[Arc 5] Chapter 0-2: Damavand-Tomb

"Hey? Is Iron here?" - Garami

We arrived at the 2nd floor of Damavand-Tomb, the first Dungeon Territory I ever owned. After a while, the undead knight appeared in front of us.

"Boss, welcome. What can I do for you today...why is lady Mira in such a bad mood?" - Iron

"Ah...we can start from there," - Garami

Mira has been pouting ever since I delayed the explanation about the Quest she cleared at the shrine.

"You know the shrine Ciara managed to get for us? Just give a prayer and some loose change to the new god living there, and you will clear a Legacy Quest that gives you access to new classes unique to Damavand." - Garami

"Classes!? From just that?!" - Mira

"Oho? Is that limited to those related to Damavand, or can anyone obtain these classes you speak of?" - Iron

"Nice of you to point that out. Everyone can clear the Quest, but for those from outside of Damavand, they require special tickets alongside Sols if they wanna clear it. Tickets that we can use as Ex-rarity items." - Garami

"Ex..., so we can stuff those tickets inside those new Treasure Chests?" - Mira

"Correct~." - Garami

One of the new facilities obtained from ranking up the Treasure-stat from C to B was the Phantom Chest. It gives a boatload of Facility Points that we can use to set other facilities, but we need to add an Ex-rarity item inside it for it to work, and we can only place one of them in each Territory. The upside is that this chest doesn't take up the slot for the other Treasure Chest facilities in that Territory.

The other characteristic of this chest is that it will randomly appear on its designated floor. Where or even if it appears when intruders enter said floor is impossible even for me to know. 

"That sounds like a good idea. And what about the money they need to offer?" - Mira

"A kiloton more than what those from Damavand needs to pay~. We can even create different tickets for the different classes, so people have to dive into the Dungeons more to get the right tickets. We could even sell them in the Dungeon Shops or use them as rewards for mini-quests on the different floors." - Garami

"That's cool, but what about the money I used? Where did that go?" - Mira

"...that's what was bothering you? It went to the treasury. If you want, I can let you use Random Creation for a while if that cheers you up." - Garami

"Okay~~," said Mira with a smile equal to the sun. 

The acquired money can be used to upgrade Damavand by converting it into CP, the Golden Monsters will spawn more frequently because of that, which will lure even more invaders into the Dungeon and keep the cycle going. And since most of the classes Damavand provides require bad Karma Value, there will be quite a few challengers who're on the wrong side of the law that we can farm EXP with~.

Someone else would maybe wanna monopolize these new classes, but honestly, they are more "weird" than "powerful". And even if people start using these classes, I would know everything about them, so I'll have a lead in the information war.

"Regarding the tickets, could we use some of them in the arena?" - Iron

"Arena? Something you added?" - Garami

"Yes. If you have the time, would you please inspect my work?" - Iron

"That's the reason why we're here." - Garami

"Yup~. We're on a Dungeon date~." - Mira

"I see. Then allow me to escort you to the 5th floor, at least." - Iron

Accepting Iron's invitation, we started to walk through the 1st floor towards the stairway for the next floor. While walking, Iron started to explain the setup of the Floors. To summarize, the Territory is built like this:

"That's a simple design for a Dungeon," asked Mira after Iron finished his explanation and we had entered the 2nd Floor.

"Thinking of strategies and predicting how invading adventurers would act is above my ability, so I went with a simple design that emphasizes the abilities of the undead." - Iron

No, even that's pretty impressive. And the existence of the Arena itself will make Damavand-Tomb a popular place for battle-hungry adventurers. If we add a function to broadcast the fights to the other territories, or even allow people to arrive at the arena at the cost of not being able to dive further into the Dungeon somehow, then this Territory may turn into a big money-maker. Wonder if we can set up gambling events here?

I looked over the spawnable monster list that Iron had created. These are the monsters that can be created through the Spawning Facilities that were unlocked when the Facility-stat reached rank B. 

These facilities would spawn up to 10 monsters of the rank they are assigned to, and if one of those 10 monsters died, then anyone related to Damavand could use CP to respawn the defeated monster. Like, if I was away from the Dungeon again, then Onyx or the other Dungeon Bosses could refill the forces of any Dungeon that were taking losses.

The downside is that these summoned monsters are acting like...well, monsters. The kind you fight in RPGs. Maybe it would be better to call them "NPCs"? These NPCs can't grow. All the EXP they would obtain from killing a creature is sent directly to Damavand. The levels and skills of the summoned monsters are randomized, but they get tougher the deeper down the Dungeon you go. It feels like an RPG at that point.

Regarding the Spawning Facilities themselves, they will produce the creature in a non-hostile-filled location on that floor, and you can make any monster of the corresponding rank of that Facility from a predetermined list of monsters. 

As for Damavand-Tomb's monsters, we have...

