The Sea Fortress Galapagos was built on the back of a massive island turtle, when it first came to the Ring of Fire the Dungeon took pity on it, then wounded, weak and small, and made a contract with it. Since then the massive creature has grown into its full size, large enough that a fortress could be built on its shell. Most of the sea kin have lungs that make it possible for them to breath air, however the Mer and the various subspecies have only the one locomotion limb to facilitate motion, so they can't walk very well, at the most they can drag themselves across the land with their arms. On the other hand the Crab Knight's bodies are poorly balanced on land, resulting in comical images of them falling over when they walk on land, of the major races of Lemuria, the one that had the best locomotion on land was the Scylla, even then the Scylla's squid legs were susceptible to drying out in open air becoming stiff and unable to move. So rather than build the Fortress on the back of the Island turtle, they instead built it on the underside. On the surface the Island turtle looked like just another land mass, when you ignore the face that it moves, but underneath was a veritable fortress, even then the top could further be camouflaged with a layer of fog. Right now they were rapidly approaching the sight of the four dungeons.
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Fort had been beaten black and blue, apparently the little brat attempted to pick a fight with the statues on Lithilas's first floor, several times, and was now moping about in the only monster he had left, a floating dagger.
"Are you going to stop picking fights you can't win yet?" North was in the body of their Yuki Onna, an ice fairy, he should have the male counter part around here somewhere but between Leviathan and getting rearranged he lost it somewhere along the way.
"Who puts B Rank monsters on their first floor!" Fort's flying swords were little more than insects buzzing in the faces of those blasted statues. And he was getting frustrated that he could not get by them. It hadn't yet occurred to him to simply avoid the impossibly strong tributes to the gods and continue on to the second floor as most of the other dungeons Lithilas had grind up their monsters in his halls are want to do. He'll figure it out eventually.
"We're already getting plenty of schema's though, whenever the humans catch something they toss it down here and we eat it up." Coral spoke from the body of another monster, this one being a koi reared mermaid that was treading water in a pool.
"Don't you two see what's happening!?" North and Coral looked at each other through their possessed bodies before turning back to Fort and shaking their heads in the negative. "We're being fattened up like with Leviathan! The only difference is that the butcher is being nice to us before he eats us!" The Knife shrieked in a high pitch voice. The two monster women looked at each other briefly, then back to the knife and the lack of logic that it was spewing.
"So giving us advice on how to earn the favours of the gods for our floors..." The Yuki onna started bluntly.
"Giving us all kinds of schema's and points to grow..." The Mermaid followed up her features full of blatant suspicion.
"Are part of a scheme to 'fatten us up' so that the Keeper can eat us?" The Yuki onna finished up, her face full of suspicion.
"Yes!" Fort snapped as if his words had been ignored up until now. "Don't you two remember how we were dragged along the floor of the ocean!? Pieces of us broken off only to be regrown over and over again!" The Knife shrieked angrily.
"Yes. As we also recall who made that hell stop." The Yuki onna stated bluntly.
"I'm not the type to repay kindness with a knife in the back, unlike someone I can think of." The Mermaid stated bluntly. "And I hope we don't have to give you this lecture again."
"You'll See! You'll both See!" Fort's monsters respawned, and so he took them to go get swatted by Lithilas's monsters again.
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I may have made a mistake.
[Achievements: Mission Complete, Giant Killer]
[Mission Complete: Completed a mission given to your by a Deity. Reward: Priests can now be spawned dedicated to the Divinities of your Dungeon floors]
[Giant Killer: Maxed out the effects of Giant Killer Reward: Points from kills weaker than the monster who landed the killing blow will no longer be accumulated]
I thought over the implications of the Giant Killer reward.
'Oh you've gotten good at killing things stronger than you have you? Great! That means you no longer have to bully the weak!'
Lithilas was right, this guy is a troll. Well Giant Slayer was already a pretty powerful skill, so to expect a reward for maxing it out was too much to ask for. I wasn't even certain how to classify a dungeon on this ranking system. That didn't have me nearly as concerned as this one though.
