I was not sure what to expect and for a second nothing happened then all my power rushed out of me in huge burst towards Areth. In a flash of insight I realised what had to be done to name somebody and with this realisation come regret; I have crippled her. How could I, weak G rank core, have enough power to name an ancient monster? She was a B rank and although my action would give her more power it would also rob all future progress from her.

Not a fraction of the second passed and I sensed her acceptance and gratitude mixed with a small pang of regret. I wanted to reward her, I wanted to surprise her and in a way, I was going to succeed. I think her gratitude hurt the most, she knew what was going to happen to her, she knew what it would cost her, yet she didn’t hold my stupidity, my rashness against me. I didn’t deserve her, I didn’t deserve them all and their millennia of dedication, yet this revelation would accomplish nothing, admitting it aloud would be even worse. It would only hurt them and only I was to blame here. So in that

I didn’t deserve her, I didn’t deserve them all and their millennia of dedication, yet this revelation would accomplish nothing, admitting it aloud would be even worse. It would only hurt them and only I was to blame here. So in that second, I vowed to myself to do better, to be better, to be worthy of their sacrifices. I have made them and in doing so chained them to myself, I gave them eternal life and all they were allowed to do with it was to serve me. Those were unpleasant thoughts, unpleasant truths, and here came another one. She had not expected to be rewarded, this was her reason of existence, the purpose for which she was created and it was my selfish desire to reward her, to unburden my conscience. It would not be enough to do better in future, I had to do better at that exact moment. So I pulled at the very source of my power, every little scrap I found was sent to her and it still was not enough. In desperation I decided to send everything I was to her, I put my entire will into this task. Then the darkness came.

This time awakening was not that bad, just little confusing, as I went straight from, well, not being awake, to full awareness of everything my dungeon. She was right next to me, glaring. It was unsettling, imagine humongous snake unblinkingly staring at you from less than 10 cm knowing it would take her less than a sneeze to obliterate you. I wondered how long she could maintain this state and decided to pretend to be still asleep.

- I know you are awake – she was clearly displeased – It was 3 weeks this time. You need to stop doing the impossible or one day you will shatter yourself.

- I know. I already realised how foolish I was earlier and I will not attempt anything similar as long as I am not sure I can do it safely, and before getting all possible information beforehand.

- You do not understand – She seemed resigned and there was something else… fear? – If you had carried out what you had planned, at worst I would have never advanced further. I won’t lie to you, it would have been devastating, but I would have gained a name. You can’t imagine what it means to us monsters. We betray our clans, families and accept centuries of slavery just for a chance of having a name. Everyone would have celebrated with me, not only my clan but all collectives. – I will admit she was making sense. I was willing to die just to retain my name why would she be different? Then she continued. – But you were not satisfied with that. You had to risk everything to give me more than you should have and could have. Have you considered what would have happened if you had died or entered another thousands year or even longer slumber? What would it mean to our entire collective? I have seen other beings, humans, elves, dwarves even orks wonder what was their purpose, I have seen how lost they seemed and how much it costs some of them to find strength to carry on, to live another day. – I was getting lost what had it to do with anything? - We Grootslangs have no such problems, we know why we exist, we know our purpose. We were created by you, to serve you. If we had lost that then it would be even worse than those pitiful creatures searching for direction, as we would know what we were supposed to be yet would be forever unable to fulfil our purpose. They would have never forgiven me if I was a reason we had lost you. I would have never forgiven myself.

I was unsure how to reply. It is not every day you are told you are someone’s reason for existing, I mean I did create them but never expected them to be this devoted. To be honest I wasn’t thinking then just reacting. I wasn’t thinking when I decided to do everything not to harm her with naming either. How stupid I was. I let myself to be overcome with emotions and reacted once more. The fact that I didn’t want to have such responsibility, that I never planned to create an entire race to serve me, was unimportant. I was not going to say sorry guys I made a mistake, good luck and take care. No matter how uncomfortable I was I had to claim responsibility and I had to get strong so I could remain being their purpose for as long as they would have me.

- I am sorry. Not for doing what I did as it was necessary. There may be times when I will risk my life and you will think I have done it recklessly, there may be a time you will be right but there are things I will not abide, that I cannot stand and remain myself. What I am sorry for, is doing thing rashly without proper consideration and advice and for putting your collective at risk.

- I guess I should be grateful for that, this is a start at least. – There was a bitter smile accompanying these words but at least she didn’t appear angry anymore… or scared. Seeing her scared was not something I ever wish to repeat. – Check your notifications, I know how much it took not to start with them. – She said moving towards the exit. – And thank you.

