So then, Jewel's dungeon is off limits then eh? I'll eventually have to prepare an appropriate apology gift for her, but not right now. Graves already isn't talking to me either, I guess this means we'll have to focus on Lithilas's place instead. Or should we try hunting in the sea again?
Apas shook her head in the negative as she explained things to me.
Hunting environments are like a game of rock paper scissors. Flying creatures have an advantage over land dwellers because they can attack from the sky. Land dwellers have an advantage over seafarers because they can swim while the sea dwellers can't climb onto land. Sea dwellers have an advantage over flying creatures because they can just hide underwater when they're attacked. There are exceptions to the rule though. For instance there are creatures that although they spend their entire lives in the sea are just as well adapted to living on land or flying in the air, just as there are creatures who predominantly are ground base that are just as at home in the air or sea, just as there are flying creatures who frequently dive into the water or walk on land, and that's without the use of magic. Then you take into consideration a difference in rank, even if they do have an environmental advantage the difference in rank can just brute force that. Apas took a huge risk to go out to the sea to get that shark for me, but she'll also be taking a huge risk if she goes out over the land with the humans hunting her, and Graves and Jewel have blocked me off.
[Dungeon Keeper: Lithilas, I'll apologise to Jewel later, do you know where we can find a dungeon with D-Ranks inside of it that we can use to bring up mine and Apas's level?]
[Lithilas: Is that the name of the Griffin you sent to harass Karzan?]
[Lithilas: Fighting against multiple opponents and experiencing a diverse array of stimulus is necessary in order to promote her growth you do understand right?]
[Dungeon Keeper: My chief priority is survival, and not getting locked out of my own dungeon again]
[Lithilas: Well if you do not wish to slog through my E-Ranks again there is one more dungeon that you shouldn't mind having a bad relationship with]
I was on the coast, where every Dungeon was getting harassed and wiped by that Leviathan guy, the others are different though, they are further inland, where that Conquerete guy would be located, but he has been focusing on dealing with Lithilas all this time, he shouldn't have had the leeway to go around bullying other dungeons like Leviathan does. Lithilas might have access to dungeons that we don't, be fighting ones we don't know about.
[Dungeon Keeper: Will it be faster than delving into your dungeon?]
[Lithilas: It will provide a better result]
Well, it's not like I can argue with that.
[Dungeon Keeper: When can we leave?]
As I asked, a new option appeared in front of me.
[Raid in Progress: Lithilas Dungeon City vs Mimic Mystery Mansion]
Alright then, that sounds like it might be able to work. I simply went through the usual process and had Apas sent over to the enemy territory.
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Apas appeared in open territory, which was rather odd considering that this was supposed to be inside of a dungeon, keyword being 'Inside.' Instead she found herself in the middle of a lawn, a large hedge maze before her.
"Oh. It's you." Apas looked to the side, where Karzan walked beside in goblin form, his mount was looking significantly smaller than before. Killing them won't do her a lot of good right now. "We're already inside of the dungeon, this Mimic bastard is part of a rare breed that likes to expand outwards instead of down." Karzan pointed up to the sky. "It's not a barrier, the bastard got an invisibility blessing for the dungeon, so he had an entire dome built around the area." He indicated the hedge maze. "That's the outermost layer. Expanding outwards means that his monsters get stronger the further out from the centre that he started from as opposed to getting closer, your first D-Rank is in there."
And so, Apas flew over the maze. These plants were vaguely familiar in their own way, like the tree that the skull was planning to convert into a monster, but only closer in the end result that was being aimed for instead of it's current configuration, and she sensed it from the entire maze. Had the Keeper sent along a will-o-wisp with her, she would assign it the task of burning down the entire maze to expose whatever creature lay at the centre of it, or simply eliminate it outright. Instead it would be coming to her. While she flew above the Bear rider entered the maze proper, and the enemy revealed itself taking the form of vines to wrap around and attack the two of them. Apas in the meantime swooped down, claws raking through the plants with every dive as she looked for the enemy. Then the Bear rider's eyes glowed, his body and his bear growing as they assumed new forms, smaller than the Ogre, or rather more compact as might be the more accurate phrase.
[C Rank Monster Oni-A high ranking general under the god of Conquest, the sheer bulk of the Ogre has been sacrificed for raw intelligence increase and a mastery over complex magic and martial arts]
The bear assumed the familiar form of the Black bear. Karzan the Oni twirled his spear around and thrust it into the shadow beneath their feet, suddenly across the entire hedge maze every bush was massacred, stabbed and skewered without mercy by hundreds of shadowy spears. A deep high pitch scream echoed out from the hedge maze, a mass of vines coalesced into the centre of the maze and a being resembling a humanoid mass of shrubbery had appeared.
