Apas and Archie returned to the Dungeon, equipped with goods aplenty. The [Ocean Slime Back Pack] came complete with its own bigger on the inside storage space, one that would be quite useful were it integrated into say a dungeon floor but not in its current form not until the next time they went out on a raid anyway. The second was the [Twin Staff of Castor and Pollux] which gave all sorts of bonuses in regards to the plant life that was rapidly building up in my dungeon, but not the point. The Final was the [D Rank Schema Amulet Jewel Spider] that Apas had the foresight to pick up from the Dungeon she just raided.
Hopefully this would be enough to appease Jewel. But the Biggest harvest of them all came from the sum of the battle against the enemy forces.
[Dungeon Keeper 100/100 Please select a region for your new floor]
A glowing map of the mountain appeared before me, but I didn't have much of a choice, after all I was almost at the top of the mountain as it is, so I only had the choice to go a floor deeper. A faint rumble was heard as the wall and floor in my core room collapsed into a staircase, my core dropping into the floor below. Already I felt my consciousness expand into the deeper floor, revealing to me the scenery of a narrow hallway that was rapidly becoming overgrown with roots stretching across the walls and floor, my new core room inside of the hallway that the staircase directly led to. I'd have to work on that later.
[Please Select the 'Theme' for your new floor]
[Cemetery: Due to your use of Undead you have unlocked the option of a floor themed around death and the undead]
[Lake: Due to having manufactured a huge number of aquatic type monsters in your dungeon you have unlocked a floor themed around the use of water and aquatic type monsters]
[Forest: Due to the presence of a large amount of greenery in this floor a one time offer of woodland theme with a schema for woodland type monsters has been unlocked. Notice: High probability of attracting a nature type god to bless this floor]
Well, I can hardly argue with a deal like that.
[Selected: Forest Theme]
The Dungeon shook lightly grasses covered the ground, the walls of the mine were covered in thick mosses. Already I felt like the limit on how many hallways I could have was reached, thanks to the methodical dismantling of the mountain for resources that was performed by Lithilas's people I was now standing in a block of hallways all lined up directly next to one another. But for now that was the least of my concerns.
[Please choose from one of three Forest Themed Monster Schema's]
[E Ranked Schema Hobgoblin-A Goblin that has successfully seized control over it's tribe and has seized more resources for itself, as a result it has grown into a larger and stronger form]
[E Rank Schema Brownie-The Fey offspring of the Unseelie Queen the Brownie is the cousin to the more common goblin, equipped with the power to manipulate shadow and fey magic and gifted with a boon of furious stabbing]
[E Rank Schema Gnoll-A Hyena type Lycanthrope, weaker than their werewolf cousins but also far more numerous and intelligent enough to wield weapons with which to fight]
Despite my earlier misgivings about missing out on the Goblin Schema, I had no intention of taking the Hobgoblin schema instead. Rather, I already have an Ogre Schema, so why would I waste a Schema just to downgrade? The Brownie was tempting, but I already had the niche of a small annoying magic type monster to run harassment with the Wisp. No the most tempting of the schema's that was here went to the Gnoll, a weapon using monster, with confirmation of an even stronger evolution on top of that.
[Selected Schema: Gnoll]
Magic coalesced before me and took the form of a humanoid hyena like monster who after looking around knelled to no one in particular, or rather to a being who it didn't matter in what direction he knelled to since he was literally all around him.
"Master! I live to serve you!"
Good for you, I have business left to attend to on the first floor, you stay here and make sure nothing happens to my core.
"Yes master!" The Gnoll snarled as he spoke but I guess that's only to be expected, I'll have to decide what I want to do with him later, right now I need to focus on my first floor, cause according to Archie we have a visitor.
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The leader of the human expeditionary force at least has manners anyway, he pored Archie a glass of what I suspected to be alcohol, even though he probably can't drink it. I had Apas move onto the nest to both hide and protect the eggs.
"You mentioned before that you have a way of dealing with Leviathan. Speak." Archie stated on my behalf.
"I am Known as Charles the Ship Breaker, and I am here because Leviathan killed my fiance and her family in the process of one of its blatant pillages, and as such I've come seeking revenge." The Man named Charles stated bluntly. "I am here because with the additional power that you will represent by the time that Leviathan gets here we may be able to get rid of it."
That's not a plan!
"I fail to see what you contribute to this." Archie stated on my behalf.
"Fuel." Charles stated bluntly by way of response. "Fuel for your growth, materials for your schema's, weapons for you to strike at Leviathan with, and knowledge about the political structure of the rest of the continent."
Well those were tempting offers. There was only so much information that the others were willing to share with me after all.
"Do you intend to send your people up here to be sacrificed? How far do you intend to go for your 'revenge?'" Archie asked the question I wanted to know, if this guy was willing to sacrifice his own people, he'd be willing to sacrifice me.
