venture radiation

The Assessor ran up the stairs as fast as anyone I had seen. I was surprised he could keep up the pace. I suspected that fear was a great motivator in this regard.

The adventurers who came down with him were a new group I had not seen before. They were well equipped and moved professionally. They went on to the floor, ready for trouble. From what little I saw before, they were promptly annihilated. They were most likely a gold-tier group.

I had made alterations to the floor, including adding a stone bridge to allow the crossing of the lava river flowing through it. Without it, I doubted most could cross it without aid. I had rearranged the resources on the floor and made some environmental changes.

I had increased the amount of stone outcrops and boulders. I created a path through the floor with a bend in it, blocking the view of the end of the floor. I had made a new stairwell room here, making it my core room. I had shifted my Core to this location with Larry carrying me.

Puck and he had looked around the new floor, but neither was eager to stay there. The air was heavy and hot, and they did not appreciate that. I cannot blame them for it.

Once the changes were done, I looked at the floor Guardian.

His creation was complex, but it was worth it.

Speaking of…

"Well, that was faster than expected."

The Guardian stretched like a cat. Its backside was in the air, and its front legs were pushed out. He purred in satisfaction. His wounds were healing as I looked on. I started to deal with the bodies.

"I need you to move aside, Maximus."

The Guardian looked up.

He spoke like a human, but his voice had a strange resonance. It was not a growl or echo… no, it was something different. I could not identify it.

"I need to remove the bodies, and you're standing on one."

The Guardian looked down and noticed he was standing on a ruined body.

He was founded on a feline, and they were naturally, as a species, sadistic predators. I watched as he moved off the body with graceful strides. I looked over again, marvelling at my workmanship.

He stood at the height of a horse. Coal black with a blood red main, the same colour running down his back. His two bat wings were just as dark, but I could make out veins running through the membranes between the bones, which formed the wings. Where skill should be, there was a scorpion with a stinger the same colour as the body. I could see the muscle rippling beneath its skin as it moved. His face was the hardest to make, as it still retained feline features, but it was now distinctly human in appearance.

I quickly absorbed what was left of the bodies. Some still had much of their gear intact, and I could reuse it. The short man who had fallen into the molten lava was incinerated, and I could gain nothing from him.

When I created Maximus, I discovered he was highly intelligent based on his stats and the fact that he started speaking to me the moment he was created. He spent a few hours wandering his new domain, inspecting everything, and requested changes. I listened to them and implemented their suggestions, which were quite effective.

I had carved out several small caves and platforms high up above the floor. They were designed so that they could not easily be seen from the stairs marking the entrance. This allowed him to ambush his opponents from above without them knowing his location. The light from the lava did not go that high, and most of the cavern's ceiling was shrouded in darkness.

I watched as he took to the skies with mighty flaps of his wings and returned to the point from which he had ambushed them. He walked onto the hidden platform, turned around, and lay down, yawning. Within a few moments, he was back asleep.

I opened his status sheet.

Name

Maximus

Level/Class

Floor 10 Boss

Race

Manticore

Essence

6%

Health

450/450

Mana

150/150

Stamina

450/450

Corruption

0%

STR

30

30 Damage Base

DEX

24

+10% to the chance of Critical Strikes

AGL

20

+20% Dodge

END

45

-5 Damage

VIT

45

+15% Poison Resistance

PER

17

INT

15

WIL

15

LUCK

10

Skills:

Leap: 2 – 0% (10 meters. END + 3 impact damage. Chance of KNOCKDOWN) Cost: 10 Samina

Dodge: 2 - 0% Cost: 10 Stamina

Charge: 2 – 0% (12 meters. END + 8 impact damage) Cost: 10 Samina.

