Five: "Just letting you know. I just signed a contract with the Hurricane Alliance. I have the [Void Contract] with me in case something happens though. I"ll look into what they are doing to deal with the E26. They have so many dungeons in the empire; they have most probably already found the dungeon."Iris: "The Hurricane Alliance? They wanted to recruit me earlier but I turned down their offer. They were quite persistent and sent a few threats but became silent all of a sudden after your battle with Farsight. They probably asked you to meet the other players there. You should be careful with who you interact with at alliance."
Five: "I was not aware of this. What do you mean by that?"
Iris: "From your answer, I can tell you never accepted the friend request of any other player."
Iris: "In every alliance, there is a group called "Anarchy". They are a group of players who used to be members of an international criminal group in reality before the game. They still maintained contact with each other and although they were forced to sign contracts with the alliances to develop quickly, the members of that group are all actively seeking to break free from their contract and reform their group."
Iris: "Actually, they have a few members who refused to join any alliance and these people have already formed a group. They invited all the dungeon masters not affiliated with any alliance, including me. To be honest, I am considering joining them. It would be more accurate to describe them as a community; they have no actual obligations. They are more like a mercenary group and if the reward you offer is high enough, they will lend you a hand."
Five: "Never heard of it. But I will keep an eye open for this. Thanks for the info."
Iris: "No problem. Look for any information about the owner of the E26. The problem is intensifying at my dungeon; my monsters are catching at least one t.i.tle holder per day."
Five: "Build a quarantine at the gates and deny them entry. You cannot continue killing them or the inhabitants of your town will start worrying about their own security."
"Cough Cough."
At that moment, Dreidus lightly coughed, bringing Five back to reality.
The latter embarra.s.sedly glanced at the lich. "D*mn! I got engrossed in the conversation. I said I would keep my distance and only send one message per day. She just had to reply so quickly and hit an important point at that..."
"Master, look at the screen. The monsters are coming," said Dreidus as he pointed at the screen. With the Eye Extender having fused with the dungeon core, they were now able to see the forest outside the dungeon.
On the screen, several black dots in the sky were making their way toward the dungeon. Five nodded and quickly typed on his chat log.
Five: "I got to go. Something to do with the alliance."
Iris: "Gotcha. Remember to keep your [Void Contract] in your inventory in case something happens."
Five closed his interface and focused his attention on the screen. On a second screen, he saw Harriet, Ignis, and Ishan waiting at the entrance. The monsters had rather gloomy expressions.
Harriet had been in this mood since her defeat against Ivan. She blamed herself for the death of so many monsters and wanted to get stronger. She wanted to prove herself and show to everyone that she was strong enough to be the guardian of the dungeon. This wave of monsters was a huge opportunity for her. She would get to level up a lot and once she reached her level cap, the rest of the monsters would be given to Ishan and Ignis.
"Don"t you think that Ishan is in a bad mood? I said nothing yesterday but he looks like he wants to murder someone," commented Five.
"Yeah. If we mentioned it yesterday, it would be like rubbing salt on his wounds. He failed his evolution." Dreidus explained.
"So that"s why. No wonder he wanted Ignis to come with him. His level cap is only level 45. He should be able to quickly reach that level. When you see him, tell him not to worry, he will have other opportunities to evolve. By the way, are you sure you do not want to join them, Dreidus?"
The lich shook his head. "No. After our defeat, I fell down to level 39. This is perfect for me if I want to become a high-quality Lich Journeyman. If I was at level 40 and went through the ritual, I would just become a low-quality Lich Evoker. Because going through the ranks using the system only increases levels by ten, it is better for me to be at high quality."
"I see. This way, the last digit of your level will always be a "9" rather than a "0"."
On the screen, Five saw his monsters retreat into the dungeon, allowing the enemy monsters to enter the dungeon. If they were killed inside the dungeon, he would obtain the full amount of DP.
The monsters were a large group of birds. There were level 20 Black Ravens, level 25 Flying Rainbow Pheasants, level 30 Dark Hawks, and so on. The birds entered the dungeon and obediently landed in front of Harriet, waiting to be killed.
Five watched the scene with interest. The old dungeon masters were not allowed to directly send their monsters to younger ones and among the players, no one could afford such a large army of birds. It could only mean that all these birds were wild animals, just like the Black Raven who agreed to join the dungeon a few days ago when delivering the letter.
"So many birds... Just like Entomology, someone has a core of Ornithology? I would not be surprised if that was the case."
The ma.s.sacre started. With the birds not resisting, they all perished after a few hits but there were so many of them that Harriet"s attacks seemed to be ineffective. Outside, a ma.s.sive flock of birds was circling around the dungeon.
Five briefly glanced at his DP count and saw it increasing rapidly. There was no point in watching his monsters dealing with the birds. instead, he took out a few items from his inventory.
[Demonic Shackles]
Activate to bind the prisoner of a dungeon core. Once bound, the prisoner will be forcefully weakened and require more resources to break free from his prison.
Max upgrades of Dungeon Core before the prisoner can break free +1
The Core of Madness reacted as soon as the Demonic Shackles appeared. It flashed emitting a dim light. It was scared; Lavenus instinctively knew the effects of the Demonic Shackles.
