I brought my Proposal to Levi, and after a few moments she nodded her head in agreement. The entire plan would be derailed after all if she wasn't able to do what I needed her to do, of course I also made sure that the assured safety of all the inhabitants of my floor and Levi's return to her normal self were both guaranteed before we proceeded.
In the mean time the Trinity were panicking, getting their own defences ready to defend themselves. I gave them time to set up their defences. This time. A winter hurricane appeared around the Dungeon, freezing several walls of ice, Coral and Fort would begin to act when the counterattack came. Or when Fort decided to pop several cannons out of his body and open fire on my dungeon. Should I praise his initiative? I probably should, I heard that Praise is good for Children's development. In any case LEVI LETS GOOO!
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"Fort you IDIOT!" The Mermaid woman grabbed the possessed sword body that Fort had been inhabiting and shook it as if she was trying to wring his neck. "Why'd you go ahead and provoke him! Why!?" Coral had to borrow eyes just so that she could cry them out.
"The Ice barriers should at least buy us time, let's use that to regroup and-" Suddenly the entire three part dungeon shook. Outside Levi, and her entire floor, was undergoing a transformation, the Coral was peeling back into a massive shell as something resembling a turtle's head emerged from the water, before it suddenly extended into a Pleisiosaur type neck. Then like a snake the head on the end of the neck snapped forward and attempted to bite down on the dungeon, however at the last moment she was stopped by several layers of ice that had formed up to protect her.
"Hang on I got this!" Several windows opened across the trinity, inside of which harpoons were loaded into guns and fired out at Levi's immobilised form. However...
"FORT YOU IDIOT! THAT'S CORAL STRAPPED TO HER BACK SHE ISN'T GOING TO BE AFFECTED BY IT!" The spears fired, and got stuck inside of the slime body, absorbed and dissolved, the head broke free and was about to slam into the dungeon head on, only to stop, and not because they were the ones to stop it either. "Should I praise you three for not getting destroyed in the first hit?" The Familiar form of a Maride dropped into the core room from the floor above. Levi dissolved the ice as she folded herself back into the third floor of the dungeon.
"How are we supposed to defend against that!?" Three direct strikes were landed on each of the three core's borrowed bodies heads. "That is what practice is for. Think about what you need in order to fend off the same attack and find a way to defend against it next time."
Next time? They were going to go through this on the regular?
"For now, our guests from Lemuria are going to give us information on the various monsters that you can expect to face when you are released into the ocean on the back of their turtle, and you three are going to come up with methods on how to fight all of them. Your jobs and responsibilities will be to hunt them and prevent more like them from forming. Understood?"
"Understood." North replied simply.
"Yes sir." Coral provided the follow up.
"Pff." Coral punched Fort's sword Body. "Yes sir..."
"Good. This bay isn't big enough for the four of us, it's barely even big enough for you three. Start by building up your floors into something usable, get some blessings from the gods and get your mana regen flowing. I'll compile a list of blessings with the other dungeons and give them to you later but My own recommendation? Castor/Pollux is the god of symbiosis, that being multiple creatures of different origins and species working together in a mutually beneficial relationship." The three of them looked at each other, then their dungeon that looked to be tailor made for symbiosis. "Good. The twin god is one of the lesser deities so they shouldn't get a very big head about everything." The Trio nodded in agreement as they went about redesigning their third floor. They should probably start with the boss.
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The three envoys were not amused with the notion of the dungeon shifting about and lashing out at the Trinity like it had. But they had to agree with the point that was given to them, the ocean had become a dangerous place in the years since Leviathan's arrival, getting some practice against the monsters that they needed hunting was a wise and sound strategy, even if they disapproved of the notion of the dungeon being harmed.
"You intend to 'give' us the trinity?" Captain Merrow stated brows cocked suspiciously.
"It's a deal filled with mutual benefit! The three of them are taking up precious mana in the area and it's slowing down my own monsters evolution, which means that the time until I get my own floors back will be extremely limited. Of course I am expecting a lot of favourable trade with your Lemuria as well."
"As are we." The Crab stated clicking his claws. "Lemuria is having problems of it's own, it's becoming over populated, but we've extended ourselves as far as possible without leaving our civilian populace at risk from attacks from Leviathan, even then hundreds of us were heading into battle every year with the expectation that we will be slaughtered like dogs in the crossfire between Ring of Fire and Leviathan." Now that Leviathan is gone, they want to start moving their excess population elsewhere, but the ocean is still too dangerous.
So, now we have to think up under water town expansions too. I don't think my proposed prefab walls are gonna cut it here, too much stuff for water to get into and form all kinds of nasty mold's with. If I did use them they would have to be airtight and water proof. In lieu of probably not gonna work here walls... I looked through my various materials as I dug deep into what they were and how they worked and... oh coral works like that does it? And so does the algae? Alright then, but first thing was first.
