Ding!
[Dungeon synchronization started... 1% 2% 3%... 25%... 98%... 99%... 100%.
Synchronization finished.]
As synchronization with the dungeon finished, he heard a loud sound.
Suddenly, a creature popped from the floor and slammed into his chest. "Welcome, masterrrr!!!"
It was so strong that he fell on the ground.
The force almost sucked all the air out of his chest.
Unbeknownst to him, the little creature jumped on his chest. "Master! Master!"
Irritated, Adder grabbed the chunky snake and squinted his eyes.
A small, half-a-meter-long black snake wiggled in his hand. The blue dots all over its little body started shining. Its gem-like blue eyes stared at him as its forked tongue moved up and down.
Adder focused on a small violet horn on its crown as the familiar irritating voice came from the creature. "Ahhh, Master, leave me. It's weird."
The creature wiggled out of his hand as Adder noticed two small wings on its back.
Instead of moving back, the creature stood on top of his chest and gave a wide human-like grin. "Good to see you, Master. I am Xarik. From now on, I will be your aide as your dungeon assistant."
Adder just looked at this troublemaker and rubbed his head in irritation. 'Shit, even I got this guy again.'
Adder just waved the little creature off his chest and sat up. He rubbed his forehead as the creature slithered before him. 'Ah, I have to do all that again.'
The dungeon assistants were spirit creatures bound to the dungeon core. They were basically the rulers of dungeons in the absence of the dungeon master.
The problem, though, was that they knew nothing about dungeon management. The way they were created was to learn from the dungeon master's actions.
Just some of these assistants had quite troublesome personalities. The only thing was that none of these assistants could leave the dungeon.
As if on cue, the little snake hissed at him. "Master, you should be delighted to have me as your assistant. I, Xarik, am the smartest dungeon assistant."
Adder sighed. This guy again.
Little Xarik went through his whole list of why he should respect it.
Not to repeat the mistake of the past, Adder just placed his finger on his lips. "Hey, chatterbox, shhhh!!!"
The little snake froze and stared at him with an open mouth.
Unbothered, Adder stood up. "Why are you here?"
The spirit stared at him and then turned aside as if offended, but remained respectful. "Master, I just want to tell you how dungeons work."
Adder waved his hand. "No need."
The spirit tilted its head in confusion and asked again, "Are you sure, Master?"
Adder still refused. He had no plan to act confused anymore. That would waste too much time.
Also, from his past, he knew the inside of the dungeon was hidden from all kinds of power.
That was one thing he was sure about, so there was no point in acting confused anymore.
He stared at the little spirit and said, "Xarik, do your next task."
The spirit snake shook its head in visible disappointment. "Okay," and then slithered next to him. This time, it quietly poked his hand with the glowing violet horn on its head.
Ding!
[Synchronization with the Void Village… Connecting the dungeon with the Void Village.]
Ding!
[Serpent Door!
Dungeon level -> 1
Dungeon floors -> 0/2
Boss monster -> 0/2
Creature Capacity -> 0/3000
Funds: 10 silver.
]
[Dungeon Void Village connected!
< Void Village () >
Village capacity -> 0/∞
Time difference -> 1:10
]
Ding!
[
Title: Master of Serpent Cave
Effect: As the master of serpents, you will have a neutral relationship with all snake-type monsters.
You can communicate with all kinds of snakes.
]
Everything looked the same as in his last life.
First was his dungeon status.
At the start was his dungeon's name, 'Serpent Door.'
The name itself labeled his dungeon as the snake-type monster dungeon, the same as what he got to control within the trial.
All dungeons had specialties that promoted the growth of certain kinds of monsters.
For his dungeon, it was snake-type monsters.
At level one, his dungeon was only two floors deep with a total monster capacity of 3000 slots.
It wasn't much. From experience, he knew a decent group of players could easily kill these monsters in a couple of hours.
The last one was dungeon funds. He was a bit surprised at the amount. After his performance, he did expect a bit more, but it did not look like this was his reward.
Adder closed the dungeon status and turned to the Void Village status.
At this, the little spirit Xarik chimed from the side. "Master, Void Village is a nursery for our dungeon."
He nodded to the little guy and focused on the time difference.
This Void Village was linked to one of the core mechanics of Zenaris Online. The mechanics of one life for non-player characters.
In this second reality, there was no common concept of revival for NPCs, and this included monsters.
Once you killed a monster, it would forever be dead.
Instead, Zenaris Online had space cracks all over the game world.
Each of these space cracks was connected to different planes where time flowed much faster than in the game world.
These spaces were the natural habitat of all creatures.
Now these space cracks expanded and closed at certain intervals, allowing one-way entry for all sorts of different creatures to enter the game world through them.
In his past life, players used to call this the influx invasion. It was just that these invaders were constrained to a certain area around the space crack.
This basically created an equilibrium hunting zone. On one side, the invading monsters would rush out in cycles to expand the influence of the space crack.
While species from the game world would get to hunt them and gain resources from them.
This uniqueness was one of the biggest reasons many called it a second reality, not a game.
Not only that, in the past, some people went as far as to create gene-tracing equipment using different forms of magic.
He did not know the workings behind it, but had seen the paper on unique gene prints that shocked many.
Heck, one group even managed to successfully recreate the genome of one of the non-magic monsters in the real world.
All this, with the game's hidden creator who never came out, made this second reality something else.
The little spirit pulled him out of his thoughts. "Master, do you want to check the Void space?"
Adder shook his head and then looked back at the spirit. "Before that, don't you have anything else for me?"
The little spirit tilted at him and then looked down. "Oh, sorry, Master. Here."
It hissed before him. A bunch of sparkles came out of its mouth and formed into a small box.
"Here comes the starting bonus for Master Adder, the Golden Chest!"
"Wait, Golden Chest!" Adder stared at the box with wide eyes. This thing must be the extra reward from the trial.