Chapter 24
3 Days remaining…
“Ponder, puzzle, mystery, and what to do with you…” Jack said aloud, standing next to the cage holing his chin in thought. “Eh, let’s play it safe since I really don’t want to waste any more time on you. Things to build, people to kill, and being a general pain in the ass to those I don’t like. Packed schedule so I’m sure you understand.” He finished with a shrug.
The succubus didn’t say a word, only stared at him in horrified disbelief. Her jaw moving about uselessly since no words came out. Eyes the size of dinner plates, watching him without so much as a blink.
“Here’s what I want. You’re going to go to hell, going to bring back some rare metals. You will not communicate my existence to anyone, creature, thing, demon or otherwise directly or indirectly, before, during or after the task I have given you. Once you deliver about half a pound of rare metal from the hells to me, you will have fulfilled your favor owed to me, under the condition that you will continue not to make anyone aware of my existence as I have stated earlier.” He said while pulling out the coin he had made and rolled it between his finger bones with soft metal clinking sounds. “Failure to do as stated or keep me a secret to the best of your abilities will result in you owing me another favor. Deal?”
The demon said nothing, still completely terrified and unable to speak. Eventually she was able to find her tongue and remember how it worked. Muttering a yes along with how none of this should be possible.
“Good enough.” Jack said after waiting a minute for the succubus to respond.
His dungeon reabsorbing a part of the cage he had made to make a door. Once the door was made, Jack stepped to the side to clear the way. Only for the succubus to remain in her spot. Her gaze still disbelieving and horrified as she stared at him.
“… you gonna leave the cage?” Jack asked, feeling a tad awkward from how her gaze bore through him. Smoke practically leaving her ears from her brain practically sizzling from the effort of trying to comprehend the uncomprehend able. “Hello?”
She continued to state are him without so much as a muscle twitch.
“oh, come on. Stop being such a drama queen.” Jack huffed, crossing his arm in exacerbation. “You act as if I tormented you for eternity. All I did was trick you, sprayed you with some holy juice, then take a couple of tissue samples.”
Still she did not respond nor leave the cage even when he stop on the opposite side of the cage away from the door.
“Ahkay… I’m over this.” Jack sighed, going back to the work table to retrieve the spray bottle before coming back. “Naughty kitty begone!”
The succubus was shaken back to reality, hissing at him in distain. Cursing at him and saying all manner foul pyrophanite that honestly impressed Jack to an extent. He actually started to take mental notes for thing he wanted to try since he never thought of use a nutcracker that way before. Or a boot for that matter.
“BEGONEEEEEE FOULLLLLL SPIIRITTTTTTT-AH!!!!” Jack commanded, summoning a bucket and enough purifying water to fill it. Holding it with menacing intent.
At this new threat, the succubus ran at full sprint from the cage since she knew he was almost guaranteed to pour the bucket on her.
Okay, that is one less thing on my list of shit to do. He thought to himself, having the bucket and its contents reabsorbed back into the dungeon. I made a bunch of generic bronze golems. Wish I had the time to make iron or steel, but those bastards can’t be ranked out like I want.
Jack walked back to his throne while the cage he made was absorbed back into the floor. When he reached the throne, he took a seat and allowed himself a moment to overlook his workshop. Admiring the progress he had made and what he had accomplished with his friends.
Got to keep your eye on the ball Jackie boy. He thought to himself. The dungeon is growing, your people are advancing. But you Jack haven’t really grown besides the upgrades you bought for yourself. Maybe a little but not much. When this is done you got to see about growing as a person and in level.
Jack reviewed his interaction with the succubus. In hindsight, he was lucky she was an idiot despite what the stat numbers said. If she went into a straight up fight, he’d lose easily. That was not something acceptable in his book. That way he saw it, this was his second life and he needed to make sure that he didn’t die this time. He could make plenty of weapons, on a whim now by spawning the loot options. He had an army in the form of dungeon mobs and he could just keep summoning those. As for his heavy shock troops, there was only so much you can do with a simplified bronze golem. Just give them a big heavy club and tell them to smash that thing in that direction. He had the time to make a smarter stronger golem, but only one and it wouldn’t be near the same quality of Aegisthal. Not even by a long shot. Oh sure, he could make one that was absurdly strong, but brute strength didn’t count for much if it could be out smarted. Not to mention it did him no favors to make a golem, absorb it only to not be able spawn it since he didn’t meet the level qualifications.