"Not if I don't have to." Charles stated bluntly. "In the time to come though there will be monsters coming here. Your dungeon is far away from civilization, and your Griffin has been working very hard to lure them here." Charles explained bluntly. "You need help. So here's a few suggestions."
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We let the eggs roll around down here for a bit, help them get some exercise, in the mean time I focused on getting the second floor combat ready. Mana and points had been absorbed into the wooden support columns that helped maintain this floor's structural integrity.
[Oak Support column 50/50]
Archie, why are these things point value so much lower than the one on my first floor?
"They're significantly smaller than the red wood master, so they take up less power to turn into a monster." Archie's explanation would've been welcome quite a while ago. Whatever, for now I had options to choose from.
[Three Evolution options available]
[E Rank Monster Archespore-A violent and dangerous plant that has been mutated by the presence of necrotic energies in the soil] I presume that I have Archie grinding necromancy into the mountain to thank for that.
[E Rank Monster Small Treant-A young tree that has managed to absorb enough mana and power to achieve sapience, is still fully capable of pulling out it's roots for mobility]
[E Rank Schema Snap-Dragon-A species of carnivorous plant resembling a dragon that snaps at nearby monsters in order to eat them.]
For now I was working with Charles suggestion.
[You've Evolved a Small Treant]
Dust and moss came loose in the wall as the roots tangled themselves into a hand, cracks appeared in the beam of wood resembling a face, legs split off and everything grew until a human sized treat pulled itself out of the wall. Continuing with Charles suggestion I made a bow, but I had no thread with which to string it. Instead I created a spider, the spider created web, I took the spider's web and I was able to make more of it, then I was able to string the webbing into the bow. I gave the bow to the Treant and with it's brute strength it had no trouble pulling back on the draw string. I created another stick of red wood, fletched it with one of Apas's feathers and tipped it with lime stone shaped into a arrow head before giving it to the Treant. Next I opened up a square shaped porthole in the wall. Naturally I couldn't see through it, the Dungeon fog as I was calling it wouldn't let me. But there was one here who could. Archie, if you would?
"It will be an honour master!" Archie created a pair of eye holes directly above the port hole.
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Outside Charles was watching the Dungeon, and saw the hole open up, his own men were setting up a target out on the empty field where they cut down the trees and watched as a arrow came flying out of the dungeon and landed a glancing blow on the target. Then all across the dungeon, several more port holes were formed and dozens more of the arrows came out and nailed the tree stumps.
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So now I have Treant archers, which is good, just not very useful. And I'm leaking mana through these holes that are too small to be considered entrances, so I just set up a few lime stone slides to just come down and cork the mana holes I filled myself with. I have range now, but I should still offset the mana losses, so sinking mana into the trees on the far side of the hallway I had several more branches of mana regenerating trees grown so as to counteract this issue of mana loss in the future battles yet to come. For now I had the Treants resume their positions along the southern most hall of my dungeon, now it was time that I put in some rooms in this place. Charles suggestions for my first rooms for this floor actually surprised me quite a bit, but after proper explanations his reasoning made sense.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Firstly along the eastern wall I created the first room, a dedicated room for my E Rank Spiders. Spiders produce silk, which is apparently roughly as strong as steel even without magic reinforcements. In the mean time I also used the last room on my first floor in order to create a place for storing cement, and a bridge over my pond so that people can get to it easier. Am I being inconsiderate? Tough. The nest is for Apas, it's their fault for not inventing the wheel barrel. The next room that I made was out of consideration for my Gnolls, and my E Rank Wolves.
Turns out that Jewel's scamming those people who are all flooding into her dungeon quite spectacularly. Her monsters either get knocked up with or knock up the delvers, and produces a child, the child formed half from her dungeonness half from the delvers is born as a sort of pseudo contracted monster, but without the awkward limitation of only one per floor. Charles and his men would bring dogs from the outside in and mate with my wolves which would then produce half dungeon half delver wolves similar to what Jewel has been doing, these creatures would then be allowed to go out and hunt filing up my point meter passively. Yes Please! With this in mind I sent the signal for Charles and his men to begin their resource harvesting, an arrow fired at the target his men set up on the field of stumps.
"Take those crates and get them outside!" To Charles command a mage inscribed some kind of rune onto the crates full of Cement I created which allowed him to pick them up and carry them outside over the bridge I put in. I turned outside next to my entrance, where a winch system had been set up in order to lower the crates to the water on a elevator like contraption, where a boat took them around to the other side of the mountain. Next Charles led his people down to my second floor, a pair of slave women. Though unsettled by the wolves and Gnolls the two of them set to work with a loom weaving the silk from the spiders into sheets, in the mean time Charles himself inspected my Treants, their bows, and sighed in disappointment.
"I'll bring some people down here later to fix these bows."
What exactly was wrong with my bows?
