A Dungeon Boss's Journal Chapter 2

Day 6

After I woke up in the morning, a few things occurred to me. The first was that I hadn’t eaten since I was born. I had the vague impression that I should be hungry, but I never have been. I didn't know if I needed to eat as a Hobgoblin and never noticed Ash ever getting hungry either.

I wish Ash was smart enough to ask, but as a low level goblin, it does not seem like I will be able to ask it any time soon.

The second thing that occurred to me is that I still lack a name. As I don’t really know how creatures are named in this world, and have never really thought to ask any of the people invading my dungeon, I’m not sure what to call myself. I decided to hold off on that until I can ask one of the adventurers.

Granted i did name Ash... 

Well I'll worry about that later.

The third and final thing that occurred to me, is that my skills have a ‘more info’ button. Or maybe it was just added.

Either way I waved my arm in the direction of the more info button for my various skills. For the most part I was correct in how my skills worked. However it didn’t offer much detail wise on any of these skills. Just how they worked on a very basic level. 

[Dungeon Override] didn’t list anything at all in fact. 

[Skill Copy] turned out to be an active skill, one that I have to use in order to learn the skills of people who attack me, once turned on the skill would last for three minutes, and any skill used on me or around me in that time I had a small chance of learning, each attempt raising the experience of the skill.

Personally I felt the skill was overpowered, but I can’t really complain since I had it and plan to use it.

For the rest of the day I trained with Ash, learning it’s skill [Cleave] in the process. I think I wounded it’s pride when I used it’s own skill against it.

If I ever get anything besides this coin pile I’ll have to make up to Ash.

But I suppose all we can do it keep training for now.

By now my statistics are like this.

Name: －－－

Gender: Male

Level: 7

Race: Hobgoblin Variant [Boss Class]

Titles: None earned at this time

Skills:

[Dungeon Administration lvl 1/20 rank up possible]

[Blessing of the Underworld lvl 2/20 rank up possible]

[Skill Copy lvl 1/20 rank up possible]

[Dungeon Override lvl 1/3 rank up possible]

[Flail lvl 3/20]

[Cleave lvl 1/20]

Status points:

HP: 250

MP: 35

Strength: 12 (+2) = 14

Dexterity: 10

Endurance: 12 (+2) = 14

Intelligence: 9 (+35) = 44

Charisma: 5 (+35) = 40

Magic: 7

Agility: 13

Luck: 5 (+2)= 7

Maybe that’s a bit too fast given I was only born six days ago, but I recall hearing that the younger you are the faster you grow.

Didn’t earn enough coins today to upgrade anything.

Day 7

I woke up to an alert noise and text flashed in my head.

“Warning, Two Level 7 Adventurers approaching.”

I pointed Ash into a corner of the room and sat up straighter in my throne, after a few seconds I heard a voice I recognized quite well, the warrior Anna and her cleric brother. Both of them seemed a lot better balanced, and much better equip for battle. The boy dressed in clean robes with a long curvy hat that covered most of his face, the girl was armed in a mixture of leather and steel outlined with faint runes. Anna yelled out while pointing her sword at me.

“I return you weird goblin! This time I’m evening the score!”

I smiled. “I wondered where you went off to.”

Anna and her brother gasped. “Yo-You can understand me?” She said.

“Yes I can. I take it you were talking to yourself then? Sorry for interrupting.” I offered back, unsure how to take their reaction. Are dungeon bosses normally unable to speak?

Her little brother muttered something to her, I couldn’t make it out, but the warrior girl grabbed his hat and made a motion to throw it before he tackled it out of her hand.

“Before we fight, I want to ask you a question.” I said.

“Y-yes?” Anna replied.

“I woke up in this place quite recently. In my head I see seven days, and assume that’s how long I have existed. If I beat you, can you tell me a bit about this world?”

Anna and her bother looked at me with a somewhat confused look before they started arguing with each other. The argument going on so long in fact that a noise went off in my head along with a new line of text.

