“Yeah, well, I want them to get stronger.”
Ryan was certain he would be blushing if he had cheeks right now. As it was, he could tell his form was glowing a little brighter than normal.
“You are the perfect dungeon.” She gave him a hug, and he glowed even brighter.
“Awww, I’m nothing without you, Rin.” The fairy pulled away, face red.
Ha. Ryan hated when his emotions got out of hand, but he really enjoyed making Erin blush.
“Psh, you’re just saying that.” She hit him lightly and laughed her beautiful laugh.
Ryan didn’t trust himself to speak, so gave his mobs the order to resume their attacks on the adventurers. However, he was so caught up he didn’t pass the orders right, and all six mobs came out of hiding at once to attack the group.
“Oops,” he groaned.
All six were out of their hiding holes before Ryan realized what he had done. Too late to turn back now.
“Hey, Em, looks like you got their attention,” Jack warned. He was back on his feet, daggers drawn.
“Can I help them out, oh wise and powerful team leader?” he asked.
“Well, you do owe me for the armor,” Karan said as she motioned towards the larger group of mobs. “You guys focus on the two to your left. Jack will handle the others.”
The three adventurers in the middle turned towards the approaching two mobs, Matt with an arrow drawn, Emily with wand raised, and Blake with his shield at the ready. Ryan was sure they would be fine now. He was more interested in how Jack would—
“What the hell?” Ryan said.
Jack walked casually towards the group, wind swirling around his form, his eyes sparkling with excitement. He was twirling his daggers in his hands, and Ryan noticed the daggers had crystals in them as well.
Silver lines glowed across Jack’s armor, with the socketed stones on the daggers, his chest, and his hands seeming to glow as well. Without warning, he stopped spinning his daggers, and made a slashing motion towards the four skuirrels.
A blade of wind cut through the air and covered the distance between Jack and the mobs in an instant. Suddenly, the skuirrels were severed in half, and Jack laughed.
“I freaking love this class gear,” he said.
He turned towards Karan as the winds around him began to fade. The cleric simply put her hand over her mouth as she shook her head.
“You show off way too much, Jack.” Her voice was stern, but Ryan could tell she was hiding her smile with her hand. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t hide the smile in her eyes.
“You like it when I show off.” Jack offered her a wink and walked back to the fallen skuirrels to grab the coins they had dropped.
“Only in your dreams,” Karan responded with a laugh.
The thief grinned and started heading towards the next room.
“Hey, it’s good to have dreams,” he called back as neared the exit. “Now, let’s clear the rest of this dungeon.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“All right, it seems Steve is weak to magic,” Ryan announced.
He and Erin had just watched Blake’s team decimate Steve without taking so much as a scratch.
“They’ve just figured out a good strategy,” Erin demurred.
Ryan could tell Erin was trying to build his self-esteem back up. The boss fight had left him in a sour mood.
He loved Blake’s team, he really did. But what they just did to Steve, well, it left him feeling a little angry. Their first time against Steve had been so enjoyable, and their cheers and emotions of elation after his defeat had made it seem worth it. This time, they beat him in under a minute. They didn’t even look like they were trying.
“Strategy? Blake just taunted Steve into launching his bones at him, and the moment Steve attacked, Emily blasted him to pieces.” Ryan would have been tearing out his hair if he had any. Steve was supposed to put up a fight. And Jack and Karan hadn’t even participated in the battle. Seriously, how is this even fair?
“Wait, aren’t you happy none of them died? Why are you so upset?” Erin tried to talk logically, but Ryan could feel her emotions. She was just as upset as he was that the fight hadn’t lasted longer.
“They weren’t supposed to make it look that easy,” Ryan sighed. “Especially after last time.”
“Well, Steve really doesn’t have the most complex fighting pattern,” Erin said, rubbing her tiny chin.
She has a good point there.
Every fight, Steve just stood in the middle of the room, watching the door. When adventurers walked in, he usually targeted the weakest or easiest target with his spikes, and then took advantage of the chaos that ensued.
