My second life as a dungeon

It turned out that the last adventurer had arrived yesterday so we were ready to leave today once everyone was ready so it was a good thing I asked when I did. I thought it hadn’t been long since I had told them about the colony but they had immediately sent out a scouting party to figure out what rank the quest would be and sent out the quest listing to all local towns and villages when they returned.

Thanks to the guild’s efficiency it hadn’t taken long for adventurers to see the quest and decide to take part due to it being very profitable and close by. It is also popular because the guild doesn’t set a cap on the number of parties that can take on a subjugation quest so they didn’t have to worry about anyone completing the quest and taking the reward. In total about a hundred adventurers turned up split between three groups, each with a different task.

The first of these three groups, the one me and Val would be in, would be the scouts that would be at the front of the pack while we hiked to the colony. We would be in charge of making sure the rest of the force wouldn’t have to fight so that they could save their strength for the actual colony. We were also in charge of making sure that any goblin that ran away due to the high level of mana our force would be emitting during the battle wouldn’t get far.

The second group was the main force and would be in charge of destroying the colony, this had the highest risk due to battles like this being so chaotic so only adventurers at least level 20 were in this group. This risk was rewarded by two things, firstly they would get the most of the experience, it was expected that everyone in this group would level up at least twice if not more. Secondly they would get the first go at any loot the goblins dropped.

The third, and final, group was our trump card that was tasked with finding the leader of the goblins and killing them. Because we expect the leader to be so much stronger than the rest of the goblins they would have to be at least level 50. Only one party could be the trump card so it would end up being whoever had the highest average level in their party.

This ended up being a party of adventurers called the ‘Red Rubies’ they were four adventurers all at least level 60. They were still considered rookies as they had only been adventuring for less than two years but they were clearly talented as they had already gained so much power. This meant that they were starting to gain some fame and anyone that knew about them respected them.

An hour later I was sitting on a stump with Val, who also wanted to take part in the quest, just experimenting with magic by creating a few flowers when the final adventurer was finally ready and we set off. I looked around at everyone and was quite intimidated by how many people there were.

That said it was still easy to tell which adventurers were part of the Red Rubies as everyone was subtly whispering while staring and pointing at them, although even if they weren’t I probably would still be able to tell who they were as they were so memorable and looked the strongest out of everyone here.

The member that drew my attention first was what looked to be a Dragonborn magitech artificer. I came to this conclusion because they were covered in gadgets and gizmos, the two most noticeable being a bracelet that emanated a red barrier around them and a metallic arm that had a lot of compartments. They had no hair on their head, wore goggles over their eyes and wore a long white coat over plain clothes and was covered in scales each about an inch big.  

Next was an Orcish Monk, he had well defined muscles, tusks that went from his lower jaw to the sides of his nose, was completely bald and was only wearing a red vest and shorts that had gold trim over his blue skin. Other than that he wasn’t carrying anything other than a backpack so I assumed he specialised in a martial art of some sort. Overall he looked plain compared to his party mates but he still exuded a level of power that was on par with the rest of his party.

The only thing I could tell about the second to last member was that they were a mage, I assumed. This was because they were wearing a long, red with golden trim, robe that hid their head and went down to their ankles. The only thing sticking out of the cape was a metallic staff short enough to be used as a walking cane that I assumed was an arcane focus.

The last member of this group was a half Orc Cleric that was wearing heavy armour that looked way too heavy for anyone to be comfortable in, it had the same red and gold colours as the other members wore. They wore a necklace that went over the breastplate and had a symbol to some god that I didn’t recognise on it, his weapon of choice was a mace that he carried on his side.

Overall the party looked quite intimidating but still dependable in a way that made me feel comfortable having faith that they would be able to complete their task. They talked and laughed together that made it easy to tell that they worked together and were good friends. I didn’t know if they chose the striking appearance as a way to separate themselves from other adventurers or if it had been the uniform of wherever they had grown up.

‘How are you feeling about all this?’ I asked Val after finishing looking over the group. We had been walking for a while by this point so I decided to check in how she was doing. ‘I know you were happy to accept the quest before but that was a week ago now.’

‘A bit nervous but as long as we just stick to our role and nothing too strong ends up running our way it should be fine.’ Val answered nervously, while I had been building the third and fourth floors Val had been spending most of her time practising with her magic. Both getting better control over her spells that she already knew and unlocking a few new ones.

This gave her enough experience to level her up to level 9, she had gone from being one level below me a month ago to now growing at a faster pace than I am. The most surprising thing about this was that I had both the blessing of growth and the experience from adventurers in my dungeon but she was still outpacing me without showing any signs of slowing down.

I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up and end up holding her back from her true potential. It also made me annoyed thinking about how far she could have grown by now if her parents had allowed her to be an adventurer. There was no point in being angry about something that happened in the past though so I decided to focus on the positives.

About two weeks ago our pact had started to show some minor effects on her body. Her face was starting to shift and look more feminine although anyone who knew her from before we met would still be able to recognise her. Her facial and body hair had also stopped growing which was a minor thing but it still made her very happy. We were still a long way away from her perfect body but everyday we got closer she got happier and more confident in herself.