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Motivated by equal parts spite and curiosity I once again borrowed Archie's eyes to look out at the camp below. Contrary to my initial expectations the large plus sized sheets that Charles slaves were making weren't destined to be used in linen or as clothing but instead went straight to the walls.
The Easily one in a half story sheets were spread out on a open flat surface made by over laying the stumps with planks. Once flat a cement mixture was prepared and thinly painted along the sheets of silk until they were completely covered, and another sheet layered on top of it. Now that was done another mage came by and chanted some kind of magic, all the moisture in the wet cement was removed hardening it and gluing the two sheets together, and then another layer of cement and sheet was added on top of that. This process repeated for the next few hours until finally there was a two meter in a half slab of concrete and silk sitting in front of my dungeon, at which point in time the entire thing was pulled up with ropes and cattle and landed into a trench on the other side of the clearing they had made. One group of workers went around the other side to put in the finish touches so that the wall would be harder to break and climb, while the others worked on the second wall.
I think I heard about this from... where doesn't matter, the idea was that the alternating layers of soft and hard can take a hit better then just hard by itself, this in turn makes the wall harder to break or penetrate, doubly so considering that part of the material was made out of a substance stronger than steel. I had to adjust my portholes to make sure that the Treants could still hit things on the other side of the wall, which now led to the subject of their bows.
As Charles said he would a 'real bow' was dropped in my midst for me to study. At either end of the bow was a pair of pully's attached to each other via a string that looped around both, the draw strength behind the weapon was easily doubled, not only that but it also had a box attached to the whole thing, a handle in the back attached to a second smaller box inside of the first. This box was attached to the middle of the bow had a built in sliding mechanism that once the second box was pulled back it would bring a arrow with it, and by pulling a trigger on the bow it would fire the arrow inside. Then when the box is pushed back into place it would load another arrow automatically. A pulley system to increase the draw strength of the weapon, and a feeder so that multiple shots could be fired in rapid succession, all strapped to a long bow and equipped to my super humanly strong monsters. In the time that people were outside of my dungeon floors I continued to ponder the benefits of adding doors to divide the rooms and decided to go for it, creating switches for people to open along the way as a way of extra security for myself. Even if the humans were neighbours that still doesn't justify not having doors, and they're nice doors too, they slide down dramatically as people walk by, unless I decide to lock them. With my first floor nearing completion there was one thing left to do now, that being to consult with Lithilas.
[Lithilas: So you've almost completed work on your first floor eh?]
[Dungeon Keeper: I plan on posting Apas for my boss. Is that allowed?]
[Lithilas: It is. It can even create a relatively unique boss fight too, rarely is one of their battles held in the open air around the dungeon itself]
[Dungeon Keeper: So if I decide to go with Apas I should put the boss room first?]
[Lithilas: Whatever is most convenient for you. The true point of interest for you though is the name. After naming your first floor your consciousness will be immediately dragged off before a group of divinities to decide on a sponsorship for your floor]
[Dungeon Keeper: Who should I pick as my first sponsor?]
[Lithilas: Someone unpopular. Your dungeon represents a potential foothold for them into this world, but many of them will already have other dungeons elsewhere that they can use instead. If a popular entity "honours" you with its grace you can be expected to do tasks for them, tasks you maybe unwilling or unprepared to do. On the other hand an unpopular entity has to work harder to create a suitable blessing, and won't be in a position to make such haughty demands of you]
[Lithilas: As for who specifically? Remember that an unpopular entity is considered unpopular for a reason]
[Dungeon Keeper: Thank you for your advice]
With that I brought my consciousness to my first room, to the nest. Apas watched intently as I selected the options of the room.
[Make Boss Room? Yes/No]
[Yes]
The changes were apparent immediately, torches lighting up at either side of my entrance. Turning to face Apas I asked the question.
[Make Contracted Monster Apas the Griffin Boss? Yes/No]
Apas looked at me intently, and nodded her head.
[Yes.]
A glow beamed around Apas's body and I took a step back as I overlooked my floor.
The Roost!
Suddenly I felt my consciousness get pulled out of my body and into some kind of starry place, constellation like entities were standing in the sky looking over me judgingly, not as many as some would like, but then again my Roost is basically a hole in the side of a mountain. And yet one had been here longer than the others and I zeroed in on that entity as the night sky gave way to some kind of meeting room. A bony woman dressed in silks, her face a crooked nose and her hair shades of grey and white, over all she gave the impression of a middle aged Madam past her prime if not for one detail. Her legs, her legs that had been replaced by two long snakes that were slithering about the area. Then a name appeared in my mind: Echidna.
Well ugly is a bit of a exaggeration on Jewel's part. Finely aged would be a better-
"Save the flattery." The snake woman rasped as she put her smoking pipe down.
Saving it.
Echnida snapped her fingers as I felt new information enter my mind.
