Chapter 16 Humans?

The five of us were looking at the newly formed second floor. That's me, Rox, Max, Levine and Eva. Eva was the latest addition to our decision making duo. She was placed right under Rox and helped out with mana training and supervising the squirrels that worked with herbs. And now we were looking at the second floor coming up with plans on how we would develop it. We were looking at a massive cavern, easily twice the size of one of the rooms on the second floor. It was also shrouded in darkness. Right now there wasn’t any mana flowing here because we hadn’t made the Boss Room in the floor above. Thus there wasn't the fierce glow of mana lighting the dungeon like it did the floor above. Thankfully we had a squirrel that could work fire with us. Eva was holding an orb of fire in her hand and we were using it to look around.

I had some ideas as to what to do from the second floor on. Rox said that traditionally, dungeons are pretty much just caves with monsters for the first 10 floors or so… but well, caves with monsters as defense doesn’t really sound safe for me. So I figured I would do something different. I had done so many things that were different from what a traditional dungeon did that it was basically a tradition itself. Rox shrugged and said she didn't mind. In fact she said that she had a feeling all the best dungeons probably broke from the norm, thus why not us as well? She drives a good point.

So far, we had created two ‘New Floors’. This was my idea. From what used to be the dead end, we placed a stairway down, but also from the crystal room hidden behind the secret rooms and trap rooms we placed one as well. My idea was that we would have two parallel dungeons, one to keep us safe, the other as a decoy. So we create two seperate second floors with their own entrances.

Now, we had to create a boss room and figure out what to keep as the boss. The boss creature is special in that it is tied to the room. The room will absorb and summon the monster back automatically, so there is no need for summoning again and again. The main reason for this seems to be as a communication between floors. I didn’t want to use just any creature as the Boss because they will forever be unable to leave the Boss Room.

I had two ideas in mind for the Boss. The first idea that came to mind was to use the Demon Wolf. The problem with that was that although it was only a Skill Ranker, a name we used when a monster/creature/person was ranked high in the system due to a skill, it was still Rank D which was too high for the first floor of a dungeon. Having such a strong monster as the first floor boss might alarm any adventurers so we would have to play it safe. When the Demon Wolf had attacked the dungeon, it alone was responsible for killing off more than half the casualties. So even though it was a Skill Ranker, it still posed a danger to adventurers beyond what they would expect.

I myself was considered a Skill-Ranker due to my high rank skills while my stats were nowhere near the Rank B given to me by the system. I smiled grimly, the system's evaluation was far from perfect.

The second idea I had… was to use one of the special summons from the lower ranks. Maybe Rank F or even a Rank G.

So our next task was to make a boss room, pick a boss and then move everyone and the dungeon crystal to the second floor. After that we'll change up the floor a little to make it better to live.

If only things worked out smoothly.

Perhaps because we had been going quite some time without any problems, I was actually stunned when one of the squirrel folk ran in and announced we had ‘guests’.

A team of 6 adventurers were headed to the dungeon. They were camped outside the dungeon right under the watchful eyes of some sharp-eyed squirrel folk. As part of the regular training for the squirrels, the teams also practiced climbing up and down trees. This particular group had been caught up in the trees so they had stayed in order to observe while sending one of their members back to the dungeon as quietly as possible.

It seems the guild had finally responded. It had been months since that swordswoman had come through last… hopefully they had friendly intentions... They didn't seem like they were here to conquer the dungeon and take the dungeon crystal. Right now, I didn't want to clash with an adventurer group. The only problem was that it seemed we were stuck while these adventurers were here.

I ordered everyone into the secret rooms. I was a bit annoyed. I didn’t have enough mana for both the Boss Room and for a Boss, and with these adventurers here I couldn’t keep the dungeon folk collecting. So annoying… I couldn't move down to the second floor yet and these adventurers had come.

So now I’m waiting for ambient mana collection… damn, how do regular dungeons deal with such low mana collecting speeds?

There were adventurers… it was bad enough when the Ogre Lady came through, now this time there was 6 of them! They didn’t feel as powerful though. When they came into the dungeon we got Alex to spy on them using the dungeon's abilities to figure them out. Actually, as long as they don’t discover the secret room leading to the dungeon, we could pretty much ignore them.

The adventurers came entered the dungeon at day break. There was basically no way we could hide the fact that we were a dungeon… dungeons have a different feeling in terms of mana and basically every adventurer will be able to feel the difference.

‘Oh man, I forgot about this!’

Alex was whispering in my ear, although since we were watching through the dungeon’s sight I’m not sure why he was whispering.

