He was getting up Ceras worked over to the cupboard and started to open the large double doors, amazed to see that it was filled with clothes. Picking a tunic out, he measured it against his body and saw that it would be a perfect fit. Placing it back amongst the many tunic, shirts, and trousers, he saw the quality of the material and elegant design that he guessed were represented the latest trends in the clothing of the rich. The rest of the drawers had other clothing including belt and even some shoe, which he looked at wondering how he could afford them.
Ever since his childhood, he had walked around barefooted, as did his other sibling, until as their pa said they stopped growing so they could invest in a pair of sturdy shoes for working in. But now Ceras had his own pair, and he still had not stopped growing, he smiled with the simple act of having something so wonderful. On the other side of the large room was a couple of lounge chair to sit in. Ceras cleaned himself with a spell, as the dirt from the fighting in the labyrinth disappeared from his body and clothing, so now he felt he could sit down and take this all in. Sitting in the chair, he felt the cushioned comfort and looked around again seeing to large dark wood carved doors leading off the room. Before he did some more exploring of his quarters, he thought about what experience he had. In his vision appeared the following text:
XP 2 of 16 too level 7 Wizard
Journeymen level obtained pick a skill for your class.
Ten stat point to place into character sheet
Ten stat point to place into Dungeon sheet
Ceras was elated with the excitement he was now a journeyman and had ten points to put into intelligence and skill to choose for his class. Ceras was just about to start placing his stat point, but before he could open up his character sheet.
"Wow there," said the dry voice of Hidden-Caverns in his head, "before you start throwing around your new stat point, let's have a discussion about what the dungeon needs. The first thing that you need to know is that our stat points are always the same, so you get an overall twenty point and so do I."
"I did notice that," said the excited Ceras but reframed from making a smart remark.
"Good," replied Hidden-Caverns back, still being polite, "thanks for noticing. The dungeon needs a lot of, but most of all, we need to increase the knowledge stat as its directly related to the number of levels that I can create."
"You have four at the moment, how many more do you need," said Ceras curious at the extent of the levels in a dungeon.
"Well most established dungeons have thousands of levels that take in the monster from the surrounding area, but I need only about five more levels, for now, to get started. More would be better, but hey, I'm not greedy." said a nonchalant sounding Hidden-Caverns as if he was overly generous.
"What should I put the rest into then," said Ceras in a questioning voice to the empty air in his room.
"I think that we both would like to increase our, so it's an easy decision then." said the happy Hidden-Caverns voice now coming from the air in the room.
Ceras did not even bother nodding but quickly allotted his points and the dungeon's, in quick succession. He then opened both of their stat sheets to check the effect:
Character Name:
Ceras
1st Class
Wizard
Character Total Level*
6
Major
Strength
Fortitude
Agility
Number
53
53
53
Major
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Number
55
20
25
Minor
HP
MP
Stamina
Carry Limit
Number
391
397
275
116
Regen Sec
5.3
12
6.3
N/A
Dungeon Name:
Hidden-Caverns
Major
Energy per hour
Gold
Extent
Number
314
100
9
Major
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Number
55
20
25
“Not too shabby for a start,” commented Hidden-Caverns, with a pleasant tone of voice, “I like that your strength, fortitude and agility stats increase without wasting point on them. That will be a real advantage as we put more points into knowledge.”
Ceras grunted in reply wondering what skill he could choose from now that he was and journeyman. The following writing appeared in his vision:
Skills
Name
Mastery
Effect
Mana gathering
Journeymen
Mana regeneration increase by 20%
Mana high
Journeymen
Mana level is increased by 20%
Spell efficiency
Journeymen
Increase the spell efficiency by 50%
Mana drain
Journeymen
Drain Mana from monsters (up to maximum mana level)
After looking over the four available skills he could upgrade too, Ceras thought about it for a few minutes and considered all the options, spell efficiency increase of fifty percent would be the best out of all of the options as it would increase his attacking strength for each spell. He was gaining the advantage of not having to waste too much mana outweighing the other skills of increases of higher mana.
The mana drain would be useful, but he had not seen too many monsters that used magic in his battles, so he would see if he needs this later. So, he chose the spell efficiency and smiled as the effect took place in his body; it feels like his magical pathway was being clean and reinforced, allowing mana to pass more efficiency. Standing up, Ceras stretched, feeling more powerful than he had ever felt in his life.
