The first day after the 2nd event and the massive update of the game right after, I, Aino, and Bloom were sharing a private cabin inside a magic train. It's a special vehicle for fast transportation between cities/towns/villages in NFO. Aino was kind enough to pay for the tickets for me and Bloom.

"Grrrrrr..." - Garami

Not that it makes my bad mood any better...

"That's quite the bad mood for someone on a trip." - Aino

"Please do not bother. The mistress has been like this ever since she returned to the Dungeon." - Bloom

Of course, I'm gonna be grumpy after what those damn bastards in the management did!!

And as if acting as an opposing force to me, Aino's in the brightest possible mood that you can be. There are multiple reasons for this:

1. Thanks to delivering all the plants I helped collect, she was rewarded the [Lesser Ink Talent] skill, a composition element that's made up of Water, Earth, and Darkness, from those "Purple Cult" guys. 
2. She's allowed to use Bloom as her dress-up doll. Right now, the witch is wearing a Chinese dress with a high slit and a large opening at the chest area.
3. I finally agreed to create a Guild with her...

Yes. That's right. I finally succumbed to her offer. But it's not my fault! That damn comment she posted in the BBS started a storm of Guild invitations from practically every one of my "fans"! The only way to silence that typhoon of request messages was to join one myself, and Aino was (probably) the safest option. 

So now, I'm the Guild Master of the Guild: "Darkland Walkers". The name comes from my Dungeon, plus we're likely gonna be a Guild that only walks around the different areas in NFO in search of adventures. 

But the reason why I'm so down in the dumps isn't because of that. Because, honestly, Aino's a big help. She even keeps the Fort in one piece for me, possibly since she's "working underneath me" in the Guild. It somehow extends to allowing her to work with the Dungeon under my "orders". 

As for the real reason I'm as gloomy as a kid who had Christmas taken from them is...the Dojo was removed.

The latest system update KILLED THE DOJO!! Specifically, all of the facilities were taken away from the Fort and a new list has been implemented. The good thing is that the Boss Room and the Treasury were allowed to stay. But now I can't easily improve my skills anymore! 

After reading that news, I started to train all my skills as much as possible at the Dojo. I even ignored the rest of the event just to train! And after that, I started gathering tons of AP, 15 in total, through special hunting-type quests. The reason they're special is that you don't get EXP from battles during the hunt, but the AP reward is so sweet~~.

I even went and cleared some quests typical for Scout-line classes and Magician-line classes to obtain the [Mana] and [Stamina] skills. Free bonus points are always a good thing. 

Then there's the fact that I can evolve soo. You'd want to unlock as many rare evolution requirements as one could, right? That's why EXP is sorta bad for me at the moment. 

Right now, my stats are like this:

Skill List:

Title List:

You can't say I'm a girl who doesn't provide results when she cares~. 

As for my new class, it's something that got unlocked after I bought the [Poison Evil Eye] skill for 3 AP. "Evil Eye Invoker" is a Magician-line class that's solely about using Evil Eyes. Think the details about it were..., where was that info again...

There it is! Wait, did the explanation include the talk about the Book of Traditions? Must be part of the update. 

Ah, and after that, I guess we got my new skills. [Poison Evil Eye] is something I bought, and it inflicts Poison-type damage to whatever that I'm looking at while the skill's active. Pretty nice for my first Poison-based attack skill. The [Reinforced Evil Eye] skill is something I got from the new class. It simply improves the usage of Evil Eyes, plus it lowers their costs a little. 

And then there's the reward for clearing the Alpha Swamp haunt with an A-rank. The [Slowing Evil Eye]. Heck, all the reward was Evil Eyes. What's up with that? Even Aino got a [Burning Evil Eye]. As for mine, it slows down a target by inflicting the "Slow" status ailment on them. You could say it's the Evil Eye-version of Bloom's [Slow] skill.

"Haaaaa..." - Garami

"You are really in the dumps about that Dojo-place, are you?" - Aino

"What do you think?" - Garami

I want to improve the new Evil Eye. But AP is a precious resource...

"There's nothing we can do about it. Easily exploitable methods will always be nerfed. That's the fate for any VRMMO games." - Aino

Especially when one of the requirements is something as restricted as "owning a Dungeon"...