[Dungeon Keeper: Yo]
[Ouroboros: How's the trinity coming along?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Told them to graft themselves to the Lemurian's Turtle and work on getting Castor/Pollux's blessing]
[Jewel: That might be a tall order]
[Dungeon Keeper: What's the problem?]
[Jewel: You already have the twin god's blessing right? God's want to spread their influence out over a wide area, give them a wide net to work with, Castor/Pollux already has one blessing in the area to work with in you]
[Dungeon Keeper: Trinity is three separate dungeons working together, and with a giant turtle stacked on top of that]
[Ouroboros: You said before that you're having the three of them remodel their dungeon to attach themselves to the turtle right?]
[Ouroboros: In other words they're far from finishing their floors]
So the three of them have to either choose between getting a god's blessing or getting ready for the move. In that case.
[Dungeon Keeper: Looks like I need to figure out a way of increasing the mana around here]
I met with Charles and the Lemurian trio as we discussed our plans.
"In no particular order, we have to prepare this area for the incoming winter and the extra people coming in, get the trio ready to ship out and increase the mana regeneration around here to the point where it can sustain four dungeons and accelerate the repairs to my own." I explained to my circle of associates. "Ideas?"
"We should start by transferring the three dungeons onto our island turtle." The Knight Crab person was the first one to explain. Right that turtle is already full of different kinds of buildings. "With the dungeon's permission we can fill the three dungeon's full of mana generating personnel, with that amount the dungeons can begin moving onto the turtle's back."
"I remember that Conquerete was a big golem like thing that moved around with the support of a bunch of slimes powering a hydraulic." I explained recalling what I figured would be a useful experience to the think tank we had going on. "How to explain this... you guys can use water manipulating magic right?" Two Cylinders, two plungers, and a hose, these were the items that I produced in my dungeon. First I filled one cylinder with water and used the plunger to push it through the hose and into the other cylinder which I finished filling with water and shoved the plunger inside. With those preparations set I got another thing from the third floor, a massive slab of coral to act as something heavy. For Reference sake, it took three of Charles men to bring this thing up here. "Now we apply an equal amount of weight to this one here." Played by several of Charles people standing on a large wooden board, I initially considered getting Apas to do it but it felt dangerous to make a comment about her weight. Underneath the men on the board the fully extended plunger gradually sunk down, and at the same time the slab of coral slowly rose up into the air.
"With an equal amount of weight on both ends, a slime inside to control the flow of force and a pivot between them Conquerete was able to create a fully functional limb. If the trio takes similar measures then they can extend themselves to start climbing onto the turtle's back. Not to mention that most of their floors have yet to be fully expanded."
The Lemurian representatives arrived her via the turtle in the first place, there should already be lots of pre-existing structures that they can use to expand into without any real problems like what I did for the second floor. Expand and climb on, expand and climb on, repeating this cycle enough times should mean that we can move the trio successfully, and with the turtle supplying them with mana that should reduce my headaches for some time.
"Managing Winter is about having the correct resources." My proposed prefab housing was being put on hold. "Our top priorities are going to be shelter and warmth." Charles spoke ruthlessly as he eyed my watery body. At this point it was better to just create an area within my dungeon that people can live in where they'll be warm, in other words my future fourth floor.
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"Well I do understand the point, for now it's enough to have the third floor focus on making supplies, thanks to Charles here I do have some coal that I can replicate and that you can burn to keep warm. There's also all kinds of sea food being produced on the third floor as well, as long as you keep the bones and shells then they can just be recycled by my mana." Short term I wasn't overly thrilled about tunnels being dug all over and around me, long term though it had benefits. We would eventually convert the tunnels into a sewer system when the city itself starts to be built, using Levi we can funnel that sewage to Treyni and her floor and use that to manufacture produce for the citizens of the city to eat. That said I'm not able to expand at the moment. "The main issue here is a question of whether you can dig out the tunnels, because just a heads up for you, but I can't right now until my core is healed."
"You can leave that to us." Charles stated bluntly. Then I leave it to you.
"The last issue is a matter of building a place that's suitable for the Lemurian people. Just a heads up, but I do not know how Lemurian architecture works."
"Do you think us primitive fish huddling around volcanic vents for warmth?" The Crab snapped his claw as a stone slab was handed to him. I was thus introduced to a large dome like structure.
"Anything you need from my dungeon to make this work?" I asked looking down at the structure. It was probably a given that they needed something but it was important that I check anyway.
"Coral blocks and Algae." The Crab replied in simple terms.
I was curious so I dug into the schemas I had on the topic. Although coral looks like a stone it's actually alive, and it grows by feeding off of micro organisms like algae, so you can make a building under water using Coral bricks and spreading algae between the bricks. It can take a year for the coral to grow naturally but they have access to druids who can encourage it to form a seal within a day.