As he decided to start investigating the rooms of his bedroom, he found that his apartment in the dungeon contained a bathtub made of marble, that had strange pipes with handles running into it. As he touched one of the brass handles, he saw water coming out that was surprisingly hot that started to fill up the tub.
He left the room after turning off the water and headed out into the room that he had passed through when he was going to bed so quickly last night. Entering the room, the first thing he noticed was that there was a tray of steaming food on a large dark wooden table with several good furniture chairs surrounds it. Ceras sat down to eat bacon, sausages, and eggs all in a thick gravy, he looked around the room, taking all the fine furniture. The room was wood paneled with a thick upholstered carpet, that was in a bright weave of geomatical patterns like some that he had seen on the dungeon walls. There were several couches that would be great to relax when he was studying magic.
Looking at the bottom of the walls, he saw something surprising; there seemed to be a little doorway into the room, about two-foot-high with a small little handle on them. One of them opened slightly as the face of a gremlin pocked its nose into the room seeming to check that he was eating and then disappeared.
"You seem to have an infestation of gremlins," Ceras said with a laugh to Hidden-Caverns.
"Not wild gremlins I might add, but we're not calling them gremlins they're just the helpers now," said Hidden-Caverns in a slightly annoyed voices as if somebody had accused him of having lice's, "they're doing most of the work around here and being great help for building items that we need."
Ceras just kept pushing the great food into his mouth as he half listened to the dungeon ramble on about what improvements he was creating. He could taste the fatty sausage juices in his mouth as he bit into it enjoying the taste, wondering how he got so lucky. His mind started to wonder
what he should do next, and he thought I need to go into the town and get learn some spell. Maybe I could buy some spell book to study when I'm back here.
"Hidden-Caverns," said Ceras to the air between mouth filled with food, "how secure is the dungeon at the moment?"
"The labyrinth is able to deal with any monster that comes in at the moment, and as time goes on, I'm able to create more and more monster guards, so I think that you can go on an extended shopping trip for a few days." said Hidden-Caverns, "I even think that Grikius has a list of items he wants to get to so he probably go with you to the town."
Pushing the ceramic plate aside that he had cleaned the last bits of gravy with a piece of bread, the small doors opened where Ceras had seen the gremlin, no what did Hidden-Caverns call them 'helpers', and a small, large eared creature walk out shyly and grabbed the plate moving quickly back into its little doorway. That's going to be useful thought Ceras as he saw the little door close.
Sitting back enjoying the feeling of being full, he considered getting changed into some of the new cloth he had seen in the cupboard in his room. Getting up from the table, he soon selected some clothes, that most importantly enabled him to cover his face with a hood so he could avoid being recognized by any of the rich adventures. Placing his chain mail armor back on and his bags that he was able to carry a significant amount of equipment in he walked out of the door.
"Hidden-Caverns where are the other?" Ceras said as he wondered what the others were doing.
"Rinaldo, Rhef, and Symania are all of helping design the new dungeon levels, while Grikius is in his own apartment waiting for you," said the now helpful dungeon, "I'll show you the way."
After Ceras had followed white tail lights to a similar door, he knocked on the strong wooden door to hear a shouted voice say, "Come in."
Entering into a large room that was full of furniture, but some of it different to his, Ceras saw Grikius writing in a book at a wooden bureau that had many small holes and drew in the top. Apollo was gnawing on a bone on the floor, and to Ceras eyes, he looked bigger than the last time he saw the dog.
"Just finishing off the list of the equipment the others want," said Grikius, still writing in the book, "we can start off in a few minutes if you're ready."
Ceras went over to Grikius and looked over his shoulder to see him adding several more items to a very long list, some of the items on the list would be expensive, so Ceras said, "How are we going to pay for all of this equipment?"
Grikius look up from his book with a surprised expression on his face and put down the feather he was writing with.
"What do you think the gold stat is for in Hidden-Caverns' dungeon stat sheet is for?" said the Grikius with a frown on his face.
"To be honest with you, I've really had not had time to think about that yet," said Ceras with a smile as he thought how busy he had been.
"Well it's the amount of gold that he produces every hour, and as he is not using it for rewarding adventures at the moment, we can use it to help improve the dungeon," said Grikius as if he was happy to have all the money available to him for shopping.
Ceras mouth dropped open as he thought how long the dungeon had been producing the gold coins since he had activated it, his mind boggled at the amount as he had not even seen one gold coin. From behind him, a large thud makes him jump and turn around to see a large leather money bag hit on the table as if it had been created out of thin air.