Luckily Frizzy and disciples were doing an amazing job on their part. Especially when they came up with hollowed out arrow heads to fill with poison and the bleed arrows who’s head broke off the shaft easily when someone tried to pull it out. Then there as the poison that the Zur'keth were making along with tonics and making food preserves in case there is a siege or the adventures needed relief rations. Then there were the groups where some Gremlins and Zur’keth were working together on their own projects. Then there was Gi’gah and Chad. Those two were just double trouble. Chad had become one of Frizzy’s disciples and seemed to take to the information like a fish to water. Even picking up Arcane Circles and enchanting script with fervor that rivaled a fire’s love for dry wood. Gi’gah turned out to be a young Hive Guardian and was growing very fast and strong. Now standing over four feet tall and had the muscle strength to bend a bronze rod with just their hands. When the two were left unsupervised they ended up building their own version of a construct in short order. It didn’t work of course and the design was amateurish at best in Jack’s perspective, but it was still impressive how well they worked together. Especially how they tried to combine the fabricator method with flesh molding. Sure it blew up and made a mess, but sometimes invention was a messy business.
Buuuuut, Jack was not a fan of explosions involving meat and metal shrapnel so he made it a point for them to only experiment when Frizzy, Omnus, or an elder Zur’keth were present.
Now Jack sat in his throne, with far too much time to think about his options with very little on what he can do to further tip the scales in his favor. The biggest problem was he didn’t have enough information about who or what the enemy was. Without that he could only make general preparations and those had already been done. He could make weapons and tools from purified steel, but the pros and cons didn’t add up for him to do so. It was a good material, but was most effective against things like undead and demons. Against anything else then it might as well just be normal steel. Not to mention most of his mobs wouldn’t be able to touch it without losing and arm didn’t help.
He could make enchanted weapons, amor, and accessories that gave a boost or power up. The problem with that idea though was that his current mobs were limited in what they can do and wouldn’t put that stuff to the best of use. Not to mention that if the enemy army was smart enough, they would just loot the mobs carrying that gear then use it themselves. Making the invaders that much of a threat with each piece of gear they took from the slain mob.
Jack rested his chin on his chin on his fist as his elbow rested on his knee. Thinking about what he might want to do with the time he had left. With the amount of frustration, he had to deal with in punching out those generic golems, plain weapons and armor, then gods damned succubus got involved. At least that whole endeavor got him a new sentinel and a fragment of his past. A very… personal fragment that made him quite sentimental.
If any of those fuckers involved are still breaking, I’ll put them in a giant meat grinder. Feet. First. He growled in the privacy of his own mind.
Jack shook the fantasy away. No, he can explore that fantasy later even if everyone involved well past dead. Even the leaders who organized the genocide were dead with maybe their descendants who were innocent since they had no part in it. The sins of the parent weren’t those of the child. He’ll just have to settle for the invading army. Which brought him back to his current problem. What meaningful thing can he do to make sure the adventurer’s town survived?
“Yeah, that is a problem.” Someone said, bringing Jack out of his thoughts. “Want me to give you some advice or maybe a hand?” the voice said, sounding distorted like there as a dozen people speaking at once and in sync. A reverberating echo following at the end of their word while a treble sounding as if power was building before they spoke the words. A dozen voices, some sounding deep and terrible, some light and bright while what remained sounded like a singular man.
Maybe I should buy that Adaptive Defenses upgrade. Jack mused to himself. Getting pretty sick of people just appearing here.
“Can’t say that blame you,” the other worldly voice said, adding their opinion to what Jack previously thought were is private thoughts. “It would be a good long-term investment.”
“Alright, you can read minds.” Jack sighed, pinching his nasal bone. “Am I going to see who you are? Or am I just going to talk to unseen voices like a crazy person?”
The air cracked and chip like a plane of glass. More cracks spread until the largest of the spider webbing spread apart to show a void beyond the break in reality. Then a leather boot with strange buckles stepped out, followed but a leg with blue pants with the ends of the pant legs were a darker blue yet around the knees appeared faded. The nest to appear was a torso clad with a leather vest of some kind with more buckles to fastened it. Over that was a long coat that reached down to the knees with the inside lines with what looked like short soft fur. The clothing under the vest and coat seemed to have a hood that was pulled up, hiding the face inside since their head was down cast. The figure walked out of break in reality with their hands tucked in their pockets as the crack mended itself until it vanished entirely.