‘I am sure everything will be fine,’ I said, trying to calm her nerves. 'we won’t be alone so if anything bad happens we will have backup.’ This seemed to calm her down as she gave me a soft smile before going back to concentrating on where we were walking. Us scouts had quickly arrived at the front of the pack and were now leading everyone towards our destination.

The atmosphere behind us was mostly jovial and cheery as a bunch of people joked and chatted with their party members. Goblins tended to be weak monsters and any stronger goblins would be dealt with by the stronger members of the raid so no one was too worried about it. That said, everyone kept to themselves, either not wanting to mingle with the other groups or wanting to but too worried about being a bother that they stayed in their own parties.

We travelled through the day and came across a few squads of goblins but they were quickly dealt with by the closest scouting party. During the first day me and Val only took down two squads out of the ten we had come across but I was already close to levelling so it pushed me over the edge. We didn’t get too far as there were so many people in our group that it was impossible to travel as fast as me and Val could together, we would likely take all of tomorrow to reach the colony.

As the sun set everyone set up camp relatively close to each other but still separated so that it was easy to tell who was in the same party. We still had a communal fire that a cook made our dinner over so everyone ate together but once everyone finished their meal they returned to their tents unless they were on lookout duty. The shift you got was decided by a lottery system, I ended up getting the last shift while Val got the second one so we stayed a while before returning to our tent.

I quickly went to sleep, now used to sleeping anywhere due to spending two weeks sleeping out here every other night, and the night quickly went by without any issues. In the morning I made me and Val some breakfast while I kept watch. My shift ended as the sun came up and everyone started to prepare for the day so I woke Val with our breakfast. We quickly ate it before packing up our tent and making our way once again.

That day we ended up fighting a lot more squads and by the end of the day most were stronger squads with hobgoblin leaders, I even heard someone celebrate that they had managed to reach level ten. As I thought yesterday, we managed to get to the village just as the sun was setting. Goblins had pretty good night vision so the guild representative decided that we would wait until sunrise and then attack with the sun behind us to give us the advantage.

We quickly set up camp and it was pretty much a repeat of the night before except that I got the first shift while Val had the third one. We had set up our camp far enough away from the colony that they didn’t find us and everyone quickly got ready in the morning. The atmosphere had now changed to be much more serious than before as, even though the goblins were weak, every time adventurers went into battle it could be our last and no one was underestimating the goblins.

Once everyone was ready the main force and the Red Rubies set up to the west of the colony, the same direction that the sun was rising in, while the scouts spread out so that no goblin could escape the battle. Once everyone was in place the air started to grow more tense by the second until about ten minutes later a horn was sounded that told everyone that the raid had started.

Us scouts wouldn’t have to do anything for a while so I went over what I knew about wild monsters thanks to being a dungeon. I have already mentioned that monsters are usually bloodthirsty creatures that kill anything around them but this wasn’t always true as external mana could change their behaviour quite drastically. Mages that have studied this phenomena for decades still have no idea why this happens; all they know is that there are at least three ways to affect a monster via mana.

The first way is that when a single source’s passive mana output is at least double what a monster’s is then it will stay far away from that source, even running away if it gets too close.  This knowledge was commonly used by rich merchants to make transporting goods safer without relying on guards. This was done by using a device that mimicked a high level adventurer by artificially emitting lots of mana that was indistinguishable to passive mana.

There were two issues with this though, first even the weakest emitters are incredibly expensive but the more mana it outputs the more expensive it costs. The second issue is that if you misjudge the strength of monsters in an area and the device is too weak it could end up attracting monsters looking for strong prey. This meant that even though they could theoretically be used to charter new routes they are mostly used on designated routes where it was known how strong monsters were. 

This, however, wasn’t why the monsters were running away from the main force. That was because the same effect could be achieved by a bunch of adventurers emitting lots of mana either through spells or abilities. Most of the mana used this way went to their actual purpose and wasn’t emitted into the surroundings so this method was about twenty times weaker than the first method. This meant that all of the battles happening at the same time would end up releasing enough mana to eventually start scaring the weaker monsters away.

The third, and final known, way that mana can be used to effect monsters was by sending pure mana into the monster’s body. This would cause it to become tamed and do whatever you ordered it to, even dying for you. This couldn’t, however, strengthen the monster so it would still have to fight to grow and would even suck up the tamer's experience. Any monster could do this, although it was easier between monsters in the same line.

The only problem with this is that keeping a monster under your control requires you to regularly give it mana, although to a much lower degree than the amount needed to first tame it, so anything that could control thousands of goblins must be incredibly strong. The other issue is that taming a monster requires incredible technique that no one can learn without the help of the system so only certain Jobs, called monster tamers, unlocked this ability.

It was also a risky Job as you still needed to be stronger than your monsters and if you ever ran out of mana any of your living monsters would attack you. There was a similar Job called Necromancers except their mana not only controlled the monster but also reanimated it meaning they had to spend more mana. This was balanced because if you ran out of mana then your minions would just die and they could temporarily strengthen their monsters via abilities although they couldn’t permanently grow stronger.