Young Writers Society

Day 36

Oddly nobody showed up today, I don’t mean Alex, Anna, or that elf Gabi.

That’s somewhat normal. 

I mean after a month of more and more adventurers running through my maze like dungeon.

Nobody showed up today. Not a single adventurer.

So I personally went to the entrance to my dungeon and noticed that the outside had changed over night.

The originally well warn path through an abandoned mine had been replaced with a stone and marble mix. A decorative pattern of death and life lining that new floor. When I looked around further through my limited view I observed various workers carving out pillars and starting a slow process of building walls and a vaulted door to the room they had started to surround my dungeon in.

I tried to talk to the workers, but they ignored me.

Annoying.

Day 37

The room they were building outside of my dungeon was finished while I slept, and it seems they are still baring the way for anyone trying to get into my dungeon.

I spent the day reading with Ash while the others trained, Morrígan is starting to well outpace all my other minions as far as dodging goes, only Ash and I can keep up with her at this point.

Of course she can fly, which makes the process easier, but she is quite quite nimble even in her human shape.

Day 38

The room outside of my dungeon is now furnished with various seats and decorations, I don’t know quite what else their doing but this room clearly looks like a waiting room. Right next to the entrance to my dungeon I even see something that my memories claim is a ticket booth. Are they planning to charge people to come in? I rather not let them; I like the number of adventurers that come in.

Anyway.

As nobody showed up today I spend the day beating Morrígan up...well training her.

See because of her dodging skills getting so far ahead of the other minions she was starting to brag a bit too much. Best to bring her back to reality. An entire day of her attempting to run away from me was quite effective at doing that.

Day 39

A man in an oversized coat came in. It was hard for me to imagine him as an adventurer with his pudgy body, but because of his coverings I couldn’t see anything else. The fat I was seeing could easily be an illusion of the folded over coat. Rather then charge through my dungeon like everyone else he waited at the entrance for well over an hour. Either he was waiting for me, or he had the oddest choice in lounging spots, so I ordered Morrígan to turn into her human form and reveal herself.

The man quickly bowed and announced himself as the mayor of GreyRune. He claimed that soon the town would be renamed Greryune, and with that came several changes to how the town would operate, and he wished to know my opinions before influencing what adventurers can come into my dungeon.

As I was training with Ash, Brook, and Harley at the time, I couldn’t really bother with going over there, but Morrígan was just barely smarter then Brook, as is the case of most lesser monsters. She could understand what people say, but couldn’t hold a conversation. So I used [Guiding hand] to control her.

“I am busy at the moment, so I’ll have to talk to you through my minion. Forgive me for not meeting with you personally.” I said through her Morrígan’s as I broke Harley’s arm with my actual body.

“No, no, that is perfectly fine. I am happy to simply be talking to you Dungeon Boss Zeno.” The pudgy man bowed. “I am called, Charles Lodwik, and like I said. As the town grows rules need to be enforced, some of which have to do with your domain. As I have no right to force your hand. I was hoping for you opinion on my plans.”

“Go on.” I said, at that moment I was dragging Harley by the arm, using the [Heal] skill on her while avoiding arrows from Ash. I kept breaking Harley’s arm as I went.

“First order of business is I was wanting to set up a toll booth for your dungeon. A portion of the money will of course go back to you.”

“I doubt that would help your towns economy or my income more then free access.” I replied. I had kicked Harley away from me after forced a hp potion down her throat, the kick clearly breaking a few of her ribs. I turned and started charging at Ash who had a horrified look realizing she had drawn my attention.

“Oh...of course. The toll booth idea was just based on the city I came from. It was quite profitable for them.”

“I can’t imagine that would be true for such a small town as this. Maybe if this place turned into a city where there are plenty of other ways to make money and sell goods. Otherwise you're just blocking the talented but still poor, and the newer people of your town from entering.” I replied. At that moment I had kicked Ash in the face, almost caving it in while also using [Heal] on her, the cave in reversing as I looked at her. She was gaping in pain just as Brook tackled me.

“Ah...Then next is my plan to encourage various forms of marketing throughout the town. Focusing on specialized building requirements in order to set up a shop so that only high quality goods are sold.”

