"How come?" Surprised by this take, Dhruv asked.

"If I want to give something willingly, how come that will be counted as a sacrifice?"

Lucian replied with a devotion---almost with the level of a fanatic--- he felt toward the dungeon.

"Wait... so you don’t feel like someone is forcing you to sacrifice anything?"

"Why would I need someone to force me to give something to Master and my home?"

’Just how loyal has it become to feel this much obligated?’

Left speechless, Dhruv couldn’t help but stare at him silence. The problem he had solved a minute ago rose again, leaving him searching for an answer.

’Is it that Guardians are exempt from the rule? Or maybe this only applies to those I’ll summon. What will happen if I call someone from the outside world. Will they be affected by this as well?’

With no sight of any answer, Dhruv decided to only focus on the problem that mattered the most.

’The only real issue is with Lucian... and within half an hour I will find out. Even if it went wrong there are three chances before it becomes fatal...’ Turning his attention back, he found that the little demon was playing with blood. It was trying to mold it in the shape of a puppet.

’Blood? Is it magic.. must be.’ Ignoring its craft, Dhruv asked the question hoping for some clarity in his predicament.

"Lucian, what are the things you value at the moment?"

"You, Master."

Hearing its answer, Dhruv remembered the passive ability.

’Are you trying to kill me or what... wait, wouldn’t it be funny if we could cheese the restriction like that. It would only be a minor hindrance for me but that could save its life.’

"Except that." Dhruv asked, hoping to get something out of the little demon, which was actually a futile attempt as the monster had been alive for less than an hour and didn’t know a thing. So how could it value something except the dungeon and him.

"The dungeon, Master."

’At least it was worth a shot...’

"Okay, you can continue your play..."

Leaving Lucian to his craft, Dhruv focused on his own and looked for the monsters to summon.

Monster Available: [Goblin] [Due to an insufficient number of core signatures, you can’t summon beings of other races. Please collect more cores and increase the types of beings you can summon.]

’So it’s like Pokémon, and I have to collect all sorts of monsters... that’s a good way to keep the system balanced...’ Praising the meticulousness of the cube, Dhruv moved ahead and clicked on the ’Goblin’ tag.

Instantly a list appeared with names and how many dungeon points they cost for the summon. Beside their names was a figure depicting their physique along with the weapons they would wield after getting summoned. Their stats were mentioned as well.

Available Goblins Goblin Runt: 0.5 DP Baby Goblin: 0.5 DP Adult Goblin: 1 DP Goblin Scavenger: 1 DP Goblin Slinger: 2 DP Goblin Miner: 2 DP Goblin Scout: 2 DP Goblin Warrior: 3 DP Goblin Archer: 3 DP Goblin Slasher: 3 DP Goblin Thief: 3 DP Goblin Raider: 4 DP Goblin Brawler: 4 DP Goblin Skirmisher: 4 DP Goblin Trapper: 4 DP Goblin Tunneler: 4 DP Goblin Taskmaster: 10 DP Goblin Blacksmith: 10 DP Goblin Boar Rider: 15 DP Goblin Mage: 20 DP Goblin Alchemist: 20 DP Goblin Chieftain: 50 DP Goblin Champion: 75 DP Goblin Warlord: 100 DP Goblin Matriarch: 150 DP Goblin King: 500 DP

’Let’s see what they can do..’

After getting the initial idea from the list alone, Dhruv began to read their descriptions to understand some hidden mechanics about them.

Goblin Runt: An undersized, weak goblin usually bullied by the rest of the tribe. Its weak body can slip through tiny cracks and evade heavy blows. Adult Goblin: A standard, fully-grown goblin with basic survival and combat skills. It gains an attack bonus when surrounding an enemy. Goblin Scavenger: A goblin specialized in picking the battlefield clean. It detects hidden items and weak points in armor. Goblin... ...

While pondering, his attention suddenly went to Lucian who had stopped playing with the blood.

’Is it out of mana?’

Dhruv was about to shift his attention back to the screen when an idea struck him.

’Should I test how intelligent and scheming it is?’

"Lucian, listen to these descriptions and tell me what you think about the monsters we should summon."

"As you command, Master."

With this, both of them went back to reading and sorting the monsters based on their usefulness. At first Dhruv had to teach it about the things that were new to it, but as the time passed he couldn’t help but come to a shocking realization.

’This little thing is good at absorbing information and processing it... too good, in fact. If someone with just intelligence is this good... what would geniuses achieve and how scary would the prodigies be?’