“Well, here I am.” The strange person with a distorted voice said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Can’t say the same.” Jack said as he looked figure who seemed humanoid and maybe around average human height. “Haven’t seen your face yet.”
“Can’t say I’ve seen your face either.” The stranger said, their head tilting up. Showing the inside of their hood was a dark void with no features to be gleamed. Making a circular gesture around the opening of their hood by rolling their gloved hand around the opening of their hood to indicate the face. “Since you don’t have at the moment.”
“Oh, you dick.” Jack said while crossing his arm over his chest.
The stranger just shrugged.
“I’d call you an asshole but you don’t have one of those either.”
If Jack had a face, he’d be grinning with delight. And from what he was feeling from the stranger’s gaze on him, there was a hidden grin hidden in that hood as well.
“Did we just become friends?” Jack asked while leaning on the arm rest with his right hand, meanwhile his left was resting on the other arm rest with his hand aimed at the stranger just in case he needed to act.
“That depends, got any booze or beer?” The stranger asked, his own arms crossed over his chest. either not noticing Jack’s attempt to prepare for an attack or just didn’t care.
“Is that why you came?” Jack huffed, the two nodes of light in his eye sockets still watching the stranger. “Just wanted to raid me of my happy juice?”
“Hey, what are friends for?” The stranger said with no shame.
Jack sat there for a second, digesting the words then burst into a hearty laugh. Going so far as to slap his knee since she can’t remember a time when someone shot back at him.
“Ha! Oh, I like you.” Jack declared as he got up off the throne and came to stand in of the stranger to find he was a few inches taller than the visitor.
“I haven’t decided yet, wanna try your beer first.” Stranger said back, his face still utterly unseen but the smile could be heard in his distorted voice… or voices.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Alright, alright. I can take a hint. Come on, I got some stuff.” Jack said leading the way to a corner of the workshop. “I keep it over here. Mostly use it for degreasing some equipment but it will put a carpet on your chest.”
“Good,” said the stranger who kept his hands tucked in his pockets. “Been a while since I felt a proper burn from a good shot. And don’t you worry, I’ll take a shot for both of us.”
“Thank the gods, was afraid I was going to have to waste good liquor pouring it down an empty jaw bone.” Jack joked as he brought the stranger to the cabinet with a lock on it.
Ever since some of Frizzy’s disciples found out that little bit of information that it was good for getting drunk, he’s had to keep it locked up with one of the most complicated locks he could come up with. He loved his Gremlins, but their nimble little fingers were too damned adept at taking apart or picking locks and mechanical parts. He even had to go so far as to even add another layer of protection with a sealing glyph in order to lock the tumblers in place.
“Thanks friend, tell you what. I’ll take it out since you are hosting.” The stranger said, his hand coming out of his pocket to show it was gloved and reaching for the cabinet that stored the prize inside.
Cracks and fractures appeared across the cabinet as his hand got closer. Like the webbing of broken glass, the fractures appeared and spread until the doors were a culdoscope of cracks. Then they separated, each piece retracting and pulling away from the center where his hand approached. moving away as if the pieces didn’t dare get in the way of the approaching appendage. When his hand was inside the cabinet, the stranger quickly found the bottle in question along with a glass. When his hand came out with collected prize, the new hole in the cabinet closed once more. Each piece pulling itself back into place and interlocking with its neighbor like an elaborate puzzle. Seamlessly going back together then fusing together as though the cratering never happened.
What chilled Jack though was that he didn’t sense any magic from that he just saw. There was just nothing. No spell, no incantation, no arcane script, no influx or flow of power. Not only that but the cabinet was in the exact same state that it was before. When he touched it to see if the arcane script of the spell was still there, he found that it was in fact exactly has he had first placed it.
Jack heard the sound of liquid filling a glass while studied the cabinet. A distorted chuckle echoing next to him.
“Doesn’t make sense, does it?” The stranger asked before being the glass to the interior of the hood to take a stip. “Oooooh, now that’s some good stuff. Could use this stuff as fuel for a lamp.”
“Yeah… you could.” Jack said, his full ettention now on the being in front of him as it stated to click. He might not have seen it, but he could hear it in their distorted voice, a cocky know something you don’t grin.
“Guess I got your attention.” The stranger said, their hood turned to look at Jack to show they were focused on him as well.
“You can say that,” Jack said, schooling himself and his thoughts. Remembering the clues this stranger gave thus to a game jack was now realizing he was playing. “More importantly you have me curious as to who you are, what you are, and what you want.”