This time around, after they all entered the room, Blake had simply walked forward, directly in front of Steve, until the boss had attacked him. Boring.
“And—“ Ryan wasn’t just upset about how quickly Steve had died, after all.
“—there’s an and?” Erin cut in, which did little more than fuel his frustration.
“Yes, there’s an and.”
He paused, seeing if she would interrupt him. When she remained quiet, he continued.
“And, Steve dropped the ruby amulet.”
When Ryan had assigned loot to Steve, he had assigned all the rare pieces the mage had been wearing, along with the chance to drop gold coins. The coins had a much higher percent chance of dropping, followed by the silk robes, then silk boots, then silk gloves, a ruby ring, and finally, the ruby amulet. They had had the quickest fight and gotten the rarest piece of loot off Steve.
“Well, that amulet looks really nice on Emily,” Erin said. Her hand was near her own neck, which was bare.
Was Erin jealous of Emily’s amulet? Ryan felt his anger subsiding, replaced instead with amusement.
“Would you like a ruby amulet, hun?” His words caused her hand to fly away from her neck surprisingly fast.
“I, uh, no.” She looked down sheepishly. “Ruby is the stone of fire. As a celestial, I prefer opal.”
Huh, so the stones have something to do with affinities, do they?
“Aw, come on, Karan,” Jack was moaning. “The chance of her having a fire affinity—“
Jack’s complaining pulled Ryan’s attention away from Erin and back to the group of adventurers. They were walking back through the dungeon, and while the others seemed in good spirits, Jack seemed upset.
“Why are you even complaining over this, Jack?” Karan said. “You’re a wind affinity, and you have full class gear.” Her tone signaled she was already tired of this conversation.
“Yeah, but Emily already got the last big drop from the dungeon,” Jack went on, oblivious. “Let’s sell the amulet and split the gold. That thing has to be worth ten gold.”
Karan’s eyes flashed.
“Even after guild tax,” she said, “you and the others are making a decent amount of coin—“
“Just coppers and silv—“
Jack stopped as Karan reached around her neck and pulled out a crystal pendant. For some reason Ryan couldn’t understand, the thief seemed scared of it. After a moment, Karan put the pendant away before speaking.
“Emily can keep the piece for now. Mages can use amulets to greatly amplify their magical abilities. Amulets on physical classes just offer slight protection in the form of that affinity. If Emily does have a fire affinity when she becomes Silver, she will be the best suited to use the amulet. If she doesn’t, but Matt or Blake do, they will get the amulet. If no one has a fire affinity, then, and only then, will we sell it.”
Jack was unfazed.
“Ah, but the price on the market will—“
“Jack, keep this up and you leave this dungeon naked.” Karan had the crystal pendant from around her neck in her hand again.
“You’d like that,” Jack mumbled as he looked away.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, ma’am.” He put his hands in his pockets dejectedly and began walking faster towards the
exit.
“That’s what I thought.” Karan had a sly smile on her face. “Just for that, I’ll get marshmallows for you in your hot chocolate tonight.”
The rest of the party started laughing, while Jack let out a string of curses under his breath. It was quiet enough that the others couldn’t hear, but Ryan heard, and was somewhat impressed by the thief’s creativeness.
“Well, that was definitely interesting,” Ryan said to Erin as the group neared the dungeon’s exit.
“They definitely do seem to really get along as a group.”
“Though what is this hot chocolate Karan mentioned?” Ryan was really curious. And what were marshmallows? Jack seemed to hate the idea, but the rest of the group thought it was funny. He turned his attention to Erin, hoping she would answer his question, but instead, she was rolling around on the floor, laughing. Well that just wasn’t helpful at all.
Ryan let out an internal sigh and watched Blake’s group exit. The dark-clad man who had been standing outside all day, as well as the cleric, both seemed mildly impressed that Blake’s group was uninjured as they exited. The cleric offered Karan a wide smile before the cleric turned and headed towards the town with them. Rasha remained, staring with a scowl at the group as they walked away.