[Mission Complete 2 1/5]
What's this going to look like the next time that I complete a mission for these people? And when did I complete a second one? Killing Leviathan was the job Castor/Pollux gave to me, that was the first job completed that unlocked this chain so it didn't count in the total, Oceanus was to some how or another 'give' the trinity to Lemuria, who or whatever that was, so the only one left is... building a Demi-human city for Echidna, which I ended up doing on my third floor. Well, the budding town outside might count, might not too. It was hard to say. What I need is more information on what's going on here. For now I had to discuss my plans with Charles.
"The last time we chatted you said you wanted to look into creating a 'high quality of life' for the city." Charles asked as he looked at me with blatant suspicion. The guy who killed his girlfriend was dead already, I can see that Charles enthusiasm has pretty much died.
"Mm Hmm!" Me in my Maride host body nodded as I explained the genius of my plan to Charles. "Me and the Trio are going to start making pre fabricated structures and appliances for the city in order to accelerate our rate of construction and quality of life respectively." I explained simply to Charles.
"I'm going to need you to start explaining some terms now." Charles stated bluntly.
"To begin with, Pre Fabricated structures, right now everyone is living inside of some crudely made shanties right? To begin with, we're going to manufacture individual pieces inside of the Dungeons and then bring them out and assemble them." The walls will be made out of three layers, to begin with Marble bricks, reinforced with steel rebar, then we'll use a black insulator, then a white insulator suspended between a wooden skeleton, and finally a thin layer of hardened material, probably spider silk layered on concrete again. These materials will be brought over to a location with a cement foundation prepared and slotted into place, with a clay tile roof added afterwards.
"That's how we're going to get all the buildings ready in time, here's our quality of life improvements." Basically, life takes lots of work, you need lots of hot water to boil to cook and clean, food goes bad if you don't have a cold place to put it so you have to hunt and gather every day. So to begin with we introduce temperature control magic to produce hot and cold as necessary.
"This is all nice on paper, but where are you going to get this stuff?" Charles asked looking quite suspicious.
"We basically have most everything we need already." My dungeon has reached the point where it can manufacture marble bricks from the limestone deposits, beams of wood thanks to the Red Wood Schema and spider silk without having to use the spiders. Fort can supply the metal, and Charles is an expert in the kinds of magic spells that we need. That takes care of most of the construction. "The only thing that we're missing is a black material to help insulate."
"If you just need something black there's all kinds of materials we could use." As a fire mage Charles was familiar with the relationship between colour and heat. The Dual layers that Keeper is proposing would trap heat inside and outside whatever side it was on, keeping the houses warm in the winter or cool in the summer.
"Remember we still need to haul the material in question out of the dungeon and into the town to actually use." I pointed out and Charles nodded his head in thought.
"If most of the materials you're planning on using are going to be hollow and light weight, then they might work the way that you're planning." Charles muttered to himself as he held his chin in his hand.
"A lot of it is going to have to be hollow anyway to make room for the appliances to work, so that won't be a problem." I said by way of reply to Charles.
"Yes, your appliances. I hope you're not planning on draining every magic user in my base camp dry." Charles stated making his displeasure known.
"Not at all, all that we really need to do is 'Generate Mana more efficiently.' This much however is going to take some questions and answers to get done." Me and Charles were about to begin another round of questions when a alarm sounded, this time coming from the water. We both turned to the water and saw a massive fog embankment that was coming towards us.
"I'll prepare our defensive measures." Charles stated bluntly. He had been anticipating the possibility of another attack from the sea for a while now, he and his men even ran drills for this.
"I'll go check with Levi." I replied as I dived into the water, quickly arriving at the entrace to the third floor and shed my Maride host for something a little more dungeony.
Levi! There's an unknown thing on the horizon that I need to know what it is!
"It would appear to be an island Turtle." Levi replied, looking through thin sheets of Sapphire that she was using to scry with. "And it's not alone."
Another Dungeon?