“The who is easy enough to answer.” They said taking a step back, letting go of the glass to leave it floating in the air perfectly still while they took a slight bow with their arm tucked at their waist. “Greetings! My actual name can’t really be pronounced. But you can call me, The One Who Watches. My pleasure to meet you, I promise.”
“I’m Jack Smithson, and wasn’t expecting you this soon.” Jack greeted back with a small bow of his own. “My question though is what is it you want?”
“Not your soul if that’s what you’re implying!” They laughed like they heard a rather funny joke.
The sound of their laugh was disorienting thing to hear. Some parts sounded jolly, others mocking, but most of it sounded genuinely amused. Then it ended abruptly.
“No, I don’t deal in souls. That is the currency of children. Nah, I prefer something much more important.” The One Who Watches said, still sounding amused.
“And what is it that you wanted from my dead wife?” Jack said as his hand clenched into a fist.
The One Who Watches shrugged, “Normally I don’t talk about those kinds of things. But you were her husband and I don’t want any hostility between us. For her to see you one last time, I asked that she sing me a song. That’s it.”
Now Jack was confused. A song? That’s it? A simple song in exchange for a visit back from the afterlife to say one last goodbye? But why? What kind of value could a being like this gain from a song?
“Sorry buddy, but that I can’t tell you.” The One Who Watches said as they reclaimed their glass from the air and took another sip. “That’s some good stuff! I’m already bending some rules with what I already told you. Oops, did I say that last part out loud?” They said as their voice sounded as if their grin had grown just a little bit bigger. “Damned alcohol, oh how you loosen the tongue.”
“Then it’s a good thing there isn’t a living soul to hear that blunder.” Jack probed, curious but on guard for what kind of game this being was playing.
“Yep, good thing there isn’t a Living soul to hear my blunder.” They said, the interior of their hood slowly becoming less of a black void.
Inside that hood, Jack saw a tiny node of light, that light then spread and grew. Becoming a myriad of colors of thousands of tiny pin pricks of light. bending and swirling after one another to make a spiral with more lights taking form to fill the spiral with nebula like clouds forming between the tiny pinpricks of light. The entire thing looked as if a galaxy had been trapped within the confines of that hood. And just underneath that galaxy, almost hidden and difficult to see was a teasing cocky grin. One that suggest they knew a juicy secret that you didn’t and content to keep it just out of your reach.
“Good thing my drinking buddy is around to make sure an Outsider like me doesn’t spill any juicy gossip such as rules are in play. Who knows what I might say with after drinking too much.” he said, that grin growling just a little bigger. “Tell me buddy, I heard you might be having a problem? Something about an invading army or something like that?”
Jack nodded slowly, feeling as if he was being hinted at about something greater being in play. Especially since The One Who Watches was now slightly slurring their words.
“Yeah… Trying to figure out what to do to better prepare for the attack.” Jack said, picking his words carefully, feeling actually unsettled by this talk.
“That really does suck, buddy.” The One Who Watches said, swirling his refilled glass of essentially moonshine. Their grin never fading for a second. “Hey… Hey! Buddy, pal, friend of mine. Did you know that in the time before history. Other creatures used to walk this earth?”
Jack shook his head, listening to the strange entity with rampant attention while then released the glass and started to chug the bottle itself. Curious as to this subject change. Then they stopped their chug to speak again.
“Oh yeah! Great and powerful beasties. Some were giants, others were no higher than our knees. Unfortunately the world had a cataclysm so their all Dead now.” The One Who Watches sighed while they finished the bottle then turned the empty bottle into dust that vanished in the air. “Yeah, shame too. Only way to Find them now is Deep in the earth. Bones and Fossils are all that remain.”
Jack didn’t miss how The One Who Watches grin grow at the mention of WHERE and HOW to find these beasts from before time. Especially with how he let slip that they were dead bone buried in the earth. Jack felt the fantom sensation a devious grin of his own wanting to take place on a face he no longer had.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll see what I can do.
“Oh, I think I might have talked your ear off a bit and took all your booze.” The One Who Watches said, thumping the heal of their palm to the side of their head. “That was rude. Sorry buddy. Tell you what, so there’s no hard feelings, I’ll pay you back for the good time. Don’t have any money on me, would you accept magic items as payment?”
“Of course, buddy.” Jack said, playing along to the game of this entity’s game. “And to show you are welcome to come back, I’ll have another bottle ready for you.”
