NOVEL WEB Chapter 46 - Moving Forward
Dungeon Day 46
After coming to, Dan spent some time thinking. He shut out everything else as he contemplated what to do next. The chat with Mother Eternity really put into perspective how little he was in the grand scheme of things. Was there any point in continuing what he was doing?
However, it was as he was thinking of just giving up on the whole thing when it was made clear to him just how out of his control the entire situation was. He legitimately could not give up. The contract between him and the World Crystal was still active. So, regardless of what else was happening, he needed to keep fulfilling his part of the bargain and continue progressing toward capturing the other shards.
Dan had mixed the words of the Chaos Mother with his own feelings. Just because the contract did not apply to her did not mean he could easily get out of it. If she dissolved the contract, it was a whole different thing, but he doubted she would do so anytime soon. Thinking of this sent Dan into an entirely different spiral of thoughts.
He could do the bare minimum, barely attempting to capture the shards. However, that would likely end up with him dead as another shard outmaneuvered or overpowered him. It took him longer than he wanted to come to a conclusion. This was of course, because he was stuck in the same loop that some people back on Earth got stuck in. The fact that no matter what he did, it all seemed pointless as there was somebody bigger controlling the grander scheme of things. Thankfully, his conclusion was something simple.
It didn't matter if that Chaos Mother was setting up the board for him to play. That was something natural that just happened whether there was a bigger thing behind reality or not. Heck, that's how he played his games: somebody else made them, and he was the player clearing the maps and dungeons or building empires. It was a bit unnerving for it to have actual consequences, but it was nothing that he hadn't done before. Besides, it wasn't like he was really in it to clear the shards. That was just a side quest. His real goal in this whole endeavor was to make an awesome badass dungeon. He had ideas on what he could accomplish, and now, with this so-called gift of the Chaos Mother to let him break some rules or bend them a little, he could take his dungeon to a whole different level.
Honestly, in a way, Dan had to be thankful to the super god for giving him a starting zone. She could have easily thrown him into the deep end and just watched him struggle for years and years.
So, remotivated to start pushing forward and with the idea of making a fantastic dungeon, Dan once again sent out his senses throughout his lands. Hours had passed, and he saw all the changes that came with the end of the event.
There were D-rank invaders in his lands, only a few, at least as far as Dan could tell, but he imagined that they would start appearing in bigger numbers the more D-rankers he had. Then he stopped again. That thought itself could be a lie, as the Chaos Mother might want him to think that. Dan contemplated things and pushed that aside. He decided to continue with his work. He could not just keep questioning himself. He had bosses and minions to respawn, as well as taking another look at how he would approach the foreseeable future.
Dungeon Day 48
In total, it took Dan 4030 mana to respawn all his bosses and monsters, well, all except the gators, sharks, and lily minions. He had lost 209 minions in total and half of his bosses, more or less. The cost in mana took him a bit of time to pay up, but it wasn’t all too bad. If anything, he was currently more worried about being overrun by monsters than anything else. This worry came from the increased spawn rate of the monsters he had already previously dealt with and their D-ranked counterparts. Thankfully, they still couldn’t overwhelm him as they had to travel to his core location, which gave him plenty of time to pick them apart. It helped not having to worry about the frog folk since they were underwater, which made it impossible for ground monsters to target them. Even the druids were doing fine, at least for now.
One major worry Dan had-had was how the rest of the zone would deal with D-Rank monsters. However, his worry was short lived as he found that D-rank invaders only spawned from the fogs surrounding his territory. Speaking of the invaders, the monsters that appeared seem to fall under the beast category, at least for the most part. These monsters were of both the common versions he had dealt with before, but they also had some D-rankers mixed in. The beasts were different animals with aspects of magic. More bears, big cats, foxes, badgers, squirrels, and a large variety of birds. Some had nature themes like the previous beast he had seen, like the bark skin boar, but many more were just beasts mixed with simple elemental magics. The standouts among the new monsters were the monstrosities.
Though much larger than normal, these new monstrosities were centipedes and came in three varieties. There were the speedy ones, limbs made of metal blades helping them move through the forest like chainsaws. Their bodies could detach in sections, making them even more dangerous since they were moving blenders the size of men. Then, there were some massive, slower versions with heavier carapaces whose larger limbs ended in weird-looking blobs. These blobs helped support their enormous weight but also could open up like mouths releasing poison. Finally, the last versions and most deadly ones looked like normal centipedes except for their very bright colorations and crystal-like antennae. Though they varied in colors, they were always a mix of red, green, brown, and blue. At most, they had at least three colors, with a few just having one. Of course, the colors meant something, and this time, it meant the types of elemental magic they could use. Red stood for fire, green for wind, brown for earth, and blue for water.
