New Earth- The Dungeon Of Madness

[System announcement: Unfortunately, the Blue Moon brings along many dangers. Its moonlight disturbs the resting souls of the deceased. During the entire night, the continent will be plagued by Undead monsters. All the towns and cities of the living will be under attack. A battle between the living and the dead will take place; this phenomenon is known over the continent as the Night of Macabre. The players are advised to return to the safety of a settlement for the night where they can be protected by the guards.]

[System announcement: While the night will be full of dangers, many opportunities will also present themselves to the brave. Join the guards and fight back the invasion of the dead. A special shop will be available to all the players where the special loots of the Undead can be traded for unique items.]

[System announcement: The Night of Macabre will last for twelve hours as from 18:00 tonight. Happy Halloween.]

…

Iris: "Did you hear the system announcement?"

Five: "An announcement? What announcement? I did not receive anything."

Iris: "It is as I expected. At Venetia, I am the only player who did not hear anything. My friend, Mercy was the one who told me about it. Tonight, the Night of Macabre will take place. The announcement matches the information the barbarians gave you."

Iris: "However, there"s more to it. It will be a Halloween event and the players are invited to kill the Undead that will rise during the night. There will be a special shop that will be opened where players can exchange the loots they collect for special items. But since we did not hear the system announcement ourselves, I am worried that this event is only for players and not the dungeon masters."

Five: "It is indeed possible that this event will have nothing to do with us. The fourth trial is just around the corner and might involve something else. What exactly is the shop you mentioned? Did a physical shop appear at Venetia or in the other cities?"

Iris: "No, nothing happened. The players are excited about this event but there is zero information aside from the announcement."

Five: "The Hurricane Alliance also does not have any information about it. When I was at their hub, there was no special warnings and the NPCs only seem to see it as a yearly event where they need to defend their dungeons."

Iris: "I forgot to ask. How did your induction go?"

Five: "Not bad. Met a few people but the atmosphere at the hub did not feel right. Maybe it"s because they are just nervous. The Hurricane Alliance is planning a huge operation which many might not be happy about."

Iris: "Do you still think it was worth it to join them?"

Five: "I think so. I was planning to get moving soon anyway or else, the development of my dungeon will stagnate. Might as well join them and the down payment I received is not bad either."

Iris: "I see. I got to go soon but before that, I"ve got two questions to ask."

Five: "Fire away."

Iris: "If it turns out that dungeon masters are unable to access the special shop for the event, will it be possible for you to send me all the loot you will collect? I will give them to Mercy for her to trade for useful items. Of course, I"ll give you some of the items we get."

Five: "…"

Five: "Sure, I guess. No reason for me to refuse as long as you do not h.o.a.rd all the good items for yourself."

Iris: "Are you just going to trust me like that?"

Five: "Then, think of it as repayment for helping me during my duel with Farsight. What about your second question?"

Iris: "The 10 million DP you obtained for joining the alliance. Can I borrow them for a short while?"

…

10 million DP

It was a ma.s.sive amount of DP that could take months for a player to collect. Iris was ashamed of herself for asking such a huge amount from Five but looking at her current situation, it was the best solution. Although her dungeon, the town of Venetia, looked amazing on the surface with thousands of players staying there, it was clear that it would not last for long.

Iris created a lot of hype about Venetia by being the first player owned town. As a result, many other players came to visit the town and tried to learn her secrets. As the fame of Venetia grew bigger, the guilds started turning their attention to Venetia in an attempt to obtain the town and all this attention meant a lot more DP.

However, it did not last very long. The hype of the town died down very quickly. She held an auction a few days ago to sell off ten plots of land to the players. This would not only renew the attention to Venetia but also attract many large guilds and generate enough funds for Iris to continue to develop. Unfortunately, it did not go as planned.

There was a significant difference between renting a plot of land and being the owner. It meant that no matter what, they could no longer be expelled. If a guild was to own a plot of land, they would be anch.o.r.ed to that place, making it extremely hard for their enemies to unroot them. Being able to purchase some land was an enticing offer, to which all the guilds should have fought for. Or at least, that was what Iris believed but the fact was, each plot of land only sold for about ten thousand gold.

It was by no means a small amount but not what Iris expected. She knew the large guilds like Blue Lagoon and Vultex had much more gold in reserve. In comparison, renting any location at the capital could cost at least a few hundred gold each week which valued the location at hundreds of thousands of gold. Iris did not believe the land around Venetia would be valued as high as the capital"s, but she did not expect such a large discrepancy.

She soon learned about the reasons. While Venetia was a fast-growing town because of its current popularity, but compared to the other towns, it was severely lacking. Most of its current population consisted of players and Iris" own monsters. The number of NPCs was growing but at a very slow rate due to the stance of the n.o.bles.

