~ Chapter 11: The “easy” way to build a gazebo ~
Nanya’s words kept me up for a while, but eventually, I came to the conclusion that she was simply joking around. Unless Tuberculus was the ugliest old hag in the existence of all known Universes and Nanya was a trap, then there was no way for something like that to be possible.
The following day, I was woken up with a gentle knocking on my crystal body by Shanteya.
“Yawn! What’s up?” I asked with a half-asleep voice.
“Pardon my rudeness, Master, but one of the first-year students destroyed Zertan’s alchemy lab. He filed a request to be fixed before the beginning of next class.” she explained politely.
“Who?” I asked again and focused on the honorifics.
“Zertan-sensei. He teaches Alchemy and Potion brewing.” explained my lovely el’doraw.
“Ah! Old guy? Big glasses? Glares at everyone and keeps a dryad hidden in his room?” I asked with a yawn.
“Yes, but I do no believe he holds a dryad… why would one agree to such a thing?” she asked a bit confused.
Was it a secret? I wondered.
“Let’s just say it’s not for decoration.” I explained.
“Oh my! That’s revolting!” commented Shanteya as she covered her mouth with the tip of her fingers just like a beautiful and graceful lady would do.
“Huh? What’s revolting about playing chess and trying to find a cure for her condition?” I asked confused.
“Ara? I thought… that he and her… Eh…” she looked at me confused.
“You thought what?” I asked, although I could guess already in which gutter her mind sank into.
“Never mind! Never mind! The good teacher is waiting for you!” she said and looked away from my crystal body.
Her cheeks were flushed. She looked adorable like that. Who knew Shanteya had a bit of a pervert side to her as well?
Since there was no point in doing any morning exercises or brushing my nonexistent teeth, I flew out of my body and accompanied Shanteya to the old man’s class. The el’doraw wasn’t kidding. The place was a mess, and more than half of the vials were broken or spilled all over the place. A few of his alchemy tables looked half melted by something corrosive, and another was blown to bits. Zertan wasn’t looking too happy either. I had a feeling someone was going to fail his class.
“Well?” he asked when he saw Shanteya.
“Master is here. Please be patient.” she replied in a cold manner.
I found her tone a bit odd, but I didn’t let it bother me for now.
Let’s see… Skills… Construction… Ah! There it is! I thought.
[Create Alchemy Table with: [Basic tools] <Magic Energy cost: 100 Points. Voice Command: Korel Nara Kor>
Looking at the cost, I could probably replace all of the tables around here. Just how many exactly are there? 1…2… 4… 6… 8… 10… 12. Hm, manageable. If there were 30 or 40, I might have had a problem, but this is a cinch! But Nanya did tell me to keep my Godlikelyness a secret for the time being, so maybe just 6 max? Yeah, 6 is good. 600 Magic Energy is manageable for a presumed level 250 Heroic dungeon! Right? while I debated with myself about the right amount of Magic Energy I should spend in front of Zertan, Shanteya was standing at the entrance, waiting patiently like the cute maid she was.
“Zertan, I can make a basic alchemy table, but it’s costly, so please tell me how many exactly you need for your class tomorrow.” I asked politely while lying through my teeth about what I could do.
“All of them!” he shouted lifting his hands up in the air, and at the same time earning Shanteya’s glare.
“Zertan-sama, don’t be unreasonable, please. I have to fix the bathrooms too, this much is a little bit…” I told him, hoping the honorific would help in my negotiations.
He grumbled something under the breath and then crossed his hands at his chest.
“Can you replace four tables?” he asked.
“I’ll try.” I said and then approached the first one.
If this was Nanya’s class, I doubt I could have escaped without repairing absolutely everything and even dusting off the place. I’ll just fix these tables for now and then return later to finish the rest. Hm, or maybe tomorrow? Speaking of which, why is he here when it’s a free day for the students? It’s Sunday! I thought as I began to work.
By absorbing the damaged goods and then replacing them with the ones created by my magic, I was able to complete this job rather quickly. The grumpy Zertan reluctantly thanked me and then I followed Shanteya out of there.
We went to the clogged bathroom on the ground floor and began where we left off yesterday. Merion remains weren’t just going to clean themselves up, after all. My trusty plunger and metal brush worked hard and did a wonderful job. Luckily for us, these last two bathrooms weren’t as messy as the others, so when it was an hour or so past noon, we were done with the last one. All that was left to do was fix some of the pipes in the sewers, but the toilets were functional, so I decided to do that another day.
“I’m going to go now and build the thingy Nanya asked me to.” I told Shanteya.
“Very well, Master. If you need me, I’ll be in your room cleaning it.” she said and bowed respectfully.