"This should be enough for now," said Hidden-Caverns in a tone of voice as he was doing a great thing, "I've put most of the money in silver and coppers so that you don't bring to much attention to your selves by throwing around gold coins."
Grikius went over to the bag eagerly and opened it and gave a low whistle as he started to count the money it contained.
"That will be plenty," he said with a happy smile, "let me split it up between the two of use."
"Don't worry," said Hidden-Caverns as another bag hit the table with a thud. "Ceras will want to buy some magical spell book, so he doesn't have to keep going to the library in the guild all the time. It's better if he able to study here."
Ceras nodded and just picked up a heavy bag of money, without opening it and put it in his bag of holding.
"Aren't you going to count it," said Grikius as he was busy counting away.
Ceras shock his head and waited for Grikius to finish getting ready.
Soon the two boys were walking through the lower levels of the dungeon toward the second level, which contained the labyrinth. As Ceras walked past the inscription on the walls, he thought that glowing more than when he had walked this way previously.
"Why are the inscription shining so brightly?" Ceras said in a curious voice as he asked the question out loud to Hidden-Caverns.
"Good of you to notice something," replied the dungeon in a tone of voice of somebody talking down to a child, "I'm getting ready to create the new levels and move deeper into the earth. This will mean that my core will always be at the bottom of the dungeon guard by all the levels above."
"Sound good to me," said the nodding Ceras as one of the dungeon walls open up, allowing them to bypass the labyrinth.
Once they stepped outside the dungeon, the cold air of the mountain hit them, even with the warm of the sun that was a far way above the horizon.
"I bet it cold up here all year round," commentated Ceras to Grikius who was wrapped up warmly in some new clothes.
"I certainly hope, so it will make us a lot of money," said Grikius with a happy glint of anticipation in his eyes that showed he was excited by something.
"How so?" asked Ceras as he was curious to how they were going to make money from the cold condition just outside the dungeon entrances.
"Well it quick simple," said Grikius happy to explain his ideas, "when the dungeon is open for human adventure to come and battle the monsters, they're not going to want to camp in the cold weather. So, my plan is for the dungeon to build accommodation, a shop, and a hospice on the surface for them to stay in."
Ceras thought about it for a while as they started to walk down the mountainside with its rocky outcrops and he could understand the accommodation and shop but why a hospice, so he asked the question when the two were not scrambling over the rocks.
"People are going to get injured in the dungeon, a lot I think, a hospice will give Symania plenty of opportunity to practices her healing skills." said Grikius as if he had considered everything, "we'll also be able to charge for it which is where I come in."
The more Ceras thought about it, the better the idea sounded to him, there seemed to be no disadvantage to the plans that Grikius was proposing. They were now having to really scramble over the rock that was always tough going, which gave him an idea.
"We'll also need to make a better path up to the dungeon entrance if we're going to have a lot of adventures using it," said Ceras.
"What a great idea, as we can charge a toll for people to use it," said the enthusiastic Grikius.
Chapter 6 Dark Alley Fight
It was late in the evening, and Ceras was in the library studying to increase the power of his spell that he already had to journeymen level. The woman librarian had nearly not recognized him in his new clothes and boots but was happy to show him the books that would help him update his spell. She was surprised when he told her he was already at the journeymen level but was happy for him.
Now Ceras was sitting using the book in front of him to copying the relevant information into his spellbook. Smiling to himself as he finished the last spell, he opened his spell information as saw the following:
Spells
Spell Effectiveness %:
175
Name
Mastery
MP
Effects
Damage/Heal
Fire shot
Journeymen
50
50
Shot a fire-ball at target (losses power with the greater the distance)
87.5
Frost blast
Journeymen
50
50
Shot ice shards at target (losses power with the greater the distance)
87.5
Light projection
Journeymen
10
-
Ball of light that can hover about you
-
Healing force
Journeymen
10
50
Heal a target of your choices
87.5
Eye in the sky
Journeymen
10
-
-
-
Staff enchantment
Journeymen
-
-
-
-
Storage spell
Journeymen
-
-
-
-
Immobilization
Journeymen
Max MP
Max MP
Immobilizes an object
1.77 X Max MP
Cook
apprentices
5
-
Cook a meal
-
Wash
apprentices
2
-
Washes body and clothes
-
Tidy/Clean
apprentices
3
-
Completes all the house work for you
-
Fire/Ice ward
Journeymen
50
Dungeon Master Page 6
