[User: Unnamed Monster]
"Hmm, what interesting concepts these Breakers have created I wonder how this method called 'Training' works in practice."
I was making my way top the entrance of my dungeon while I was reading a book I swiped from the [Library] as I made my way up from the Dungeon Heart's [Core Room]. It was safe to say there wasn't much to see. It was mostly a mix of cave tunnels and the occasional rooms that resembled the ancient ruins where remnants of an ancient civilization once lived. Though it was empty, like I was touring an empty house begging to be filled with furniture.
Anyway, the book I was reading was more important than the scenery since it covered the enemy I would inevitably be facing in the foreseeable future, Breakers.
I was going over a section that went over their methods for dealing with Dungeon Heart's, Several of which were discussed in this book named; [Purge],[Extort],[Probe] and [Train] respectively.
Purging was simple, destroying the dungeon heart, or cores as they called them, and reaping the immediate rewards after doing so. Extort was the opposite as it was a method that allowed the dungeon to continue to exist in order to extract its resources in the long term. Probing was a bit like the extortion method, but instead of material goods, it extracted info about how a dungeon worked. These dungeons would continue to exist for the sole purpose of research and experimentation to help understand a dungeon's mechanics, intel that could be later used against other dungeons of similar design.
Then there was the one that intrigued me most, training. A method that prepared a dungeon for one of the three previously used methods. The process of assisting in the improvement of a dungeon.
These so called Breakers have learned that simply occupying a dungeon will give it the resources it needs to thrive and prosper. So it stands to reason, staying inside a dungeon for as long as possible without facing a dungeon's boss or destroying its core will increase its growth, hence training a dungeon to reach its full potential faster so it can suit their needs later on.
From the way I saw it, my chances of survival depended on where my dungeon appeared on the continent because if these Breakers discover me early, I could end up being extorted and used until I either became too dangerous or no longer useful, resulting in my purging. So staying hidden for as long as possible is a must. At least until I have a proper foundation to begin using Breakers to my advantage.
I finally dismiss my screens and store the book I was reading in the void of my body, a feature about my body which has proven useful to me in the short time I have known about it.
I look up to find myself in front of two large stone doors covered in vines and foliage that one would think would convey the age of this place as something ancient, but it was a fact that I couldn't help think was artificial since this place only came into existence very recently.
After reading through the [Dungeon Status] screen it was categorized as a Ruin/Cave dungeon type so I concluded it was the theme the dungeon was formed according to it's surroundings. My theory was proven correct when I pushed open the doors too find that my dungeon entrance was in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by trees.
"A forest. Well, that explains the ruin theme."
I make my way out of the doorway where I get a good look around. I was in a typical oakwood forest with a short canopy ceiling. The place was dense and filled with lush bushes and low hanging vines. My entrance was a formation of two spiked rocks jutting out from the ground where the stone doors were embedded into a carved archway.
"Well, first thing's first. How can I hide this entrance?"
It wasn't exactly easy to find the clearing, but once someone stumbles upon the grass clearing, it would be pretty hard to miss the doorway. The canopy barely covers the space above so leaving it exposed to the sky. Now, granted I didn't know many things about these Breakers, but it would be dumb to assume they are limited to only traversing the ground. I wouldn't even be surprised if there were some that could fly.
I recall the encyclopedia description of a Breaker along with a few relevant terms.
{Breaker}>A general term for enhanced mortals who have been granted combative abilities. (They are the sworn enemies of the dungeon hearts and dungeon lords by extension.)
{Abilities}(Breakers)>Breakers receive abilities, called skills in most cases, that are determined by ranks that start from F- and go up to S+. They can be improved over time and be acquired throughout the span of a mortal's lifetime. The names of such skills never change but can be exchanged for other skills of higher quality or discarded entirely.
{Abilities}(Monsters}>Monsters receive abilities at birth that are inherit to their species. Unlike mortals, these abilities don't have ranks but, can evolve along with a monster's growth. The names of monster abilities can change or combine to make new ones. The strength of such abilities can also improve along with a creature's mastery with them.
{EXP}(Breakers)>Breakers gain EXP through the continued use of their abilities. Mastery of a skill will eventually lead to a phenomenon called a {Breakthrough}, which will allow a breaker to contribute their accumulated EXP towards that skill to increase its rank.
{EXP}(Monsters)>Monsters gain EXP through the consumption or murder of other living things. Their EXP does not accumulate naturally over time, however; the longer they live the higher chance they have at evolving naturally. Evolved states of monsters increases their overall yield of EXP.
"Interesting, so monsters and Breakers have different growth methods. A long lived Breaker will most likely have years of training and knowledge behind them, meanwhile; a long lived monster is essentially a testament to the mountain of corpses they have accumulated over a lifetime, meaning evolved monsters will naturally be the best fighters. Though the use of the word consumption makes me curious."
'Let's pull this up again.'
[SHOP]>{Monsters}{Tiles}{Rooms}{Traps}{Upgrades}{Skills}{Artifacts}{Treasures}{Consumables}
BP:236---[Tiles]>{Ruin}(BP:1){Cave}(BP:1){Forest}(BP:2}
{Tiles}>A feature that allows the lord to change the theme of a room or section. The effects of tiles can offer a variety of buffs and abilities to certain occupants and can even grant global buffs if a large amount of a dungeon is made up of a specific tile type.