As this conversation went on with me sharing my thoughts on how he planned to organize the town and various laws he planned to add to it. I continued to torture...I mean train my three main minions. They wanted my skill [Lesser Regeneration] and even with the warning they still wanted to go through with my plan to teach them in. [Lesser Regeneration] is a skill born from rampant abuse of healing magic while constantly being hurt. Most people take years to learn it according to the books I read. However by the end of the day, after breaking them all three in ways that even the cruelest torturer would not dare. Ash, Harley, and Brook all earned the skill. Which was wonderful for me. Given Harley and Brook were only a few points away from ranking up, this skill mixed in would make things far easier later on when stronger adventurers start showing up.

Mix that will my dealings with the towns mayor and I’d say I had a pretty productive day.

Day 40

Nobody came in for half the day, likely still held up by that construction but by midday I got an alert.

“Warning, Five Level 55 Adventurers, and One level 20 adventurer approaching.”

As soon as I got that alert Morrígan had already been killed and Felix sent a message that he refused to get close to them.

At the moment I could hardly handle a level 25, much less a level 55, so in reply to that alert I ran to the first level and swarmed it with as many summons as I could, a thick layer of wolves, bears, spiders, fire elementals, and earth elementals. A chaotic mix that likely couldn’t do much damage to the level 55 adventurers, but I’d rather slow them down while I thought of new ways to supplement my mid bosses.

I created a complex fortress in Faye’s room making it all the harder to actually fight against her and her summons. But as soon as the group of six got to her, after casually slaughtering their way through my summons, her room was shattered to pieces. Plans tend to fall apart when the power difference is too great.

Following that while they fought there way through a vast assortment of summons I outfitted Cerberus’s room in an extra complex network of traps and put Ash in it as well, able to hid within the walls and poke out without having to dance around the various traps.

They lasted longer, but were killed within a minute.

Finally after storming their way through my dungeon they came across my throne room, I had recalled Ash to me as soon as she re-spawned, as well as my other main minions, Brook and Harley. I chugged mp potions until much of the room was filled with earth elementals. They finally arrived.

I could not hope to name the classes of the level 55 adventurers, they were so far above me and my dungeon that I hadn’t seen them use any skills to identify them. I also couldn’t name the level 20 as he had not even done anything.

I couldn’t even name how those level 55’s looked as they were covered in deep black armor that covered their every feature, amazing craftsmanship must have went into those but I wasn’t even worthy of testing it as my level. The level 20 was a man of average build dressed in flowing robes like those pictures of royalty I’ve seen before. His long curly black hair seemed to be decorated and maintained far better than any other adventurer I had ever seen. While I couldn’t be sure at first what he was, he was clearly being guarded by those level 55’s rather then part of their adventuring party.

“They said this dungeon was suggested for level 12 and above based on the report.” One of the guards said. “This place is a bit too thick with monsters for anything lower than 25.”

“This dungeons ‘grey lord’ was obviously welcoming us to his home, he’s been crazily summoning since we entered, I could feel it.” Another guard said. Given the guard could feel my summons they might be a summoner themselves.

Rather then risk them getting the first move I immediately used [Charge], pulling out a massive broadsword as I moved, shifting my head to the right and left, using the skill repeatedly to build up my [Momentum] skill. After ten [Charge]’s I could hardly see because of how fast I was going, so I shifted my view, targeting the level 20, I was confident that even as powerful as a level 55 is, they couldn’t hope to stop me from killing him at this speed. I used [Double Self] in order to make it look like I was targeting one of the level 55 as well. I knew it wouldn’t trick them but I did it anyway, finally ending with [Cleave]. Added with the [Momentum] I had already built up I expected my sword to explode on contact with this level 20.

My assumption was right as far as the sword breaking on contact. But not with the level 20, as soon as I got close, mid swing an armored arm appeared, blocking the blow. My sword put a slight dent in that armor before exploding, metal shards denting my own armor, and ripped out huge chunks of my face.

I was easily knocked back, and while flying I started ripping the metal out of my face, the horrifying pain nothing compared to what I’ve experienced while fighting the waves of adventurers. As soon as I landed, I started chugging hp potions, motioning for the earth elementals to charge.

It only took the adventuring group a half minute to kill them all, but in that time I had healed myself up and filled the room with fire elementals. As they killed the last of my summons I fired off [Sun Flare], after they easily blocked it I fired off a [Lightning Strike] at them the bolt traveling through their armor enough to do some damage, probably nothing, but it was enough time that Ash had re-spawned from the previous fight she had helping the mid boss, I brought her to my throne room, directing her to start firing on them.

