Chapter 30: Level Up
Amy's room, however, did not have its floor turned into the nicer demonic design, and none of the carvings on the wall banner contained demons. Instead, they featured flowers, trees, and things related to nature due to an unusually adamant refusal by the elf.
She had said the reason was that the floor was uncomfortable to walk on without shoes, and the beautiful carvings of demons he had made were described in a way he hadn't learned yet, but it was highly unpleasant if her face was any indication.
Although she did have her chair, table, and bed forcefully redesigned, as were her shelves in the wall, to cleaner designs.
One of the greatest benefits of the designs he had made, however, was that they perfectly hid the holes of his spear traps. He had to make some manual adjustments for them, but now, all the spears shot out of cracks and holes in the designs. They were impossible to see without placing oneself in mortal danger.
Due to using Scan, Blueprint Creations, and Blueprint Manufacturing on nearly all the new designs, it had cost more mana, but the creation process was more symmetrical and automated. It also made his Basic Blueprint Construction increase to
Trap Construction had also finally leveled up, earning him a new trap called "Trapmaster."
His monsters had taken over the role of killing animals and monsters that regularly entered the dungeon and fell into his pitfall traps, and he planned on training his elf eventually too.
A pleasant surprise was that the killer received 90 percent of the experience from the kill, while the dungeon (Zach) received the remaining 10 percent.
He was correct in that higher levels would improve the monsters' abilities. The diggers dug a little faster, and the shroom gnomes were a little better with their hands.
Deeming he had gained enough experience with skills for a large amount of bonus experience, he finally chose to use 260 exp to level up.
[200 exp used to level up.
Lv. 2 -> Lv. 3
Accumulated skill experience bonus:
Mana Control
+ New Subskill: Mana Infusion]
Seeing this information, Zach felt super happy as he immediately checked his information.
[Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)
Name: Zachary
Mana: 330/330
Exp: 612(+)
Level: 3
Abilities:
Dungeon Creation
Mana Control
• Mana Infusion
Dungeon Control
Trapmaster
Overlapping senses
Dungeon Facility Construction
• Biomass Converter – 100 mana
• Breeder – 50 mana, 20 biomass
• Storage Crate – 10+ mana, 10 physical material
Monsters:
• 3x diggers (
• 2x Shroom Gnomes (
Titles:
Level Suppressor]
The dungeon celebrated the large immediate growth of his skills. He felt that all the waiting was more than worth it in the end. All his skills had improved by leaps and bounds, and he had even earned a title in the process.
[Level Suppressor: One who restrains themselves and trains their skills in order to increase their foundation.
Conditions: Increase restrained potential in all skills and stats before leveling up; Increase all skills and stats by 30% or more on average on level up.
Effects:
• All stats +10%
• Bonus experience earned +15%]
He had received several other new items as well. After his mana fully recovered, he built a storage tank next to his current storage crates. It was a basic water tank-like shape and came with the space expansion mana fractal design, the same as the storage crates.
The design was actually a little different, though. The special expansion was less potent than the former, but it was a bit more stable and also included an insulating factor that protected the container.
He could theoretically fill up a storage crate with water, but he couldn't fill it with anything corrosive or damaging to the container itself.
Pouring his maximum of 330 mana into the storage tank, he increased the internal size from its basic 10m³ to a staggering 140m³, otherwise known as 1,400 units, or 140,000L.
He couldn't make a rotary mana engine until he located iron, but it seemed to be a basic motor that rotated while using mana as fuel. The dungeon was incredibly excited about this, and it sparked a lot of ideas in the ways he could use it.
The weak poison gas was more about the gas itself than an actual trap. It used mana in an odd way to cause the biomass to rapidly degrade and turn into a toxic gas. It was only a weak poison, which infected the blood with biotoxic elements via being inhaled into the lungs, but it would cause damage even if it didn't kill an adventurer.
Auto-mine and mana infusion were the final major new items. Auto-mine enabled him to select an area and automatically mine it. The benefit of this was that it would keep mining at the same speed as his mana regeneration, while at the same time he would constantly be out of mana until it finished or he canceled it.
Mana infusion was exciting but didn't have any specific instructions. It merely allowed him to infuse his mana into objects or materials. He tested it on stone and ardonite first, which seemed to make them a bit stronger, but that was it, Zach felt the similarities between it and his overlapping sense in a way he wasn't sure of.
~~~~~
"I want to leave," the elf demanded the following day after getting the dungeon's attention.
"You what?" Zach asked in her mind in anger, his voice threatening, not believing that after *treating* her well, she would want to take another step to demand something more!
"…go get fruits," she responded timidly.
"Why?"
"Here fruits bland, sweet fruits outside, need."
Amy was nervous and sad; even the dungeon could tell now. She gripped her long golden hair in a tight grip and bit her lip. She kept eying the open door to her room as if contemplating simply running away.
"Please, help. I, truly, yours."
"No."
She shook briefly and just said, "Please."
"Your request is simply impossible, Amy."
"I do anything… need fruits, hungry."
"You are misunderstanding, elf. You are already mine. Why are you trying to bargain with giving me something I already own?"
"No…"
"Do not enter a rebellious stage, Amy. I do not wish to have to kill you."
As if firming her resolve, she bit hard enough to draw blood on her lip as she forced herself to say, "Then help or kill."
Zach mentally sighed upon seeing this. It would truly be a shame to have to kill her, but he wasn't without reason. He treated his things kindly and would normally do what he could to fulfill whatever request she had, but this time was different.
He had sent his shroom gnomes to always patrol the forest, and recently, a large number of goblins had been spotted near where he was killed, with the other bodies already rotting away with different strange animals. The stench of blood and death had attracted a horde of approximately 30 wild goblins, along with some other direwolves patrolling the area for food.
The goblins were mostly armed with stone hammers and blunt axes, but several of them seemed to have iron weapons too. They were better equipped than his two armies and grossly outnumbered his forces. With the other monsters lurking in the area too, it was simply too dangerous for both the elf and him.
She was forcing his hand, though. He still needed her for creating monsters, so killing her was his final and least attractive option.
"You said that you will do anything?"