Chapter 256 – Freedom!

‘Doesn’t look like much but it’s become harder now…’

Roland glanced at his level that had reached a hundred sixty. There were only fifteen levels left which didn’t seem like much but he had caught up to the monster levels of the creatures inside of this dungeon. It would probably take a while until he maxed out his class but even then it would be much faster than what a regular person needed to go through.

‘It feels like I’m on vacation when I’m here… at least I can offset some of the leveling with crafting.’

“Awoof!”

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

Agni wiggled his behind side to side while looking towards the wall where the exit was. They had stayed here for another couple of days but more work had to be done. He had just finished outfitting the city gates with the turrets but the lord wanted more. Now came his private estate and then perhaps more orders for armor enchantment or weapon enchantment.

Ever since he returned from the gold rank test mission he felt like he was working constantly. He wasn’t even able to enjoy his and Elodia’s nights together as he had to get up early. This of course caused all of his work-related skills to go up. Stress Resistance was already at level six while Resilience was at level five.

He was not sure how this happened but it seemed that he was under the constant stress of the deadline which worked wonders in leveling these skills. Then the little sleep he got continued to boost the resilience skill that helped him recover. With it around, there was no need for stamina potions or coffee.

‘After I get to tier 3 I’ll take a whole month off…’

It was time to leave this place and the spider drones would take care of it. The strange Lich that appeared once never graced him with his presence again and even when he used the secondary opening it was not there. It seemed to be in a different kind of sequence than the other undead monsters.

This was something everyone knew, dungeon monsters seemed to have specific programming that they needed to follow. Sometimes it would get changed but most of the time the monsters stuck to the exact same routes. This was used by adventurers to set up various traps or get themselves into favorable positions like getting the high ground. This might have sounded like an easy cheat but it had its downsides.

The monsters tended to look exactly the same so a person never knew on which exact route they mostly were. Only the rare field bosses were mostly the ones getting documented. It was the same for the 10th-level boss that had its fighting patterns and variations all written down. It made fighting it much easier even for an under-leveled party.

“AWoo!”

“Yeah I’m coming, you really don’t like to be bored, Agni.”

Roland didn’t experience much trouble after getting back from his last expedition. The weeks continued to pass and he was slowly progressing towards his end destination. It would probably take at least another half a year or perhaps more to get those fifteen levels. This was already an astonishing speed not normally achieved by people with no backing.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t that many people within my age bracket that are over level one hundred and fifty…’

While opening the hidden exit and waiting for the mule golem to get through it he glanced at the closed dungeon opening. Without this discovery, it would have not been possible. There weren’t many places in the world that were this tailor-made for his advancement. In a regular tier 3 dungeon, there would not be a place where he could place a giant cannon and just constantly kill powerful monsters with them.

Due to the experience point split, people were unable to power level. If a noble brought many bodyguards that did too much damage they would not gain much even if they delivered the final blow. Disabling a monster or knocking them out by a strong fighter before the kill would also lower the experience gain dramatically. The only way to really counter these limits was to use powerful magical tools. As long as the skill or spell came from the person holding the tool it would count.

‘What’s up next? The turrets are ready, I should probably make more golems and start looking into that geothermal generator blueprint.’

After achieving his goal Roland was ready to give this place up. There was a limit to what he could gain from it. It would probably be better to just allow people to discover the tier 3 dungeon. Later after it was somewhat mapped out he could just enter it to farm the powerful monsters himself. When he achieved his own tier 3 class they would probably not pose a big threat anymore.

…

The voice was gone for a while but it could feel that it was temporary. The strange mana that was absorbed previously wasn’t enough. Yet it didn’t want to risk death, the energy waves that were coming from the hidden wall continued to get stronger. For some reason, the moment the voice died down it became very protective of its own well-being. It was better to use the other empty puppets to siphon trace amounts of energy.