The fifth level was the same as the two before. Reed emerged from the side of a large rock, which had a stairway leading up inside of it.
Reed advanced carefully. On this level, he would be facing ranged attacks.
As he advanced, he heard a sound, which made him aim in it's direction. He waited for a few seconds, and another sound was picked up by his ears.
He slightly adjusted his aim, and fired.
Suddenly, large birds flew into the air, startled by the gunshot. Reed quickly started to shoot them down.
He managed to kill all of them before they could get their bearings. However, the loud sounds of his pistols had attracted more of them.
There were 11 of them, and Reed managed to gun down 6 before he had to dodge their attacks. He quickly moved and shot another before leaping backwards, evading a beak into his side.
He took aim, but quickly moved behind a tree to dodge a green projectile that impacted the ground, leaving a small hole in the dirt.
[Sky bird] [Level 5]
[Capable of wind magic]
'So that's the sky arrow spell.'
He allowed himself to glance at the damage caused by it.
'That can punch through flesh no problEEEM!!!' He rolled to the side to avoid being hit by another spell.
He quickly shot two more of them, but was hit by something in the back, making him grunt and stagger forwards.
"Umgh!"
He quickly rolled forwards and dispatched the remaining two.
'Did I get hit by an arrow?'
He quickly took of his chestplate and shirt to examine the damage. There was a dent in the chestplate, and the shirt was fine.
And before he finished examining the damage, the pain in his back disappeared. He put them back on and continued.
'That's the first enemy done.'
The second enemy was an ogre.
[Ogre] [Level 20]
Unlike the orcs, the ogre was fast, almost three times faster, however it wasn't faster than a bullet, and so found one heading directly into it's face.
'Time for the boss.'
The boss was different.
It was two meters tall and possessed two heads, in it's left hand was a shield, and in it's right was an axe.
[Two-headed orc] [Level 20]
BA-BANG!!
Two bullets, two exploded skulls.
With the cores in his pouch, Reed returned to the dungeon core.
He looked at it from afar as he prepared to open fire.
The third reason: The core would fight back, and it wasn't weak.
The book had described it to possess power equal to the peak of what tier it was in, both offensively, and defensively.
Additionally, once an attack failed, the core would move to a different location.
"Fuuuu..." Reed exhaled.
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
Once the first bullet hit, a transparent sphere appeared, and the following eight bullets hit it, causing to dim very noticeably.
He could have continued attacking, but the cube had started to glow, so he instead pulled up a rock wall that had already been prepared, and moved backwards into the trees.
Less than two seconds later, the wall exploded and rained debris everywhere, and a white projectile flew through two trees before impacting a third and disappearing.
Reed slowly crept to the side of where he was originally, before quickly opening fire once again.
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
With the first two bullets, the barrier vanished, and the following two destroyed the cube before it could manage a counter-attack.
Reed stared at the shattered cube for five seconds, before letting out a deep breath.
"Congratulations sir." Record appeared in front of him.
"You have gained ownership of this dungeon."
"Do you want me to explain how it works?"
Reed looked at the remains of the core, he picked up the pieces and put them in storage.
"Not now." He waved away his assistant and left the dungeon.
...
He did not encounter any adventurers on his way back, so that meant that the news had not been spread, or maybe they had already been inside the dungeon when he left.
"Alright, Record, explain to me how this works."
"Very well, sir."
"Now that you have ownership over a dungeon, you increase in 2 kinds of power for every challenger who dies within it."
"You can specify which power you want to increase in the dungeon panel that will have appeared in your personal panel."
"You can adjust it to increase both in a balanced way, or choose to increase only your mana capacity, or only your physical fitness."
"In addition, you can also change where and how many creatures spawn when a challenger enters the dungeon, along with adding or changing traps."
"You can also alter the possible gains of a challenger, and can change the layout and pathways of the dungeon."
"Also, you have completed an achievement, please take a look."
[Dungeon Master]
[Gain ownership of a dungeon]
[You have gained 10 skill points]
"Hmm."
'That's welcome news.'
"Is there anything else I can do with the dungeon?"
"The only other thing that you can currently do, is to have the dungeon act as a factory producing mana cores, crystals, and all the other drops that is produces."
"The dungeon will produce them at a fixed rate, and you will have to visit the dungeon to obtain them."
"All other functions are locked."
"Locked? How do I unlock them?"
"Reach higher tiers, or own more dungeons."
"How many dungeons do I have to own to unlock the locked functions?"
"3 dungeons to unlock three of them, and 10 dungeons to unlock the rest."
"And what if I increase my tier?"
"Tier 7 and 9, respectively."
"7, and... 9" Reed mused.
'Much easier to capture dungeons than to tier up.'
"One last thing sir." Record announced.
"Please hide the core."
Reed stared at Record for a second in silence, before quickly looking at the dungeon map and locating the core.
It was behind where he had fought the two-headed orc.
'There's still a core? That means I can lose ownership of the dungeon!'
Reed quickly thought about hiding spots for the core, before setting on a location and moving the core into it.
"Thank you for the reminder Record."
If he hadn't been warned, there was a good chance of him ignoring that possibility.
In fact, he had planned to change the dungeon only after the mission with Mordhal had been completed.
"Just doing my job sir."