Keeper
Graves landed in my tower, dropping on my floor another of the Bags of Holding I gave him, already I let the reanimation energy inside of the dungeon flow into the bag until another Dungeon Jellyfish was spawned. Just because we rescued the dungeons from Lucifer's grasp didn't mean that there weren't more that were being total pains in the butt. I don't see the one from the Greed dungeon though, but we'll look into that once Leonaidas respawns, for now four more to go.
"What are you planning on doing with them?"
I'll make full use of the resources given to me to benefit the most amount of people.
"Common!"
Was that a language? Whatever. I'll stuff them into jugs and throw them into the ocean to help promote the growth of more dungeons. "Is that wise? They were Lucifer's dungeons." Lucifer left them so mana starved that the only way they could survive was to parasite off of other dungeons. They'll be more than happy to leave his services. Now we need to work on our plan to clean up the rest of the dungeons, we know that our allies are working as quickly as they can to get the other dungeons cleaned up.
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Merlin
I understood that this was supposed to be Hell but I was in Heaven! Books! Books for miles! Every fibre of my Nyarl being demanded that I go forth and dance naked in the streets in celebration! At once I started to pull out various books from the shelves around me and found a corner to tuck into them. Feeling someone was watching me I looked up in surprise at a large worm-like creature that was staring at me.
[D-Rank Monster-]
"I know what a Bookworm is thank you very much!" The system prompt had gotten in the way of my reading. Unforgivable. "If you have no intention of attacking me could you kindly bugger off!?"
Confused, the Bookworm left. After all its job was to punish the ignorant and very clearly this one did not qualify. This place was disgusting.
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Succubus
Jewel might be lazy and vain but at least she maintains some standards of cleanliness, which is more than what could be said here. It was ultimately a deep, dark cave, one that was inhabited by more than just dungeon monsters.
[E Rank Monster Roper-A vicious Moluscoid ambush predator resembling a Stalagmite, asexual but they require other creatures, preferably mammals, to incubate their offspring, Towards this end their fluids act as a natural muscle relaxer and sleep aid]
Frankly speaking, this place offended her sensibilities, She ran a neat orderly dungeon, not this place of... what is this dungeon even trying to accomplish with this set up? Lust was about desire, about people wanting to be there. All that she could see was people moaning vaguely in pain, Hel walkers, so they weren't even fertile, the stupid dungeon didn't even grab the right kind of people. Well I'm not here to save them.
"You all have two choices." I cracked my fingers as I let my accumulated power flare. If Jewel was good at one thing it was powering up Succubi like her. "You can pack up your things and leave this area, or I can remove you."
I felt something shift. Something slimey and full of tentacles dropped down a nearby cave entrance to look directly at me. Power suddenly flushed through me all at once, the desires of a monster vastly stronger than myself was being aimed directly at me.
"Ah dammit!"
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Keeper
In any case, we should assume that things are going good right now.
"And if they aren't?" The undead dragon currently taking up most of my tower's top most floor asked looking at me suspiciously.
Then we should have a plan B ready to strike. If something happens to Jewel's and Merlin's monsters then they'll be able to let us know soon. In the mean time we should focus on dealing with the sloth, envy and violence dungeons.
"I hate to interrupt." Apas soon appeared from the depths of the dungeon. "But we have guests. The merchants that you've been prodding to come here have arrived." I don't have my ifrit body though and I think Levi has the Maride. "Which means that we're going to have to go together." Oh this was going to be awkward. "I'll take the monsters and go attack the Colosseum." Graves's Dragon stated as he made preparations for the raid.
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Keeper/Apas
I saw Centaur's from Jack's raid army, so I wasn't entirely surprised to see one here. He was large built, like a warrior, if I was told that the Trading company head sent his bodyguard ahead I would believe them. Right now I felt his eyes going over Apas, taking in every detail of her body but not changing his face. Apas's instincts carried me through the meeting's opening, he wasn't looking at her with lust or anything of the like, this was a predator sizing up a rival. Once his assessment was finished the Centaur spoke.
"I wasn't aware that I would be speaking with one of the Jewel Dungeon's whores." The centaur's voice was kept even and neutral, disturbingly so in fact, it felt like I was talking to something inhuman.
"I understand that you come from a prestigious line or some such nonsense with lots of 'selective breeding' and crap like that in order to domesticate you. I However was born a griffin, a monster, a savage, I earned my power and this body unlike you, clothing is still a new concept to me so you're lucky I'm wearing any at all. So is not eating people who mouth off at me, and I am particularly fond of horse meat."
Wow. Remind me to bring you along when I want to mouth off at someone.
"Now that we've finished with the opening barbs, Chiron Mustang, a representative of the Mustang Family."
"Apas, representing the Dungeon Keeper." Apas stated bluntly.
