Watching Gill walking back up in a fit of giggles, he couldn't help but stay vigilant. 'What did this demon come up with this time?' Listening to Gill's explanation, Chipper couldn't help but feel a cold chill spread down his spine. It's no wonder that the entire world goes to such great extents to exterminate demons on sight. After discussing the price for the roulette with Chipper for a bit, Gill opened up the dungeon menu and separated the two layers. In but a moment, the stairs disappeared into the mountain and a portal array took its place.
Looking at the black portal that appeared out of nowhere, Gill scratched his chin. For the moment, he couldn't afford any extra portals for the roulette that could take living people to different destinations. As such, they shelved the plan for the moment. It'll be a nice surprise for latecomers when the dungeon has leveled up a few times. Walking through the portal, a slight dizziness struck his mind. Arriving back at the second layer, Gill opened the trap menu again and purchased a Pitfall trap for 200 gold. Placing it right where he arrived from the portal, he walked up to the Spike wall to properly adjust its aim.
As that was finished, he opened up the trait menu and purchased a Poison extension. Being extra careful to not activate it to the entire dungeon, just in case it would kill Chipper in an instant or give himself nausea. Setting up the parameters properly to be only within the confines of the Pitfall, anyone that got swatted inside would be disoriented if not half dead already. Being stuck in a pit filled with poisonous gas wouldn't do anyone any favors. Smiling at his own masterful scheme, Gill glanced at his balance that was left with only a meager 700 gold.
This day had been hectic beyond belief. Killed a party of five, raised said party of five as his undead slaves, bought and set up a gold mine, followed by the interlude of Chipper. After that, his murderdungeon turned into a shop for any visitors to spread the cursed gold to the entire kingdom, and a slight update to the trap setup. To be honest, Gill was completely exhausted. Taking a look at the dungeon clock, he noticed that another party was on its way. This time, it was a party of 10 with the strongest being at level 5.
Clearly, the cityfolk around here were eager to take revenge for the five brats. For some reason, he didn't get an ETA on their arrival from the menu. Most likely it was a one time service for the very first raid of the dungeon. Since it took the last party around two days to arrive, this one couldn't possibly be faster. More people equals slower speeds.
Walking through the portal to the first layer, Gill tapped on Chippers head and mentioned that a party of 10 was on their way. Not to fret, as he could take care of them himself if the need would arrise. Briefing Chipper on their upcoming sales tactics, where he would pay 25 gold per copper armament and 10 gold per leather armor set, Gill then walked back to the core room for a well deserved rest. Chipper on the other hand couldn't settle down at all. He wanted to run away but felt a soul piercing pain just thinking about it. With no better options at hand, he chose to take a nap aswell.
Placing down the other end of the shop teleportation array next to the gold mine shaft, Gill then went to take a rest on the couch.
—
"Captain Hidden, what's our mission about this time?" A mercenary looking fellow asked a mysterious looking woman wearing a robed hood. "I heard young master Billy got done in by a newly spawned dungeon. Has it anything to do with our sortie?" The mercenary continued, "It's quite unbelievable that he couldn't beat that one. Nobody at the adventurer's association even wanted to bother with that mana signature."
As the woman was about to answer the mercenary, a guard ran into their training grounds shouting loudly, "Emergency report! The dungeon has leveled up and now matches any other newly spawned dungeon! The danger level has atleast doubled!" As the team of 10 heard the report and thinking about the levels of Billy and his cohort, they couldn't help but turn slightly anxious.
"Double the mana signature, double the treasure and rewards is what you meant to report, correct?" Captain Hidden said in a chilly tone. "This is easy pickings for the likes of us. We're the strongest underground force in the entirety of Fairweather County. An entire dungeon, all for our own pockets." Rousing the morale of this ragtag bunch wasn't difficult. Dangle some meaty rewards in front of their faces and they'll happily throw away their lives.
"But, for us to lay claim to all that wealth we need to be quick. That pathetic excuse of a mayor already riled up the local families. They've sent the news back to the kingdom so the nobles are most likely already preparing to come our way." She deftly handled the current affairs, painting a picture where they had no time to waste. "Worst case scenario if we're too slow, beat the dungeon and then come out to meet the arriving nobles, we'll return with nothing to show for it." Gesturing towards their half-filled wagon she continues, "Even worse, it's not uncommon for nobles to 'silence' anyone in the area. They'll kill us on sight, take our loot, belongings and honor for besting the dungeon."