I briefly considering following her or checking the collectives but Areth was right, I needed to check my notifications.

Name

Arnar

Rank:

D

Level

90/100

HP

20000/50000

Mana

5000/75000

Floors

1

Rooms

70

Titles:

6

Skills

11

Traits:

2

Affinities

3

I was not expecting such changes, I was sure my health was going to be abysmal due to using Transcendent Rage. Actually, I wasn’t enraged when I attempted to properly name Areth but nothing else could explain what have happened. I had to stop assuming things and today would be a good day as any to do exactly that. I decided traits and affinities can wait after I deal with notification as they were most likely to explain my sudden jump in stats.

Congratulations!

You have named your first monster!

Do you wish to bind it? Y/N

Warning!

No option was chosen.

A choice is required!

Do you wish to bind your named monster? Y/N

Warning!

No option was chosen.

A choice is required!

The default option is chosen.

Warning!

Binding impossible – target rank is too high!

Congratulations!

Your monster Areth decided to voluntarily undergo the binding.

You have bound Areth soul to your core. In case of death, you will be able to revive her.

The cost depends on the race, rank and power of revived individual and can be lowered by retrieving the original body of the target.

Warning! If not performed within 72 hours the target stats and rank will deteriorate while the cost will remain the same.

The good news was I could ensure the most important creatures would not be forever lost in case of their defeat, at least as long as I lived. I guessed the rank difference was a safeguard to make sure I could both safely control the monster and could actually afford the resurrection cost. Having Areth die would be a terrible mistake at this point as I doubted I could afford the mana to bring her back. When I had the chance I needed to check if I could channel mana needed for resurrection or if it had to be paid up front. I decided to try not worrying over having important decisions made for me as there was nothing I could really do about that. Well, maybe beyond doing my damnedest to stay conscious next time I actually had to make them. Knowing Areth had to get a boost from naming I had postponed looking through rest of the notification and checked her stats. In the process I have learned I now always knew where she was and could check her status at will without having her close or focusing on her.

Name

Areth

Race

Grootslang (Legendary)

Subspecies

Azure Grootslang

Class

The Divine Voice

Subclass

Champion

Rank

γ

Level

1/150

HP

500000/500000

Mana

20000/20000

Titles

3

Skills

8

I stared in shock at the information window, not knowing where to start. Firstly she was no longer an ancient creature but legendary, secondly, she was no longer common rank but advanced to the epic rank. She wasn’t just an epic ranked monster, she had skipped 8 full ranks and arrived in the middle of the tier as gamma rank. There was also the small detail of her half million hit points! This was ten times my health! No way she would be allowed to be anywhere outside the collectives I wouldn’t be able to resurrect her with a year’s worth of mana! There was also a bright side to this as I doubt anyone would expect anything close to her class in common rank dungeon so she would be perfect as the last line of defence for me. I was rather confident in her fighting and winning over lower legendary ranks due to her legendary bloodline. My last consolation was my foreboding skill, it wasn’t going off so my reckless actions wouldn’t lead me to certain doom this time. Time for the rest of the notifications then.

Congratulations!

Your monster Areth’s bloodline purity reached legendary rank!

She is one step closer to her legendary ancestor Grootslang

From now on Grootslangs in your dungeon will have a chance to refine their bloodlines with each rank advancement.

The purity of eggs increased and there will be a small chance new grootslangs will hatch as legendary monsters.

I was both annoyed at and glad for having insight skill. Annoyed because if I was born with the knowledge each dungeon was supposed to innately have I wouldn’t need it. Glad as it helped me actually make sense of those hardly informative information windows. I wondered briefly if someone made them as vague as possible on purpose or just had been a sadistic jerk. Thanks to the insight I knew that with every rank up my grootslangs’ blood purity would increase. By how much was not fixed and depended equally on skill, potential, effort and luck. The effect would be mostly invisible until sufficient threshold was reached and the species advanced.

Congratulations!

You have overcome limitations of the skill Transcendent Rage.

Your skill advanced to Transcendent Will [ε] Lvl: 10/100

In critical situations you are able to overcome all limitations and bring about the impossible.

Warning! You are unable to stop this skill until the change is completed. If you run out of mana your life is consumed instead.

Congratulations!

You have gained new title: Namer of Myths

The naming of ancient, legendary, mythical creatures will be easier and will grant additional bonuses to the named one.

Reviver of Myths title will grant increased bonuses to mythical creatures.

Congratulations!

