Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 74
Chapter 74: Episode 20. The World Tree (3)
Looking at the windows made me raise an eyebrow.
‘The level of the dungeon?’
I had kind of expected the title. Since I had the sprout of the World Tree, that would give me a title. But I didn’t know anything about the levels of dungeons.
‘Dungeons have levels?’
That was something new to me, yet since I never looked into the inside affair of my dungeon, it was natural that I didn’t know much about dungeons or anything related to them.
I realized that I needed to check one by one, so I opened my status window as the first step.
Name: Randalf Bruciel
Occupation: Count of Devildom (Dungeon Master)
Title:
*Dungeon Hunter (Taking over a dungeon or a Devil gives +1 additional ability point)
*Unbreakable Warrior (Ex U, All Abilities+2)
*Owner of the World Tree (Ex U, All Abilities+2)
*The First to be Blessed by a Fairy (U, Mana+6)
Abilities:
Power 80 (+11), Intelligence 72 (+4)
Speed 75 (+11), Strength 80 (+4), Mana 85 (+10)
Potential (392+40/500)
Remaining Abilities: 3
Fight Force: 16GW
Others: Some part of the Hell Lord’s Heart has been awakened.
Skills: Combination of Everything (U), Mind’s Eye (Ex U), Spirit of Electric Power (Epic), #Rage (Epic), Sloth (Epic)
[Comparison]
Power 89, Intelligence 74, Speed 77, Strength 82, Mana 93, Potential (392+23/500)
Power 91, Intelligence 76, Speed 86, Strength 84, Mana 95, Potential (392+40/500)
“Hmmm…”
I made a sound without any intention to do so. I was a bit surprised. Thanks to the title, all my abilities went up by two points, and my Power was over 90 now. Sloth had increased my Speed, and my Mana reached 95. My total abilities numbered 432. It was beyond anything I had achieved in my former life.
It was all thanks to my adjusted abilities.
My items and titles increased my abilities by 40 points. There was no Devil who could compete with this achievement. My individual abilities hadn’t increased much, but it was good enough considering the big picture.
I had three Epic-level skills. Currently, even the Archdukes had a maximum of two Epic skills, but I was above all of them.
The ‘#’ sign in front of Rage was probably to indicate that I had enhanced the skill with the Astral Code.
Anyway… my status window was more than satisfactory.
‘Too bad the other one isn’t reacting yet.’ I was thinking about the Seed of the World Tree. The sprouted one had started to grow as soon as it was planted, but the one that had already been planted showed no reaction.
Maybe it was too early to tell. I needed to wait and collect enough data to say more about it. If it showed no reaction for a long time, maybe then I would find a way to make it work. It wasn’t time just yet.
“Keep doing your ritual,” I said, referring to the Elves’ ritual.
I would do anything if there was even a slight chance it would help the growth of the World Tree.
“Yes, my Dungeon Master.” Krithli, who was almost high off of looking at the little sprout of the World Tree, quickly tried to pull herself together and bowed. Julium and the other Dark Elves were still mesmerized.
The World Tree represented their hopes, dreams, and everything they wanted.
In the Devildom, the World Tree was controlled by strong Dark Elves, but they weren’t strong enough. They were exiled, and their lives were threatened. They had no choice but to sign a contract with the Fairy of Darkness. The biggest reason they did so was to save Krithli’s life… But now, the Dark Elves would have prosperity under the World Tree’s protection.
‘It’ll be okay to let them do this for a day.’ I thought I was being a temperamental master and smiled before I left them.
The inside affair mode was one of the Dungeon Master’s privileges to look over the details of the dungeon.
I stood next to the Dungeon Core and started inside affair mode.
Soon, a hologram appeared to show a cross-sectional view of the dungeon. I was able to check the position of each monster and the awakened heroes in my dungeon, but there were no remarkable changes.
The only change was shown on the 15th floor, although it was a minuscule difference.
The shape of a tree was shown on the 15th floor with a little comment next to the image that said, ‘the World Tree (Sprouted).’ It was the first time an image had been added to the hologram of the dungeon.
When I looked around to see if there were any other changes, I found a little word added on the lower left side of the hologram.
‘Rare-level Dungeon.’
Yellow letters had been written on the lower left side. I felt curious and touched the words Rare-level Dungeon.
Soon, the hologram screen switched to a new window.
[A special structure can change the level of a dungeon, and a Rare-level Dungeon has more features than a Normal-level dungeon.]
[Do you want to check newly added features?]
Of course I wanted to check the newly added features. I didn’t even know that there were different levels of dungeons. I didn’t even have to think before I clicked on the ‘Yes’ button, and the window showed a long paragraph of text.
Better control over monsters. Now, the Dungeon Master can call or dismiss all monsters including the monsters with the lowest intelligence.
One Monster can be used as a “Master Guardian.” Master Guardians will be the final sword that protects the Dungeon, Dungeon Core, and the Dungeon Master. The monster chosen to be the Master Guardian will get +5 on all abilities. It will be able to use Space Leap with no physical rules applied, but only once.
New objects have been added.
<ul>
Artificial Sun, Cloud, and Moon
</ul>
You can choose the season.
