Book of the Dungeon Maker

by Nathan Valerio

  Misaki just sighed and shook her head. She stood up before moving to Charlotte’s side and comforting her saying that they were all fantasies from our world.

  Still, it did put the necessary fear in Charlotte to slowly get rid of her naivety as a princess. It could be a slow process or it could be a fast one, but it needed to happen, and just fighting monsters wouldn’t get us much. Eventually the war with demons would show her another face of the world if I couldn’t push them through my dungeon.

  After a while we got up and left while watching our backs and noticed the men coming out as we passed the gate.

  “Let's go quick, they probably have sentries to make sure we enter,” I said.

  The girls nodded and we ran into the forest and soon into the dungeon where we were safest.

  Chapter 16

  As we were walked to the dungeon I worked with the puppets.

  First I examined all the tools, weapons, and armor made by the puppets.

  First off, I had guardian change his longsword for a new one made during the last few days. The new one could compare to a somewhat low quality iron sword but the blade edge was even better than before.

  Then came tools. I had my first farmer change his hoe for a new one. The old one had a poor edge comparable to a rock hoe. The new one formed a proper hoe’s head. Then I set two new puppets to care for the farm and let them loose. Eventually they would absorb enough mana to evolve officially into farmers.

  I turned my attention to the fighters. I looked over the weapons and found there were three halberds, five spears and 12 swords, split into four sabers, four normal sized longswords and four katana.

  With the remaining seven puppets I separated two for beasts and instructed them to walk on all fours. Then I had the only level three take a halberd as a type of commander figure, the level twos took spears, and a level one puppet took a longsword while the other took the katana.

  Then I brought out the armor. One wooden helmet, seven small chest plates made in two parts to put them on easier, seven pairs of armor to cover the arms to the shoulder, seven pairs of leg armor, seven pairs of wooden boots, and seven pairs of gloves.

  It all looked simple and very much like plate armor. Strangely though, helmets seemed to be hard to produce for them but that may have been due to their skill levels since it had to possess an opening mechanism where the parts slid open to allow for them to remove the helmet if needed.

  I had the halberd puppet put on full armor including the helmet. The others just got normal armor without it.

  For those marked as beasts, I tried something different. I knew they wouldn't be able to use weapons later on, so before the weapons and armor finished growing, I counted each piece and modified three pairs of gloves into gauntlets with claws. I had the future beasts put those and the normal armor on. Finally all the attack units had armor. Similar to the guardian, the runes on the puppets bodies flashed on the armor but not nearly as numerous and only those exposed. This included the seal on the chest.

  I checked the evolutionary table just out of curiosity towards what each set did.

  Evolutionary Table

  Low Grade Guardian Puppet

  None Currently Available or known

  Common Grade Common Wooden Puppet

  Farmer

  Warrior

  ???

  ???

  ???

  ???

  ???

  I had expected something like commander but I guessed that was a title and not a rank up. Also spearmen should be there but then again it was a subcategory of warrior.

  After confirming my choices and having them fully armored, I set them along with the guardian, loose at the entrance of the second floor where goblin guards were placed.

  As soon as the guardian appeared the puppets followed.

  I had set them to follow his orders and I told him to train them without having them destroyed. As of then he had begun to give out orders while goblins slowly flooded out of the second floor.

  “So how are things at the entrance?” Charlotte asked with a worried tone.

  Her question broke my concentration as I was messing with the dungeons.

  We were already inside dungeon one and flipping to the other page I saw all the invaders and ‘allies.’

  “Seems they did indeed enter. Want me to activate the traps or let them come this way for us to personally kill?” I asked.

  “Do manual activation of the traps. Leave them very scared of returning,” Misaki said.

  “Terror induction it is then,” I said and pressed on one trap just below a scout.

  It was a spring trap that shot to a spike trap. He was flung and after careful timing I activate the trap on his leg pinning him.

  A few moments later we heard his echoing yell.

  “That sounds painful,” I said with a grin.

  “You’re enjoying his pain aren't you?” Charlotte asked shocked.

  “Well I injured him only, I wouldn't get much mana anyway since only the boss guy is anything good... wait there are three mages so they may give me something but they still seem like newbies so I doubt any of them could be beyond E rank adventurers,” I said.

  “Shut up blockhead and guide us to the first wolf den,” Misaki said.

  “I am, I am,” I said as I wrote, 'Fire Sword Harden' on my blade and activated it to be at full power when the time came.

  I still actively watched the men moving slowly probing the ground. They did find several traps and avoided them. After all, they weren't that deep underground. That said, I had arrow traps and wall spike traps for a reason.

  Unlike animals who seemed to have a rather uniform mana gain from death, humans varied and unsurprisingly this showed up in the invaders section once I labeled them enemies. I singled out grunts from the heads by mana I would gain. Mages gave twice what the boss guy gave, and the head mage gave five times. There were four fighters just a bit below the boss while the rest were grunts.

