Mini Update

[System Announcement: Congratulations to all dungeon masters, the trials are now officially over.]

[System prompt: A mini update targetting the dungeon masters will immediately take effect. For more details, please read through the document that has been automatically added to your inventory.]

[System prompt: With the end of the trials, the auction will take place in exactly 24 hours. Please prepare for the event. Each dungeon master is allowed to bring one monster to the event.]

[System prompt: The event will last for two days. On the first day, the players will bid together with the NPC dungeon masters on various items. Players are free to bid but are discouraged to do so as the NPCs have acquired a much larger amount of DP. All the NPCs will return to their respective dungeons at the end of the day but the players will be allowed to stay for another auction targeting the young dungeon masters on the next day. We recommend that players focus on acquiring the items at this venue instead. For more details, please consult the document that has been automatically added to your inventory.]

[System prompt: Are there any items or monsters you are willing to auction? You might receive a good price.]

The long-awaited system prompt sounded next to Five's ears who immediately took out the two documents. He first opened the document about the incoming auction. Although the document about the update was important; Five needed to learn more about the auction; it would determine whether or not he would be saving his DP or not.

"What is your decision, Five?" asked Harriet who had been quietly waiting on the side.

"I think it is okay! We will have a two day period to act. Do it," answered Five. He did not hesitate to press "No" to whether he wanted to auction anything and turned his attention to the new documents in his inventory. He briefly scanned through the document and after finding the desired details, he nodded.

Harriet did not disturb Five any longer and quickly left the meeting room. There was not much time to prepare; if they wanted to succeed, she needed to act quickly. Harriet swiftly left the dungeon in the middle of the night and flew deeper into the forest.

Five was left alone in the meeting room. He anxiously bit his nails, not sure whether he took the right decision. In the end, Five opted for the second option; he would sneakily attack the nearby dungeons during the auction. It was a risky choice but risks were often associated with high rewards. He did not know how well the other dungeons were performing but he knew that his greatest advantage was Harriet.

The level 57 Harpy Queen was the greatest asset he had at the moment. She was a powerful monster that was able to decimate an entire squad of knights with just one attack. Five was willing to bet more on Harriet's strength than the fact that his dungeon managed to acquire more DP than the others.

Based on how his tutorial phase went on with Kroff, the other dungeon masters might have agreed to join the alliances and received help from their mentors. With that, they should have been able to secure a decent amount of DP but it was a different story for the monsters they owned. The old mentors would not be so generous as to give a level 57 boss monster to their students; at most, they would have a level 30 boss monster.

It was too late to come back on his decision; Harriet has already left the dungeon. The ball has already started rolling; it would not be so easy to stop it midway.

Five turned his attention toward the second document.

[Mini Update]

[We are not satisfied with the current design of most dungeons. To take advantage of the DP generation, we observed a tendency of long, empty areas to increase the time spent in the dungeon. Alternatively, some dungeons consist only of powerful boss monsters that leads to unhealthy gameplay.

Fix 1: We are reducing the DP produced by enemies per level per hour from 20 to 10.

Fix 2: We are reducing the DP produced by the death of enemies per level from 1000 to 500

Fix 3: New DP generation method: DP is now generated each time an enemy loses HP. 1 DP per HP.

Fix 4: New DP generation method: Monsters now refund 10% DP upon death within the dungeon.]

[To address the issues of the design of the dungeons, there will now be an additional 'rent' to pay based on the total size of the dungeon. The numbers will change in the future based on our future observations.

Fix: Every 30 days starting from now, the dungeon master will have to pay 1 DP per meter cube. Failure to do so will result in the automatically selling of random items or monsters in the dungeon.]

[We aim to discourage direct trading between dungeon masters. There will now be a 10% commission fee to all the direct trades between dungeon masters. If items or monsters are traded, the appropriate amount of DP will be subtracted from the trader.]

[We have observed several other practices where some dungeon masters would send their monsters to suicide at other's dungeon to transfer some DP. The DP obtained from this practice will now be significantly reduced.]

[Minor adjustment to the price of the monsters.]

[Update to the UI of the dungeon shop.]

It was a rather short concise document and did not contain as many changes as the previous global update. Five frowned as he saw the changes. It was clearly a heavy nerf at the amount of DP his dungeon would generate.

1 DP per HP sounded like a lot but a player would generally have about 100 HP at this stage of the game unless they invested in the Endurance stat. It meant that to make up for the loss in DP, the player would need to lose enough HP to die twice within one hour.

The dungeons were growing way too fast compared to the average player population; they needed to be slowed down and the best way to do so was to reduce the amount of DP they could obtain.

On the other hand, the changes opened the door to a brand new type of dungeon. DP would be generated as long as the enemies would lose HP. It meant that if they took fall damage or even just damage from the traps, DP would be generated. Until now, traps were mostly used around the dungeon core as a last layer of defense but now, it could be fully incorporated into the dungeon.

Similarly, the lower floors were now more relevant as the weak monsters could now generate a few DP even against the high-level players. Before, the first few floors were only used to waste time.