"Alright then I'll set the dungeon to begin producing coral bricks. You guys can work on your share of the city and Charles can start digging out his." My compatriots nodded their heads and went their separate ways. I went into the my dungeon and produced several coral blocks and algae mortar before instructing Levi to help get everything out side. I also dropped by the trio and gave them my instructions as well.
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"Build this freeze that." North complained as he extended a block of ice out to where the hole where the fort built on the turtle's back was located. "Bloody slave driver I swear." The mass of ice continued to extend outwards until it had come into contact with the entrance of the island turtle fortress and secured itself in place. Coral and Fort soon began strengthening the ice bridge with their own choice materials while North hollowed out the inside of the fortress, and soon they had connected to the first part of the turtle's fortress. Already they could feel a fresh infusion of mana entering and invigorating the dungeon, and that was only by connecting to a few spaces. They originally thought that they would have to wait until the mana regenerated before they could continue modifying the dungeon but that didn't look like it'll be necessary: That's B-Rank mana for you it would seem.
"What about that guy Keeper was talking about before, Castor/Pollux?" North asked looking between their three compatriots.
"We probably aren't going to attract them." Coral stated as she shrugged her shoulders.
"If he was interested in three dungeons working together he probably would've taken noticed by now. For one thing do we even need any blessings right now? We're getting a direct feed of B-Rank Mana." Fort stated in a rare moment of wisdom. "Let's just focus on strapping the rest of the dungeon onto the turtle's back."
Keeper gave them a schema for the River Slime a little while ago, and explained hydralics to them. Lift one side of the base of the pillar up a crack, fill the gap with material, reinforce the upper part as it's about to collapse, repeat until they have the pillar strapped to the turtle's back, strap it down with additional material and expansions. Do that about three more times to turn the pillar into a nice square shape, maybe cling some of the lower parts of the dungeon to the underside of the turtle's body. At their current pace they'd be done in about a month.
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As much as the thought of using slaves to bore a hole through the forth floor amused Charles, it was a method lacking in efficiency especially when you take into consideration the presence of the people from jewel's dungeon and Levi. As a start, use Levi to clear away all of the organic soil making up the area that they were going to excavate, the mages with affinities for earth move and break down all of the stone that Levi can't work with, any fossils found are delivered to me to reanimate and take the schema's for. Case in point.
[E-Rank Schema Armoured Jaw Fish-A especially vicious common ancestor of both the Sturgeon and the Pirahna combining the stubborn defensive power of the first and the viciousness of the latter]
I'll put a pause on that for now, somehow I don't think foot long heavily armoured pirahna's are very conductive to doing business. Moving on. As Levi speed excavates line the walls of the newly excavated tunnels with my patented three part material, created inside of a air bubble I made inside of Levi so that it doesn't get wet, insuring that it stays warm down there while lining the floor with clay brick while numerous side rooms had been born that would in due time become foundations for people's home, and where I'd shove all the usual sewage tid-bits that would typify a city. I paused as what I was doing slowly dawned on me. I was turning one of my floors into a sewer! Ugh! I understand how necessary it was for the nice modern city that I was making but do I have to!? I reviewed my capabilities in my head. I can break down any dead matter into mana automatically, and I can store it as well bringing it elsewhere in the dungeon. Now if I can just do that automatically so that I don't have to... ugh! Ignoring my disgust what god in their right mind would even want to bless such a place?
[Dungeon Keeper: Hey Lithilas I gotta question?]
[Lithilas: Why do I feel like I'm going to regret answering?]
I haven't even asked yet and I already regret doing it.
[Dungeon Keeper: How do you do... waste management in your dungeon?]
[Lithilas: What kind of waste?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Human waste]
[Lithilas: Corpse disposal? There are a lot of humans who use a dungeon that they have a good relationship with to give their dead a 'dungeon funeral' as a way of giving back]
Gross, but informative, and also not what I was talking about.
[Dungeon Keeper: I was talking about Dung]
[Lithilas: ?]
[Dungeon Keeper: How do you dispose of the Dung that your humans produce so that they don't throw it out into the middle of the street and make themselves sick?]
[Lithilas: !]
[Lithilas: Ah. I didn't realise that your city had developed that far already]
[Dungeon Keeper: It hasn't. But I'm making some tunnels for people to live in until the winter is over with that I was thinking that I would eventually turn into sewers before I remembered that would mean I would become the sewer]
[Lithilas: Yes well...]
It was taking him a while to reply, as if he was talking about something difficult.
[Lithilas: You do know that you can taste anything that you've broken down or stored right?]
REJECTION! I don't even have a gag reflex and it felt like one was being forced into existence as we speak!
[Dungeon Keeper: Your recommendation?]
