New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 61 The third floor

"..."

Dreidus was slowly reciting the chant for his skill as Five was staring at the scene from the back. That ceremony was one of the deepest secrets of Necro Valley but since Five was now Dreidus' master, he did not mind performing the ceremony in front of him.

Turning someone into an undead was not difficult but this particular skill was different. It did not simply turn the target into a brainless undead; it allowed the undead to keep its previous personality to an extent while becoming completely obedient to the caster.

Five had already given his permission for using the barbarian as test subjects. Unfortunately, Toba's body was not suitable for the ceremony; anything exposed to [Death and Decay] for a long time would simply corrode to nothingness. Even if his body still looked intact, the inside was actually completely gone, it was just an empty dark shell.

And so, Dreidus turned his attention to the next strongest which was Anken. When he was still alive, he was a level 30 barbarian. Now, his body was lying at the center of the labyrinth with its hands and legs spread like a star.

Dreidus was slowly walking in a circle while reciting the chants. Five did not understand anything but it was clear that he should not disturb him. Dreidus looked solemn and serious; the scene in front of Five looked like a ceremony from one of those evil cults.

After 5 whole minutes, Five suddenly saw Anken's lifeless body twitch for a moment. He stared in amazement at the body that suddenly opened its eyes and stood up. Above his head, "Anken" was gone and was replaced by "Living Corpse".

On the side, Dreidus finally stopped chanting and sat on the floor to rest. By his posture, Five guessed that he was completely exhausted; the ceremony not only drained all his mana but also his HP.

"It's all done master! Now, I just need to rest for a while!" said Dreidus with a tired voice.

Five nodded and stepped forward to examine the living corpse. Anken was standing straight like a statue, looking right in front of him. His eyes were devoid of pupils and were completely white. The rest of his body looked completely fine and if one did not see the strange eyes, he could easily take him for a regular barbarian.

The Living Corpse's level was 27 which was the average between his original level when he was alive and the caster of the ceremony, Dreidus. A level 27 monster was a powerhouse in his dungeon; it was definitely a great addition to his monsters.

...

A few minutes later, Five and Dreidus were back at the end of the Labyrinth. Behind them, Anken was silently following like a loyal butler, in his arms, he was carrying the body of Krishaw which would also undergo the ceremony tomorrow to become a Living Corpse.

"Now that we have this out of the way, we should start improving the dungeon! We have a lot of DP, it is better to use them now than to wait for an emergency to happen!" said Five.

Dreidus nodded, "You are right, Master. As you requested, I had a look at the undead you can buy and I have a rough idea of how to make the 3rd floor. It should be slightly harder than the labyrinth but is more adapted for the "players" you mentioned. I will suggest making a graveyard!"

"We can make use of the fake black sky that increases the strength of all dark attribute monsters and the graves and tombs decorations that would strengthen the undead!" said Dreidus. He carefully explained the details to Five.

The two had a brief discussion where Five explained to him what the goals of the dungeon should be. As he was an expert in necromancy, he easily determined what would be the appropriate undead monsters to use. They had a lot of DP now and they could start making an environment suitable for undead monsters.

Before focusing on the third floor, Five started by summoning more skeletons with weapons to replace the dead ones. Compared to the previous one, this group had slight better weapons and had an armor to protect them. Since he was not lacking in money, Five did not mind spending more DP to protect his dungeon.

Now, a total of 150 skeletons were roaming across the labyrinth, of which, 50 wore armors and had weapons. 50 other skeletons only had weapons and the remaining 50 did not have any items and patrolled near the entrance.

Five knew the labyrinth was still lacking but for now, it should be enough. He quickly activated his interface and unlocked the third floor for 4000 DP. The familiar vibrations occurred as a huge gap appeared on the wall in front of him.

In a matter of seconds, finely cut stairs appeared which lead to the third floor. They quickly walked down the stairs and arrived on the third floor which consisted only of a small room for now.

"Then, I'll begin!"

As the words left his mouth, Five quickly manipulated the interface. He spent 15000 DP just to remove all the dirt. He first created an open space similar to the one he made on the second floor for his labyrinth but this time, he made the cave twice as high. On the second floor, the ceiling was only 4 meters high but on the 3rd floor, it was 8 meters high! Also, compared to the second floor, the ground level of the third one was not perfectly smooth, there were some irregularities, sometimes, there were gentle hills and sometimes, small holes.

Following that, Five covered the surface of the cave with the resistant material to prevent anyone from digging through the floor. The material was also emitting a bit of light which made the place look less gloomy.

Then, for the first time, Five went to the section of the shop called "Decoration". The items sold there were not really decorations and had effects associated to them but without monsters, these were indeed just decorations.

Compared to monsters, decorations did not need to be unlocked and could readily be bought at the mentioned price. Five quickly found what he was looking for: graves and tombs which cost 200 DP and 400 DP respectively.

The graves actually had the effect to increase all the stats of undead-type monsters by 1% within a 5m radius, while the tombs did the same but within a 10m radius. 1% did not sound very significant but if the effects could stack and often, the monsters would benefit from 2 or 3 decorations at a time.

He quickly picked the two and randomly spawned them on the third floor. Five did not bother to arrange them in order; the space was so large and if he did that, it would take ages. In addition to the tombs and graves, Five added other decorations like lamp posts, rusted fences, dead trees, and statues. These ones were cheaper and so did not come with any bonus effect.

In just 10 minutes, the entire empty space completely transformed and now looked like a real graveyard. The messy arrangement of the graves actually made it look more sinister but the graveyard was not even complete yet!

After spending 25000 DP just on the decorations, Five spent another 10000 DP to cover the ceiling with a dark starry sky. As soon as the ceiling became dark, Five felt like he was actually standing in front of a graveyard. The scene was really realistic and even sent chills down his spines. The dark sky blended perfectly with the rest of the cave, making it look just like a real sky.

On the side, Dreidus commented, "this looks good! This is a good environment for undead-type monsters. In fact, it looks very similar to the training grounds of Necro Valley!"

Five nodded, having received the acknowledgment of Dreidus, he felt relieved.

Five's floors had an extremely high cost; normally, the dungeon masters would not be able to afford this type of floor before their 15th floor. But thanks to Five's risky strategy, he was able to gather a lot of DP quickly. Furthermore, Five did not care about spending a lot because he was building for the long term.

This floor was meant for players ranging from level 15 to 20. It was quite a large target range and he was confident he would be able to obtain a lot of DP in the future.

Now, all that was missing were the monsters.

But as he was about to unlock the monsters, a thought crossed his mind and Five could not help but be stunned. He just realized that his dungeon was becoming more creepy and as the owner, he would be forced to live in this.

He was used to spending time in dark gloomy places like graveyards for his previous job but if he had the choice, he was naturally reluctant to live or even go to such a place. Especially since this place would soon be full of horrifying looking monsters; even as their master, he was still human and would prefer to be surrounded by living beings.

"Well... I already made this decision... I guess I will have to build a good throne room like the one Kroff had an maybe some nice looking living quarters that would look more normal. I can simply start building the secret passages too! This way, I won't necessarily have to walk through the graveyard every time!" thought Five.

As he was thinking about that, he realized again that his DP was not sufficient. Although he still had 150000 DP, all of these could be gone in a matter of seconds if he was not careful. The more DP he had, the more wants he had!

As if sensing his master's thought, Dreidus turned towards him, "I know that it is hard to get used to undead monsters but for the safety of the dungeon core, I am confident that it is the best decision."

Chapter end