Book of the Dungeon Maker

by Nathan Valerio

  “I really need to test out his max strength, speed and other aspects or else I will blindly send him out against someone too strong and get him destroyed or against someone to weak and look like I am bullying them… everyone besides that retard hero though,” I muttered.

  In a matter of minutes the grunts were killed and the rest were beaten into submission and brought back.

  “Now then, I will warn you all only once, leave me and my party alone and I will leave you alone. Next time you come pursuing us I will throw you inside my death trap dungeon for you to die miserable deaths. Also don’t you dare speak a word of the fact that the dungeon you saw belongs to me because that will be your end as well. Am I understood?” I asked.

  They all bowed with their heads to the floor.

  “YES SIR! PLEASE SPARE US!” they all shouted in unison.

  “Good. Now beat it and take those dead sacks of blood my minion killed and begone,” I told them.

  In an instant they were gone and reluctantly took the dead bodies as well.

  “Sheesh, so much hassle, still didn’t expect it was so easy to order the death of another human. Guess I just didn’t care for people who were being a pain in the ass,” I muttered and sat down. I began to carve into a long branch because I wanted to make a sword. I wanted to see if I could have semi crafted wooden weapons made into the magically infused ones if so it would cut production time so much.

  An hour later I had two swords and a wooden axe all poorly made, but they were made. It was then that a group walked into the camp led by the girls.

  “This is a good camp, it can make a good fishing village and soon port town in the Devian River,” a tall man said.

  “I am happy to see you like it, since we obtained it by killing the goblins we can sell it to the adventurer’s guild for a small sum of 1000 gold coins. With the fish available and the woods abundant, this village will turn into a port in little time and make up that sum very quickly,” Charlotte said in a business tone.

  Two very full bags landed in her hand a moment later.

  “You have accomplished the mission, good job girls, that young man is part of your party I presume so I will have someone check his adventurer card and register this mission as your accomplishment. Thank you for the hard work,” the man said.

  “Thank you sir,” the girls said as they bowed.

  “BOYS! Get working, the village is ours and we need renovations!” the leader said.

  I got up and went to the girls and like I had heard from far away someone came and asked to examine the card we got, and he did so before leaving.

  “So got the gems?” I asked.

  Misaki dropped her bag, and after searching a bit she pulled out a leather pouch about the size of a softball.

  “We got several, not many,” she said.

  I opened it and saw the gems all palm sized. I put the pen to them and said, “Archive material,” but nothing happened.

  “Damn, still can’t use it. Seems making the flowers the wolves cherish so much takes a lot out of my book,” I said and explained what happened.

  They were shocked when they heard it.

  “It shouldn’t take that much more time, let’s go eat then wait for it to finish making the flowers so we can add the moonstones and fix up the dungeon. It may take a few days for the wolf to enter though but it shouldn’t take long if you add the mana flowers and one of the moonlight blossoms in the boss room. After that there may even lack space in the dungeon for so many wolves,” Misaki said.

  “Yeah, let's go rest first then get this over with,” I said.

  We left the village and return to the town inn. We passed the rest of the day doing nothing until I could use the book again and add the moonstones. With them put in, it would take until midnight for it to finish since there weren’t many gemstones obtained. As for the dungeon itself, I added several more rooms on the first floor to become the wolves den and left it as so.

  Chapter 18

  *Sniff*

  A change in the air... No! In the flow of mana. There was a great change.

  My scouts told me of a strange dungeon, some of the pack entered but got killed attempting to exit.

  I sent some to set up dens within the dungeon, I would need more minions after the ritual.

  The blood of my brethren flowed thick in this dungeon. Tonight, four nights before the full moon I appeared in front of this dungeon. My body was but a half corporeal form.

  I sniffed its entrance but found nothing so I entered and sniffed the first room as my minions had spoken of. It was safe from traps.

  This smell... this familiar smell... a dungeon of a maker. One has appeared and... this smell... moonlight azure blossom! It seemed the maker hunts my kind…

  It has been a century... maybe this can be a good home for her... yes this maker is smart and cunning yet kind. I could feel that from the dungeon.

  I called my minions and told them to not attack the maker when he came, avoid him.

  I led my minions inside but the torch flames injured my body. Flames had been an enemy of my kind since the beginning. The flame is the symbol of the sun and of Yang; the moon is the symbol of Yin and we counteract each other.

  As I stepped forth, three pairs of two runes appeared before me. These runes spoke of my very being. 'Moon' and 'Light' these runes held my power and only those who have watched and studied their profoundness know how deep such simple runes can be.

  They floated into the flames causing the 'Fire' rune to appear. My runes merged with the other rune and instantly the red flames turned into a dull white flame.

  The sweet feeling of moonlight washed over me. The flames surprisingly released moonlight energy aiding in the reconstruction of my body.

  Walking forth, the corridors eventually became dull as all the torches underwent my treatment.