[C Rank Monster Blood Letting Topiary-A species of bush grown from blood of living creatures, this one has gained Sapience as a by product of growing to such a massive size and blessings by the God of Symbiosis Castor/Pollux]
"You bastard!" The giant topiary screamed as it prepared a massive thorn whip, before a third arm and second head ripped itself out of it's torso. "You and your bitch come over here so that we can tear you apart!" A C-Rank monster, one entire rank higher than Apas, she might be able to defeat this creature, but not without a suitable aide.
[Would you like to Return to your Dungeon? Yes/No]
Apas returned to the dungeon, to her Keeper.
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The Boss is a C-Rank monster? A Giant bush thing? Hmm... I have an idea, first you take back the bear paws and then...
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Apas returned to the dungeon raid, she flew around, wind gathering in the air, dust, leaves and other debris sweeping up into the air as she flew, the boss attempted to swipe at Apas as she flew around, however the blows were intercepted by Karzan taking slashes with shadow magic and his spear. Then Apas scraped the two brown bear paws on each other and set fire to all the dust that was being built up in the air around them, setting off a massive explosion as the entire monster went up in flames. A few desperate swings later, some screeching and cursing and death threats, and the tree was down for the count, it's body rapidly breaking down into motes of light and reformed into the shape of a gnarled wooden staff with two heads.
[Giant Slayer-Kill a monster one rank higher than you. Reward: Double Point gains. Next Achievement 2/5]
[The God Castor/Pollux is watching you.]
Another god, that's the second one that she's managed to get the attention of, and she's not sure that it's a good thing. For now Apas just went to pick up the reward for the objective while she pondered the implications, double Points gain, which means that she'll be able to earn more just by hunting E-rank monsters, it might be worth it to go back to Lithilas's dungeon. Speaking of which the goblin picked up the staff, and it was a goblin too, perhaps with the enemy boss dead he and his mount had returned to it's base form, which would make taking that staff from him much, much easier.
"I will hold onto this for you, for now you and your flight is needed to get up there." Karzan indicated the mansion, the top most floor. Apas on the other hand wanted to take a piece out of the next boss instead of flying overhead and scouting. "You want to fight the boss? Do you know what or where it is then?"
Those were decent points. Had she known that she would be fighting a plant in advance she would've brought one of the Will-o-wisps along with her. So Apas circled around. She didn't see any creatures in the yard, at least none that were moving, but then again the boss in the hedge-maze wasn't just a monster, but also the hedge itself, after a few creative modifications into the ugliest attempt at a statue she's ever seen. If you're talking about the most obvious and prominent examples in the yard, that particular honour went to the fountain statue of a warrior mounted on a horse and very prominently raising a sword of running liquid into the air, that of course raises the question of what kind of dungeon doesn't have any monsters wandering around?
"'Mimic Mystery Mansion.' The Mystery is where this blasted place is going to get you from next. We think the first thing that this place managed to eat was a mimic. Ever heard about them before?" Apas shook her head in the negative. "The ultimate ambush predators, creatures with a predisposition to disguising themselves as inanimate objects in order to lure victims in close, and then eat them when they're in range." Karzan indicated the mansion. "See that there?" Apas nodded. "It wasn't here before the Dungeon was, it appeared around it and then the dungeon grew into it, or the dungeon grew it."
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Jewel was much the same way in some respects, instead of expanding down into solid rock she built herself up, either into a pre-existing building or using contracted beings to install the extra floors while she manipulated the foundation so that they could go higher and higher and higher still. But this was different.
"Every time someone goes into that place they disappear, the entire mansion could be one big mimic, or there's something even more horrible inside that's using that place as their base of operations. Not having any info is simply not acceptable and you are going to help us get to the bottom of this." Even a C-Rank was only worth eight points, with Giant Slayer the next one will be worth twice as much. So Apas agreed to cooperate, for as long as the power kept flowing into her and her Keeper. "Come on, this place is working to supply that Conquerete bastard with supplies to fix and upgrade itself."
