Chapter 103

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The Dungeon, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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After only a few days of experimentation, the holding cells were full to bursting with undead. I didn't want to just keep expanding the cells to hold more of them, either. Keeping the undead there did nothing for anyone, except stress out The RIsen. Thankfully, I had an idea for just the place to put them. While castles, ruins and other decaying vestiges of civilizations were known throughout fiction as magnets for various undead, there was only one place where they were the sole occupants.

Tombs.

While Graveyards technically counted, if they possessed a mausoleum, they were often the haunts of vampires and werewolves. Thus, they were not the sole domain of the risen dead. But, either way, what were the greatest and most impressive tombs on Earth?

The Pyramids.

Enormous complexes, constructed within a human lifetime through means unknown to house the body of their demi-god kings, the Pharaohs. It would be like having a dungeon inside my dungeon! A Sub-Dungeon! Dungeonception? Whatever. I wanted pyramids, and whadayaknow, I had plenty of open, unused desert on the Ninth Floor.

It was easy enough to build a Pyramid, despite what thousands on Earth believed. I just had to cut rectangular blocks of stone from the ground, and start placing them in a pyramidal shape. Getting that white sheen on the sloped stones along the outside was difficult, but doable. I didn't have enough gold for a capstone, but Orichalcum would do, especially with an enchantment to reflect sunlight, powered entirely by fire mana. In the setting sun, It looked like the capstone was on fire.

It was Awesome.

But either way, It was Tomb Time.TM

I cribbed from as many movies, games and books as I could as I designed the tomb. Doors tied to gems that only open on a specific day of the year, a rolling bolder trap triggered by weight-sensitive plates, huge antechambers lined with statues of Anubis, Osiris, Thoth, Bastet and a half-dozen other animal-headed gods I assumed existed. If it was portrayed as being in an Egyptian tomb, I emulated it.

There were thin bridges across endless pits, light-based puzzles, and I even made one room full of highly venomous snakes! One of the light-puzzle rooms was a 'Solstice' door, which would open only if light touched a red crystal, something that with my artificial solar cycle would never occur. It was up to them to figure out that they needed to reflect the light into the gem.

The boss chamber was the largest open room in the tomb, with multiple shafts of light casting shadows at odd angles. This is where the prospective guilders would fight the Bone Colossus. Behind the boss, behind a magical barrier that would only fall when the boss was 'defeated,' was a sarcophagus containing the closest approximation I could make to an actual mummified corpse.

I wanted to put some valuable loot in that sarcophagus, but I didn't have anything yet. For now, I just filled the Tomb with the undead. Huea, acting as their controller, was also given a chamber to live in. Said chamber had easy access to a monster-only tunnel that connected to the Scorpan Village.

But speaking of Loot, It was time to actually add some incentives to my dungeon.

For a long time now, there was little outright 'loot' guilders could find apart from the equipment my monsters died with, or the mana water on the first floor. It was time to change that.

I added pots throughout the dungeon that would contain various numbers of Talons, to act as a monetary reward. A few small chests contained larger amounts, and the occasional piece of enchanted gear. Leather, and Iron on the first three floors, with only basic enchantments. One such example was a mace that slightly increased the power of blows dealt by increasing the effect of gravity on the mace when swung, and automatically cancelling that extra momentum when the user stopped swinging. It was only a small increase, but it was there.

For floors four through six, I scattered 'higher tier' loot. Silver and Copper jewelry, Mithril weapons, arrows and bolts, all enchanted with slightly stronger effects. And more Talons, of course. The chests also became more ornate. Solid Iron, rather than flimsy wood, with some carvings and decoration.

Floors Seven through Nine had a further upgrade to the quality and strength of the loot's materials and enchantments. Moonsilver jewelry and Mithril weapons were now more common. Still rare, and would require detours from the main paths, but they existed. The book I've had Towers-Over-Others write will be the loot for beating Tear on the Seventh, though I was looking at replacing him as the Seventh floor Boss soon. I needed a dedicated warrior, rather than a smith pulling double-duty.

The Pyramid got it's own personalized loot chests, pots and coinage. The coins had different designs on them, and glowed green rather than silver. There were no other differences.

Floors Ten and Eleven were a bit trickier. Ten was a very different style of floor compared to those previous, and I wanted the loot-receiving method to reflect that. So, rather than find loot, Guilders would be able to take quests from the Minotaurs and receive loot as rewards. Things like collecting Jackalope antlers, Winged Hare wings, and Unihare horns. Perhaps wrangling loose Steel-wool Sheep back into their pens, with the reward waived if they kill any.

I can just imagine them trying. Heheh.

The Eleventh would be that, but scaled up immensely. They could receive quests to explore areas, gather resources, and so on. They'd need the money to buy homes, ships, pay for ship repairs and more. I was going open-world with that shit, and I had a lot of experience to draw upon. As they explored the eleventh they'd slowly uncover all the lore I'd spread out, and hear 'rumors' of powerful items hidden on each island.

Speaking of the guilders, a few parties had already begun their delves, and it looked like the Isid-Haythem-Cliche raid was next. I couldn't wait for them to meet the new merchant Drake-kin who'd set up shop within the entrance. His personality was absolute gold.

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Obsidian Beach, Atlantis, Kalenic Sea

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Haytham placed the bouquet of flowers at the base of the monument, then stood back to join Bertram. The monument was erected on the beach itself, just after the dunes. All across it's reflective obsidian-black surface names were carved, the names of those who'd fallen in the first landing of the Bahrain Invasion. Though the number of names was relatively small every party had lost someone, and It was surrounded by flowers. Haytham's eyes lingered on Flasa's name.

