The next day, myself, Eline, Einar and Unika headed for the TinaWood dungeon. Our goal was just to look around, mainly because I wanted to see how the dungeon was doing, and maybe have Unika test out a battle room. Sure I can remote check the dungeon, but that is the boring way of doing this.
We also had Glad, Nitrum and Lumi with us, so this would double as exercise for our tamed monsters. In fact, I was riding Glad, Unika was on Nitrum and Einar and Eline rode Lumi. And no, I didn’t beam us down to the dungeon’s entrance, as it was simply a bit too far away from HomeBase’s current location, and I didn’t want to move HomeBase when we could just ride for a bit to get there.
“So you cleared the trees for this road?” Unika asked.
“Yeah. I mean, it is my dungeon, so I wanted to make sure adventurers would have decent access to it. And with my monsters, it wasn’t that difficult. The road itself was made by the Watchman family, the Bakula company and the adventurers’ guild though.”
“They must have had skilled earth mages reinforce the ground. It is nice and sturdy.” Unika complimented.
“It was mostly Christina, Alice’s mother. She is really good with Earth Magic, like most of the Sawyer family is.”
“It is strange seeing nobles act like that. We always heard they are too proud and only use their title and money to force others to do their jobs.” Einar said.
“I do hope your time with me has somewhat broken that idea. I mean, I’m also a noble.”
“... you do realize you are the epitome of ‘throwing money at problems to make them go away’?” Unika pointed out. “I mean, how many of us did you buy? Myself, Cailie. You could argue even the ex slaves, but I do admit that they are a special case.”
“Just because I can do that, doesn’t mean it is my default. Money just happens to be the easiest way of doing that. If I didn’t, it’d take more time. Well, maybe I would have never obtained you, but I could have found some other tamer eventually. And you know, as a SS holder, I do believe in destiny. I think our meeting in that dungeon was fate. What I don’t know is if there was some influence from our Goddess in that meeting, but honestly, I wouldn’t doubt it if someone told me yes.”
“... Would She do something like that?”
“Directly not. But I do know a bit about the prophecy spell and that could easily have been an influence without anyone even noticing. It is madness what that spell can do given enough time.”
“I know. You’ve shown me the fight between Alice and the Behemoth and I frankly cannot believe that someone just a bit higher level than me could take on a Behemoth.”1For those that don’t remember or don’t want to double check, Alice was LV.58 when she fought the behemoth.
“Well, soon enough you all will be taking on the SS-ranks alongside us.” I told them.
“Yes sir!” Einar responded with enthusiasm.
“And it all starts here. Let’s see if any of you can get Card Summoner.” I said, as the entrance to TinaWood came to view.
I had already confirmed it earlier, but we were the first visitors to the dungeon today. There was a party that had camped out in the dungeon, so we weren’t the only ones here, but we were the first to arrive today.
And yes. I’ll try to make sure we don’t hunt everything. This isn’t just my playground. I can’t steal all the toys, or monsters in this case. But I do want to test out my new skills, and have Einar and Eline test theirs out. Unika already tested her Spell Destroying Shot, so that is not a problem. In case you are interested, with the skill at LV.1 Unika could destroy some basic spells, but with more powerful spells, she’d at most weaken them a bit. Still good because she could destroy basic barrier and wall spells with the skill, but it does need some levels before it will really be as powerful as it can be.
“Alright. We are taking a shortcut to floor 3 so we won’t run into the party that is already here.” I told everyone as I opened up the wall that hid the maintenance corridor.
It really is just a shortcut to get to the dungeon core, but it wasn’t that difficult for me to add more paths to it so that you could get to any floor from it. I probably should have done something like that previously, but I just never could be bothered.
And in case you were wondering why I don’t just teleport us around the dungeon, well I can’t do that. I’m not good enough with Space Magic where my teleportation is 100% reliable, even if I have a target magic circle I teleport to.
And sure I can teleport inside HomeBase, but that is because HomeBase is a Chaos God Dungeon. It is a feature of the dungeon, not my skills. And an S-rank dungeon like TinaWood just can’t support the same power as HomeBase.
After our little shortcut, we were on floor 3. With the adventurers that slept here being between floors 1 and 2, we were far enough away that we won’t compete for kills, at least not at the start.
