Seth knew the rival dungeon master had been watching his every movement waiting for the right moment to strike.
And now that Seth had revealed some of his cards, the next move would likely come soon.
But he was ready to take out one of his problems now.
"I'll need to prepare," Seth muttered to himself, already planning his next steps.
"More traps. Stronger summons. And… I'll need to find out who exactly is behind the priesthood guild, and their reaction to this, i can't just take Malia words at face value ."
As the dungeon's awareness expanded once more, Seth began laying the groundwork for what was to come.
The rival dungeon wouldn't wait long, but neither would he.
Meanwhile, somewhere someplace sat a man clad in a sigil that Seth would be familiar to him as the priest's sigil.
The sigil he wore made him look more divine and godly along with his facial features.
He sat on a throne in a room as a king.
Slowly he opened his eyes calmly and muttered.
"Mercy"
To which a human female appeared out of thin air beside him, dressed like a secretary.
"My lord, you called?"
"I lost contact with a follower," he said before closing his eyes again
"I understand," she said before vanishing.
.....
Seth immediately gave a command to absorb the resources to which it yielded
[+320 Mana]
[Mana Reserve: 770/1000 ]
"I don't feel the need to passively play defensive, how do I actively attack?" Said said out
As usual, the dungeon suggested
[Direct assault with summons]
[Territory control(Expanding Boundaries)]
"I understand, but they are disadvantages; I don't know anything about the dungeon I'm attacking; I believe he already knows about mine, though."
"And If I had enough Mana Reserves to expand to that level, I don't think I'd complain much."
"Seth thought a little bit and decided on something"
Being a C+ rank dungeon, he could summon a more advanced type of goblin, the lowest of the low creatures, and even better; if he infused it with the soul of one of the adventurers killed, it would be skilled, hopefully.
Seth immediately sent the command to start the summon.
[Command Initiated: Activating summoning... ]
[Summoning Tier four variant goblin]
[-400 Mana]
[Summoning successful ]
[Incorporating remnant soul...]
[-50 Mana]
[Failed]
[Absorbing Remnant soul...]
[Successful]
Right in front of Seth, an abstract smoke of green filled his sight; it was poison; in this smoke laid two pitch-black eyes that looked at him but then disappeared.
A 6-foot-tall monster, forest green in color, humanoid with a few straps of clothes here and there on it, stepped out and kneeled in front of him.
In a declaration of it accepting him as master.
Surprisingly to Seth, it wasn't as hideous as depicted in stories, he couldn't tell if it was because this one had intelligence in its stark dark eye that seemed to hide bloodlust.
Or was it just their connection?
Either way, he almost forgot to panic that he lost 450 Mana; if it wasn't worth the task, he was about to swear he would recycle this goblin before it tried dying.
He was only casually trying out an experiment and it yielded this.
He stared again at the goblin and the Information came to him as though it was natural.
It was a variant poison-specific goblin.
A goblin whose weapon was its poison; though it excelled in its strength and speed, undeniably, it was known for its potent poison naturally.
Seth smiled again because this kind of just rendered his poison trap useless; all he had to do was have him behind the Front lines, and most of the work would be done.
Though was this enough for him to launch an attack on the rival dungeon?
He started analyzing it from his perspective, viewing his weak points because the dungeon was not far away from his level probably.
He could tell that much from just probing it.
Soon, he came to a decision; he had decided on how to launch an attack on the rival dungeon.
What better way than a frontal assault for him?
He waited a little over 30 minutes when his mana was topped by another 200 Mana from his passive Mana Regeneration per hour.
[Mana Reserve: 520/1000]
This was the riskiest he had done; he felt it to be the most impulsive, but he just kept telling himself it was an investment.
"No one gets rich from being paid a salary, until you own it; it isn't yours." Were the words he kept telling himself.
As an architect in his former life, he knew every structure started with a single brick and every art with a single brush or stroke.
It was first about surviving and then about not losing but now it's about taking initiative, taking every opportunity, no time for empathy, he would draw this dungeon to his taste.
Immediately he began another set of summoning Tier 2 goblins at 30 Mana.
And he managed to summon 10 of them at a total cost of 300 Mana.
Leaving him with 220 Mana in reserve.
Next, he ordered the Elite Shade along with the goblin, which he hadn't checked the status of ye,t, along with 10 goblins summoned.
However, something felt off about it.
He pondered and saw it immediately; it was the goblins; though they were crude creatures, they always had crude weapons, and even the elite shade could morph parts of his body as he wished.
'Was it possible to summon weapons?' he thought
[Advanced summoning of weapons is possible with tiers and higher costs]
That was all he needed to hear to know he wasn't patronizing that deal.
"It seems you'll have to utilize your gifts"
"Wait how do I get them there without attracting attention?"
After a few thoughts, Seth discovered
"That explains why he has humans so his biddings, it was much easier"
They would be naturally cloaked while still inside the boundaries, but immediately they step out, it's unpredictable, at least until they step into the rival dungeon boundary.
In a way you could say, outside is more dangerous than the rival dungeon.
At this point, he realized again that he hadn't been bothered to see the outside world, but now the thought came that it wouldn't be so bad.