Dungeon Heart 03 - Hell Gate, page 25
“Yes. Hopefully those ores will be of help,” the king replied as he watched the snowflakes fall gently from the clouds above. “I never know what to expect from that dungeon. As for the town… It is truly far better than I had dared to hope. The watchtowers were not something I had thought we could have implemented even a month ago.”
“I suppose they wished to rise to the occasion after such a terrifying experience,” she said, squeezing his arm more tightly for a moment. “I can only imagine what must have gone through the minds of those families while being chased by those monstrosities. The desire to avoid that kind of trauma must have been far greater than we expected, to push them into such a frenzy of productivity.”
“You must be right,” the king nodded. “The villagers showed a fierce spirit and enthusiasm if what Dian said is to be believed. I hope that it influences the next part of the plan for the better. Not to mention that the Temple of Stars is planning to build a place of worship, maybe a chapel. That should help boost morale.”
“I am sure it will, my love,” the queen chuckled lightly. “The gods are a place many turn to in times of need. Besides, a chapel would surely be helpful when fending off demons, which I am sure will help ease the worries of many villagers. With any luck, the returning workers will have many positive stories to tell. I am sure that once the winter has ended, we will see immigration to the village surge. The land is cheap, the taxes are relatively low, and now it boasts the best protection of any village at the borders of our kingdom. And Dian is already making aggressive moves to expand the road that stretches towards her father’s domain, which will certainly help trade.”
The king chuckled at this and stroked her hair with one hand as he turned to look at her. “Why, you are quite the silver-tongued lass, aren’t you? A little more and I would suspect that you were trying to sell me a home in the village.”
The queen laughed merrily and released her grip on his arm as she started to head towards the door. “Oh you. There is no need for that. I know you are already thinking of where to set up your next fortress anyway.” She winked at him and pulled the door handle gracefully. “I’ll see you at dinner, My King.”
The king chuckled and shook his head.
While the king and his people toiled away with unwavering hearts, life inside the dungeon continued to change. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that during the relatively quiet period that followed the assault by the sorcerer and his troops, not a single soul had tried to dungeon dive, with the exception of the odd animal that wandered into it by accident and Ikfes. By the time people began making regular trips to the dungeon, winter had settled in and the days had become far shorter.
That first month, however, was without a doubt the longest period of inactivity they had had since Smit had greeted his first group of adventurers. After over half a year of constant eventful encounters and adventurers diving into the depths of the dungeon, it was almost… unnerving to some of the smarter creatures in the dungeon. Especially now that they had passed the minimum estimated period for the ritual to create the hell gate. Sure, the area had been sealed and many precautions had been taken to delay the summoning, but they were now on borrowed time. Sooner or later the ritual would activate, and they would have to fight.
Echo was part of the small group of creatures that shared this feeling of unrest, and admittedly she was disconcerted by it at first. While she had made tremendous leaps of improvement in developing into an entity with emotions and a proper soul, she was, for all intents and purposes, only as capable of unraveling all her emotions and feelings at the level of a child. Her emotional faculties were similar to a nine-year-old human child, which was an impressive feat considering that she was just approaching a year in age as a golem. It wasn’t just her emotional ability that had improved tremendously, though. Her ability to move naturally in her body had reached a level where she could be compared to a human with a few aching muscles, rather than the grinding, mechanical movements that had no flow to them when she first was born.
It was only by achieving this level of control over her own body that she had managed to learn her defensive skill [Harden Skin], which detracted a small amount of her mobility in exchange for a significant enhancement to her already great defensive ability. True, it may have a small detrimental effect on her dexterity and agility, but as Smit had pointed out to her, the negative effect was much more manageable now that she had increased her own abilities. When she imagined what she would have been like if she had been able to use this ability from the start, she had no doubt that she would have been little more than a very resistant punching bag, unable to even catch a lame wolf.
She had been quite proud of the results of her training and her ability, considering that she had been able to best even the petrified wood tree golems that Smit had created. However, the arrival of the new creatures known as Oni had forced her to reevaluate her abilities. For the first time ever, Echo had met a creature that could match her consistently blow for blow in terms of raw physical strength. Moreover, they had managed to defeat her as much as she defeated them. It was something that she had never fathomed to be possible, despite the fact that, not so long ago her arm had been shattered by the final trump card of Klax. In her mind, that had simply been an outlier, perhaps even a freak accident.
The situation had shocked her so much that, for the first time, she tasted insecurity. She not only doubted her abilities, but compared herself to her siblings, all of whom had undergone more dramatic changes than she had, at least from her perspective. She even began to feel a twinge of jealousy with regards to Pala, whom she considered to be particularly gifted in his ability to evolve and grow. After all, he had had the most evolutions and the most growth of all her siblings. The only one who seemed to be on her level was Zig, and that was exclusively because he was new to the dungeon and he simply had not had a chance to properly grow like the others had.
