After a brief interlude five shadows popped up on the monitor, standing at the entrance of the gate staring at the depths of the corridor. Hearing the exclamations of the adventurers that could see all the way to the 'treasure' chest from the entrance, Gill snickered coldly while an evil light shone from his eyes. These guys were clearly the most basic of beginners, the moment they saw the chest they couldn't pull their eyes away. Listening in on their conversations, Gill almost laughed out loud;
"Billy, do you see what I see? There's not a single monster and a straight walk to the treasure!", a very stout fellow exclaimed in surprise. "Incredible, I didn't know dungeons could truly be this shabby. The mana signature from the dungeon truly hit the mark for weakest in history," the guy named Billy responded as if dumbfounded. None of the five were very cautious of their surroundings. Walking inside the dungeon while taking glances at the walls in case there was some sort of traps inside, they soon realized there really was nothing to stop them.
Impatient to get to the treasure, the five glanced at eachother and started running towards the 'treasure' they had 'adventured' to obtain side by side while giggling and laughing it up.
*KACHANG, SWOOSH*
As if the noise came from the depths of hell, all five of the adventurers paled in fright. Unable to react in time, the massive all-encompassing Spike Wall released the mechanism from the top of the ceiling. Sealing off all paths of retreat with nothing but walls to the sides and a rapidly approaching spiked wall from the front, with their running momentum all five got hit squarely in the chest. Two of them died instantly on the spot, impaled through their chests with necks broken as they were stuck dangling on the spikewall with blood spilling everywhere. The other three got flung far backwards, right underneath the massive portcullis with broken arms and ribs.
Seeing that they were placed exactly where he planned, Gill snickered mischievously and pulled a lever inside the core room. After another sound of a mechanism releasing and the sound of chains grating without bearing or support, the massive gate came crashing down, bisecting the other three into two pieces, severed at their waists. Wailing and screaming on the ground in two parts, the final three were spurting blood out of their mouths, crawling and twisting with their innards spilling out.
Seeing their extremely miserable appearances, Gill felt jubilant and cackled like a true demon should when a ploy was successfully executed. Pulling the lever to raise the gate once more, Gill walked out of the core room to the three barely living 'adventurers'. The youngsters that were about to pass out or straight up die from the pain finally noticed the two meter tall demon with great horns sticking out of his head walking out with a beaming smile on its face, humming a song as if life couldn't be better with a voice that sounded of metals clanging in the air.
In extreme agony, the three paled to such an extent that there wasn't a drop of blood left to colour their appearances. After a few seconds of staring, the three passed away with eyes filled with grievances. How could such a weak mana signature dungeon possess such a great devil in this remote and unremarkable location!? Not even the great mayor of days gone would stand a snowflakes chance in hell in confrontation with such a macabre creature! Their last thoughts were all the same; 'Fairweather county is doomed!'
Inspecting his handiwork, Gill couldn't help but let out a few cackling noises. Such a simple trap setup actually worked with zero issues or surprises? And these are so-called certified adventurers? What kind of level were the dungeons in the area really made of? After inspecting the five dead adventurers and removing all their belongings, Gill couldn't help but feel elated.
"Five sets of leather armor, four copper swords, one pair of copper daggers, one dungeon scanner, various travel and tenting gear and a lot of foodstuffs. They even carried gold with them, a full 100 gold each!", taking everything into account and comparing it to the treasure menu, he made a pure surplus outside of his own rewards of several thousand gold in just the treasures! Looking over the dungeon menu once more, Gill's eyes started shining like minuature suns.
[ 1x level one adventure slain - Trap - 50 gold, 50 experience ]
[ 3x level two adventurers slain - Trap - 100 gold each, 100 experience each ]
[ 1x level three adventurer slain - Trap - 200 gold, 200 experience ]
[ Congratulations Dungeon Master Gill, as a first time raid bonus, all rewards will be doubled! ]
[ Gained: 1100 gold, 1100 experience ]
[ Dungeon Core level up to 1! Unlocking 2x Trait Slots ]
Looking over the notifications and noticing his gold surplus landing at a total of 1600, with a new tab for something called 'traits' added to the menu, Gill once more started cackling like a heinous devil on the spot. As he was celebrating the joyous occation, a cracking noise the sounds of stones being crushed suddenly sounded out. Startled awake from his reverie, Gill jumped backwards twenty meters fully on guard. Scanning through the surroundings with his bright yellow eyes and pupils the shape of a snakes, he couldn't find any anomaly in the area. After a second the tips window popped up once more.
[ Due to the death of the adventurers, their Iron Adventurer Badges cracked to certify their demise. Every badge from the adventurer's guild and associates have a sister clone back in the headquarters. Once the adventurer dies and their badge breaks, so does the badge back in the city to inform the administrators that they have failed in their mission. ]
"I see..", Gill mumbled, realizing he was just spooked by nothing in particular. Considering that these guys were the newbies of beginners, the followup party shouldn't be too much of a higher level. At most, some veterans around level 7 should arrive, tops. Looking over the belongings of the adventurers once more, Gill rubbed his chin in thought. After a while of thinking, he started unloading their tents and setting them up around the entrance to the dungeon, as if the adventurers before had set up camp, entered the dungeon and then perished inside.
