Heart room - Keepers Pov:
The minotaur shook her head; then she charged, right towards the exit. The thick wooden door still opened since no one seems to close it! I need to make a note of that.
"What! Hey!" [Keeper]
Running after her, I stumbled as I was still unaccustomed to the Notic's slender frame, but I was a quick learner as I made my strides longer to make up for the difference.
As I came out of the door, I see the Minotauress running straight towards the pit in the center, but just seconds before falling into it, she instead jumped over it with a mighty leap.
"What!?" [Keeper]
My possessed body's single eye surveyed the room; it was too dark for an ordinary being to see in this dark room. But I was no normal being as I activated my [Energy Eye] for a second to see my Lairs mana in the walls and floor. My eye Illuminating the path which I could walk. Truly a well-versed skill. Then I took chase! She had gotten a headstart and was outside my sight of view, but the clatter of her hooves echoed throughout the cave tunnel ensured me that I was not far behind, that was until the noise suddenly ended!
I see the light at the end of the tunnel emanating from the arena ahead. As the bright white consumes my possessed body, I entered into the ring where I see the minotaur in the center, her head jerking around confused! But as she sees me intrude, she decides to take one of the three remaining paths, running down the south tunnel towards the den and hatchery. Unlucky for her that is a dead-end!
I follow suit, but as I reach the tunnel entrance, I hear distant buzzing noises, and as I look down the tunnel, I see our intruder with an entourage of angry and glowing Dier-Flies behind her.
She was now trapped with nowhere to go as I stood my ground, flexing the Notic's long slender claws ready for a fight!
She took notice of me impeding her path!
"Wait! Why are you picking up the pace!?" [Keeper]
The Minotauress accelerated and charged with her head low, right into me! WIth a horn goring my possessed body's gut as she threw it and me straight up into the air as I collide with the teen feet hight roof. My possessed body, falling hard into the sand of the arena.
She continued, without concerning herself if I was dead or alive. The second obviously as I arise!
'Ah ha ha ha: die!' [Maleck]
What are you even-!?
I fall to one knee as the power inside the body leaves me. Looking down, I see the Notic's gut poking out of the fresh wound covered in sand.
Okay, I might not be as okay as I first thought!
I should find a better body for pursuit as I uttered the words of magick.
"[Cranium internum]" [Keeper]
'Noooo!' [Maleck]
... Nothing?
Em... Let's try that again. Hey! What in tarnation is going on!?
"Your fault! Aha ha ha ha ha." [Maleck]
... Just shut up already!
'Tsk!' [Maleck]
Did he just-...
In front of our view, everything started to spin. I could not leave the body, and I could feel vertigo as the body slowly wad, losing its life-force.
Is this it? Am I going to die within this body? Can't be it! I need something, anything!
Static started to form in front of my blurred vision as it established itself into several orthodox blue squares.
All I could get out of it was: Unlocked. Dungeon. [Vithe]. Longevity.
"Vithe!" [Keeper]
'No, no, no! Fault, fault! Your fault!' [Maleck]
I feel the gut wound cramping down and stopping the bleeding, yet not heal. I guess I'm safe for now. Though... Why do I sense a wave of disappointment from Lair?
I opened my dungeon [Spells].
Dungeon spells Dungeon Mana cost //////// ///////// 2
Impus Legionis*
700 1 Cranium internum
500
1 Vithe
1000
Locked (Rank ??)
??
Locked (Rank ??)
??
A whopping thousand dungeon mana??? AND IS NOT EVERYTHING EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE!? Fuck!
Dungeon mana pool 1178
Worst case I at least have one more, though Lair might get furious at me if I use it again. No, It's not worth it. There should be a better way!
As my awareness returned to the outside of my mind, I find myself alone in the arena. No insects in sight and It seems like the minotaur had escaped me!
Using my [Dungeon eye], I detached a part of my astral-form from the Notic to surveyed the dungeon, but that did not work either. I barely got a few meters away before I was forced back by an unnatural force.
