Young Writers Society

Day 21

After finally getting a rest on my throne, a good nights sleep, I woke up to a rather interesting mass of messages.

“[Dungeon Administration] has reached level 2 following this advancement new minions are now possible.”

“Minion limit has been raised to 43.”

“It is now possible to buy:

[lesser mp potion spawn pit]

[lesser hp potion spawn pit]

[Item warehouse]

[Armory]

[Smithery]

Additional [Coin Spawn pit]’s”

“Floor themes are now unlocked”

“Adventurer bait items will now spawn in the dungeon based on floor theme.”

“Following this, monsters outside of the boss monsters species are now available.”

“Secondary Area’s warp now possible.”

“As a reward for the level up one free Secondary Area warp can be set up within the size of 25 rooms”

A lot opened up to me it seems. With all the money I had I have plenty of things I decided to do.

The first was I noticed a theme called ‘labyrinth’ on my screen, it changed the dirt tunnels of my dungeon into smooth stone white decorated with patterns of trees, flowers, and animals. Unlike the dark, wet, and cold tunnels of my original dungeon this would be well lit, though I could not see from where. The ‘adventurer bait’ the text mentioned for this area was [loose marble] and [elf ear], which would spawn randomly throughout the floor. The first a pretty looking resource, and the second a component in hp potions. Given I had pretty much created a maze, I felt the style fit quite well.

In response to the ‘secondary area’s warp’ I was quite eager, I opened up a whole new area to the right to my throne room, a wide open area using up all of the 25 rooms that they gave me, a room in the screens sense of scale being about 12 feet wide and long. At least in the measurement scale that I read out of Alex’s books.

I filled it with lesser mp potion, lesser hp potion, and coin spawn pits, I moved my heavily upgraded coin spawn pit into the newly opened area. After that using the secondary area warp, I turned it into a separate zone that stopped existing on my floor, all of the place I emptied out filled in with dirt again. However on that wall to the right of my throne room was an average looking door. Like the [minion room] it took up almost no space on the floor level but inside was an entirely different area, a place I dedicated to spawn pits. While I felt this had the same effect as [minion room], the price for these ‘separate areas’ I could make is quite massive, even with all the money I saved, a single room is outside of my budget.

The second thing I did was take advantage of the [Armory] and [item warehouse]. Like [minion room], it was simply a door that teleport the user to a specialized area dedicated to what it’s name implied. I set them beside my new resource spawning zone. The [Armory] and [item warehouse] are something I always wanted.

Sadly I had no easy place to put weapons. So I had opened up a tunnel, piled the weapons in it, and then used [Dungeon Administration] to close it off again, a portion of my income dedicated to opening up that tunnel and closing it up again every night.

A reality I came to accept the moment someone dropped an item and I realized there was no convenient ‘space’ to hide objects. The advantage of these new area’s was that I could simply call up any weapon or object in them, and put them away from anywhere. I didn’t actually need to put the doors in my throne room. As long as I touch them, then I can put them in there. However the idea of a royal room covered in doors that lead to all sorts of places seemed appealing to me.

On to the monsters, because of my species choice, all I could pick were low class goblins, and if I ranked them up into hobgoblins, that’s as far as I could raise them. I was not sure if this was a limitation of my species choice, or some sort of level cap.

I still can not raise goblins higher then hobgoblin. Yet now I can see on screen the words ‘rank up possible’ for my hobgoblin minions, and some of the new monsters I can summon list ‘rank up possible’ as well. No option exist to buy a rank up for anything besides goblins. So I’ve come to the conclusion that my species choice allowed me a little bit of a speed up for my chosen race.

Hopefully that does not mean I ruined their stat potential in exchange for speeding up their rank up.

Either way, I decided to spawn four creatures for now and see how it goes.

The first is a creature called a lesser doppel. It’s true form is a pool of slimy threads wrapped around a stone core, it can control the color, hardness and feel so well that it can mimic anything it’s come in contact with. On a limited scale, perhaps because of being a ‘lesser’, the copy process was quite easy to see through if I actually paid attention. So I bought a fancy wooden chest from my screen and had it mimic that, telling it to try to eat and steal the items of anyone who attempts to open the lesser doppel. Nobody looks a gift horse in the mouth after all, instead they look around it.