[Dungeon Status]>{Name: The Cascade Dungeon}{Age: 0}{Lvl. 1}{Floors: 1}{Type: Cave/Ruin}{Territory: ~9000sqm}{Monsters: 0/20}{BP: 236/300}{XP:0/1000}
{Type Buffs}>{Cave I: +5% increase in DEF and HP to cave dwelling monsters}{Ruin I: +5% Increase in ATK to ruin dwelling monsters and a 0.5% chance of reviving a felled monster}
'So there is an incentive in sticking to a theme. There is a surprising amount of depth in this.'
'But for now I am interested if the land above ground is considered part my territory.'
I raise my hand and attempt to use the tile feature on the area outside the clearing by turning the forest into a ruin, as expected nothing happens. The point I attempted to spent is instantly refunded as an error message comes up.
[Error: Unable to change land beyond territory.]
I do the same thing except I attempt to turn the grass below me into a {Ruin} tile. The point subtracts from my supply and my hand glows briefly before the ground under me begins warping to change from lush green grass to smoothed stone with clumps of moss growing between the seams of the aged bricks.
(-1BP)
Before I could even turn around, an entire fourth of the area that the entrance occupied was now part ruined temple. Several cracked pillars had materialized in front of me along with several broken walls that once made up the walls of a room that looked like it may have existed many years ago.
'A good demonstration of what this feature does, but turning the surrounding land of the entrance will only make this place strand out more. So let's turn the tile into {Forest} instead.'
(-2BP)
I raise my hand once more where the same thing happens, my hand glows and the land beneath my feet begins warping into something that blended seamlessly with the surrounding forest. The pillars from earlier was now large oak trees that blotted out the sunlight by creating a canopy of foliage above me. I did the same to the other three tiles surrounding the entrance until the clearing was entirely covered.
(-6BP)
Now the entrance just looked like a large mossy boulder surrounded by trees The doors were still embedded in between the rocks, but now it was heavily camouflaged with a curtain of leafy vines making it blend in pretty well with the surrounding flora.
"This lifted a big weight of stress off my shoulders, now I don't have to worry about anyone fin-"
That was until I saw him, a human male dressed in a deep-blue frock coat with decorative buttons and wide cuffs, he wore a fine tailored white tunic underneath and gray breeches tucked into long leather boots complete with iron buckles. His choice of apparel made me immediately think pirate if not for his weapon. He carried around a thin looking medieval style sword with a forked tip. It was too thick to be a rapier, and too thin to be a cutlass, not to mention it was double edged.
His articles of clothing looked strangely too refined for the man wearing them since he had greasy sleeked back hair and the facial hair of a well mannered ruffian that was about to sweep a maiden off her feet and ride into the sunset. It was hard to place a finger on him by appearance alone.
In the end though. what mattered was that I saw him before he saw me, causing me to instantly want to hide, but I immediately thought something.
'Where the hell does someone who is as tall as I even attempt to hide? I already knew I was big based on the amount of library shelves I cleared, which was nearly 9 by the way, but this would be like hiding a giant behind a stick.'
The man was walking just outside the original ring of the clearing that would be marked as my territory and hadn't seemed to notice me...yet. It was clear he was searching for something by the way he scanned his surroundings.
I had to act fast or else he would notice the giant shadow man standing just a few meters away. I couldn't move or else he would be sure to hear me step on all the dead leaves on the ground, I didn't know how good his hearing was, but I was definitely close enough to draw attention.
Then I finally thought of my skill [Distortion].
'Ah, yes. short range teleportation. that should do it. I just need to have line of sight of my end point.'
(-30MP)
The air around my body began to slightly distort before my body felt like it was being lifted off the ground for a brief second before it was affected by gravity once more. In just a blink I was 8 meters from where I was and now near curtain of vines that hid my entrance.
The only problem was, I was not affected by gravity during the moment I vanished. I had neglected to find a spot I could teleport to that didn't have leaves on the ground. so when gravity kicked in again my feet crushed the leaves on the ground.
If I didn't know how good the man's hearing was before, I did now. Because I heard him draw his sword and begin moving in my direction. I no longer had a clear line of sight of the man since there were plenty of trees in the way, so I had time to look for another solution.
I couldn't teleport again, he would hear me unless I teleported to the top of a tree branch, but now I had to draw him away from the entrance of my dungeon because if he came over here I would risk him discovering me.
'No, I had to draw him away now.'
(-60MP)
I am going to shapeshift myself into the form of a wolf and run away. I had a feeling he might give chase based on how fast he drew his sword and started running towards my direction at the slightest sound so I thought, maybe he was a hunter of sorts. Just not the typical kind that would hunt for meat, but deliberately look for a fight.
{Stats: [HP: 500/500][MP: 60/150]}
'Hopefully I had enough MP to get away.'
I then noticed that I received a notification in my [Dungeon Status] menu. The dungeon had officially registered the man as an intruder.
{Intruders: 1}
I picked a direction, and just started running, and I will tell you, going from bipedal to quadrupedal in a a matter of seconds was nauseating I stumbled the first few steps before I was able to break out into a run.
I looked behind me briefly to see of the man was following and at first he wasn't moving, but after few seconds of staring, he gave chase. My guess paid off.
'[AGI: 30], god I pray that's good enough.'
[Warning: Leaving territory. Stats will be halved and resurrection will take significantly longer.]
'Well, shit.'