//------------------------------//
// Grand Opening! 
// Story: Dungeon Core, Resistance. 
// by Zemez 
//------------------------------//

A week had passed, and Xaviar had gotten quite used to his new form of existence. In one portion of his domain, he was watching three level twenty Quills Fighting a single level eighteen Infested Rat. He had gotten another two ABP in this time as he had absorbed much of the slag and corpses left behind, as well as eleven more rats. He distributed them both into Upkeep to speed up his expansion.

While he was watching, he was idly expanding his domain up through the gorge. He found out the thinner he made the spread, the farther he could go with a single mana application. He first followed the rope up, before absorbing it along with his small 'camp'. Which really only consisted of his tent and a few books. After he breached the surface, he decided to spread his influence out among the gorge until he had enough space to completely surround the climb down to his entrance.

'His entrance', seems he had been adapting to his new existence faster than he thought. Sure, it was lonely, he missed his Brother and his sick aunt. Feather plucking, he had even remembered the unicorn who he sat next to during History of thaumaturgy. Who'd constantly ask him to borrow a pencil every day and give it back after class until he just gave the guy the pencil. He hugged Xaviar, it was awkward but nice.

His monsters were thrilling conversationalists. Or at least he liked to imagine they would be if they could do more than make wooshing sounds. He was unsure if they were actually... 'alive' in that sense, but they at least made decisions on their own. If he willed them to move towards an area in his domain, they'd take the fastest route instead of the most obvious.

Speaking of, with his improved Mana, he wanted to get rid of the encyclopedia and make a better one... But he just couldn't figure out how to get rid of a monster. He tried willing it to go away, for it to combust, or even just to dissolve. He tried to get the other monsters to attack it and willed it to not fight back. They just stood there, so he couldn't get rid of a monster he made. He even tried this on the quills, seeing if it was just boss monsters, nope.

Anyways, he had been experimenting with Material Reinforcement. Which actually cost no mana, but required the materials to be around to be shaped. Which meant in theory, it cost no mana. But until he found some way to make metals, or found some, he'd need to make do with the materials currently in his domain, which he could move freely around, and the stuff he could make with Material Creation I Which seemed to be wood for 8 mana per cubic horn, and a variety of stone per cubic Hoof and other non-metallic materials.

Firstly, he blocked the entrance to his cave with around three hooves of rock. If he learned anything from the previous occupant, it's that if there's an entrance to your core, someone determined to find it will. The quills finally defeated the rat, which finally brought him to that sweet level three.

He took a break at expanding, sending the quills back on patrol. The Rats were oddly experienced at tunneling through rock, despite not having an ability to help them do so. The tunnels they dug extended all throughout his new home, and with his time crunch, he had no time to spread his influence around the maze-like tunnels so that his monsters could hunt them down. Yeah, his Monsters also couldn't go beyond his Domain, he tried really hard to get them out, but even if he pushed them out somehow, they'd either return to his domain or idle about unresponsive until there was a path to get back.

He brought up his upgrade panel, he had never been this excited leveling up before. Then again, previously, leveling only gave give attribute points and the occasional skill point or Ability point. He paused, while he could rush what he wanted, he looked over his list.





He extremely wished that he had more points, but he had to think long-term instead of short. Right now, his mobs were the weakest of the weak. The average adult griffon was at level twenty D rank. D rank classes were pretty generic, such as warrior, seamstress, farmer, etc. While they'd still spend a year in the military, most of them would only run a dungeon once or twice in their lives under the protection of two C ranks. In comparison, those C ranks would be in the dungeon twenty to fifty times more than the D ranks, as C rank Combat classes were spread thin. Which meant each would be near level fifty...

Then he had to contend with the legendary Nighttalons. In the army, you only heard rumors of them, and civilians treat them as national heroes, despite never seeing them. While rampant dungeons were the biggest threat the nations had to deal with, there were plenty of other threats that could pop up. A random Magic user abusing the citizens, a magical anomaly destroying an entire town, etc. Anybody who got a class that was B rank or above was automatically put into the Nighttalons, as any class that high rank was never a pure non-combat class... Even the weakest was level 50 by the time they finished training.

Why was he so sure they exist, and why did he know so much? His brother, although he never told him his class's name, was an A rank, and he was also a Nighttalon.

