Leviathan has come, it proceeded with its usual opening move, manipulating the water to create a massive wave to wipe out any annoying encampments that just so happens to be in its way. But Charles came prepared, fighting Leviathan with water types was the height of foolishness. Water manipulation was its bread and butter, the thing it knew best how to do and did better than anyone else, instead Charles brought those that would be able to stop it.
"Deploy the Druids!" Charles would never be able to stop the water from flowing, but he can slow it down. Water was weak to wood type magic such as those used by druids, using this they were able to trigger a massive Algae bloom, raising the viscosity of the water and putting a dent in the wave.
"Warn the Dungeon!"
The dungeon was warned already, Archie could see the wave coming, and he told Treyni, who for one hundred meters around the dungeon trigger a algae bloom over 200 meters long and shoved it in the direction of the on coming wave. More mana was pumped into the algae making it expand more and more all the while the wave was coming.
"Earth Mages Barrier!"
Ever since Charles made contact with the Dungeon he got it to start pumping out cement by the mountain loads, but it was largely going unused. The Earth Mages took advantage of it, swirling the Cement through water and erecting a wall out of it. The wave passed through the expanding mass of sea plant life and the increased viscosity reduced its size and mass, the wall blocked the rest, barely. The Algae continued to bloom, it wouldn't be slowing down any time soon, but without the mana constantly feeding into it will eventually die off, and Charles couldn't be sure that Leviathan wouldn't try that again.
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Leviathan had come, and I could only say that Apas had both a good sense of timing and a bad one, good because her evolution had finished and she was awake again. Bad because she was really, very distracting now.
"Thank you for your generosity Master."
Apas's over all body shape was the same as before, four legs and a tail, two wings sticking out of her side, however the similarities from before ended there. All of Apas's lion and bird features had been stuck onto the body of a human woman, she had a hourglass figure that easily rivalled anything that Jewel's monsters had on them (How the hell does she even fly with those things weighing her down?) and tanned skin with black hair that was human from head to ass, and I knew that because she came out of her evolution cocoon naked.
Okay, I'm just going to put some... cloth on this. How exactly does a disembodied soul inside of a rock attached to a mountain even get this awkward? Weaving my dungeon mana I quickly threw together some spider silk clothing onto her, a tube top and a loin cloth.
"And you're already giving me gifts. We'll get along swimmingly."
What do you mean by that?
"When my kind chooses a mate, we make them work for our affection, after all being female we need to be very picky about our companions. We have them gather material to build our nests, bring us food, it wouldn't be good if we chose someone incapable as our life companions." It took me a few moments to process what she said thinking over everything that we've been doing together. "Of course being unable to perform is a huge no, luckily for me genies such as the Ifrit are more than capable of rising to the challenge." I froze. Echidna gave me both the Ifrit summoning circle and Apas's current form. Damned fertility gods! "Shall I wait for you to slip into something more comfortable, master?"
Get your mind out of the gutter! There's a ass hole knocking on our door!
Apas poked her head outside, to the Leviathan Pirate fleet on the distance.
"I guess our business will have to wait until we deal with that." As she decided that I received a new notification.
[You are being Raided by Pirate Fleet Leviathan] Oh damn it! From my front entrance, a man thin as bones walked out.
[D-Rank Monster Skeleton Pirate Captain-A undead warrior who has mastered close quarters combat and leads a crew of skeleton pirates]
"Is this all? After getting caught inside of that damned snake I expected... more." Suddenly several spears skewered the pirate, getting his bones wrapped up in the sheer number of spears. "Pathetic." The Skeleton twisted its body and the lime stone spears snapped off, then he landed sockets on Apas and they visibly widened.
"Good bye." Apas gathered the wind around her and slammed it into the skeleton pirate.
The thing about bones? They're light. The Skeleton was pinned to the entrance and was holding on with all four limbs trying to pull himself back into the dungeon.
"If you think this is enough to abate my master's wrath think again!" The Skeleton snapped accusingly.
