Current Minion Overview

Low Grade Guardian Puppet: Level 75

Common Wooden Puppet: Level 3

Common Wooden Puppet: Level 2

Common Wooden Puppet (Beast): Level 2

Common Wooden Puppet (Farmer): Level 1

Common Wooden Puppet: Level 1

Sitting a short distance away from the second dungeon we eat some dried meat and drink some water.

The reason we are a bit away is because there are goblins guarding the entrance.

I was reviewing my puppets stats while doing that.

“Amazing, just from killing some 200 some remaining rats a puppet reached level 3 and two reached level 2.” I said.

“Not too surprising since the first levels have low exp requirement. Common rats may give around five to twenty exp depending their size.” Charlotte said.

“They are already working to spread the grass all over the dungeon now while killing off any small animals that enter while they do that.” I said.

“What of this dungeon?” Misaki asked.

“Changing a few things as we speak, the goblins seemed rather bored besides when attacking some wolves. I am fixing that by adding a few rooms since I want to attract them to move inside. Oh? Seems they found a herbal patch, I wonder if they would form an alchemist because of it?” I said pondering.

“No, they form shaman, it’s breeds a magic user hobgoblin which can eventually become a shaman. They are rather hard to deal with since they learn magic as good as a mage and are intelligent.” Charlotte explained.

“Can’t we just kill them?” Misaki asked.

“No, I understand why Ace wants us to ignore them at the moment, as long as they move inside we can slowly attack them while keeping them trapped inside. He can also slowly attack them when he wants with his puppets.” Charlotte replied.

“I’m going to avoid the total death trap dungeons when in normal situations mostly because normal people may find them. Only towards demons I will use those, now than, it seems they gathered things up, not much else… oh good they are heading back. Maybe because they were once dungeon monsters they seem to navigate the dungeon maze rather skillfully for stupid monsters.” I say.

After about twenty minutes the goblin party comes out, I let them of course, and they return with some wolf and rat corpses, which the guarding party grab, and they go back the way they came.

After a bit we finally entered.

“They didn’t kill much, a few confrontations with common wolves. I do have to say though the grey wolf population here is a bit larger with 30 inside. This area here must be closer to the den of the wolves.” I say.

“Good! Cross-san, plan out a second floor that you can eventually attach to this one to attract the bosses.” Misaki said.

“Sure, I’ll work on it at night, lots of small details I need to deal with to make the dungeon flow and to experiment with the puppets.” I said

Walking inside we slowly move as I watch the book.

In the invaders section dull red light signals that there is a very weak animal in front. When I looked it was just a fly. I frowned at that disgusting thing and wanted to fry it with a fireball but that is a waste of mana.

As I look at the book I suddenly notice that the door was blinking and growing stronger.

We drew closer and I saw the bug had stopped in the middle.

“Wait! Something is happening to that fly?” I said a bit pale.

Stopping the girls watched as well as the tiny fly suddenly budges and grows a bit then again. With a third wave of growth the carapace bursts apart revealing a black darker green one. Another breaks that one and shows a larger one.

The last one and an almost black carapace appears as the fly was now as big as a human's fist.

In the book it showed Flesh eater in the monster section while common flies were below.

“Mon-ster fly…” before I could finish speaking everything blurred.

… huh why is it dark…

“...n... “

*Slap slap*

“Ac…up!”

“ACE CROSS WAKE UP!”

POW!

“OUCH! WHAT THE HELL!” I shout as my gaze instantly focuses with the overbearing slap to the face. I grab the burning side of my face that was stinging.

“Ace, are you okay? You suddenly fainted out of nowhere.” Charlotte said worried.

“Fainted? Why would I faint?” I wondered. “What exactly happened?” I asked.

“We were walking down a corridor when suddenly a fly evolved into a monster. You collapsed soon after. What are you a sissy or something?” Misaki criticized me.

“Fly? Like the common blow fly? Turned into a monster?” I said extremely confused. “I don’t remember seeing any monster fly before I blacked out somehow."

“Did he hit his head too hard?” Misaki asked.

“Ace, do you have trauma of bugs or flies?” Charlotte asked.

“Trauma? None that I can remember, I do feel uncomfortable around bugs but I don’t really know if it's at the level of trauma.” I reply

“His mind is totally erasing his worst nightmare!” Misaki said in shock.

I get up and dust myself off and look around.

