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Chapter 207: Path of the Dungeon over Breakfast
🕑 Added 2025-07-16 06:35:58 +0000 UTCAs I ate my breakfast the next morning with the expectation of the paladins at any moment, I started to dwell on just what I’d need to do in the future. There was the reality of the other governments of Earth. While I didn’t want to just usurp them, that was almost certainly going to happen as things grew.
No matter how much I hated the idea of running an empire, I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t. The space we demanded for our city here would only last so long, and while I had no intention of actually honoring the border agreements, especially considering how many people from surrounding areas had joined us, it would still be an issue I’d need to deal with when we expanded. The city council idea Alexandria had used might just be a model we could replicate as the empire grew. At least I could put off theoretical governmental bodies for a while still.
The Antarctic dungeon was starting to look more and more like a research base. The biggest surprise there was that Apollyon seemed to enjoy the researcher’s company, Johan especially. He had somehow started to form a friendship with the core. Despite their long talks on the topic, though, the team was nowhere near solving the dungeon energy mystery.
What I likely shouldn’t ignore any longer was the sapience line in Path of the Dungeon. I had known the moment I took Apollyon from the archive, I had the last core I needed to unlock it. What I hadn’t realized until this morning, when I finally pulled it up, was that the other lobotimized cores did not count at all. That had been a strong blow to my hope of healing them, but I still wasn’t willing to give up yet.
I had also made the decision to bring them, along with every core I could, once Rorland and Teral made contact again. Whatever weird order they belonged to, the cores had a right to see and make their own decisions on it as much as I did. This likely meant Apollyon would be stuck here for the time being, but I doubted they would want to go anyway.
I pulled up Path of the Dungeon and invested the million experience needed to fully unlock it.
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-Sapience\System Registration {0/1}
Each time System Registration is unlocked, a single dungeon core may be registered with the System. Once registered, the dungeon cores gain access to all other unlocked Sapience classpath abilities.
Unlocked Count: 0
Increase factor x100
-Sapience\Quests {0/10 Levels}
Quests allow a dungeon core to begin receiving its own quests from the System.
-Sapience\Skills {0/100 Levels}
Skills allow a dungeon core to begin to specialize in its own skill development.
-Sapience\Classes {0/1.0E3 Levels}
Classes allow for a dungeon core to utilize class orbs and pursue their own classpaths.
-Sapience\Evolution {0/1.0E4 Levels}
Evolution allows dungeon cores to grow beyond their base form, expanding their capabilities. This is the first step on the path for a dungeon core to unlock its own soul energy.
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I instantly pulled up a message window after having read the abilities on the path. The options they presented were something the cores and I had to discuss immediately, even if I couldn’t fully afford them yet.
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>Dave: Corey, I assume you also looked at the new classpath already?
>Corey: I did, and that is very interesting. Do you think those abilities are something the other linked pair we encountered have?
>Dave: I don’t know, but it seems likely.
>Beta: I want to evolve!
>Gamma: I want a class!
>Dave: And I promise we will explore this all as much as you would all like, but the expense in doing so is going to take some time to get the spare levels required.
>Corey: I believe they all understand that. It is just a thrilling new set of options.
>Apollyon: I wish all of the abilities. I will concede to you entirely on not being an enslaver, the moment I have them all.
>Dave: I think we both know you already don’t think that anymore. But you can still have them once I have the levels needed to do it.
>Apollyon: Excellent.
>Maud: I have no idea what’s going on, but it sounds fun. :)
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I exited the chat window and decided while I was here, I may as well unlock the environment path, as I hadn’t really played with it yet, and it seemed useful for dungeon exploration. I was up to ten dungeons explored, well past the needed five, and it was only another million experience. I quickly got that part out of the way and pulled up the new class abilities.
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-Environment\Terrain Mastery {0/1 level} <Skill>
Terrain Mastery unlocks a new skill for a dungeon terrain that the host has experienced every time it is unlocked. Associated terrain skills improve all functions while in the skill’s terrain while within a dungeon.
Unlocked Count: 0
Increase factor x2
-Environment\Lost Secrets {0/1000 level} <Skill>
Loot is a given within dungeons, but why is it there? Some comes from people who have long since lost their lives exploring the depths of a dungeon. Where does the rest come from? The Lost Secrets skill allows the host to better find the mysteries hidden deep within a dungeon, the loot most would never spot, and hidden passageways few dare to tread.
