Ryo stood still, the words emitted from the skeleton's maw bouncing around inside his head. 'Library Dungeon? I own it? Run it? What?' He thought to himself, overwhelmed by the sight of the dyson sphere-esque core that ran the library. Ryo grabbed the now-descended almanac, reading the opened 'Dungeon Mechanics' page.
[First: Layout]
{The Library Dungeon is organised in a different way compared to other dungeons. Instead of having a labyrinthine maze of monsters and traps for adventurers, the entrance to it is an actual library. Books can be loaned, read, the whole nine yards. Behind a secret wall lies a further section of books, with a spiral staircase that leads downwards.}
{Other libraries have a core that sits in a room behind the Lord Monster, and can only be accessed upon defeating it. This one has a core that is easily accessible upon descending that spiral staircase. It has a dodecahedron-shaped crystal of mana in the centre, with rings circling it like a dyson sphere. It's impervious to damage until the owner of the library, O̵̞̽ȑ̷̤f̶̮̃ạ̵̊l̷̳͐d̴̥̎ Ryo, is killed.}
{Beside it lies a table, with this book in the middle. Inside lies important information about the library, which you are now reading.}
Ryo read through this slowly, trying to absorb the info that was presented to him. He had never seen the likes of it before. He had only been introduced to the idea of dungeons, with the addition that they could only appear in areas that had a large Demon population.
"You remember hearing that bit of information from Inquisax about dungeons only being able to form due to a high concentration of Demons and their magic, right?" The skeleton asked Ryo, reading his mind like an open book. "This library used to have a large Demon community who would come and read books in order to advance their magical skills. I was a Demon myself, after all."
Ryo had forgotten that small bit of information. "Ah." He said, flipping to the next page.
[Second: Defence]
{In order to improve the strength of the library, this book contains upgrades and monster summoning, a special type of Forbidden Demon magic only usable by the owner(s) of the dungeon. These cost a certain amount of DP (Defence Points). All dungeons have a DP generation method. Those methods are:}
Defend the dungeon by repelling an invader (making them leave, either forcefully or willingly, while making them sustain damage): 5 DPDefend the dungeon by killing an invader: 10 DP
{However, The Library Dungeon possesses a unique method of generating DP that ties in to its reason for being a library.}
Loan/Receive a Book to a unique person (One book loan per person per day): 1 DP
{This intrinsically ties the progression of the library to how well you run it.}
Ryo could feel the personalised touches, looking over at the previous owner. "No, I didn't change anything in there. The book alters the contents slightly to suit each owner. I designed it like that, sure, but whatever you're reading is your own." The skeleton told him, actually reading his mind for that part.
"Can you please stop reading my mind? I like being able to think by myself." Ryo complained, earning a sigh, somehow, from the skeleton.
"Fine, hold on." The owner, still inhabiting the skeleton's unmoving body, said to him. After around a second, he felt both a weight lift off his mind, which he hadn't noticed, and a slight emptiness enter his head. Not enough to affect him, but he noticed.
Ryo turned to the next page, which appeared to be the "final page" of mechanics. 'Seriously, how does Aragoth manage all of this daily?' Ryo asked himself. 'Well, not at the moment, but still.'
[Third: DP Usage]
{DP can be used in three ways.}
- Repair any damage done to the core or the structure of the Library Dungeon.
- Upgrade aspects of the dungeon such as polyglot signs (every sign becomes easily readable to all readers) and improved indexing (makes different types of books easier to find)
- Summoning Monsters to help protect/run the library. The Monster must have been successfully defeated in order to be summoned. DP Cost scales with the Monster's strength/versatility.
{There is an offshoot of Summoning known as Fusing, where you forcefully fuse a pair of Monsters together instead of waiting for the two of them to choose to do so. This works best on Monsters naturally compatible for fusing, such as a Glasya and a Labolas, or two Ghouls, but fusing other Monsters may have unintended consequences or benefits.}
Ryo took in a deep breath, letting the air out slowly. He repeated this, thoughts running rampant in his head, like a river of words and an earthquake of plans. He looked at his right hand, black gloves reflecting the cyan light off the rocky texture under his hand. He closed his fist, cracking his fingers with a resounding crunch.
"I'm going to have so much fun with this." Ryo said to himself, stretching his arms, cracking his back, and doing a quick few leg stretches. "I've killed a lot of Monsters before becoming the owner of this library, I should be able to work with this!" He said with excitement, the book automatically flipping to the 'Monster Summoning' section.
{Summonable Monsters}
{Your DP - 1}
- Goblin - 80% Normal, 20% Glittery - 3 DP
-- 50% Bronze, 30% Silver, 10% Gold, 5% Red, 3% Blue, 2% Black
- Walleye - 5 DP
- Hollowkind - 450 DP
Ryo looked at the incredibly short list with shock, seeing nothing like Achrons, Umichrons, Slimes, or Wolves, which he had killed in abundance — besides the one Umichron — over the course of his adventuring career. "Why's there so few Monsters?"
"You only get access to the stuff that you killed after stepping foot in the library. Particularly the Monsters after I took interest in you, which was around the same time." The previous owner backhandedly mentioned, unable to see the book himself. "If I remember correctly, it has Goblins, Walleyes, and that Hollowkind you killed."