I see a strange object cut in half on the floor but pay it no mind as I start to walk forward and open my book.

“Let’s get going, the wolves should be further ahead.” I said.

The two just smile wryly at each other and follow after me.

We spent the afternoon cleaning out the monsters and then like before I called the puppets to clear out the rest of the bugs.

I got in the fight as well and worked on my sword skills. I wonder if there is a way for me to enter the third dungeon without me opening a hole.

After we left we return to the inn and I sit on my bed and review the dungeons at the moment.

Dungeon 1 currently has around 10k mana gathered

Dungeon 2 has 7k since there were much less monsters unlike the first one

And the farm dungeon generated around six thousand mana, that is from when I woke up in the morning to six at night. At the moment there is over 18k mana gathered in the book.

“Tell me the uses of the mana gathered by the Book of the Dungeon Maker.” I said out loud hoping for something.

Book of the Dungeon Maker

Gathered mana

The Book of the Dungeon Maker is a magical artifact that slowly gathers the surrounding mana so that it can function and do its job of aiding its owner.

The mana is used in many different forms from feeding minions to keep them from feeling hunger, repairing the dungeon, filling the dungeon for minions to slowly absorb to eventually evolve, mutate monsters and to overpower the mind of invading animals and monsters to kill them.

The mana is incapable of forcing monsters to submit to the dungeon maker like a common dungeon can do by capturing the mind of the victim.

Once enough mana is gathered it is possible to make several different crystal types as well. Exp crystal is formed naturally once more than 20k of mana is gathered and will appear on the books spine or cover and look like an ornament of the book and as more mana is gathered it will make more until there are enough to make a higher ranked gem which happens when 3 low grade gems come into existence.

Another thing it can make is a dungeon soul gem. To make this dungeon, a dungeon maker simply takes a medium grade exp crystal still attached to the book and fuse it with a soul gem and it will make a dungeon soul gem which will allow you to leave the dungeon permanently in its present location and free the magic hole formation. The soul gem naturally transmits the mana it gathers to the Book of Dungeon Maker and every 10 mana gathered it produces 1 exp from the death of monsters for the dungeon maker.

Methods to gather can come from natural generation and simple waiting, or killing monsters or by planting mana producing flowers and improve the generation of mana by having the flowers pull in more mana forcefully.

“Dungeon Soul gem, releases the magic hole so I can leave it permanently? … Doesn’t this mean I can sell my dungeons. Wait, I doubt it is that simple, considering how much material goes into one dungeon I can only see nobles and the royal family even being able to afford it.” I say to myself.

I reread the page and something appears that I find strange.

“I can’t get minions from overpowering their mind? Does that mean I must raise them from infant or do they need to be born and raised by me personally?” I pondered.

Looking at the last part, it pretty much confirms my suspicions on the flowers. If I can find a mana herb then I wonder how much of a boost it will have for my regeneration. Also to think the book made the exp crystals like that? This book is full of mysteries. I wonder if I can attach the gems into the book once the gems are made to fuse them? Considering my skill level at the moment the low grade ones are fine at the moment.

I move on to the puppets in a good mood and eventually I go to bed as night fell.

***

“Boss, this is the place.” One of my men said.

“Have you guys checked inside?” I asked them.

“Yeah boss, it looks like a well structured mine shaft but full of tall grass and we found some herb gathering points. There also seems to be some strange puppet constructs walking around but there are very few but then there are animals all over as well.” My men tell me.

“Animals? No monsters?” I asked.

“Besides a very huge pack of grey wolves, maybe around 60 we couldn’t spot anything larger. Only rats and other rodents.” he said.

“How many of the forests grey wolves are here?” I asked.

“I think at least a tenth of the silver nightmares pack.” he said.

“What is their movement pattern?” I asked.

“There are maybe 6 wooden rooms inside the dungeon and they are split into a pack of 10 each room. Also we found a massive… thing guarding a gather point and all the monsters are completely clear of that area.” another man said.

“There must be something important over there, since even a pack of 60 grey wolves are avoiding it then it must be akin to a boss of the dungeon. Until we understand the strength of this thing avoid it.” I tell them.

Although I want to teach that bitch a lesson but I still know dangers of dungeons and their infinitely dangerous traps and monsters and I can’t risk my mates for that. I may be D rank but most of them are F rank besides my top three mates who were E rank and have been with me since the start.

