Unbeknown to the two, 30 minutes already went by as they started their 5th match of Checkers. And obviously, Five was the winner of each round but Harriet was slowly understanding the rules of the game and slowly got better."Are you cheating? How is that possible!" declared Harriet.
"Haha, of course not but I don"t think we should be playing another round, we still need to meet Kroff. Now that you know the game, I am sure you can share it with your sisters and all play together," said Five.
The Harpy immediately smiled and agreed. They have already spent more time than needed here and so, they abandoned their 5th match and left to find Kroff. When leaving, Harriet quickly swept the desk, collecting the pieces of sulfur and coal.
...
They quickly went to Kroff"s room and Five listened to his lesson. Harriet was more agitated, she just wanted to go back to her sisters and present them this game but she had to stay here and listen to Kroff speaking.
As for Five, despite feeling tired, he looked completely normal and carefully listened to the lesson. Time pa.s.sed quickly and soon, the lesson was over.
"I would just like to say that I will make some modifications to the dungeon tonight when all the players will leave, will that be ok?" asked Five.
"Sure, I was long waiting for this. I hope that what you"ve planned will be beneficial for the dungeon" said Kroff.
"Yes, should I make the modifications now to show you? I know that they will only become effective tonight when everyone would have left the dungeon," asked Five.
"Naturally, I will be happy to advise you," answered Kroff. He was really curious about what was planned by his student.
With a quick movement of his finger, Five prompted the pseudo-dungeon core to project the hologram of the floors. Quickly, he focused on the first floor"s map and started making changes.
Kroff and Harriet were both surprised when they saw Five"s movements. He was quickly rearranging the walls, it was as if he had done that all his life. In fact, the interface was very similar to one of those level maker games. These were very common on Earth and so, Five had no problem manipulating the interface at all.
The first floor was vast but the makeover was done in less than 20 minutes. Without hesitation, he saved the draft and moved to the second floor.
Kroff used his own Dungeon Core to open the draft in front of him. He carefully studied it but in the end, did not find anything wrong aside from the weird arrangement.
25 minutes went by and the second draft was ready. Another 20 minutes and the 3rd was ready...
Quickly, 3 hours pa.s.sed while Five was focusing on his interface. Every time he would change one floor, he would save the draft and Kroff would then open it on his own Dungeon Core to study it.
The time for lunch was long gone but as he was focused on his job, Five did not even feel hungry. He was used to such tasks, sometimes, he would even go whole days without eating and that would not affect his stamina. However, in the game, his Fatigue level was quite high already.
"This is it, what do you think?" asked Five as he sat down and ma.s.sage his hands.
Kroff took a moment to look at the last floor, "Not bad, I don"t have anything to say about the arrangement, but why did you not give any weapons to the goblins. They are clearly different from the other monsters and rely on their weapon to deal damage," asked Kroff.
"I highly doubt that the adventurers would even reach the 10th floor right now so there is no need for such unnecessary expenses! You already know that I am low on the budget right now," answered Five.
"Mmmm" Kroff once again looked at all the floors but still, he did not find anything wrong. "It"s good, you can process it and activate the changes tonight!"
"Alright, in that case, I will now go for lunch, I am very hungry after all of this!" said Five.
"No problem, Harriet will bring you there!"
As Five and Harriet left the room, Melhroth quickly floated towards Kroff.
"You saw the map too right? What do you think?" asked Kroff.
"From my point of view they look fine and I did not feel any bad intention from Five when he was making the changes. But still, I have a bad feeling about this, we should closely monitor the situation tomorrow after the changes! " respectfully replied Melhroth.
"Mmm, but tomorrow will be more hectic since the guard will probably send people to map the new floors, we"ll have to see..."
...
"Really? Why did you have to choose today to make the modifications?" asked Harriet visibly annoyed. All she wanted was to quickly find her sister to play the new game she learned but instead, she had to stand there 3 more hours and watch Five modify the floors.
"Sorry about that, but we can have lunch at the Harpy"s village and spend the rest of the day there!" said Five. He was already exhausted and the last thing he wanted was to have an argument with Harriet. All he wanted now was a good meal and some sleep.
The two quickly made their way through the tunnels and Five sat down at his usual spot with a food tray next to him. A few meters away, Harriet was excitedly explaining the rules of Checkers to 3 harpies while drawing the board with her Harpy"s Blood.
As for Five he calmly observed the excited young harpies play for a moment while eating but he quickly lost interest. To him, checkers was very boring, it was one of the most basic games but for the harpies who spent their life fighting and killing, it was very enticing.
All his preparations were now ready, all he needed was to wait for tomorrow to see the results. Five was already sleepy but he activated the pseudo-dungeon core and projected the floors he was in charge in.
Today, he was surprised to see such a large number of players, especially on the 7th and 8th floor. "Ahh, maybe I"ll get to buy a bit more materials," said Five to himself.
He calmly observed the players, his eye quickly fell onto the group he first saw when he was killing slimes. Right now, the group of ten was fighting together with another group against some Scorpions.
It was an impressive sight, the players were still level 10 or 11 but were fighting level 13 scorpions. He was especially surprised as he saw the large variety of moves the players were using. He thought that the players would be restricted to the skills given by the game but in front of him, they were using skills he had never heard of.
He watched for a moment and then moved to look at another group. As he predicted, this group was using completely different skills. He changed the camera several times and most of the time, he found new skills.
"Very interesting, there are so many skills and they do not even appear in the dungeon shop, maybe I should try the things I learned at the a.s.sociation..." said Five to himself as he once again changed the camera.
His goal right now was to witness as many different skills as possible but suddenly, the camera stopped on a particular player. Five frowned upon seeing his IGN, "How is that possible? aren"t all criminals learning in dungeons now, does that mean that Kroff also has the authority to send me back right now?" said Five to himself.
The player he was looking at had the IGN: Seven. When he saw that, Five immediately concluded that it was another dungeon master like him. Since he was given the name Five by Gaia, it was very possible that she gave another criminal the name of Seven.
Five closely observed the player named Seven as he and his party fought against 2 scorpions at the same time. "He looks very ordinary, is he trying to blend with the other players?" said Five to himself.
"This is not a bad idea! Maybe I should do that and try to find those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds and that b.i.t.c.h! ... It will be easier than waiting for them to come to my dungeon right?" thought Five.
He was still deep in thoughts when he suddenly heard Harriet next to him.
"Five! Come and help me explain the rules, Aria does not believe that you also take the pieces by moving backward!"
The latter was startled for a moment but he quickly closed the hologram and walked towards the other harpies who were excitedly playing.