As Venetia did not form part of the Sylvester Empire yet, many facilities were missing. None of the a.s.sociations that would allow the players to purchase skills and exchange items were present. The Hall of fame that allowed players to partic.i.p.ate in time attacks, the Colosseum where players could fight each other regardless of their current location and the battle tower proposed an endurance challenge to the players; all these three essential architectures to the players" growth were missing. But more importantly, Venetia did not have any important resource point!

At the moment, the players staying at Venetia were kept busy by completing quests in the neighbouring areas. But as the players grew, their levels would soon exceed the requirements of the surrounding areas. When that happened, Venetia would simply be a resourceless town. It was the main reason why the guilds did not invest all their funds here; they were not short-sighted and looked at their long-term development.

The only resource points near Venetia was a small mountain where certain herbs grew and a small coal mine. Most of the traded items needed to be bought from other parts of the empire and on the outside, Venetia did not invest a lot in agriculture either. While many other towns were in a similar situation to Venetia, all the towns had something in common: a dungeon!

All the towns and cities were built around resource areas and if there were none, there was at least a dungeon there. Dungeons were a source of rare items, ores, herbs and even food. In the eyes of the player guilds, Venetia was simply a resourceless town that will soon run dry. The only reason they bought the plot of land was as a backup for themselves, but they were not planning on developing in the region.

Iris was not unaware of this problem. She did not reveal her own dungeon to the public for several reasons but mainly because of the strong presence of the church in the empire. All dungeons needed to be regulated and would be explored by the church"s executioners to determine whether it was safe.

This was the regulations in place but in truth, the church would simply slaughter all the monsters and steal the dungeon core for themselves. In the past, the church was forced to approve the existence of the dungeons because all the dungeon masters banded together and fought back. But now that the church grew in strength, it would never allow their enemies to increase their numbers.

To counteract this problem, Iris started investing in different projects that could generate value. The railway project was one of them. By transforming Venetia in a central trade hub, even if it did not have any resources in its surroundings, Venetia would become one of the pillars of the empire. But such projects took time and if she did nothing right now, Venetia might lose its source of DP.

There were not many solutions to keep the players" interest of Venetia as Iris did not want to risk revealing her own dungeon. But it was a different story for Five. The church was already aware of the location of his dungeon and yet did not dare to attack it because of the treaty of the barbarians.
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The 10 million DP Iris wanted to borrow was going to be used to build a portal in Venetia. Portals could be bought directly from the dungeon shop, but they were different tiers of portals. Some allowed connection to only one destination, some were one-way portals while others had completely random destinations. 10 million DP was just enough for her to buy a single destination portal.

While Iris remained in deep thoughts, the door to her office was pushed open and her best friend, Mercy shamelessly stepped into the room. She did not even knock at the door and directly dove onto the couch. She seemed to be in a good mood. "Did you speak with Chris already? What did he say?"

Iris shook her head at her friend"s behaviour but did not comment. "He agreed. He"ll send the loot he collects."

"That"s great! With two dungeon masters working together, we should have no trouble collecting the most valuable items."

"Not really. Don"t you think other dungeon masters can also work together? They just have to find a player to redeem the items for them. In fact, I don"t think we should be aiming for the top items."

Still lying on the couch, Mercy turned around and grabbed pillow. "Come on, you should be more positive. If you do not aim high, you"ll never succeed."

"That is awfully enthusiastic for somebody who was so moody just a few weeks ago when I met her. Anyway, did something happen? Why did you suddenly barge into my office?" Iris replied with interest. Her best friend Mercy had suffered from a break-up with her boyfriend a few weeks after the game started. But now, she seemed to be back into her cheerful self.

"You know me too well, girl. I just came back from a date with Michael. He walked me through the park, and we stopped at the Gourmet for a meal. Your monsters are all very good cooks, but I would say, your town severely lacks romantic places to visit." Mercy said jokingly.

Iris was not bothered by Mercy"s last comments but instead raised an eyebrow at the mention of that new person. "Michael? Who is that? I have never heard of him before."

"Right. He"s someone I met a few days ago. We immediately hit off and have been in contact since then. Michael is his real name. His IGN is Medicis. He"s a cute guy with puffy hair. He wears gla.s.ses though but he"s cuter without them."

"Medicis… Never heard of him. Does he belong to any guild?"

Mercy paused for a moment before shaking her head. "I know what you are thinking, girl. Don"t worry. I won"t let people with other intentions get close to me. Michael is a solitary player. He is a priest who advanced to healer. He told me he was a doctor in real life and is now trying to save lives here. No matter what, I won"t let people use me to get their hands-on Venetia."

Iris frowned in response. Her friend was smart and mature most of the time but when it came to love affairs, she was quite naïve. She had been in many relationships and even gotten pregnant but in the end, her boyfriends all left her. "Forget about it. As long as you are happy. I"ll make sure to make more open s.p.a.ces for you to go on dates too. But for now, we"ll need to focus on the event tonight. The Night of Macabre… Is everything ready?"