"It has structures like one attached to it, but if it is, it's being escorted by a group of creatures outside of it's halls, further more it has taken a short cut." Levi produced a map of the world, similar to the one I have back in my core room. The water map super imposed all the leylines in the world over it and gave a clear understanding of where dungeons can form and what path's the ones like Leviathan can travel across where they can't, the Turtle was not on a leyline.
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So not a dungeon then. Alright is that the best we can determine?
"At this time? Yes. Apologies for not being able to provide more information." Apologies not needed. Rally our forces and this floor and prepare to defend ourselves from the enemy. "Understood master, If the worst comes to it: I'll simply stop being a floor."
Oh yeah, because that's not ominous at all!
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The Trio were preparing for the enemy as best they could, North was cooling off the water which a cold blooded creature like the turtle would find uncomfortable and Fort was getting ready with his cannons, the schema's for which he apparently retained from his days as a fortress.
Apas was soon busy as well, she was sent flying over to the other party to get into touch with the people therein. There were some initial misunderstandings.
"Seriously." Captain Merrow complained while holding her spear gun over her shoulders. "Who uses a C Rank monster as a messenger?"
"Yah know there is a saying about shooting the messenger." Apas had to get the spear wound in her wing healed by one of the fish people's own mages.
"We thought we were under attack." The captain replied bluntly as she noticed something about her conversational partner.
"A C Rank attacking an B Rank. Yeah, that would've worked out well." Apas stated as he noticed where her conversation partner's eyes went. "My eyes are up here." "Why are you wearing clothes?" The Mershark captain asked looking at Apas suspiciously.
"My dungeon made them for me. I think he's become aware of me as a woman." Apas proudly strutted as she turned around and got ready to leave.
"Humans have already moved in around him, I suggest you put some on if you don't want things getting uncomfortable." Saying that Apas flew off while Merrow mused the implications.
"He 'already' has humans around him?" She would buy that Leviathan had been killed if Conquerete had been the one to do it, or Babel, maybe even the Ouroboros that she's heard so much about.
Dungeons that have the capability to move around, building their power elsewhere, having done so for years then coming here to fight Leviathan. That she could believe. But 'already' a dungeon that's only barely had enough time to attract a community, a dungeon that didn't even exist since the last time Leviathan passed through this area was the one responsible for Leviathan's downfall.
"What the hell is going on here?" The Captain dived down into the waters of the base in order to put some clothes on so that she could find out.
Neutral meeting grounds were quickly arranged, a massive ice flow was prepared by Charles freezing a platform of water large enough for both parties to stand on, Charles, Apas and Keeper, as well as Merrow, Crust and the Tidecaller.
"I am Charles the Shipbreaker, formerly of the Pentaghast family, these two represent the local dungeons, Apas and Keeper."
"I am Captain Merrow of her Majesty Kuishina of the Lemurian royal family's Navy. My colleagues Sir Crust of the Royal Guard and the High Priest to Oceanus Octo the Tidecaller." A beat passed. "Now that we have that out of the way would one of you mind explaining where in Oceanus's name Leviathan is?"
"What the dungeons haven't eaten yet? In a chest in a storage site off the leyline path." Charles stated bluntly. No leylines, no dungeons. Charles wasn't intent on letting the monster plant a seed of a new dungeon, not unless the people looking after it were quite keen on making sure that it didn't fall back into old habits.
"The three dungeons that Leviathan had by the cores, a newborn, and you and your people were able to break Leviathan? When the Ring of Fire has been trying for years and failing?" Captain Merrow had what you call doubt on her features. Well not trying persay, for a volcano trying looked like a volcano going off and destroying the city that they had built.
"The dungeon turned a few of it's floors into monsters." Charles stated bluntly. "Sent them over to raid Leviathan, ate like... thirty or so of it's ships before the core damn near exploded with points and floors." Charles explained while he indicated the mountain behind him still glowing with the light of evolution. "That happened shortly there after." Charles allowed the distraction, it gave him a chance to ponder the next part of the statement, he wasn't one to toot his own horn after all. "The rest of us manipulated the weather, created a cyclone on the spot to smash apart more of the ships, their remains drifted down below where the dungeons Leviathan had been keeping prisoner ate them and turned into that." Charles indicated the spike, one that use to have a ship made of ice mounted on it before it melted away. "Speared Leviathan right through it's core. Ate the rest of the fleet not long after."