After doing that I bought several more, putting random objects in them. And using the [Dungeon Administration] ability I had, placed them in random points through the maze like first floor. I plan to have the lesser doppel replace these chest every once in a while in order to trap them. While Ash praised my creativity.

I feel like I stole the idea from somewhere.

Weird. I decided to name it Dae, one of the names Anne attempted to name me. Not for any particular reason, just because it’s the only one I remember anymore from that talk.

The lesser doppel also didn’t like any of the names I tried picking out of the dictionary I had, so I was running out of ideas.

At least it likes it. Strangely I was only able to summon one of these.

The second monster I picked to spawn was something called a Nikker. A small winged creature that resembled human females, classified as a type of fairy, covered in a light that made it hard to see anything other then an outline. She doesn’t have much in way of actual power, but can summon small wooden dolls to fight for her. While I doubt she will be much use to me now. The screen claimed the number of wood dolls and their power increases with her level. Her potential puts her on par with the mid level boss, so I am not sure why it’s one of the normal summons. However since, like the lesser doppel, I can only summon one, it might be a unique type of spawn. Out of the dictionary I had she picked the word Faye.

Which means fairy…

Yeah she’s not all that creative.

While there were a few more creatures, the last two monsters I summoned were more goblins to make up for the two I ranked up. It’s actually quite amazing how something so automated seemed to create vastly unique creatures.

The first of the two goblins was very thin and twitchy, like it couldn’t stand still too long. It’s big red eyes somehow seemed cute despite being on the standard ugly goblin face. When I tested out several weapons with it, it seemed to work best with small daggers, yet at the same time seemed ashamed of that. I offered it a cleric staff and it picked it up as well, but only slightly. It was only able to power on the staff, it’s magic was too weak. While the idea of a quick goblin thief has it’s appeal, it also seems to have potential as a cleric. 

As that’s more useful I am quite eager to encourage this line of learning.

I decided to name it Cazi for now, after legendary cleric who became a hero class. A big name to fill but the goblin likes it.

The second was absolutely tiny. Short even by goblin standards. At the moment I summoned it, it jumped on me, hanging off my armor and tried to hug my arms to steady itself.

Which seemed to anger Ash, but oh well.

I asked her if she knew why it was so small, but she didn’t know. It’s not a child goblin, it’s just short for some reason. Because of it’s limited power at that size I gave it daggers, which it used quite easily and happily.

...It was attached to me because it was trying to steal my belt.

I didn’t even know my minions could steal from me…

Well it failed, so technically didn’t, but I am going to have to keep an eye on it.

I found my thief at least. So I suppose that’s good enough.

I plan to have it sneak around and try stealing gear off adventurers without being caught. As far as I can tell minions can’t refuse my orders so as long as I want it to give the items to me, I shouldn’t have an issue. Felix is the name of an eccentric thief in one of the story books Alex gave me. I figured it would be a good name for this creature.

Oh all of these monsters I summoned are grey like me. I wonder if my own skin was some sort of required color coating for my type of dungeon, or if I am the cause of the color change?

Also, new rule I’ve instructed my minions to allow through any party that has a mage, druid, or cleric. I come to realize part of the reason I am not learning any new skills is because I take down adventurers too quickly now, so I’m going to have to learn to slow down my tactics on the weaker ones if I see a nice skill.

Well I’m not in a hurry.

Day 22

So a few bad things, and a few good things happened today. Not sure how well it all balances out. But I would say more negative.

First, Anna and Alex came back.

When they came to my newly re-themed dungeon they were quite confused but still decided to charge through it. Thankfully Ash was stationed with Cerberus at the time while I was training my new minions and still recognized them, so when she told me about it, I got to meet them without too big of a fight.

Given how Ash looked and could even talk now they were quite surprised, at how she could not only talk, but about as well as I could.

“So you’re Ash?” Anna glanced at me, confused.

“Yes I am, thank you for being kind to master Zeno.” Ash said shortly after I lead them to my throne room.

“I...well of course! For adventurers, a good rival is worthy of respect!” Anna said after a moment of surprise.

“Can any of the other dungeon monsters talk?” Alex asked.

“She only became like that after she got blessed by some god.” I said, before glancing at a screen. “[Zarif].”

They keep showing those surprised faces, I’m not sure if I should take that as a complement or not.

“Can monsters even get blessed by a god?” Anna asked her brother.

“I’ve read of a few, but they were always dragons, vampires, or something high class.” Alex replied, whispering to her.