“Warning, three Level 2 and one Level 4 Adventurer approaching.”

Rather then letting them clog up the path, I said. “While your deciding, please clear the way, someone else seems to be coming to kill me.” They gave me another confused look before stepping out of the dungeon. After a few minutes three humans and what looked like an elf appeared. The three humans were girls, fawning over the elf male. An archer from the looks of it.

I motioned for them to get closer, and in their carelessness one of the fawning girls stumbled into one of my obvious traps. A sick crunching noise followed before she disappeared and I heard a noise as I gained a tiny amount of experience from her death.

For some reason they got angry and charged, the two girls attempting to swarm me with their swords. While I didn’t have much experience fighting, their crazed swings were easy to read. Activating [Skill Copy] I continued to avoid them, waiting for a special ability. When none came I activated [Cleave] connecting with the head of one of the level 2 adventurers, killing her instantly. Enraged she charged me, a ding going off in my head as I learned the move [Charge]. Finally after all this time, the Elf started firing arrows at me. As I lacked experience at avoiding arrows he hit me several times, but then I signaled Ash to attack him. Then I used [Charge] to shove over the last of the level two adventurers and stomped her head under my foot several times before smashing it with my club. When I raised my club I noticed there was a sword left over, I suppose as a drop from killing her.

Just after I picked up my new weapon I noticed Ash had been killed by the Elf Archer, but not before doing a lot of damage to him. Smiling to myself at how well it did, I used [Charge] in order to catch up to the archer before using [Flail]. Because he could not keep up with my attacks with a bow, I knocked him back into a trap, which finally killed him. He dropped his bow.

“Invading adventurers defeated, 10% of their gold has been added to your stockpile.”

They didn’t have much but it looks like I can equip Ash with the bow I took from the elf.

So I did that.

After a few minutes passed Ash re-spawned with it’s new bow. It looked happy enough at the new weapon that I figure I made up for killing it before. But since I plan to keep doing that as training, I imagine I’ll have to get it something better later.

“Warning, Two Level 7 Adventurers approaching.”

Just as Ash spawned Anna and her brother re-entered the dungeon, they got through my traps so easily that I am starting to wonder if I set them up wrong, oh well I can replace them later.

“I uh, notice you won.” She said.

“Yes, the only group I’ve lost to so far are you two.” I said.

That seemed to stroke the girls ego and she offered a big smile.

“Of course, we are first class adventurers!”

“Of course. So as first class adventurers, you should be able to tell me plenty about the outside world.”

“That...we...can.” Anna said, hesitating for a moment. “But first, since your my rival, I have to introduce myself! I am Anneliese Roberta, and this is my brat of a brother, Alexander.”

I nodded my head, and because I felt like it was the right thing to do said. “A pleasure.”

“No!” She yelled. “Your supposed to tell me your name.”

I offered a shrug. “I don’t have one.”

“I can’t have a rival without a name.”

“I suppose that might be a problem.” I said.

“Doom Bringer?” She offered.

“No.” While I might not know the naming conventions of this world, that didn’t seem like a good name.

“Flesh Render?”

For the rest of the day, she and her kid brother kept offering me equally tacky names, occasionally being sent out before I faced various level two adventurers. Sadly I didn’t get any more weapons or armor. By the end of the day, after they gave up and started offering human names we settled on the name Zeno. I suppose I might need a last name but for now that worked. I never did fight them, but they promised to come back tomorrow.

Though we will be fighting to the death most of the time, I do like them. Nice people who seemed like they were just trying to experience the world. Much funner then trying to talk to Ash.

Adventurers are starting to come more so I had enough coins to boost the rate to 43 every two hours. When I wake up I’ll have enough money to [rank up] Ash.

Day 8

I woke up to just enough money to rank up Ash, changing her from a goblin into a hobgoblin like myself. When I did her stats were reset to level one, but she is stronger then I was at level one, so I suppose that is a good thing. I now say she, because it’s become obvious, long hair hangs from her head, and a modest chest is forming. While she still seems to have an ugly wrinkled goblin face, it’s probably a lot nicer looking then my own now.