“Alright. Einar, Eline. Go for it.” I told the two. “Most of the skeletal monsters on this floor are D-rank, so not too difficult, but there are some C-rank ones as well, so look out for those. But you should be able to take care of them as well, but just be a bit more careful with them.”
““Yes sir!”” Einar and Eline responded.
The two quickly huddled together, seemingly making a battle plan, before they then rushed into the room. Both of them activated their Expanding Night skill at the same time, causing a blackness to spread from them, but for some reason, I was still able to somewhat see through it. Maybe because of the level difference or maybe I’m just used to it because of Alice using Shade whenever we train together. Not that I can see through her full power Shade, but if she uses a reduced power version, I can kind of see through it. Maybe I’m developing some sort of eyesight skill?
(You don’t notice it, but in an effort to see better, you are putting mana into your eyes.) Laura said. (It should eventually develop into a skill, but be careful not to put in too much mana, or you’ll damage your eyes. Keep it at the level you currently are.)
(... yeah. That might be difficult if I don’t even notice that I’m doing it.)
(Then just keep going as you are. Just don’t focus on it and it should work out for the best.)
I did just that and focused on the fight. Einar was rushing at the skeletons with a saber in hand, while Eline was staying back a bit and chanting a Wind Magic spell. By the way, after Einar got his Sword Technique skill, I had him test out a few swords and he seems to prefer shorter swords that are slightly curved. He has even experimented with dual wielding swords, so I might have to have Wilma make some dual swords for him. Maybe some butterfly swords? I mean, I won’t be dual wielding swords, so I may as well have Einar use the cool stuff.
“Wind Slash!” I heard Eline shout as she finished her spell chant and let out a blade of compressed air. It cut through just a single skeleton before dispersing, but I guess one kill per spell isn’t terrible. She then ran towards the skeletons, with her staff ready to strike, bringing it down on the head of a skeleton. It didn’t quite burst the skeleton’s skull, but did inflict some decent damage on it, and with a few more bashes, it went down.
Meanwhile Einar was cutting through the skeletons with his saber. It took him between 2 to 4 slashes to take one down, but that wasn’t too bad.
“Alright. Test out the Dark Lightning!” I ordered the two. This wasn’t just a real combat test of Expanding Night, but I also wanted to see how powerful their new skill is.
The two, hearing my command, took a bit of distance from the skeletons, before a dark crackling energy formed around a single body part. Their right arm. In Einar’s case, that lightning then made its way to his sword, almost like his sword was enchanted with lightning magic, while Eline’s made its way to her staff, seemingly ready to be shot out.
The two then quickly looked at each other before Einar nodded almost as a sign that they will go now. Eline then let out the lightning that was circling her staff and it shot out … well, like lightning. It wasn’t as quiet as I expected. It was something you would definitely hear if you were nearby, but still nothing like the real ear-shattering thunder. If I were to put it into decibels, I think Eline’s attack was around 95, maybe 100. But I think the sound level will be coming down as the skill level increases.
As for the visuals, well again, it wasn’t completely dark or anything. You definitely could see the lightning if you were closeby, but it didn’t really light up the surroundings like real lightning does.
And for the effects, well, looking at the charred remains of the skeleton, it seems to be effective against D-rank monsters.
I then looked at Einar who was rushing in with his saber covered in the dark lightning. Enhanced by the skill, just a single sword slash was able to cut apart a skeleton, compared to the earlier 2 to 4 slashes. As I said with Eline, seems very effective.
And the fact that you can either use the skill to enhance weapons or as a spell makes it versatile. Definitely a good install for the two.
“Alright. Fall back. Unika and I will test some stuff out next.” I ordered the two.
“Dark Chain.” I said the skill name even though it isn’t required to activate my newest skill. Though it does help when getting used to a brand new skill. “I’ll chain up a skeleton, you shoot it with Spirit Shot.” I ordered Unika.
I extended the Dark Chain from my left hand and aimed at a skeleton nearby. I think eventually I’ll be able to have it start from a place other than my body, but for now it has to originate from me. I used the chain to bind up the skeleton so that it can’t move, before I called out to Unika.
“Take the shot.”
“Yes.” Unika then fully drew back her bow, while also charging some mana into her arrow. She then called out: “Spirit Shot.” and let the arrow fly.
It hit the bound skeleton in the forehead and despite me not putting any extra force on the Dark Chain, after the arrow hit, the Dark Chain crushed the skeleton like it was nothing.