<ul>
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
</ul>
The major changes were those four, even though I checked other additional lists.
The first one meant I needed to set up some leaders to control the monsters with low intelligence to start the Monster Wave, but now, I no longer needed that process.
The second one, the Master Guardian, was quite interesting to me. Although it wasn’t for me, this setting would upgrade all the abilities of one monster by 5 points. Although I didn’t really understand the full details of the Space Leap, it wasn’t very important.
And the third and fourth ones were regarding changes in the landscape. I thought I would be able to find a use for those things depending on the situation. Maybe I could add some monsters that became stronger with the addition of the sun or the moon.
‘I’m sure there must be more levels above this.’
If my dungeon was at the Normal level, and the sprout of the World Tree upgraded my dungeon to the Rare level, there had to be Unique, Epic, and Legend levels above this.
I was so sure that the additional feature of those levels would be beyond my imagination, since additional features for a Rare dungeon were already quite good.
Looking at this result helped me to conclude that putting all my eggs in one basket was actually a good strategy for the dungeons. Concentrating on one to level up at a time was the best for my benefit. Of course, there were some disadvantages, but the advantages of it would be much greater.
‘There are no related achievements?’
I wished that there were some achievements related to the dungeon’s level-up, but it was not unusual that there was no achievement reward for an upgrade, so I had to be happy with just the additional features.
I nodded and started to touch my Sloth, a red and weary cape. I had yet to try the skills of this item.
‘It’s time for me to use this Sloth.’
I was able to unlock Rage’s Intelligence limit by using the Astral Code. However, I hadn’t done anything about Sloth. There was a high possibility that Sloth would be stuck in an abnormal status.
I couldn’t leave it that way, either.
I had to have a full understanding of the skill to react properly when anything happened. All I knew clearly was that I wouldn’t use it cluelessly like I had before. I would be prepared no matter what happened.
I set up some plans to try Sloth.
Three days later, I stepped onto the 20th floor of my dungeon.
“You guys stand around the allocated area and be prepared. If I show any abnormally violent behavior, you need to stop me and try to buy some time so that I can cool down.”
Krathra, Giantes, and Griffin answered accordingly.
“Yes, Master.”
“Stop! Me can!”
“Squawk!”
I had called these three here to prevent any unfortunate event that could happen while I tried out Sloth’s skills.
Two of them were top-notch monsters, and Krathra was slightly lower yet still strong.
I was sure that if they worked together, they would be able to stop me.
Furthermore, it was on the 20th floor. There was nothing here at all, so there was no possible damage that could be done to my own dungeon… but there was no 100 percent guarantee. There was no 100 percent guarantee in this world for anything.
It was always better to be safe than sorry.
Then Krathra asked me, “You explained it to us briefly, so I understand your intentions, but don’t you think we should think of the possibility of you losing it for good?”
Before coming up here, I had explained my plan to try the skills and see the potential risks. But what Krathra just asked me was a risk that I should have considered, as well.
I took my time to think a bit and answered him while stroking my chin, “If that happens, Lyhee and Krithli will consult with you. I’m sure those two would be able to understand my status and help you evacuate or take appropriate action.”
Lyhee and I were connected by our souls. She was able to see my status if she tried, and Krithli was very good at risk management, so she would be able to find the best way to handle such a risk, too.
“Yes, Master.” Krathra bowed down.
I stopped touching my chin and continued, “But don’t try too hard. All you need to do is to limit my movements. That should be enough.”
My total abilities were reaching 432. This was much higher than the abilities of a Griffin or Giantes, so I wouldn’t be an easy opponent to deal with. If everything went wrong and we had to fight with our lives, some of them could die, so I thought it was important to warn them before anything happened.
“Now, step aside.”
At my order, Krathra and the monsters stepped away to their assigned positions to ready themselves.
They had to be far away when I activated my skill. Their job was to observe me from a distance, not to take the brunt of my skill. It was best for them not to approach until I finished checking my skills.
‘I need to save the remaining abilities for later.’
I had to hold my tongue.
I was sure high Intelligence would have prevented anything like this. My Intelligence was only 66 when I used Rage, and now it was slightly higher, at 76 points, but it was still not good enough. It wasn’t low, but it wasn’t high either. I needed some insurance policies to be safe.
I thought maybe I should invest my three remaining abilities in my Intelligence, but I thought it over again and made up my mind to save those remaining abilities for later when my life was at stake. Because when I reached the limit, the remaining abilities would be the only way to break through.
I stood still and looked around.
The 20th floor was an empty space; I’d done nothing on this floor, so it was natural that it was just an empty space. It was an incredibly vast space without any other characteristics, and I was standing in the middle of it.
I put my cape on and took one deep breath.
Rage increased Power, Speed, and Strength, while it decreased my Intelligence by a lot. When I used it, I was stuck in an abnormal status to destroy everything around me. Lyhee, who was usually overly positive, was scared and tried to play on my mercy to survive.
What about Sloth?
I mentally prepared myself before saying its name. “Sloth.”
[High Mana adjustment (95), Power, Strength, and Intelligence decrease by 6.]
[Speed increase by 20.]
[The abnormal status defense rate by Intelligence is 49%. Failed. ‘Sloth’ has an abnormal status.]