“If that’s a big deal, I woke up already blessed by a god.” I decided to add.

“Who?” Alex asked, more excited then I’ve ever seen him.

“[Narull].”

After a rather funny conversation where they repeated denial about my bless, which almost lead to Ash strangling them I decided to change the subject to what they’ve been doing.

They’ve been fighting and training in a dungeon town called [Greetnhorn]. A dungeon with fifty levels to it that was built into a mountain carved in the shape of an extinct species of fairy called Kikary, known for their imposing faces, and magically imbued horns.

Because of Alex being a rare cleric, Anna was able to hang on to a far stronger adventuring party and the two had made it all the way up to level 25.

Which they were quite proud of.

But even as far ahead as we thought we were…the two took my level as a disappointment for some reason. So I decided to challenge them to see how well they’ve grown.

Well I decided me and Ash, the two they wished to be rival’s with would face them, the rest of my minions I sent out to their planned post, to keeping the various other adventurers from reaching my throne room. I pulled out a proper iron sword from my [Armory] that I recently came across and gave Ash an elf bow named [spectral keep], a unique bow that created it’s own arrows.

After a full minute of waiting, I directed Ash to fire an arrow at Alex, the shot was perfectly aimed but the boy blocked it with his staff almost too easily. Using [Charge] and [Double Self] I quickly shifted myself to the right of Anna, a body double left where I was in it’s ready pose. I quickly used [Freeze Ray] intending to cover both Anna and Alex in ice. While they didn’t expect it, Anna quickly summoned a shield that blocked most of the frost.

[Mana Shield] Learned.

Useful.

Ash started firing arrows at Anna, forcing her to drop the shield and focus on avoiding them.

Using [Charge] again I shifted my momentum right at Anna, directing a [Cleave] at her neck. At it’s max level the actual attack is fast enough to become invisible as far as my own eyes can see. However no only did she parry the strike, but she slashed into me, leaving a massive gash in my chest and, ripping through my armor like paper.

Ash activated a skill called [Battle Rage] after seeing me get hit, which boost her speed and attack tremendously. Followed by firing off [Skill Shot], which boost the chance of her hitting repeatedly at Anna. Using her distraction I cast [Heal] on myself, and then used [Double Strike] on her. The move connecting with her un-armored sword hand. Which would have resulted in a dismemberment, however her high Hp re-directed the damage, spreading it all over her body.

Before Alex could hope to heal her, I used [Charge] again, slipping past her guard and attempted to tackle Alex. As I did so I also tried to cast [Confuse] on Anna as I passed her by. She resisted, and just as I was about to tackle him over, he and Anna switched places. The defenseless cleric was replaced with a well prepared warrior who stabbed me through the stomach.

The pain was almost blinding, but rather then let her remove the sword, I wrapped my arms around her, to keep her from moving.

When I directed Ash to shoot her in the back, she did so almost a bit too eagerly, using [Rapid Fire] repeatedly. To both of our surprise, the arrows did next to nothing. Following that, Anna stabbed me in the head with a floating sword, taking me down, and then taking down Ash shortly after.

Frankly Ash and my stats had started to slow down, even well above their level, we were outclassed, Ash could hadly do anything, and while I thought I could fight, I was weak enough that I couldn’t even do much damage to the weakest of joints.

Annoying.

So ask asked Alex about this, he told me that as lower range species, we have an advantage at speeding along.

But even a level 100 hobgoblin will only ever measure up to a level 25 adventurer. As a boss I will naturally be more powerful, but leveling for a humanoid and a monster are a bit different. While I am a humanoid in shape, I am a monster in nature, when I level up, I am boosting my natural form, and through that can rank up into a higher species.

Humans on the other hand are leveling up their [Classes] rather then themselves. While by itself they would be left weaker by that, they can level up multiple classes to support each other. Which naturally boost their abilities multiple times over. Not only can they rank up classes once they reach level 100 in them, they can do so with multiple classes. A warrior can not only become a knight, they can also through re-leveling their warrior class become a Templar.

Anna had become a Knight and had started raising something called the Psyblade class. Which allows her to move people and objects around the battlefield and mentally control her weapons. Likely a class she picked to protect her brother. But useful in that later down the line she would not only speed up her movements but be able to move multiple swords while also fighting herself.

Alex was a now a Healer, as well as a Phaselock, a class focused on temporary buffing and crowd control healing.

