NOVEL WEB Chapter 15 - A New Challenge
Dungeon Day 28
After the whole battle ordeal and setting up camp, Dan sent the hawk back to tell the druid he was interested in the proposal but was not ready to meet yet. He also prompted the hawk to ask the druid if the hawk could approach the rock and observe things. The hawk left soon after, and Dan got back to things.
Mainly hunting things.
He had enough animals to make three full teams, so he sent those out. However, he made sure to keep things to a limit and not hunt weaker things like foxes or squirrels. He kept the beasts that didn’t have full teams. Dan believed they were enough to defend him, and if he needed more firepower, he still had some left over mana. And now that his core room was considered to be the whole fort, he could blast things once again. He wasn’t sure why it worked like that since it wasn’t an actual room, but maybe the trees counted as a roof, so he wouldn’t complain.
As for the bosses, he kept Eagle, as Hawk hadn’t done much in the previous fight and was itching to actually do something. Dan also kept Fir and Fur, but other than that, everyone was told to roam the forest.
While his beasts went off, Dan began looking into upgrading Eagle a bit more while also making plans to make his new bosses. The new bosses would be a spider and a mole, along with their mini-bosses and hench minions. He also wanted to make more beasts in general to increase his total battle capacity.
Looking at his current dead beasts, he would need 229 mana to respawn them. Then he calculated how much mana it would cost to create at least another five teams, and it came out to a shit load even without including all his future plans.
The day went by as Dan looked into the various beasts he wanted to create to act as minions for the new bosses and mini-bosses he would make. Besides the mole and spider, he wanted to make a worm mini-boss for the mole and a bat mini-boss for the spider. In terms of minions, he would just make the same beasts but weaker, as he didn’t need that much variety, at least not yet. That decision came from the fact that his current creatures would work fine in the zone since it was mostly forest. Then, the mole and worms could deal with underground problems. The only place he knew he would need to make some new stuff for was the lake, but that would come later.
As Dan waited while making plans, he began to gain a constant stream of mana from his monsters, who were finally killing stuff. It didn’t take long for Dan to reach 300 mana, and he quickly respawned all his dead creatures. They came into being around his core, but he knew he could assign respawn points all around his claimed area. Something that would be useful when he actually began making his dungeon.
Speaking with his newly respawned minions, Dan found that they were all pretty much okay with the whole death thing. Some looked a bit worried, but it wasn’t from the fact they died, as they knew that as long as Dan lived, they would return. Instead, it was more about the fact that dying hurt. Sadly, Dan couldn’t relate as he didn’t remember dying, but he still knew pain and wondered if there was a feature he could give to his monsters to gain some pain tolerance. Looking, Dan did find something, but it was just an addition to the whole body enhancement thing or yet another ability he could give. However, before doing anything, Dan would wait and see if the monsters would get over their fears on their own.
After respawning the monsters, Dan wanted to send them out to hunt immediately but didn’t, mostly because he felt bad about the few who were still shaken. So, he decided to let them spend the day resting while he continued on his business, which eventually included surveying his new land.
His land was just forest. The land wasn’t fully flat and had dips and rises with some hilly areas. The whole place also switched from a thick canopy forest with even thicker undergrowth to sparser areas that allowed easier travel. There were plenty of caves and hiding spots for beasts to hide in, but none of them went very deep into the ground. Overall, the area fit the rest of the shattered zone’s theme, and Dan had yet to spot any possible problems.
While exploring, he noticed that his sense, much like how the fog at the zone's edges worked, would slowly fade until everything went dark, and he could no longer see out from his claimed land into the neighboring lands. The most annoying part was the fact that all of his senses were cut off like a curtain stretched from deep underground to high in the sky, and he could not peek over the curtain at all. Still, he wasn’t worried, as even if someone could travel like that godly avatar, he would still have a decent amount of time to react. However, that brought the question of teleportation, and that was when he found something that could prove a bit dangerous.
Teleportation worked within his claimed area just fine, at least for his non-allies. If Dan wanted things not to teleport to him, he would need to place proper enchantments in an area to stop teleportation—the same thing as with flight. Even then, if someone was stronger than Dan, they could force their way past the restriction. Luckily, doing so would still cost the invader plenty of mana, but it wasn’t really that great of a trade for Dan.