Five was amused by the Core of Madness" terrified reaction. "What? You are scared now? You say you were wrong and want to apologize?"
He smiled evilly. "It is too late."
The Demonic Shackles shone and like two snakes, they rushed toward the Dungeon Core and disappeared inside. Five received the notification that the Demonic Shackles were in effect, but there were no signs showing it.
"Good. Now, let"s feed you the Cores and see what we"ll get from you," said Five. He took out the two Phantom Cores and the Core of Wilderness.
Starting with a Phantom Core, Five fed the core to the Core of Madness.
[System prompt: Your Core of Madness has successfully consumed a Phantom Core.]
[System prompt: You are awarded 400000 DP.]
Five disappointedly looked at the system prompts. "That"s it? Nothing else? Quite disappointing."
He grabbed the second Phantom Core and again pushed it into the Core of Madness. The Phantom Core disappeared and the same system prompts appeared but that was it.
"What? Where is the upgrade? You already had three cores if we count the Core of Flames from before. Still no upgrade? You are going to cost me a lot to upgrade!"
Five narrowed his eyes as he grabbed the Core of Wilderness. "There better be some results this time." He brought the two cores together and to his delight, he received the following system prompts:
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[System prompt: Your Core of Madness has successfully consumed the Core of Wilderness.]
[System prompt: You are awarded 400000 DP.]
[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five. The Core of Madness has been upgraded to Grade 3]
[System prompt: The Core of Madness can now display an additional effect. Please choose from the following:
1. Entomology - Increase the breeding rate of all insect type monster by 150% and increase all their stats by 3
2. Flame Birth - Unlocks the ability to Build Flame Nests. Each Flame Nest can give birth to one societal Fire-type Monster per day.
3. Wilderness - Increase all the stats of non-societal monsters by 10%
4. ??? - ??? (Currently locked due to low level)]
"Finally!" exclaimed Five as his eyes lit up. The dungeon core finally upgraded itself after consuming four cores!
"Looks like the number of cores required doubles each time... It is going to be hard to upgrade it again."
He turned his attention to the new options available to him. He was familiar with Entomology; it was one of the bonus he was offered last time but its buff was improved. It now increased all stats by three instead of two. The breeding rate was higher too.
However, Five was more interested in the other two buffs. Both were extremely useful; Flame Birth would allow him to save a lot of DP while Wilderness would greatly boost the power of his monsters. Non-societal monsters represented the majority of a dungeon"s monsters.
"Only two new buffs and they seem to be a.s.sociated with the Core of Flames and the Core of Wilderness. I suppose Phantom Cores are just bad quality cores that do not offer any bonus," thought Five. He turned toward Dreidus and explained the different buffs to him.
After a few minutes, they came up to a conclusion and another system prompt sounded:
[System prompt: You have chosen Flame Birth. Updating the Core of Madness]
[Information]
[Core of Madness](Grade 3)(Upgradable)
Controls the overall operations of the dungeon. Once taken out of the dungeon or destroyed, the dungeon and dungeon master will be destroyed
Effect 1: DP gained +8%
Effect 2: Dwarfism - Increase the crafting success rate of all monsters shorter than 1.5m and increase all their stats by 1.
Effect 3: Flame Birth - Automatically builds two Flame Nests. Each Flame Nest can give birth to one societal Fire-type Monster per day.
Effect 4: The Dungeon Master and all the dungeon"s Boss Monsters will also learn the skills provided by the Core of Madness.
Skill: [Frenzy], [Hysteria], [Berserk], [Surrender to Madness]
[Frenzy(level 2)]
User temporarily sacrifices part of his Intelligence and Wisdom in exchange for an increase in Strength and Dexterity:
Intelligence and Wisdom -5
Strength and Dexterity +8
Duration: 4 minutes
Can be used thrice per day.
[Hysteria(level 1)]
User sacrifices HP and MP in exchange for an increase in Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom.
HP & MP - 8/second
Strength and Dexterity +4
Wisdom +4
The skill automatically comes to a stop if the user"s HP or MP is insufficient.
Can be used twice per day
[Surrender to Madness]
Exchange one-third of your soul and obtain the power of the Mad King Lavenus for one hour.
Cost: One-third of your soul
Duration: One hour
[Berserk(level 0)]
User becomes unable to distinguish between allies and foes in exchange for an increase in all stats.
All stats +2
Duration: 2 minutes
Can only be used once per day and in the presence of an ally.
Five wore a satisfied smile. All the skills given by the dungeon core improved. As for the new skill, [Berserk], Five did not know how to react to it. Its effects were definitely powerful but so were the drawbacks! Furthermore, it could only be used if an ally was present; it was like the dungeon core was saying that it wanted the user to harm his allies.
Five did not need to explain the detail to Dreidus. Due to one of the effects of the core, he automatically learned about the properties of the new skill.
The dungeon core flashed as two bright orange spheres emerged from the galaxy inside the orb. They landed on the wooden table and roll toward Five.
The latter briefly glanced at the orange spheres and an information window appeared.
[Flame Nest]
Sacrifice one monster to the nest. Every day, the Flame Nest will give birth to a new monster from the species of the sacrifice.
Note: Boss Monsters cannot be sacrificed.