NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4 - Upgrades
After the woman left, Dan changed his attitude, and his sense of reality shifted. He had wanted more land for a newbie training area, but honestly, this world he was in had clearly gone through some shit. And a small piece of land was nowhere near enough to give adventurers the needed space to advance and train properly. Dan was going to be a dungeon and be dependent on adventurers, so it was best if he kept them alive since that would let him milk them for more mana. It was also good to keep a good force of adventurers in case another Eldritch God decided to come along and try to finish the job. After all, this was also his world now. So, Dan needed to focus on getting to the shattered lands, where the real challenges of his new life and future would show themselves.
To do that, he needed more creatures under his command. Luckily, after the deity's little display, his mana was back to 300. Dan didn’t think it would happen often since he couldn’t use the Ambient Mana and was sure that the refill was a gift given through the World Crystal from the goddess, probably as a peace offering. Now, regarding the whole Ambient Mana thing, Dan had wondered why he couldn’t use it, and it was because of balance. Usually, a situation like his wasn’t possible. As such, part of the contract, and probably the reason Mother Infinity had agreed to it, was the fact that he had limits. Otherwise, Dan would steamroll through the shattered lands.
Speaking of the shattered lands, Dan wasn’t sure what kind of enemies he would find there, so he needed to prepare. The best approach Dan could think of was to make a reasonably balanced force. To do so, he needed some scouts, decent damage dealers, and some burly types to act as the front line. Obviously, Hawk would be the aerial leader for possible scouting, while Ingot would be the burly bear. Now, he just needed some agility base beasts with high damage capabilities.
Dan was thinking of making some jaguars to fill that agility and damage role, so he got to work.
The first jaguar would be a boss monster and be upgraded to a large size. Then Dan was going to give it four new abilities. Another thing he was going to do was give it Intelligence and proper Sapience, something Dan also planned to give Hawk and Ingot. Another thing he gave Xinos was the Share Sense ability that would let Dan see through the boss's eyes and share all its senses. All in all, his new Jaguar was badass and came into existence in his cave.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Xinos the Jaguar.
Type: Beast.
Size: Large.
Hierarchy: Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 100/100.
Arcane Mana Regen: +3 (0 Outside of Dungeon).
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 4.
Metal Enhancement. Body Enhancement - Agility. Metal Affinity. Metal Slash.
Innate Abilities: 6.
Night Vision. Keen Smell. Stealth. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 5 Hours (10 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 59 Mana (118 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 118 Mana.
🔷
Much like Ingot, Xinos's fur was dark gray but with lighter silver dots. It took the jaguar a few seconds to catch up with reality, and once it did, he spoke with Dan for the very first time.
“Hello, Master. How may I serve?” his voice was interesting as it was a bit gruff, but it sounded like a young man speaking.
“Just chill for now, Xinos. I am waiting for your companions to come back.”
“Very well,” Xinos responded before lying down and closing his eyes.
Dan wasn’t going to make the other jaguars yet, but he considered making a mini-boss for Xinos as his lieutenant. However, he also held off on that, deciding to wait and upgrade Hawk and Ingot first. Then he would make the mini-bosses for each of his bosses and finally make some minions. For now, he decided to expand his cave a bit by digging out the central space and creating a larger overall space. Dan planned to eventually make this area into a proper welcoming zone that would bring people into the dungeon. Instead of the training zone, he had first imagined.
After digging that bit of stone out, he was down to 156 mana and decided to wait for his two gatherers by planning out the mini-bosses.
Dan was thinking of making Xinos’s mini-boss a cheetah. The speedy cats would make good land scouts, and with some better agility and earth magic, they would be a threat in any land environment. As for Hawk the Eagle, she would be given a hawk named Eagle. The reason for this choice was simple. Dan wanted Hawk the Eagle to be the bigger aerial threat instead of an actual scout, and instead, he would make Eagle the Hawk a future aerial scout mini-boss. Finally, for Ingot, he was thinking of giving him a gorilla for an additional “oh shit!” factor. He had thought about a rhino or hippo, but a gorilla seemed like a good fit for any terrain. In contrast, a rhino and hippo would need open ground to traverse properly without running into everything.
As for the minions, Dan planned to have a bit of everything—well, not really. He would have some panthers, jaguars, and cheetahs for Xinos. For Hawk and Eagle, just more of their kind. Finally, Ingot would get some more bears, gorillas, and maybe some baboons to ride on said bears for an infantry of sorts.
Losing himself in planning, it wasn’t long before Ingot and Hawk came back.
Hawk was riding on top of Ingot and guarding a couple of deer entangled in half-metal wooden roots. Dan could see the deer struggling as his dungeon beasts slowly made their way through the cave until they finally reached the core room. Having noticed the pair some time ago, Xinos was up and staring at the eagle and bear, who in turn stared back. Dan thought for a second that they were going to fight, but then some sort of understanding was exchanged, and the jaguar returned to lying on the stone floor.
Hawk jumped off Ingot as the bear tossed the two deer on the ground, and with a command from Dan, the bear quickly killed the two beasts, giving him a whole 20 mana, and taking him to a whopping 176 mana.
Sighing inwardly, Dan looked at Xinos and told him to take the eagle-bear combo back out and bring back something stronger. Then, telling Ingot and Hawk to follow Xinos, the trio walked out of the cave.