‘The amount of mana we’re collecting just started speeding up like crazy! I forgot they would do this to my mana, no wonder dungeons would consider adventurers as prey.’

Right…

Why do dungeons and the sentient races have such a strange relationship, the answer is that the intelligent races are simply the best source of mana, they even give off wisps of soul power that can be absorbed by the dungeons. This is dungeon 101 and why dungeons have the ability to create treasure chests, simply for the purpose of luring in the adventurers.

For adventurers, dungeons are a source of treasure as well as training and experience.

The problem is if a dungeon was regarded as dangerous… or useless. Two extremes. A dangerous dungeon was one considered as a dungeon that will pose a threat to a nearby city or civilization… while a useless dungeon is one that has no worth to adventurers and they will destroy it to harvest the dungeon crystal.

To find that fine line between the two… or simply be too powerful for the adventurers to ever take down.

‘Alex, how do you want to handle this? Everyone is hidden in the secret areas. All we have left in the rooms are some slimes.’

‘We’ll just watch… as for everyone else… get them back into training, have the fighters standby in teams just in case.’

And so we watched. And… it was soooo boring. What on earth are these adventurers doing? Well I can’t blame them I guess, after the first pitfall trap they became very paranoid. No one died though, they seemed to have a mage in the group. He used some spell that pulled the unlucky one back before he fell into the pit. After that, they inched forward. I swear I could hear their sweat drip onto the dungeon floor as they probed every single step as they went forward. They were going to be here forever! It was already afternoon and they were only in the fifth room. Hell I swear they would run after meeting with the ceiling fall traps we had set up in the next room.

That said, each room was pretty large. We made them huge because well, why not? With the amount of folks living in the dungeon, we needed a lot of space for them to run around.

Sigh… bored bored… I was just waiting for something to happen at this point.

‘Captain! What the fuck is this dungeon! Little Tim nearly died in that pit! And this is the first floor!’

‘Relax, Mark got him out right? Though I got to say, this dungeon is really weird… traps on the first floor. And we haven’t run into a single monster either. You think it’s a trap specialized dungeon? I think I’ve heard of one but I ain’t sure.’

‘We also haven’t found a single treasure chest. Doesn’t this make the dungeon useless?’

'What treasures can you get on a first floor? Stop being greedy, they usually show up at the end of the dungeon!'

‘Ah look lively fellas, we found ourselves our first monster. A slime too, looks like Ms Rank B wasn’t lying, it’s slimes first floor. The wolves she saw before must have come from outside and she chased them away. Good for us!’

A single slime barely moved before being sliced to pieces by two swords.

‘I don’t think this is a trap specialized dungeon either… they’re there sure but there aren’t that many. What do you guys think?’

‘Donno captain.’

‘This dungeon is weird.’

They got to the 6th room, it had already become evening. One of the forward scouts triggered the first ceiling trap.

‘Fucking shit man! That trap almost killed me! Fuck! I lost my sword under there! Why is there another type of trap! This is the fucking first floor! I’m sick of this shit! Boss, let’s get out of here!’

The scout had to roll to the side, not hesitating in the slightest, showing that he was an experienced adventurer. Unfortunately he had lost his sword under the falling debris. The other adventurers helped him up then retreated back a bit.

‘Ceiling traps now? Damn, that’s a fast change… ok, we’re going to be spending the night in the dungeon it seems fellas so let’s stop here for tonight.’

'Boss, I'm sick of these traps...'

Grumbling could be heard amongst the group as they set up a small camp, eating dry foods and stopping for the day.

I looked at this group with dull eyes… they really didn’t do much did they? I had swept my observe skill across them and they were on average Rank E, 2 scouts, 2 warriors, one mage and a priest. A fairly standard group. Their leader was a rank higher at Rank D.

‘Rox, I don’t think I want these guys here anymore. Let’s chase them out using the goblins tomorrow.’

‘Oh thank the gods, they’re so boring! And since everyone’s trapped here I can’t get fresh berries… let’s scare them tomorrow, we can shroud Eva up in a coat and pretend she’s a special goblin shaman way in the back, almost out of sight. She can fling some fireballs at em and scare them away.’

‘Yeah that’s not a bad idea. Since these guys took so long getting here, the nearest city’s probably quite a long way away. If they want to come again we’ll have enough time to make the second floor at the very least. Also I don’t think they’ll be interested in the dungeon either, I didn’t leave a single treasure chest heh.’

