon Menu Owner: Garami Dungeon Name: "Nameless" (TBD) Dungeon Level: 1 Dungeon Floors: 1 Dungeon Type: Desert Cave Dungeon Theme: Sinful Ruins Dungeon Points: 100/100 Dungeon Elements: Main: [Darkness] Sub: --- Dungeon Monster Lines: [Common] [Demon]: --- Dungeon Stats: Strength: [E] Magic: [E] Stealth: [E] Knowledge: [E] Monsters: [E] Luck: [E] Management: Facility Creation Monster Overview Treasure Summoning Item Sacrifice Dungeon Upgrade Special: "Demon Lord's Starter Pack"

I shoot and I score! And the Dungeon is referred to as "nameless"? It seems I can change it when I want to, but I have no lightbulbs over my head now regarding the subject of names. Let's get the crew together later and brainstorm.

The man of THIS hour is located at the bottom of the menu. Pressing it should make something appear...

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

You have opened the "Demon Lord's Starting Pack".

Your Dungeon "Nameless" has obtained 1.000 DP.

The facility "Demon Lord's Throne" has been added to the Dungeon "Nameless".

Your Dungeon "Nameless" has been given the right to upgrade 1 Dungeon Status Value to rank [D] for free.

Hmm, this feels like a "starter pack", all right. My DP, as in these "Dungeon Points", jumped up to 1.100 out of 100. Is it allowed to do that?

I draw a question mark regarding this free "facility". Is it like a piece of furniture I can use inside the Dungeon? If it was something like a "Goblin House" that spawned goblins for free, I'd understand it, but the demon lord's throne? Did my Dungeon just get the Big Bad as its Dungeon Boss? No, probably not. From the context, I'd guess the throne is meant for me. I'll have to look into that too later.

And then there's this "Dungeon Status Value", or "Dungeon Stats" for short. These categories seem to be related to the different monster species, except for the "Monster" value. What irks me is that, if this upgrade is given for free, it means that the rest is going to cost my shirt. They go up from E to D, so is A the top level? Is there an S-rank status value out there? Maybe even an SSR? No, that's a different genre.

Argh, this is starting to become just a pain! Let's get the others and have them help me sort this through. And speaking of deligating...

"Bloom! Identify all these values without making a mess of my Dungeon!" - Garami

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Why me!?" - Bloom

No, that's your job, [Gamemaster]...

---

"So this is Garami's Dungeon. I have to say..." - Alf

"It is a dump." - Noire

HARSH CROWD! Unfortunately, I have no witty comeback to throw back at her!!

We're currently sitting in a large "room" near the Dungeon entrance. The Marauder is still too big to fit into the cave, so I had some Gloom Skeletons guard it while the other 5 joined me inside.

The cave-turned-Dungeon has vastly expanded in total area compared to before its transformation. They say that a Dungeon's floor is around 5 kilometers big, regardless of how it looks from the outside. There must be some spatial shenanigans in play here. That underground cave where I (accidentally) won the Zahhak skill felt like that too, not to mention the other Extra Trial areas. Nothing prevents Dungeons from operating with similar effects.

The overall appearance of the cave is still that of a cave but with the ruins of modern buildings spread over the place. It's best to call it "a post-apocalypse city stuffed into a cave", but with more flair than what that simple description would give you an idea of. If I had to go into details, it feels like this place used to be the remains of an old city, then a cave started to "grow" on top of it before covering the city. Sorta of like jet-black corals covering the downed metropolis.

Despite its sorry state, some parts of the city are still alive. There are, for example, some functional street lamps that give a dim light to the grotto, allowing us to skip the need for lanterns for the sake of the members who have yet to obtain night vision-type skills. There are also some tables and chairs from the remains of old restaurants that can be used, so we used one of those places as a temporary meeting room.

"At least, it is better than Tir na Nog." - Iron

"*Vigorously nodding*!" - Revi

"Fine, I will give it that. But that is only due to the monsters are not half-rotten zombies that try to assault us every waking moment. ...Eh, no harm meant." - Noire

"None taken." - Iron & Revi

Thanks to Bloom looking through the functions of the Dungeon Menu while I went to fetch the others, we discovered that we could place some people on a "welcome list" of sorts. The Dungeon Monsters won't attack people on this list. It's kinda obvious, but I'm placed at the very top.