A few changes will be needed but for now, Five needed to focus on unlocking the monsters. Since he had made the choice to conquer the other dungeons, he would need to build up an army first.

Five called Dreidus to discuss the monsters to use to attack. Monsters had different characteristics; some of them were more suited for defense while others excel at attacking.

Dreidus took a step back from the leadership since Harriet came back. He understood that the Harpy Queen was not only much stronger than him, she also had good knowledge of dungeons. Dreidus did not mind taking a step back; he got more time to spend with Lyra but when it came to undead monsters, Dreidus was always the first person Five would consult.

He was the expert when it came to necromancy and was also adept at military tactics to some extent. The two discussed this problem many times before but this time, they would need to make a decision.

"I suggest simply choosing the monsters that we have planned for the next few floors. It will save cost and the monster we chose turned out to be quite good at attacking. We have about 1.6 million DP at our disposal, it would be plenty to build up an army. However, I don't know what kind of effects this would have on your behavior. We should be careful about who we pick," said Dreidus.

Five nodded, "I understand. For now, let us use the Monster Lottery Tickets and see if we get anything interesting. It will only last for a few days anyway. As soon as I return from the auction, we will make a significant amount of changes."

He took out the 3 Monster Lottery Tickets that he obtained for completing the trials. He jokingly asked Alice if she wanted to be the one to use them but as soon as she heard this, the harpy left in a hurry with Ivan, the Nosferatu.

The 3 Monster Lottery Tickets were activated at the same time. Five had been quite lucky with these items but this time, the results were disappointing.

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, you have unlocked the monster: level 2 Rabbit, this monster can now be purchased at the dungeon shop. One Rabbit is ready for summoning]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, you have unlocked the monster: level 1 Gold Fish, this monster can now be purchased at the dungeon shop. One Gold Fish is ready for summoning]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, you have unlocked the monster: level 2 Lizard, this monster can now be purchased at the dungeon shop. One Lizard is ready for summoning]

He could not always be lucky. Five felt that it was a pity but he had already obtained a decent monster in his previous draws.

"Let us forget about those and unlock the relevant ones," said Five. At the same time, he opened the dungeon shop and browsed for the monsters he was looking for. Soon, another series of system prompt rang in Five's ears:

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, you have unlocked the monster: Zombeasts. They are now available for purchase!]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, you have unlocked the monster: Level 26 Bonemare. They are now available for purchase!]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, you have unlocked the monster: level 28 Haunting Ghost. They are now available for purchase!]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, you have unlocked the monster: level 30 Defacer. They are now available for purchase!]

4 new monsters were unlocked in a row for the total cost of 418000 DP. Five was making a massive investment in these monsters but they were all extremely powerful. Unlocking monsters was not cheap and he still needed to actually buy them.

Zombeasts were the remnants of beasts that have been converted into undead monsters. Just like skeletons and zombies, their level could range from 20 to 25. One Zombeast cost 7000 DP and its stats varied a lot depending on which beast it was when it was still alive.

Bonemares were essentially monsters made up of a stack of bones. They were very similar to skeletons but were much larger in size and had a more bestial appearance. One Bonemare would cost 10000 DP but it was not only fast but also had a high amount of HP. Furthermore, Bonemares could also be used to substitute as mounts.

Haunting Ghosts were another race of monsters that stood on the line between the undead type and the spirit type monsters. They were similar to wraith and Mylingar but were much more powerful. One Haunting Ghost would cost 14000 DP. Haunting Ghosts were expensive and were actually weak during the day but they had the unique ability to be able to attach themselves to a target without being detected. The problem was that as soon as their target would see the sun again, they would be inevitably hurt and be unable to maintain their disguise.

Finally, Defacers were human-like undead monsters who simply did not have a face. They were obsessed with killing others to steal their faces. Defacers were powerful monsters who excelled at sneak attacks; one of them would cost 18000 DP.

Five felt his heart ache as he watched the numbers. Almost one-third of his DP was already gone just by unlocking the monsters but he knew he was emphasizing the quality of his monsters instead of the quantity.

He could have simply purchased a massive amount of skeletons for his army which would have been much cheaper but Five was also looking at the long term development of his dungeon. He had a little over 1.1 million DP left but it was clear that they would not last for very long.

"Let's make a list of how many monsters we are summoning. I will summon them all tomorrow before leaving."

"Are we spending all the DP we have in reserve?" asked Dreidus. He was excited; having been a necromancer in his previous life, he knew just how strong those monsters were.

"Yes. It is expensive but we need to do it to succeed. The other dungeons should have at least one level 30 monster guarding them. Furthermore, you need to be careful as you will be moving next to the other tribes. They should also have a few level 30 warriors and maybe even someone at level 40."

"Yes, master. If we encounter the barbarians, we will make sure to bring their corpse back. I might be able to turn them into Living Corpses like last time. This should not violate our agreement with the Black Iron Tribe since we will be targeting the other tribes," said Dreidus.