So the plan was set, we were going to get the 5 goblins and a disguised Eva to attack them tomorrow and drive them out. We’d wait until they got to the eighth room and found the arrow traps, then send the attack. That way they might just retreat and hopefully write us off to the adventurer’s dungeon as both a useless dungeon but also one that would be difficult to conquer. That would be ideal, getting them to leave us alone.

One thing I learnt the hard way, it’s not monsters that show their faces that you have to fear, it’s the ones behind a smiling mask. I’m much more scared of humans or one of the other intelligent species attacking us than I am of a monster horde.

It happened the next day. The turning point, something we didn’t consider.

We made a mistake. A big mistake.

I had overlooked something… or maybe I wouldn’t have thought about it until it happened.

We had gotten Eva and the five goblins set up at the end of the eighth room to wait for the adventurers.

Then Rox and me went to go spy on them, we could listen in to what they were saying.

They were packing up their small camp while eating rations for breakfast, and that’s when it happened.

‘Boss! Boss! Guess what? My intelligence gained a stat point! Haha it’s been months before I gained anything and now I finally gained a stat point!’

‘Ha, I knew bringing you on this mission was a good idea! It probably went up because of the new experience of doing your first big mission haha!’

The adventurer group gathered around the youngest scout congratulating him. They then returned back to packing when another of the group, this time the young warrior, who, with a strange look on his face said, ‘Uh… guys? I… I also gained a stat... in intelligence.’

Wait… what? I felt my heart beating faster in my chest. A faint sense of forboding. I could feel the sweat on my back increase. A sudden chill was running down my spine.

I heard a murmur from Rox, ‘Oh no no no.’

This time, the adventurers had paused. Two people gaining stat points? And the same stat? That was strange. Most of the adventurers said their congratulations to the young warrior… but the mage’s face had changed.

‘Boss, I want the group to move back to the first room,’ the mage said to the captain of the team.

The captain, seeing the look on the mage’s face quickly agreed and they moved rapidly back towards the entrance.

This had barely taken 5 minutes.

‘Rox… what… what’s going on?’

‘Alex… we can’t let them escape! Alex this is a disaster! Fuck, gather everyone! Goddamn it we have to kill them!’

‘Rox, what’s going on? What the hell happened??’

‘It’s your Aura skill! Alex! Your Aura of Knowledge skill! It works on them too!’

This section is not needed to enjoy the story, only for those who, like me, are interested in the technicalities.

Spoiler: Spoiler

What structures form the basis of skill formations?

Macro-system: the mana system is overlaid as an evolution of the lymph network in the human body, the lymph nodes being natural collecting points for mana – plus they are spread through the body quite uniformly. The mana system is needed to both absorb mana from outside as well as deliver mana to skill formations and activate skills

Micro-system: the skills themselves will be formed of what every matter is there, and it will sometimes require more special substances such as a higher concentration of metals etc to form the structure. Special ribosomes helping form the structures is not a bad way to think about it. <- (in response to one of the reader’s, a great way to think)

Would having more body parts/being bigger/etc give an advantage in skills?

Yes and no.

For multiple body parts, there is both benefit and repercussions. An issue is that having many skills does not necessarily make you stronger. Say a 4-armed beast has skills. His two upper arms have [Cross Slash], while his bottom two arms have [Fireball]. It sounds very strong, but if this beast doesn't have the mana to use his skills effectively, then its useless.

Another point, if a beast has multiple body parts, this doesn't necessarily mean they have the aptitude to gain a lot of skills. Skills need support to form, there is a requirement or foundation needed before skills will develop. Just because a beast has 4 arms doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily develop a skill in each arm and become a 4-armed destruction machine.

What’s better, stats or skills?

How powerful individuals are can be divided into 3 broad categories: those that have high stats, those that have good skills and lastly those with good battle prowess. Of the three in terms of fighting ability: Battle Prowess > stats > skills. Battle prowess is essential because if you have good stats and good skills but can’t use them to good effect? Then it’s a waste.

Any of you read The King’s Avatar? Great novel series. The stats would be like the build of a character, skills are self-evident but the ability to make the most out of that combination is what determines how powerful a person is.

(I actually ended up adding this next bit into the story, I left it here so that it could be included in the Theory of Skills section too)

Which brings me to a good point. The system in this world can measure skills and it can measure stats, but it cannot measure battle prowess. A person with a high level skill will be ranked a rank lower than their highest ranked skill. Thus Alex is actually Rank B due to his Rank A skills. When he was talking to Max about the Demon Wolf being weak, it’s because the wolf is a Skill-based Rank D beast not a stat based one. There is a bit of prejudice against Skill Rankers vs Stat Rankers, these terms will come up again later.