Day 1354
The day after the battle I rebuild the dungeon and recreate the monsters, I start processing the new information with the magic library. And I'm replacing some souls with new, more powerful ones. I check the prisoners I picked up before the town exploded and they are still fine.
With the energy that I have and many resources in stock, I recreate the dead vampires and I let the account manage the rest of the events for the city. I have enough energy to build at least two new floors.
I continue the plan I had planned and the 19th floor consists of cliffs and rocky scree with caves and more passable passages, the main inhabitants are the wind eagles and a few thunder eagles. Passable passages are defended by groups of trolls and some basilicas.
Finally at the top there is a golden eagle which will give a difficult match to any poorly prepared C-rank party, its nest overlooks a stone staircase that descends to the 20th floor.
This one is a large space four kilometers in diameter with a mountain in the middle, the monsters remain the same but the boss room consists of a small ruined castle which will be the nest of the wyvern when the ants have brought some. a. Throughout the climb there are tribes of trolls and families of eagles. There are always other weaker monsters meant to feed the stronger ones.
Day 1395
While I was building the two floors, the Crusaders arrived, they found nothing until the Earl arrived and explained that he was hiding in the mountains with his guards and his fortune. The heretics then bombed the city before entering the dungeon never to return.
The priests questioned him heavily, but he did not lie and he has no additional information.
The crusaders have left for the east, I have redeployed the vampires but not the panthers, I want to improve them. A week after the battle, envoys from the northern kingdom landed to “save” us. The account to parley and finally he swore loyalty to the king and paid a huge sum in gold and potion.
In return, he keeps his title of Earl and can rebuild the city at his own expense, the Emissary doesn't think a Noble can provide enough money to rebuild a Dungeon City.
Immediately the count leaves for the cities of the northern kingdom to recruit artisans and mages for reconstruction, he also contacts the adventurer's guilds and the church for their support.
The armies of the Crusaders have penetrated several places in the Eastern Kingdom unable to defend themselves, they have lost their army while attacking and are overwhelmed by the number of the Crusaders. The soldiers are however starving and plunder the cities and villages of the kingdom of the east to be able to feed themselves and continue towards the capital.
The civilians of the eastern kingdom therefore all retreat to the center of the kingdom unable to escape.
I can finally begin my experiments on prisoners. I start by moving the C rank adventurers to the biological laboratory, I use my golem body to dissect them and do my experiments, I test many potions but also the principles of heretical spells. I'm also trying to figure out how to recover mana more efficiently, including cutting off any superfluous limbs from a mage to see the reaction. With just the head and the torso, the recovery seems very slightly less, but not much. So I change his mind and end up driving him crazy. He no longer recovers his mana, it is a failure. I then modify their body to integrate parts of monsters or mana crystals.
This is inconclusive and apart from increasing their strength for the warriors there is nothing useful.
I then fall back on the priests, starting with those who have the weakest connection, I keep them alive and try to penetrate their soul to follow the connection. The connection is too unstable and I cannot penetrate well when they are alive. I notice that the connection tries to retrieve the soul, outside a dungeon it probably works but not inside.
Or maybe the elites of the holy empire, the saint or the pope could escape me but I am not at their level. After several failed tests, I create soul maintenance training and can kill priests while keeping their soul alive. I can then work more easily. I still can't get the connection back and I'm trying with the bishop.
His connection is much stronger, he has received spells from his gods and is more pious. I'm trying to send a priest soul through the connection, the soul seems to go through smoothly but the connection is weakening. I then modify a soul of priests to attach one of my connections to it and I send it through the divine bond.
I manage to follow the divine link through the soul but the connection disintegrates after I pass I still manage to go up for a while until the connection leaves this world, then I am kicked out of strength and divine connection breaks.
I collect the soul of the bishop and use it in the library for research.
Heretical magic is a branch of demonic magic, it is undoubtedly the reason for the hatred of the holy empire.
Day 1396
There is news of the Crusaders, they have surrounded the capital, almost the entire population of the Eastern Kingdom is inside. I'm afraid they'll use civilians and dungeon cores to cast spells on the capitals of neighboring realms. Several teams of priests and bishops are there so that shouldn't be a problem.
The count to recruit enough staff and return to the dungeon, he should be there in two weeks. A few refugees crossed the border but none stopped at the dungeon.
Day 1407
The eastern kingdom is destroyed, it's even worse than I thought, the capital exploded taking everything with it within a radius of 100 kilometers. I think they sacrificed everyone there, including Mages and Royals, amplifying the spell through the dungeon cores to create a massive explosion. There are no survivors among the Crusaders and the Church.
The corruption of the heretical spell and the torture of millions of souls to create a huge danger zone. The church has lost some of its holy knights, it will send a team of elite inquisitors to investigate the situation and destroy all traces of the event.
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Day 1408
The Earl has arrived earlier than expected, he has brought a builder's guild, the blueprint has already been built, and they quickly get to work. The Earl cannot have a private army but is allowed to fortify the city and have a powerful guard to defend the city from the dungeon.
I got several rare army magic items and am trying to recreate it, including the communicator, which allows communication over medium distances.
I focus on improving the panthers, I resume the assassin project but I forget the base of the panthers. I prefer to go on entirely new monsters. I am designing an ultra light and hollow magic metal human skeleton. Then, I add a brain with a mind devoid of emotion and extremely responsive. I add strong nerves and tendons, they have the ability to shut off their pain receptors, overdeveloped hearing, sight and smell but no taste, they also have overdeveloped reflexes. They have hollow fingers and I insert sharp needles with pockets of various poisons.
I take out the unnecessary organs and put their hearts right, they don't have a lung and can breathe through their skin. They have no hair or hair, no body odor, their heads are smooth with large eyes, ears and nostrils in the middle of the face as well as a mouth with sharp teeth of the same alloy as their bone. They can spit poison. Their arms and legs are long and flexible.