He had to take advantage of several of his traits, he couldn't go slow, There's plenty of documentation of Dungeon Tides, D ranks were nothing but cannon fodder, C ranks were barely able to hold their own, only at B rank and above could the Dungeon tide monsters be stopped. Since nobody knew the actual levels or ranks of Dungeon Tide monsters, he had to assume the average was C rank.

He had to take immediate gains right now for future growth. He took a skill point, an ability point, and a point of new knowledge. Finally, he took Improved Treasure with his final points. He assigned the skill point in Runecrafting, the ability point to Monster Creation, and took his new skill in Runic Scripture I.

He needed to increase Monster creation if he wanted to keep an edge. When he tried to create monsters above level twenty, he couldn't. His S+ rank soul should have allowed him to, but it didn't. The third rank of Runecrafting will allow him to create Lesser Librarians, which he hoped considering they had such a prerequisite, they were at least C rank. Finally, He took Runic Scripture I and  Improved Treasure so that he could provide better incentives than the Griffon Chits and writing quills that have been dropping from his monsters.

While his mana didn't go up, he had already been stockpiling so that he could build his grand design. He had already surrounded an area of sandstone alongside the bottom of the gorge in his domain. He checked his Status.





Afterward, he first blocked off the top of the gorge in his domain with ordinary sedimentary rock. He created shunts inside of it that the warm air would blow through, half of these led out the side of the rock, and half of them led out the top in different areas. It was time for the sandstone, He would inevitably run out, as he hadn't prepared a big enough area, but he has plenty of mana to create more.

First were the steps and foundation, Material Reinforcement I Allowed him to change some properties of the material, He could double its resiliency for the mana cost to create it, change its density, and even allow him to engrave fine artwork. Xaviar was not an artist when he was a griffon, at least not a good one, his talons could never stay steady long enough. However, with his abilities, he only had to think before it would be made.

The foundation was six Hooves tall, with an area of ten thousand square hooves. He did run out, eventually having to use around five hundred mana to create the rest of the foundation. The top of the sandstone was smoothened and polished. Stairs molded, and railing designed.

He made the walls out of marble, ten hooves tall. Each was fairly nondescript, but he spent a total of seven thousand and five hundred mana on the walls. Which required an extra four hours. Somebody was bound to notice his work, so he had to cut corners. He made the roof out of ordinary rock. Two pillars over an overhanging arch depicted a simple cross-marked array of etchings that looks pleasant.

He didn't have enough mana to create all the wooden shelves and furniture he wanted. Instead, he spread his domain to a space woodland several hundred hooves away by stretching his domain thin. Then he engulfed it. Each tree disappeared one by one as the building filled up with bookshelves, a single large desk, and plenty of stone walls.

Finally, he created a wall to separate the back of the Library. Here, all of the heat shunts he made earlier ended up, creating a strong updraft throughout the room. For now, his Encyclopedia would go here until it was beaten. Then he'd replace it with a stronger boss.

The room was outfitted as a private reading room, with a desk, along with several bookcases, currently empty. Otherwise with a rug and some lights he didn't exactly know how to decorate the room...

He moved onto the library. Books were only three mana per, so he filled up all of the bookshelves, which created a maze of books. His new Rune Carving III allowed him to finally understand how his Animated monsters flew. He made it so that occasionally a random book would flutter off the shelves and onto a lectern, where a quill would pretend to write in it before it would fly off onto another bookshelf. When creating the books, he was surprised he could actually put his skills into them.

Of course, he went wild, he imagined adventurers coming in and taking a break, sitting down at one of the intersections and reading a book while waiting for their mana to recharge. Perhaps later he could even have animated drinks and lights, even serving-

He was getting ahead of himself. He was still lacking mana, so he brought up his quills and the Encyclopedia. After a week and some experimenting with the rats, the Runic Scripture ability increased in power depending on how many quills wrote in the book at once. The increase lost half its potency for every extra quill. For a 2x increase with two, 2.5 with three, 2.75 with four, etc.

Placing the Quills around, he waited for his structure to finally be spotted, The Grand Library of Griffonia was open!





Villem double-checked his map. His friendly earth pony companion, Potluck, was looking over his shoulder as he did. Macy, their Minotaur bruiser, was sitting off to the side admiring the structure that wasn't on his week-old map. He and Potluck looked at each other, trepidation and excitement visible on both of their features. There were only two things that this building could mean, considering that engraved above the entranceway was 'Grand Library of Griffonia'. Either the kingdom had expedited the construction of a new library faster than even Equestria was known to, or this was a new dungeon!

