I looked at the literal hole in the ground that was half hidden by a fallen tree trunk and some shrubbery growing over it.
As Katsuki had said, it was located a distance away from the capital in the middle of the forest that wasn’t close to any of the major roads. Thus the likelihood of someone even walking around this area was very low.
“This is the entrance to the Dungeon?” I asked.
“That is correct, Mistress,” Katsuki confirmed.
I then took a look around the area to look at the thirty or so other maids and butlers who were dressed in their usual servant attire surrounding the area around me. These people must be the team assembled to deal with that lich.
A few of them I recognised from seeing them at the main mansion working as normal servants. The fact that they were chosen to participate in this raid meant that each of them should be able to take on a Reanimated Skeleton Knight by themselves.
And to think they were doing simple chores back when I saw them at home, they even greeted me with a smile whenever they saw me.
Yet right now, they were all showing cold and serious faces of people who were prepared for combat.
“Umm… Alright, shall we head in then?” I asked.
Katsuki bowed her head, “We will follow your lead, Mistress.”
Ok… That doesn’t put pressure on me at all…
I turned to look at the other group following me to see Odeta giving me a thumbs up, Delmare writing ‘You can do it!’ on her sketchbook and Lisa looking away after I caught her looking at my ass.
Not sure why she needs to hide that since I openly stare at her sometimes.
Welp, guess it’s time to head down there!
Thus, I went ahead to jump into the hole, fully prepared to flare my wings to slow my descent if need be.
That turned out to be unnecessary as it was just a short drop before I touched the ground.
Right as I was straightening myself, all the maids and butlers had appeared all around me to form a defensive perimeter instantly.
Odeta, Lisa and Delmare peeked into the hole after me.
“Wow… They moved really fast, sister Aster! Do you think I can spar with some of them later?” Odeta asked, clearly excited.
“Umm… Only if they agree to it…”
“Yesss! Sister Aster is the best!!” She cheered before jumping in.
Delmare and Lisa soon followed after her, joining Katsuki who was already by my side without me realising it.
Lisa looked up at the hole that was at least a good ten feet or three metres above us, “Hmm… I see now. If you were alone, a normal passer-by or just someone who was not prepared… You’ll fall into this hole and not be able to get back up.”
Katsuki nodded, “The tree and the shrubbery are also most likely placed by the lich himself to hide it just to get more people to fall into it.”
I’m guessing that’s so that he could get more victims for him to perform necromancy on and bolster his numbers.
There was also only one way forward in this corridor so there’s only one direction we could move in.
All the servants immediately organised themselves into some sort of formation where a handful were located at the front with another line of them right behind. Then it was a large group of them arranged in a box formation surrounding me followed by another line of them at the very back.
𝗈𝒱𝑙xt.𝐜𝒪𝓶
“Umm… This seems a little too conspicuous, don’t you think?” I pointed out.
Katsuki bowed her head slightly, “We suspect that he is already aware of our presence, Mistress. We should proceed while expecting as such.”
Mnn… I suppose that makes sense. I was treating this like a normal Dungeon run…
Our group then started advancing forward slowly and I quickly realised that the ones at the front were working as a sort of scout where they were checking for traps and monsters.
They were even carefully inspecting the walls and floors with a stick before moving forward.
Is this what a professional Dungeon clearing looks like? Our progress was slow but it was definitely really steady at least.
I decided to pass the time by asking Katsuki about the Dungeon, “You said something about the lich taking over the Dungeon? I thought they were made by the gods, is such a thing even possible?”
Katsuki nodded, “Such a thing is not unheard of, Mistress, especially for low ranked Dungeons like these. Dungeons are mostly created using mana, which makes them susceptible to be influenced by mana as well. If one clears a Dungeon and has more mana than what was used to create the Dungeon, they would be able to imbue their own mana into the Dungeon and take over it as the new Dungeon Master.”
Woah… So that means there may be people out there controlling Dungeons? That’s pretty cool.
“But what can you do when you take over a Dungeon? And what’s the benefit of becoming a Dungeon Master?” I asked.