"Oh would you please shut up!" I had Archie create several limestone flails and threw the heavy masses at the skeleton, smashing his body.
[You are being Raided by Pirate Fleet Leviathan]
Another monster appeared, this one resembling a woman whose torso was sticking out of the top of an octopus.
[D Rank Monster...]
I threw myself into the Ifrit's body and threw fire onto the new monster's body cooking her as she screeched in pain. I quickly went to the dungeon chat group and confirmed my worst fears.
[Due to being raided you cannot use the Chat function]
Leviathan didn't need to beat me, he just needed to keep sending waves of useless monsters at me until he could get his butt over here and rip me out of the ground drag me over the ocean like he was doing to those other Dungeons I saw before. But I have my own secret weapon to work with as well.
"Apas!" My newly evolved Sphinx flew out of the dungeon over the algae laced ocean that Treyni had prepared to put a dent in the tidal wave.
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On her way out, Apas picked up an unexpected passenger.
"I'm coming with you!" Charles had jumped off the top of the wall and was now flying with Apas to Leviathan.
"Shouldn't you be commanding your men?" Even though Apas said that she neither made any motion to slow down or turn around, after all her target was right in front of her.
"No." Leviathan had already opened fire on them, black cannon balls were flying through the air straight at them Charles raised a single hand in the air as a mantra went through his mind. "First kinetics into heat." The Black cannon balls turned a bright red as they started to fall from the air. "Heat into Kinetics!" And then the cannon balls turned black again as they rocketed through the air back at Leviathan, slamming into its galleon that had fired the shots in the first place.
"Nice attack." Apas mentioned lightly.
"There's more where that came from!" Charles closed his eyes as he spread his mana through the air and seized control over all the Heat in the area. "Heat goes down, cold comes up!"
Suddenly a noticeable change was taking place. Apas's feathers were covered in a layer of frost as Charles created a cold front and a warm front.
"Getting a bit nippy up here! I don't exactly have my feathers to keep me warm here any more!"
"Then I suggest you land, and try to get into the eye of the storm!" Charles announced as the skies darkened.
"The what now?" Apas thought she knew what he was talking about but it didn't make any sense, until it did, in the worst possible way. The two fronts mixed together, the winds picking up as they went. "And I thought Keeper pulled some ballsy moves."
Soon, an entire cyclone was forming in the middle of Leviathan's fleet, pulling in and smashing the ships against one another.
"HEAR ME LEVIATHAN!" Charles voice boomed with magic. "I AM CHARLES ALEXANDER FORMERLY OF THE PENTAGHAST FAMILY! I AM THE SHIP BREAKER! I AM THE BRIDGE BURNER! AND I AM YOUR DESTRUCTION!"
Leviathan Screamed, trying desperately to keep its ships from coming apart from the rest of the fleet, to keep its dungeon from being shattered. Prioritising safety over strength the fleet recalled it's monsters from Dungeon Keeper, In the mean time it's gargoyles were shooting magical streams of water up at Charles and Apas, trying to knock them out of the sky. Already leviathan was adding weight to it's ships, intentionally taking on water into the ships in order to weigh them down, going as far as to manipulate the water in question to reach up and grab the ships in question. Recalling its monsters was a mistake.
Inside of a familiar ship Keeper had launched a raid of it's own, summoning to the enemy dungeon Treyni the dryad, already she was working, they had gotten lucky with the algae they were working with, Dead Man's rope. This algae naturally forms long strands of rope like masses that stretch outwards from it's point of origin, Treyni used her powers to turn the random strands of algae into true rope and tie up all the enemy ships and started pulling on them, pulling them towards the dungeon. Naturally Leviathan was not liking the idea of being under another's power, it continued to try and shoot at Charles with it's cannon balls, trying to break his concentration, but Apas kept dodging them. Then Charles received a magical communication from his people.
"Sir, the Algae is acting strange! It's pulling the fleet towards the dungeon!" Charles thought it over and made a single, calculated decision.
"Help it!" Charles snapped by way of reply.
"Leviathan or the Algae?"
"The Algae! Burn the other one in hellfire!"