Sadly she is not smart enough to talk still.

I would like to say that I felt guilty about beating her to death in training...

But I wasn’t.

She got better at watching her surroundings and keeping her distance with the bow, while I learned how to avoid arrows a lot easier.

While she seemed angry at me for how harsh I was being, when I started praising her for how well she was avoiding my attacks she seemed to get over it.

After half a day of training, the first few low level adventurers appeared, with my traps hidden in the corners of the room for me to push people into, and Ash sniping as they tried to fight against me, nobody really did much damage, even a level 7 who attempted to solo the dungeon and died to a well placed shot by Ash.

After half the day passed, I reached level 9 and Ash was at level 3.

“Warning, Two Level 7 Adventurers approaching.”

Anna and her brother Alexander, lets call him Alex, returned. In Anna’s hands was a wicker basket, in Alex’s hands were several books.

They were surprised by Ashs rank up into a Hobgoblin, but when I explained it they accepted the change quite quickly.

When I asked them what they brought Anna correctly guessed I probably haven’t eaten much since waking up here, while Alex wanted to help me read about the outside world since I couldn’t explore it. When I asked why they were offering all of this before the fight I mentioned, they gave me a confused stare before Anna made an ‘ah’ sound and said to her brother.

“Oh right, people have probably only been trying to fight him since he was born.” She looked over at me and said. “Since we’re rivals, it’s okay if we help each other out a little.”

I didn’t quite understand what she meant, but I accepted it. Since she went out of her way to bring me food I tried to eat it with some level of dignity. Which resulted in even more confused stares from them as they ripped into their own portions like they were starving. I suppose the rules I have in my mind for eating are a bit different from how people eat here. But I couldn’t quite eat all that much even if I did copy them, even Ash dug in happily like they did. While they were eating away at a massive amount of food I looked over the books Alex brought with him.

They looked like they were printed in some mass production sort of way yet bound with special leather and string. Sadly while I could understand the people that come into my dungeon, my understanding does not seem to transfer all that well to books. When I voiced as much Alex seemed all to willing to teach me how to read.

I don’t know why they seem so willing to help me if I am their ‘rival’, but I suppose I will accept all the help I can get. Using [Skill Copy] I was able to learn the basics of reading in a few hours. Which seemed to amaze the siblings, so I suppose [Skill Copy] is quite rare. After we ate and I learned enough to read the books on my own, I moved the books to my throne and they finally challenged me to a fight.

Activating my [Skill Copy] I used [Charge] to tackle Anna. However she avoided it, tripping me up and used a skill of her own in an attempt to hack away at my neck. I repeated [Charge], intentionally slamming myself into the ground to avoid it, rolling away as she attempted to kick me. As I moved her brother used [Lesser Heal] while avoiding Ash’s arrows.

Lucky for me, I learned the skill as soon as he used it. Distracted by the chime for the new skill she stabbed me in the arm, the wound spilling a horrifying amount of blood all over the ground. I shoved her away, using my new skill [Lesser Heal], the wound almost gone in a few seconds.

“How did he-” Anna tried to say right before I used [Charge] again, adding [Flail] to the mix I chopped off her unguarded right arm before beheading her. The understandably bothered Alex stopped moving, his unarmed body easily taken down by Ash because of it. I noticed Anna had dropped gauntlets, so I picked them up. Unsure about what to do with the spoils since I knew the adventurers personally, I choose to wait till they get back to return them.

“Invading adventurers defeated, 10% of their gold has been added to your stockpile.”

After a few minutes I was alerted to them entering, Anna running in with a slightly annoyed face.

“I almost got you Zeno!” She yelled, pointing as dramatically as she could. “How did you use magic?”