“... Both seem alright.” I said. I know some of the weaknesses of my own skill, like the fact that powerful individuals can easily break out of the chains, but it does work alright against weak monsters.
“Kind of overkill for D-rank monsters.” Unika said. “I think just a standard arrow would have killed it.”
“Well, if we head down a few floors, we’ll run into some C-ranks and B-ranks. Those will be better targets.” I said. “And we should leave most monsters on this floor for other adventurers, so let’s head down.”
As we made our way through the fourth floor, I realized something interesting about Dark Chain. Since it has to originate from me, I could use it as a sort of whip. I wasn’t good at it at all, so I do need practice, but I think there is a skill for Whip Technique, so getting that should help. Maybe I can have Wilma make me a real whip that I can also practice with and then transfer that knowledge to the use of my Dark Chains.
The only bad part was that the Dark Chains do almost no damage. I think it is because they are meant to be ‘crowd control’, not real attacks, but I was still hoping I could use my chain whips to inflict some decent damage. Well, maybe with levels or if I do get that Whip Technique skill.
In other news, Unika’s Spirit Shot seemed to be super effective against skeletons of any rank, as she was easily one shotting even C-ranks with the skill. Maybe because skeletons don’t have a lot of HP, but do have some decent defenses? I don’t know how monster stats work.
The same went for the Dark Lightning Einar and Eline were using. I think it is because bones are good at conducting electricity, so maybe they aren’t perfect test targets. I’ll take all three to HomeBase floor 1 later so we can test those skills against some insects. Maybe even floor 2. It has plant monsters.
After I was happy with our tests on the skills, we began mowing skeletons down together with our monsters. I was with Glad, chaining up targets so that he could tear them with his claws. Einar had Lumi use Ice Magic to hinder the skeletons movements so that he could easily cut them apart, while Eline was trying to combine her Dark Lightning with Sparky’s Lightning Magic. Unika was riding on Nitrum, trying to hit the skeletons from on top of her hippogriff.
I wonder how accurate she would be if Nitrum was flying instead? That could be an alright way of combating S and SS-ranks. Just rain arrows onto them until they die.
Well, that problem can be solved later. Let’s have her test out a battle room first, and let’s see if she can get herself Card Summoner.
The next day, myself, Eline, Einar and Unika headed for the TinaWood dungeon. Our goal was just to look around, mainly because I wanted to see how the dungeon was doing, and maybe have Unika test out a battle room. Sure I can remote check the dungeon, but that is the boring way of doing this.
We also had Glad, Nitrum and Lumi with us, so this would double as exercise for our tamed monsters. In fact, I was riding Glad, Unika was on Nitrum and Einar and Eline rode Lumi. And no, I didn’t beam us down to the dungeon’s entrance, as it was simply a bit too far away from HomeBase’s current location, and I didn’t want to move HomeBase when we could just ride for a bit to get there.
“So you cleared the trees for this road?” Unika asked.
“Yeah. I mean, it is my dungeon, so I wanted to make sure adventurers would have decent access to it. And with my monsters, it wasn’t that difficult. The road itself was made by the Watchman family, the Bakula company and the adventurers’ guild though.”
“They must have had skilled earth mages reinforce the ground. It is nice and sturdy.” Unika complimented.
“It was mostly Christina, Alice’s mother. She is really good with Earth Magic, like most of the Sawyer family is.”
“It is strange seeing nobles act like that. We always heard they are too proud and only use their title and money to force others to do their jobs.” Einar said.
“I do hope your time with me has somewhat broken that idea. I mean, I’m also a noble.”
“... you do realize you are the epitome of ‘throwing money at problems to make them go away’?” Unika pointed out. “I mean, how many of us did you buy? Myself, Cailie. You could argue even the ex slaves, but I do admit that they are a special case.”
“Just because I can do that, doesn’t mean it is my default. Money just happens to be the easiest way of doing that. If I didn’t, it’d take more time. Well, maybe I would have never obtained you, but I could have found some other tamer eventually. And you know, as a SS holder, I do believe in destiny. I think our meeting in that dungeon was fate. What I don’t know is if there was some influence from our Goddess in that meeting, but honestly, I wouldn’t doubt it if someone told me yes.”
“... Would She do something like that?”
“Directly not. But I do know a bit about the prophecy spell and that could easily have been an influence without anyone even noticing. It is madness what that spell can do given enough time.”