  Soon we reached the final room. A large door with a small moonstone at its center stood before me. Placing my paw upon the smooth round gem, it glowed and spread to the sides revealing a fertile dirt room similar to an enclosed jungle clearing. At the back sat a cracked stone platform which seemed to be a bed for me. The cracked platform would make a perfect location to plant the seeds.

  My eyes soon moved up. On the ceiling were many small moonstones gently glowing like stars, yet one in the very middle took my attention.

  The moonstone was as big as a human's head and rested in the very center releasing dull moonlight.

  Under the strong moonlight rays of this moonstone my body reached its full corporeal state much earlier. The mana within this room was much greater, he had truly prepared a trap I was unable to resist as it was the exact type of environment the blossom required.

  Speaking of them, I shockingly located two in the center of the platform with deep roots already ready to bloom. They were already shimmering as they absorbed the weak moonlight. The longer this flower sat under moonlight, the greater the power held within.

  Closing my eyes I felt my power surge and soon a single seed appeared from between my eyes.

  My ancient race had always bonded with this plant and searched for others during their life to give to offspring, but few are feasibly possible to locate.

  The seed moved into one of the cracks in the platform creating a triangular form with the other two.

  I felt the dungeon’s mana being sucked up drastically. If this was a common dungeon then it surely would have already sent a dungeon boss to finish me.

  In a matter of minutes the flower reached full bloom.

  It was no wonder it could, with two other of its kind, it was impossible for this dungeon to not be completely filled with mana.

  I howled to my minions to disperse leaving only the elites to remain within the room. These are the ones that soon shall ascend and thus require moonlight.

  I lay down before the flowers, awaiting the days until the maker came.

  ***

  Your dungeon has been modified by a wild boss monster. Change involves a k
nown rune and an unknown rune.

  The boss has settled into the boss room.

  The dungeon is currently in control of the ancient alpha silver spirit queen wolf, Veria. To take back the dungeon you must conquer the dungeon.

  Due to the dungeon being under the Ancient alpha silver spirit queen wolf, the dungeon has adapted to her, all torches now burn with ******** flames and the strength corresponds with the phase of the moon.

  “Wow, I never expected a boss monster could take your dungeons!” Misaki said.

  “If I'm not wrong, only highly intelligent monsters can take a dungeon, especially natural ones, as their den and take the position of dungeon boss and conscious allowing them to alter the dungeon to themselves,” Charlotte said.

  “Seems I can't activate traps against the wolves but they also won't activate against us. Technically, I can't put the dungeon away anymore, but it still belongs to me. I just can't attack the direct minions of the boss,” I said.

  They both let out a sigh of relief for not having to be careful of the traps.

  “How will we fight them?” Charlotte asked worried.

  “These last three days I have been training my puppets. I already have two other dungeons open to train them. The mages in particular have been teaching me a lot of combos with runic magic,” I said.

  Not to mention the massive bonus that was being stored up in the wolf dungeon and the practical bonus my book gained. I already had two exp crystals condensed on the book cover.

  I already used another one I got to make a large room equal to four wooden rooms. The walls were left wooden and the floor was changed to dirt. I put a second room in front of it were crushed bone, unusable organs, etc were placed and I dumped some dirt over and the farmers would regularly move it around spreading it and piling it up. This was a fertilizer I was preparing. High mana concentration dirt created through nature molding using gray wolf bones, goblin bones, animal bones, cut tall grass that the puppets kept short, and all waste items we took from the inn. Everything was there and was making a lot of heat as it decomposed but it had been turned into a strong compost.

  The farm had been left alone until the fertilizer was covering the ground so that it made good crops. The field corridors on the other hand were a different story.

  Back on topic, the new puppets I gained, I set as fighters but each in different areas. I had three learn magic, or in their case runic magic, and train it with the guardian. At first I had no idea how to start until I simply had them draw runes with the ambient mana.

  First the basic elements, the elements with shape. When that happened, they underwent an evolution into wooden acolyte puppet.

  I took one of these and with the recently successful test of the nature molding, gave it the robe and staff from a mage I killed.

  The test had the equipment buried in the dirt and craftsmen puppets, who had yet to evolve since the requirement needed them to learn different crafts and they would be one type of craftsmen. Anyway, nature molding when used on crafted items caused them to slowly evolve into what I was calling nature items.

  Their capabilities raised from five to 15% and provided greater bonuses. The armor also had an awesome look that made the equipment gain a kind of green vein like etching on its surface.

  The robe fell onto the puppet and the staff in hand soon glowed as the veins changed into runes and had a subtle pulse.

  This greatly enhanced the strength of the puppet’s magic, and I found that the mage class puppets gained wisdom and intelligence but couldn't speak. Unless I upgraded them to low grade through exp crystals, which also had to be medium and above or they level up tremendously to cover the exp gap, I won't have other low grade puppets.

  Other puppets were left with archery and craft skills. Three archers and three more craftsmen were made but not evolved. As for my warriors, I found they needed nature armor made of iron to evolve, plus the helmet.

  I was able to evolve all three and the table of puppets updated.