There was so much that had gone unsaid between them, and now he'd never get the chance.

He turned away, and joined Isid and Paeter's parties in the line. They were fourth in line, today marking the first time the dungeon was open to all Gold and Platinum parties since before the invasion. The Beach was packed, but the guilders occupying it were dour and serious. From his casual observation, it seemed like the average party size had grown since the invasion, despite their losses. A factor of smaller parties that had never made it past Mushu deciding to join forces, and push past the Guardian.

He thought it was a good change. Less parties meant everyone could delve more often, and larger parties meant less risk of death.

When he'd rejoined the rest of the raid group, the guards standing at the dungeon's entrance waved them on.

As always, they walked down the strip of sand along one side of the roughly triangular cavern, which terminated in a very exact isometric triangular hole cut into the cavern's end. The teal glow that illuminated the cavern beyond cast ghostly shadows on the faces of every guilder in the group. As they began their trek across the mostly-empty cavern to the ruins which held the true entrance to the dungeon, Haytham noticed the new addition immediately.

Among the ruined columns and bricks was a colorful tarp, strung from the highest points of the ruins. Beneath the tarp was a number of Kobolds, a Capriccio and a single Drake-kin. The golden-scaled Drake-kin directed the kobolds as they moved crates around, while the capriccio, female by the size of the horns, made notes on her clipboard. It wasn't long before they were noticed.

"Ah! My first customers!" The drake-kin exclaimed, "Welcome, welcome, to my humble shop. What can I interest you in today, hmm? Wait! Don't say anything! You'll certainly require these teleport crystals! Made on the Seventh Floor by our most skilled craftsmages, these are single-use crystals guaranteed to return you, safe and sound, to the dungeon's entrance." The merchant, for that is all the drake-kin could be, immediately leapt into his sales pitch.

He had quite the collection of items for sale, though they only bought another set of Teleport Crystals. As they were about to leave, exchanging goodbyes, the drake-kin smacked his forehead.

"Ah, In all the excitement of this morning I' forgotten! Mrs Losat, I have a message to pass along from The Creator. He wished for you to know that He has added something called 'loot' through the dungeon. Said it was, 'long overdue'." Isid nodded at the Child slowly.

"I thank you for passing the message along..." She trailed off, and once again the Drake-kin smacked his forehead.

"Oh bother, I forgot to introduce myself again, didn't I? My name is Hawker Goldscale, this is my assistant Bapeep, and the Kobolds are Flex, Clap and Scowl." As he pointed at them, Bapeep looked up from her clipboard and nodded, Flex flexed his tiny biceps, Clap clapped rapidly, bouncing on his toes, and Scowl scowled, turning away to continue his work immediately.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances, Good day, Hawker."

"And to you, my wonderful customers! Good delve to you!"

As they passed through the ruins and over the warning carved into the stones, Haytham could only say one thing.

"I wonder if the loot resets between each party delving, or daily." The rest of the raid group shared wide-eyed looks, then picked up the pace. They were the fourth group to enter the dungeon today after all, who knew how much treasure had already been taken!

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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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The loot did indeed reset daily, as the guilders soon found out. It would cost me far too much in Moonsilver to replenish every single pot and chest ten times a day. The Drake-kin can only mint so many coins a day! Granted, they can perform the enchantments in bulk, and cast them in the hundreds thanks to metal mana. Directly shaping coins to an exact mass is much easier using magic.

But either way, at some point the coins would filter back into my economy, either through the bank, merchants like Hawker, or the coinpurses of dead guilders.

I spent some time observing the surface as my favorite guilders made their way through the upper floors, peering through the eyes of Children, rats and various birds. The local humans had seemingly gotten mostly over the fact that monsters walked among them. I attributed that to the knowledge the monsters fought to defend the island, even if the majority of the civilians weren't on the island at the time.

The bank was doing well. At the moment, the exchange rate was still what I had initially set it at. One Talon is worth Three Phenoc Silver Coins. It was incredibly simple. The reason for the difference in value was that while they're both made of Silver, Moonsilver was more valuable. It's properties as a manaconductive metal were very valuable.

Kata was finding her job much easier with the Lady Kolchiss acting as her steward. The lady was much more familiar with the bureaucracy necessary to run a government than Kata. Haylee Kolchiss was the heir to her fathers dukedom for a number of years, and had lessons in the event her never bore a son, or so she explained to Kata. The pregnant woman was only showing ever so slightly, and apart from some nausea her symptoms were mild.

The town continued to expand, with new houses outside the wall housing new immigrants. And we did have some immigrants! Though rumors abound on the mainland of the 'horror of Atlantis', a daring few decided to try their luck on my island rather than wait out the warring dukedoms. Personally, I blame Medean for spreading those rumors. The man seemed like the vindictive type, from my last interaction with him.

When the raid group finally reached the next boss on the Fifth, the Shadow Spirit, I turned my attention to the mushroom castle's dungeons. I didn't want to miss this!

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???, ???, ???

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Ah- Where am I?

Who are these people around me? They look like... priests? Are they Larpers or something?

Wait, on the marble floor around me are a dozen people, dressed in clothes just like mine! Modern Clothes!

This is familiar...

Is this... Isekai?!

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