Territory:

Damavand-Tomb

Notable members: 

Spawnable G-rank Monsters:

Spawnable F-rank Monsters:

Spawnable E-rank Monsters:

Spawnable D-rank Monsters:

Spawnable C-rank Monsters:

Undead, undead, and more undead. This is a Dungeon of the undead, alright. ...hmm?

"Hey, what happened to Almas?" I asked after looking at one of the two supervisors of this Territory. Almas used to be a Steel Skeleton the last time I saw him. Why is he a Skeleton Knight that has the same racial rank as the Steel Skeleton

"The System Update after the Festival made changes to the Skeleton and Zombie evolution lines. Skeletons can evolve into color-type Skeletons with high stats or job-type Skeletons if they have the right classes. Zombies retain Extra Evolutions, but bein beyond that, they now evolve in a straight line," said Iron. 

The "straight line" must be Zombie, Ghoul, Living Dead, then Wight if I read this list right. But how did that affect Almas?

"To compensate the undead for the trouble, the World System allowed them to change their current race to one of the "official" races that were currently added, as well as being granted 10 Skill Points. It did not affect their levels or stats either, so Almas chose the class-focused Skeleton Knight instead of the Steel Skeleton race that is now a status value-focused race." - Iron

Ah, so that's the reason.

The walk through the 2nd floor was long due to how complicated Iron had made the passages, but the undead knight knew them like the back of his hand and didn't make any mistakes as he led us through the rocky labyrinth. 

Mira then asked if Iron chose job-type Skeletons over color-types for the same reasons as Almas did. Honestly, I would think that stat-based undead would be a better fit for cannon fodders, as they won't inherit their knowledge after each death, but Iron's answer surprised me.

"Color-types look different from normal Skeletons, while the only difference between normal Skeletons and the job-types is how they act in battle if you look away from their equipment. Meaning it is possible to trick the invaders by mixing high-ranking undead with the low-ranks." - Iron

So devious! To think Iron out of all...undead(?) could think of such a ploy! Looking back, he did chose undead that are extremely similar to others. The rats, for example, look no different from each other, but the moment you think you're swatting away a Skeleton Rat, you have a Curse ailment on you because it was a Curse Bone Rat!

I also asked why he didn't add the undead dragons, but it seems that the "war" against Solomar's knights made it clear that those dragons aren't cut out for team play, something that Iron has made the cornerstone of this Territory, so Iron decided to give them up.

And after quite a while, even not including the time we took us to crush a Golden Monster we found on the way, we reached the 3rd floor. 

Unlike the caverns, this place looks like a huge underground dome with tons of ashen-white ruins spread around to form some ancient, and probably haunted, city. Torches illuminate parts of the streets, but the shadows can easily hide some sneaky undead. I know this is my Dungeon, but it still sends shivers crawling down my spine.

"Welcome to Damavand's first Haunted Ruin floor." - Iron

"It sure has that feeling. No way you can have a decent date down here." - Garami

"Really? I think it's interesting~." - Mira

Ah...now I remember...this girl took the Treasure Hunter class before. Maybe the sight of the ruins is ticking her inner treasure-loving self?

"...Iron, what's the status on the Treasure Chests on this floor?" - Garami

"Hmm? There are a few hidden around here, yes. Why?" - Iron

Hearing that, I summoned some Mimic-type demons and ordered them to hide and impersonate the chests that already exist on this floor to create a "Treasure hunting game" using the ruins as a gameboard.

Mira looked for the real treasure chests with sparkles in her eyes, but my mood was way lower than hers.

After all, when I summoned the Mimic monsters, I came to see the price for the C-rank monsters of this Territory. The Skeleton Assassin and Wight both cost 400 CP...but the Soul Weaver and Gallu Reaper cost 450 even though they should have a bigger discount due to them being connected to multiple monster lines and attributes..., let's try to make them regular faces here in the Dungeon. They must be incredible!

And during the next visit, let's try to get some alone-time with Mira in a less-scary environment. Good thing that the next stop on the schedule is Damavand-Core. 

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Skill List:

Title List:

Trait List:

Undead:

Spectral Possessor (Armor):

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Kigal-Note/Monster Skills: [Ghostly Soul]

Description:

[Ghostly Soul] is one of the three undead-line stacking skills and the skill exclusive for the Ghost monsters. Only Ghosts can obtain this skill, but Liches and similar undead can obtain not only it but also the Skeleton-limited [Wrightful Lifeforce] and the [Nether Hunger] skill of the Zombies.

These three skills are one of the two sets of skills that allow the undead to stack more HP, MP, or SP than their original values. Compared to the first set which gives 10 extra points for each skill level, [Ghostly Soul] and its companions grant 20 points for each skill level. Added together, these skills make the already resilient undead species even tougher to kill...yet again.

Iron's comment: Nothing is tougher than an undead.