Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Luna’s gracious efforts had slingshotted them to a full mana core, and though Logan considered briefly whether he should invest in further dungeon expansion, he decided he would take the blessing for what it was: a quick advancement to tier two.

[

Core of Eros
Mana: 50k/50k
Tier: 1
[ Evolve? ]

[

Like he had once before, he accepted the [Evolve] prompt.

The first time Logan had advanced tiers, the red banners swirling inside the core had grown to a ravenous pace—this time, the effect was twice as pronounced. It even manifested physically, a wind picking up in the central cavern and swirling pebbles around.

It settled shortly.

[

Core of Eros
Mana: 14/5M
Tier: 2
= Avatar Skills =
[Construct], [Ephemeral Form], [Bind], [Withdraw], [Consume], [Seek], [Harvest]

[

Logan’s eyebrows shot up. Five million is the new cap? The gaps between tiers were no joke. Even if Luna came back every day and performed just as well as she had, it would take one hundred repeats. Though … that’s actually not that bad, if I think about it. A thriving dungeon would definitely be working through more than a single adventurer a day—preferably several teams per day, or even hour. Sure, the next tier advancement wouldn’t be coming today or tomorrow, but with efficient use of his time and smart planning, it might not take that long at all. Two weeks? A month, at a rough guess, accounting for how Logan would want to expand his dungeon rather than rushing tier advancement.

The skills. Three new ones. He went through them in order.

[Consume]: Destroy captured soul to permanently increase dungeon’s passive mana generation by a moderate amount.

He grimaced. That won’t be seeing any use. Aseri had mentioned earlier how some dungeons chose to not barter back adventurer’s souls, and he might have found out why. But he saw no possible way he would use this. Even for someone he hated … destroying a soul had a rather horrible connotation. Even if it only meant true death—rather than a temporary one—and not an actual ‘destruction of soul’, it would take a lot for Logan to kill someone, permanently speaking.

Maybe not nothing. There were conceivable situations, of course. But it wouldn’t be an option he rushed to.

[Seek]: Identify nearest core within one tier differential. 

Ah. A few realizations struck through him, reading off the skill’s ability. Level three cores can come for us, now. Guided by a magical beacon. Perhaps there had been a reason to not rush to tier two, beyond what he’d initially appraised. Even a tier two would be difficult to fight, seeing how Logan was freshly minted, and likely underdeveloped for even a tier one.

Shit. I hope I didn’t make a huge mistake. It might’ve been smarter to better establish himself in tier one, first.

He’d have to pick up speed. Work faster, get things situated to the point he felt safe, and able to defend against an incursion, should one appear.

[Harvest]: Arousal of non-bound entities produces moderate passive mana generation.

Useful. Not ‘weak’, but ‘moderate’. Previously, only adventurer’s fighting, spell-casting, presence, and sexual acts had produced mana. Now, if Logan made sure they were aroused the whole way through the dungeon, it could mean a sizable increase in mana generation. 

And he needed all of that he could get. Unsurprisingly, mana was the permanent bottleneck for a dungeon’s expansion. There were some time limiters—excavation, to name one, and crafting times—but primarily, he always had more structures, materials, traps, and items to be unlocking through the research altar. Not to mention feeding mana to the crafting stations, forming materials, and using [Withdraw] to level up the various entities under his command.

His goblins were still running around with simple, unenchanted weapons, and plain, unenchanted leather armor. If they wanted any chance of posing a real threat, that needed to be upgraded. Even a level four adventurer—Luna—had made it all the way to the boss room by herself. And while Aseri might not be a pushover, she needed more levels and better equipment herself.

“Alright,” Aseri said. “You’ve had your brow furrowed long enough. Tell me what they are.”

Right. I almost forgot she was waiting. Aseri accompanied him for pretty much everything. It’s not like she has anything better to be doing. They were, as she had put it, in this together.

He explained his most recent Avatar skills. Notably, he mentioned his concerns about incursion.

“I had no clue it worked based on tier,” she said, frowning. “Shit. That’s unfortunate. If a tier three dungeon comes for us, we won’t stand a chance.”

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He grimaced.

“Then again,” she said. “That’s life. There’s always someone bigger, able to step on you. Survival comes down a bit to luck, no matter what you do.” She shrugged. “Either way, done’s done. No point in worrying over it. Keep our noses to the grindstone.”

He nodded in agreement. “[Harvest] seems our best shot of catching up.” It was obvious, by now—after Luna’s singular effort to provide over fifty thousand mana—that the lewd aspects to the core were, to borrow a gaming phrase, overpowered. They needed to lean into his specialty as deeply as possible. “Question is, how do we keep adventurers aroused the entire way through the dungeon?”

Aseri considered this. “Well. Let’s talk about it. We can’t avoid the fighting—and the gruesomeness of fights—so that’ll always be a bit of a turn-off.” She smirked. “To most people, at least.”

Burning flesh with a fireball of nova was the opposite of erotic, but fighting provided a meaningful amount of mana itself; they didn’t want to get rid of it entirely. Not to mention that adventurers were, ultimately, delving dungeons to gain experience, and that was done through fighting. The erotic events benefited the dungeon only, not the adventurers. 

Logistically speaking. Luna had showed it ‘benefited’ her plenty. People will still be people. Pleasure was worth pursuing in and of itself, no external motivation needed.

“More murals,” Logan said. “Artwork of all kind. Erotic statues, paintings, even—” he paused. 

“What?”

“Displays?” It sounded odd, and highly perverted, but that was what they were going for. “I don’t know. Goblins getting freaky behind glass panes? That’d make most people blush.”

Aseri laughed. “Gods, I can imagine it now.” She laughed again, louder. “This is such a weird dungeon.”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“Skimpier armor,” she said. “I’m not fucking any topsiders, but I don’t mind being eye candy.”

Of course. Bikini armor, for all grunts and Named alike. From what he understood, anyway, the enchantments on the armor—which he lacked, but for the sake of the argument—mattered much more than their mundane make-up. Even revealing armor could be as effective as head-to-toe sets of plate armor, in this world, assuming equivalent enchantments.

“Good idea. We’ll have to focus on leveling the crafters.” Though everything felt like it needed more mana siphoned into it.

“What else?”

They thought about it.

“We could … impose artificial rules?” Aseri asked.

Logan tilted his head.

“Like how you did with the mural,” she said. “Let adventurers know that if they come in naked, we’ll go easier on them. Or give them bonus loot? It might be hard to convey, but I’m sure we could.”

Logan laughed. “That’s genius.”

She grinned. “Well, when it comes to dungeon expansion, I’ll put the work in.”

A brief silence.

“And … speaking of dungeon expansion …” Aseri said. “Don’t you think tier-two deserves some celebration?”

Though he hadn’t known Aseri for especially long, the quirk to her lips, and the teasing tone, didn’t allow him to miss what she was implying.

“Celebration,” he said. “Yeah, I could go for some of that.”

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