Here is chapter 17 hope you guys enjoy it!

Also I feel like it is time to consider getting a cover for book 1. I'm leaning towards just make it like lot of the jpn LN where if you line up the book cover its like a playboy calendar (who won't like that =X) so thinking of putting Sigrid on the cover. However I have zero artistic skill so no idea what like pose or other stuff to make it look nice so if anyone has any suggestions please post them in the comments. (Feel free to throw any cover ideas at me)

The Trial Rooms surprisingly went better than Sage thought they would. Most adventurers followed the rules posted but as always there were those that would break or try to bypass the rules. Over the past week since the Trial Rooms appeared Sage had lost a total of 4 Elite Goblin and 1 Elite Kobold. He made sure those monster dropped nothing and blacklisted those adventurers for a week. Once the adventurers learned of the rewards that they could get they became much more inclined to follow the rule.

This really was thanks to this rookie adventurer John. Sage was surprised to find the person who discovered his dungeon in the first place. He watched John’s fight against the Elite Goblin and was surprised at this rookie adventurer’s performance. Since John was the first person to discover his dungeon and the first to enter the trial rooms he felt that this was a bit more than coincidence so he decided to reward John with a the rank G skill book to see how he would grow in the future. John was absolutely ecstatic and immediately used the book without a second thought.

“A bit rash but that’s youth for you.” Sage couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of John using the skill book like someone was going to steal it from him.

John reported this to the Adventurer’s Guild and by the next day the news of the Trial Rooms spread across the dungeon town and soon far beyond. On the second day 2 tokens were found and used and both adventurers were rewarded with an iron version of the weapon they chose to fight with. On the third day one of the adventurers that entered a Trial Room lost but was able to safely come out. He reported that he was knocked out by the Elite Goblin he faced but once he woke up the Elite Goblin was already gone and he was allowed to exit.

All of this fueled the craze to obtain the trial room tokens because of the possibility of getting a skill book. Soon the news spread throughout the kingdom tempting even more adventures to make their way to the new dungeon.

None of this bothered Sage too much as the Adventurer’s Guild still kept watch on the amount of people entering the dungeon everyday. During the past week he had focused on Sigrid’s cultivation as to get her ready for her mission to mix in with the adventurers. Luckily she had much better talent than all the monsters he had been able to summon so far. Due to her nature as an Ice Maiden she was able to cultivate the Ice Flower technique at an astonishing rate. Within just a week she understood the basic of the cultivation and reached the start of the first level.

Her cultivation of the concealing technique was much slower because she had always lived in her own element and never had needed to learn to hold back her power. She had always been attuned with nature to help herself grow but now it was like she was broadcasting her location to everyone. It had taken a lot of effort from Sage to finally get her to stop unconsciously spreading out her mana. Now she could walk outside without people being able to detect her from a mile away but if they were to see her they still could easily see her very unusual mana aura. It wasn’t a big issue with normal people but not enough to fool the more skilled adventurers.

“Sigrid you must imagine your own body is a pot used to hold water. There mustn’t be any holes in the pot or else the water will leak out.” Sage explained to Sigrid “You must gain full control of the mana flow within your body. Not only will it help you with master the concealing technique but your cultivation as well.”

“Yes my lord.” Sigrid answered. After reaching the first level of her Ice Flower cultivation when she started feeling the benefits it brought her, she was convinced to have made the right decision in offering the contract to this dungeon. Originally she just wanted to survive and get revenge on those who pushed her to this state but now she realized that she had the chance to go much farther. She carefully listened to Sage’s every word as she soon realized how insightful he was when it came to these skills even though he seemed to lack a lot of common knowledge about the world.

Sigrid has also gotten along with Alice pretty well as both of them were spirit creatures in nature and shared similar issues of being chased out of their homes. Alice quickly updated Sigrid on the current situation of the dungeon and the situation with Sage. However aside from being surprised about the skill books Sigrid didn’t seem to be all that surprised about any of the other stuff as she had never been in a dungeon before and only ever heard of skill books from her mother. Alice had also gotten a lot more cheerful as she had another person to talk to. Sage suddenly realized that Alice had spent most of the time by herself wandering around the dungeon or doing other stuff as Sage himself is either focused on building the dungeon, training monsters, or cultivating. He was used to years of solitude at once but he felt that he might have been neglecting his partner. But things seemed to work out fine with Sigrid here but he wondered what would happen once she had to leave.

Like this the days slowly passed by and it has been a month since Sigrid arrived. The people that were chasing Sigrid hadn’t appeared again due to the elite guards stationed by the kingdom. Sage had also managed to reach level 30 from all the adventurers coming into his dungeon allowing him to finish building the second floor and beginning construction on floor 3. He really wanted to reach the 5th floor so that he could have another boss monster to bolster his defenses as he felt those who were chasing Sigrid wouldn’t give up so easily.

In attention to his soul recovering a bit more he also gained the ability to summon new monsters. He now could summon Orc, Goblin Shaman, and surprised him the most was the Elementary White Tiger that disappeared when he first opened his summon menu.

“Elementary White Tiger… so that means my theory of reaching higher levels might break the hold the world has on me could be true… Wait that means the herbs!” Sage quickly thought of herbs for the pill and brought up the environment menu.