As if a fire was lit on their asses, the rest of the party rushed to stock up on everything they need for their journey. Extra weapons and armor, food supplies, mana scanners and all sorts of equipment was loaded onto the wagon. The extra cargo will slow them down but also allow them to return with more riches in the end. They need to get going within the hour. Who knows what means of transportation the people of the capital would use to get here.
Under her hood, Captain Hidden scowled and muttered under her breath, "Billy, don't worry, big sis will avenge you." As she was looking over the procedures she couldn't help but feel that something terrible was about to happen. She got a premonition that whatever happens next will change not only the Fairweather County, but even the entirety of Dachin Kingdom. "You slobs, hurry up, we need to get going within the hour!"
—
As instructed, within the hour the mercenary troop set off towards the dungeon. At their current pace, they would arrive by morning two days later. It couldn't be helped, even if they have a cart-horsed wagon they still have to take breaks for food, drinks and rest.
Meanwhile, Gill took a well deserved nap. A few hours later he woke up and took a look at his new gold balance. It had risen back up to 1,100 gold. Just enough for the most basic of mana arrays. Finally he could slowly but surely gain strength just by sitting around. Wealth is good and all, but if nobody comes to visit all his traps are just sitting there collecting dust.
Walking over to the mana core, Gill opened the store window and purchased the cheapest mana array available for 1,000 gold. Placing down the array that looked to be filled with mysterious scribbles beneath the core, he could immedietly feel the difference that it made. It was as if the very air was fresher and all of his fatigue from before was swept away immedietly. Increasing the mana density of the dungeon sure did wonders on his well being.
Looking at the status menu, he saw a small (+10/hour) next to his experience gauge. The same was spotted on the cores experience bar. It showed a neat (110/2,000 experience) well on theway of progress towards level 2. Since it emptied itself completely to summon himself, it initially was level 0. If the current exp requirement was anything to go by, it should double every level. His own bar showed a pitiful (1,110/2,048,000 experience). Leveling up in this fantasy land didn't come easy, it seemed. Starting at level 10 was basically a cheat.
Rubbing his chin in thought, Gill wouldn't get any substantial personal power increase in a very long time. At the very least, he does have a few easy-to-earn trait points to get. The early levels should go swimmingly swift, but the later ones will truly turn into a slog. Since the experience gain was turning a coefficient from mana saturation, is there some way to get more mana into the dungeon?
'Hold on a second, that dungeon scanner that couldn't be sold for gold… Could it be that it's actually a mana item of some sort?' Curious about his own conjecture, Gill walked out of the core room to check on the weapons rack. That seemingly useless scanner in the shape of a compass did indeed seem to be more sophisticated than your average smith work.
Taking the oversized compass in his hand, he couldn't really feel anything in particular. Walking back to the core room and placing the scanner ontop the core, a change suddenly happened. At first, nothing much was going on but then the pointer started acting up. After a few moments it started spinning very slowly, like the minute pointer on a mechanical clock. But it was picking up speed really fast. The scanner pointer was starting to look like a helicopter from the speed it was going. It looked like it was being consumed by something invisible.
At some point the entire scanner started to disintegrate into small blue flakes that the dungeon core absorbed. As it kept on shrinking smaller and smaller, the pointer was spinning faster and faster. As if it felt a threat to itself, it attempted to fly off from the core to safety. But it seemed to be glued stuck and could only allow itself to be swallowed. After another few minutes of disintegration, the entire scanner disappeared.
Opening his status window again, he noticed that he had received another 500 experience, both for himself and the dungeon core! Truly, nothing in this world could be deemed 'worthless'. If every party that arrives has a scanner of its own, perhaps he could spur the market to bring some extras for sale. You know, through his dungeon storefront. As his thoughts spun, the dungeon alarm went off again.
Somewhat angry that his thought process was interrupted, Gill brought up the dungeon menu to see what was going on this time around. Noticing that a party of three, clearly not the adventurous sort, had arrived outside his dungeon. Uncertain what he should do in this type of situation, the Tips window he hadn't seen in a while came flashing.
[ Dungeon Master, travelers from afar has come to visit. They might have rare goods, special news or other information up for trade. Their type is particularly good at spreading news. How about sharing some news about your dungeon to the kingdom? ]