GreenerThanGreen

I am starting to get tired of repeating battles and slowly moving in the dungeon. Expect Jessica to escape in the next 2-3 chapters and the story can finally begin.

When I wake up the next day, most of the cards in my Binder have fully recovered. Only exception is Shien’s Double who is still on cool down. I take the 2 Giant Soldier, 2 Man-Eater Bug and Silver Fang and place them in my deck, then place the cards on the Deck zone to reactivate them. Checking out my Tokens, I have 495 and I wander what to do with them. On one hand I could spend them on another Booster Pack, receive mediocre cards and continue to grind for more Tokens until I find the exit to this dungeon. On the other I could clear one or two more floors and have enough Tokens to buy another Yugi or Kaiba Starter Deck, which both have another Resurrection of the Dead and other useful cards. I look at my occupation and it still shows Level 6, which means even after all the fighting yesterday, I can’t summon a 4 star creature or use more powerful effects. 

For now I decide to wait and see what happens with the dungeon. I can always buy a Booster between battles, so I let the Tokens accumulate. I wash my hands, face and mouth and enter the first room on the 6th floor. 

The new floor is a little different from the grassland of the last floor it is barren rock, maybe even a wasteland. I don’t think Warriors will get the field bonus here, but I may have some luck with Rock type. For now I summon Soldier of Stone and look at the card, it indeed receives the terrain bonus of 300 ATK/DEF points. I summon Trap Master to scout for traps and climb atop Soldier and look around for the goblins. This time it is a little more difficult, because there are a lot of rock formations and what looks like Rocky hills that can hide the enemy. I still manage to find a wandering group pretty fast and attack them. At first the battle proceeds like in the last floor, except a little more efficiently. The Soldier was a little stronger and faster, and for some reason I am throwing rocks as if the sling had a scope. Maybe the hobgoblin just staying away and observing had something to do with it, but it wasn’t strange behavior. It acted just like the goblin soldiers on the 2nd floor did.  

With his 1 600 ATK the Soldier was more than a match for the hobgoblin and with the support of the rest of us, the battle ended after 3 attacks. The rest of the floor didn’t differ much in the way of fighting, but the search for the opponents was tedious. I wouldn’t mind a floor that is just one long corridor and every enemy is in side rooms or just along the path. Anyways, the Tokens from this floor were 310. The Total was 890. If thing continue like that I may have the needed Tokens for a Starter Deck after clearing this floor. 

For the next room I replaced the Giant Soldier card with the second copy. If I don’t let their time expire and change them every 2 hours or so I can have a buffer of 1 hour where I can have both of them on the field. And the Soldier being on par or even better than some 4 star cards was absolutely worth the Magic it could cost me. At the end of the room another 310 Tokens were fed into the store. The Total with my Regen was 1285. But from the next room onward I don’t think I will be able to rely on my Regen for Tokens, with the cost for Summoning uncharged cards. No, wait, maybe I can. Last time I was sure how much Regen Tokens I had was 37,5 per hour and it takes 10 Magic to get 1 Token, so 375 Magic Regen per hour. Let me see how much Magic a 3 star summon consumes.

I enter the third room on the 6th floor and change which Giant Soldier of Stone is on the field, then look at my Magic and I lost 270 points. That needs less than an hour to fill completely back up, so I have an hour with full Magic when I can get mote Tokens before I must summon the next card and use my Magic. I continue with what was starting to become routine clearing of the rooms. If this was a story, the readers would have already stopped reading it out of boredom. I even activated Change of Hearth to receive a second knight for my team and bolstered the ATK and DEF of the other with Reinforcements and Castle Walls. Then everything proceeds like normal, another room cleared, another 300 Tokens from the cores and onto the fourth room. 1642 Tokens Total.

I again changed which Soldier was on the field and started massacring goblins. As this was the last room before the safe room and the boss, I pushed the new knight to take more risks in hopes I wouldn’t have to dispose of it another way and by the time I arrived at the door it had died a glorious death. 320 Tokens to the shop. The Total after that was 2019. Just enough to buy another Starter Deck. 

