A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

Well, that's not much of a decision, I thought to myself as I accepted my level-twenty-one perk with no hesitation.

[Monster Upgrade: Lizard Man Ingenuity

Description: Lizard Men and their evolutions become more adept at learning.

Effect: Lizard Men and their evolutions gain the ability Quick Learner.]

It wasn't the first time I'd seen the ability. In fact, Vie and Pee already had it. The pair had gotten it as a reward for an achievement they'd earned a while back, and while it wasn't the flashiest ability in the world, a flat, ten-percent bonus to all skills' growth rates was the kind of thing any monster could benefit from. That went double for my Lizard Men artisans, and that had made the decision easy.

No debating over this perk for days on end, I guess. Next!

Ordinarily, I would've been thrilled about being offered such a clearly useful upgrade. I, however, was more interested in the distraction the choice provided than the benefit itself, at least for the moment. I still wanted to get my mind off of the insane cost of Inheritance, after all, so with no further ado, I brought up my next set of choices.

[Permafrost Penguin

Level: 1

Cost: 40 DP

Health: 75 (105)

Stamina: 75 (105)

Mana: 60 (120)

Stats: FORT 15 (21), VIT 15 (22), STR 11 (18), END 15 (21), SOUL 6 (12), MIND 6 (12), WILL 6 (12), COM 12 (18), DEX 8 (14), AGI 8 (14)

Skills: None

Abilities: None

Description: A flightless bird native to only the most remote edges of the world. The cold suffuses its body to the point that it is as hard as ice.]

That wasn't what I'd been expecting, but maybe I should've seen it coming. I did still have Monster Variety selected for my level-up focus, after all. Add on the fact that I'd just unlocked both icy terrain and a new species of bird, and it made perfect sense that the System's tendency to push relevant options would notice.

Regardless, I had no intention of choosing it. As much as my animal-loving inner child would've loved to see what a monster penguin looked like, the lackluster, flightless bird wasn't a good option for me, and I knew it. Its only value would've been as a tank, and I already had better options to fill that role, so I moved on before my old interests could win out over logic.

[Shadow Badger]

The next option's name said it all. In fact, I didn't even bother going over the entire monster's status sheet. It was neither a plant nor a reptile, and I wasn't looking to pick up any more random monsters that served no clear purpose. I only cared about what value it could provide, so I simply checked the two things that mattered. I wasn't impressed.

[Stats: FORT 12 (18), VIT 12 (19), STR 14 (21), END 12 (18), SOUL 8 (14), MIND 4 (10), WILL 4 (10), COM 8 (14), DEX 12 (18), AGI 12 (19)]

[Abilities: None]

It was specialized for physical combat while being well rounded and failing to excel at anything in specific. The species didn't even have any abilities I could strip from it. In other words, there would've been no point in taking it. That meant, whatever my last option was, it would probably be what I went with. It was either that or the penguins, and as cool as the exotic birds may have been, I didn't need them.

Please be something good, I pleaded to the System as I turned my attention to the final option.

[Environment: Rainforest

Description: You can incorporate aspects of a rainforest into your Dungeon.

Effect: Allows you to summon and modify soil and uncommon vegetation. Any vegetation you summon subsists off of mana alone.]

I can work with that.

Having new plants, even mundane ones, was never a bad thing. More variety meant more options, more visual clutter to distract delvers with, and more variance in my rooms. It also meant it became harder to distinguish between the normal vegetation and the monstrous kind, something that could prove deadly in the right circumstances. I fully intended to take advantage of that, but that was something for me to worry about later. I had more choices to make, and I still wanted a distraction.

[Experience to next level: 1,588,999 / 484,000

Level up?

Yes / No]

[Creeping Nettles

Level: 1

Cost: 16 DP

Health: 20 (50)

Stamina: 20 (50)

Mana: 20 (80)

Stats: FORT 4 (10), VIT 12 (19), STR 4 (11), END 4 (10), SOUL 2 (8), MIND 2 (8), WILL 2 (8), COM 10 (16), DEX 2 (8), AGI 2 (8)

Skills: None

Abilities: Nettle Shot

Description: A plant monster that utilizes clumps of detachable nettles for self-defense. These monstrous vines use anything that comes too close to their main body as fertilizer.]

Finally! I exclaimed as I saw exactly what I'd been looking for; at long last, it was a plant monster.

As I'd continued to claim my level-up rewards, the complete lack of plants and reptiles had been worrying me. I'd set my focus to new monster types with the express goal of getting more of them, yet here I was at level twenty-three, having only been offered a single such monster. I needed multiple of each. The rate at which I was getting them wasn't going to cut it.

Ugh, I groaned inwardly, I'm going to have to unlock them manually, aren't I?

As it stood, I had three free unlocks that I could use on whatever monsters I needed, and soon, I'd get three more. To match the number of species a plant and reptile Dungeon at my level should have, I was going to need to spend at least half of those unlocks. I'd been hoping to offset that more by picking up a few extras during my level ups, but by now, it had become clear that wasn't working. With that being the case, after confirming the other two options weren't anything I needed, I chose the nettles and made to change my focus. That left the question of what I should change it to.

[Please select a focus.

Monster Variety / Monster Upgrades / Trap Variety / Trap Upgrades / Environments / Equipment / Items / Aspect Upgrades]

Monster Variety isn't working, and I don't use Dungeon traps, I reasoned, Other than that, Equipment and Items mostly offer junk, so that leaves Monster Upgrades, Environments, and Aspect Upgrades. Out of those, what do I need most?