Ryo sighed, noticing that he didn't have enough DP to do anything at the moment. He closed the almanac, thinking up ways to obtain more Defence Points. The first two methods mentioned were shared between all dungeons, but his dungeon, the Library Dungeon, could make use of its unique mechanic: loaning out books.
Ryo clapped his hands together, a smile on his face. "Time to start advertising this place!" Ryo announced, a smile on his face. "Still, I have to find a way to make this place attractive to people, since it's all the way out here."
Inquisax teleported to the top of the spiral staircase, yelling down into the void. "Ryo? Are you down there? Are you talking to yourself?" He inquired, prompting Ryo to teleport beside him, almost like a child compared to the height of Inquisax.
"Oh, yeah, I am." Ryo told him. "Also, by the way, the library is a dungeon now, so we have to defend it." He mentioned backhandedly, doing it intentionally just to get a rise out of Inquisax. He teleported to his throne, moving his still-open magic book out of the way in order to give himself time to think.
Inquisax appeared in front of him, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him violently. "What did you just say?! This place is a dungeon?! How?!?! Why?!?!" He yelled, his voice becoming more and more intense with each question. "Who let you do this?! Did you do this just now?!?! What made you think it was a good idea?!?!" He continued, his questions growing faster.
"The previous owner saved my life, helped me kill a monster that destroyed the nearby village, convinced me to open a book, and now this is the consequence of that series of events." Ryo deadpanned, looking around. "Now, how do I make the best out of this?"
Inquisax sat on the semi-circular table, his head in his hands like a particularly depressed teenager. "God damn it, Ryo. I know it's never a dull day, especially with you learning so fast, but never would I think you'd do something like this. You're like Aragoth but fleshy." He muttered, prompting Aragoth to appear from behind a bookshelf, still reading that book about how to cook and eat Monster eggs.
"What, did Ryo do something like turn this place into a dungeon?" Aragoth asked, sarcastically. "If so, sick. If not, you've been leading me on a wild goose chase trying to figure out what happened."
Inquisax shot daggers at Aragoth, who vanished behind the bookshelf once more, talking to himself about optimal fire heights and intensities. He looked at Ryo, a semi-pitying look on his face. "You really don't know how much harder it is going to be to keep this place safe, do you?" He asked, genuinely hoping for an answer that didn't just consist of 'No'.
"Not at all." Ryo shot back, causing Inquisax to smack his hand into his face. "However, I'll figure out a way. The first step is obtaining some Defence Points to summon a Monster, like a Goblin, to help defend this place while I am gone. After all, the first Goblin that I fought in Aragoth's dungeon was quite difficult, so any regular person won't be able to get in."
With that, Ryo disappeared, using Teleportation to appear in the Hyandean capital city, Quebesk once more. Darkness was starting to fall upon the city, and the light of the moon mixed with that of open indoor businesses gave the roads a small bit of life in the night. "The best place to do something like spread rumours is to mention the library while pretending to talk to myself at a bar. I'll seem plain enough at first, and then I'll be able to talk about the library, maybe spread information about special magic books." Ryo said to himself, his eyes catching the glimpse of a respectably large bar. "The Wolf's Worry".
Ryo walked inside, his eyes scanning the area. Plenty of people were sitting around tables, with a line of people at the bar drinking various things. Ryo spotted an empty spot and quickly slid in. The bartender — a tall, thin man with blond hair and a matching beard — after a few seconds of flirting with a girl, made his way over to him. "What can I get for ya?" He asked, polishing a wooden mug that appeared to still have a bit of foam around the lip.
"Could I get a mug of cider?" Ryo asked, looking at the offerings. He noticed the cider, a brand known as Crispers, his favourite, as well as two popular lagers, Rockfront and Beguiled. The bartender quickly poured him a mug from a nearby barrel, placing it down in front of Ryo.
"Three small silvers, please." He requested, prompting Ryo to pull out his pouch. He still had thirty large silvers left inside, so he pulled one out, and paid with that, getting ninety-six small silvers in change. "Sorry for the hassle. I only got paid in large silver coins, so I really have no change." He apologised.
"No worries about it. A lot of decently high-ranked adventurers come in here with large silvers, so we keep thousands upon thousands of small silvers on us at any given time." The bartender replied, going back to flirting with that girl from earlier. Ryo took a sip of his Crispers, letting out a deep sigh. He was relaxed.
Ryo began listening in to the conversations of people around him. A group of people wearing adventurer's armour were complaining about an outbreak of slimes in a nearby village. "They're so easy to kill, but there's way too many!" one said, chugging whatever was in his mug.
The people directly to his right were talking about a new clothes shop that had opened up in the city centre. They were talking about all their revolutionary clothing options as if it was the greatest thing since magic.
The conversation to Ryo's left interested him, however. It was two adventurers talking about places to visit. One was clearly a wizard, with a pretty plain staff, while the other was a Longswordsman, like Kevin. They were around B-rank, if Ryo were to bet his money on it. He leaned in, a small smile on his face.
"I've got a good location for you, if you'd ever be interested in visiting."