“That’s great! Because that stuff was pretty good. Some of the better stuff I had in the last two thousand years.” The One Who Watches said, reaching into their pocket and pulled out strange items that Jack had never seen before.
Three of them looked like small crystalline metal gems just to resemble a brain. Each one the size of a small apple with tiny purple arches of electricity coming from them to dance along their surface. There was a fourth one the size of a grapefruit made in a similar fashion as the first three. Then there was the fifth one. A strange gyroscopic devise that had multiple layered rings that danced and swirled around each other. The bronze color leaving and shimmer as they moved and twirled as the blood red gems left a streak through the air from where they were placed in the gyro rings. An incredible amount of Arcane energy emanated from the gyroscope that left Jack’s jaw hanging open. The amount of power emanating from it was nothing to scoff at, if anything the amount of power it we generating would likely kill any living creature expose to it from mana poisoning.
“Here you go, buddy.” The One Who Watches said, placing the items in Jack’s hands. “Oh noooo, it seems I pay you too much. But their in your hands now so they no longer belong to me. Oh well, we’ll just have to make up the difference another time with you giving me plenty of more booze.” He said with a shrug as if to say it couldn’t be helped. “Thanks for the drinks. By the way, you should really check your notifications. It’s so easy to forget to check them but hey, sometimes you get a nice Surprise from that. Another time, buddy.”
Not waiting for Jack to respond, The One Who Watches made another crack in reality before jumping back into the void. Both of which vanished from sight as Jack was left standing with his new prizes in hand. taking a moment to process what had happened and who he just spoke with. When he checked the corner of his vision, he saw that he did have unseen notifications that he had missed before.
Taking care of his first problem, Jack summoned a hundred pounds of bronze and used his spell form and function to create a thick walled safe box. Then he summoned enough lead to create a walled lining with in the box to keep the magic form radiating out. once he was sure it was properly sealed with no mana leaks, he checked the notifications to see what they were.
Attention!
You are attempting a forbidden act!
Warning!
Probability of this act ending in failure is high!
Failure in this act that defies the gods will result in the destruction of Dungeon Avatar body and possible long term damage to Dungeon Core.
Warning!
Dungeon Avatar’s arm is being erased in the presence of purifying essence!
Remaining percent of arm:
90%..... 87%.... 82%... 79%
Warning!
Critical failure Imitate!
Possible radius of explosion:
470 feet
Attention!
Forbidden act Complete
Forbidden Quest Found!!!!
Break Thy Chains, Claim They Power in Truth
You have found a hidden quest that has been forbidden by the gods. Once this quest as started there is no stopping for to start this quest is to walk the path of ascension. Mortals have become gods before, will you succeed as well or fall like those who have tried before you?
Pre-requisite to start the quest:
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Create a Celestial
Create a Soul
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Step 1: Complete!
You have done the following to begin this quest:
Create a Soul
Create a Celestial
ATTENTION!
Due to exceeding the requirements to begin this question, the reward will be adjusted to reflect your actions.
Reward:
1. New Mob Type has been added to your dungeon: Celestial
This new aspect will be added to your dungeon as you will now be a dungeon centered around Undead, Constructs, Celestial
2. You have been granted access to a new Metal from the Heaven realms.
Step 2: Create your first ‘Angel’
Status: Complete!
You have created your first Angel!
Born of gems, the waters of purification, Mithril dust, the life essence of the fallen, the essence from your own body, and an act of faith. You have created your first true Angel.
“Halyndra, The Seraph of Sacred Faith”
Reward:
1. You can now upgrade your current dungeon sentinels to the status of dungeon sentinel and angel. If upgraded to Angel status, they will receive greater self-awareness, greater abilities, and an increase to their stats. Note: This upgrade will not change their personalities but they will be aware that you have elevated them to the higher realm of the divine.
2. You can now Grant true blessings, each blessing will be unique to the person it is given too.
3. Future leveling of dungeon avatar will include skills, spells, or abilities considered divine.
4. You are no longer considered a Lich, check status page for updated information
5. You can now create Angels. WARNING! Angels can’t be created with in the mortal realm!
Step 3: Create a religion
Status: in progress
A divine being needs worshipers to grow their power for it is faith that they are able to conduct their miracles
Rewards:
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“You’re actions have not gone un-noticed. Eyes from beyond the veil now watch you. Welcome to the great game, play it well.”
Jack stared at the notifications struggling to comprehend all that he was seeing. Yet the answer was clear as day…
“I’m… becoming a god?”