"We're going in, right?" Potluck's excited voice sounded behind him.

"If it's dangerous-" He began before being interrupted by Macy.

"Every job we do is dangerous, but this is Phenomenal."

He turned towards the two, They were staring at him, waiting for him to say yes... He ran a talon through his head feathers before sighing. "Alright, one run, we get enough information to sell to the king, then we continue heading west for Equestria. We're still on a job."

He was sure they'd be fine, He was a C rank Fury Talon, Potluck was a B rank Master Chef, and Macy was a B rank War Smith with each of them averaging level 70.

"Yes!" both of them shouted before running up the steps, Villem shook his head before following more sedately.

When they opened up the large double oak doors, they stared in shock. Floating candles adorned the large room, bookcases filled with books flying from shelf to shelf, and occasionally landing on a lectern to be written in briefly before flying off once more.

"...this is a dungeon right?" Potluck asked in shock. Villem could only nod mutely, he was the only one of the group who had actually been in a dungeon before, the air felt tingly, almost supercharged. This was a telltale sign of an area with a high concentration of magic, and unless a natural wellspring of mana popped up overnight... This was a dungeon.

"Well? Let's go in, what do you think we'll fight? I bet the books'll come off the shelves and attack us!" Macy exclaimed as she thundered on in, hefting her Warhammer in her hand.

The other two could only follow along. The bookcases were tall, they guessed about eight hooves high, and each had nine rows for books. They first encountered a group of three writing quills, They readied themselves as the quills floated over.

After adjusting themselves, the quills shot forward, Potluck slammed one away with a pan, the sound of the shaft breaking signified how weak it was if it was defeated from one hit. While Macy ducked, Villem let himself get pricked. He didn't even feel it, his endurance must have been at least double the quill's damage for that to happen. He snatched it out of his skin and broke it in half. Macy followed his example and did the same.

"...so, awesome decor but weak monsters? Are dungeons normally like this?" Potluck asked, inspecting the remains of one of the quills. Villem frowned in thought.

"Normally no... The one Griffonia has is put into layers, with lower difficulty monsters at the entrance, and tougher ones at the back... Maybe the library has a basement." Villem said after a while.

"Who cares if it's easy? That just means that we can get through the dungeon without a scratch and grab some books on the way out." Macy spoke up.

"You're right, The dungeon isn't our main priority, we'll take a gander at the first-floor boss and then leave." He finally said before they continued moving on.

The next group was just more quills, they must have been tougher, since they did one damage when he was hit by them, and potluck got poisoned. For lower leveled D ranks, Ink Poisoning would have been devastating, but for C and B ranks with seventy levels? It was barely an inconvenience. They took a short break at one of the tables. They wanted to see how long the debuff would take to clear up.

Macy in the meantime pulled a book off the shelf before beginning to read it. Villem decided to get a little rest, he hadn't slept well last night and it showed in how distracted he was by this dungeon. Potluck must have decided to cook something since the smell of fruit his nostrils right before he faded.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Villem awoke with a start, hitting his front legs on the bottom of the table as he stood up, his eyes blearily looking around for danger as his talons glowed a dark grey. Eventually, after realizing he had just been startled awake for no reason, he sat back down, wiping a talon across his eye as he looked at Macy, who was standing up, an expression of shock on her face as she stared down at a book.

"Wish to enlight the, very sleepy, class?" Villem finally said as she stood there for several seconds.

"It's... Runes." She finally said.

"Isn't that... Normal? The minotaur's smithing secrets aren't so secret anymore." Potluck asked.

"This isn't normal runecarving, it's a method of writing a sequence of tangential runes to create phenomena."

"You mean enchanting?" Villem asked, if it was, they could sell it for some-

"No, it's... Hard to explain, like what unicorns do, only through what I think is some sort of sentence structure!" As she explained it, the two still looked at her bewildered, to them, it sounded just like enchanting. Which Macy already had the ability to do, most of Potlucks tools were made and enchanted by her after all.

"Look, enchanting is done by putting a rune for say, fire. What you'd then do is create mana channels to flow the mana into the rune. What this is... It's more like spellcasting! Only... I can barely understand half of this, and my Runecarving is at nine!"

The two were more attentive now. A book on enchanting was worth a few bits, but Macy was their resident expert on runes. And she was having trouble? They stared at the book laying open on the table like it would come alive and start flapping away.