So the level 25 I see in both of them is a simplification of their raw power by adventurer logic rather then monster logic. They had already outpaced me enough to rank up and pick a second class.

Gaining the skills and boost of both class.

Interesting.

So I learned how humanoids work, and realized that when I reach level 100, I and any of my minions will naturally rank up.

So I asked if I would keep my stats on a rank up.

Alex said goblins won’t, nor will any lesser species, but once they are on par with a lower species, such as a hobgoblin, they will keep part of their stats, and once they reach the state of a normal species they will from each rank up after keep their stats in their entirety. So while high class monsters are a problem, monsters that rank up into high class monsters are feared far more.

So at least paying for boost for my goblins isn’t going to dwarf their stats any.

Good.

The system I thought I knew turned out to be more complex then I thought, and I am far behind.

Bad.

However I also learned that normally, ranking up is rare for most monsters, that they had to have some unnatural level of talent in order to do so, and even if they rank up once there is no proof they will rank up again.

As a self reminder, the lowest class of monster is [Lesser], with [Lower] being slightly stronger. Goblins and hobgoblins are a unique case that are paid attention to because of how fast they reproduce.

[Normal] is the rank of the vast majority of monsters most humanoids pay attention to are part of.

[Greater] are where most boss monsters exist, where most adventurers need to start forming parties in order to fight them. My lower status is actually quite weird.

[High] is where monster start to become feared by adventurers. Not only because of their power but because they tend to develop humanoid like intelligence which gives them a higher range of tactics. Which is what I and Ash already have.

[Higher] is where adventurers start needing a group in order to fight them even if they are experienced.

[Lesser Demonic] is where a full group of six adventurers might be required.

[Demonic] is where it starts to be a matter of outstanding talent in order for a single full group of adventurers to win.

[Darkly Blessed] is where several groups of adventurers might be required.

[Darkly Awakened] is where a full on raid of adventurers are required in order to win.

[Legendary] monsters are almost mythical and most of the stories that mention them claim a hero is needed, otherwise an army is required to kill them. A hero being an adventurer who has multiple blessings on them. Which gives them the additional hero class, which is a pure stat boost that if properly maintained could raise them into the thousands stat wise. Which is quite amazing according to Alex.

[Divine] are monsters that mythical unique creatures created by the gods in order to change something. Alex is only aware of three ever existing. None of them are listed as dead, just missing. It’s believed their lifespan is the same as elves, so long that nobody can pin down a life span.

Oddly all of my minions are marked ‘rank up possible’, so I will have to assume I am lucky so far, and that I might be able to raise some into these different classes of monster.

I was leveling up so fast before that they had expected me to have already ranked up by now. But I suppose since I’ve only been fighting low level adventurers, while they have been in area’s with monsters well above their level, they had the advantage.

After spending the day talking and trying to win they left, promising to return tomorrow with more books and food. While I didn’t care for the food they brought last time, Ash seemed to enjoy it and seemed quite eager. So I suppose I can try again.

Cerberus is starting to outpace me by himself after reaching level 9. Cerberus is leveling slower then the other minions I have, yet gaining power a lot faster, he is a greater class monster boosted with the stats of a mid level boss. That I am being out paced when he is only level 9.

I need to fix this.

But how? At this rate it might take twice as long as I have existed before I might get close to a rank up.

Day 23

So some of that blessing’s owner, [Narull] must have been looking out for me. Because the timing of this new bonus is a little too convenient.

“As the adventurer average class ranking has advanced. Additional bonuses shall be filed to the owner of the skill [Dungeon Administration], as well as to 3 minions of their choosing. This boost shall last until the boosted monsters have ranked up into an average risk monster. This exp advancement feature will only work on lesser and lower rank species who have the potential to rank up.”

This feels wrong.

Like something is tampering with my chances just because I am impatient.

Or maybe because I am important?

But I am not going to ignore the advantage. I looked into the boost, it allows me and the monsters I pick a tripling on experience earned, experience will be added for stealing items and weapons from adventurers, finally as a last boost experience will triple once again if I face an adventurer level 20 or above and win.

Meaning if I kill a party of adventurers level 20 and up, I have a boost of x6.

I decided on Ash...of course. But also Dae and Faye. Both of them are lower monsters that have a lot of potential. But Ash seemed to get annoyed at this, demanding I boost the exp of Brook and Harley instead.