Setting up the fireplace to make it look like a fire had been here before, with some scattered remains of foodstuffs, Gill opened up the shop menu once more and purchased a bottle of water-looking poison for 25 gold. Both tasteless and without smell, he covered all the untouched foodstuffs in the large backpack of supplies before closing it up to make it look as if nothing had been touched. Should any would-be adventurer eat or drink from the supplies their intestines would rot on the spot after a minute or two.
Packing up the rest of the actual gear of the adventurers and dragging their corpses inside to the middle point of the dungeon, behind the spike wall and a few meters infront of the 'treasure' chest, he let them lay there and rot as they willed. Leaving their gear mostly instact on their bodies but placing them on the floor face down and at an angle that made it impossible to realize that three of them were chopped in two, Gill nodded in satisfaction. Opening up the dungeon menu he pressed the sanitation button and all the blood from dragging the adventurers got sucked into the floor as if nothing had ever happened.
Buying a simple weapons rack for 10 gold and placing it next to the 'treasure' chest, Gill placed the four copper swords, the pair of daggers and the dungeon scanner ontop, making it look like a trophy rack of the dungeon anyone could see from the entrance. Pressing a few extra buttons on the dungeon menu, the Spike Wall trap was reloaded back into position with a click. Walking back to the core room to finalize what he should purchase next, the mana array he looked over before was the most tempting of all the options.
Before he came to any hasty conclussions, Gill opened up the new trait menu to see what that's all about. After reading through the basic information, he realized it was a sort of talent system for the dungeon core itself. Upgrades to the traits were all-encompassing, for example if he bought a low level 'Smoke'-trait, the entire dungeon would be covered in a dark haze. Later on if he could afford it, the Smoke-trait could be paired with a secondary trait slot, making the smoke poisonous, give people hallucinations, have wraiths fly around within - the possibilities were endless! And that's just with the most basic of traits available.
Looking over the trait options and doing some simple calculations, Gill figured the traits were the most useful once he could get a dungeon that wasn't just a straight corridor. After all, the only trick he really has is the one where they could see the treasures from the entrance. There were traits for things such as lava lakes, schorching heat exhausts, drowning pools, poisonous gas, etc. But they were much too expensive and would barely have any effect in his smallscale dungeon. He made a mental note to revisit the traits tab once he upgrades the dungeon shape to something more substantial. Saving the trait points for now isn't an issue.
Reopening the menu for dungeon structures, Gill hesitated once more. Should he get the weakest mana array for 1,000 gold and slowly but surely level up both himself and the dungeon core? The mana signature would surely increase all the same, which would lead to more adventurers coming to visit, but should he be hasty on this endeavour? He could after all also buy a mining extension from the core room that opens up the ability to generate gold. So long as he has enough gold, mana won't be an issue after all.
The most simple gold mine extension also costs 1,000 gold. The problem is, he would need to make a bunch of extra purchases to get it going. Mining monsters aren't cheap, and if he bought a typical humanoid creature he would need to feed them and get them a resting space, not to mention the mining gear required. Gill himself had everything taken care of automatically by the mana core, as they're basically one and the same. Enough mana and he'll never starve or need actual rest other than to pass time and relax his mind. Even if he were to die, as long as the mana core is still around he'll just respawn after a brief wait as the core would need to gather the mana to do so.
Making calculations and thinking things through for another few hours, Gill opened up the treasures menu once more and looked for a particular item. If his idea was plausible, everything could be resolved in the best way possible. As it turned out, the item truly does exist - but it costs exactly 1,000 gold too!
"Necromancer Wand - Apprentice, a wand that can ressurect the weakest of creatures into undead. Usable up to level 5", Gill muttered. "1,000 gold though, that would mean I have to waste another few days of time doing nothing. I do have those five trash lying dead outside, which basically means for a thousand gold I can get my first pack of minions, and perhaps even more later on…", mumbling under his breath, the Tips window popped up once again to resolve his problems.
[ Dungeon Master Gill, the treasures obtained from the adventurers are all sellable through the dungeon menu at half the cost price. Same goes for old traps you no longer have any use for. Recommended action is to sell some of their gear to resolve your startup issues! ]
Beaming a brilliant smile at the helpful menu, Gill rose to his feet and walked outside to the weapons rack. Calculating swiftly, Gill sold two of the copper swords for 250 gold each, bringing his total of 1565 back up to 2065 gold coins in the stash! Grinning like the devil he is, Gill immedietly bought the Apprentice Necromancer Wand, grabbed it by the hilt and walked over to the five corpses. After a few incantations, the five slowly stood back up with dazed eyes without any life.
Due to the low level of the wand, none of their past experiences were kept in their memory. All they knew was to listen to their masters command. Even the three that were severed in two stuck themselves back together with a few crunching noises. The two ones with broken necks grabbed their heads with their hands and cracked them back in place as if nothing ever happened. After a swift orientation, the five kneeled on the floor and waited for instructions.