"You want it."

"I want it." It wasn't even a question, and the answer came back immediately. They had already been here for an hour, it was time to finish the dungeon and get moving, hopefully, it didn't mind they were taking a souvenir...

They came upon a final door. Opening it made their eyes widen, inside was a book the size of a pony, its pages turning silently as it floated, defying all notions of gravity. The rush of hot air hit them, causing them to flinch. 'rookie mistake' Villem thought to himself. Although the book seemed to continue floating there when they reopened their eyes.

They tentatively stepped in, and the doors slammed shut. Two quills came from behind the desk and they braced to be stabbed, however instead, they floated over to the book, its pages stopped turning and the Quills began writing. Villem's eyes opened wide as he yelled, "Dodge!"

They scattered as the floor instantly raised up in a jagged pillar of stone where there were standing. Potluck wasn't fast enough as he was tossed to the side, his scream causing Villem to wince.

"Status!" he yelled as his talons turned grey.

"Unwounded!" Macy shouted from the other side of the pillar.

"I'll live." Potluck shouted. "Down fifty health"

"Then why are you whining?" Villem shouted as he shot off towards the Book, only to roll out of the way as a jet of water came streaming at him.

"Because it still hurts!" His shout came as a pan came flying past Villems head, smashing into the book. Before clattering to the ground. The book teetered unsteadily.

"Macy? What are you doing!?" Villem asked.

"Observing, keep fighting!" She shouted back as the book Regained its balance and began being written in once more.

While He wasn't exactly afraid of what the boss could throw at them, his own health was near a thousand, and a glancing blow only dealt fifty damage to Potluck, who had near the same endurance as him. He didn't know how much mana the boss actually had. For all he knew, it could keep doing this all day.

He lunged once more, only to be blasted into the pillar by a column of air. He tried to scream out as the jagged edges of the pillar dug into his back, but no air came out of his lungs.

Another pan came flying out from the side of the pillar. Through the blackened edges of his vision, he saw the book fall to the ground inert. He heard some mumbling before the agony in his back flared up once more. Squawking in pain, he realized he could finally breathe again as he took deep lungfuls.

"...You okay?" Macy asked, looking over his back.

Was he? He looked at his status, he had lost more than two hundred health with that single blow. He'd be fine in a few hours, but until then his back was gonna feel like shreds.

"...Loot?" He wheezed out. Potluck went over before holding up a quill. Villem thought at first that it was one of the enchanted Quills they had been fighting, before realizing it was a different plumage entirely.

"No idea what it is, but we can have the guildies look it at and figure it out. So why didn't you step in Macy, Villem wouldn't have gotten hurt if you had helped him charge it." Potluck said.

"... It was using that language." Macy as after a few moments. Both of them stopped and looked at her. While the monster was weak, that was the magic she was talking about? While they didn't exactly have Runecarving as a skill, it was basic knowledge that runes needed channels for Mana to go through for their effects to work, but if that was what was written in that book... Villem no longer cared about whatever reward he'd get from the king for finding this dungeon because that book was worth more than Griffonia combined.

"We're leaving, now." He said as he forcefully pushed himself up. They didn't question him, good, hopefully, they were realizing how valuable the book in Macy's bag was as well. As they reached the entrance they paused. There was a... What could only be described as a multitude of rectangular magnets in the general... Image of a griffon. Only it was six hooves tall and had spread its wings, which floated in the air without being connected to anything. The bars were covering their exit, and they prepared to fight until it tapped a sign next to the door.

'Exchange items for reading material?' they thought puzzled... Before it hit them, This was a library, and the book they had wasn't a dungeon drop, although the only thing they actually bothered to pick up was the one the boss dropped. They took it off the shelf, while a normal library would have them check out, this was also a dungeon...

Before they could do anything, Macy came forward and put her hammer on the ground. The automaton looked down at it before picking it up with one talon and examining it. Eventually, it nodded, retracting its wings and stepping aside. With that, they walked out into the sun and looked at each other wordlessly.

"Your hammer..." Potluck finally said.

"I can make a new one, I was prepared to give my entire travel pack," Macy replied.

"Let's get a move on... We need to get back to the equestrian branch, I'm calling off our primary mission, we'll inform the king of his new dungeon and board the first airship," Villem said, the other two didn't say anything...