"If you guys are finished, time to move the meeting. Bloom, did you figure out what I asked about?" - Garami

"Very well. Should I start with explaining the question Master had regarding the Dungeon Points?" - Bloom

"Please do," I told her while showing the rest of the gang the Dungeon Menu and giving them a brief explanation.

"*Cough*, Dungeon Points are a resource needed to enhance the Dungeon. It can be used to unlock new features, from Facilities to adding new Floors, and it can also be used to refill the Dungeon's resources. Such as the ability to generate 'treasures' or shortening the respawn time for defeated Dungeon Monsters." - Bloom

"Excuse me, but did you say 'treasures'?" asked Mira, having finally turned her attention away from the Cave Rabbit (the Killer Rabbit's F-rank) that had come up to us and demanded petting. "And what is this talk about 'respawning'?"

"Let me first talk about 'Dungeon Facilities' before I answer your questions, Lady Mira. The Facilities can be bought and placed on different Dungeon Floors, even if you are limited to 6 for each Floor. Some Facilities may enhance the Dungeon Monsters or the traps on that floor, another type might grant invaders a spot of relief, while the one Lady Mira is likely the most interest in is the type that generates 'treasures' for the Dungeon." - Bloom

"Like a gold mine?" - Mira

"Hmm, that is one possibility..." - Bloom

"One that is very likely to be true. I don't know if you guys have forgotten, but we are inside a cave right now." - Alf

"Where is my pickaxe!?" - Mira

"I will need some gems for my next set of accessories..." - Noire

"Keep those miner spirits silent for a moment! We're still investigating how this stuff works!" - Garami

"*Cough*, should I continue? That is the conclusion of Lady Mira's questions regarding the Dungeon's treasures. There is something else related to them, but I will continue on that front later. Regarding 'respawning', all the monsters we have seen in the Dungeon until now are not exactly 'real' monsters." - Bloom

"Really? This fluff-ball feels real." - Mira (vigorously petting the Cave Rabbit)

"Mhm." - Revi (vigorously giving belly rubs to a Diredog that had appeared)

"Ehm, would it be easier to understand if I said they are similar to the undead Master creates?" - Bloom

"That clears up the fog a lot." - Alf

"So it means the monsters are artificial-like and can return to life if they are defeated?" - Garami

"Yes. There is a sort of point system that allows monsters to be summoned to each floor. Each floor will randomly generate monsters of random racial ranks so they use up all of these 'monster points'. The stronger the monster, the more points they consume. 1 point for G-ranks, 3 for F-ranks, and so on in this fashion. And..." - Bloom

"The points disappear if the monster is killed?" - Iron

"Yes! Correct, Mr. Iron! To fully heal 100% of the points, one either needs to wait for 10 full hours or spend DP to manually recover the lost monster points." - Bloom

"Is it safe to say that the deeper the Floor, the more monsters can appear?" - Alf

"That is also correct. There seem to be some restrictions, such as the highest rank of roaming monsters is limited to the C-ranks, but that is a different subject." - Bloom

"But if this child here," said Mira as she lifted the Cave Rabbit, "got killed and resurrected, would it be the same fluffball from before?"

"Yes. All the Cave Rabbits seem to be of the same 'soul'. It is not like they can communicate what they see with each other through telepathy, but you can consider them the same as the other rabbits." - Bloom

In that case, they are indeed similar to the Cloud-shared AI for my Necromancy undead.

"Can we go back to the Dungeon Points now?" I asked, having remembered how this conversation started before we drifted off.

"Right. Dungeon Points can perform all the actions I mentioned now. And to recover DP, there are 2 possible paths to take. Or three, if you want to be technical about it.

"The first path is to sacrifice items to the Dungeon. The 'Item Sacrifice' tab on the Dungeon Menu is for this. You either have to do it back in the Dungeon Core's room, or place a Facility with similar effects somewhere on the floor. Doing so will award DP, plus having a slight chance to unlock new upgrades for the Dungeon. Such as unlocking new attributes that can be granted to it, or opening up new Monster Lines.

"The second path is to wait for it to generate naturally. The DP has an 'upper' limit, but as everyone can see, we are currently 1.000 points above that. If we had less DP than 100, however, then the Dungeon would recover 10% DP every hour. Oh, the percentage part refers to the current upper limit for the natural regenerative DP.