  Current minion Overview

  Warrior

  Acolyte

  Archer

  Swordsman

  Warrior (Halberd) Level 13

  Warrior (Spear) Level 10

  Warrior (Spear) Level 9

  Acolyte (Leader) Level 7

  Acolyte Level 5

  Acolyte Level 5

  Archer (unevolved) Level 2

  Archer (unevolved)

  Level 2

  Archer (unevolved)

  Level 1

  Swordsman Level 12

  Farmer

  Craftsman

  Beast

  Farmer Level 18

  Farmer Level 17

  Farmer Level 17

  Craftsmen Level 1 x6

  Armored Canine Beast Level 14

  Armored Feline Beast Level 15

  Armored Rodent Beast Level 10

  As you probably guessed, farmers and craftsmen were kept away from battle but an interesting fact about this world is that craft or production classes gained exp through doing their jobs. As the craftsman hadn't evolved, they didn't get that bonus.

  Something else to notice were the beasts. I figured out the conditions for evolving them. They must have the skill 'Quadruped Movement' and must be bathed in over four liters of blood from any four-legged animals.

  The evolution caused their bodies to become similar to a small member of their group, the head became like the animal, giving them jaws with fangs. The hind legs become animal like, triple jointed I think it’s called, and the front hands became paws, but the human shoulders remained as they were monsters giving them the edge in movement.

  It was a pity that the armor became their skin and couldn't be removed. They all wore wooden armor and the evolution happened when I added a helmet which transformed into the animal head. The normal head was below and unchanged.

  “I am still worried we might not get far with these numbers,” Charlotte said.

  “The corridors aren't extensively large and Cross-san has added foliage which restricts their movement as much as ours. We can only hope for the best, pray and fight,” Misaki said.

  “She is right, also I will simply put the guardian as tank which should scare them away,” I said.

  “Alright, we should finish preparations and close the other dungeons before going,” Charlotte said.

  We agreed and after eating we did just that. It allowed me to get level 17 since the puppets let not a single animal, bug or beast escape so I got the 1/5 exp reward.

  And two more exp crystals, one was formed by the mana in the book plus the others, the other was from the gathered mana combined with the previous dungeon.

  With four exp crystals I could work with, I decided to bump up my skills. First was mana manipulation due to my class being heavily reliant. One crystal was 20k exp and mana manipulation was at the start of level seven with 42/4200 exp. It jumped from level seven to level 10 with 5646/6000. Also, I felt knowledge spin in my head showing me a level of comprehension of the skill at that level.

  Next was the crafter skill, the overall skill made me curious as to how it worked. The result shocked me, the skill didn't level at all, instead a flood of information rushed into my head. It was all the most basic information on many craftsmen jobs. Blacksmith, carpenter, sculptor, engraver, alchemist, scribe, tailor, tanner, chef, farmer, painter, enchanter, jeweler, and even bone carver. Information on all these jobs entered my head and when it finally settled, the crafter skill window appeared showing all the skills... no the jobs, the crafting skill encased all the crafting jobs into a skill, all of them were level one and my head was hurting as I organized the information.

  Following that, I leveled the runic knowledge. All my magic users depended on the skill so leveling it up would obviously unlock more runes. With this skill at Level 6: Exp 2340/3600 using the 20k exp in the crystal, I punched the level to level 10: 4340/6000. Instantly, the knowledge of 78 new runes flooded my brain and appeared in my book. One hundred and t
wenty was the amount of runes I got for getting 72% of level 10.

  It would take me a long while to digest all the new words and go over their combos.

  With so much information swirling in my head I didn’t know what to do with the last exp crystal so I stored it back until I could get used to the new skills. Sword mastery was the most likely to get the boost though, but still my magic had been boosted a lot by the new 78 words.

  “Urg...” I cursed and lowered my aching head.

  “Ace, are you alright?” Charlotte asked.

  “Upgraded skills... too much info, give me a sec...” I muttered.

  “Start meditating, it will help clear your thoughts and help control the flood of information,” she said.

  I activated it and soon my head stopped hurting as I analyzed the information. Tools, workshop sizes, processes to doing something, all the necessary information was put together and after a long hour I finally finished.

  I let out a sigh and opened my eyes, I found the girls playing a board game and talking. The voices that I hadn't been hearing at all entered my ears and soon everything was back to normal.

  “So... what's with the board game?” I asked the first thing on my mind.

  “Oh, you're done, took you long enough, we got bored and the inn is in low movement hours and the waitress here just happens to have a chess board we can play,” Misaki said.

  “How long was I out?” I asked.

  “One... no two hours,” Charlotte said.

  “Damn, we should go get ready... also now with so much new info I know how to make so many crafting jobs,” I said.

  “Do them later, go buy us potions and sell some herbs so we can have some spare money,” Misaki said and moved her queen like a bishop checking the other king.

  I looked at the waitress that was sitting watching really enthralled.

  I sighed and got up, and she noticed.

  “Um sir…” she said and I looked at her.