For now I enter the safe room and take a moment to rest. I fill on water and then put Remedy and Last Will on the play mat to get today’s items. For now I sit against a wall and rest, while my thoughts wander. I quickly became accustomed to seeing blood and killing the creatures in the dungeon, but that is expected in a hostile environment, you either adapt or die. The dungeon is also very strange, having creatures of a higher rank every 2 floors. Don’t the ones in stories usually have the same creature for 10 levels and then there is a boss room? Maybe it is the world that is different and this is normal for a dungeon. What would I know, all knowledge I have about dungeons and labyrinths comes from fiction and I haven’t seen a real dungeon before. When I escape this dungeon I will have to search for civilization. And from just the dungeon I can’t tell what level this world is. I am almost sure they are past the bronze age, so either iron or steel. And then there is Magic, so they could have magic tools that helped them develop beyond our modern society. Or they could still be medieval or renaissance level. 

“Sigh, I am tired, filthy and hungry. I want a warm meal, hot bath and comfortable bed. Let’s buy the Kaiba Starter Deck for the variety, beat the boss and hope this dungeon doesn’t have 100 floors.”

I spend 2 000 Tokens, purchase the Starter Deck: Kaiba and a box materializes in the air. I put my hand under it and it falls into my grasp. I open the box and check the contents, Manual, Play Mat and Deck of 50 cards. I then toss the empty box into my backpack.

The content is the same as Yugi, just with different cards. There are 4 new effect creatures. Lord of Dragons has the effect of preventing effects targeting dragons, but if it isn’t targeted, like AOE, it is useless. Mysterious Puppeteer will be good for healing and when I need to sacrifice HP when I am able to summon it. The Wicked Worm Beast effect sounds like it can’t be removed from the field by other means. Not by it’s time expiring, not by card effect and not by me, only at the End of Turn. Then there is Feather Blade. If it works as it says, I can control a creature with Change of Heart and then turn the creature into a card to summon later or maybe even sell? I wonder is there a way to do that with objects and Spells?

Then there are 5 new Spell cards and two that I either sold or lost. Awakening increases ATK an decreases DEF of Rock creatures. Ancient Telescope allows me to see into the future against summoners for the next 5 creatures or whatever they will call on. Then the card I remember as Ookazi, Large Fire of Day and Night, inflicts damage to an opponent, but with a name like that, I would think the damage would be higher. The Flute of Summoning Dragon, Special Summons 2 from my hand if Lord of Dragons is on the field and it may attract wild dragons if they hear the flute. Then The Inexperienced Spy, instead of a card it let’s me see a Summoning contract. Does that make my cards contacts for Summoning? And finally the one trap that is different in this deck.

I had to stifle my laughter after reading its text. If I used this in a dungeon, doesn’t it mean I can kill it from the first floor? Even if I can only deal 10 of the mentioned damage for every creature it controls, I am sure the dungeon has at least 500 creatures. I don’t believe the dungeon Core has more than 5 000 HP. I of course don’t know what happens to a dungeon if it is destroyed, so I can’t do that, but that is one powerful card against owners of an army.

And reading about controllers and losing HP, I think it is time to see if I receive damage when my own summons die from an attack. Let me just see if Summoner leveled up, so I could use Puppeteer for extra safety. “Status.”

“Would you look at that!? Now we are cooking with gas!” I was just too excited to hold my exclamation in. At level 7 I could finally summon 4 star cards and everyone that has played Duel Monsters knows that in the early days of the game 4 stars was where the beat stick creatures began to show. 

I take the cards in my deck and start sorting them. First I take 1 card from each type I haven’t summoned until now, Spellcaster, Dragon, Beast-Warrior and Pyro. Then I take from the Binder a Fish, Winged Beast and Plant creatures. And from the Kaiba deck I take Dinosaur. Last time I took Thorns before seeing if they suffer damage from just staying and Mermaid was sacrificed as soon as I summoned her, so it is time to check if one of these types of cards can stay summoned like the warriors do. To make space for the new cards, I remove the 2 Remove Trap and Hand Obliteration. I then place the new cards at the top of the deck and then activate it on the deck zone on the play mat. 