"So you have three dungeons in their twenties and one in it's thirties." The Captain asked for the sake of confirmation.
"I don't know my core still hasn't healed yet." The three fish people turned as one to face the figure that looked to be made out of water, a Maride, which shouldn't have the ability to speak let alone a place at this meeting, and yet it had both.
"'Your core?'" The Captain spoke bluntly.
"Yes, my core." The Maride made a call with it's body, the nearby waters splashed and parted as a pink creature emerged from the water, a giant crab made out of coral. The Maride stretched over and patted the creature before it went back down.
"A dungeon avatar is not supposed to leave it's dungeon!" Sir Crust snapped forcing himself to standing position.
"That's not the dungeon Avatar, it's a Maride." The Tidecaller stated bluntly. "Probably summoned by the mage there and given to the dungeon as one of it's contracts."
The watery figure snorted in derision.
"It used to be that Dungeons couldn't move around either, or so I heard before." The Maride explained bluntly. "Rules are subject to change, hope that I decide they don't need to." A promise, of violence if nothing else. "Now than, I am called Keeper, master of my own dungeon and mentor to the three that are in the bay. Should I presume that you've come to delve or has another matter brought you here?"
"Four dungeons in one place?" The Scylla continued to speak. "I imagine that mana must be quite scarce to you right now, your needs must exceed their's by quite a huge margin."
"You're right, they do." Keeper replied shrugging non-solid shoulders. "Which is why I've gone out of my way to increase my mana regeneration by a significant amount. You may have heard of my patron: Oceanus." The three of the sea kin gulped in surprise.
"Would you like to see my floor?" I led the three sea kin to Atlantis, the three of them paled when they saw the sheer size of the area within the dungeon, and when they saw Levi, happily abusing her power of spatial manipulation to create a ocean where a bay should be, it gave me time to work. Returning to my core room I went to my Dungeon Chat terminal as I searched for the Ring of Fire, luckily finding Dungeons on this thing was as easy as punching in the name of what they call themselves, and they mentioned the name of the Dungeon that this Lemuria was associated with. The Ring of Fire. Let's go on a trip.
[Monster in Charge of Dungeon: Levi the Chimera Slime]
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I appeared inside of the first room for the Ring of Fire, and already I was struggling, geysers released clouds of sulphur into the water. My Maride body really wasn't suited for this floor, I'd have to work quickly.
"Ring of Fire!" I released a loud voice from every inch of the Maride's body. "I have come to Parley!" Nearby doors opened up and allowed me to enter inside. I entered the boss room, where I soon encountered the first floor's boss, I don't know why I was expecting a water based boss, a fish would die if it had to breathe in this much sulphur, but this? This I didn't expect.
[B Rank Monster Dracolich-A Evolved Bone Dragon whose body has been saturated with necrotic energies, although the Bone Dragon is a artificial construct in the shape of a dragon, a Dracolich is well on it's way to becoming a true dragon by absorbing the energies of the leylines]
The bones were dyed black and smooth, as if shaped by hand, a normal skeleton would leave room in it's rib cage to expand and contract to enable breathing, like if it were a normal creature. Across its body patches of scaly flesh could be seen, not rotting off, but growing, as if a new creature was forming around the bones.
"What are you doing here?" The undead creature, that was looking less dead by the day, asked looking down at the Maride that intruded upon it's domain with blatant suspicion, in other words me.
"That you in there 'Ring of Fire?'" I asked tilting our head and suppressing my fear, donning a cocky attitude. "You're people are a guest in my dungeon right now, apparently they came looking to find Leviathan, or what's left of him."
"So, Leviathan is dead then." It was hard to read a skeleton's face, harder still when the skeleton doesn't even belong to a human. "I suppose you want thanks then? Leviathan was a pain in my tail bones for a long time."
"Enough Obsidian that I can start mass producing the stuff would be nice." The Dragon seemed to blink for a moment.