Fortunately for her, Smit noticed the change in her demeanor and sat her down to talk with him. She could not deny him anything, and opened up to him, struggling to explain herself in a rational and concise form as she usually did. To her surprise, her father smiled broadly at the end of her monologue and patted her head with enthusiasm.
“Good! Very good,” he had said with pride. “You have truly grown, haven’t you? So many emotions. I dare say you have finally become a proper living being.”
His initial reaction had confused her greatly, and her first instinct was to point out that technically, she wasn’t alive like the others were. That impulse, however, was quickly washed away as she soon felt the warm sense of happiness spreading over her chest from her heart, and even smiled at the praises that she received from her father. It was a brief and touching moment for her, where she realized how deeply Smit cared about her at a personal level, beyond the value of her fighting ability. But it only lasted a minute, before Smit dragged her back to the issue at hand, unraveling the issue she was grappling with.
“Listen here, Echo,” he had told her, “I understand your frustration, but you are looking at things from the wrong angle. First, you have improved tremendously. Remember, the most important part for you was simply getting used to your body and increasing your command of it. The others did not have such an issue, so it’s no wonder they have grown in other areas. Not even Zig, whose situation is the most similar to yours, needed to learn how to move from scratch. You have grown enormously in that respect, and I commend you for it. Well done.”
“However,” he continued after a brief pause, “you must realize the advantage you held over them from the beginning and how that has molded you so far. You weigh more than three times what a human your size would normally weigh, and probably twice that of what a fully grown human soldier weighs including armor. Your strength is also more than three times that of the average man, putting you on par with a B rank adventurer easily, if not exceeding it. Because of that, you have relied largely on your natural constitution when you fight. I am not saying this is the wrong approach, but your way of fighting has remained largely unchanged since the beginning. You must realize that your body has limits, just like any other. At some point, you will meet someone that is larger, or stronger, or exceeds you in some way.”
These words had left mixed feelings in Echo, for while there was praise, there was also criticism, and undeniable truth to his words. She had already suffered the consequences not just once, but several times before. While sparring with Arturus, the canine had managed to push her body back despite her weight on several occasions, the Oni had matched her in pure strength, and even exceeded her on the rare occasion, and even Klax’s final trump card had outclassed her so much that she would have died if it had been a one-on-one fight.
“Let me explain.” Smit continued, clearly determined to drive the point home. “The first time you met a normal wild ogre, you had some difficulty, but you beat it in strength, right?”
Echo nodded, recalling the event that had transpired months ago, when the three ogres and their mass of goblins had entered the dungeon. The fight was very unrefined by her standards today, as it was essentially a slugging fest where she and the ogre pummeled each other until one fell. She had emerged victorious of course, but it had been the first time her strength had been truly tested in a battle.
“And the abomination that the bastard sorcerer created shattered your arm, did it not?” Smit continued, receiving a nod from Echo. “Good. Now, it’s fair to say that the current you far outclasses them in terms of technique, but their physical ability is as great or greater than yours. Even the wild ogre slightly outclassed you in strength alone, but your defensive abilities protected you in that event. Now, consider this. A wild ogre is considered a pretty powerful enemy, you know? While its intelligence, speed, dexterity, and even its mana are low, its sheer muscle strength and ability to take a lot of damage make them opponents that require an entire party of C rank adventurers to take even one down. Now, consider the Oni. They are a variant of the ogre species, specialized in combat and guarding places. They are somewhat stronger physically, but their true worth lies in their enhanced intelligence and speed, making them far more formidable.”
Smit stroked his beard as he talked, his eyes watching Echo to catch any reaction from her. “It would be fair to say that while their strength is not on an entirely new dimension compared to standard ogres, their level of difficulty is entirely different from that of the common wild ogre. I would not be surprised if they could wipe the floor with your standard C rank party. So you see, Echo, it's not that you have not grown, it’s simply that your opponents are far stronger than what you are used to. In my opinion, Oni are the perfect enemy for you to refine your skills with. I would consider asking Pala for input on how to use your halberd, as your weapon and his are similar enough that you could exchange ideas.”
Echo had nodded slowly then, and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Smit, who raised the palm of his hand, telling her to stop as he continued.
“Did you know, Echo,” Smit had said as he looked straight into her eyes, “that there are creatures that can crush boulders with their fists? Some can tear through steel with their claws… and some can melt the entire side of a mountain. Do not get discouraged my dear, but realize that there is always someone better, a mountain higher than the last, a heaven beyond heaven. You mentioned that you envied Pala, but I can tell you truthfully, Pala has bled more than any so far, and that’s the only reason he has reached his current level. I do not mean to say that you haven’t put in enough effort, mind you. But I am saying that his current ability is a product of not just his species, but the sheer amount of effort he went through.”