“When you are a Dungeon Master, all aspects of the Dungeon would be under your control including what kind of monsters would appear inside the Dungeon and the number of floors a Dungeon might possess. As for the benefits, anything that a Dungeoneer might drop after getting killed in the Dungeon would belong to the Dungeon Master. They are also able to make use of the Dungeon’s connection with the Gods to create things for themselves with mana, which means they could, in theory, create priceless artefacts if they were to gather enough mana.”
pαndα—noνɐ1,сoМ “Eh? So someone could use a Dungeon to create gold or something?”
“In theory, yes. But the mana required to create something out of nothing is immense that most Dungeon Masters are only able to create simple things. The most I’ve heard is someone being able to create potions.”
I tilted my head, “Does that mean that if someone were to take over an F rank Dungeon, they could just enhance it all the way to a high rank Dungeon before they start collecting mana?”
Katsuki shook her head, “The rank of the Dungeon is limited to the mana that the Dungeon Master has on hand. If they only have enough mana to take over an F rank Dungeon, they will be unable to raise it to E rank unless they gather enough mana.”
“So does that mean that the only way to improve the Dungeon is to just train harder?”
“That is one way to see it, Mistress. But they are also able to supplement the deficiency in the needed mana by using things like Mana Crystals to store more mana in order to enhance it, although for the initial conquering of the Dungeon, they can only make use of their own mana or it would not work.”
Ah, so that’s why she said ‘gather’ mana.
So in order to claim a Dungeon for their own use, they would need to have a minimum amount of mana yourself before you can claim it.
“What if another person would like to become the Dungeon Master of a Dungeon that already has one?”
Katsuki faltered a little on that but one of the butlers behind me spoke up.
“Allow me to answer, Young Mistress. Should someone wish to take over a Dungeon already be owned by a Dungeon Master, the first thing they would need to do is to conquer the Dungeon themselves. Then they would need to use their own mana to overwrite the previous owner’s mana in order to claim it. If the previous owner had poured in more mana than needed, the invader would have to match the amount used as well.”
“Hmm… Does that mean you won’t get it if you were to kill the Dungeon Master?”
He nodded, “That is correct, Young Mistress. Even if one were to kill the Dungeon Master without taking over the Dungeon, the ownership of the Dungeon would simply be returned back to the Gods.”
I could see from the corner of my eye that Katsuki was a little upset, though I believe it was directed more at herself for not knowing this than the fact that the butler answered for her.
It’s ok, Katsuki! I’ll still give you lots of headpats! Don’t be sad! I’m always relying on you, you know?
But there’s also a few more things I want to know though…
“In that case… Why wouldn’t someone just go around claiming multiple dungeons at once?”
This time Katsuki spoke up, “Mistress, after claiming a Dungeon, the mana required to maintain it will come from the Dungeon Master themselves. That means their mana would be drained by the Dungeon constantly and to claim another one with the remaining mana would not be that feasible.”
Ah… I get it. So if a Dungeon requires a thousand mana points to claim and you only have a thousand mana points, you would be left with zero after claiming that Dungeon. So you would potentially need two thousand mana points to claim two Dungeons which I guess is quite impossible for a normal person to do.
“How would I know how much mana I need to take over a Dungeon?”
“It is said that you would know after trying to pour your mana into the Dungeon. You would get the feeling of whether you had enough mana or not. It is hard to have an accurate measurement especially when no two Dungeons are the same even amongst Dungeons with the same rank.”
Ah, I get it. Plus I don’t think there’s a scale to measure mana points here without using [Screened] is there? Or maybe there is but I just don’t know about it yet.
Maybe I’ll try it on one of the Dungeons next time! I don’t want to become a Dungeon Master, at least not now, but I do want to know if I have enough mana to claim a low rank one for now.
Perhaps I can try it on this Dungeon after we deal with the– Eh?
I was taking a step forward but instead of my foot stopping on the ground, it continued to fall until I realised I had stepped into a portal that had opened up in the ground.
“Mistress!!”
That was the last thing I heard before I fell into it.