Dungeon Day 2
A whole day later, the trio came back with a haul as they dragged the body of a huge ape tangled in metal roots. The thing was barely alive and was bleeding heavily from slashes all over its body. Honestly, it was almost dead. In fact, it died right before the trio made it to the core room, and this time, Dan got a sweet 80 mana from its death, bringing his total to 264 with the eight of a new day also added in.
Finally, with enough mana to upgrade Ingot and Hawk, Dan got to it.
First was Ingot, who was going to receive the biggest upgrade. The bear went from large to huge and was going to get Intelligence, Sapience, and Share Sense like Xinos. Additionally, it would go from metal affinity to earth and gain two new abilities. The most important one being Mana Storage which doubled the monster's available mana pool. Overall, Ingot would be his most expensive monster yet, with a total of 204 mana spent to create him.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Ingot the Bear.
Type: Beast.
Size: Huge.
Hierarchy: Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 200/200.
Arcane Mana Regen: +3 Per Minute (0 Outside of Dungeon).
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 6.
Earth Affinity. Earth Slam. Earth Entomb. Mana Storage. Body Enhancement - Resilient and Strength.
Innate Abilities: 6.
Night Vision. Keen Smell. Strength. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 5 Hours (10 Hours if Death is Outside of Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 102 Mana (204 if Death is Outside of Dungeon.)
Original Create Cost: 48 to 204 Mana.
🔷
Ingot was engulfed in dark brown light that lit up the cave, and the bear disappeared momentarily from sight.
The change was obvious and instant as the bear now barely fit in the core room. Ingot was huge and sturdy, with literal dirt covering him and growing out of his dark brown fur. The bear stood almost like an unmoving mountain, and Dan wanted to see his first boss tumble something to the ground.
After stabilizing for a minute like Xinos had, Ingot finally spoke with a deep and rumbling voice.
“Master, how may I be of assistance?” He said as he lowered his body to the ground.
“Oh, man! Ingot, you look freaking awesome. Let's go out to the bigger cave so we can upgrade Hawk there.”
Getting up from his bear bow, Ingot slowly backed out of the small cave, and Dan followed the jaguar and eagle as he floated his crystal to the bigger cave.
Now, it was time for Hawk to get upgraded. Hawk was going to go from medium to large, become a proper boss, and gain Share Sense. Dan would also give the bird sapience and intelligence, bringing her upgrade to completion.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Hawk the Eagle.
Type: Beast.
Size: Large.
Hierarchy: Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 100/100.
Arcane Mana Regen: +3 Per Minute (0 Outside of Dungeon).
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 6.
Stealth. Body Enhancement - Speed and Strength. Night Vision. Wind Affinity. Wind Slash.
Innate Abilities: 5.
Keen Sight. Flight. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 5 Hours (10 Hours if Death is Outside of Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 64 Mana (128 if Death is Outside of Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 47 to 128 Mana.
🔷
Unlike Ingot, Hawk didn’t change much other than being half the size of the new and improved Ingot. However, Dan knew the bird was strong and could lift a bear off the ground. Additionally, she had a slight green tinge on all her feathers.
With the upgraded boss, Dan was now broke, with only 27 mana. However, he wasn’t worried and told Hawk and Xinos to bring back something good. He also wanted to send Ingot, but with only 27 mana, Dan wanted some protection just in case something else happened.
Still, now his bosses had Share Sense, and he quickly began inspecting the forest through Hawks eagle vision. The first thing Dan noticed was that they were actually quite close to the ocean. In fact, the shore was only a couple of miles away from his cave entrance. Dan, who wanted to see more, nudged Hawk to move that way. The two couldn’t communicate properly as the eagle wasn’t close enough for telepathy, but they still had a connection Dan could use to give a few nudges.
Dan spotted some other large sky predators on the way there and could feel Hawks worried about seeing a wyvern in the distance. Even so, they quickly made it to the shore.
There, he spotted a large fish in the water, and he felt Hawk doing some mental math before plummeting down to catch it.
With a splash, Hawk went into the water, and before Dan could blink, the large bird was back out with a fish almost the same size as her. She then began flying to the cave, and Dan switched to Xino’s vision.
The jaguar was being stealthy as it stalked a freaking bear. Now, it was just a regular bear, unlike Ingot, who was magically empowered. Still, a jaguar hunting a bear was crazy. Xinos watched the bear for a few minutes before deciding he could take it and pounced at the beast.
Dan felt as the jaguar's skin gained some of the resiliency of iron, and his fangs and claws transmuted to iron. Then Xinos struck the bear, his bite digging deep into the creature's neck before his claws glowed, and his mana went down as he unleashed some metal slashes, bringing the bear down.
Xinos then dismissed his magic and bit into the half-dead bear as if he were grabbing a kitten before the jaguar dragged the body to the cave.
Hawk was the first to arrive, or better said; Hawks fish was the first to arrive as it splatted into the cave entrance, dying on the spot and giving Dan a sweet 40 mana. After Hawk came Xinos, who walked into the cave before slaying the bear and giving Dan another 40 mana.
Seeing his mana go up, Dan just smiled inwardly as he prepared to spawn some more monsters, but before doing so, he gave Ingot the go-ahead to leave and do some hunting.