After several more attempts with no better result, it seems likely to me that the Notic's body is incompatible with any skill not originating from its entity, only giving me seconds of use. Maybe a fallout of the body's incompatibility with mana? Why did any power activate at all, to begin with then? And why did my mana eye work without a hitch?
Notic specific: Mana eye To crave what it's lost is the greatest curse. To always see what ones were lost.
Hmm, I see, so that was an innate skill, to begin with.
Though way I couldn't leave the body is another problem in itself!
But there where more pressing matters at hand; The minotauress! I feel Lair impatience growing, the more prolonged the minotaur roamed in our domain, halting Lair from expanding his... Nay, our territory.
Hmm, let's go with another approach I believe that this calls for war!
But first, I inspected my Notic arm with [Mana eye] Looking at the ki within the body connecting it with my Lair, and it was composed of borrowed mana from my Lair — Purple Ki who was meant to enhance this body's original strength. But something was off about it. I couldn't quite get my finger on it.
No, wait, isn't it flowing backward!?
As if it is being sucked in. As I inspected further, I see that all the ki in the limbs went in the same direction, up! Towards the head!
Unique trait: Strategic creature
Entity focused on intelligence rather than physical prowess.
Why do I have a bad feeling about this?
'You're fucked, so fucked! Hihihi' [Maleck]
"*sigh* give up already. Just shut up!" [Keeper]
I took the east exit from the arena and walked back to the now newly named heart room. My Lair!
After a while, I had reached the heart room again and stood before one of my Lairs several tendrils, and I was hesitant. But then again, my Lair has always been there for me! He never ones betrayed my trust in him?
I laid one of the Notices clawed hands onto the tendril as I feel my soul getting sucked out, effectively letting me enter the [war room].
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Entity Keeper has entered the [war room]!
Entity ??? has been denied entry to the [war room]!
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I stood there in the plain marble white; smooth octagon room donned in my plate mail... Well, my armor of dreams I guess, but something was different here!
The room was empty this time around, and I was standing there alone Malek had supposedly been denied entry... Could I still even call it Malek though?... Bah! Why bother with these thoughts now?
"War room!" [Keeper]
As I suspected from my command, the simple marble table and the custom chairs arose from the marble floor. Though this time a third chair appeared as well together with Trash wooden chair and my black and red mahogany throne.
This third one, a pile of bones connected with dirt and something sticky to hold it all together wich together formed into a pseudo throne. Who does this belong to? It was not as big and grand as my throne, and by the looks, it seems to me that it's shaped for a humanoid? I pondered a moment 'do I know anyone this chair belongs to?', that's when two figures materialized in each of the chairs — the first one I recognized emidiatly.
"Hu?" [Trash]
On each chair, they both materialized, I instantly recognized Trash in his mage garbs. But in the new addition was a humanoid I have never seen before in my life! But something was familiar with the female...
It was a slender woman with long flowing black hair, her hair so thin and smooth that you would believe it to be silk. Her eyes, her six eyes! Going from the center of here face outwards: two large, two medium and two small, deep black with a hint of red and deep inside the eyes were an alluring charm enticing one's primal instincts. Her pale humanoid skin covered up by what I believe to be eight appendages not typical for a human body, equally distributed between her two female organs to cover them up but nothing else. Only her silk hair covered the rest of her body, but not nearly enough! She sat there, looking around with astonishment and wonder.
Entity Trash has entered the [War room]!
Entity One-Fang has entered the [War room]!
"One-Fang!?" [Keeper]
The humanoid looked at me and tilted her head.
"Yez? Flamebarer?" [One-Fang]
Is this her "dream" form? How One-fang sees her self? She looked over at Trash and turned back to me; she seemed confused!
"Why iz there two of you-zzz?" [One-Fang]
I had no time to answer as a message arouse!
A dire-fly has fallen!
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Underworld's Cave systems - Narrators POV:
*Pant, Sniff, Pant, Snort*
Heavy breaths, the minotaur slowly makes her way forward. Her upper body and beautiful fur blackened and bruised.
But every step gets her closer to her goal. As her innate Skill to never forget a traversed path, keeps her from getting lost. A mental map one might say!