Binding a higher rank monster caused increase in rank

You have advanced to rank D lvl 90/100

You have recovered all HP and Mana

Your maximum HP and Mana increased

All your skills increased in efficiency

All your stats were enhanced

My first epic skill and as a common dungeon at that. The sad part was I never planned to really use it as if I ever needed it then things went to shit already. That said, anything that could keep me breathing, or whatever was a dungeon equivalent, was welcomed. The title reinforced my other title and granted it new bonus which was nice. Yet same as with the skill, it was mostly useless. Besides grootslangs, which I intended to keep as last resort, I had a hard time imagining getting any ancient creature in my humble dungeon, I was sure they weren’t spawning under every rock. Level up notification was useless as well, I doubt I ever would miss increase in rank and there probably was no one scatter-brained enough to not notice either.

Congratulations!

You have acquired new trait: Lord of the Serpents

You have gained an advanced understanding of the serpents. All creatures with relevant bloodlines will grow stronger and advance quicker. Evolutionary requirements will be lowered while inside the dungeon.

Serpents racial enemies (Arachnids, Rocs, Mongeese) will be harder to attract and less effective.

I was unsure of the exact difference between title and trait but my gut instinct was telling me traits were generally weaker and linked with behaviour or preferences while titles were awarded after accomplishing a feat. Of course, as with everything in this world, there were exceptions and I was sure there were legendary traits and trash titles. This trait in particular although welcomed given my affiliation with grootslangs had a major disadvantage as it boosted only one species but weakened three others. I suspected it was even more far reaching as if I met lord of spiders in the future chances were they would try to destroy me if they could.

Congratulations!

You have acquired new trait: Powerful Mind

All your mental faculties are enhanced. You will subconsciously choose crafty solutions over simple ones and will avoid using brute strength.

Yes, so my previous assumptions were correct, traits were a double-edged sword. I certainly preferred being crafty over being a mindless brute. However; sometimes simple solutions were more effective and more important cheaper and quicker to implement. I doubted it would influence me to the degree forcing me to choose vastly inferior complicated fix over easy one but when things were hectic or would produce similar results I would have to double check to avoid making mistakes. The other foreseeable consequence would be me overthinking every minor and major decision crippling me ever more than ignoring having this trait.

Congratulations!

You have now 3 or more affinities.

From now on your affinities will have a direct influence on you and your monsters.

Creatures with aligned affinities will grow stronger and evolve easier.

Creatures with opposing affinities will be weakened and some evolutionary paths may be blocked.

Affinities

Superior Affinities

-

Greater Affinities

Soul, Mind

Strong Affinities

-

Standard Affinities

-

Lesser Affinities

-

Weak Affinities

Earth

I suspected there was something making all the dungeons distinctive but I was not sure what turned some into undead tombs, others into Minotaur’s mazes and others into elemental havens. Now I got my answer. My insight this time almost overwhelmed me with hidden meanings but sadly there was too much of it for me to make heads and tails out of it. The suspicious thing was that some evolutions would be blocked, then wouldn’t it mean some would also open up? I knew I needed to be careful with Soul affinity as it was associated with necromancy and that was a can of worms I knew not to open. I couldn’t ignore this affinity either as it had to be my innate one. Mind came from Areth and Earth from the core I had absorbed. At least I knew I had a way to increase my affinities by absorbing aligned creatures. The other questions had to wait as I had no way of answering then. Given chance, I really wanted to know if I could have opposing affinities and what would happen then.

Congratulations!

Your Affinity (Mind) gave you new skill: Thought Assimilation (Passive) [S] Lvl: Max

You will slowly gain new knowledge from any sentient present on your territory. The speed of assimilation is affected by numerous factors including but not limited to: the condition of the target, target familiarity with the subject, numbers of targets, rank and willpower of the target. You cannot actively choose knowledge acquired but it will be affected by your affinities and desires.

Congratulations!

Your Affinity (Soul) gave you new skill: Soul Inference [δ] Lvl: 1/200

Once every 3 days you may target recently deceased sentient and attempt to gain new knowledge. The amount of information available depends on your and target rank, the complexity of information, the strength of the soul and target’s state of mind at the moment of death.

Warning! In order for the skill to work, death must have occurred in your territory and body must be present. The soul must not be protected or otherwise restricted.

Those were the last notifications and the first that brought real joy to me. I have already realised that my most important weapon will be knowledge so new ways of acquiring it would suit me the best. At least in the long run. The first one would really come handy down the line when I have grown and attracted lots of visitors. Short term it would help me understand grootslangs better. The second one was the one that helped me formulate the plan of action. I was going to create an entrance soon but first comes getting to know my inhabitants.