Thankfully, from what Dan had seen around the shattered zone, there didn’t seem to be many things that could teleport around. However, Dan was still worried about disguises. It wasn’t something he had thought about until just then, but it could be a problem. Could magic fool him even within his own dungeon area? Could a druid pass as an actual animal, or an illusion expert make themselves truly invisible to Dan's senses?
Worried and not wanting to get taken by surprise, Dan reached out to the World Crystal and did not receive good news. In short, yes, Dan could totally be fooled by stuff like that. The World Crystal had wanted to give Dan full magical vision for such things, but Mother Eternity had intervened under the guise of balance. So, there were definitely things that Dan could still be blindsided by. Thankfully, Dan could still do things to detect these disguises, but much like the whole anti-teleportation thing, it was going to cost him.
For his part, Dan was not happy with Mother Eternity, but at least now Dan knew about possible flaws in his defense, and he could adequately address them in the future.
One worry Dan still had was the fact that this druid that had contacted him could be watching him right now, and he wouldn’t know. So, he decided to do something about it, at least something minor. Well, at least he was going to. Then, he saw his whole 71 mana after respawning the monsters and the cost for what he wanted and quickly abandoned the plan.
Something he did notice while trying to make his weak barrier of mist was that the World Crystal had changed the formula to claim land and, by extension, the formula to apply enchantments over large areas. Now, Dan could claim more land without needing as much mana, something he figured he would need later on, along with his enchantment abilities. Because yes, he could still claim land, but it would be in more specific scenarios.
Moving on from the flaws in his claimed land ability, Dan wondered about the druid situation some more and figured he would hold judgment until he knew more about that particular faction. So, he decided to spend the rest of the day waiting for mana to keep his progress going.
As the day progressed, Dan made his first adjustment by upgrading Eagle. The main change was going to give the bird another body enhancement and the ability to Wind Slash. Then, he would proceed to do the same for the rest of the eagles and hawks, though with slight changes.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Eagle the Hawk.
Type: Beast.
Size: Tiny.
Hierarchy: Mini-Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 50/50.
Arcane Mana Regen: +2 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 6.
Wind Affinity. Wind Control. Body Enhancement - Speed and Agility. Wind Slash. Night Vision.
Innate Abilities: 6.
Keen Vision. Flight. Speed. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 2 Hours (4 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 36 Mana (72 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 42 to 72 Mana.
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🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Name: Eagle and Hawk.
Rank: Common.
Type: Beast.
Size: Small and Tiny.
Hierarchy: Minion.
Mind: Intelligent.
Arcane Mana: 25/25.
Arcane Mana Regen: +1 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 6*.
Wind Affinity. Night Vision. Body Enhancement - Speed, Agility, and Resilient*. Wind Control. Wind Slash.
Innate Abilities: 4*.
Keen Vision. Flight. Speed*. Mental Resistance.
Respawn Timer: 1 Hour (2 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 14 Mana (27 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 21 to 27 Mana.
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For Eagle the Hawk, the upgrade was just more agility and the Wind Slash ability as for the normal hawks and eagles. Well, the hawks got the agility and slash combo like Eagle, while the eagles gained Resilient instead of agility while also getting the wind slashing ability. It was a minor upgrade but something that would help the birds stay alive longer while finally getting some offensive measures. Especially since the upgrades only costed him a total of 15 mana.
As the day continued and his beasts continued to hunt, Dan’s mana eventually came back to 300 from the 56 it had been after upgrading the birds. Eventually, though, the sky began to darken, and he received a notification that caused him to recall all his monsters, whether they were residents or not.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
Warning! As instructed by the Chaos Mother, a new challenge has been issued.
An invasion of Monsters will appear from the fog.
Protect yourself and your monsters from the invading creatures.
The event will end once you have conquered all Factions in the zone.
Good Luck, Dan. Mother says this will be a one-time thing. She says it’s to help you avoid killing all the animals in the forest. She also says not to get too angry.
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