Danger Awareness: 1 – 0% (+ 8% Success chance) Cost: 2 Stamina

Claw Strike: 2 – 0% (+6 Dam) Cost: 10 Stamina

Spells:

Infernal Fire Breath: Cost: 10 Mana (Duration: 10 seconds, 20 DAM(Infernal/Fire))

Shadow Arms – Cost: 10 Mana (Duration: 45 seconds)

Equipment:

Infernal Claws: Dam 8 + STR, 20% chance of Piercing Dam. 15% chance of Rending wound.

Scorpion Stinger: Dam 6 + 50% of STR, Piercing. Poison attack.

Perks/Restrictions:

Shadow Touched: +20% to hiding in shadow.

Unnatural Aura (10% chance of causing Fear.)

Tough Hide: - 10 Dam from attacks.

Infernal Touched Creature – (-5 Dam physical weapons. +10 Dam Holy weapons/magic)

Flight.

Resistant to Fire attacks.

That is what I got for using 100 Cp 20 Air, 10 Shadow, 5 Fire and 5 Infernal Mana.

Adding the months of experimentation, Maximus was my most powerful minion overall. Krag was tougher, but Maximus would beat him in a fight. I had gone through all of my minions, adding different abilities from them to create the tenth-floor Guardian.

His foundation was a fire lion. From there, I added the wings. It took six months to figure out how to use Air Mana to allow it to fly. The experimentation with the bats provided me with the knowledge I needed. Then came the scorpion's tail and stinger. Finally, the Lesser Fearfiend design supplied the last few things I needed. I had also wanted to add a poisonous bite, but holding the design in my mind was causing my Core to vibrate concerningly.

His creation almost collapsed several times, but I held firm and pushed it through.

The alert messages that followed were like an avalanche.

As he was the first of his kind, I named his race Manticore. I used the legends I knew and added a few flourishes. Due to his intelligence, he was to be granted a name, and I chose Maximus.

Then I examined his loot table and made adjustments as I thought it was a bit lacking.

Loot Assignment.

The following rewards will be generated randomly after killing the 10th Floor Guardian.

Cythian Gold coins x20 (Chance – 40%)

Cythian Gold coins x30 and 1 Ruby (Chance – 40%)

Cythian Gold coins x40 and 2 Rubies (Chance – 15%)

Cythian Platinum coins x1 (Chance – 5%)

The odds and types of rewards have been set manually, but this will add 5 CP to the overall support cost of the room respawn.

Do you wish to accept the rewards? (Yes or No)

I had absorbed the rubies and chosen not to recreate them as a resource node.

I shifted the iron vein further into the cavern, closer to the new stairwell room. It was large and of good quality, making it a resource node that cost 25 CP. They regenerated every 48 hours and produced 150 pounds of iron if fully mined out.

What to do with the Fire Crystal Mushrooms?

I wanted to add them to the floor after absorbing them. Ultimately, I said no because the cost was too high at the time, and I wanted to create a defender for the Core Room.

I had not created one through neglect and a lack of resources. I would address that now. I had both in abundance, and I wouldn't waste this opportunity.

I created a hidden alcove and placed a Lesser Fearfiend into it. This minion was in statis and would only activate when needed. I knew using the Infernal Mana was dangerous and could bring down censure on me, but it fitted the vibe of the floor too well.

Maximus was sleeping on the hidden platform. When there were no adventurers around, he seemed to be very lazy. I looked longer through what little I had gained from the first adventurers on the floor. There was nothing I could use as Maximus had savaged the bodies.

There was one issue that still plagues me about this new floor.

I needed a hook for the floor.

The iron was good, but the silver above was better.

Should I switch?

I had done it before, and I could easily do it again. However, I felt that it might be too much. I had access to a significant portion of the sixth floor, which attracted a steady flow of miners every few days to mine out the silver vein. I also knew it was key to the city's economy; above that, it remained active.

So, what can I use as a hook down here?

I now had access to many precious metals and several gems. I could add another resource node to the floor, replacing the iron completely. I re-examined the iron and found it to be of excellent purity. The system would recognise anything made from this iron as of uncommon quality.

Was that enough?

I could add a second vein somewhere on the floor of another material. But then again, who would come down and mine it? Maximus will not be easy to defeat.

