IDLE Database - Chapter 66

A Dungeon in most games often offers challenges for the Players that if they completed it, they’d receive a reward.

However, in most cases, Dungeons would eventually become an area to farm rare materials.

Only those games that were specifically designed to be difficult would a player truly feel the challenge. Otherwise, they’d just breeze through it without any problem and repeat it until their energy got spent.

And in this Dungeon’s case, it might’ve shocked Aldrin at the start but upon encountering the ‘monsters’ lurking in the dungeon, he gradually accustomed himself to it that he eventually didn’t need to make a move anymore or if he did, it’s only to provide support to the three Dimensional Clones.

“It’s a Normal difficulty… What do I expect? Encounter a Champion here? But I guess, it’s about time to meet the Dungeon Boss.” Aldrin muttered as he observed his surroundings checking if there’s treasure chests or the like.

Alas, that didn’t seem to be included in the system.

Save from the insect juices, spears and some parts that got severed from the ants, nothing else could be seen. The dark and eerie ant lair returned to its original silence as Aldrin continued on his way.

Earlier, the Shadow Clone he sent that escaped all the traps it triggered and successfully mapped the other side had long encountered the one barring the only entrance to the next area before it disappeared.

And from the result of that scouting, that Dungeon Boss isn’t a creature with question marks as its level but it’s above level 20 or Level 21 to be exact.

It’s a level higher than the Brown Feline that’s supposed to be the weakest inside the Drawyz Domain or the maintained Dimensional Rift.

After more than a week of possessing the IDLE Database, he had more or less analyzed the level system of the perceived ‘monsters’ or ‘enemies’ in this ‘game’.

If at first, the gap of one or two levels between each type of ants weren’t that noticeable, that’s slowly being highlighted the higher the level they appeared to be.

Furthermore, Level 20 appeared to correspond to a certain threshold.

Take the Brown Feline as an example. After reading a book where it was recorded, that Rift Monster was considered a peak Ordinary Rank.

Going by that information, Level 21 could be considered as an early Extraordinary Rank.

As for his current level, although there’s no clear indication, Aldrin could place himself between Normal and Hard difficulty. And at the moment, that’s around level 7 to 10. The 660 IDLE Points-worth of multipliers magnified that to around Level 12 to 15. That’s the reason why he could easily sweep through the Royal Soldier and its Elite Royal Soldier Ants in this dungeon, they’re simple mobs for him at this point.

Thinking about the Difficulty of the Dungeon that dropped to Normal, placing a Level 21 here was more than the realm of Normal.

It’s in line with Aldrin’s taste though. Although he wanted to take it easy, it wouldn’t hurt him to challenge a normally impossible task. That’s the joy of gaming. The reason why games would always thrive no matter the era.

After passing through the giant boulder that crushed his Shadow Clone, Aldrin and his clones passed by more traps that Tank literally tanked the damage for them to arrive before the Dungeon Boss.

[Level 21 Guardian Ant]

Looking at the 3-meter-tall winged ant in front of him, apart from its size and its different weapon; a curved sword and a round shield, it’s no different than most Royal Ants he encountered.

It’s not the Ant Queen.

That means, there’s another area beyond this Guardian Ant. He also failed to see any room where eggs from the Queen should be stored.

Furthermore, Aldrin was pleasantly surprised upon noticing that the system about a monster’s ‘Detection Range’ is in place for the Guardian Ant.

Even if they’re already standing in front of it and they’re well within its sight, it remained in its position, blocking their way.

“This IDLE Database… Now I’m wondering if the ants here were truly existing or they were kidnapped and forced to conform by the system placed in this dungeon.” Aldrin believed he’d already thrown out any common sense about the mysterious program. However, seeing every new thing that it could do, more than amazement, a seed of fear was slowly being cultivated in his mind.

Without approaching its detection range, Aldrin re-summoned two Shadow Clones and ordered them to attack it.

Before going into a boss fight, it’s quite common to test it first. To learn its attack patterns and skills if there were any he had to look out for.

And with his Concept, it became convenient for him to send his Shadow Clones without letting any of his Dimensional Clones sacrifice themselves.

With just a simple command, the Shadow Clones swiftly rushed over and entered the Guardian Ant’s range.

They’re only wielding spears Aldrin picked up from the vanished ants. Like Dimensional Clones, they’re just moving the same as him, albeit clearly a lot weaker.

As soon as one of the Shadow Clones aimed its spear at the Guardian Ant, it raised its shield blocking it. And using the recoil, the Guardian Ant flung it away.

The same fate awaited the other Shadow Clone but compared to the first one, he was kicked away.

Changing their tactics, they began circling the Guardian Ant. With one of them taking the aggro, the other one sneaked an attack, piercing its spear from behind.

It’s successful but the damage was close to negligible.

That’s to be expected anyway.

Aldrin didn’t send them out to kill something impossible for mere clones.

“They’ll still last for three more hits. I better get moving.” He nodded after a quick check on his clones. Following that, he turned around and brought his Dimensional Clones away.

He shared the Shadow Clones’ vision anyway. Even if he’s not here watching, his information about the Guardian Ant was slowly accumulating.

Better use the time standing around to do something more efficient.

Anyway, what kind of gamer will leave an area uncleared?

There are the lousy ones that are simply lazy. As long as they finished the dungeon, that’s all that matters.

Or those speedrunners that are challenging themselves to finish the game in the shortest time possible.

Aldrin didn’t fall into those two categories. Furthermore, he’s also not like those who want to clear all the objectives and get a 100% clear.

He’s simply a realist gamer. As long as a chance presented itself and he could finish it without any difficulty, he’d rather do it than leave it behind.

Ironically, idle games in general are simply designed to be endless. You can do the same thing over and over again, unlocking new content and watching the numbers go up. Unless the idle game was story-based that had a definite ending, the player would soon find themselves on a loop.

So, most of the idle games he played were left unfinished after exhausting their interesting contents.

“As if I can apply that to the IDLE Database. This mysterious program was deeper than those games that relied too much on mathematical equations.” Aldrin shook his head, clearing his mind of the unnecessary thoughts.

Stepping into the uncleared passage, Tank, Hitter and Poker instantly moved out and engaged the scattered ants without needing new orders from him.

Picking off every group of Soldier and Elite Soldier Ants swiftly, his IDLE Points started increasing once again along with the notifications about the ants’ corpses being sent to Idle Storage.

With that kind of efficiency, it didn’t take long for him to return in front of the Guardian Ant.

After checking their equipped Battlesuits and finding out that apart from the few dents when some of the ants managed to slip in an attack, he began gearing up to challenge the Guardian Ant.