"The third path is when DP is obtained through an outside source. These extra 1.000 DP you can see here came from a so-called 'Demon Lord's Starting Pack', and Master obtained a title that produces DP for the Dungeon each day, but other than those, I do not know of any other way to increase the DP." - Bloom

Maybe increasing the "Dungeon Level" would award me with more of those delicious points? There's talk about EXP in the [Dungeon Master] title, so there has to be something going on there...!

"Hey, wouldn't the upper limit grow alongside the Dungeon's level?" - Garami

"Yes, it would. Increasing the number of Floors will also cause it to increase. In addition, some Facilities have a similar effect, albeit with some restrictions." - Bloom

"One is limited to 6 per Floor, was it? Losing one slot just for a slump change of DP wouldn't be worth it in the long run." - Mira

"We could look into the Facilities at a later date. How about we use the current DP on adding more Floors?" - Alf

"Agreed. More Floors grant more Facilities and more DP in one move." - Iron

As expected of our boys. They got their heads set straight for the most practical approach.

"Bloom, how much does it cost to add a new Floor?" - Garami

"That would be...the total DP-value each Floor grants, multiplied by X, with X equals 2 for the first 5 Floors. After you add the 5th Floor, X increases to 3, and this will happen again when you reach a Floor number that is a multiple by 5. Oh, and each Floor increases the natural DP upper limit by 100." - Bloom

Meaning..., 200 for the 2nd Floor, then 400 for the 3rd one. That would leave us with 500 DP left. It's a lot (I think?) but not enough for the 4th Floor, which should cost 600 DP.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Your Dungeon "Nameless" has obtained its 2nd Floor.

Your Dungeon "Nameless" has obtained its 3rd Floor.

We could feel the ground rumbling underneath us as I purchased the new pieces of land (underground land) for us to play with. I checked the Dungeon Menu again and saw that the DP's upper limit had gone from 100 to 300. A single Floor gives an increase in 100 then.

"Hmm, that felt...a little anti-climactic," said Mira after the shaking ended. Compared to the earthquake-class disaster Bloom and I had to sit through, I can only say she's right. But then again, compared to that time, now there's just been done some digging job underneath us.

"...What now?" - Revi

"That would be figuring out what to use this free coupon on," I said while pointing at the Dungeon Menu's "free Dungeon Stat level-up" that was blinking like a Christmas tree in the Special tab.

"Increasing a Dungeon Stat... Sure, just one question. What the **** is a Dungeon Stat?" - Mira

"Bloom~." - Garami

"Yes, yes, now it is my time to shine," said Bloom grumpily, having been busy downing a bottle of honey water to heal her throat after all the previous explanation. "The Dungeon Stats affects the Dungeon in the following ways," she started before showing us a piece of paper. On it, the following was written:

Strength: Unlocks Dungeon Monsters, Facilities, and Treasures that have a connection with Warrior-line classes. Magic: The same as "Strength", but for the Magician-line classes. Stealth: Ditto as above, just for Scout-line classes. Knowledge: Works in the same way as "Strength", "Magic", and "Stealth". The themes here are divided between crafting, leadership, and knowledge in general. Monsters: Special stat. The higher this value is, the more monsters can appear on a Floor. Special Facilities might be unlocked with higher values. Luck: Special stat. It is for traps and Treasures, regarding both their quantity and quality. Special Facilities might be unlocked with higher values.

When did she find the time to write this? I'm not complaining, this makes it much easier to judge what to use the free level-up on, but that little fairy sure is an expert in keeping me surprised almost every time.

"Hmm. Even the Dungeon also favors the classical class options." - Alf

"Yup. Warrior, Mage, Scout, and then a combo of Crafter and Special-line classes." - Mira

"Do not forget about the monsters and treasures. " - Iron

Buddy, the women in our Guild, maybe sans for Revi, won't forget the latter half even if we tried.

Still, the first 4 stats were for the different types of monsters after all. And if I know my Dungeons right, this [E] rank must be the reason why the strongest king of the hill (or cave Dungeon in this case) are the E-rank monsters. If I want a Goblin Pack Leader, the D-rank evo of Goblin Leader, then wouldn't I need to increase the Knowledge stat to rank [D]?

Bloom's little handiwork even came with the current prices for upgrading the stats. 500 DP each. And I bet they're going to grow when we try to aim for higher ranks. But I do want to get some Facilities in place too. Especially the type that gives us some nice sleeping quarters. I'm done and tired of having to camp on the Marauder! I want a proper bed for once!

If it's for a decent rest after way too long, I know exactly what Stat to jump up their rankings to allow that to happen!