I decided to run straight at them this time rather then [Charge], shifting into a connection of [Cleaves] with a large axe. Each building up massive amounts of [Momentum] as I fought with one of them. They hit back, every sword swing like a small explosion. By their third swing a mark burned it’s way into my armor, and they started specifically aiming for that mark, blasting a massive hole in my shoulder after a few hits.

[Cinder's Curse] learned.

A skill that at the cost of mp would cause a localized explosion over any place I hit. After using it three times on the same exact spot, the area is marked any any further hits will still explode without costing me any mp however if I miss to hit the same spot, then the counter will reset. While a useful skill the cost of just one is almost my entire mp. This is clearly a skill well above my level to handle.

I decided to use it, swinging down on the adventurers head. The explosion threw him off enough for me to chug a mp potion and swing again, sadly missing his head. The skill I deemed useless to me until I gain more mp.

“He’s way to weak to have already learned that. He just stole my move!” The Adventurer complained.

The level 20 smiles. "Impressive potentinal."

Following that I [Charge]ed in again, pulling out another board sword from my armor as I flew, aiming to build up far more momentum them last time, I kept going until I was almost blind before aiming myself at the adventurer that I assumed was a summoner. I fired offer a [Lightning Strike] at the adventurer that stopped me before and used [Cleave] on the summoner. My sword shattered on a shield that adventurer summoned. The shield would have killed me if I didn’t have the [Momentum] skill, I stopped inches from hitting it head on and shifted my direction to the left, launching myself with an axe at the level 20. My axe was mere inches from his face before a massive arm grabbed my sword, breaking it, and grabbing me by the arm, my own speed ripping the limb from my body. Ash attempted to charge at them, summoning her extra 2 limbs, only to have them ripped off and her head smashed in before she could do anything.

I flew into a wall, breaking a few ribs. My skill [Lesser Regeneration] ranked up into [Regeneration] at that moment, while the new skill would give me the ability to grow back limbs, the speed at which it did it at level 1 was painfully slow. It would take a month. I didn’t have time for that and hp potions lacked that ability so I couldn’t speed it up.

“This is my first meeting with such powerful individuals.” I said gasping through the pain. “While I couldn’t accommodate your challenge level, I still wanted to try.” Since I noticed that none of them seemed intent on attacking me I walked weakly back to my throne.

The level 20 laughed softly and started speaking, his tone casual and friendly. “You certainly do look the part of a lord...and are far more powerful then your species would normally be. Granted if I didn’t have a report calling you a Lux Histora I would have mistaken you as some odd breed of dark elf.” The level 20 said. “I thank you for the effort, your dungeons designs are well crafted, and while you went overboard on summons, the strategies you employed were elegant and brutal. Even a level 30 would be hard pressed to keep up with you.”

I leaned forward in my throne, smiling slightly. “While the praise is nice, Level 55’s have no reason to be here, and while a level 20 might, they wouldn’t come here with a personal guard. May I ask why you’ve come to meet with me?”

“A rude creature.” One of the guards muttered.

The level 20 smiled. “I am the fourth prince, William IIV Falun Krause.”

“Quite a long name.” I muttered.

He smiled, laughing a bit. “My name is much longer but I only use that for formal events.”

“I’ve come to call myself Zeno. Not as long or fancy as yours, but I like it.” I offered.

“A philosophers name fits you.” William said.

“Thank you, but again, I wish to know why you’ve come.”

“One of my elder brothers joined a cult calling themselves the ‘The Grey Range’. While this was of little interest to me, a month ago he took out vast sums of money and funded the construction of a dungeon town, naming it Greyrune, and now that it’s done, Greryune. As is the tradition when naming a town. The town has been growing so quickly that they finally called me over to name the dungeon and give it a danger ranking. A common tradition in this nation 'How strange,' I thought. 'What could be in that dungeon to drive so much money into this town?'"

William glanced over at one of his guards and made a simple motion, at that a scroll was thrown to me.

“If you can read our language, please check the 12th line. Consider the information on that document my gift to you.” William said.

The whole scroll was a complex network of economics, sociology and architecture, explaining every detail of the settlement of Greryune. It even listed psychology reports of all of the major figures. I was eager to dig into it, but I was forced to look back at the 12th line, if only because this fourth prince was waiting for my response. On it was the start of a paragraph on a cult called ‘The Grey Range’, the cult he was talking about.

