The Arcade Series

Once the initial shock of the Guild Masters entrance faded a bit, I started to laugh a bit. “Great entrance, really.” I complimented, “Scared me half to death, but great entrance. Just how did you manage to sneak up on me wearing plate armour, anyway?” I chuckled, noticing his armour as I looked him over.

“Ah, it's just a trick that comes with my class.” He said with a smile of his own, then he gave a frown. “Why haven't I seen you in the militia? You could go delving deeper than this with the rest of the group, you know. Despite your level you seem to pack quite a punch as well, and we could use some good mages with how rare they are.” He asked, seriously.

“I don't doubt it.” I acknowledged with a wry smile, “But I can't really do that. I have work to do during the day, as you know, so I am afraid that my schedule doesn't line up right. You can count me in during the battle, though. I believe that I can have some leeway to do that much.” I explained carefully, and causing the Guild Master to give me a considering look as he thought my words over.

“You have to work? Even in a situation such as this?” He questioned me with a curious expression. I got the sense that this question was a little more important then he let on, and I understood why. It was a judging of my character, or a judge of who exactly I was working for.

“Yes, I am afraid so. Though, I believe that my work will be important in the coming few days judging by the deal we made earlier. A supply or resources is just as important as the people using said resources.” I comment, putting on a bit of an older act as I did. It was always like this back in the military with all the politics and bureaucracy getting in the way, but sometimes playing politics was necessary for even a man of as low a rank as me to get stuff done.

“I suppose that is true enough.” The Guild Master said with a nod, understanding what I mean. “But, let's move on shall we?” He said with a smile, and waved his hand towards his right and towards a passageway through the stone of the cave, where I was planning to head before he appeared.

“That sounds good to me.” I acknowledge and I start walking through the cave, with the Guild Master following behind me. “So, what are you doing here this evening?” I ask the man after a momentary silence, only for him to laugh. “I thought you would have guessed! I have been following you since you left your shop earlier.” He told me with an easy going chuckle and causing me to look over my shoulder with incredulity. “Really? I didn't notice. I didn't take you for the rogue type.” I acknowledge with a similar chuckle, not really worrying about it.

Though I did make a mental note that the stealthy types might be difficult to fight with my current spells. Though a big fireball usually helped with killing things, it wouldn't help much if I didn't know where they were in the first place.

“Touche.” The armoured rogue commented as we continued to walk through the dungeon.

“So, I suppose this is a good time to mention that I was planning to stay and delve until the morning. I don't need to sleep anymore, for reasons I won't go into, and this is as good as anything to do while I have free time.” I said after a moment of silence, explaining to the bald old man with a touch of hesitancy to my voice.

“Ah, good. I don't need much sleep either, and I suppose I am due for some time off of my duties. I could join you for a delve, even if just to watch. I can't get much out of a delve on the first floor any more.” My stalker said with a happy voice and what I imagined was a grin across his face, though I couldn't see it while I walked ahead in the narrow passage.

“I don't suppose I could persuade you otherwise, could I?” I asked with a wry smile at the old man's behaviour, and in response he just gave a short laugh and didn't answer. I smiled a bit at that, as it was an answer all of its own. Reminds me of a few friends I used to have, back on Earth.

“Well if you are going to be following me around, maybe I could get your name? It would be a bit uncomfortable for me to call you ‘Mr. Augman’ or ‘Guild Master’ wouldn't it?” I asked with a smile as we reached the end of the passageway and entered into a larger cave-like room, and turned to get a look at the man before we continued walking through the dungeon once more.

“I suppose so.” He confirmed with amusement in his voice, “My name is Henry. I suppose if we are getting to first name basis I could call you Leo?”

“I think that would be fine with me, Henry.” I said, with a bit of a nostalgic smile. It has been a while since I heard that name.

With that, me and Henry left to go delve into the dungeon.

I walked down the street as the sun was rising, practically humming from excitement as I walked away from the dungeon and towards my Arcade. I had got quite a bit of rewards from my delve last night, and I couldn't wait to go over all the new system notifications that I had received and the huge sense of improvement in my body and mind that I could feel accumulating while I went around the dungeon with Henry.