“I know. You’ve shown me the fight between Alice and the Behemoth and I frankly cannot believe that someone just a bit higher level than me could take on a Behemoth.”1For those that don’t remember or don’t want to double check, Alice was LV.58 when she fought the behemoth.
“Well, soon enough you all will be taking on the SS-ranks alongside us.” I told them.
“Yes sir!” Einar responded with enthusiasm.
“And it all starts here. Let’s see if any of you can get Card Summoner.” I said, as the entrance to TinaWood came to view.
I had already confirmed it earlier, but we were the first visitors to the dungeon today. There was a party that had camped out in the dungeon, so we weren’t the only ones here, but we were the first to arrive today.
And yes. I’ll try to make sure we don’t hunt everything. This isn’t just my playground. I can’t steal all the toys, or monsters in this case. But I do want to test out my new skills, and have Einar and Eline test theirs out. Unika already tested her Spell Destroying Shot, so that is not a problem. In case you are interested, with the skill at LV.1 Unika could destroy some basic spells, but with more powerful spells, she’d at most weaken them a bit. Still good because she could destroy basic barrier and wall spells with the skill, but it does need some levels before it will really be as powerful as it can be.
“Alright. We are taking a shortcut to floor 3 so we won’t run into the party that is already here.” I told everyone as I opened up the wall that hid the maintenance corridor.
It really is just a shortcut to get to the dungeon core, but it wasn’t that difficult for me to add more paths to it so that you could get to any floor from it. I probably should have done something like that previously, but I just never could be bothered.
And in case you were wondering why I don’t just teleport us around the dungeon, well I can’t do that. I’m not good enough with Space Magic where my teleportation is 100% reliable, even if I have a target magic circle I teleport to.
And sure I can teleport inside HomeBase, but that is because HomeBase is a Chaos God Dungeon. It is a feature of the dungeon, not my skills. And an S-rank dungeon like TinaWood just can’t support the same power as HomeBase.
After our little shortcut, we were on floor 3. With the adventurers that slept here being between floors 1 and 2, we were far enough away that we won’t compete for kills, at least not at the start.
“Alright. Einar, Eline. Go for it.” I told the two. “Most of the skeletal monsters on this floor are D-rank, so not too difficult, but there are some C-rank ones as well, so look out for those. But you should be able to take care of them as well, but just be a bit more careful with them.”
““Yes sir!”” Einar and Eline responded.
The two quickly huddled together, seemingly making a battle plan, before they then rushed into the room. Both of them activated their Expanding Night skill at the same time, causing a blackness to spread from them, but for some reason, I was still able to somewhat see through it. Maybe because of the level difference or maybe I’m just used to it because of Alice using Shade whenever we train together. Not that I can see through her full power Shade, but if she uses a reduced power version, I can kind of see through it. Maybe I’m developing some sort of eyesight skill?
(You don’t notice it, but in an effort to see better, you are putting mana into your eyes.) Laura said. (It should eventually develop into a skill, but be careful not to put in too much mana, or you’ll damage your eyes. Keep it at the level you currently are.)
(... yeah. That might be difficult if I don’t even notice that I’m doing it.)
(Then just keep going as you are. Just don’t focus on it and it should work out for the best.)
I did just that and focused on the fight. Einar was rushing at the skeletons with a saber in hand, while Eline was staying back a bit and chanting a Wind Magic spell. By the way, after Einar got his Sword Technique skill, I had him test out a few swords and he seems to prefer shorter swords that are slightly curved. He has even experimented with dual wielding swords, so I might have to have Wilma make some dual swords for him. Maybe some butterfly swords? I mean, I won’t be dual wielding swords, so I may as well have Einar use the cool stuff.
“Wind Slash!” I heard Eline shout as she finished her spell chant and let out a blade of compressed air. It cut through just a single skeleton before dispersing, but I guess one kill per spell isn’t terrible. She then ran towards the skeletons, with her staff ready to strike, bringing it down on the head of a skeleton. It didn’t quite burst the skeleton’s skull, but did inflict some decent damage on it, and with a few more bashes, it went down.
Meanwhile Einar was cutting through the skeletons with his saber. It took him between 2 to 4 slashes to take one down, but that wasn’t too bad.
“Alright. Test out the Dark Lightning!” I ordered the two. This wasn’t just a real combat test of Expanding Night, but I also wanted to see how powerful their new skill is.