-Environment\Into the Beyond {0/10000 level} <Attribute>
What lies beyond the dungeon? What Eldritch horrors push against the walls of a dungeon? Into the Beyond allows the host to find those weak spots and pass through them. It does nothing to help the host maintain their sanity should they pass beyond their native reality.
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The first ability was what I had been expecting for the whole line. I had assumed it would just be a series of abilities that would let me handle different dungeon terrains. The fact that it was just one that I could unlock multiple times for different skills was interesting. It didn’t particularly surprise me either. Not that I had the spare skill points at the moment to make a great use of it, but it was nonetheless similar enough to what I had expected.
Lost Secrets wasn’t that surprising either. The idea of something that helped me find items and secrets in a dungeon made some sense when compared with what Elody and Elicec had done back on the first Arena floor. I had no idea exactly what loot it would help with, but I could see the potential.
Then there was Into the Beyond. I had found yet another ability that scared me at least a little. I wasn’t sure if I was getting tired of them, or if they were giving me a weird anxiety of the potential they held. I needed more information on dungeons, theoretical or not. I wanted to know exactly what the thinkers had already figured out and had been nice enough to document.
Around me in the meeting hall were mostly people I didn’t recognize, a mix of human scientists, a few Reltleons, and Connie. She wasn’t my first choice for the conversation, but she did seem to have an eclectic set of knowledge going. She was slowly finishing off a bagel loaded with egg and some kind of sauce. She looked entirely ignorant of the world around her. How much of that was for show?
I waited until she finished before interrupting. “Connie, what do you know about dungeons exactly? You seemed to know a bit about the thing on the other side of the Antarctic one.”
“I mean that’s a lot of stuff, you want me to just start spilling from the very start of dungeon lore, or are we talking anything specific here?” she said, as she grabbed another bagel from an offered plate. Catered meals were something I was still getting used to.
“What do you know about where dungeons come from exactly? I’ve heard a few things, read some others, but a lot of it tends to be contradictory. What specifically do you know?” I asked.
The dominant theory I had read back in the archives was that a natural mana orb would grow powerful enough if not discovered to somehow attract the attention of whatever entity a dungeon core was. The dungeon core would then build a defense around itself, forming the dungeon itself. The problem there, especially with what I knew now, was that dungeon cores at their earliest awakenings didn’t know anything. They were alone and afraid. And with what we had all encountered in Earth’s first dungeon, it seemed that whatever that creature was, it played a strong role in it.
“Gramps had a theory that dungeons are all connected somehow. And they slowly grow into each other. Didn’t really get much more out of him on the topic, but if I had to guess and follow his logic, he prolly thinks those outsiders are either more powerful dungeon cores growing their realm or something else altogether. Why so interested all of a sudden anyway?” Connie asked, immediately taking a giant bite of her new bagel after she finished speaking.
“Interesting. I have a new class ability that if I unlock it will let me pass through the dungeon to whatever is on the otherside, and I’m not sure what that means exactly,” I answered, purposely leaving out the sanity part of the description.
“I can guess, but that’s all it’d be. I can tell you for sure, though I don’t like the sound of it. But knowing you, you already want to do it, so I guess I’d better actually get this bard school off the ground,” Connie said with a loud, obviously exaggerated sigh.
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea knowing…” I started to say before I was cut off by Pryte’s sudden appearance from the kitchen doors.
“Paladins are arriving, come on, we will want to greet them,” he said the moment his eyes found me.
There are countless schools of musical theory throughout the spiral, and many classes that practice it. Some of the best orchestras in the multiverse have managed to assemble thousands of different classes and used their specializations to create music that could drive a god mad or a mountain to tears. From a paladin of music to the fluted hippo, music in all its forms can be heard and truly experienced when an expert conductor works their own magic on the symphony. And sometimes, when a conductor of creation is involved, the monument left to the performance will stand forever, a remembrance of the beauty that once graced the location. And if the rumors are to be believed, those monuments will stand against a rising darkness one day.
A History of Music in the Spiral Emwood Greens
Comments
viperfan7
God damn cliffhangers