I flew away, but before I got started with that thing, I decided to do quick a perimeter check, just in case I wasted too much Magic Energy and then needed to fight someone or something.
Thinking about it, these skills of mine are starting to be a bit inconvenient, though. Magic Energy wise I’m handling it for now, but I only have costly elementary and beginner skills. So far, I didn’t used too many skill points, but I feel like I will get overwhelmed one of these days by the sheer amount of work I’ll need to do and the lack of quality I’ll be able to offer in return. I have a feeling other Dungeon Lords don’t work hard on scrubbing Merion guts out of toilets for two days… I pondered while flying around the academy.
Speaking of skill points, so far, my status looked something like this:
[Name]: Illsyore (Nickname: Illsy)
[Species]: Dungeon Lord
[Race]: Godlike
[Level]: 23
[Strength]: 0+1000
[Agility]: 0+1000
[Intelligence]: 135+1000
[Magic Energy]: 7670
[Magic Energy Regeneration]: 25 Magic Energy Points per Second
[Divine Protection] <As a Godlike entity, you are protected by most magical and physical attacks. Elementary Attacks deal 95% less damage. Intermediary Attacks deal 90% less damage. Advanced Attacks deal 80% less damage. Master Attacks deal 70% less damage. Heroic Attacks deal 60% less damage. Godly attacks and weapons deal 50% less damage>
[Divine Aura] <You are shrouded in a Divine Healing Aura with a 10 meter radius around your body for everyone you perceive as an Ally or Neutral. You are shrouded in a Divine Damage Aura with a 5 meter radius around your body for anyone you perceive as an Enemy. Induced Damage is determined by the amount of Magic Energy poured into the aura and the desire of the Godlike or God entity.>
[Divine Perception] <You can now see and communicate with other Gods or Godlike entities unseen by normal mortals or immortals. The ability of the Supernatural Perception is tripled. You can now interact with Spiritual or Energy based entities.>
[Available points]: 230
[Alternate bodies]: 0 Max 1
[Skills] > List all skills? Y/N
[Available skill points]: 185
[Allegiance]: Holy God of Big Boobs!
[Spouses]: None
[Slaves]: Shanteya Dowesyl
[Pets]: None
[Minions]: None
I didn’t use any of my attribute points because I had no idea what sort of path I wished to take. Besides, it appeared as though I had strength and agility, but the fact that I didn’t have a physical body meant that putting points into those was useless, however, what if in the future I gained one and had no points to add there? Gaining levels wasn’t as easy as it was in an RPG. As far as I knew, I needed to either kill something, have one of my allies kill something, or build/repair lots of stuff.
From level 1 to 18, I leveled up by killing the assassins. From 18 to 23, I got there in the past two weeks by working myself to the bone, however, I had the feeling that regular monster attacks and a bandit getting himself beaten up by one of the teachers allowed me to gain XP to level up as well. The strange thing about my leveling system was that no matter where I looked, there was no XP bar. I literally had no idea how far or close I was from my next level.
As for how many points I gained, in general it was 10 of attribute points and 10 for skill points. Initially, I had 240, but I spent a lot on useless construction skills needed to repair and maintain the school. Luckily, they didn’t require an exaggerated amount of points. I was a bit greedy with using these points because I didn’t know what was going to be more useful for me on the long run. I wanted to avoid as much as possible ending up as a character with 1 good skill and the rest junk. However, I was starting to feel like I needed to do something about my construction skills. They required insane amount of magic energy. Although I had a bunch to spare, I couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t normal.
Well, I can always just spend until I’m left with 100 skill points, then it will be easy when I need to used them for useful skills if I find any. I thought while scanning the edge of my territory for enemies.
Shanteya already arrived in my room and began her cleaning duty like a proper maid.
After I was done with that, I began to search for a good place to build something for Nanya’s party.
I believe I shouldn’t make it too far from the academy’s main building and if possible for student use as well. I thought.
Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a mountain. I had the following options: grass, dirt, rock, tree, and did I forget to mention grass?
In the end, I gave up and decided to start from scratch. First of all, I built a small pond about 200 m or so from the building and right next to the forest. I used the [Create a Moat] skill and expanded it for a bit. Surprisingly, this wasn’t in the Trap category of my skills. Using weak fireballs and by absorbing the ground, I was able to give a more natural feel to it.
Oh, the part about the absorb ground thing, I found that out by accident. Frustrated with the square appearance, I wondered if I couldn’t just dig it the old fashioned way. The moment I thought about absorbing a square with a 10 cm height and used my ability, it happened, the dirt vanished. However, it didn’t work on living things or constructions. When I tried to take a bite out of a rock, I grabbed the whole rock instead, but water worked just fine.