Shaking his head, he mused about the opinions it was giving. Its opinions were so out of the box that even Dhruv began to have second thoughts about the initial formation he had thought of.

After a while, when both of them had read and understood the descriptions with their specialties, they began having a debate about how to create a team of them.

"We at least agree that 100 goblin warriors is a must,"

Dhruv asked, raising his brows.

"Yes, I agree with that... and now that you have chosen the first floor’s terrain as a forest, I would like to add at least 30-50 archers in the mix,"

Lucian replied along with a suggestion.

"Don’t you think thieves will be better for this scenario? I mean, they have a really good stealth build, their synergies are great and if we attack from behind, we can catch the intruders by surprise."

Pausing, Dhruv added another reason as to why they should choose thieves instead of archers. Or even along with the archers.

"The bleed effect applied to their attacks is no joke either."

"No, I don’t think this is a good idea, Master."

Shaking his head, Lucian began explaining its reasoning, while focusing on the long-term effect.

"This is a new dungeon. The intruders will be entering here for the first time.. right? See, if they had already experienced the dungeon a few times — which is impossible as we wouldn’t let them go after tainting our dungeon..."

"Yeah, yeah, continue..."

Dhruv urged it not to get sidetracked like this.

"...Ugh!! But considering they did and we could use this trick to surprise them, as of now this is their first time so naturally they would be wary of everything. And in times like this, I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to leave their back wide open for us to attack..."

Lucian presented its case.

"First of all you are thinking too far ahead... we have to focus on surviving this invasion first. And who said anything about them leaving their back... I would force them to have their back open. And anyway their synergies are too great to miss out on like this.."

Dhruv explained his plan in detail about how he would force them to create blind spots in their defense.

"That’s a great idea, Master, why didn’t I think of that..."

Tilting his head slightly, Lucian agreed while taking some notes.

"Let’s do it like this. We will keep 20 thieves and 20 archers. How do you like this?"

"Yeah, that would be great, Master."

The little demon said with a little grin on its face.

’Was it planning to do this from the beginning? No, that can’t be true, it is still a child.’ shrugging it off, Dhruv moved on to the next topic.

"What about mages?" Lucian asked.

"10 will do, I think."

Lucian agreed, and after a while, all the preparation was completed with just one last selection.

"What do you think about the champion?" Pausing, Dhruv added, "Their ability to remove crowd control is a massive advantage, and the buffs they provide are great as well. They can be used as tanks and DPS too."

To make the conversation progress smoothly, Dhruv had already explained the game’s terminology to it. So, instead of normal words, it was using slang now.

"That is right, Master. I’m tempted to add them as well, but their restriction is making me have second thoughts. What if they didn’t perform as we expected without the king?" Sighing, Lucian added.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Dhruv remembered the description of the Goblin Champion.

Goblin Champion: The absolute strongest warrior of the horde. It is an unstoppable force, immune to all crowd control, traps, and stuns. A champion needs the presence of a king to show its full potential.

’These descriptions are full of ambiguity. What does potential mean here... The potential of its strength, its future self, or how it will behave...’

Clicking his tongue, Dhruv remembered the price for summoning a Goblin King. It was a whopping 500 dungeon points, something he couldn’t afford at the moment.

"We can’t summon a King. It is clear that it doesn’t have a good battle advantage, and we absolutely need that if we want to survive this first wave," Dhruv added.

If it weren’t for the talk, Lucian would have argued about the future potential of the king and how great it would be for the dungeon. But now with his vision limited to the first wave, he agreed without a hitch.

"Exactly my thought, Master."

Nodding, they went back to their talking, and an hour later, the formation had been finalized.

"So we have 100 Warriors, 5 Thieves, 35 Archers, 10 Scouts, 2 Warlords, 10 Mages, 1 Goblin Matriarch. In total, this will cost us 990 Dungeon points. We have 10 points left... what should we do with these, Master?" Lucian asked.

"I will summon a blacksmith." With this, all the preparation ended, and Dhruv instructed the system to summon the monsters.

Do you want to spend 1000 Dungeon Points to summon the following monsters: 100 Warriors 5 Thieves 35 Archers 10 Scouts 2 Warlords 10 Mages 1 Goblin Matriarch 1 Goblin Blacksmith - Yes/No

Dhruv hummed in acknowledgement as a golden light enveloped the area surrounding the room.