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Treyni sunk her roots into the hull of the ship, and immediately entered a stand off with another being.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"You!? One of Castor's Weaklings!?" The Gargoyle nailed to the ship had a laugh. Castor was the god of Symbiosis, naturally it wasn't a topic that people had a lot of thanks for, and so naturally neither Castor or Pollux were very popular as deities. That said...
"No one wants to hear that from Dagon's vassal!"
Dagon on the other hand is worshipped as the god of deep water, which is neither threatening enough that people make sacrifices to him in order to ward off it's influence nor beneficial enough that people pray to it in order to receive a bountiful harvest. Much like the brothers Castor/Pollux, Dagon is kind of a loser.
[Castor/Pollux is subsuming Dagon's Domain]
"Gah!"
Crunching sounds were echoing throughout the ship as Treyni spread her roots and the influence of Castor/Pollux. Dagon wasn't inclined to lose his consecrated ground so easily though and so the blessing aboard the ship was activated, and thus the entire ship was flooded with pressurised water strong enough to crush most land dwellers, water was also what Treyni was feeding off of, so a cycle of destruction and healing broke out. That said where Leviathan lost in terms of the elements it was making up for it with fire power. The storm outside was brewing intensely, and so rather than one of the dozens of sea gods that Leviathan had he instead focuses on someone frostier, Lucifer Demon God of Pride and Ruler of the frozen hell. The silhouette of a figure was made out as a giant looming shadow was birthed over the flag ship of the Pirate fleet, the figure flapped his wings and the cyclone turned icy as a blizzard was kicked up. Once Charles people were in range Leviathan opened fire on them with several Galleons, the fact that they were technically pulling it where it wanted to go was irrelevant, as they were still enemies so they were forced to retreat.
Finally, the bastard was close enough that I can launch the real raid. First thing was first I had to recall Treyni, and have her connect to all of the Treants across the second floor. I had Archie, Thing and Saphee connect to the limestone in my mountain the coral within the third floor respectively. Now for my raid team.
[Archie the Warlock Skeleton, Thing the Bone Hand, Saphee the Animated Skull, Treyni the Redwood Dryad]
Get wrecked Leviathan!
[The Raid will Begin in 3. 2. 1]
With that all said and done, the dungeon disappeared, and reappeared in the middle of the ocean, a couple of boats trapped inside of it. Already I could feel a flood of power entering the Dungeon.
[Giant Slayer 6 5/5]
[Giant Slayer 7 5/5]
[Giant Slayer 8 5/5]
[Giant Slayer 9 5/5]
[Giant Slayer 10 5/5]
[Congratulations! As a reward for maxing out Giant Slayer you've been rewarded with a Giant type Schema!]
Dozen's of monsters were trapped inside of my walls and suffocated therein. I immediately cancelled the raid, taking not only the fruits of my harvest in points but also several of Leviathan's ships with me. [Mana 18000/900] I was full of so much mana that it hurt, at the same time the leyline between me and Leviathan was running on empty, I was getting a notification to start work on my next floor but I ignored it. Leviathan was screaming in pain. Again!
Again the dungeon disappeared from it's original location, appeared in the middle of Leviathan's fleet, the mountain had the ships lodged inside of it, the coral got the numerous contracted beasts living in the water trapped inside of it. Then the Dungeon returned to it's original spot, now with even more of Leviathan's ships lodged inside of it. I was getting messaged on the Chat group from Leviathan begging me to stop! My consciousness was getting hazy. I could feel my core cracking! Again! For a third time I appeared in Leviathan's feel, scooped up it's ships, and then ended the raid returning back to my original location.
[Emergency Measures Taking place!] I felt my core sinking into the ground as another level was being created.
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Outside of the Dungeon Charles was laughing.