  One was a scout or assassin class maybe and was in the lead mapping the dungeon while killing the monsters.

  Obviously, how could I let him easily map my dungeon. If there was one thing I had learned recently was that I could modify corridors when they were empty.

  As he moved on, I slowly cut off several paths sealing off a section of the dungeon and moved it around a bit and connected it back. It was like a shuffling dungeon. A cruel joke of a dungeon that totally screwed with the scouts.

  “We are here. The next corridor has three wolf sentries and the rest inside the room,” I said.

  The girls nodded and Misaki grabbed her sword and her body started glowing.

  “Katana art: Iai slash,” she said and stepped out before her body flashed, and she appeared in front of a wolf before her sword exited the sheath and entered in a breath.

  The head of the wolf fell soon after.

  “Fencing art: Lunging thrust.”

  Charlotte was similar. She bent forward and lunged out before her Epee dug into the neck of another wolf puncturing the organs.

  I came last with a jump.

  “Sword art: Heavy slash.”

  The flaming blade shone bright and it crashed on the wolf’s body burning him as it cut into the body like a hot knife through butter. Well the hot knife was a fact though I expected the gray wolves to be stronger. Maybe the blade was just that much sharper with magic.

  With the three dead so quickly, the others weren’t alarmed, but that didn't last as we entered the room and a fight broke out. That time it was harder as the wolves were alert and dodged, but they had a simple attack method of jumping on us so with our speed we could dodge and injure them before killing.

  I just injured them and let Charlotte kill them off since I wouldn't gain exp from killing them myself, but it was a more efficient fighting style to weaken and let others kill.

  In a few minutes the wolves were eventually killed with the pups as well. I had no use for them and didn't know how to make minions out
of living creatures and since we needed to kill them off it was best to deal with them at the root.

  Charlotte was against it, telling us to sell them to monster tamers but we didn't have a way to keep them safe and they would grow fast inside the dungeon.

  She resigned herself to that fact. Though I did do something to brighten her expression.

  “The last room we can take the pups, since we will leave soon after,” I told her.

  Even I didn't especially like killing puppies but we couldn't transport that many either.

  While we walked, I checked on my puppets and saw they were fighting on the first floor stairway. It was easier to manage them and the guardian took the brunt of their attention while letting the puppets slowly attack and kill. About a third of their numbers were dead already and on the ground.

  I looked and saw a large mana surge in the back room where the hobgoblin was. There were two others with several times more mana than him. As mana gathered, they had other goblins move the infants into the room.

  “Seems the hobgoblin got himself some mages and is trying to escape somehow,” I said.

  “There are many magics to evacuate from a dungeon, dungeon monster invading another dungeon may have a similar method,” Charlotte said.

  “That’s not good,” I said and grinned.

  At once, all the wooden puppets vanished and appeared above the mages. With my orders they could spring out from below and that is what they did. They killed the mage and vanished back before the hobgoblin could react.

  “Done, no more escape route,” I said and turned to look at the humans in this dungeon.

  They were moving in five groups of four.

  They were quite far back compared to us since we didn't need to fear the traps.

  I looked at what was available near each party and found a grunt party drawing near an arrow trap. To my surprise they had gotten very close to the mana drop flower point.

  On closer inspection, the group had a mage. Since the guardian was occupied, I definitely had to kill them off.

  With them so cautious, it would be hard for the trap to actually hit since they had a large meat shield with a tower shield in the front.

  “Put on spring trap here and make arrow trap activate with the heavy impact in this area,” I said.

  Pressure plates were an innate resource dungeons had and didn't need to develop. As such I could put them in different sizes shapes and formats with different settings.

  I watched as the group neared the spring and finish. The meat shield was sprung back heavily almost crashing on the mage and smashed into the plate. Next moment, arrows flew out making the warrior, archer and mage into pincushions. For extra effect against the persistent roach variety that didn't die I added a poison as a finishing touch.

  Dead, the three fell over and their mana instantly went to me.

  The knight guy who fell, soon stood up and looked at them before running but soon stepped on a trap I made for heavily armored people. A thick spike sprang out diagonally into his gut piercing his armor.

  Sure enough he died soon after as he tried to get it out but that made him bleed out faster.

  I had some tests in mind so I sent a farmer and gather their equipment and take it inside the farm through the puppet then leave the naked corpses.

  Magic staff, robe, leather armor etc. All those would make good examples for stuff they could grow. But my experiment came from my thought on the guardian’s strange armor.

  Back to my group we reached the next wolf den and clear it out before moving on.

  ***

  What the fuck kind of dungeon was it?. We passed several safe areas of traps but as we backtracked new traps would suddenly spring out. It was pretty much pushing us deeper in. Forcing us, but at least I could thank the gods the traps we spotted were easy to avoid.

  There were also only animals while monsters were lacking. Those brats must have already passed through.