Five nodded, it would indeed be of great help if Dreidus could simply create more undead monsters for free.

"As for the number of monsters, I will suggest 50 Zombeasts, 30 Bonemares, 15 Haunting Ghosts and 8 Defacers. We should also increase the number of liches we have from 2 to 8. As we are leading an army of undead, I also suggest summoning a few hundreds of skeletons and zombies to swarm the enemy. The total should come up at a little over 1.1 million. We can use the DP we will generate tomorrow to summon the cheap troops. What do you think? If it is too much, we can decrease the number of Haunting Ghosts. I was planning to leave them at the dungeon to protect it in our absence anyway. We cannot leave the dungeon completely exposed to others."

Five listened quietly and made a few quick calculations. "It is fine. We shall do as you say. You are the expert, not me."

One skeleton would cost 100 DP to summon. It should be easy to summon a few hundreds of them but they would only be useful as cannon fodder. Without weapons or armors, the actual strength of the skeletons would be significantly lowered.

At that moment, the door was flung open as Harriet and Angela entered the meeting room. The latter had just finished her nightly lessons with the Shaman and coincidentally met Harriet on her way back.

However, the two harpies were not alone. 3 more creatures followed fearfully behind them. When Five noticed their entrance, he quickly turned toward them and looked at the character name displayed above the creatures head.

"Wild Boar King, Ape King, and the Forest Tiger King... One is missing?" commented Five as he looked at the three kings of the forest in front of him. As the previous kings have all died during the first trial, new kings were elected among the beasts to represent them. They have learned not to mess up with the dungeon and were scared witless when they suddenly saw Harriet appear. They valued their life and did not dare disobey the orders of the Harpy Queen.

"According to those three, the Cobra King ran away and never came back since the last trial. I can confirm that he ran away and I did not find any representative among the Cobras of the forest," answered Harriet.

"That is fine. Since you are here, you should already know what we are expecting of you. If you agree, I promise to treat you well. What is your choice?" asked Five as he looked at the three beasts.

The Beast Kings trembled. They were not particularly scared of the man in front of them but the Harpy Queen was simply too terrifying. If she wanted, she could easily destroy the entire forest. Reluctantly, they were forced to accept her proposition.

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, the Wild Boar King has agreed to serve you. All the Wild Boars of the forest will now be considered as your monsters. Wild Boar has been unlocked in the dungeon shop.]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, the Ape King has agreed to serve you. All the Apes of the forest will now be considered as your monsters. Ape has been unlocked in the dungeon shop.]

[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, the Forest Tiger King has agreed to serve you. All the Forest Tigers of the forest will now be considered as your monsters. Forest Tiger has been unlocked in the dungeon shop.]

Over the past few days, Five spent a lot of time with Harriet. The Harpy Queen basically acted as his mentor and taught her everything she knew about dungeons. She was quite impressed that Five was able to build some sort of relationship with the Black Iron Tribe but she also criticized him severely.

"We are monsters and our survival is at stake. There is no need to always use soft methods. Do you know why towns and cities are always built very close to the dungeons? The obvious reason is that it is a place rich in resources that people would like to monopolize but the real reason is that there are no monsters or beasts in their immediate surroundings! That's because the first thing dungeon masters usually do when they found their dungeon, is to either recruit the nearby boss monsters or simply destroy them! Not only do they get rid of the potential threats, but they also force the humans nearby to actively explore the dungeon since there is nothing else to do in the surroundings."

Following Harriet's advice, Five decided to recruit the beasts of the forests. If things went as she said, not only was it a cheap way to obtain a large number of monsters in a short period of time, it would also force the Black Iron Tribe to rely on the dungeon as the forests would house fewer beasts from now on. Nature would take its course and other beasts would appear but then, Five would just need to repeat the process a few times and the forest would then be completely devoid of all animals.

Five was very satisfied as he looked at the logs. He obtained 3 powerful boss monsters ranging from level 25 to 28. Furthermore, according to the interface, he now had 189 Wild Boars, 112 Apes, and 65 Forest Tigers. That was a lot of beasts but with it came a very high maintenance cost. For now, it would not have an impact on the dungeon as the beasts could still feed in the wild; but when winter would arrive, Five would need to spend some DP to keep them alive.

"Harriet has already told you about the incoming operation. Please go and warn your brethren. The undead monsters will lead the charge but you will also need to participate," said Five. He had a powerful army, but it was not easy to maintain it. The only way to do so was to reduce the number of soldiers he had, which was equivalent to sending them to their death.

The three beast kings immediately felt the connection being built between them and Five. They were now bound to the dungeon; no matter what they did, their race would be live and die with the dungeon. They left quickly under the stares of Harriet to warn the other beasts. Even if they were not happy with the situation, they would have to go with the flow to survive.

When the beast kings left the meeting room, Angela stepped forward and spoke. She was no longer so timid as to always hide behind someone to speak. "Master. My teacher, the Shaman requested for you to meet him. He says that he wants to revisit the deal you have with him a little bit."

Five's eyes shone, "Changing the deal? It is finally time..."