I filled the freshly made pond with water I gathered from a nearby river I found right at the north edge of my territory. It was the same one that passed near Therion City. Once that was done, I began to build a big, spacious gazebo as I once saw at many hotels back on Earth, on the Interet. Of course, I couldn’t achieve the same level of architecture, but it was worth trying.
When I took a look at my skills, I noticed that none of them allowed me to make it as I pleased.
[Construction Skills]
Elementary:
[Create a Room with <X> walls] <Every 1 m3 of created Area will consume 10 Magic Energy Points. Voice Command: Clisk Ohs>
[Create a Ceiling] <Every 1 m2 of created Area will consume 5 Magic Energy Points. Voice Command: Clisk Er>
[Create a Moat] <Every 1 m3 of created moat cost 15 Magic Energy Points. Voice Command: Keyon Ohs>
[Create a Hole] <Magic Energy cost depends on diameter and height. Voice Command: Elis Ohs]
[Destroy created Areas] <Every 1 m3 of destroyed Area with this skill will consume 20 Magic Energy Points. Voice Command: Pushar Tis>
Intermediate:
[Create Furniture: <Select Type>] <Magic Energy consumption depends strictly on the type of furniture created. Voice Command: Sunzin Ein>
[Create a Door: <Select Type>] <Magic Energy cost depends on selected type. Voice Command: Merun Or]
[Create Stairs] <Magic Energy cost depends on height and angle. Voice Command: Zeven Or]
[Create a Window: <Select Type>] <Magic Energy cost depends on selected type. Voice Command: Merun Nes]
[Create Workshop with: [Basic tools] <Magic Energy cost: 100 Points. Voice Command: Korel Kor Kor>
[Create Alchemy Table with: [Basic tools] <Magic Energy cost: 100 Points. Voice Command: Korel Nara Kor>
[Repair Furniture: One Item] <Completely repairs a destroyed piece of furniture. Magic Energy cost: 50 Points. Voice Command: Narun Asa>
[Repair Room: Walls Only] <Restores a damaged room to its initial status: Magic Energy cost: 50 Points. Voice Command: Nitta No Atk>
Advanced:
[Sculpt] <Magic Energy consumption depends on the complexity, dimensions, and time spent with this spell active. Voice Command: Neher Zar>
And those were basically the most important ones, the rest were junk. As for what I saw as junk: [Create a Dog House]; [Create a Broken Building Sustaining Pole]; [Create a Sphere]; [Create a Broken Wall]; [Create a Damaged Room]; [Create Half a Door]. Yes, the last one allowed me to create only Half of a door at the cost of 50 Magic Energy Points and 15 skill points. The cost was so huge it made me wonder if it wasn’t made like that just to keep me from learning it. However, I could think of a few situations in which to use them, including the Damaged Room and Broken Wall one, meaning in traps or lures for curious adventurers in a dungeon. Put something shiny behind a broken wall and fill that room with traps. It was a simple plan.
One thing I noticed was that Voice Commands were mostly random words which I would certainly not use in an everyday conversation. Maybe at one point in time, they were common words, but as the language evolved and the danger of accidentally casting magic increased, they changed and abandoned them just to be safe.
To be noted that voice commands for certain Dungeon-specific skills were recognized by Nanya, Shanteya and others who encountered a Dungeon using them, but when it came to skills like [Fireball] and [Ice Spear] even they thought I was speaking gibberish. They were still a bit of a mystery to me, among many other things.
Also, about the Sculpt skill… I tried to use it to make some fancy art in my underground labyrinth. The conclusion was that I needed a lot more practice, and the consumption rate was insane. I lost nearly 1000 magic points for just 15 minutes of use. The end result was a strange-looking half rabbit sheep-dog thing.
What I needed was something that would allow me to build something as I imagined it, or at least allow me to shape it in various ways. Even having the option to choose the materials was a good thing.
Looking at these pathetic skills, I’m starting to wonder how other dungeons are faring. How do they learn to build new rooms and stuff? I asked myself.
I took another look over the skills I had yet to add any skill points in, but none of them even came close to what I had in mind. There was one that was called [Create a Boar Fight Pit]. I had no idea why that was there. Then again, if I added some water, I could turn it into a mud pit and then ask Nanya and Shanteya to do some wrestling… Yeah, I’d get punched before I managed to explain my idea.
Groaning, I decided to do this the old fashioned way. I summoned a workshop with carving tools and then took another look at my spells, but this time, at my Attack spells. I selected [Wind Blow].