"You crazy son of a gun!" About a third of Leviathan's ships had been eaten by the Dungeon Keeper via the stunt it just pulled, but by the looks of things it wouldn't be taking anymore, the light of a evolutionary cocoon wrapped around the entire dungeon, as if the entire thing was one big monster that was now evolving. Leviathan was wounded but it was far from dead, that was Charles job. "Rot the Algae!" When large amounts of organic matter, such as Algae, begins to rot it produces a massive amount of methane gas, which Charles intended to take full advantage of. The area was filled with flammable gas, and Charles dropped the match, the area around and inbetween the ships were filled with fire and flames as numerous ships were set on fire by the gasses around them. Naturally Leviathan was attempting to put out the fire in the way any reasonable person would, by throwing water on it, sadly though water is the last thing you want to try when dealing with a natural gas fire like this, so it instead made things worst. Not the least of which is because Charles was still there to make it worst.
"Heat to Kinetic!"
And in that moment, the fires all exploded, instantly transforming the heat into pure kinetic force shattering the hulls of the ships that were affected. The Broken ships began to rapidly fall out of the surface of the water, by now half of them were gone already, and the hits kept coming. The broken pieces of the ships fell down to the three half dead dungeons that were being dragged below Leviathan, immediately the three dungeons started to greedily devour the pieces that they had come into contact with while Charles seized the initiative.
"Gather!"
Shouting that, all of the heat in the area surrounding the dungeons were pooled together into one spot, freezing all the water solid all the way down to the bottom of the bay. The trinity of Dungeons took full advantage of the boon that they were given, tunnels exploding outwards in a web as they snaked their way around going after the broken ships and their remains. For Dungeons the greatest food for promoting growth was the remains of other dungeons, and right now they had just been given a all you can eat feast for the ages.
The Inside of Leviathan's core room was telling, in several ways. Dungeon Core rooms can tell you a lot about what kind of dungeon they are: The statues that surround them are of the various bosses that they have in their employ, other smaller statuettes will reference the most frequently absorbed item in this it was the floor that had taken on a maze type pattern, in other words a dungeon, the pedestal that holds the core will reflect the first item that they've absorbed which again for Leviathan resulted in the rather comical scene of pirate's hat. And the state of the core itself with reflect that of the dungeon, and in this case over half of the core was filled to the brim with cracks, one for every one of it's floors that had been broken off or destroyed. Needless to say, he wasn't having a good day, and it just got a whole lot worse.
[You have over lapped with Dungeons Northern Ice Flow, Great Coral Reef and Sea Side Fortress]
A spike of Coral skewered itself through the innermost ship of Leviathan, they were going straight for the heart with this one it would seem. But Guarding this floor wasn't some no name sea hags. This floor was dedicated to Lucifer himself, and so his own B Ranked monsters the Fallen angels were guarding it. What did they possibly think would happen by having a few more- A stick flew out of the hole the coral had made, a flying spear that was knocking away the angels, which was then followed up by a creature that looked like a giant eel that proceeded to zap away the nearby enemies. They weren't the most concerning of three monsters that the joint dungeons manage to spit out. No that particular honour went to the Snow Fairy that flew out of the hole, into what basically amounted to a giant ice berg that had been carved into the shape of a ship. The little creature tapped on the side of the ship, and suddenly all the fallen angels were skewered on spears of ice. Every attempt to spawn monsters to attack the three of them was met with strong resistance as they were either electrocuted or skewered all the way over. Then the three of them arrived in the core room.
"Any last words?" The fairy held up her hand and produced a spear of ice.
Do you expect me to beg for my life? Get it over with, I want to be in hell in time for supper!
"Normally, I don't consider myself to be a violent person." The Fairy raised up the spear of ice into the air. "But I will admit that I'm going to enjoy this!" The spear slammed into the half broken core and it shattered.