“Alright men, four men keep guard at 100 meters away and keep hidden or in the trees. This place is getting dangerous with the wolves coming in. Other animals or monsters can be coming in eventually as well so stay away enough to not get caught up in them. Once you spot them run back while staying hidden and warn us.” I shouted.

”””Yes Sir!””” They shouted and we pulled back besides those staying the shift. They would switch out in a while.

***

I look around the tavern for a while through the corner of my eye.

The girls next to me were eating a smaller more balanced meal at the moment. Misaki had found that venting rage through killing monsters worked better for her then eating so her meals obviously decreased.

“Hey, is it just me or are there… 20 guys watching us?” I asked.

The two looked up and took a small look around.

“You’re right.” Misaki said.

“They are an adventurer group around 20 to 25 people. The leader is most definitely that man Shinigumi-san crushed the hand of.” Charlotte said.

“You sure?” Misaki asked.

“Yes, I had heard they came to take care of the goblins like us but have fought but haven’t had progress.” Charlotte explained quietly.

“I could probably deal with it just by letting guardian crush everything but it would be boring. So they probably want to catch us. Most likely they already followed us to the dungeon and will wait for us to enter it.” I whisper.

“What is the situation for dungeon 2?” Charlotte asked.

I open the book on the table and show them the now 2 floor dungeon. The 2nd floor was much smaller but it was less of a dungeon and more of a collection of rooms that was a bit spread in a not so complex maze. Inside were over 300 goblins.

“Yeah, I confirmed the presence of all the goblins. It seems the dungeon still appeals to them. On the first floor is a hunting ground for them with lots of rodents but they seem to war with grey wolves. I removed the mana drop flowers from this dungeon though. The other one attracted around 90 grey wolves that now dominate the dungeon.” I explain.

“That doesn’t even come close to the full force of the grey wolf pack. I checked with the villagers and innkeeper and it seems that there are close to several hundred at the main pack. There is also an alpha and such wolves aren’t as easily drawn to a dungeon with one floor and no large space inside.” Charlotte commented.

“How do we do this?” I asked.

“Ace, how many puppets do you currently have?” Misaki asked.

A flip to through the pages as I take a bite from my food later I found ten besides the guardian.

“Ten besides guardian. One is farmer so non combatant.” I say.

“How many would you make farmer?” Misaki asked.

“Planned for 3 crafter, 2 farmer, 5 fighters. Today is day 3 since weapons had begun growing, swords, spear, armor, etc, should be finishing in a few hours and will be sharp enough to cut.” I say.

Misaki looked at Charlotte and began to think something over.

“Since the goblins are have already fallen into the trap we can attack now but the number could overwhelm us significantly so you can use it to train your puppets once they are ready. If there are still goblins left in the village we can finish them off. Us three go to dungeon 1 where they most likely followed us and there we kill the wolves and slowly kill off the pursuers with your dungeon and by our own hands.” Misaki said.

“That seems reasonable, they probably have other plans for us besides killing so they are getting off rather easy.” I said.

Charlotte had a worried expression that showed concern for the plan.

“I don’t know… do we have to kill them?” She asked.

“Do you know what bandits normally do to women?” I asked her.

She shook her head. I gesture to move closer and taking her ear I begin to explain all the R rated things that a girl that has angered a man could suffer. First her face turned tomato red before I reached the hardcore stuff and she paled and almost fainted.

“And that is why I take no mercy on others that will try to attack me since I will suffer the short end and die and they will make you both suffer greatly.” I sad.

“O-okay….” She muttered.

“You overdid it.” Misaki said.

“What? We are in a magic medieval era world, how do I know that they don’t have a caged up tentacle monster or a ogre that's been injected with drugs.” I said.

Misaki just sighed and shook her head and stood up before moving to Charlotte’s side and comforting her saying that they are all fantasies from our world.

Still it did put the necessary fear in Charlotte to slowly get rid of her naivety as a princess. It can be a slow process or it can be a fast one but it needs to go and just fighting monsters won’t get us much. Eventually the war with demons will show her another face of the world if I can’t push them through my dungeon.

After a while we get up and leave while watching our backs and notice the men coming out as we pass the gate.

“Let's go quick, they probably have sentries to make sure we enter or not.” I said.

The girls nod and we run into the forest and soon into the dungeon where we were safest.