Darius checked these new skills out to see what was so special about them.
[Elemental Breath - Level 1 Spell
Grade: Intermediate
Cost: 100 MP
Description: Channel the raw power of the elements through your body, releasing it in a cone-shaped breath before you. This deals 100% all-element damage.]
[Magical Mastery - Level 1 Skill
Grade: Intermediate
Description: As the Ancestor of all Dragons, you have been blessed by the Laws of Magic in the world, able to display mastery beyond any other mortal species in existence. Your mana regeneration, spell-casting speed, spell power, and spell resources are increased by 5%.]
[Elemental Control - Level 1 Skill
Grade: Intermediate
Description: As the Ancestor of all Dragons, you belong to not a single specific element, but encompass them all. Resistance to elemental attacks as well as elemental damage increased by 5%.]
[Draconic Regeneration - Level 1 Skill
Grade: Intermediate
Description: As the Ancestor of Dragons, your lifeforce and survivability are nothing short of a Primordial Titan. Your health regeneration is 5% per second regardless of the situation.]
[Dragon Transformation - Intermediate Ability
Cost: None
Description: Manifest your power as the Ancestor Dragon and return to your true form.
Note: As an Ancestor Dragon (Fledgling), this only lasts 30 minutes and stats do not increase, only physical form.]
Darius was simultaneously excited and quite miffed. Excited because the three passive skills he got as part of his upgrade were truly game-changing further ensuring his power and survivability in Faust.
He was miffed because the boosts he should have gotten from transforming into a True Dragon with his ability had been waived by the Supreme System. So apart from a physiological change, there was no other advantage.
Still, there was no use crying over spilt milk. At least his True Dragon form would allow him to naturally fly, possess a bigger form, suppress weaker serpentine species, and integrate with the Dragon race on Unyris.
Nevertheless, it was a form he would have to familiarise himself with, and dragons were like living treasures, so it wasn't farfetched that someone might hunt him down in order to gut him. Being too large also meant it would be harder to avoid attracting attention.
Now that he was done with this plan of his, Darius reclaimed the Medipod and exited the first level of the dungeon.
Outside, Gunner and Xela were standing together conversing while waiting for him.
When they saw Darius appear, they smiled but quickly their expressions changed to being shocked once they Inspected him, Gunner far less than Xela.
After all, Darius his first Branded Servant knew about the original plan of merging the Thunder Heart with the upgraded True Dragon Blood. He had been informed about it at the beginning of their 5-year seclusion.
As for Xela, she had only been aware that Darius had some grand plans, but seeing the effect of it directly like this stunned her silly.
Both of them were non-human, so unlike normal humans who couldn't sense bloodlines without visual tells, they could.
The oppressive feeling radiating from Darius was horrifying, especially for Xela with her Divine Sight.
She could see that aside from the invasive and cruel Supreme System that was able to overwrite the rules of Faust, there was now a chrome-colored light radiating from Darius' heart that grabbed at all the ambient magical energy and elemental energy, taming them for his purpose.
Her master smiled at their confusion, before he shared the details of what had happened to him with them.
Gunner and Xela were not surprised by the process. As non-humans, they could feel the most the difference between the human side and the non-human as to which was better, as well as the raw quality gap.
To climb from one to another was nothing short of a miracle.
"So, what did you find out from within the dungeon?" Darius inquired with a soft smile.
Xela responded: "The layout has become extremely complex and strange. Instead of the typical room or tunnel format, each floor is divided into resting areas and battle areas."
Darius raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Gunner nodded and picked it up from here. "At the beginning of each floor, there is the main resting area with food and water. There seems to be no time limit on how long you can spend there too, and it's spacious enough to hold 500 people without a problem."
"After that, you enter the first battle area where you fend of Amateur monsters in waves until you encounter a boss. Once you defeat that boss, you get a small reward chest, then move to the next waiting area. After that is another battle area with the same mechanics until you hit the floor final boss then receive a medium chest." Gunner explained slowly.
Xela smiled and continued. "The same applies for the Journeyman and Adept floor as far as we could tell, with the mini-bosses of the Journeyman floor giving medium reward chests upon defeat and the final one a large reward chest. As for the Adept floor, the mini-bosses give large rewards chest while the final one called Shopablo gives a grand reward chest… and some cringy lines."
Darius smiled bitterly. It seemed like his original speculation was correct, this dungeon was totally a raid-type, requiring not only 20-50 people of the same stage, but also people who were skilled and had sufficient teamwork.
They couldn't be like Andrato which had even non-Amateurs enter. That would be simply sending citizens to their death, so the Adventurers Guild he would eventually set up would have to be very well organized and stringent with its criteria to join, but also provide hefty benefits.
Fortunately, Darius already had an idea of how to handle things. He could simply allow outsiders to enter the dungeon freely and only tax them with 10% of what they gain inside.
This would attract many who would come for the superior quality reward, and also provide the dungeon with ample Soul Energy from non-citizens to fuel its growth.
Meanwhile, his actual citizens would have a tough time dying and could rather harvest free resources for the territory.
A good deal, no?