The menu appeared before him and as expected some basic herbs from his world were there. He was very happy about this so he quickly made several rooms and filled them with the basic herbs. However he suddenly realized a problem: who is going to make the pills from these herbs? Thinking about it he suddenly thought of Sigrid but quickly decided against it. Alchemy took lot of time and effort but he needed Sigrid to grow as fast as possible. The goblins and kobolds lacked the intelligence needed and the Elementary White Tiger didn’t fit either. Thinking hard about this he suddenly looked back to his summon menu and stared at the Goblin Shaman.

Goblin Shaman (1000 Mana) - Goblins that have learned the ways of magic. Goblin Shaman holds a very high status among the goblins as they believe they have way to communicate with gods. The Goblin Shaman also acts as healer for the village, they tend to the sick and make medication for them.

“These might work…” With that Sage summoned a Goblin Shaman for testing. Soon the result came out and they were decent. The Goblin Shaman wasn’t any genius at alchemy but at least it was able to learn it. Sage summoned 2 more before he ran out of mana and decided that he was going to have a total of 10 Goblin Shamans working on alchemy. Lucky for him one of the most difficult part of alchemy, which was getting the ingredients to practice with, was not an issue at all for him.

After he finished learning all his new abilities it was time to ready Sigrid for her mission. Over the past month she had worked hard and reached the mid stage of the first level of the Ice Flower Cultivation Method. She had also managed to reach the first stage of master of the concealing technique. Now as long as she didn’t get caught and carefully examined by someone stronger than her then her identity wouldn’t be exposed. Sage also prepared a decent amount of money for her to use and a map he got from one of the dead adventurers.

The plan was for her to make her way to the city of Dawn to register as an adventurer. Alice suggested to have her apply there so the people after Sigrid wouldn’t suspect her. Afterall if she joined in the dungeon town it was very suspicious but if she joined in Dawn it was not because her pursuer wouldn’t think that she might get past them.

Soon it would be early morning and therefore time for Sigrid to set out. She came to Sage’s chamber to say her goodbye and take the exit tunnel he built. However what surprised Sage was that Alice came and seemed to be ready to leave with Sigrid as well.

“Alice what are you doing?” Sage was very confused by Alice’s action.

“I talked with Sigrid for a while about her mission and decided it would be best for me to go with her.” Alice replied.

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous for you outside?” Sage quickly asked.

“Don’t worry about it Sage, with Sigrid there I’ll be fine” Alice tried to reassure Sage.

“I still don’t see the need for you to risk yourself like this.” Sage wasn’t about to let this go easily.

Alice pondered for a minute and said “The reason I decided to go with Sigrid is to better relay information back to you and you don’t have to worry so much. After all once we reach Dawn we will come back to the dungeon town and basically be living right next to you. With me around I can easily sneak back into the dungeon and tell you information we have gathered. After all it might not be so easy for a beauty like Sigrid to move around so easily without catching everyone’s attention, hehe.”

Sage pondered for a bit and agreed with the problem he had not thought of. Finally he let out a sigh and helplessly said “Alright but please becareful.”

“Don’t worry my lord, I’ll make sure Alice is safe and sound.” Sigrid also joined in to assure Sage. She was very happy to have Alice along as Alice was her very first friend and having her along made her less nervous.

Sage looked at the two of them, he sighed again and said “Take these 4 tokens, two of them act like the binding trap I made and the other 2 act like the flash trap I made. Use them to get away when you are in danger. If you need more just have Alice come back for some. Remember to always have some with you for those dangerous situation.” With that 4 tokens appeared before Sigrid and Alice.

In the past month Sage had also worked hard on his own mana control. Although he was far from reaching his old level of control he was making progress. One of the things he had managed to do was set up more restrictions with mana and setting them into different objects. The tokens he gave the girls were just a simple item with a binding and flash restriction set to them. They weren’t very powerful but could help in a pinch.

“Alright I know I asked you guys to gather information for me but your own safety comes first. When you’re not in my dungeon your lives will be in real danger so please don’t do anything too rash.” Sage said the final parting words as he watched them leave through the tunnel and exit into the forest.

*Somewhere 50 miles to the south of the dungeon one month ago*

“Sir the area is too well guarded to use our normal troops without tipping off the humans. Also based on the information we have gathered so far this dungeon is growing very fast and is a skill book dungeon. So far there is only 1 floor and the strongest monsters seen beside the Kobold Lord are Elite Goblins and Elite Kobolds. It is recommended to move as soon as possible before the dungeon is allowed to grow too strong.”

“Hahaha, what luck! We were chasing the Ice Maiden and chased her right to a skill book dungeon! Hahaha, once we turn that dungeon core into a demonic one we will be handsomely rewarded by Lord Zoar himself! Since we can’t assault with our troops then I will just have to borrow the human “volunteers” for this. Begin organizing the troops here and have them be ready for battle in 2 months. Once I have gathered enough human “volunteers” I’ll make an assault on the dungeon and once I have successfully taken it over we will began our first offensive on this puny kingdom of Zeal!”

“Yes Sir!”

“Now mister dungeon core are you prepared to pay for your actions."

Edited by Nova