The two, hearing my command, took a bit of distance from the skeletons, before a dark crackling energy formed around a single body part. Their right arm. In Einar’s case, that lightning then made its way to his sword, almost like his sword was enchanted with lightning magic, while Eline’s made its way to her staff, seemingly ready to be shot out.
The two then quickly looked at each other before Einar nodded almost as a sign that they will go now. Eline then let out the lightning that was circling her staff and it shot out … well, like lightning. It wasn’t as quiet as I expected. It was something you would definitely hear if you were nearby, but still nothing like the real ear-shattering thunder. If I were to put it into decibels, I think Eline’s attack was around 95, maybe 100. But I think the sound level will be coming down as the skill level increases.
As for the visuals, well again, it wasn’t completely dark or anything. You definitely could see the lightning if you were closeby, but it didn’t really light up the surroundings like real lightning does.
And for the effects, well, looking at the charred remains of the skeleton, it seems to be effective against D-rank monsters.
I then looked at Einar who was rushing in with his saber covered in the dark lightning. Enhanced by the skill, just a single sword slash was able to cut apart a skeleton, compared to the earlier 2 to 4 slashes. As I said with Eline, seems very effective.
And the fact that you can either use the skill to enhance weapons or as a spell makes it versatile. Definitely a good install for the two.
“Alright. Fall back. Unika and I will test some stuff out next.” I ordered the two.
“Dark Chain.” I said the skill name even though it isn’t required to activate my newest skill. Though it does help when getting used to a brand new skill. “I’ll chain up a skeleton, you shoot it with Spirit Shot.” I ordered Unika.
I extended the Dark Chain from my left hand and aimed at a skeleton nearby. I think eventually I’ll be able to have it start from a place other than my body, but for now it has to originate from me. I used the chain to bind up the skeleton so that it can’t move, before I called out to Unika.
“Take the shot.”
“Yes.” Unika then fully drew back her bow, while also charging some mana into her arrow. She then called out: “Spirit Shot.” and let the arrow fly.
It hit the bound skeleton in the forehead and despite me not putting any extra force on the Dark Chain, after the arrow hit, the Dark Chain crushed the skeleton like it was nothing.
“... Both seem alright.” I said. I know some of the weaknesses of my own skill, like the fact that powerful individuals can easily break out of the chains, but it does work alright against weak monsters.
“Kind of overkill for D-rank monsters.” Unika said. “I think just a standard arrow would have killed it.”
“Well, if we head down a few floors, we’ll run into some C-ranks and B-ranks. Those will be better targets.” I said. “And we should leave most monsters on this floor for other adventurers, so let’s head down.”
As we made our way through the fourth floor, I realized something interesting about Dark Chain. Since it has to originate from me, I could use it as a sort of whip. I wasn’t good at it at all, so I do need practice, but I think there is a skill for Whip Technique, so getting that should help. Maybe I can have Wilma make me a real whip that I can also practice with and then transfer that knowledge to the use of my Dark Chains.
The only bad part was that the Dark Chains do almost no damage. I think it is because they are meant to be ‘crowd control’, not real attacks, but I was still hoping I could use my chain whips to inflict some decent damage. Well, maybe with levels or if I do get that Whip Technique skill.
In other news, Unika’s Spirit Shot seemed to be super effective against skeletons of any rank, as she was easily one shotting even C-ranks with the skill. Maybe because skeletons don’t have a lot of HP, but do have some decent defenses? I don’t know how monster stats work.
The same went for the Dark Lightning Einar and Eline were using. I think it is because bones are good at conducting electricity, so maybe they aren’t perfect test targets. I’ll take all three to HomeBase floor 1 later so we can test those skills against some insects. Maybe even floor 2. It has plant monsters.
After I was happy with our tests on the skills, we began mowing skeletons down together with our monsters. I was with Glad, chaining up targets so that he could tear them with his claws. Einar had Lumi use Ice Magic to hinder the skeletons movements so that he could easily cut them apart, while Eline was trying to combine her Dark Lightning with Sparky’s Lightning Magic. Unika was riding on Nitrum, trying to hit the skeletons from on top of her hippogriff.
I wonder how accurate she would be if Nitrum was flying instead? That could be an alright way of combating S and SS-ranks. Just rain arrows onto them until they die.
Well, that problem can be solved later. Let’s have her test out a battle room first, and let’s see if she can get herself Card Summoner.
