Nightmare Fantasy Online - Chapter 63

“……yeah, not good.” – Garami

I looked at my status page with a less-than-satisfied expression on my face.

Sure, high numbers are well and all, but there’s something else I gotta worry about.

Evolution.

Several players have started to reach racial rank D now, and more so after the event started. There have been no problems up until now, but…, I sorta wish to be better prepared for it. My current race was the result of clearing super-special conditions. What if there are some for a D-rank evolution but what if my rushing through the levels has limited my chances to get it?

Okay, maybe I’m overthinking stuff. There are lots of players saying they got their evolutions without a prob. It’s just that the idea of something extremely rare is so alluring…

Therefore, I’m spending the day training! I want to buff my skills! Maybe evolve a few as well, if I’m lucky.

As for the event, I’ll have Bloom go into town and ask around. With her disguise, the locals shouldn’t give her any problems. And as for the players, the targets for Bloom’s questioning, most should be more than happy to talk to a cute maid-witch.

“Boss, welcome back,” said Fox the Yami-Kitsune. He, the Demonia Magia Doll nicknamed (just) Doll, Gin the Lesser Ginkaku, and the three newcomers, were all having a drinking party outside the dojos.

One is a Lesser Baphomet, the famous goat-headed demon’s lower-quality little brother, and the teacher for the Crafter-skills. He’s nicknamed Thirteen after the infamous day for the Templar Knights.

Next is a Lesser Kinkaku. She’s Gin’s bigger, golden sister. They’re not related for real (can monsters even be related to each other?) but the two seem to have hit it off so well that the Lesser Kinkaku took on the nickname “Kin”. She’s training leadership-type skills, believe it or not.

And finally is the Vile Wendigo. He’s a big hunk of a demon that’s easily 3 meters high. He’s wearing dark armor over his whole body, with only a pair of nasty-looking dark-red horns sticking out of his helmet. He’s teaching monster-type skills. Nicknamed Vile.

After hearing Fox’s comment, four out of six went down on their knees, except Fox himself and Vile. Fox is kinda a my-pace guy, so that didn’t come as a surprise, but Vile seems to not be the type to care about ranks either.

“I’d want some training for the day.” – Garami

“Already done with the swamp?” asked Fox casually, which earned him the evil eye from the four of the “prime and proper”-group.

“Bloom’s collecting info, but I’m close to evolving.” – Garami

“Okay…oh. Now I see. You’re aiming for some extra medals before asking for the “promotion”?” – Fox

“Sorta like that.” – Garami

“That’s fine with all of us,” said Fox, which resulted in the other five nodding to his words, “but there are limits on how much we could teach you.”

Tch, that’s true. Even Fox’s super-hard training plan’s no good if I wanna train stuff unrelated to Scout-stuff. I wanna improve my magic abilities since I can’t take Bloom with me deeper into the Haunt. It’s too dangerous for her.

The fight with the worms the other day was easy, but only because we made it be so. I’d never imagined we would get so many bugs after us, nor did Bloom. The “quantity” of monsters has sky-rocketed due to the event. That’s something I can imagine being the case without waiting for Bloom’s report. And nothing is stopping the “quality” from being in the same circumstances.

Rather, considering how sadistic this game can be on the players, it would be stranger for there to be no OP-turned monsters now!

That’s why I wanna have at least some magic stuff with me. Just in case we meet something weaker than weak towards magic. It’s always good to have a good number of aces in your hand. Unless you’re playing Old maid.

“…upgrading could reduce the time?” asked Vain…?

Wait, I can upgrade this place? I didn’t see anything about that when I looked through the Dungeon menu through the Dungeon Terminal.

“Boss? Where are you going?” – Fox

“Gonna check if I can upgrade or not.” – Garami

“Why’re you leaving then?” – Fox

Huh? Now all six of them are looking at me funny. Can I do the upgrade here? Let’s see on the menu…, looking at the “Dungeon” tab…HUH!?

Including the normal window that showed the Dungeon’s current state, I now see a new tab that’s labeled “dojo”. Don’t tell me…

A facility that can be found inside and outside a Dungeon.

Several monsters live here to train the (unfortunate) souls that arrive at the Dojo and whip them into shape. Sometimes with real whips!

I never knew I could do this! And there are lots of other upgrades down the list, but they are grey-ed out, and they require that I fulfill some special conditions if I wanna buy them.

…I think I’ve found a biiiiiig trick when it comes to Dungeon management.