I shrugged and since I was not sure if I should keep [Skill Copy] a secret, claimed that I learned [Lesser Heal] it when leveling up. I asked if she wanted her gauntlets back, but she refused them, claiming I won them fair-and-square. We talked about fighting tactics a bit and then fought again. Every few minutes if another adventurer didn’t enter they did. I never lost against the low level adventurers, but I seemed to keep the same three ahead wins to losses with Anna and Alex. It felt weird talking and sharing tactics with the people I was fighting to the death with.

But I still enjoyed it.

So nothing to complain about.

On my screen I noticed the option to buy more complexity for my dungeon. Using the money I earned I boosted the coin spawn rate to 79, I should be able to buy enough complexity to make getting to my boss room actually challenging when I wake up.

By the end of the day I was level 12, and Ash was level 5. Anna and Alex reached level 9. I suppose they are leveling up quite a lot since they are taking on a boss well above their level.

I wonder why I am leveling up so fast...

Day 9

Anna and Alex showed up just as I woke up, telling me they planned to go explore other dungeons for a while. While they were leveling up quite fast, because my dungeon is quite new, all they were getting out of fighting me was gold, and not much of it at all. They won’t be able to keep up their gear if they keep fighting me. I understood and wished them well. Though I can’t say I won’t miss them given how I have nothing much to do since none of the other adventurers I’ve faced were willing to talk to me. They promised they would visit me again and I wished them well.

As soon as they left I boosted the complexity of my dungeon, I had enough coins to create a spiral around my free space, with several traps that I could more easily hide in the environment. While I had enough to spawn more Goblins, for now I spent what I had left to create a shortcut to leave the dungeon for those who beat me or those I want to let in without making them go through the longer trail. If only because I would rather not have to run in a circle when I want to look outside my dungeon. With the coins I earn at this point I should be able to create more minions tomorrow.

The rest of the day was quite rewarding as most of the level one and two adventurers who attempted my dungeon got caught in the traps, so I only had to fight a team of three level 6 adventurers today.

Using [Skill Copy] I learned:

The passive skill [Dodge] which boost my agility.

The active skill [Double strike] which turns one of my attacks into two which have an equal chance of hitting.

The active skill [Bind] which paralyzes one target, and finally, Ash stopped hitting me with arrows when trying to hit the attackers.

I got a lot of equipment today so me and Ash are properly armored and I should be able to properly equip two goblins when I spawn them tomorrow.

As I faced only low level adventurers, I didn’t level up today, however Ash reached level 6. I decided to use the money I made to boost the coin spawn rate to 92, figuring it would mean more money to use tomorrow.

It’s starting to get to the point that a days worth of spawned coins are not enough for a single coin spawn rate boost.

Oh well, my dungeon seems to be getting more popular so I should get enough money to make up for that.

Day 10

After creating spawn points for the two new goblins near one of my traps I started trying to find the right equipment for them. One of them, a goblin with oddly curly ears seemed to like the magic staff that shoots fire that I got from one of the low level adventurers, while the other one, who seemed to lack pupils liked the club I used to use.

I had a nice time training them into their new weapons. Ash was quite happy to be on my side for once. But I can’t go easy on them or they might go to soft when the real fights happen. So I had the two new goblins fight against Ash on her own. While she could hold them off quite well, with my occasional help she was still killed many times. While there weren’t any adventurers today, I felt like we gained a lot tactics wise, and by the end of the day I had a fire mage goblin, and what I assume was a beserker goblin. While I do have enough to rank both of them up, I plan to have them spend some time leveling before I try it.

If only for the experience of fighting while weaker then most of their enemies.

I didn't have enough money to boost coin spawn rate, so I used what I could to lower the time between coin spawns. Sadly only had enough to lower it by a minute, but I suppose that is better then nothing.

I decided to name the Berserker Brook, and the Fire mage Harley, after the names Anna and Alex attempted to name me. While I didn't like the names for myself, the two goblins seemed to like their new names. Even if they couldn't voice it. Or maybe in loneliness I am starting to personify these creatures. 

Oh well, a insane Dungeon Boss would be more interesting to fight I suppose.

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Glossary