Monster upgrades were always welcome. The same went for aspect upgrades. The only category out of those three that I didn't expressly need more of were environments, though I'd still have happily taken any good ones that were offered.

In the end, my decision didn't come down to one of the remaining options being better than the other. Instead, the deciding factor was scarcity. With the frequency I was offered them, I knew I was likely to be offered both monster upgrades and environments regardless of what I chose. Aspect Upgrades, on the other hand, rarely found their way into my offered choices, so that was what I went with.

Aspect Upgrades, I informed the System of my decision and brought up my choices.

[Item: Woven Basket]

I stared at the prompt for a time, almost convinced Seven had to have been reading my thoughts and done this just to spite me–or Twelve, for that matter. As helpful as the pink Custodian had been, I couldn't dismiss the possibility that she'd derive some form of amusement from pulling something like that. Then, I remembered my own luck and dismissed both possibilities as irrational, probably. Either way, there was no use worrying about it, so I reaffirmed my decision to never select Items as my focus and laughed the situation off.

Maybe I should get a Lizard Man specialized in weaving, just out of spite, I mused humorously, Then, we could make our own baskets. Who knows? If they get good enough, maybe they'll even be able to make rugs later on.

I chuckled silently at the thought for a brief moment before my mind fell to the person who I'd once shared that inside joke with. It had been fun threatening Fabian with choosing Items in hopes of unlocking a nice rug once upon a time. Despite only having been a matter of months–weeks?–ago, it felt like a lifetime since then. Briefly, it made me wonder how the fairy was doing. Then, I pushed those thoughts out of my mind with as much force as I could. I couldn't afford to dwell on them.

Great, I groaned, Now, I need a distraction for multiple reasons. Ugh, what's the next option?

With a simple thought, it came into view.

[Aspect Upgrade: Potent Disease Carrier

Description: Carried diseases become more potent.

Effect: Disease Carrier gains the following effect: All diseases you carry become 10% more potent.]

Yes, I complained dryly, I'm definitely trying to start a plague here. Wonderful.

Out of all my aspects, of course it had been my worst one I'd been offered an upgrade for. I didn't even use Disease Carrier outside of slapping it on my boss Bloodthorn Vines to artificially increase its experience yield.

Maybe there are downsides to collecting as many aspects as possible, I noted, You know, suddenly, those baskets don't sound too bad.

I paused at that thought. I'd initially meant it as a joke, but currently, all of my monsters were using large sacks to transport anything and everything in bulk that wasn't too fragile. Unlike an upgrade to an aspect I didn't use, Rose might at least be able to use a basket in the gardens. It wouldn't have been a useless perk.

Nope, I cut that train of thought off immediately, No matter how alluring the prospect may be, I'm not falling for the trap of beautiful, System-created artisan goods, at least so long as it isn't a luxury rug we're talking about.

This time, before my thoughts could drift back to a certain tiny, winged man, I redirected my attention to my final option. It, too, was an aspect upgrade.

[Aspect Upgrade: Leaching Necrotic Venom

Description: Necrotic Venom gains the ability to feed on a target's mana.

Effect: Necrotic Venom receives the following change: This effect lasts for 5 minutes and can be refreshed with another bite. → This effect lasts for 5 minutes and can either be refreshed with another bite or through the use of mana by the infected.]

Huh. Now, that's interesting.

Necrotic Venom was my first aspect, me having used one of my initial monster slots to acquire it, but so far, it had yet to prove useful. Back then, I'd still been too hung up on the video-game-like logic this world ran on and had still been half convinced it was all some sort of twisted dream. I hadn't understood what I'd be up against at the time and had assumed that, as a Dungeon, I'd be expected to face the stereotypical party compositions ran in the many MMOs from my old world. As it had turned out, that hadn't been the case. Healing magic was far rarer here than I'd been expecting, and people rarely seemed to run the same kind of hyper-optimized builds I'd once been familiar with.

Those observations were true for most of my delvers, all of whom were low-leveled adventurers. The Hero's party, however, had called some of my previous assessments into question. Fable's healing, for example, had turned their delve into a battle of attrition against her mana reserves, and their Ice Mage had been min-maxed to devastating effect. I couldn't expect every group to be the same, and had more of my monsters than just Vie and Pee had the ability, I might've even ended up killing Sean as early as in my second room. Because of that, even if it never proved useful, taking such a powerful upgrade to my only counter to magical healing didn't seem like too bad of an idea.

Hmm, okay, I soon decided, Aspect Upgrade: Necrotic Venom, it is! I announced to the System before willing my level-up screen to appear before once more.

[Experience to next level: 575,999 / 576,000]

Yes! I declared confidently without so much as looking at it.

Then, I waited. Nothing happened. No new screens appeared. The experience screen stayed in place, and I continued staring blankly at. It took longer than I would've liked for me to realize the problem.

Seriously, Twelve?

She'd given me the last of the experience I needed to reach level twenty-five, all but the final point of it. I couldn't help but to picture the pink robotic orb laughing at my expense wherever she was. A surge of annoyance flared in me at the image, but all I could do was sigh to myself.

As odd as the Custodian was, she was my benefactor, and she had given me just under two hundred thousand experience for overcoming my last ordeals. For that, I guessed the least I could do was indulge her. That didn't mean I had to like it, though.

Fine, I accepted the situation, I'll go kill a Crystal Puffer and get back to this, but then, I'm reaching the second tier.