[Lithilas: Slimes]
[Lithilas: Slimes will eat anything, and if you feed them enough of one thing that they develop a mutation they will grow fond of doing so]
So what he's saying is that I should include some septic tanks in these places and fill them up with slimes.
[Lithilas: Slimes have numerous different sub species, there are specialists in waste disposal as we already discussed, also in cleaning, alchemy and the likes]
[Lithilas: You should consider employing a slime specialist but they're honestly not that complicated, manage their diets properly and you will be rewarded for your efforts]
Okay, need to see Charles about setting up some communal toilets. But later. While one end of my third floor was producing pre fab walls another end was producing bricks of coral and algae mortar which was being carried out of the dungeon by teams of Lemurians. I possessed my Maride again and had a look outside at how things were going.
"The Winter isn't going to be rough on you guys?" The Octopus mage lady turned around to face me. "The sea water isn't going to freeze if that's what you mean." The Octopus woman stated bluntly. I'm pretty sure the I froze this water before. Whatever I'll just dump salt into the water if that's the case. "If the worst comes to it, we will simply take refuge inside of your dungeon."
At the moment, the various fish people were building igloo type buildings using the coral bricks and Algae mortar, for which I had to produce several blocks in highly specific shapes, The Trio weren't contributing much material at the moment, too busy with the move if I had to guess.
"You guys are going to be okay out here? I don't exactly have any fish monster deterrent ready."
"That is an B rank monster." The Octopus lady stated indicating the island turtle. "It is all the deterrent that we need."
Well, I can't argue with the logic there.
"Alright keep me in the loop." Just because we were busy constructing new things doesn't mean that the monsters ever really stopped. Our conveyor belt had to be moved but we were able to still feed the trio any monster that was killed. My Core was still fixing itself at a snail's pace, while my slime powered communal toilet was set up, as well as a slime powered laundromat and slime powered medicine station.
[F Rank Monster Dung Slime-A slime that has been fed a large amount of feces, It likes it a lot]
The schema says slimes are plant like, I think, so it maybe makes sense. If you don't think about it.
[F Rank Monster Cleaning Slime-A slime that has been specially trained to remove the stains and filth from not only cloth but also armour and weapons leaving the items themselves intact]
It's a fantasy washing machine, I have no other way to describe this one.
[E Rank Monster Medicine Slime-A slime that has been fed a large amount of poison and then a large amount of antidotes, the fluids that their bodies produce have a variety of medicinal applications]
I'm not even sure how Charles guys made this one, and I don't think I want to find out either. But with fortifications built, food, shelter and hygiene all taking care off I honestly don't have that much to do at the moment but wait and plan.
[Dungeon Keeper: The Trio should be ready to leave in about a month bar any accidents and the snow has already started to come down over here]
[Lithilas: Make sure that you have somewhere to store that snow and compress it into ice]
[Lithilas: If you manage to suicide yourself by shoving things into your core at random at the very least the humans will have some place they can store their food in the spring without it going bad] Ugh. He's really ramming me for that one isn't he?
[Ouroboros: Aside from the questionable life choices you've apparently been making you should let us known when those three leave as soon as possible]
[Ouroboros: These two are going to be passing by you after all]
[Babel: Ah so you are the new comer that Little Grave mentioned]
[Dungeon Keeper: You're the floating island right? How'd that happen? Did one of the gods bless it that way?]
[Babel: There are many things one gains from devotion to the gods, my gift of flight is but one of many]
[Lithilas: People have been asking about that for years, he has yet to tell them]
Which was odd. The whole idea of blessings was gods trying to spread their influence around, so far it sounded like Graves and Jewel were like bill boards for their respective gods, but Babel's didn't seem interested... meaning that he was such a lunatic tier entity that he didn't need to spread his influence around. Dear literal gods what am I dealing with?
[Dungeon Keeper: How'd you end up as a merchant of all things?]
[Babel: Because I can, and because I've seen the alternative far too often]
Well that's not ominous at all.
[Dungeon Keeper: I look forward to your patronage then]
[Babel: Which may be difficult, until the number of dungeons around you begin to drop]
Yeah mana's a little stingy at the moment, even with the trio suckling off of the teat of that giant turtle. I haven't even finished the evolution for whatever the first two floors are turning into let alone anything else.
[Dungeon Keeper: And the prisoner?]
[Ouroboros: Imprisoned, for now]
I wonder how that works?
[Ouroboros: Either way my obligations are done here, I'm going to be off to where I'm needed]
As far as I understand the situation Graves is receiving power from prayer, perhaps he's going to make good on them. All the power to yah buddy. It was a interesting feeling, someone leaving the chat group, the feeling of someone leaving the range by which we could communicate, well communicate without using the Adamantine globe in my core room anyway. I could still talk to the big snake if I want to, I'll check on how he's doing later. As for Babel I don't think I've got anything to trade so... yeah. Wait until the spring I guess.