I then condense muscles around their bones and give them shadow magic abilities to hide, a magic network through their hollow bone allows them to improve their ability.
Finally I add a solid gray skin, they are very intelligent, fast, discreet and deadly, but are not very strong because of their bones and their size. They consume a lot of resources to create so I only design twenty-one more who will be their leader, I upgraded all of their abilities by one level.
I also create standard equipment for everyone, with daggers, different types of poisons, mini crossbows, needles, and dark clothing. They are intended for espionage and assassination but not for infiltration.
I am happy with what I have created and they will be useful.
Day 1414
I want to update the Count's Guards, and with the new knowledge obtained, I create six elemental mages of rank C +, with a different affinity each, they have more spells than the previous ones and have sufficient intelligence to make research.
I add ten access guards on strength and defense and four accesses on speed. I then equip them with state-of-the-art gear, recreating several high-ranking enchantments for the account, including an inferior version of the protective collar the mage used to protect himself from the false core explosion.
I then replace the on-call team with the new one. The count makes believe that he recovered all the wealth of the city before its destruction to justify his fortune. The guild has started the work and the plan is impressive, I move my entrance to the middle of the circus, it is no longer on the cliff side.
They are planning a large mansion / castle at the back of the circus at my previous location. Then with large arteries and wide spaces for the noble district. A wall twenty meters high encircles the neighborhood with a heavy door.
After this wall, another district intended for traders and institutions, with the headquarters of the guilds, the main church, and the large markets. This is where my entrance is located, a fort is built on top to defend the city and regulate traffic. A second wall of fifteen meters encircles this district.
Finally the last residential area, with artisans to the west and inns and restaurants in the middle, housing for the common people on the east side. The main barracks are in the shopping district but strongholds are present in the residential district.
The main defense wall is here with two gates, to the west and to the east, several towers are arranged on the perimeter wall. The sewers are fed by the waterfall which starts from the noble district and then crosses the city on the surface to the east. A part is diverted to supply the sewers which flow at the exit of the city into the river.
Iron grids separate the walls and the main canals will be patrolled by adventurers. The slums are moved away slightly as the city has grown, the vampires are ready to resume their role as gang leader to control them.
The city is wide and largely exceeds the crater of the old one, the circus contains only the noble districts and the third wall, road works are planned to connect the small villages of the territory and especially the cities of the northern kingdom. Refugees arrive but do not stop in this city under construction. However, the first adventurers have returned to take a stand with their guild.
Even with earth magic, it will take several weeks to build everything, the builders guild will only build public infrastructure, the majority of the city remains empty for the construction of private buildings and housing.
If the town planning is well managed the city can accommodate 400,000 people. It is already a good size city. Repopulation shouldn't be a problem with refugees, I also planned to reduce the death rate to attract more people, at least initially.
Day 1415
A worrying news has arrived, the corruption created by the explosion of the capital of the eastern kingdom is more serious than expected. Strange monsters have sprung up by the thousand. They stay in the 200 km diameter zone of corruption and the deeper you go, the more powerful they are.
Teams of Inquisitors have a hard time getting to the bottom, but mostly monsters regularly “resurface” no matter how many are killed. The church has defined the area as a no-go zone. They fail to cleanse the corrupted land, and an elite A-rank team is brought in for an inspection.
As the city rebuilds itself, I create defensive enchantments for the walls and purification enchantments for the fountains. It is not too difficult to do.
The Earl warns me that a group of nobles from the Northern Kingdom are trying to steal the ownership of the land and the keep from him. I put the assassins at his disposal for their first missions. If all the nobles die the count will not be suspected, how could a single count kill a dozen nobles in a matter of days? I tell the murderer to kill the heads of the family but not to steal anything.
Day 1419
The vampires informed me that they had infiltrated the northern kingdom underworld and that they would bring refugees to the city through rumors. They began to rebuild the slums and simulated an organization around eight competing gangs, all controlled by vampires. The first traders arrived and the adventurers' guilds signed contracts with the count to operate the dungeon, he also began recruiting guards and making calls to artisans.
Vampires are effective and have yet to be discovered, but Inquisitors will search all realms for traces of heretical spells.
Day 1430
The first nobleman is dead and soon the others will follow, the count is suspected but without proof he is not worried, the royalty has other concerns now. They have lost part of their professional army with all its equipment and are under investigation by the Inquisition. Even though they have nothing to do with heretics, nobles still have something to hide from the church.
A delegation from the Church has also arrived, they do not have much to investigate since everything has been destroyed without any survivors, they are very happy with their cathedral and the churches built for them. They nevertheless investigate the dungeon and the reasons for the defeat of 30,000 soldiers to conquer me.
They are aware of the theft of dungeon cores from other cities. They don't have much authority but still descend to my fake core. They test it and find out nothing. As long as he doesn't remove the false core, they cannot discover the deception because I am physically connected to him. If they moved the dummy core it would be disconnected, but moving a dungeon core is like stealing it and the dungeon reaction would be unpredictable.
Without any notable discoveries, they leave a part to take care of the churches of the city and the rest of the team continue their expedition.
The rang A part of the church has entered the forbidden zone. It seems that deep down there is a higher rank monster, and the team lost a limb before killing it. The area has not changed and the monster will likely return. This is not the only area of its kind and usually it gets exhausted over time.
The church has decided to build fortresses around and wait, they will send expeditions from time to time and will probably open access for adventurers.
The lack of population in the Eastern Kingdom is problematic but the overpopulation of the region will fill the void. Demographics are explosive in most kingdoms and even the adventurers sent to their deaths are not enough to contain the growing population. Wars are an effective way to deal with the problem.