I couldn’t say I understand why she would want this but she convenience me. Somehow. Something about Harley being her friend, and Brook being a good friend for me if I would let him.

I am not sure how given my decisions should have ‘priority’. Except for Ash I can’t really understand them. A large part of me thinks of them as pets I suppose. I see a personality but I can’t tell if its just me or them. I suppose since she was once one of them she has more of a figure on their personalities.

According to her, Brook sees me as someone to aspire towards. Behind those blank eyes of his is someone obsessively trying to reach my level of skill. Which might explain why out of my minions he is the most willing to keep fighting against me no matter how hard I beat him down.

She also claims that Harley is her friend, and one of my most loyal and potentially later on, most intelligent minions I will have. I can agree that her skills in magic despite her mental handcape is well beyond what I expected. But does she have the potential to be the most intelligent? Without some sort of blessing it seems she will be stuck with a large mental handicap cap for a long time. Maybe there is a god of magic she can be blessed by?

I’m getting too soft, I’m starting to realize just how distant I’ve been. Or maybe Ash is the reason. But would I have cared before if she mentioned it in the past?

Probably not.

Beyond that Alex returned with more books, and Anna offered food. Though in her own words, only enough for me and Ash. I thought it was plenty, but I’m not that big of an eater. Given I normally don’t eat at all.

The food was a lot better, and I got to enjoy leveling up at a rapid pace today. I reached level 64 at the end.

Doubling in a day is quite nice.

Day 24

Today was quite a mess of battles, more and more adventurers were showing up that were over level 20, so I’ve been loosing a lot, but on the rare occasion that I beat a level 20, I’ve leveled up quite rapidly, so it seems to balance out.

The numbers are getting so high recently that when Alex and Ash showed up with food I decided to ask them over the meal about it.

According to them word of my Dungeon has spread, a place that while strong has an unusually fast growing boss monster Hobgoblin with weirdly grey skin and blessing runes on his face. A name for my dungeon does not exist yet. But several cultist have started calling it [The Child’s Womb], while naming me [The Child]. I can only hope I don’t get stuck with that title or dungeon name. I’m not familiar with cults, but the idea of some unknown people treated me as part of their religion bothers me.

Since I have no listed titled on my screen I can only assume that the title isn’t wide spread enough. Hopefully it stays that way.

But beyond that now I know why I’m getting a boost, in preparation for the town that is forming around my dungeon. When I asked what it might be called they say the camp that’s forming is called [GreyRune] after my skin and the markings on my face. Sounds a lot more interesting.

Still can’t win against Anna and Alex.

Frustrating.

Day 25

“The following titles have been earned: [The divine child], [The Grey Lord], [Warcraze], [Skill King]. As a reward for these new titles, luck[Skill King], intelligence[The Grey Lord], agility[Warcraze], and charisma[The Divine Child] have been permanently boosted by 5%.”

Huh.

Since Anna and Alex didn’t show up and so many adventurers swarmed my dungeon nothing else happened today worth note.

Reached level 86. So that’s nice.

Day 18

~-Ash’s perspective-~

Zeno is a powerful master who’s vision spreads far beyond goblins and hobgoblins. He is more clever then any of the humans or elves that have invaded his dungeon, and even when lower level then them he almost always wins because of that. A Hobgoblin that can beat adventurers by itself even at a lower level. The knowledge this blessing of the archer gave me claims that is impossible.

But master Zeno destroys all expectations!

But because of how great he is, he often forgets that not everyone can do the things he can. Today he even asked me why me and his other followers are getting so tired. Not everyone can sleep on stone like he does every night. We lesser beings need enjoyments and comforts after all. Even if we were born from the dungeon rather then out of a womb or egg like a normal monster would.

He agreed with me, and with his power as a dungeon boss he decided to give me, Harley and Brook our own personal rooms.

He even went out of his way to design it exactly how I wanted it to be!

As expected of my master, he is so kind!

He decided to give the three of us a break with no training for two days so that we can enjoy our new rooms. I don’t have much to entertain myself with, but a few days lazing on a soft bed will be nice. The room is filled with all sorts of colors and plants that I only know through the archers blessing. 

I'm going to enjoy relaxing here a lot more then in masters throne room. Though I might miss waking up to his sleeping face...

I am afraid of him getting hurt without me, but since he went out his way to give me this room and free time, I am going to make the most of it!

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Glossary