*buzz*
A dier-fly emerges from around a bend in the path, and with a mighty swing, the minotaur slams her ax into the bug impaling (22dmg) it into the cave wall.
*Splat!*
She dislodges the ax from the wall.
*Snort!* [Minoutauress]
She closed her eyes, scrunched up her brows, and let the steam flow out from her nostrils! *Fushhh!* She seemed quite satisfied with herself, but she was still not in the clear!
All these bugs were in here way! She had previously escaped them, but for some reason, they kept finding her.
The minotauress kept walking further into the depth of the underworld maze. When she entered a new area, a cavernous room of medium size, but as she did; the smell of the now-familiar sulfur reached her nostrils, and she turned around to squash (13dmg) a fly on the wall with her ax. Looking up over the entrance, she sees a dozen dier-flies hanging by the wall.
An ambush!?
The flies all swarmed her as she wildly swung to keep them at bay her Axe missing six of them and with two lucky swings hurting (8dmg) the first one and cleanly decapitating (22dmg) the second one. Even though she swung wildly trying to keep the pests away half of the dier-flies get a stinger in as three (5) (5) (5) new burn marks apers on her body. She decides to disengage from the swarm running away for now, but the flies were hot on her tail, and she could not outrun them as she gets surrounded again. Two more stingers hit her on in her shoulder (3) and one in her back (8). She focuses on the single bug she had hurt, quickly smacking it to the ground with moderate strength (16dmg). She focused on a second one and sliced at it (12dmg) as it coughs up mucus and falls lifeless on the ground.
Four left they all charge here from the front! Three hits while the fourth was a second to slow and easy for her to avoid. Taking one in the gut (8) one in the leg (7) and one in her biceps (4). She didn't flinch as she [Reklessly] reached out towards the slow bug, grabbing its large head and squashing it (42crit). Green blood exploded everywhere!
Then she started swinging the grabbed bugg around as a flyswatter (7) (6) (6) not doing nearly enough damage to them but enough to push them away and stunning them as one gets smacked into the wall and the other two into the ground. Dazed the bugs are unable to do anything as the minotauress pounces on them [Reklessly] again just barely in time to not let anyone of them flee her ax. (16) (17) (14)
With all the Dier-flies dead and gore everywhere, she slumps down to the ground, licking her wounds. But not long may she rest as the buzzing noise of wings reaches her ears!
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War Room - Keppers PoV:
"They're weak their so! SO! Weak! And the minotauress is too strong! I have been throwing flies at her for hours, and they barely reach her before she disposes of them ARRR!" [Keeper]
Not even the ambush we set up worked. If we just had time to collect more at that time, now we barely have any left!
10 Dier-flies are remaining.
"Mazter relying on bugz to do an arachnidz job iz foolizh, breed me, and you-zzz zhall have all the minionz you ever need-zzz" [One-Fang]
"Trash thinks spider lady's head weird, find spider mate!" [Trash]
"Love!? How could you zay that-zzz? No arachnid mate can compare to you two-zzz" [One-Fang]
And this crazed love spider is not helping at all. For some reason, she began calling me "master" after she noticed that Trash had great respect for me. Though she still calls trash "love" as he beat her in combat... well actually I did in his body! But she does not need to know that!
Arrgh what a headache, I need to think! And unfortunately, I only know of one place I can do it... Arg why me!? Why couldn't I have useful minions instead of this bickering!? I can't even throw them into the fight as their external bodies are damaged.
"I want babyz like; fat cow! Pleaz give me babiez-zzz!" [One-Fang]
"... no, close to Trash!, Kee-" [Trash]
Entity Keeper has left the [War room]!
I exited the war room leaving the two incompetents inside as I re-entered the Notic's body as I started to walk off my mental fatigue.
'Your back! Can't stay away! Hi hi hi hi!' [Malek]
*sigh* [Keeper]
At least better than whatever is happening in the [War room] right now! But not much.
I lazily walked around the summoning pit. My mind gradually getting sharper than usually because of the Notic's unique traits; so why should I take chase? Why should I throw resources at her that gives me no result? When I can get the minotauress to me! But how?
