Somewhere in the dense forest of Armelia on the northern continent, there is a dungeon.
A dungeon is created by a rare phenomenon.
When mana, the building blocks of life, get concentrated on a specific region for a certain period, there is a chance for a dungeon stone to develop there.
After its formation, it will have three primary functions: protect its existence, grow and spread.
It achieves the first function through various means, like fortification or digging down and hiding underground and the second method is by luring local creatures and mutating them.
They form a symbiotic relationship with these creatures.
The Dungeon gives the creatures a place to call home and living inside a dungeon will help the creatures greatly in the growth of their capabilities both physically and mentally.
And in return, it receives defenders who will quite often be willing to throw themselves in front of death to protect the dungeon.
But at some point, the dungeons' growth will suddenly stagnate. Mana becomes a less efficient source for its growth.
And the answer to that dilemma is processed mana, Processed mana has a different league quality compared to mana and with it, a dungeon can grow exponentially twice the fast.
But there is a catch
Processed mana does not form naturally.
You see, processed mana as its name suggests is the mana that is processed and refined and there is no way a dungeon can refine mana by itself.
Only living creatures with flesh can refine mana.
And if the creature has high intelligence, the quality of the refined mana also be high.
If the creature is very strong, then the quantity of the refined mana will be also high.
If you have both then you are a delicacy of the highest order. but they are not like creatures that can be lured using mana. It does not work on intelligent beings, they are too cautious for that.
So they use other resources, valuable ores, potions and other materials.
And That was the start of the dungeon dwelling,
Now the dungeon of Armelia is an identified dungeon meaning it has been recorded under the guild and given a grade. Information about its location is free, even so, dwellers rarely come to Armelia's dungeon because it is situated in the middle of nowhere and that makes gathering resources very hard and transportation of it much harder.
And the local rulers don't have enough capital to commercialise it
Now Inside the dungeon, there lives a dragon and right now, he is stalking his prey.
*****
Each step silently, without a sound using the darkness as my ally I moved closer to my prey.
There it is standing
Heads high in the air, the air around him filled with dominance, it was a king
The King of frogs
It's the size of a dog, with the same exotic skin colour as its brethren and although it seems like it has better sense than its brethren, cause the moment I got closer to it, it turned its head at me.
Okay, the surprise attack failed. Now plan B. I thought. I was not surprised nor am I disappointed, after all, plan b is my favourite plan.
"KRRrrrrr" I growled, showing my sharp teeth.
It has been two weeks since I fought my first battle, turns out this is a dungeon and I am on the first floor which is inhabited by frogs.
Since then I have been hunting frogs whenever I can, following Trevor's instructions (yes, I have named him Trevor the Robo ball) although he didn't specify the reason, he kept on insisting that I have to clear this dungeon as the first step
And so I hunted and killed frogs, and although the fights were easy, there were few cunning frogs out there who put up a challenge.
but in the end, it was my resilient body and adaptable mind who came on top.
During my time frog hunting, I found that these frogs are very patient, and counter-attacks are their favourite tactics. They can wait for an hour for the enemy to make a move, then they will defend or dodge the attacks and return with their own.
I expect the same from this guy in front of me. But I am not sure, I mean this guy would not be the boss monster if he was just as predictable as other mobs, I have to be cautious.
I made my move first and dashed forward with great speed in a zigzag pattern to dodge, although my moves were fast I could see the eyes of the frog were following precisely. And the moment I reached its closer, it jumped
Not away from me
Not over me
But at me
Like the last ditch attack made by that first frog, it trashed me like a truck, and my momentum also made the impact twice...
I tried to stand up to initiate another attack but soon found out that I couldn't.
There was a heavy load on top of me
The fucking frog was on top of me, I tried to shake it away and was met with disappointment, in size and weight the frog outdo me by a significant margin.
I tried swinging my hand but it could not reach the frog.
Suddenly I felt something slither through my neck, like a snake. Its long tongue started to coil around my neck making it harder to breathe.
Contain the enemy with its body, constraining movement using its weight and slowly choke
The prey.
A very effective combination of attacks, it effectively uses its advantages like its size and weight while covering its disadvantages which is the lack of piercing ability of its attack.
But I guess it has never fought a dragon before because it didn't restrain my fifth limb, with lightning fast my tail shot out, and it came from behind, from its blind zone so it couldn't react.
At the edge of my tail where my scales end there is a long exoskeleton, it was made of the same material as my claws which made it sturdier than steel and sharper than a knife.
Needless to say, it was not good for the frog kind, it pierced through the back of the head, ending the life of the frog king.
Dhump...
The lifeless body fell to the side, I stood up on my four legs and shook off its tongue.
"Huuuu that could have gone worse!" I murmured.
[It could have!] Trevor said floating beside me...as always, he was back to his original size which is the size of a football, even so, no other creatures can notice him, turns out he has a camouflage mode.
Wiping the blood from the tip of my tail, I asked "What should I do with the body? I am not that hungry, should we leave it and head for the next floor"
It looked at the dead body of the frog [No, we are going to assimilate it]
I tilted my head in confusion, that was the first time I heard of it "I am sorry, what?"
[Your theme is 'absorption and growth', a reason why you were given a body of the dragon because they are known for quite a big evolution tree.
Just a small nudge is enough. you will get entirely different types of dragon types, sometimes entire different species]
"Okay, I am getting that's the Growth part, what about the absorption part?"
[Yes, I am getting to that part, I have a function where I can transfer an attribute from an outside source to you, which attribute you'll receive will be up to the source and luck, sometimes it will a new power or sometimes your existing attribute will get upgraded]
"That's cool, why didn't I get this earlier," I asked.
[Because up until now every source was inferior to your already existing attribute, you will not get anything useful]
I nodded my head in understanding, "okay, then what are we waiting for? let's begin"