"Let's talk about something else. Like, what Trait did you take for the "special reward"?" - Aino

She's talking about that reward anyone would get if they participated in defeating at least 1 haunt during the event. You could choose between several Traits that were connected to the haunts you had partaken in its defeat during the event.

"Evil Eyed." - Garami

"What?! I was not given such an option!" - Aino

"The description said it was for doing the last attack against the butterfly." - Garami

"Ehh... W-well, it's not like it's as fancy as my Silk Spinner Trait. O-hohohoho..." - Aino

"Edgelord?" - Garami

"Not at all! Except maybe if it was a Trait related to Succubi..." - Aino

"Miss Aino. Please refrain from that kind of vulgar talk. Even if we are in a private cabin." - Bloom

She wouldn't forget that last part, Bloom. That's how she's able to strip you down for her dress-up show. 

"I do not wish for that Trait just because of some "adult" reasons. I am perfectly capable of doing that on my own." - Aino

"Is that an invitation?" - Garami

"Only if you accept~," replied Aino as she started to snuggle close to me. 

"If your plan works," I answered. I didn't push her away. Her assets are clinging to my arm in a good fashion. And Bloom! Stop looking at me like you're watching a creep!

"There is no need to worry. The area we are headed for is famous for being filled with capable smithing NPCs, catacombs filled with undead monsters, and small, local volcanoes that release magma and ashes all day long. If we cannot find any new sub-elements or facilities to the Fort there, then it is impossible to do so anywhere~." - Aino

We're currently traveling to a place called the "Diablo Blastfields". As Aino described it, it's a place filled with so many elements that should be in the Fire and Death countries that it feels like a joke.

The new rules for Dungeon facilities are that we need to offer tons of materials related to something if we want to unlock a new facility, or even monster lines and sub-elements. The Blastfields are a perfect hunting ground for that purpose. 

Currently, all the facilities in the Fort have been removed. The sole exceptions were the Treasury where I obtained my current equipment and the Boss Room that Miranda the Arachne is living in. Losing those would be painful. 

The Boss Room works like before, a facility that houses a boss and blocks the way to the next floor. The Treasury works like a storage room which I can stuff lots of items into and distribute them to all the treasure chests in the Fort. It also provides money to an invader if they defeat a monster on the same floor as the Treasury, but the opposite also holds. 

Then again, the Treasury is currently on the sixth floor, so I doubt we can make a fortune out of it. If invaders find the Treasury, they can steal the stuff stored inside it after all. 

As for "floors", the Fort has retained its 6 floors without problems. The DP cost for creating new floors remains as before, but to unlock those, the Dungeon has to clear specific requirements. It's sorta like quests for the Darkland Fort itself.

We'll cross that bridge when the time comes. The Fort has 6 slots for facilities on each floor, and if we subtract the two I just mentioned, I still have 34 slots remaining. Before worrying about new floors, I gotta fashion the floors I already have-

*CRASH!*

That sound came from the front car, didn't it? Please let it be just someone tripping on the floor.

I opened the door of our cabin and snuck to the front car to scout. It's a public car without cabins, and in it, I could see four unkempt men threatening the passengers with weapons, yelling at them to stay still or be killed...

"Train hi-jacking?" asked Aino after I returned to report what was going on.

"Big time. Stay here for a sec," I said as I summoned Nyx for some assistance. Bloom's gone pale in her seat. No help to expect from her.

I went back to the front car and fired some [Mystical Threads] at the lighting without letting the terrorists (let's call them that) notice me. The second the car fell into darkness, I snuck behind one of them and cut their throat with Helheim while holding his mouth to prevent him from making a noise. 

I kept the guy standing by binding him with [Spider's Threads] attached to the ceiling and worked my way through the other terrorists. One of them almost grabbed one of the passengers, probably to take a hostage, but Nyx, who had been crawling across the ceiling the whole time, fell at him and used her claws to end him instead.

"Okay everyone, stay calm. The hero's fashionably early," I told the passengers as I used the Glow spell from [Basic Magic Abilities] to illuminate the car.

...they are not saying anything because they're in awe of me, right? It's not because they're freaked out by the living shadow and the horrifying corpse puppets, right? Oh, I'm so gonna butcher these hijackers...