‘The Grey Range’ was a cult that followed the idea of ‘feeding’ what they called the grey child.

Me.

They consider me the true child of the greater goddess [Narull]. Someone who according to their books they must feed and be eaten from. According to the spy's this prince had sent into their order, they and the many other [Narull] focused cults were planning to level me up as much as possible. With this specific cult planning to take over the dungeon and switching from figurative eating to literal after I got strong enough in order to become closer to [Narull], something I would not escape from as the members list had at least 10 level 50+ members, one of which was the 4th princes brother.

“As useful as this information is.” I said after a few minutes of reading through everything I could on the organization. “Why would you share it with me?”

William offered a smile again, “Our nation is built on the idea of power, in order to rule you have to be the most powerful. At this point I am still improving quite quickly in level and skill, yet my brother is well above me. I need any advantage I can get over him.”

The prince, William walked up to me, looking me right in the eye. “If I can ruin this plot of his, while I can’t weaken his person power, I can at least weaken his hold over that cult of his. As long as he is distracted dealing with the aftermath, he will not focus on leveling up, and I will have more chances to reach him. With this information I thought to myself, ‘who better to ruin a cults plans then the creature they worship?’”

“If this information is true, I would happily support you in ruining his plans, however I can not leave this dungeon. Even if I could I am far too weak.” I said after a few seconds of thinking.

“A day ago the mayor of the town entered here, asking for you. Since you couldn’t personally come you took control of one of your minions and talked to him through her. Correct?” He asked.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Further back countless wolves, bears, spiders, and even elementals started to populate your originally sparse dungeon. Meaning you learned how to summon. Correct?” He asked.

“Yes.” I replied again.

“Then you have all the tools you need to leave as you wish.” William concluded. “Summons are different from your minions, they can actually leave the dungeon, if you take control of a summon, you can freely explore as far and as long as your power will allow.”

“How would you know this?” I said.

“You’re not the only dungeon boss monster who can summon and control. It’s common knowledge. Which is why every dungeon town and city in Mahdunt tries their best to get along with the more intelligent Boss monsters. It’d be a hopeless and expensive endeavor to try to control a dungeon forcefully. The only reason my elder brother would risk it is because the value of your flesh to that cult would easily make up the cost.” William ended his reply with a shrug.

“I still lack the power to do anything. Also my choice in summons are all things people would rather attack then let walk around.” I said.

“That’s where we come in. I already had enough information to judge that your first floors normal spread of monsters could be handled by a level 8 solo. Your second level can be handled by a level 10 solo, your third by a level 15, and by your floor, a level 25 or higher is needed to beat you one on one. At the rate you’re advancing I judge that you will reach 60 floors within the year and rank up at least two more times.” The prince stopped for a second, shifting his eyes a bit like he was recalling lines he might have prepared long ago. “Further I deemed the theme you were slowly developing to be akin the 10,000 levels of the mythical abyss of the underworld. So I deem ‘The Grey Abyss’, as a fitting name. My official job, which without my information gathering would have taken at least a week.”

“Quite a mouthful. You must have practiced a lot.” I said.

William, the prince laughed. “Quite...With my cover you can leave with me and gather information. Also as I said, nobody wants to actually anger you, so nobody would attack a summon of yours that leaves the dungeon anyway. I can help you gather any skill you need and encourage more adventurers to explore your dungeon to speed up your leveling process.”

“It’s not that hard for me to gather skills with these eyes of mine.” I replied.

“So I heard, I also heard that you’ve been speedily gathering skills from the moment you were born a hobgoblin. You seem to learn skills simply by fighting against them. Not just from reading like a normal Lux Historia.”

“While being more powerful is appealing, how would this influence your brothers plans?”

William smiled. “By helping you take control of Greryune, and forcing the cults of the town into rebellion.”

“What?” I said confused.

“Read that intelligence report, otherwise anything I suggest will just sound like non-sense. Pick a summon you want to use, and I’ll meet it outside tomorrow to show you around your new town.”

He left, and after I sorted out everything with my minions, I offed myself in order to re-spawn with all my limbs. Horrible but, I rather not wait for the arm to re-grow.

Tomorrow will be interesting.