I cheerfully unlocked and opened the door to the Arcade and walked my way behind the counter to sit down on my chair, opening my status screen and my minimized notifications as I sat down with a smile.

Native Universal Leveling System #273 Status

Level: 9-17

EXP: 127/800

Native Universal Leveling System #273 Skills: One Skill available.

Main Class: Combat Sorcerer of the Dungeon (Legendary): You have used freeform magic in combination with your own hands, using the abilities of a dungeon core to amplify your effectiveness in combat.

+2 intelligence, +1 willpower, +2 mana, +1 strength, +1 dexterity and +3 Free Stat Points, Per level

Secondary class: Selection available.

Tertiary class: locked until level 50

Stats

Dexterity: 19-27

Strength: 24-32

Constitution: 25

Intelligence: 38-54

Willpower: 34-42

Mana: 52-68

Free Stat Points: 27-51

I gaped at the system screen for a moment, taking in all the information over a few seconds of reading. This was a lot more gains that I had thought.

My level had almost dubbed from just that run, which made some sense now that I was thinking back. I had cleared the Bat Zone and what I was pretty sure was a mini-boss in the next zone, which was a Snake Zone apparently. No matter what Henry said about my methods of delving, they were damn effective, and fast at that. I had never delved as far into the dungeon as last night.

I also had to think about where to put all my Free Stat Points now too, as fifty was just too much to leave lying around in my status. But before I started to think about all that, I took a look at the notifications I had received inside the dungeon.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the secondary class, and you have several available options to choose from! Select the secondary class tab in your status menu to select your secondary class.

Congratulations! You have reached level 10 and you now can select an available skill from the skill selection screen. To open the skill selection screen, select the Native Universal Leveling System #273 Skills tab in your status menu.

Your dungeon core has reached level 10 and has a selection of abilities and skills available for selection. Link your mind to the core and open its status screen and open up the abilities and skills tab to select an available skill. If you do not select any of the available abilities and skills, the dungeon core's Primitive Consciousness ability will select it instead of the user after twenty four hours.

First off, because I had reached level 10 I had apparently unlocked my secondary class. I was honestly not sure how secondary classes would work out with this system, so I was interested in that, but it was most likely a more complicated decision then the one that the second notification gave me. I could get my first skill, and I had a feeling that because my level was pretty low right now, my options would be pretty limited.

Then there was the final notification. That left me kind of shocked, if I was being honest. My dungeon core leveled up? It can level up?! I had no idea! But as for selecting a new skill for my dungeon core… Well, I decided to do that after selecting my own skill. It shouldn't be that hard of a choice, after all.

I opened the status menu and opened my skill selection screen, letting the screen show four windows on its surface.

Available Skills for selection:

Active Mana Transmutation (Uncommon):

You are able to transform various types of mana into other elemental aspected mana by sacrificing an equivalent amount of mana for the aspect you want it to transmutate into.

Active Elemental Empowerment (Rare):

You are able to physically empower your body with mana by channeling it inside your body.

Provoking Shout (Uncommon):

Upon the activation of this skill when next you shout out all hostile beings within hearing range are mentally influenced to find and attack you.

Cooldown: 1 minute.

Ah, shoot. Those are some good options. But when I read the descriptions of all these skills… my choice became apparent. Yes, Active Elemental Empowerment was Rare, and yes it would be useful to give a boost to my strength or toughness to my body with my mana, but I had a feeling I could probably figure out how to do it on my own if I tried. Yes, Provoking Shout would be useful to use in the dungeon so I don't have to go running like a maniac. But… I was a wizard. I needed some more elements available then what I could find floating around, and this presented exactly what I needed for that.

Once I figured out how to use it properly, I would probably be able to fling around lightning or something. It just seemed like the best option here.

I selected the skill, causing a message that told me that I had the skill now. Nothing much happened though, so I just moved on after a moment and I quickly started up the linking process to the dungeon core and I opened up its status for the first time.