Having concluded his speech, Smit put his hand on hers and smiled softly. “Listen to me dear and listen good. Look at this as a challenge and use it to improve yourself to the best of your abilities. You are strong, one of the strongest here. I believe you can grow far more yet, and make me even more proud. Besides, it won’t be long until you evolve.”
This memory, while not the sweetest nor the most bitter, was one that Echo held dear to her heart, and ingrained in her soul. It had shifted her understanding of the world, and it had reignited her desire to improve herself. It fueled her for the dull months of the start of winter as she used it to improve herself, just how Pala was doing. She would welcome the new inhabitants of the dungeon as they came, and learn from them as she could.
For she was Father’s shield, his dungeon’s resident, and most importantly, his beloved daughter.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
From the day that the invasion ended, Smit had experienced an unprecedented long period of rest from the outside world. He had never stopped to consider the possibility of having a period of rest of any significant length of time, and to be fair, he could be forgiven for overlooking this possibility considering his track record. In the seven or so months since his inception, he had had at the very least four major intrusions into his dungeon, and numerous smaller ones. And the last of said major intrusions had been of such a magnitude that he had been forced to seek help from a human.
Given this history, it was understandable why he had continued to work tirelessly every day, only taking breaks occasionally to check up on his children. To be exact, with the exception of Ikfes’ weekly visits, thirty-two days transpired without a single intelligent being entering his dungeon since the event with Klax. Even after this thirty-two-day period, there were only a few proper dungeon dives that were carried out, and none of these lasted more than two days.
This was not surprising, considering that the great majority of the human’s resources were dedicated to rebuilding the village of Nam. Such was the trend for another twenty days before any group of adventurers stayed longer than a day or two. In short, Smit experienced his longest period of peace in his entire life as a dungeon.
But this did not mean that the inside of the dungeon was static. It was quite the opposite really. The dungeon had never been more active in its history. While most creatures remaining in the dungeon had enjoyed a few days' rest after the attack by Klax, this was mainly only due to Smit’s immediate need for cultivation. In order to focus on cultivating and to restock his mana reserves, Smit had opted to allow the surviving creatures to heal naturally for a few days, enabling him to reduce the mana expenditure. Before the end of the month, however, things had changed dramatically, as not only had Smit created two more species, but he had also activated [Bloody Evolution].
Smit had been so engrossed in his own cultivation and creating the new species that he had put aside most other matters, such as evolving the few surviving animals of the dungeon attack. Moreover, there was no telling when this grace period would end, so it was in his best interest to make the most of it, and there were few more efficient ways of increasing his dungeon’s strength than through [Bloody Evolution]. His hope this time was that, even though the survivors of the attack had reached enough experience to evolve naturally, by utilizing [Bloody Evolution] and delaying their natural evolutions he would allow them to unlock rarer evolutions.
He went as far as keeping his ability active in the lower half of the dungeon floors even when adventurers began to come into his dungeon again. This gave rise to the longest continuous use of his [Bloody Evolution] ability. The result was a massive experience boost for the surviving creatures, and it gave his new creations a much needed test run. Such was the case for thirty-four consecutive days after he concluded making the Oni. Even then, the only reason why he stopped his ability was that after cultivating for those thirty-four days, Smit finally managed to break through to the next level of his cultivation, reaching the 4th rank.
To his great surprise, this time he had unlocked ten additional levels instead of just five, and his list of available creations expanded quite a bit. It seemed like the 4th rank was a milestone of sorts, as he was granted several boons. Though on the flip side, it seemed that it would be more difficult to increase his rank from here on out.
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Congratulations! Rank up successful. Allowing for a dramatic increase of the dungeon. Additional floors may be created now. Maximum floor size increased.
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Breakthrough accepted. New species have become available for creation. General improvements for all abilities and skills have taken place.
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Rank 4 achieved. Analyzing achievements, and dungeon’s condition.
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Analysis complete. Special conditions met. Species bonus applied.
Congratulations! Multiple criteria have been met. Granting rewards.
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Special actions by individual [Smit] have resulted in the following:
Title [The Negotiator] granted.
Title [Father of Monsters] granted.
Title [Abnormal One] granted.
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Species bonus upon reaching 4th rank: [Check Point Teleport] Granted
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Exceptional performance, growth speed, and events have been detected. Special bonus may be selected. Please choose:
Heavenly Intervention
Hell’s Protection
Reaper’s Blessing
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While Smit had been quite pleased by the rank up, his joy was quickly turned into alarm by the final message. As he scrolled through the options, he hoped that they were not what the names suggested. All three bonuses were certainly mighty, earning him a number of protections, growth corrections, and even monster affinities to enhance his own abilities substantially.