“Give me a sec,” I told the six as I ran for the nearest Dungeon facility. The first thing I came across was a Bomb Crystal, the lookalikes to the Recovery Crystals (except these go boom instead of heal), but nothing appeared when I tried looking at the menu again.

Ignoring the crystal, I aimed for the second-closest facility instead. And it was a Gift Shop, a dedicated area for selling stuff that originates from the Dungeon to invaders. It’s manned by a doll-like being. It looks like a stand used in festivals. In other words, it looks cheap.

This time, I got some results, which was mostly about adding decorations to hiring a dedicated worker here. Or upgrading the wares I could buy.

After seeing this, I raced across the 5th floor and looked at all the non-trap facilities here. Except for the Casino Entrance and the Treasure Chest-type items, I got a result from checking them out with the menu instead of the Terminal.

The Café even told me how to add specific monsters instead of summoning random ones. That was what the Terminal did, and I had to suffer seeing a Lesser Hellion in a maid dress. *Brr*.

To summarize, it seems that the Terminal is to add and alter facilities of the Dungeon itself, but if I wanna go detailed on a specific facility, I gotta go there in person and add the upgrades to it from my System Menu.

For now, I threw in 120 DP into the Café to hire 3 Jewelry Succubus as waitresses and 1 Stygian Jester (D-rank demon evolved from the Stygian Clown) as the chef and bartender, 30 DP each.

After that, I returned to the Dojo and spent a total of 100 DP to add the “common training ground”, the bamboo theme, and the clock to the place. The last one was just because I wanted to see how it changes with the bamboo theme.

A big arena-like thing appeared in the plaza leading to the 6 dojo buildings. Afterward, a small, black gothic-looking clocktower emerged at the arena’s north side.

After the bamboo theme was purchased, the walls were replaced with thick-growing bamboo plants, the arena got small fences made from bamboo, and the miniature clock tower got an eastern theme along with the metal it was made from was replaced with a structure made from bamboo. There’s even a lake added in-between the paths of the 3rd and 4th dojos, with one of those decoration-thingies made from bamboo that goes *clunk* when it’s filled up with water.

And FYI, all this bamboo is different from regular bamboo. Its trunk is black while the few leaves I can see are purple. And my Manavision tells me that this stuff could be awesome if I managed to harvest some of it.

“Is this good for you?” – Garami

“Ha-ha! As expected of the boss!” – Fox

“Not bad~.” – Kin

“Could need some liquor dispensers…” – Gin

Hey! …that’s a good idea.

“Naturally, master Garami. Please tell us your wishes. What arts would like to train in?” – Thirteen

Weeeeell…

—

“And then you took what?” said Bloom after she’d returned, asking me to repeat myself for the third time already.

“Everything I had.” – Garami

“…master, have you heard of something known as “limits”?” – Bloom

Sure I have. You’re supposed to break them. Unless the result’s boring.

Kukuku. I’m confident that I could beat the caterpillar army single-handedly now. I mean, I did survive facing four of those sinister six back there…, it’s scary just remembering their “serious mode”…

Traumas aside, even Arachnid Assailant leveled up thanks to that trial of evil! That gave me 0.5 AP, since, unlike the beginner class Scout, Intermediate-tier classes give you that much when they reach a level that’s a multiple of 10.

I also used 9 AP to increase the level of my Talent skill. Getting that to T2 has to do something to my evolution options. But I’m saving a good chunk for now, in case of an emergency.

“And what about you? Did you figure out anything?” – Garami

“……fine, we’re changing the subject. Ever guessed why there were so many bugs after us yesterday?” – Bloom

“I dunno. Maybe there was a picnic festival nearby?” – Garami

“Nice try. The answer is: in all the Alberido Swamp regions, there’s been a bursting increase of a particular type of bug-type monsters. For the Alpha region, it was caterpillars. For the Beta region, I heard it was ladybugs.” – Bloom

“We got the short stick insect of the deal.” – Garami

“That does bug me too. The point is, aren’t those bugs sort of sus?” – Bloom

“Great minds think alike. The same idea popped up in my head too.” – Garami

That settles the deal for tomorrow’s plans. But before I log off, let’s add the 6th floor with the recharged DP. Another floor, another increase to my total DP by 10~.

…and let’s publish another post on my fan club thread. To talk about those “brothels” I found in the Dungeon menu recently, and “how you can be served by succubi in Café-facilities” if the Dungeon level goes further up. For no particular reason~.