"We, as humans, are not growing fast enough."
The dimly lit conference room was silent. A middle aged man wearing a tight turtleneck, lazy eyes, and short, messy brown hair spoke up.
"Exactly what do you mean to say?" His voice was gravelly, a bit on edge. He held the arms of his round rimmed glasses while leaning forward.
An older woman with wavy silver hair parted to one side, crossed her legs. Despite already being 70 years old, she still looked like she was in her 30s.
"President Han Gwang-ho means exactly what he said," she stated, narrowing her eyes. The two glared at each other, sparks flying.
"Come now you two, calm down. We're in the middle of a serious conference," a laid back voice interrupted.
They didn't like it, but the speaker was right. The President of the Player Association, Han Gwang-ho, spoke up again.
"It seems I wasn't being clear enough with you all. Like Guildmaster Min Yoo-bin has told you, I meant what I said. Every [Dungeon] that appears is stronger than the last. The longer this keeps up, the harder it will be for us to continue fighting." The old man interlocked his calloused hands, eyes sharp.
The tension in the room rose several fold with his gaze alone, keeping everyone quiet as he continued.
"The process is slow, but researchers in Incheon Dungeon Sciences have discovered that, over the course of the last four years, the dungeons are outpacing us."
The conference room was silent again, the atmosphere grim. "Is-isn't there something we can do?" A frail, timid looking woman asked.
"Unfortunately, there isn't a solution yet," the president replied morosely. The woman looked down, pursing her red tinted lips. The lazy eyed man raised his voice.
"How come we've been called here then? If there isn't a solution…-" "-I'm getting to that." He interrupted.
"I do admit that I got a bit side tracked, but informing any of you on such news is important…and, what I have told you also correlates to what I'll be discussing. Now then, onto the main point." He held up a remote, clicking a button as a photo of the entrance to Bukhansan mountain popped up on a screen behind him.
"This…" he circled it with a finger. "So far, there have been 2 different raids within the last month since the [Surge], yet both of them ended in failure. Why is that?" He asked the crowd.
At this point, everyone here knew about the human centipede [Dungeon]. Afterall, it even killed a level 5 player despite being classified as a level 3 threat; although, that wasn't public knowledge yet.
The prospect scared them all; the majority of the people here were between level 4-6 and the only known level 7 in Korea was nowhere to be found.
"I would like you all to take a look at this." He clicked a button when no one answered, it was rhetorical anyway.
A line graph showed up revealing sharp inclines in red.
"This is the [Dungeon] during the first [Surge]." His finger was at the start point that read >mana levels: 302 (level 3).
"Here it is now after only 26 days." He traced the graph which now read >mana levels: 487 (level 4).
"Impossible!" The timid woman stood up in shock. "I thought so at first…but it's true. This is the discovery of the very first [Evolving Dungeon]."
Everyone knew this was going to become a disaster.
"The reason I have called you all here is to request help."
He nodded to a shadowed corner of the room as a man walked out, wearing traditional Buddhist attire.
"We must destroy the [Dungeon] before it's too late.
…
A week. That's how long it took for him to level up the [Labyrinth Creation] skill. The reason? It was because there was a limit—1,500—to how much he could loan in one week to, in the system's terms, "Prevent the user from falling into too much debt".
That was..fine. He had somewhat of an advantage with the [Loan] function anyway, but it was annoying.
Besides, with the level up were several new functions and summons.
Not to mention, his fortress, shaman, and warrior units were now level 2 after spending 500 SC upgrading and 100 SC on more units.
Now he had 5 husk warriors and shamans. That meant he had 11 units in total. The next time he summons more of them, they will start at a higher level.
[Dungeon Master(Infancy)]
[Skill Inherited: Labyrinth Creation (Level 2—>3)]
[Grace Period: 20:07:28:51 Remaining]
[New function(s) unlocked!]
[Shop (Level 1)]
[Description: A shop containing materials. Either buy or sell in exchange for SC]
[Restructure (Level 1—>level 2)]
[You can now add a second terrain]
[Facilities (Level 1—>Level 2)]
[Option(s): Research center (level 1—>level 2), Farm (Level 1—>level 2), (NEW)Training grounds (level 1)]
[Skill: Labyrinth Creation (Level 3)]
[Shadow Fur Assassin unit (level 1)]
>Summon? (Y/N)
[Lurker Trapper unit (level 1)]
>Summon? (Y/N)
For the time being, he decided to summon the new units. One was a bipedal, panther-like creature with gleaming purple eyes wearing what he could only think of as traditional Korean style clothing.
The other was a giant, human sized spider that had already quietly started weaving a near invisible web on the inside of the expanded fortress.
[Shadow Fur Assassin unit (level 1)]
[Description: A master of stealth. Unlike the scout units, they have high attack power and speed, but they can be taken out if hit by a strong blow]
[Skills: Single Slash, Minor Dagger Arts, Panther Footwork, Backstab, Stealth, Dash]
[Gender: Male]
[Status: Steady, lazy(I wanna go sleep in the shade..)
[Currently no Evolutionary paths]
[Lurker Trapper unit (level 1)]
[Description: A giant trap spider. Its webs are near invisible, making them the perfect ambush predator. Be careful though, they are easily angered, especially the females]
[Skills: Venom, Weave, Patience, Camouflage, Vibration Sense]
[Gender: Female]
[Status: Uncaring, patient(Time to make a nest)
[Currently no Evolutionary paths]
Now if he could just get his skill to level 4 before the end of the 20 days, that would be ideal. He hoped it would be in time for the raid or before it happened. He hadn't gotten much news about it on scouting missions, but if this one failed, he would have a harder time taking over the centipede [Dungeon].
To be continued…
Additional Information:
>[Dungeon Masters] can attack other [Evolving Dungeons] or [Dungeons] themselves, but it is not a traditional way to conquer. If they find one with a master, they can impose a duel (in a battle of wits) while in normal [Dungeons], they need to find the dungeon core.