  “Boss, maybe we should teleport out. This place is really fucked up,” my second in command said.

  “Let’s move slowly for now. We can't be sure how many men are dead and we have no way of calling them anymore,” I said.

  Without wind or space magic, talking long range was hard. Space mages were too rare and wouldn't be found dead in an adventurer’s party.

  As we made a turn we found a room with blood all over it.

  On the walls outside was written, 'You fools better leave somehow, or you will all die miserably.'

  I swallowed and my men turned pale. The mage said the blood was gray wolves blood and the room was filled with dead wolves. It took a short while for monsters or victims to be absorbed by any dungeon especially when near intruders.

  “Let’s get out, this dungeon is beyond our level,” I said pale and took out a scroll and injected mana into it which made me vanish into space.

  The others followed me.

  We all appeared in front of the dungeon. Those scrolls were dungeon escape scrolls. An expensive tool that came exclusively from the elf nation due to their rune knowledge.

  “Fuck, we underestimated the fuckers skills,” I shouted.

  “Boss look!” one of my mates said.

  What he pointed at was the magic formation.

  “What the fuck! Where is that formation!” I shouted.

  In front of us was an underbrush that formed a pitch black tunnel that looked like the mouth of a beast.

  “Boss, maybe we were imagining things when we entered, they probably did something,” another man said.

  “Let’s leave while we can, we will wait for the men in town. I don't want to imagine how badly things are,” I said and retreated pale faced.

  ***

  “Too bad, the leader suddenly left somehow,” I complained.

  “They probably had dungeon escape scrolls. It’s an Elven produce that uses runes to form a rift in the dungeon and allow the user to escape the dungeon’s dimension,” Charlotte said.

  A moment later a scroll appeared in my hand.

  “So this is what that scroll those mages had were. Quite useful study material,” I said and opened it to see a magic circle formation.

  “This will definitely occupy my time for a while,” I said slowly reading and spotting the directional runes plus all the element runes but there were around 15 to 20 other runes I had no knowledge of.

  “Focus,” Misaki says.

  I stored the scroll and we went back to hunting. In about two hours we finished the last den while the humans were all killed off.

  The total mana gathered had already reached more than 30k. The other dungeon was even cleared completely.

  The hobgoblin had been infuriated but had died miserably to the guardian’s blade. The rest tried to run but died by the blades or claws of my puppets or my traps.

  We left the dungeon and I wondered if I should close it.

  “Hey, let me try something,” I said as we exited.

  “Absorb dungeon mana,” I said.

  All of mana floating over the dungeon magic hole quivered and a large chunk split off before flying into the cover of my book.

  The next moment, a new ball appeared next to the first one and condensed into crystals.

  Checking the mana, I found that thirty 33k mana points were given and the dungeon stayed with roughly two thousand.

  “So, I can absorb mana without getting exp. Interesting,” I said.

  “Let’s go to the goblin dungeon,” Misaki said.

  We headed there and close it so I could level. I was already behind the girls who were level 15 each.

  Dungeon still possesses living creatures inside. If dungeon is closed they will be thrown out at the position equivalent to their position from the magic hole formation.

  Corpses present will be absorbed.

  Do you wish to proceed?

  “Yes,” I said.

  From the hole, a massive number of small white lights shot out eventually landing and showing the rats that escaped
the grasp of the puppets or insects.

  Dungeon Results until closure

  Invaders

  1 hobgoblin x 200 mana

  2 goblin mage x 400 mana

  472 goblin x 45 mana

  97 gray wolf x 25 mana

  32 gray wolf pup x 10 mana

  276 insect monster x 10 mana

  594 rats x 5 mana

  1652 insect x 2 mana

  Death Count

  1 hobgoblin x 200 mana

  2 goblin mage x 800 mana

  472 goblin x 21240 mana

  97 gray wolf x 2425 mana

  32 gray wolf pup x 320 mana

  276 insect monster x 2760 mana

  1652 insect x 3304 mana

  Mana generated: 3425

  Total MP gathered = 31,049

  Equipment dropped

  1 x steel sword

  69 x wooden club

  Dungeon success 91%.

  Reward to dungeon maker = 1/8 of mana is converted into Exp = 3,881 exp earned.

  Seeing the result made me happy since I got one level and more than halfway to the next one. If I traveled to the demon land borders, wouldn't I be able to spam my growth with all the dungeons.

  Damage to Dungeon 0%.

  Requires first floor traps to re-arm.

  10% of remaining mana used for rearming = 2716

  24452 mana remaining, splitting 4452 mana and sending into Book of the Dungeon Maker. 20000 mana crystallizing.

  Dungeon Maker Low Grade Exp Crystals formed x 1.

  The crystal descended into my hand and I looked at my book as I thought about putting it in the cover as a place holder. In the end, I put it in and the crystal was sucked into place.

  You have over 60000 mana, do you wish to combine 3 Low grade Exp crystals into a Medium grade Exp crystal.