Hearing her new name, the firefly queen flapped its wings and flew in circles around Five.

"Good! I will think of a way to implement fireflies to the dungeon!" said Five. Lumen was not a combat type monster. It was mainly a decorative monster that could only emit light. In fact, a firefly only cost 1 DP and would consume about 0.1 DP’s worth per day.

Fireflies could pester the adventurers but dealt 0 damage. Lumen was a boss monster but could only deal a maximum of 5 damage per attack. It was even less than what normal combat type monster could deal.

However, considering that Five's dungeon was a cave, he could make use of Fireflies to add dynamics to the dungeon. They could be used to light up the surroundings or even act as decoys while other monsters would attack. He just brainstormed some ideas but needed to refine them before implementation.

His original plan was to build up a self-sustaining ecosystem with 2-3 species which would feed on each other to survive. It was a way to build up a strong foundation for the dungeon which would minimize the amount of DP he would need to spend.

However, it was easier said than done. This could have been easily achieved if he had a lot of DP but although 56000 sounded like a lot, it was barely enough to properly accommodate a few floors. It was like being a start-up with a lot of potential but not enough funding to sustain itself.

Five could spend all his DP on building a perfect first floor with a good ecosystem, but what about the next ones? It would result in placing his dungeon core at risk. Like when setting the foundation of a building; the deeper the foundation, the higher the building could be built. But if all the money and time were spent on the foundation, nothing would be left for the actual building.

He needed to compromise and so, he decided to first collect some DP. He would make a few generic floors like Kroff to generate some DP before building the dungeon he wanted.

"It's the best compromise I can find. I will use the first 5 floors to gather DP quickly and the rest will be my real dungeon!"

He looked at the skeleton, "I hope you do not mind if I turned this place in my headquarters. I won't destroy this place or anything, your body will be buried properly!"

But at that moment, a system prompt appeared:

[System prompt: You have found the remains of a powerful mage in your dungeon. Due to the nature of the mage and the circumstances, it is possible to turn the remains into a monster. Would you like to proceed?]

"A powerful mage? Is it that man? Is that the monster Gaia talked about?" thought Five.

"What are the conditions?"

[System prompt: The mage used to be a powerful necromancer whose body was predisposed to become a Lich. It is possible to activate the transformation process and turn the body into your monster. The cost of the transformation is 15000 DP]

"A lich? What about the level of the monster?"

[System prompt: Information not available]

"Mmm What should I do? A monster for 15000? It is not that expensive if it is a boss monster. From what Gaia said, it should be able to rival Harriet in the future," thought Five.

He hesitated for a moment before decisively accepting. 15000 DP disappeared and instantly, a dark deadly glow appeared around the skeleton. Lumen was scared by the sudden change and quickly went to hide behind Five.

The skeleton shook and suddenly, all the light surrounding the skeleton was violently absorbed by it. A few moments later, two gloomy light balls appeared in the skeleton's eye sockets.

"Crrk crrk"

The sound of noise cracking could be heard as the skeleton started to move its hand and turned to look towards Five.

"So you are the one who revived me? Why did you do that?" slowly asked the skeleton with an ethereal voice.

"I did it. Because I am looking for monsters to defend my dungeon. I discovered this place and decided to turn it into my dungeon. But since your body was already there, my dungeon core gave me the opportunity to turn you into a lich," earnestly answered Five while looking at the lich.

The latter looked no different from before except for the light in its eye sockets. Five could faintly feel a connection with it since it was now its monster, but he could also feel that the lich was not exactly happy to be reborn.

"I never asked to be reborn! It would have been better to leave me to rot in this place. If you wanted to turn my home in your dungeon, that would be fine. But you should have left my body in peace!" said the lich. His voice was devoid of emotions. Five could not feel any anger, all he perceived was a tinge of melancholy.

It was an awkward situation; he just used 15000 DP but the monster he obtained was not very enthusiastic about joining him.

'The monsters really have their own personalities... I should take that into consideration for next time,' thought Five.

"But I know you paid a great price in summoning me. And in fact, I am grateful for taking me out of the purgatory. I will help you as I can but don't expect much from me, I only recovered a portion of my strength," continued the lich.

"The purgatory? What is that?" asked Five.

The skeleton looked strange as its jaws kept moving up and down with cracking sounds. "Let me explain. I used to be a middle-tier necromancer and formed part of the Necro Valley, the holy land of necromancers. It is the one place that could survive through the storm as necromancers were purged by the empires because we were associated with the demons."

"However, something happened, and I was forced to run away from Necro Valley. A curse was placed on me which would activate as my soul would disperse! This was the last thing I wanted and so, I decided to trap my soul at the purgatory instead of leaving it to disperse. The purgatory is usually the place where souls would undergo purification before being dispersed. But I cursed myself, preventing the purification to take place. I passed away decades ago and since then, my soul has been undergoing purification without making any progress."

The skeleton trembled as he finished his sentence. Five could easily feel that there was more to the story than it looked.

"I restricted the use of my powers to go undetected, but decades have passed, and they probably forgot about me. But that does not mean there are no risks! Necro Valley might attack this place if they discover that I am still alive. Please bear that in mind if you want me to defend your dungeon," said the lich.

Five looked at him before quickly nodding. It looked like more troubles would be coming his way in the future, but he could not let go of 15000 DP either.

"When time will come, this place will protect you! Since you are one of my monsters, I will do my best to protect you. But my ambitions do not stop at just defending this place! I want to be able to walk through the empire without any fear! If you join me, I might one day be able to overturn Necro Valley!" confidently declared Five.

He meant what he just said! Although he postponed his plans of revenge, they were still lying in a corner of his mind. He needed to be powerful enough to do whatever he wanted; his enemies would probably hide inside powerful cities of the empire. A holy land should not prove too challenging when compared to entire empires.

The lich nodded. It was moved by his words but was skeptical. "This is your choice. I will do what I can, but my powers are limited. Only with time, will I recover my original strength!" declared the lich.

At that moment, a system prompt was heard:

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, the lich Dreidus has agreed to serve you.]

At the same time, a window opened, showing Dreidus' stats:

Name: Dreidus

Race: Undead

Level: 20 (0/10000)

Class: Necromancer

Title: Survivor of Purgatory

HP: 360/360

MP: 600/600

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 25

Vitality: 36

Intelligence: 60

Wisdom: 55(+2)

Special Skills: [Rise of the Dead]

[Information]

[Rise of the Dead (Grade 2)]

Summons 3 level 15 skeletons to fight for the user. Skeletons last up to 3 minutes.

Mana Cost: 30

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Five smiled with satisfaction. The lich turned out to be a powerful level 20 monster! His stats were impressive, especially when compared to his own. Boss monsters were usually attributed thrice the number of stats as their player counterpart.

He also noticed the +2 next to wisdom but Five did not ask anything. That was without doubt due to the equipment the lich was wearing. At first glance, he looked completely naked, but a tiny ring could actually be found on his ring finger.

"Welcome to the team Dreidus! I will do my best to help you when the time will come," said Five.

"Thank you, my lord! I will likewise protect this place with my all!" answered Dreidus.

Five quickly took out the Necromancer's wand that he previously placed in his inventory. "I think this is yours."

Dreidus' skull tried to make a smile but that resulted in a scary expression, "Thank you, my lord! It is a pity my necromancer's robe already turned into dust."

"That is fine. I will buy you a proper one! But first, there are some things we need to do."

Dreidus nodded. He silently stood next to Five waiting for his new master's move.