"Lets get down to business. You have a necromancer that you've managed to convince to do what? Open an Air delivery service with undead constructs?" Apas snorted at him.
"The dragon's are old news." And also near as I can tell, non-functional.
"Follow me, and you'll see the new hotness." Apas led the centaur to Thing's palm who lifted him and Charles into the dungeon. My city manager it seems had business with the horse after I was finished with him. That was another thing, near as I can tell no fear and no surprise. A undead monster the size of a mountain and he's acting like it's nothing special. Thing lowered the monster into his mouth while Apas guided him into the tower. Skunk Ape's breach was well underway though slower going than Bellfast's, is taking longer because it's further away? Or did Hel not have the resources to do two breaches at once.
"I hope what you're selling is worth this bone shaking cold you have introduced to me." Annoyance, that was the strongest reaction that I've seen out of him yet.
"Patience." As Apas said that she slinked into the Bellfast dungeon very much like a lioness on the prowl. She was... eager? Oh. Oh I made her work hard to put up with this guy and now I'm going to pay her back later? Was that it? "Pretty much." Apas stated as she walked through elbow high water.
"Does that mean that we've arrived at whatever semblance of a point you are making?" The Horse man's annoyance was growing. He was definitely not someone who wanted to be here wading through water that came up to a foot in the air while Bellfast's Kapri Souls buzzed around him.
"Patience. We're almost outside." And so Apas climbed out of the dungeon entrance and into the wider area. Bellfast was busy since she broke through, all of my ice had been replaced by the soil mixture I had given her, though she wasn't able to get any of the buildings that had been here prior to Leviathan ripping out the town replaced yet. The centaur climbed out of the hole his annoyance vanishing for a moment, replaced by astonishment, before he quickly turned his features back to neutral.
"We're outside again. But not in the town. We didn't go in the right direction to exit the dungeon normally." How freakish was this guy's sense of direction? "We connected to another dungeon? The temperature in the path we passed through was sharply different from the rest of the dungeon? A breach? No it's too young."
"You did pass through a breach." Apas stated bluntly. "My mate is not a normal dungeon, your mistake is believing that he is."
"Where he encountered a second dungeon." The Horse man attempted to brush off the revelation, he was looking at Charles who was stunned as he examined the landscape. "More importantly a dungeon that does not seem to be too far away from where he started. Not very useful."
"One of fifty dungeons like it, soon to be breached if my master's plans go accordingly. Admittedly we don't know where they will lead to, they could be not too far away as this one is, they could lead to the dark continent, or they could even lead to an entirely different world." Apas played our last trump card. "Currently we do not know where they will be released, or how much control we'll have over where that will happen." Mustang paused at that.
"Keep us informed of the situation." And went back to his group through the dungeon. Well I suppose that plan was a failure. What's up with Charles anyway?
"Oi." Apas tapped her paw on Charles shoulder, snapping him out of the stunned state. "What're you looking at that has you so fascinated?"
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"We passed through the Bellfast dungeon didn't we?" Charles didn't make it sound like a question.
"That's her name anyway." Apas was a little suspicious. "It used to be managed by my Fiance's family."
A pause as Charles once more looked at the outline of the nearby mountains.
"Leviathan ate it, how is this possible?"
"There's a lot of dungeons that were supposed to have been eaten by other dungeons in Helheim." Apas replied bluntly as she tapped her paw.
Which makes me wonder if eating the bastard is enough to get rid of him. What did Leviathan do to Bellfast that she ended up in the Afterlife that I'm supposed to do differently from him? Hmm. Oh I hear Jewel tapping in the Chat room. Apas, make sure that Charles gets back to town safely.
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My mind returned to the core room where I entered the chat space.
[Jewel: That place is disgusting!]
[Dungeon Keeper: What happened?]
[Jewel: Burn it! Burn it to the ground!]
[Lithilas: Allow me to explain, she's been rage posting for a hour now but I've made out some details, but first]
[Jewel has been banned from the Chat for 5 hours]
[Lithilas: That should keep us from being interrupted]
[Lithilas: The Roper's den has been taken over by one of it's contracted monsters, a Roper, which is now using it's monsters to mass produce it's offspring]
[Dungeon Keeper: Why not sever the contract?] [Lithilas: It's not like the Dungeon isn't benefiting, In it's case it's probably not too different from Jewel's whores, or you and your cubs]
At the reminder my attention turned back to the three little monsters in question. Maat was playing with a stray spider web, Cleo was stalking a Bee, Keket was sleeping belly up. I wish I had a camera, or at least some better way of recording information than carving pictures into stone.
[Lithilas: Are you paying attention?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Sorry I was looking at my cute cubs]
[Dungeon Keeper: So is the roper a good thing or a bad thing for the dungeon?]