Apas has no idea who that is and she honestly doesn't care, she needs at least two more C Ranks worth of points under her belt and the enemy was waiting for her. Apas informed the Goblin about the statue in the garden, didn't know if it was a a mimic or the like but it was worth a modicum of caution, if he transformed again Apas would know what they're dealing with and can implement her own special surprise. According to Karzan however the statue was either a Golem or a Gargoyle, which one depended entirely on what kind of materials that Conquerete bastard has been feeding this damned tick in exchange for resources, probably a Golem if they're both being honest, it's kind of Conquerete's entire shtick. The difference being that 'a Golem is a automaton created intentionally in order to facilitate a specific given task' whereas a Gargoyle is 'a monster born from a statue that has been saturated by power and mana and given life.' The difference didn't really matter much to him though, as instead he simply understood what his objective was, that being to smash the statue before it could have the opportunity to strike. With that he and his mighty mount charged, spear aimed directly at the statue with the intention of smashing it, provoking the boss and allowing him to gain access to his transformation in order to then smash the statue with brute force. Karsan's blade pinged against the stone, and no reactiong was had by it, the water on the other hand shifted around in order to grab Karsan and his bear by their heads in order to forcibly drown them as it had attempted with the millipedes back in Conquerete's dungeon. Karsan grew bigger more muscular, and so did his bear, becoming C Rank monsters. Then the statue started to move, but rather than move under the influence of a golem spell or because it was a gargoyle monster the river slime instead just broke about the hollow statue into a set of stone plate armour. And then a rock fell on it crushing it, courtesy of Apas, of course she spared the little goblin and his mount, he still had the staff after all, and she needed that for Keeper. Besides this fight wasn't over yet, the ground broke apart and from the cracks a slimy clear substance emerged.
[C-Rank Monster Ocean Slime-A slime that has been able to grow to a simply massive size, compared to looking at the ocean]
[Would you Like to end the Dungeon Raid? Yes/No]
[Yes]
Apas once again returned to her dungeon home.
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How do I kill an ocean? I would use cement but where would I get... that much... oh.
It took longer than last time to return to the raid, but Apas was busy gathering the supplies. Sand from the beach, clay bricks from the humans construction sight, and I provided the limestone, after all three were broken down and mixed together into a fine powder I deployed not just Apas but rather Archie as well.
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This time when Apas returned she wasn't alone.
"Feel our wrath you abomination!" Archie's and Apas's powers combined to blow the cement mixture into the rapidly expanding hole where the Slime was getting ready to eat all of them, it had already swallowed Karzan and the bear who were in the process of being drowned by it, but with Archie's control over the limestone and other organic particulates he was able to quickly pull them back out of the muck. Then Apas blew her winds once more. Organic particulates were gathered together, the spark was lit, and the entire area around the slime was turned into one massive oven as the mucky creature screamed while it attempted to lash out at them. In the end a new statue had taken up residence in the middle of the lawn, trailing off the power of light as it reformed into a large blue back pack.
"That was a C rank?" Archie asked tapping the stone with the spear he took from Karzan, receiving the notification of Giant Slayer in the process. "I see, with this we are one step closer to the master's increase in power. Still, Giant Slayer may only apply to us, for the master it may be better to just finish off the rest of the mansion before we do anything else." Archie explained and Apas had to nod to the point.
"That most likely won't be necessary." Karzan picked up the bag and put the two headed staff inside of it before tossing the whole thing to Archie, who traded the spear for the staff instead. "You two are a part of the dungeon, the three of you share achievements, one more should do it. Thanks by the way, just because I respawn dying isn't unpleasant." For now Karzan turned around to face the rest of the mansion. "There's another boss in there, somewhere. It might be stronger than the last two, it might be weaker, if you two have a plan on how we might be able to kill it I'm listening."
Apas had some ideas, using wind magic to slice and smash the hunks of concrete that was the carcass of the boss. Archie followed this up slamming his foot into the stone, raising the chunks of concrete up into the air and fired them directly at the mansion with enough force to break the walls down. Either the Mansion was a monster or it was full of monsters, either way this tactic would net them a plethora of points. Window's, walls, the roof, all of these things found chunks of concrete hurled through them until the mansion itself fell apart at the seams, that said they were far from done yet. The rubble was thrown off by animated suits of armour, from the gaps in the rubble small bejeweled insects dragging along looped threads crawled out of the rubble, and finally one eyed massive tongued blocks of flesh the size of a one story room emerged. The Mimic Mystery mansion was built on a foundation of deception, the first thing it ate was a liar, a creature who lies to hunt and lies to protect itself, Even it's monsters were built on a foundation of lies, suits of Animated armour, easily mistaken for mere decoration, waiting until unsuspecting victims passed by before they step out and fight directly, the jeweled spiders resembles amulets, the kind of magical accessories that people equip for the purpose of using them to spit fire, shoot ice, spew lightning and the list goes on, not only would these things be able to do all these things, but people willingly, if unknowingly, hang a garrote around their necks, the mimics were easily the size of a room, on the inside the difference wouldn't likely easily be recognised. Now the MMM would be taught a valuable lesson, all the lies in the world won't help against sheer brute force, not if the opponent already knows your tricks.