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There's a very particular feeling in the air when a Dungeon dies. Normally it's a dungeon's job to stimulate and regulate the flow of mana in the surrounding environment so that it doesn't go stagnant, like a river bringing fresh water into a pond so that bacteria doesn't get the chance to form, if the bacteria was often several times your size and had fangs and claws, and take it into itself so that the pond doesn't over flow and drown the surrounding plant and animal life, plant and animal life in this case being whatever life isn't adapted to the overwhelming mana. Therefore when the dungeon dies the mana becomes still, deathly still, like all the excitement in the air has been drained away. Normally this wouldn't last with four other dungeons in the immediate area but this was different. The three in the water had closed themselves off, gobbling up as much of the mana, and the pieces of Leviathan's fleet, as they could in order to facilitate their own healing. Charles was making his own efforts to help them, the ice currently was like unto a cast for them, something to prop them up and let them heal, but it would not last forever on it's own, and they lashed out at anything that got close like a wounded animal.
Keeper wasn't doing much better either, the entire mountain subsumed in a massive cocoon of evolution, no one could enter it, nor was Charles able to reach the slaves left inside of it. The only contact he had with the Dungeon was through the Sphinx and she couldn't reach her core either. Which could mean nothing. Which could mean everything. Either way, Charles now had what you call a problem.
"If we are actually serious about building a base then we're going to have to go out and get the resources for it, and that means dealing with the forest, the sea, and the miners." The Fire spewing, cyclone churning one man force of nature that was leading the community let out a exhausted day as he sensed a enemy more formidable than any dungeon. Bureaucracy.
"Am I missing something here?" Apas was lounging about on a stone slab nearby.
"We're going to run out of resources soon." Charles looked out of the base at the forest, birds were already flying through the air, disturbed from their nests by the approach of creatures many times more formidable than they. "That means that we're going to have to go get more, potentially without a dungeon to help us, and your boyfriend just lit a beacon for every critter in the world."
"The problem?" Apas asked cocking an interested brow, and so Charles explained.
There is a reason why people build their communities around Dungeons, they're a considerably safer location to get resources from. When you log in the woods there's a serious number of steps that must be taken to avoid dealing with unpleasant matters. You need hunters to first clear the area of dangerous monsters that run the risk of disrupting your operations, even then some monsters simply cannot be avoided, like nature spirits. A nature spirit's disposition and form changes with the season, spring was the time when they were the friendliest, even then you had to go through the process of planting new trees to replace the ones cut down, either through seed or by cuttings from the trees that were already taken down, and provide sufficient fertiliser to regrow the tree, do all of that and you might leave with your lives.
Mines were worst though. The entire world was pot marked by dungeons, even if you don't manage to break into one accidentally the constant earth quakes that are by products of their existence meant that a expansion from a nearby dungeon could bring the entire place down, that doesn't even touch upon the horrors that can be born if your mine crosses over a Leyline.
Farms are arguably the most horrifying of all. A Forest or a Hole? You can build walls around those, even if only temporary, sometimes even strong enough to block out the horrors that they're intended for, not so for a farm. Grain is reliant on pollinators to grow, need sunlight and water, and cattle are reliant on the grain, and there are plenty of creatures that would eat one or the other. A dome means no sunlight, wards to chase away dangerous monsters also effect pollinating monsters, and if you erect a wall, if you create a situation where the mana in the area inside can't flow or regulate becoming stagnant in the process? Good luck not being eaten by your crops.
But don't dungeons also kill people? Yes. Unfortunately yes, by the time the dungeon has grown enough that it recognises the value of the people trying to build their communities around it or be contacted by another dungeon through the chat function it will likely already have a body count in the hundred, and the resentment of several hundred. If you're lucky, things can end without further unnecessary blood shed, if you're not the new dungeon or the base built around it will have to be brought to heel, either by another nearby dungeon or by the tide of people willing to risk their lives to do so, in the worse case scenario? The dungeon, and the new potential community to be built around it, will have to be put down like a wild animal. Even trade between cities a was a profession full of danger, the open roads are filled with monsters looking for a easy meal or rogues and outcasts looking for the most basic necessities for survival.
"I'll look into the trinity, and impress upon them whom they have to thank for getting Leviathan off of them and who they have to thank for any room for growth and recovery at the moment." Apas stretched like the giant lazy cat that she was. "You on the other hand will have to deal with negotiation with whoever you have to in order to get what you need in order to whip this place into shape." The two nodded their heads and departed.