[C Ranked Evolution for Apas: Sphinx]
Images appeared in my mind, a woman with the limbs of a Sphinx and the wings of a hawk was rampaging destroying an entire town through sheer savage might.
[Summoning magic Circle: Genie]
Summoning? Don't I already do that?
"You create, which is to bring an entity into existence on the spot, this is summoning, which is to bring an entity from somewhere else to you." Echidna snapped her fingers again. "Don't worry, I'm not asking for much." More information appeared in my mind.
[Create a demi-human city. Destroy the Scorpion in the North]
Okay, that's not ominous at all.
[Yes/No]
I suspect that it would be considered incredibly rude if I ask to have some time to think about it.
"You're not wrong."
And so I instead humbly accept this weirdly specific blessing.
[Yes]
"Hehehe. Let me know how things turn out with Apas."
Letting out that ominous statement I was sent back to my core room, from the nearby limestone a familiar figure emerged, Apas, or a statue of her. Nodding my head in satisfaction I went back to see Apas in the nest, Limestone in the form of dust dropped from the wall of my dungeon. I went into my fifth chamber on my first floor, I remembered the pattern for the magic circle Echidna gave me and I laid it down. She actually gave me four magic circles, wind, earth, water and fire genies. With this in mind I zeroed in on the one that I felt suited me best.
[Summoning: Ifrit]
The room was swept with fire from which emerged a thin looking man with a head of fire and horns like a goat.
[Contract with Summoned Entity: Ifrit Yes/No?]
Well here goes nothing.
[Yes]
And a new link was formed connecting me together with the creature that I summoned and then I switched my perspective over to it. This was... different. I didn't have the thoughts of the Ifrit in me, it was like it had none of it's own.
[C Rank Monster Ifrit-Like most Genies, a Ifrit lacks in a will of it's own, instead it's power is shaped by the desires of those who bond with it]
So I took over a empty shell? Well now that is impressive. I went to the pond room next and looked down at my reflection in the water. I was completely different from the Ifrit I had summoned before, I wore a hood and some kind of mask over my face and glasses were covering my eyes. It was as if every facet of my identity had been completely obscured, I even went as far as to try and will a face into being through the mask but nothing came of it. Fine then. The big part here was at the entrance, with eyes I could call my own I looked outside of my dungeon for the first at the great blue sea that was before me, eyes hit with the light from the sun as it rose in the east, at long last freed from the prison of my own body. Apas walked out with me and sat down on the draw bridge with me. I couldn't physically breathe but I sucked deep of the fresh air around me and smiled. The sea was beautiful, it was hard to imagine that this beautiful sea would soon become a battlefield.
"You won't get to eat me Leviathan. I won't let you." I raised my head up and fire spewed up into the sky in a roar of provocation. Naturally, I did what anyone does after getting some good news and I went online so that I could talk to all my friends about it.
[Dungeon Keeper: Who has two thumbs and a body!? This guy that's who!?]
[Graves: !?]
[Jewel: !?]
[Graves: You have a dungeon avatar already!?]
[Jewel: We don't even have avatars yet!]
I suspect I may have screwed up a bit.
[Lithilas: Obviously he picked a good choice for his first sponsor]
[Dungeon Keeper: Yeah. Echidna worked hard for me, I guess she took being rejected by Jewel pretty hard]
[Jewel: Echidna!?]
[Jewel: How in Aphrodite's name does Echidna equate to getting a dungeon Avatar!?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Who knows.] I wasn't about to tell her what happened. Not for free anyway. [Dungeon Keeper: Which reminds me.]
[Dungeon Keeper has sent Jewel a D Rank Schema, Amulet Jewel spider]
[D Rank Amulet Jewel Spider-A particularly vicious species of spider bred by the Mimic Mystery Mansion, is born attached to a magic enchantment that offers a unique effect, by stringing a web between it's two hind legs and curling up can mimic the appearance of a magic amulet, then at the dungeon's command the web can become a garrote]
[Jewel: Mimic's spider Schema? I've been trying to steal one from him for years!]
[Jewel: How!? How!? HOW!?]
[Chat Administrator 342 Lithilas has banned Jewel from Chat for one hour Reason: Come back when you've calmed down Jewel]
[Dungeon Keeper: Thank you for the advice Lithilas. It was because of what you said earlier that I chose Echidna]
[Lithilas: Just paying you back for getting Conquerete off my tail]
[Lithilas: Keep up ingenuity like this and who knows. Maybe you'll become a real "Dungeon Keeper" in do time]
[Lithilas: For now keep up the resource production. Whoever you're working with should be doing quite well for now but that won't last forever, you'll have to deal with a monster stampede eventually. They'll be drawn in as your core and power grows bigger and bigger, lured by the scent of fresh mana and points]
[Dungeon Keeper: Then they will become my points first]