"Why?" The confused bone headed dragon asked. "I'm going to mix it with tree sap and make insulating foam with it." The More he heard the less he understood. "I recall that my vassals reported that there were... survivors from Leviathan's cruelty."
The Dragon changed the topic before I succeeded in my B goal of throwing him off. Ah negotiations, let's see if I remember how to do this. Oceanus wants me to 'give' the trinity to Lemuria, it makes sense. Right now the Ocean was running rampant with stagnant mana, and that would be breeding all kinds of horrors in what is rightfully his domain, but that doesn't mean that I'm not using them either, nor does it mean that they're not valuable things that I should simply give away for free. I've still got gods know how many floors that I need to fill with content and right now the promise of a fire floor was tickling my sides.
"The three of them are quite comfortable being spoon fed monsters by my humans. I can't imagine how I'm going to convince them to leave." The Dragon gave me a flat look, as if he were already onto my hair brained schemes.
"Shall I tell Oceanus you doubt your ability to fulfil your promises?" Thats what I get for being a cheap skate. It would be bad if the old man decides to take away Levi's sanity and power if I wrong him.
"Not at all. I merely want to know that my juniors are going to be well looked after." A map appeared, the leylines spread out before me as the Ring of Fire produced a map for us to work with. "North and Coral might be content to work as underwater dungeons, Fort on the other hand was born and built for dry land. In addition to that the three of them have gotten a little too content in their respective specialisations in defence, counter attacks and offence. Breaking them up will severely lower their abilities, not to mention the problem of strapping them to something they can use to move around, probably your big turtle your people rode to my humble abode on."
The Dragon tapped a claw as he took the situation in hand.
"The Turtle might be a good idea." Dungeons will start to form on their own anyway, and grow now that Leviathan is gone. Moving the Trinity over will involve a process of remodelling them to strap to the turtle, and then remodelling them again to break them apart into three separate immobile dungeons, conversely, skipping the last step will invoke less damage, and since they'll be mobile the problem of trying to supply three dungeons with mana will be less of a problem. "I have good places in mind for them."
"Then we're in agreement, I'll work on getting the dungeons mobile, and I'd like some obsidian before I go, enough that I can start producing it on my own." A ten foot by ten foot block of black glass suddenly appeared and nearly crushed me.
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Upon returning to my dungeon with my spoils I had so much work I needed to get done. The option to do things with my third floor wasn't available yet. Some times I thought that I only have a fourth floor to begin with because my first three had already been converted into monsters. For now though I chose to instead focus on my task at hand, so slipping back on my watery pants I flew over to the Trinity to share with them the good news.
"I admit I find this arrangement... less than ideal." North was sitting next to the spike that so many monsters met their end on in the body of the Yuki onna.
"What's the problem?" I asked looking around the three of them.
"You forget that Leviathan kept dragging us around with him when he went about being a pirate, we've seen how many monsters are in the sea, and how strong they are." The Mermaid body that Coral was using explained as she gestured lightly.
"Tons and tons of monsters for us to butcher and use as points for our growth and schema's for our floors? Count me in!" Great, the little idiot that keeps picking fights with Lithilas's statue's is the only one on board with this. Time to shift gears.
"For one thing, the move isn't happening immediately, When you three build your next floor you're going to attach it to the turtle, then you're going to remodel your floors so that they'll all fit onto the turtle."
"That sounds like a mountain of work..." Fort complained. "Which is why it's going to be done over a period of time, in the mean time I'm going to prepare you three to deal with all the nasties in the ocean. Luckily I know where to find several of them." Nothing about the way that he said that made them feel better, Except for Fort, little brat that he was.
"I am going to stage an attack on the three of you, and you three are going to fend it off." I rubbed my hands in anticipation while the Yuki onna and the Mermaid paled, well paler then usual anyway.
"We aren't even prepared to fend off a real attack! All the monsters we've been killing have been handed to us!"
Yeah, that's kinda why I'm doing this. I disappeared from the dungeon chuckling evily as I left, it'll be good that they're scared, they should come up with something interesting. Now how am I actually going to pull this off?