“Seems the mutt is growing,” Rasha whispered, before he melted into the darkness of the night.
“Well, that wasn’t ominous at all,” Ryan said, before turning his attention back to his dungeon.
Erin seemed to have fallen asleep following her fit of laughter, meaning Ryan could turn his focus towards his favorite pastime. He had one week before he was going to make his dungeon a little tougher, and he needed to optimize that time in skeletal fight club.
Chapter Forty
“Where did these come from?” Erin exclaimed.
Her voice was filled with excitement, and Ryan couldn’t help but feel proud. However, he knew he couldn’t tell her the truth.
Rule number one: never talk about skeletal fight club.
“I think they just evolved after fighting so many adventurers. One day last week, when I was reabsorbing my fallen mobs, I just had two new types.”
That was a terrible lie. But he really wasn’t ready to share his skeletal fight club with Erin, nor the fact that over the past week, he had been training his stronger mobs against each other. By the time he hit Silver, he was certain he would have another tier of skrat and skuirrel unlocked.
“Hmm, so you’re going to add some of these…“ Erin trailed off, unsure of what to call Ryan’s new mobs.
He had summoned one of each to show her, following their discussion on how to make the dungeon harder. They had waited just long enough to allow each group to pass through one more time; now that the final team had left for the day, they were beginning the upgrades.
Not only had most of the teams managed to find replacement adventurers, but they had also been much more cautious in his dungeon over the past few days, resulting in only two new casualties. The two deaths had been to Steve, but because they were both low-ranked Bronze, Ryan hadn’t really gained much experience from their deaths. He wasn’t too upset about that fact, but it had prompted Erin to remind him it was time to make the dungeon a little more difficult, especially since he had twenty points to spend. Twenty points she didn’t know he was using to fuel skeletal fight club. Rule number one, after all.
“I call this one a victorious skuirrel.” Ryan had the mob stand on its two feet, displaying its new form.
Unlike the original skuirrels, the victorious skuirrel was longer and sleeker looking. Its bones were harder, yet thinner, giving it increased speed and durability. It had also developed sharp edges on all of its bones, which would serve nicely against adventurers.
“That works for me. What about that one?” Erin asked. The only obvious option for Erin to be referencing was of course the skrat variant.
“This is a champion skrat,” Ryan said proudly.
The champion skrats stood almost twice as large as a regular skrat and had thicker bones that seemed to be developing almost plate-like qualities. As such, they weren’t as fast as a regular skrat, but could take and dish out more damage.
“All right, and since they are evolutions, I’m guessing they cost two mob points apiece?” Erin asked.
“Correct.” Ryan wasn’t sure if she had forgotten the rules she mentioned to him, or if she was simply confirming the cost. As much as he loved the fairy, he was guessing she had forgotten.
As Erin had explained, mobs that were evolutions cost 1.5 times the cost of the mob they evolved from, rounded up. Since skrats and skuirrels both only cost one point, their new versions were still extremely cheap at two points apiece.
“Are you going to put the infested ratbie back into the dungeon as well?” Erin asked.
Her words pulled Ryan away from his proverbial back patting; he had completely forgotten about that mob. His only mob so far to evolve naturally, the infested ratbies cost eight points, but had a paralyzing toxin.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I was going to replace the two ratbies in the second room with two infested ratbies.”
“So, if two ratbies cost five apiece, that’s ten points,” Erin said, counting on her tiny fingers. “Two infested ratbies, at eight apiece, adds up to sixteen. That means you will be spending six more points and have fourteen points remaining to upgrade some of your skeletal mobs.”
Ryan really hated that he was going to lose the ability to spend points freely in his skeletal fight club, but knew he needed to toughen up his dungeon just a little more. If he could keep six points free, he would at least be able to keep three mobs fighting in his evolution pits. Then, if he used the time it took him to refill his mob points after a battle to heal the victor, he should still be able to reach their next level before he hit Bronze One.