[Lithilas: It could go either way]
[Lithilas: I sincerely doubt that it's a good thing for the surrounding area's though]
[Dungeon Keeper: Meaning?]
[Lithilas: A Monster who kidnaps people, plows them, and makes them give birth for them gets to start mass producing offspring]
[Lithilas: When it's the kid's turn to start producing offspring do you expect them to stay in the dungeon for their dad's sloppy seconds? Of course not! They'd go out and look for 'partners' of their own!]
[Lithilas: In the best case scenario, these things would get wiped out by whatever monsters that they pick a fight with, but if the dungeon keeps mass producing them without end, then we could see a undead convergence, in the worst case scenario, these things would overwhelm the local ecosystem and drown everything in tentacled abominations, not to mention what they'd do if they got to a town]
Great a term I don't know.
[Dungeon Keeper: I have no idea what that is though]
[Ouroboros: The Undead appear where there is death, the more death in a given area the greater the likelihood that undead will appear]
[Ouroboros: When vast amounts of undead appear in a given area more powerful undead appear who then goes onto to passively generate more undead just by being in the same area as a corpse, the situation is then further exasperated by the fact that the dungeon connects to a realm of the dead releasing it's miasma into the environment]
[Dungeon Keeper: We don't even know where this dungeon is, how are we going to stop an environmental disaster?]
[Lithilas: We know where it is on your side of the equation]
I was afraid that he was going to say that.
[Dungeon Keeper: My three biggest heavy hitters are still in the mortal plane, my body still hasn't respawned yet, what exactly am I supposed to contribute to this situation?]
[Ouroboros: Leave that to me]
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Ouroboros
For all that they were living in a dungeon connected to Cocoytus the Ropers were still creatures of flesh and blood, not even undead either. They were unusually resistant to the cold, their prisoners were proof enough of that, but there was more than one way to skin a cat. I am Ouroboros you immature brat! I am the strongest dungeon of undeath to appear in a hundred years! And I have a Banshee and I'm not afraid to use it!
"Such a large Audience!" Esmerelda wore a ballgown and a veil, both were old and slightly worn with tears here or there that did little to subtract from the craftsmanship of the dress, or the unearthly beauty of the one wearing it, at the mere sound of her voice nearby Ropers were afflicted with the curse of instant death. "I better skip straight to the chorus! Ahem!" My Banshee bard took a deep breath. "OoooOAHAH! AAAHH AAHH!" An unearthly song voice echoed out throughout the halls of the enemy dungeon. With every echo monsters dropped, points accumulated inside of my monster's body and inside of mine, which probably means that I'll have another breech to deal with when I get back to the Mortal plane. Great. Now freed of their bondage the Hel Walkers the dungeon had captured tore themselves free and snarled viciously like a woman possessed.
"RRRAAAWWWRRR!" One woman was holding an axe, furry animal skins covering her body as she roared. Soon she wasn't just wearing the fur, her entire body growing wider and larger until a giant grizzly stood where she had previously, still tightly gripping the axe in both of her hands.
[C Rank Hel Berserker-The Hel Walkers are reanimated remains of the dead and the betrayed, compassion has long vanished and only the desire for revenge remains their hearts having grown as cold as their billowing frost/Also known as 'were bears' To be a Berserker is to be a monster in human form and a human in monster form, violence rules their thought processes and their claws reap death]
Then the expected convergence happened. Frost covered the dead bodies, stiff corpses tangled up with one another rose up on unsteady makeshift legs and the tangled mass of rock like shell, frozen flesh and undead tentacles let out a roar.
[C Rank Monster Rat King-When Rat's get cold in the winter time they huddle together to stay warm, during this time their bodies become tangled together into a single mass known as a Rat King, here we have a similar phenomena and the resulting mass having risen as a powerful undead abomination]
Well this was going pear shaped, or rather bear shaped I guess. The two monsters locked eyes and charged at each other, frozen flesh colliding, shattering, reforming to land blow after blow on each other. What's worse is that there were more of these things that were starting to wake up, both Hel Walkers that were being released and Rat Kings that were rapidly forming as they went on a rampage. Fire won't do us any good here, lightning on the other hand...
[Ouroboros: Keeper, can you send your gears?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Consider it done]
Several of the lightning spewing wheels of death soon made their appearance known, the silver wheels rushing at one of the Rat Kings and spat lightning. The Bolts of lightning shattered the frozen flesh, jumped across the walls where more Rat Kings were starting to form as so much of the enemy was rapidly shattered and torn apart. At this rate none of the ropers would be getting out of here alive or dead. That said there is still the issue of what we came here in the first place for, I was however perfectly content to let the monsters the ropers have taken captive and the undead born of them tear each other apart, I would imagine that they have a lot that they want to say to one another.
