With Faellen’s warning still weighing somewhat heavily on my mind, I got back to my own project. Making a Dungeon network that will, eventually, span underneath all of Lapis.

But for now, three simple tunnels will suffice. To connect the newer Dungeon Seeds to the first one. Then the next step will be three more tunnels, to connect all of the newer ones. Only after that can I start working on an actually labyrinthine weave between these main pathways.

Everything was progressing smoothly, but not too quickly. While my Dungeon nature allowed me to split my mind to focus on more boring tasks in the background, the speed of expansion wasn’t too great.

Yes, the fact that I didn’t have to properly focus on any of it somewhat offset this. But I wanted more.

And for the first time since my unfortunate death, I had the tools for it.

Or rather, I had the tools to make the tools for it. It was time for monster creation.

It wouldn’t be anything grand. Hell, the combat application of this monster will likely be very low. But as far I know, it should make future expansion much easier.

I am, of course, talking about some kind of mole creature. By making it bigger and faster with my new monster making technique, it should be able to tunnel much faster than me.

Which means I can simply expand my Dungeon into the resulting tunnel, so I won’t have to slow down to excavate and only have to reinforce the tunnel.

Actually… if I do this properly I could maybe even give this mole creature something like earth magic, so that it can reinforce the tunnel by itself. That would really leave me with no need to slow down and allow me to just expand.

I got to work.

The making of new monsters was much easier now that I had the right technique, but also somewhat slower. Was that slowness caused by my own inexperience? Sure, but that isn’t really relevant. The only problem I had with the technique was that without the necessary experience, which could not be gained in any other way then through actual usage if the technique, I had to guess and suss out where to push my mana within the creature to cause the change I wanted.

It was a lot of guesswork. Worse, from what I could tell there wasn’t really any logic behind it.

Push mana towards the nose and its fur grows longer. Feet and it grows an extra stomach. Muscles and its teeth change to herbivorous ones.

As I was saying, completely unpredictable.

I was maybe halfway through designing my mole tunneller when something unexpected happened.

The first thing I noticed was an energy type I hadn’t seen before. A wave of it pulsed out from somewhere within the solar system and enveloped Lapis. My main Dungeon moon body couldn’t observe much more than that, but the same wasn’t true for the parts of me operating the Dungeon Seeds.

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In all four of them, so presumably all over the rest of Lapis as well, I heard the same message repeated by the same chorus-like voice.

“People of Lapis, rejoice! For you’ve been deemed worthy of uplifting into wider civilization. Your efforts have been recognized and so we reward you with the lifeblood of reality: mana. Use it well, and know the name of your benefactor. I am Zemis, deity of earth.”

However, while that was the end of the message, the energy didn’t stop whatever it was doing. I suppose its divine energy, if that claim of Zemis being a deity is true. Either way, the divine energy all around Lapis started doing something new.

I was very lucky that my unique position, that is being able to observe it from above the planet as well as from four points within it, allowed me to somewhat determine its purpose. It was scanning, searching for something. And when it found it, Zemis sent another message.

This time it didn’t play for everyone, but I managed listen in regardless. Being in five places at the same time rules. Anyway, the message was some along the lines of:

“Mortal, you’ve been chosen for a special purpose. While I have given you the gift of mana, that gift is not without purpose. Something foul is plaguing your land, something that shouldn’t exist. Find it and, if you can, eliminate it.”

Thousands, maybe tens or even hundreds of thousands, of people heard the second message. A mix emotions warred within me.

I was angry, of course, that someone was claiming my hard work as their own. But mostly I was worried, scared even.

It was obvious that this deity, this Zemis, meant me as the abomination it wanted people to hunt. I wasn’t really worried about the Sipalians, it would be a long time before any of them became a threat. But simply the fact that a supposed deity wanted me dead? That was worrying.

But I had my own champions within Sipalian society. And I also had a concrete way of rewarding them instead of relying on the fact that ‘some greater power spoke to them, so they should obviously do whatever it asked’.

Quest: Something strange is afoot

Your world has received a divine message, but not all is as it seems. While mana can be gifted, to do so to an entire planet takes more than just a deity.

Additionally, a second secret message was sent out. Zemis, deity of earth, wants people to hunt down ‘something foul’. The likelihood of this being the Dungeon known to you ‘the Light’, the one who’s actually managing the spread of mana on Lapis so that it doesn’t overwhelm the planet, is very high.

Investigate what the purpose of this is and prevent any interference.

Reward:

ability upgrade

There, sent out to my first three adventurers. I’ll also give it to anyone else we train. Here’s to hoping that we won’t accidentally pull someone who not only receive the second message, but also believed it, on our next teleportation.

And as for this Zemis. I need to find them. And quick. I’m not sure what’s the cause of all this, but I won’t stand for it.

It’s time to advance my Sense Ability again. I start scanning the skies.