“Hello,” Erin asked, tapping his surface. “Ryan?”
“Sorry, hun,” Ryan said. “I was trying to figure out how best to implement the new mobs. I know I have twenty—“
“Fourteen after the infested ratbies.”
“Yes, yes, fourteen after the infested ratbies,” Ryan sighed. “Fourteen mob points left. I was thinking I would like to keep at least six points in reserve, to help me re-summon mobs faster after the dungeon is cleared.”
That was a partial lie, as his dungeon was large enough that by the time the adventurers made their way from the boss room back to the entrance of his dungeon, he had nearly completely regained his mob points and was able to re-summon most of his mobs. However, he was certain Erin didn’t know this.
“All right, so, with six in reserve, you will have eight mob points left to spend upgrading your skrats and skuirrels in your rooms.”
Ha, she bought it.
Ryan was excited, but felt somewhat guilty about lying to her. He really wasn’t sure why he was keeping it such a secret from her. Frustrated over his dilemma, he dropped a stalactite on his champion skrat.
“RYAN.”
Erin’s cry of outrage instantly reminded him why skeletal fight club was kept a secret. And, with her outburst, his guilt flew away as well.
“Sorry. Habit. Anyhoo, back to mobs. With those eight points, I can either add in four of my new mobs, or perhaps add in one new victorious skuirrel in the first room, and upgrade some of the mobs in my second room?”
“What if you upgraded four of your ten skuirrels in your first room?” Erin suggested. “By doing that, you would have four victorious skuirrels and six regular skuirrel for a total of fourteen points. And then you could upgrade two of your ten skuirrels and two of your ten skrats in your second room?”
“See, this is why I love you, Rin. You are so amazingly helpful.”
Maybe he was laying on the praise a little thick, but Erin’s sudden mood spike through their bond made it all worth it.
“You’re just saying that,” she said.
“Nope, and watch, I’m going to upgrade it just like you said.”
He stopped himself from pulling up his experience triangle until he collapsed his evolution tunnels, killing all the mobs. Their mob refund rushed into him. He had eight of his evolutions going at it, for a total of sixteen points. Killing them gave him eight mob points back instantly, and the remainder would be replaced shortly. His mob point regeneration rate had been steadily increasing as he grew stronger. At the same time, he dropped stalactites on the remaining upgraded mob he had summoned for Erin, as well as on his two ratbies, two skuirrels, two skrats in the second room, and four skuirrels in the first room.
“Ryan.” Erin let out an exasperated sigh.
“What?”
“You know you can just absorb your mobs and get a full refund from them, right?” Erin said.
I can what?
“I am pretty sure you never told me that.”
“Ugh, I swear I did. I worry sometimes what you would do without me.”
Never happened, but I’m not about to argue that point with her.
“Obviously I would fail miserably, since I hate killing adventurers and all that.” And with those words, Ryan could tell his mob points were back to max.
He quickly summoned his level triangle, to stop Erin from replying. The triangle sprang into existence, and Ryan couldn’t help but smile as he saw the bottom row. Only three triangles remained empty; he was so close to Silver.
The better part of the bottom of the triangle was filled with dark energy, and the number ‘38’ shone brightly.
“Now, shall we get to work?” Ryan asked.
Erin nodded and Ryan began mentally making his changes. In his second room, he brought forth two infested ratbies. The zombie rats, with their mushroom growths, were even more grotesque and formidable looking than he remembered. As they were summoned, his points dropped down to twenty-two.
Next, he summoned two champion skrats and two victorious skuirrels, assigning them their name mentally as he did. His points dropped to fourteen, leaving him just enough points for his first room and skeletal fight club, as planned. He brought forth four new victorious skuirrels in his first room, watching his points drain to six.
Bone Dungeon (Elemental Dungeon #1) - A Dungeon Core LitRPG Page 16