Chapter 78 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Finally, I was done with expanding the 18th floor; it was truly a monster. Over 8000 kilometers in length and nearly 5000 in width. Reducing the height truly adds a lot. Yet, so much was still left to do, but I was surprised it only took me five months to achieve this.

During this time, a few odd things have happened in my dungeon. For one thing, there was a surge of new shadow guilds that seemed to be more interested in training than actually fighting deeper into my dungeon. They were also really passive and tended to keep to the small territory they gained.

They also seemed to usually be adventurers who were not from the same Kingdom as I am in. They seem to speak a different language, but everyone in that shadow guild speaks that different language. There was one different guild, a little bit older, that spoke the same language as the adventurers of this Kingdom.

They kept an even lower presence, barely interacting with anyone, but they were slowly growing in number and they seemed quite dedicated to improving themselves. I approved of this, but just wished that they would try to delve deeper and not just stick to their own territory.

I guess that would be the downside of the territory system. Time will tell if there are more, but currently, whenever a group takes a territory, they like to stay there for quite a while. But I guess I can also understand most adventurers want to progress as safely as this occupation allows, and not just charge at every new challenge like some of the other adventurers do.

While there are exceptions, on average this means that the more careful adventurers are usually weaker, to an extent. I think this is completely understandable and I even respect this sort of outlook, but an adventurer should be able to handle unexpected situations and not wait for others to give them solutions to every problem. There’s a time to learn from the older generations and then there’s a time to learn yourself.

Of course, the adventurers weren’t the only source of entertainment during this time. The ants were quite busy trying to prevent a large war, even if every side had agreed to the limitations. Currently, they were trying to solve this problem with champions, but every victory and defeat continued to fuel the rivalry between the two groups.

The main problem was that these challenges resulted in the death of the champions. While the outcomes were respected and a short peace followed, with no one resolving the real problems, the time between challenges got shorter and shorter.

I had heard of a thing called arenas and wondered if I could make one where champions could fight so they wouldn't destroy the land around them, which was also a cause for many of the problems. Of course, this wasn’t as bad as the nation's star champions dying. Yet, an arena where the final strike wouldn’t kill but still show who won would bring quite a lot of stability.

This was something that a particularly brilliant ant was trying to do, but she hadn’t gotten a lot of support for her ideas. In fact, the opposite was true; if she wasn’t so brilliant, she wouldn't have any resources. She didn't even have a nation, and the only safe place for her was the Academy.

While it wasn't for me to interfere with how the ants wanted to live, her project was quite interesting, and I could see the value of this kind of arena for training. This could help not only the ants but other creatures and even adventurers with a new way of training and solving disagreements.

Because of this, I communicated with her and sent my intent and what I wanted from her. It took her a while to gather herself before I could feel the pheromones. “I am truly thankful for this opportunity,” she answered. Afterwards, she communicated the resources she currently needed, and they all appeared in her workshop.

I watched in glee as she started to work. Even if she doesn't complete her project, she will do a lot of research that perhaps others could use, and it always pleased me to watch someone so dedicated and good at what they did work.

Yet, I couldn’t focus on her with too much of me, as the busiest time during a floor construction was beginning. Not only was I going to have to start making the terrain of the 18th-floor playroom, but I also needed to start making dungeon rooms, this time totaling 80,000. Not to mention all of the smaller projects and the constant observation of everything that was going on. It was going to be a fun time.

POV Carl

I did not enjoy fighting giant bugs, but I did enjoy being around other people. We finally, a few weeks back, found a way to bring more people here, but we really needed to be careful about this, as we didn’t want to bring people who would betray us.

We didn’t know what to call ourselves, as we weren't just from the Runners Guild or the Explorers Guild; there were some of us from other guilds as well. Currently, there were 12 of us, mostly people who were Tristan’s contacts and perhaps now friends, who had similar interests.

Four were my people, whom I had gathered over time, who were also quite strong and with whom we could tackle the more dangerous quests and areas.

It didn't take long for the news to spread that five people seemed to be the perfect amount for doing things in this dungeon, especially the guardian and boss rooms. While before I always tackled the most dangerous challenges, and while I still do them alone, for gaining resources, it was not the best approach.

It has also become glaringly obvious to anyone who is pushing themselves hard that some parts of the 17th floor were not meant for typical adventurers of this floor. We have seen plenty of times when cocky adventurers came from other dungeons and they often didn't return from the areas where they were told not to go.

Some wise up quite fast and quickly learn to deal with the dangers of this place. It's also quite clear that those places needed quite good gear if you weren’t a genius prodigy.

While before the truly good drops were sold up above to gain coin. Now everyone who got those drops spent extra coin to get proper equipment made out of them. This has made the prices skyrocket, and buying new gear became cheaper outside the dungeon, although that wasn't as good. The hub stations were filled with workshops where beginners, masters, and everything in between could be found.

Unfortunately, this also caused the Adventurer Guild to crack down and do a better job at collecting their cut, which was fair, and most adventurers were just glad that we were able to get a period of time where most of us didn't have to pay that much.

Still, this fixed the problem of too few materials going up above and to the more established crafters who not only made items for us but also to be shipped all over the world using the airships that were constantly moving up above.

I turned off the shower and my mind cleared. In my childhood, even during the winter, the only place we were allowed to wash was the cold river that came down from the mountain. Tristan had spent quite a lot to get a proper washroom for us that even had warm water.

Now at least I knew what people meant when they said shower thoughts. My mind always wanders whenever I’m using one, but now it was time to get back to my own research, something I never expected to do, but those books on the body runes seemed so interesting.