Chapter 172: Diligent, But Not Intelligent

[When a dungeon is formed, the Spawners create mobs, and both the mobs and the outsiders are subjected to death. The mobs are effortlessly recreated, but the cultivators and adventurers dying inside the dungeon are absorbed by the dungeon and their nutrients and Essence are used to strengthen it. More the people die inside the dungeon, the stronger the mobs will become.

The Dungeon Crystal's tier determines the strength of the dungeon. From the energy readings, it has a Tier-1 strength.]

'Explain the Tier system.'

[The Tier system is based on the total amount of people killed by the dungeon. If the dungeon has a mortality value within 100, then it is a Tier-1 dungeon. If the value is between 500 and 100, it belongs to the Tier-2 category. Tier-3 are when the dungeon has deaths more than 500 and has not reached the value of one thousand. The Tier-4 spans between the mortality values 1000 and 2000. I have not heard of any dungeons above 4, so I will conclude my words.]

'Can you elaborate the specifics of Dungeon Crystal?'

[Sure. The Crystal can be in any shape and substance, and can even be in a highly viscous liquid form. If the crystal breaks or is taken from its seating, the dungeon would tremble violently before collapsing, and the spawners and the mobs would disintegrate. The dungeon would probably give a cool-off time to decide whether you want to take the Crystal and be buried under stone and sand, or place it back in its right place.

In the past, people have tried to own the dungeon by subjugating the sentience of the Crystal. I do not recollect any memories of anyone being successful in that feat, because the moment the boss level monsters are defeated, the Dungeon Crystal would show forth its sentient form, which could even surpass the wildest imaginations. The strength of that sentient form would be the accumulated power of all the boss level monsters.

If you get a chance, try it out. We would never know if it is possible or not.]

Lee had started to make something in the Workshop halfway through the description. He was also listening to D's words and nodded in agreement, without distracting himself from the task at hand.

"Done."

---

Back to the present, Lee had one of his hands behind his back and the other held out his blade. A mocking smirk came on his face as he skimmed over the battalion of beasts only a few metres from him. He also spotted an Aluminile showing its desire to devour him, while simultaneously clearing the space around him.

The hand behind his back was brought to light and a spherical object was exposed. It was about the size of a baseball, and had many circular black lines running over it. The blend of silvery grey colour with stripes of vibrant blue caught the beasts' attention, and half of the eyes focused on it.

Lee casually threw the sphere up into the air, and twirled in his left foot. His timing was accurate to the descend of the metallic ball, as his hands came together and the blade was gripped with both hands. As the construct came down to the height of his elbow, the blade was tilted 90 degrees and the flat surface of the damascus steel hit the ball hard.

*TING...*

The collision created a sharp metallic noise, which acted as a beacon. The ball flew away and a greater portion of beasts ran behind it, hoping that it was something delicious. The jaguars and rodents raced to reach it first, while the weavers and the hornets were homing in on the sphere. Aluminiles, which had high defense, were low on agility, but their eyes followed the flying metallic sphere which vanished in a distance.

Turning to look for the bipedal being, Aluminile found where Lee was standing a moment ago, empty. It scanned the inwards of the cave and caught a faint glimpse of Lee dashing into the crevice from which he had exited. Before the beast could find the concealed intentions behind his actions, the sphere that fell in a distance went with a-

*BANG*

If a miniature version of the Amazon Rainforest was created using lit up L.E.D lights, it would still not hold a candle to what was brought forth. The 4 second countdown timer set inside the sphere reached zero, and all was white.

They were more than a rain of lightning. They literally looked like a rampaging horde of Wooly Tuskers. The height to which the electrocuting pillars rose, knocked out all the weavers on the walls. The hornets did not resemble more than gravely burnt pieces of cake. The instantaneous wave of numbness and helplessness delivered by the outpouring of the lightning immobilized them all.

Though the intensity of the lightning was blinding, Lee took care not to kill any being. If they were to die, then he would have to look for plan B. So, Lee carefully customized the lightning bomb with overwhelmingly immobilising dosage of lightning. The duration of torture was set to a time period of 10 seconds, which was more than enough to confirm that all the beings are taken care of.

For an object that came at the cost of 2300 Essence, Lee was also affected by the spreading strands of electrocution. But it did not hurt him, but increased his immunity by 10.

After the rampage calmed down, the metallic sphere that housed the dangerous dosage of lightning fell apart into pieces. This was also set by Lee, so that either the beasts eat it, or disintegrates beyond recognition.

Poking out his head, Lee saw the residents of the dungeon resting after the blinding lullaby. He walked out of the cave and towards the Aluminile. Turning the beast upside down, he saw the red gem embedded into the beings underbelly.

[That is the spawned monster's core. If you take it out of a living monster, it would disintegrate, along with the beast. You kill one, it disintegrates along with the beast. As a spawned copy, it could noy be tamed.

But, only the higher floor mobs have such a spawning core in them. The boss monsters are free from such ornaments, and move freely.]