Dungeon Core Status

Level: 17

EXP: 127/800

Race: Dungeon Core (Tier 4, Uncommon)

Mana: 21

Mana regeneration per day: 1.5

Abilities and Skills:

Primitive consciousness: This dungeon core has an artificial mind designed to obey verbal and mental directions from a linked userDungeon domain: This dungeon has a domain, size relative to that of the coreLink: This dungeon has the ability to form links to those that undergo a ritual that gives the linked person the ability to use all dungeon core abilities and has full control over dungeon core functions unless the consciousness is given direction to do somethingMater manipulation: Within the domain of the dungeon core it has the ability to shape physical materials with an expenditure of manaMana control: The dungeon core has the ability to control the positioning of mana along with the ability to impose its intent on it to make various effectsMana storage: The dungeon core has the capability to store mana inside its coreMana growth: This dungeon core has the ability to expand in size with the intake of mana over time and with that expansion it can gain new abilities at certain points in its growthDungeon domain senses: Within the boundary of the dungeon domain, the dungeon core is omnipresent through being capable of seeing everything that is happening in its domain at the same timeDungeon mind: This ability gives any linked users a mental capability increase to prevent mental injuries from ability dungeon doman senses and lets the user comprehend any amount of information provided through the ability linkOne Skill available. One Ability available.

Interesting. My dungeon core has a very interesting status. First off, I noticed instantly that the dungeon core has the same level and amount of experience as me. That was interesting in itself, because I realized that it probably was leveling up at the same speed as me because of it helping me delve into the dungeon by me using its abilities, like the mind split and dungeon senses during the latest run.

The Race section was interesting and full of different implications, but I didn't really understand it completely so I just left that alone.

The mana section was a bit enlightening. I didn't realize that the dungeon core had its own supply of mana as I couldn't feel it at all, but I did feel the enchantment matrix that was inside it and that was full of mana at the time so it was probably to keep it functioning and improving like normal. It was also a bit annoying to see that it could also regenerate mana, unlike me. But of course a literal rock could produce more mana than me.

As soon as I saw everything, I opened up the Skill Selection screen for the dungeon and I took a look to see what was available.

Available Skills for selection:

Tame Monster (Uncommon):

When an animal or monster of equal or lesser level to the core enters into the dungeons domain, this skill can be triggered and the selected animal or monster will be tamed and gain loyalty to the dungeon core and all its allies.

Environmental Change (Common):

At the cost of mana, this skill can be triggered to make a small shift of the environment of a room or floor to the preferred environment.

Rudimentary Enchantment Creation (Uncommon):

The dungeon core gains the pattern of several tier zero matrix structures and gains the ability to attach them to suitable structures or objects.

Well… this was a bit more straightforward of a decision at least. Elemental Change just didn't seem like a useful option for me, and while enchanting stuff was a topic of interest for me, I didn't even know there was a tier zero and it sounded pretty useless. Tame Monster was the only thing that I could think of a good use for. I could build up a monster army by heading down to the dungeon and kidnap- er, taming some of its monsters to grow up an army.

I selected it quickly, and It confirmed my choice so I moved onto the Ability selection.

Available Abilities for selection:

Materialization (Common):

The dungeon can gain the ability to create a small amount of limited types of physical material from mana.

Rudimentary Consciousness (Uncommon):

This is a direct improvement to the Primitive consciousness ability that will slightly improve its capabilities.

Spell Memory (Uncommon):

The dungeon core gains a memory bank that can contain the imprint of a number of spells or forms of magic that were performed inside the dungeons domain and it gains the ability to replicate said spells for a mana cost.

Now this was… just wow. I want all of them, damn it! Materialization would let me create myself some stuff, like a weapon or armour for me. The upgrade to the dungeon's consciousness would be cool, and I could probably get it to help me do some things as I fought. Spell Memory would probably improve the amount of spells I could do at once by making the dungeon core do its own spells while I did my stuff independently, not to mention the possibility of replicating any different spells that mages use near me without having to experiment first.

But I had to choose, sadly. Well if I had to pick… I chose Spell Memory. Honestly it just seemed like it had the most in-combat use, and that was the most important thing for the immediate future.

I got the confirmation screen quickly, and I exited my linked state with the dungeon core to make my final decision. My subclass.