[Wind Blow] <Create a breeze of air in the desired direct. Magic Consumption dependent on the strength and speed of the wind. Minimum required: 5 Magic Energy Points. Voice Command: Eshun Zer>
“Hm… Upgrades?” I asked a bit hesitantly.
<[Wind Blow] can be upgraded to [Wind Scythe] for 10 Skill Points.>
I blinked surprised.
“IT WORKS!” I shouted.
Two students got scared and ran out of a nearby bush. Judging by their disheveled clothes and flustered expressions on their faces, I could only believe that I disturbed them from doing their erm… 'Math homework'.
I didn’t pay the two any attention and looked over my other skills:
[Fireball] <Cast a ball made completely out of Magic Energy fueled fire. The more Magic Energy one puts into this spell, the more powerful it becomes. Voice Command: Ashur Nav Es>
When I asked for upgrades, this popped up:
<[Fireball] can be upgraded to [Seeker Fireball] for 10 Skill Points.>
With a big grin, I chose both upgrades, and now I only had 165 points left, but they were worth it:
[Seeker Fireball] <Cast a ball made completely out of Magic Energy fueled fire. The ball will seek out one selected target. The more Magic Energy one puts into this spell, the more powerful it becomes. Voice Command: Ashur Naer Es>
[Wind Scythe] <Create a powerful gust of wind with infused Magic Energy capable of damaging a target. The more Magic Energy one puts into this spell, the more powerful it becomes. Voice Command: Eshun Naer Zer>
“Great!” I said excited. “Hm… it feels like I forgot something…” I then looked around and realized that I wasted quite a bit of time and didn’t really make much of a progress regarding the gazebo.
With a long sigh, I started construction once more, but this time, I planned to use [Wind Scythe] to cut down trees and the tools to shape them into something nice. This way, I could build a small platform and then create a gazebo, an open-air lounge, or terrace of some sort.
By the time I was done, the sun was about to set. It looked quite shabby and clear signs of an amateur work, but it was better than nothing. Last thing I did was to spawn some simple tables and chairs. Those were easier to do. As long as I saw them at least once, then it was easy, however, the cost of Magic Energy increased with their complexity, and summoning something like an alloy chair was out of the question. Simple wood chairs and tables were the best I could do.
“It has been completed! MUHAHAHA!” I said with a typical cartoon villain’s laugh.
“Are you alright, Illsy?” asked Nanya raising an eyebrow.
“Huh?” I stopped and looked back.
Shanteya was accompanying Nanya, carrying what looked like a big basket filled with a few bottles and some sandwiches. They were the first to arrive.
“How did you know I was done now?” I asked.
“I’m not blind, I realized it the moment you started summoning the furniture.” Nanya explained as she approached my creation. “This is weird, why didn’t you just spawn the whole thing? I remember being told that a Demigod Dungeon can create any room as it wishes.” she asked curiously.
“Seriously? But I don’t have that skill…” I said and felt like I was about to cry.
I put so many hours of hard work into that gazebo. To think that another Dungeon Core or Lord could just snap his fingers and that was it made me a bit mad. Still, why didn’t I see the skill in my skill list?
“That’s odd… Even a Normal Dungeon can do something like that, not as detailed, but still…” said Nanya as she looked a bit perplexed.
That hurt, that really really hurt.
“Indeed, I also find it strange why Master would choose to build it like this.” said Shanteya.
Not you too… I thought.
“Alright! I get it! I’m a lousy Dungeon… and crappy builder.” I grumbled.
“That’s not true, Master!” Shanteya said quickly, but the damage had already been done.
“I didn’t say that either… Hm, can you use Advanced Rank version of [Create a Room] skill?” Nanya asked.
“No, that’s only an elementary level, right?” I asked.
“Erm… no.” she replied. “If you can’t use, I’ll look for a book to teach you.” she told me.
I blinked surprised and then opened my status screen. From there, I went to Skills> Construction> [Create a Room] skill.
“Upgrade.” I said.
<[Create a Room with <X> walls] can be upgraded to [Create a Room with <X> walls and <Select theme>] for 10 skill points.>
I accepted and got the Intermediate version of it.
<[Create a Room with <X> walls and <Select theme>] can be upgraded to [Create an Imagined Room with <Select theme>] for 20 skill points.>
I accepted and then went to details.
[Create an Imagined Room with <Select theme>] <Creates a Room with X walls imagined by the caster. Materials of the walls, floor, ceiling as well as how it looks in general can be selected as options and of the form the caster imagined them. Consumption of Magic Energy is based on the details of the room and the time spent while actively imagining it. Starting Magic Energy Cost: 200 Points]
I flipped the table…