In the mean time my Muryan armours entered the dungeon, I have no idea where that big bear came from but I am mighty glad she's keeping the dungeon's attention for me. We came up to the boss room, we'll claim it as part of our efforts to neutralise the convergence before it can get the chance to gain momentum, for one thing beating this dungeon means beating this boss too. We opened the door and were greeted by the sight of... yeah I'm not going into that. Luckily I didn't have to either, Esmerelda released more of her high pitched singing into the boss room and the instant death effect of her voice kicked in once more thus allowing us to claim the boss room, where we quickly sealed the doors.
"That is quite enough for now I think." Esmerelda stated as she wanted out of this place.
Agreed. I had my Muryan's carve the ritual magic circle into the centre of the chamber and had the one I intended to promote lay down in the middle. There's more than one path to power, there are necromancers that raise the hordes of the undead only to slaughter them like chattel, a specially prepared ritual circle to suck power of the dead and damned away and into themselves, though at the risk of becoming a undead themselves. Course if you're already a goner, then you have nothing to worry about. I called over one of Keeper's gears and sat it down in the ritual circle, along with one of my Muryan armors, the two connected together and laid down together in the middle of the ritual circle as it absorbed power from the dungeon to fulfil its task. Outside the boss room I could feel the various undead monsters that I helped to mass produce drop, their points and their 'lives' sucked away from them, with exception to those too stubborn to die. The angry bear charged away looking for it's next fight as I looked down at my new creation.
[Please Select a path of Evolution for your monster]
[B Rank Queen Muryan-A Insect Queen charged with maintaining the numbers of the hive, low combat power but with the ability to mass produce Muryans]
Minimal usefulness to me or to Keeper, the majority of this thing's points don't belong to me, I don't even think it belongs to my necromancer either.
[B Rank Crazy Muryan-A Muryan who has developed lightning affinity resulting in fast attacks that jump from one target to the next]
Closer but not quite it yet.
[B Rank Muryan Artifact Armour-A powerful artifact spirit armour made using monster material, may developed a unique ability related to lightning]
That's what I'm looking for.
[Selected Muryan Artifact Armour]
A evolutionary cocoon soon appeared, in the mean time the only undead that were left here was Hel's and mine, and the dungeon is going to have to start from scratch rebuilding it's horde, it won't even get to dismantle the bodies of it's ropers for extra mana, because I'm having all of my forces transport the corpses into my dungeon to be broken down.
[Stop him! Stop Him already!]
Ah, so you can speak then?
[Who Do you think you are!? Where do you think this is?]
I have to admit that I have never seen a dungeon like you before. The rest of us are quite attached to our monsters, but you? You fed them to one of your contracts. You disgust me, I'd eat you if I didn't need you alive.
[What are you doing!? Kill him!]
The Dungeon's monsters were unresponsive, too many chemicals from the ropers. It tried to make new ones but my undead were already on every floor.
A word to the wise my friend, take better care of your people in the future.
Still something was rather odd here. It took us very little time to reach the top most floor, so this wasn't a case of 'a dungeon reaches a hundred floors and then becomes ready to breach' and more 'A dungeon is fill with dangerous amounts of XP and breaches as a emergency measure' type situation. Odd. Counting Keeper this is the third dungeon like this I've seen, and all of them since arriving in Helheim, the second that I haven't heard of before coming here. Is there someone on the dark continent that's doing this on purpose? This is going to require more of an investigation than I thought it would. You three. Three of my Muryan's immediately stood at attention. Go through the breach to wherever this dungeon leads to and figure out what is going on on the dark continent. My Muryan armours nodded their heads before flying away. You, after we finish cleaning up here we need to transport this core through the breach and into the other side, after that we clean up the surrounding dungeons. The Muryan nodded his head as he went into the core room.
[STAY AWAY FROM ME!]
Tell me something, when your monsters asked the same did you listen to what they said? No? Then why should I do the same? With a single swipe of his scythe arms my Muryan decapitated the core from its pedestal.
[AAAHHH!]
Winds in the dungeon picked up as the core howled in pain from getting separated from it's pedestal and moved around. Get that piece of garbage out of my sight. And now for the last of you, carry your incapacitated comrade here back to the Keeper. Two of my Muryan's picked up the one that was still evolving as they went back through my mouth. After everything is in order I made my final preparations. You are all part of a elite task force of monster familiars, your mission is to exit this dungeon, determine everything that there is to know about the continent you arrive at, and once you've determined who is responsible for so many dungeons ending up in Lucifer's 'care' you are to find another dungeon that connects to either Helheim or Cocytus and report your findings back to me. Understood? My Muryan Armours gave another salute. Dissmissed! The Undead ants flew away, I left the dungeon, dropping off a gift in the form of the Keeper's bag of holding bombs and watched the entire surrounding area disappear.