Even if the new monstrosities were a new form of danger, it didn’t detract from the increase in power the rest of their kind got as scorpion owls, bears, and raptors appeared as D rankers. Thankfully, they weren’t as bad as these centipedes, and their upgrades just meant more poison. The real issue with monstrosities came from wolfbats. Unlike those in the event who couldn’t fly, the new D-rank wolfbats came in three different types. Some were burly, much like the event boss had been. Others were much thinner, could fly, and even used sound bullets to attack from range. The last type was just their normal type except enhanced, which didn’t make too big of a threat.
Naturally, all of these new monsters meant a few things for Dan. First and foremost, he would get a lot of mana and some new variety of monsters. Second and more annoying was his birds being contended with in the sky. Still, it just meant one thing for Dan: he needed to get stronger.
Dan wanted to have the bandits and village under his control in less than a week, a very accomplishable goal. From there, he would conquer the kobolds and keep the gnolls at bay. All the while, he would keep building up his forces to rush and take out the green camp and, finally the hills area. Then, once that was done, it was time to get to dungeon building.
He was always dungeon-building in his mind, thinking of areas he could make, quests, and npcs. However, new ideas came to light with every new development, and some were erased. In fact, the whole deal with Mother Eternity made him rework some of his previous plans. In truth, Dan wanted to build a dungeon game of sorts for adventurers to play. It would be a dungeon multiplayer game like back on Earth but with a different amount of detailing and interface.
Dan envisioned factions that adventurers could do quests for until a cap was hit and an event would start. Then at the end of the events, there would be special rewards for those who participated. There would also be cool quests with unique rewards and boss fights. Boss fights of all kinds, even wondering bosses. Honestly, there were so many things he could do that Dan forgot about the Chaos Mother situation.
Still, Dan couldn’t get too lost in his dungeon building, at least not yet. There were monsters to spawn and conquering to do. The first target would be the bandits, followed by the village.
Dan expected the bandits to put up much more resistance than the village, but he knew that if he showed up with like 20 D-Rank monsters, there would be nothing the bandits could do. However, he needed to make more D rankers to do all of that. Currently, he barely had enough to protect himself from the spawning ranked monsters, let alone enough to intimidate anyone else.
Speaking of his D-Rank beasts, he had made some good changes to a few of them during their upgrades. The first of which had been the doe’s, whom he had originally changed their common counterparts. This change being the Healing and Cleansing touch being transformed in beams. Regarding looks, the D rank doe’s hadn’t changed much but looked more beautiful and graceful.
The hawks and eagles were next. Their grey and green tones were more prevalent, and a constant breeze ruffled their feathers. This change came with their new abilities, which also influenced their names to have the word Wind before their species. In terms of abilities, the eagles got the Storm’s Kin and Mana Storage abilities. The main skill being Storm’s Kin, which worked with Hawk the Eagle’s Buffeting Storm ability to make them all a much more fierce force in the air.
The hawks got the previously mentioned Wind Charge ability, which allowed them to charge up like the cheetahs. Their other ability also worked well together as long as they were in a group. This ability was Bullets of the Wind, which let them increase in speed and piercing power when they dove in a group—the more hawks dove together, the higher the scaling.
After the birds came the big cats. The panthers got darker in D-Rank, and Dan decided to have them go more into the stealth department. For this, he gave them Stalker and Camouflage. Their names also changed to Stalker Panther to show this change. The jaguars became more metal greyish to show they had gone more into the metal route. Dan had given them the Metal Whirlwind ability, which did as its name implied. Additionally, he gave them Resilient Body Enhancement to make them more front-line fighters. Finally, the cheetahs got Kinetic’s treatment, becoming more lightning-attuned and having the ability to save lightning in a special gland for later use.
Finally came the infantry of Dan’s forces. The bears took after Ingot, gaining the Earthen Armor ability along with an Enhancing Roar for friendlies and a Fearing Roar for enemies. The gorillas also got Earthen Armor like George but, more importantly, had received the Earthen Fists and Mana Storage abilities to let them punch things even harder and for longer. The last of the infantry upgrades, and possibly Dan’s favorite, was for the baboons. They had received the Wooden Armor ability, and much like the gorilla's armor, it gave the baboons a chest plate and helm made out of wood.
The wood was magical and relatively sturdy, actually protecting the monkeys. More important was their Wooden Weaponry ability. This ability was incredibly versatile and allowed the monkeys to summon simple weaponry made out of wood. Now, even if they were made out of wood, Dan had made sure it was good, and it was made of ironwood. Thus, when monkeys summoned one of their available weapons, they were sure to inflict some good damage while still maintaining some protection and not even losing their mobility thanks to the wood's odd flexibility. His monkeys were really becoming dangerous, and he couldn’t wait to see the reaction of the adventurers.