I reached the sands of the arena, my notic feets digging down into the sands of the stadium, quite stress-relieving!
Wait, I already know her weakness! Like any other female, her child!
As I weighed my several options in this matter, I remembered the change in my imp spell; it had a two beside it. I know well not to misuse the word as I might accidentally activate it. But I can always access some information locked inside of Lair.
Impus Legionis (lv2)
*Unlocking new Imp family, Imps at arms.
Brown: - Cave Imps (Impus.)
???: -
Green: - Legion Imps (...Legionis)
????: -
Hmmm... so another kind of Imps, the cave Imps have been useful if only in one field! The more cards we have on the playing field, the better! Even though it's only useless imps... Though I think these Imps might specialize in a field, I need!
"Impus Legionis!" [Keeper] I called out fully aware that the dungeon-spells is a loophole to this body's drawbacks.
My Lair is sending me feelings of hopelessness but seems fine with my current spending of mana.
The sand starts to quiver, the wall cracks, and the loud crack of stone breaking. Then it resides, silence for a while before I hear pebbles moving atop the ledge of the arena. Inside the shadows atop the ridge, several big round green almost alien eyes become visible surrounding me atop the ring! Their eyes only, reflecting the light of the stadium. My single eye glances over the gleaming green eyes skeptically, noticing that I can not for the love of me see these creatures' bodies however hard I try. My observation, making their eyes flinch away from my gaze for a second, apparent that they are under my rule. Their good at hiding, then I hope they're good at retrieving aswell.
"Get me the cub!" [Keeper]
The Imps silently retracted back into the shadows, uncharacteristic to the previously noisy browns and disappeared. That's unusually creepy! I wonder, when did the spell make them multiply into such a significant number with a single magic spell?... Legion, then manny?
"*Hmpf!* Let's prepare for now. CAVE IMPS! TO ME!" [Keeper
*eek, iiiik* [Cave imps]
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Narrators PoV - The Imp legion:
Where ever there was light, it seemed to fade for a moment as a group of creatures skulked closer, to return a moment later as they passed by.
These creatures were Imps but not of the brown digging kind!
> Bobfrays journal #99: Imp family
>
> First, we have the Brown's; these Imps are the drudge of demons, thought as merely everyday slaves to do mundane tasks or even just used as a way for demons and devils to vent their anger or frustration. Born from the earth and imbued with its vitality and endurance. Unfortunately, they seem to be born without any higher intelligence or wisdom.
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> Then we have the Red's spouting wings and a devilish tail usually depicted by humans as the general view of what an imp's appearance is. They are arguably the most demonic-looking, but not all Imps are from the red family. The Red's are also commonly used as mere workers. But are viewed higher in the hierarchy for their fiery ancestry. Warlocks appreciate procuring these creatures as personal servants.
>
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> Then we have the Green's, the skulkers of hell. Not much is known about the greens more than rumors — assassins prowling the darkness. Only their smell will warn you, but by then it might be too late. If they exist or not are up to debate. But small scales where found wich could turn invisible in dark areas and turned green when exposed to a direkt light sorce.
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> Then we have the Blue's, pesky imps which has a high affinity for magic. Too bad, they are not using their intelligence for more than trickery and pranks. Though they have some unique magic such as seemingly being able to revivng their own kin, though no other demon or devil race has been recorded to been revived by them. And lastly unlike their cousins, they are quite the swimmers!
These dozen or so imps were of the Green tribe. Skulker of the underworld their hide rather than actual green color, the Green's skin filled with a reflective scale of multi-colors which bends light and effectively hides these creatures from any unexpected eyes.
The Green's reached the door into the heart room and stopped at the border of light seeping through the open door. The elder and leader of the green's looked behind himself at his companions, above his left brow or where it should have been on a human was three scars; as such his name was just plain; Scar. A demon's alias as he was not yet named, only an insignificant no-name demi-demon. But his younglings or apprentices did not see it that way, as they obediently looked down into the ground making sure not to make eye contact.
The green family had a sacred tradition of the eldest and strongest leading the week young, but not only that. Unaccustomed to the demon family, they cared for their apprentices, not necessarily in a loving relationship but as teacher and student.
