New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 59 Earnings

"Toba is dead? That bastard! Why was he so careless... He should have just come back!" exclaimed Achi as he punched the ground next to him.

As for the Shaman, he was calmly listening to Baltra's explanation with his eyes closed. As Baltra concluded the report, the Shaman opened his dark eyes, "A dungeon you say? The description you made indeed make it look like a dungeon. I wonder if the mine is also part of the dungeon..."

The old man quickly stood up and went to rummage through his tent, "Give me a minute, I will be back!"

With the Shaman gone, Achi took the opportunity to ask more questions about his brother's death. As wild as Toba was, he was still his brother and if needed, he would take revenge for him. Zeke had already been sent home where his mother was taking care of him. Additionally, Mira and Ly, Achi's wife were also there to help him recover.

In a little over one minute, the Shaman finally came back and dropped another bag of animal fur. "This is all the information our ancestors have about dungeons. Although we never had one, we took our time to study them since they were the strength of the townsmen!"

"I am not sure but it seems like the monster they encountered was probably a one-time monster. If he was much stronger than the others, then that means that that monster was the key to unlocking the next floor. Now that he is dead, it probably means that we can also find another staircase to go to the next floor!"

"Our records are blurry and inaccurate but this is my understanding of the dungeon. You said that Zeke brought back skeleton bones? Let me have a look!" said the shaman.

Quickly, Baltra complied and opened the stash the barbarians brought back. There were 22 iron ores, 41 coals, and 27 skeleton bones.

The shaman quickly picked up one of the skeleton bones and examined it, "Indeed! This will be an excellent catalyst to make poison! Now I understand why townsmen are so prosperous, if dungeons have a lot of items like that, we will be able to drastically improve our strength!"

"But great elder, what about the monster?" asked Baltra.

"Didn't I already say that it was probably just a one-time monster? But you are right! We should not be too greedy to start with! We will start by mining the ores! These iron ores are enough for initial tests but we will need more if we want to grow back into a blacksmith tribe. I know it is a hard shift but if we persist, our tribe will without a doubt prosper!" said the Shaman.

"I will make the proper arrangement! I already picked a few people who were interested in forging," said Achi.

"Good good! Also... Tell the pickers to stop being too conservative! They can just bring back as many herbs as possible. I can start refining a lot of poison later when we will get skeleton bones! There is no rush but it is good to make preparations now," said the Shaman.

Pickers were the lowest class of barbarians. They were a group of people that prioritized strength but naturally, not everyone was born with huge physique or were willing to train their body. As a result, the weaker barbarians were called pickers and their job mainly consisted of collecting herbs, fruits and other plants from the forest. They were basically those who brought back vegetables.

Achi and Baltra quickly left the tent of the Shaman to allow him to rest. The old man seemed energetic but they knew he was tired.

"You did a good job today! Go and rest, no need to take any actions today! I will first study these records first and we'll make an action plan tomorrow!" said Achi.

"Thank you chief! I again apologize for my incompetence..."

"That's fine, stop blaming Toba's death on yourself. We will make a ceremony to honor their death soon. For now, I still need to deal with those townsmen. They should be leaving tomorrow. After that, we can focus on that dungeon!"

...

In the dungeon, Five stared at the center as Krishaw was stabbed to death by 2 skeletons. He was already too weak to fight and it was clear that he only wanted his comrade to escape. Five did not really mind letting one leave since this way, the barbarians would know that this place is more dangerous than it looked.

Only when Krishaw's body was lifelessly lying on the floor did Five step out of the shadows. He looked at the desolate scene covered with piles of bones and bodies, feeling a sense of emptiness and guilt.

As he was walking, the skeleton that held the crossbow bowed to him and handed up the crossbow. "It's good, you can keep it!" said Five nonchalantly. He was, in fact, the one who shot that last bolt but to remain hiding, he simply passed the crossbow to a skeleton near him and observed the scene.

He just bought the crossbow with 5000 DP. This was just the price of a peak Grade 1 equipment. It was the best equipment he had but Five was not a fan of crossbows and so, he chose to give it to the skeleton.

Five stopped in front of the corridor where Toba's body and Dreidus' were lying. "Sigh... You said you would stop them but still... I did not expect you to have a skill that would harm even you in the process..." murmured Five.

Through the interface, he was able to clearly see as the black sphere detonated, the black gas not only corroded Toba's and Krishaw's body but also Dreidus himself.

"Guess we will have a chat in 24 hours..."

In the end, he simply looked at the bodies before leaving. He did not touch the scene since he did not know if the black cloud still had some residual effects there. He was disgusted at the idea of having his skin slowly eaten by the black spots.

However, the one good thing that came out of this battle was that his DP balance shot up! He now had 120000 DP. It was an astronomical value and just the death of the 3 barbarians contributed 87000 DP. Killing was really the fastest way to get DP but by doing so, he was also reducing the number of people who would come to his dungeon.

In fact, now that Toba and his group were dead, Five was wondering if the barbarians would still dare to come to the mine. If they didn't then his dungeon would simply be unable to develop.

Although he now had a lot of DP, just reviving Dreidus would cost him 50000 DP which amounted to almost half that amount. After killing the 3 barbarians, Dreidus leveled up to level 25. When he saw that, Five cursed loudly, "he killed 3 level 30 barbarians while being level 20 but he only gained 5 levels? How balanced is that game?"

He quickly went back to the end of the labyrinth, pondering on what to do next. It was obvious that he needed to improve his dungeon; he now had enough capital to build another floor. Even if he kept 60000 DP for reserve, 50000 for Dreidus, he still had another 60000 ready to be spent.

However, he did not immediately start building another floor. He needed to plan ahead and he also wanted to ask Dreidus for his advice. During this battle, Dreidus proved his capability at leading the skeletons; with the way he commanded them, he was able to keep 2 barbarians out of the fight.

If Dreidus was confident in commanding more undead, then Five would naturally make use of that advantage. He knew that by focusing on only one type of monster, all the monsters would mutually benefit each other.

For example, in the dungeon shop, there were specific items that could buff one type of monster. If used properly, he could easily improve his overall strength. Since he already started walking down the path of undead monsters and had a competent monster to lead them, it would be beneficial to continue this way.

He wanted to create an ecosystem for the monsters to reduce his DP cost but by focusing solely on undead monsters, he was also doing so. Undead emitted that ghastly cold aura which mutually benefitted each other. It was like having a pile of ice cubes and placing ice cubes at a distance from each other. In the end, the pile of ice cubes will take longer to melt than when they are individually placed at a distance from each other.

Five doubted that the barbarians would try to attack again today but he kept his guard up, monitoring the entrance. He leaned against the wall while looking at the different monsters he could buy.

He did not know much about undead but now that he had time, it was a good opportunity to learn a bit more about their stats and abilities. For the third floor, it was better to wait for Dreidus to come back up.

Chapter end