Chapter 78: The Archstones, and Tendencies

--

The ’Archstones’ were about the same size as each other, around ten meters in height.

On its surface, there are strange pictures drawn and words written. Before the dawn of martial arts, nobody was able to translate these languages. They just thought that the ones who made it were cavemen.

That’s until the first dungeon overflow happened, pouring out like a flood from the Archstones. That’s when humans realized that these things were far from simple, and they began studying them more carefully.

As years passed, many experiments were made. Some at the cost of hundreds of lives. Little by little, humans compiled all the information they received and learned what awaits them after the Archstones took them.

When the first army returned from their dungeon expedition carrying crates of supply that had never been seen before, that’s when they finally realized that human history was about to take a turn, for better or for worse.

As time passed, the language used in dungeons has been studied, translated, and used in multiple locations.

Human language is still unique, but in dungeons, people speak its language as much as they can.

Ren also studied the Dungeon Language in prep school; therefore, he could recognize the words written here.

It says, "First Archstone - 10 Dungeon Levels."

The pictures are of the monsters that could be found on each stage, the ones that appeared a lot at least.

For the first five stages, there’s only one enemy, and that’s the Slimes. Stages 1 through 5 are all about Slimes.

Ren actually doesn’t need to touch the Archstone to be transported to the actual dungeon. He just needs to enter within its range, around 15 meters close to it. Then, he could close his eyes and declare which dungeon stage he wants to go to. It has to be clear and intended. The Archstones doesn’t do accidental transfers.

The intent must be clear, and the explorer must be willing. That’s the only way the Archstones will hear their request and transport them to the actual dungeons themselves.

For parties, it’s the party leader who usually does this on behalf of the team. Also, to be acknowledged as a party, all members must wear a badge made from the shavings of the Archstones themselves; that way, the Archstones could react to it and actually transfer them as a group instead of individually.

This wasn’t something that humans discovered on their own. It’s the world system that informed them about this.

When humans started getting used to clearing dungeons, the World System woke up and began guiding them. Actually, most of what humans knew about dungeons and the Archstones came from the world system too.

It’s also the world system that told them that challenging a dungeon level as a solo participant or a party creates a difference in the environment. The dungeon itself adjusts its ’difficulty’ level based on how many people were around.

The dungeons actually don’t have a ’difficulty’ per se. It’s meant to be challenging for both solo and party groups. They’re designed to test the challenger’s skills and strength and also create dangers that ’could’ threaten their lives. But the dungeon doesn’t actively ’kill’; it doesn’t have mood swings or anything.

It serves a greater purpose, and that setting won’t be changed so easily.

The only time when a dungeon is truly at its most ’dangerous’ state is when its tendency reaches the ’Black’ level.

’Tendencies’—this is another piece of knowledge that came from the world system. Each Archstone has tendencies for every ten dungeon levels. They are color-coded as white, beige, and black.

Beige Tendency is a dungeon’s ’neutral’ phase. To put it simply, this is the ’natural’ state of the dungeon, how it should behave and act. The monster spawn for all variants, drop rates, climate change for biomes, etc. are all at their original setting.

White Tendency is cool. It’s awesome, actually. Everybody strives to turn every dungeon level into this. Because at this tendency shade, drop rates are high, the natural resources are abundant, and the monsters are ’calm’ albeit with a higher spawn rate. In this state, even Elite Monsters and above are more ’reasonable’ to deal with.

Anybody who’s hunting for materials would look for dungeon levels at the White Tendency shade to get the most out of their buck.

However, this doesn’t mean that the White Tendency shade is ’safe.’ With higher monster spawn rates, it’s easy to be surrounded with monsters. And even though they’re more calm and reasonable in this state, that doesn’t mean that they won’t attack when provoked. Besides, the spawn rates of variants are also higher in this state, so it could become more dangerous.

And finally, there’s the Black Tendency shade. This basically means that the dungeon was its most dangerous phase. The monsters in there will be highly aggressive. Predators will be hunting; they will be more territorial or, in worst-case scenarios, extremely bloodthirsty.

Furthermore, the biomes will react too. Climates could go from one hellish state to the next without any preamble; it’s as if the world itself were angry or throwing temper tantrums.

Many people died, and will die, at Black Tendency’s shade dungeon levels.

But if it’s so dangerous, why go in anyway? Isn’t it safer to just wait it out?

There’s no ’waiting it out,’ though. Dungeon tendencies won’t shift unless something is done to make it happen. A dungeon won’t go from beige to white tendency on its own or because it felt like it.

No, in dungeons, actions have consequences. Everything everybody does in there will have an effect on the next ones that follow them. And this shift has something to do with the main purpose of the dungeons.

The Archstones appeared before humanity to take them into dungeons to make them strong. That’s its true purpose.

Dungeons are made to forge warriors who will ascend the world. This is a trial by fire open to everybody in the civilization.

Beige tendency occurs when everybody does their part. Meaning that these particular levels are experiencing regular clears and raids, there’s a normal amount of traffic, and it wasn’t being abandoned or taken for granted.

White Tendency occurs when the activity for a set batch of dungeon levels is high, which tells the dungeons that the race was particularly active and hungry for progress. It’s a form of blessing per se, rewarding and enticing them for their hunger, their drive, and their determination.

Alas, out of the three shades, it is the White Tendency that has a time limit. White tendency only lasts for three months, and it will change to beige. There’s a three-month cooldown too.

Even still, people still strive to turn every dungeon level into White Tendency shade because it’s considered to be the ’best’ state. Which explorer doesn’t enjoy higher drop rates, anyway?

And finally, Black Tendency occurs when a set of dungeon levels doesn’t receive enough activity. It could mean that the challengers feel like it’s too hard or simply not worth it, which also means that the race is being lazy and picky. Something that the Archstones don’t appreciate.

When it turns black, that’s when they messed up. Tendencies don’t fade over time. Again, there’s no ’waiting it out’; the danger won’t pass. It will remain like that until finally, the Archstones have had enough.

If Black Tendency dungeons are abandoned for at least six months. It will result in a Dungeon Overflow.

Remember, every ten dungeon levels share the same tendency. So when a dungeon overflow happens, every single monster contained in those stages, in their highly aggressive, or, god-forbid, extremely bloodthirsty state, will start pouring out to the human civilization.

Their numbers will be multiplied, and they will be stronger compared to when they’re at their natural habitat.

This is a painful and bloody lesson humans had to learn the hardest way possible. It is why that, regardless of whether they want to or not, they will have to clear Black Tendency dungeons.

Dungeon Overflows are horrible. Even more so since they could be avoided; it has been done before. That’s why when the previous overflow happened, the king went nuts and raged at his ministers. The GMU literally lit a fire under their men’s asses to get that shit sorted out.

Ren was safe at the clan when that happened. But only because he had the clan’s protection. If he was some no-name orphan who happened to be targeted by the monsters who escaped? Surviving that would definitely be a miracle. But even if he could, it’s possible that he will be traumatized. Hell, he might even lose a limb or two.

Because of the recent activities, the first ten stages were at Beige Tendency shade. It’s a pity that it wasn’t white, but Ren wasn’t too bummed. Just getting in there for firsthand experience was good enough.

’Stage 1, please. I’m ready,’ Ren muttered to himself with clear intent the moment he was within 15 meters of the first archstone.

A few seconds after that, he felt that familiar sensation of being violently yanked, upwards this time, and he was gone from the plaza.