After Scar's observation that no one was left behind, they went out of the safety of darkness and entered the room.
They emerged from the darkness, first Scar, a large specimen of his family bulkier but still skinny. Then the rest of the green imps appeared with insecure strides. They were ahead shorter, fewer wrinkles, but their bodies were well toned. As they all entered into the light, their scales turned to their natural green color their average size not much larger than their brown cousins but with a slimmer frame and longer ears like that of gremlins.
The group looked around nervously, knowing all too well what inhabited this room.
There was no other living creature in this room and relatively empty except for the heart and two cocoons one large and one small.
Slowly they made their way towards the heart sniffing at it.
Scar looked up towards the heart wide-eyed. Such power, such intensity: Scar though! The group of greens fell to the ground as in prayer to this mighty one.
A slit started to form on the organic heart as razor-sharp teeth reflect the light, Scar knowing all too well what he had to do rises to his feet and grasp one of the apprentices by the skin of his neck and raises him.
He was rasing the apprentice head so that he looked him into his eyes. Placing his forehead on the young greens, he purred softly and got a soft purr back in response. Then Scare released him from his grasp and took the rest of the greens further into the room.
Scar and his group made their way towards the hidden room, leaving the chosen apprentice behind and disappeared through the rune circle.
The young green wich had to stay behind, spread his arms in a welcoming gesture and with a crazed smile spread on his face; *Crunch!*
And then the apprentice was no more — engulfed whole by Lair.
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Scar and his gang of greens arrived in the old underground ruin temple which had been reworked into a diabolical lab by someone or something. The greens didn't even bother to look around as they exited the Large room and into the labyrinth.
A short while later they encounter their target a small creature lying atop a stack of hay. The greens crept forward slowly until they were just a few feet away. Scar with a flick of his finger ordered three of them to bounce the creature.
*Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!*
The cub awoken startled and started bucking and kicking around like a mad bull trying to throw off the three riders from its back.
Two of the greens couldn't hold on and instantly where throw into the wall stunned. But the last one still clung on with a single hand riding it's back raising one arm in the air boosting of the Green's superior balance towards his siblings.
"Wee hee!" [Green Imp]
Scar just sighed into his open palm, shaking his head.
After a few minutes, the cub's movement slowed as it panted tiredly. Overconfident! One of the Greens moved in closer from behind. Unfortunately, the cub still had some energy left as it started to buck again, giving the closest Green in the vicinity a blue eye with its hind hoof.
Scar -inpatient- ordered everyone to surround the cub ready to pounce. Now every one of the Greens jumped the cub as the dust was disturbed by the melee, the cub continuously bucking and kicking making greens fly everywhere until finally, the cub collapsed out of exhaustion with several bruises and slightly bloodied. Scar standing triumphant above the cub.
The remaining Greens was equally bruised but may be worse for wear as they hauled the cub with them down the corridor, back to the teleportation cirkel.
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Underworld's Cave systems - Narrators Pov:
*Pant, Sniff, Pant, Snort*
Heavy steps fall on the uneven stone floor as the minotaur slowly makes her way forward. Her body and beautiful fur blackened and bruised.
But every step gets her closer to her goal, as her [Labyrint recall] to never forget a traversed path, keeping her from getting lost.
Her goal the only thing that mattered in her world, her child! She needs to find her way back to their Labyrinth; it is so sad that sometimes the most prominent and easy solution gets overlooked as her best way to return would have been through the portal she came from!
*buzz*
A dier-fly had caught up to her, she immediately turned around, and with a mighty swing, the minotauress slams the bugg into the floor, squashing it to death.
*Splat!"
*Snort!* [Minoutauress]
She had gone through what felt like a hundred bugs, and she primed for more. But that didn't matter to her; she always had a clear goal in mind; her baby needed his mamma. Just thinking about it made her heart ake!
Her ears suddenly perked up, in the distance, a far cry of sadness. As she acknowledges the sound for what it was. Her eyes filled with blood as she turned around and headed back the direction she came. [Enraged!]
*MUUUUH!!!* [Minoutauress]
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