"I thought something seemed off." Karsan stated looking at the mansion suspiciously. "You two should go back now, this scouting mission is finished. The amount of space the mansion has prepared is far too large to be filled by a mere two or three floor dungeon. There's likely even more floors underground, designed to wreck where the tricks and traps fail." Already the rubble was starting to fall into the underground areas. But that said they were not yet done here. Apas released another spiral of wind magic and swept through the enemy forces scooping up the necklace like creatures and bringing them to her, and they were torn apart in her talons and were promptly dumped into the waiting bag. Then they opted to end the raid.
Karsan snorted as they left, the new dungeon is clever, with a unusual talent for unconventional tactics. If they had to attack either the Blood Letting Topiary or the Ocean Slime normally they would both end up getting wiped out, the master was good at picking allies it would seem. But for now he left and returned to his master.
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The Griffin emerged from the dungeon, confirming Charles suspicions that she and the dungeon would be connected together, for even more proof, she didn't even attack any of them, simply went out to the beach and swept up the sand using her wind magic and pored it into the dungeon, further evidence that the Griffin was acting under the influence of another. The question here is why would do that? Was the Dungeon using the sand in order to make something? That wasn't anywhere near as concerning as what it implies. Normally a Dungeon reaches sapience after accumulating twenty floors, by Charles estimates the dungeon only has enough room to set up two, what is a dungeon with less intelligence than a toddler doing with the sand? Too many things weren't adding up, and Charles needed answers. Then all of a sudden the dungeon trembled, the sound of it adding a new floor which wasn't unexpected, what is unexpected though was that it was only adding another floor now, if it's had the help of the Griffin all this time it should've speed run through several floors already. Charles finally had enough waiting and decided on an investigation himself. Charles began with an inspection of the progress being made for the fortress. They lack true fort walls, but the spikes of wood would make deterrents if any of the creatures attempt to rush this place. Balista were being built, planks cut several feet long, reinforced with brass plates and strung with horses hair, to knock any flying monsters out of the air with arrows of sharpened logs. Hunters had already picked off some of the monsters from the surrounding area and had now strung them up and were salting them for preservation. As many matters as he was currently able to deal with had been dealt with, the next matter was getting to the dungeon itself and determining what was going on inside of it. A easy task for someone of his calibre, not so much for his men.
"Young master you mustn't!" Charles's aide was attempting to stop him, fully aware of what he was planning on doing right here and now.
"The Dungeon is but a sprout." Charles stated by way of reply. "The Griffin is the only creature of concern."
"It's because there's a Griffin in there that I am trying to ask that you don't enter that place!" The aide counteracted vehemently.
"Oh so no one can enter the dungeon because there's a D-rank in there? I guess we should all pack up and go home now." Charles brushed off his aide's concern as he walked onto the boat for the patrols and took a seat, indicating for the men who would be paddling the boat to move along and start rowing to the other-side of the mountain. Then it was just a simple matter of magically creating thrusts of flame with his feet hovering up to the cave in question, a relatively minor issue for a fourth circle mage such as himself as he began looking around where he knew that the door was. "I know that you know I am here." Silence. "I have come to parley!" Again Silence. "I can protect you from Leviathan!" Silence again. As Charles was preparing to look for the hidden Mechanism that he knew to be built into the wall the stone slab lowered itself directly before him. Charles hovered onto the drawbridge, walking into the jaws of the proverbial beast as he looked over at the creature sitting across from him at the negotiation table, a skeleton dressed in a brown tunic, a two headed staff at his side, a warlock going off the feeling of power that he was giving off. "Are you the one who speaks for the dungeon? There are those who would take issue with a undead acting as the dungeon's voice. Why don't you ask the Consecrated Mass Grave? His oh so precious Order of the White Flame nearly torched him when they discovered their dead brethren turned into a mass of shambling undead." Charles pulled out two cups and a flask and proceeded to poor two drinks. "But neither you nor your dungeon is interested in that are you?"
"No. We are not."