After a long period of thought, I decided on what hook to use.

Close to the Core Room, I created a unique resource node for eight CP. It was a chest that could only be opened when Maximus was killed. I attached a random loot table to the chest. I thought about the contents and what to offer as a reward, even thinking about being nasty and adding a bogus price. Ultimately, I chose to be kind.

Loot Assignment.

The following rewards will be generated randomly after killing the 10th Floor Guardian and opening the chest.

Cythian Silver coins x1000 (Chance – 40%)

Cythian Gold coins x30 and 5 Ruby (Chance – 40%)

Cythian Gold coins x50 and 10 Rubies (Chance – 15%)

Cythian Platinum coins x3 (Chance – 5%)

The odds and types of rewards have been set manually, but this will add 8 CP to the overall support cost of the room respawn.

Do you wish to accept the rewards? (Yes or No)

Should I trap the chest?

I had thought about that for quite some time. The chest was well-made and could be easily spotted from the path when you turn the bend. I chose good-quality wood and brass inlays and fixtures, giving it a flourishing design. The first adventurers had not seen it as they had not made it past that bend, as Maximus had dropped on them from above.

Ultimately, I decided not to, as Maximus himself was enough of a challenge on the floor. In the future, that might be different.

Well, that was the floor's layout. The problem was that the Assessor couldn't see any of this. The team he sent ahead of him was promptly wiped out.

I may have made Maximus a bit too powerful.

There was a loud snort from the sleeping Manticore. I gave him the Dungeon Core version of a side eye.

I wondered what would happen next.

## ## ## ## ##

The Adventurer's Guild was in uproar.

Assessor Searider had run from the Dungeon and had not stopped until he reached the Guild. He fled into his office, slamming the door shut, locking it, and barricading it.

Elian and Albrot spent the next half hour gaining access to him and the room, then another half hour calming him down to find out what had happened.

Already sure that a gold-ranked team had just been wiped out. That is because the initial uproar within the Guild was that the adventurers had been able to put it all together very quickly. The destruction of a gold rank team sent shockwaves through the whole Guild, and as such, a group was meant to be able to handle this Dungeon.

This asked the question, what was the grading of the new floor?

Elian and Albrot had gotten most of what happened from the distraught Assessor. Hella and her team had gone straight down to the new floor. The new environment was a surprise as he explained the underground lava river they had discovered in a cavern.

The team had gone onto the floor as he began to take notes and map out the space. He'd remained at the stairwell, not leaving it and recording everything he could see. He would wait until they sent word that it was safe for him to enter the floor.

They had discovered a stone bridge across the river of lava. They checked the traps and found none, so they crossed them. It was then that they were ambushed on the other side.

Something that he could barely describe had fallen from the ceiling and had rendered the team with brutal efficiency and speed. He went on to explain what he could see of the deaths of each team member, and the two guild leaders paled listening to his description of the monster.

Neither had ever heard of such a thing before.

They had left him there and sent for some healers. When the two returned to Elian's office, they discovered Averance was waiting for them.

Albrot explained what they had learned from the Assessor, and now they were sitting quietly in contemplation of this new floor and the monster that stalked it.

"I never heard of such a thing," Elian said, which had the others look at her. Silence returned.

"Something new." Averance then spoke. "Elian, you will go to assess the new floor. Doltum will go with you."

"Should you go?" Albrot asked. It was a fair question, as something new was dangerous.

"No. My ability to access Dungeons is limited. The other Guilds will be asking questions soon. We will need answers." She stood up suddenly. "He is in the city. I will go and get him. You get ready."

Elian nodded in understanding as Averance walked out of the room.

"Be careful, Elian. This Dungeon had increased its lethality on this new floor." Albrot's concern was evident.

"I know. We need to know." Elian said as she stood and walked over to the cabinet, where she was storing her gear. "Doltum will be able to handle any danger."

"If he cannot, run."

Advertisement