I start with the 2 star Pyro Sting, and since it had a charged sleeve, it did not cost me any additional Magic to summon. Next is the 4 star Beast-Warrior Louise, a.k.a. Beaver Warrior, also with a charged sleeve. 4 star Dragon, Fortress-Protecting Winged Dragon again with a sleeve follows. I hear the notification for another Summoning method, but continue with 4 star Spellcaster Stern Old Magician, so I could use him in the next floor, even if Spellcasters did take damage from the world. And to fill the last spot on the play mat, the 4 star Dinosaur Wild Raptor, which doesn’t have a sleeve, so it cost me some Magic. 

I waited a little and started seeing the results of my Summoning experiment. Every type so far, except the Spellcaster, began losing DEF and all at the same speeds. I pick the cards and replace them with the rest, so I could finish this experiment. The 4 star Winged beast, Mirage goes onto the mat, followed by the 3 star Plant Demon World’s Thorns, both having no magic in them so I lost some more Magic. An finally, to finish the experiment, the Fish on land, the 4 star Great White. These 3 card also soon stated losing DEF and I had a sort of answer, even if there were a few more types to test in the future. Warriors and Spellcasters are not harmed by this World’s energies and can stay summoned indefinitely. I think it is time I check what exactly Dimension Traveler does and stop avoiding the reality that I am one. 

So this world does operate on Magic and Strength energies, so Spell casters and Warriors who use them are spared from fighting these energies. I wander what other energies the rest of the types use? 

Now that I know what I could keep summoned, it is time to reorganize my deck with Spellcasters and Warriors. First I remove all other type of cards and start replacing them. From the Yugi Deck I choose Neo The Magic Swordsman, Holy Elf, Ancient Elf, Elf Swordsman, Stern Old Magician, Trap Master and Death Sorcerer. Then I see the description of the last card and decide it is too risky to use it. I never know if or when it could turn against me. From Kaiba’s Deck I pick Holy Doll, Demon Hunter, Dragohuman, Lord of Dragons, Mysterious Puppeteer, Trap Master and Nameless Warrior of Evil, then immediately discard the evil one. I think I will place Warrior of Evil, Death Sorcerer and Black Hole in the [Extremely Dangerous to Use] section of the binder, together with all the Fiends and Zombies. Finally I find Masaki and Double in the Binder and also place them in the deck, plus Great White for the experiment. For Spell cards I choose 2 Book of Secret Arts, Change of Heart, Spell Removal, Dian Keto The God of Healing, Fissure, 2 Resurrection of the Dead, Goblin’s Secret Remedy, Large Fire of Day and Night, Cross Soul, Protective Seal Swords of Light, not that I couldn’t choose them, being stuck on the mat, Last Will, Grassland and Forest, which was also stuck on the mat. And finally the trap cards I choose are Dragon-Tribe Seal Jar, 2 Castle Walls, 2 Reinforcements, 2 Amanojaku’s Curse, 2 Pincer Attack and 1 Emissaries of Reconciliation. 40 card deck exactly, and when I put it in the Deck Zone on the play mat all the cards already on the mat and in the deck glowed and activated. 

“Now I am ready to take on the boss, lose one of my creatures for the experiment” I look at Great White and immediately look away in shame and with a pepper voice continue “and then murder everything between me and the exit to this fu...” and that is the moment my stomach decides to announce it is hungry with a loud gurgling noise. 

I got my backpack and started taking out all edible contents and lining it on the floor of the safe room. It wasn’t much, some nuts, berries, 3 Remedy herbs and a lot of bugs. And the worst part was, I knew I will have to eat the bugs. They were the ones with the proteins and there was no way around it. But here is another problem, I had no way to start a fire in the sage room. There wasn’t wood to burn or some magical stove top or even open fire, so I would have o eat them raw, possibly while still alive. I shudder at just the thought, but there wasn’t anything I could do. 

I carefully wash every singe bug with water, remove the wings, crack all nuts and extract the insides, spread the herb leafs on a table and start wrapping. I have 3 herbs, so 6 leaves, and I proportion all the bugs, nuts and berries evenly between them, then wrap them up and tie them with the stems. I unroll the mat and prepare Dian Keto, then take the plunge and stuff one of the wrappings in my mouth. The first chew, there is crunching, hardness and a lot of juices. The taste of the grasshopper like bugs is mostly hidden behind the grassy, leafy tasting herb, sourness of the berries and nuttiness of the, well, nuts. But mostly hidden, still leaves a little that is not and it isn’t a taste I can say I like. I know there are places that eats bugs as delicacies and whatnot, but those are battered, seasoned, cooked bugs, that are probably so fried up you can only taste the crispy batter they are in. The ones I am eating are raw, almost alive and prepared by a total amateur. I finish chewing in a hurry, which should not be done with proper food, but this was certainly not that, so I had an excuse. I quickly finish the rest of the wraps, cover all of that in copious amounts of water and I am ready for the boss room. 

“Ugh, the aftertaste is still in my mouth! Blah, phtui, ugh!” I summon Mysterious Puppeteer and almost black out from the loss of Magic. It looks like I will have to wait a while for it to regenerate. 

When I felt recharged enough, I summon Holy Doll and look as Puppeteer stretches its almost invisible strings and connects to the doll, then some of them connect to me and I feel a surge of energy. I look at my HP bar and it shows 3580/1280. “Whoa, that is a lot of health. It is also added to the Total and not the Maximum, so does that mean it returns at midnight? Maybe the same happened when Dian Keto healed me before too. So 3 herbs, 600 each is 1800, plus 500 from Puppeteer, 3580 sound just about right.” I take the play mat in hand, prepare Great White and open the boss room door and together with my 2 summons, 1 resurrected knight and 1 under control I walk inside. 

What waits for me inside the room is a hobgoblin dressed in leathers vest, boots, gloves and hat. The hobgoblin pulls a knife out and his presence starts fading. I immediately activate my Magic Sight and his form crisps up in my vision. Looks like the hob is some kind of rogue. I watch as it sneaks in plain sight of me, not knowing I can see it, and circles around me and my creatures, no doubt preparing for some kind of backstab move. I place Great White on the mat and summon him in front of the approaching hob. 

“Attack in front of you, Great White.” As soon as I command it, and while the front of the shark falls towards the floor, he stretches his tail and uses it and his hands to launch him forward, jaw open and ready to chomp down on the invisible for him enemy. The reaction of the hob is fast however and it manages to side step and slice at the neck? of my shark, greatly wounding him. That however renders the enemy visible again and Great White twists toward it, biting the left shoulder. The hobgoblin screeches in pain and starts stabbing indiscriminately, trying to make the creature let go of it. After a few more seconds of stabbing, my shark starts fading away after dying from his wounds. I take a quick look at my HP and don’t see any decrease. The experiment is over. 

“Finish it off and let’s go to the next floor.” The Puppeteer and Doll approach the goblin from 2 sides and attack while it is busy clutching it’s wound. The two goblins accompanying me stay back to guard me in case something unexpected happens. They make a quick work of it now that it is visible and the light and chest signifying my victory appear soon after. 

I open the chest and find inside the usual potion, but blue for whatever reason. I will have to test what it does later. Another pouch with coins, leather boots, that actually look rather nice, and finally a new knife, which is more likely a dagger, but for me it is 2 bladed knife. I extract the core from the corpse and pick the knife it held, then put all the loot into my backpack. I roll the play mat and tuck it in my waistband, then go to the next floor. 

In the teleportation room I try the new core and am not surprised to see it doesn’t do anything when put into the slot on the stone. I feed the core to the store and look at my Tokens Total. It is 67. This core gave me 40 Tokens and the rest are probably from when I was resting. I command Puppeteer to eliminate the goblin knight under control of Change of Heart, since it will be free after an hour or 2 and then extract and feed the core to the store. I now have 77 Tokens. I spend the next 1 hour charging Puppeteer, Doll, Stern Old Magician and Trap Master with Magic, then write in my journal and then, when I see my HP go back to normal, I remove the 2 cards from the play mat and go to sleep. I really should have slept in the safe room where there are beds.

GreenerThanGreen

I hope my explanations of the summoning mechanics are understandable and make sense, but if not, point the problem and I will try to solve it. As always, rate, comment like and all that jazz. Thanks for reading.