The Dungeon had offered an opportunity for an experiment. He needed to see how much he could influence an egg born outside of his dungeon. It was only natural, after all dungeons spread their influence around plenty. I couldn't even say that he was the most aggressive of such beings in that regard, at least the Keeper hadn't made his dungeon into a brothel.
"You have three blessings. Aziraphale, Hephaestus and Echidna." I informed the fiery entity the Dungeon had claimed as his avatar.
"Professor Phalanges, I have four, and while I used to have a floor dedicated to Echidna I don't at the moment." The Fiery entity explained having clearly misunderstood my statement.
"You misunderstand good sir. Your body specifically has the blessings of Aziraphale, Hephaestus and Echidna. This mutated Ifrit is far different from your floors." I explained hoping that I had clarified the situation somewhat, which I assumed I had based on how the entity was now pacing about. Actually pacing too! If he was just borrowing the Ifrit's instincts for locomotion he would instead be floating along instead of walking back and forth.
"Echidna I can understand, she was the one who taught me the summoning circle-" And doubtlessly included her own blessing in the process, Ifrit's don't naturally have the ability to sexually reproduce but they can depending on how the summoning forms their body. "-I ate the blessing those punks under Jack forced onto my first floor, so that might explain Aziraphale. But where did Hephaestus come from?" The core was confused, understandable, but I had my own theory.
"Hephaestus is a god of Fire, more specifically the forge, if the realm of fire that your body is native to came from there then it is only natural that you'd have his blessing." The keeper continued to ponder the implications.
"Will these blessings affect my offspring in any way?" The Keeper asked again, every question burning away at my patience.
"It should improve upon their affinities but not much more. For one thing it's rare for a male to receive Echidna's blessing to begin with, for another the offspring were conceived before you received Aziraphale's blessing correct." With my latest answer I felt that we had approached the cusp of the conversation.
"Received isn't the right word, but we've got off topic. Do you have anything that I can work with?" The Keeper asked and finally the experiment could begin!
"Certainly! I had young Grim pick up some samples from the market!" As I spoke the person himself had arrived with the experimental subjects.
Dungeons can cross breed their monsters with outsiders. The Concubine's mirror does this all the time, their own city lord was one such hybrid after all. However what was unique about the Keeper was that he was a mutant hybrid of Ifrit and Dungeon, a wholly unique specimen, it could mean that the experimental organism that they're about to create could be a hybrid of dungeon/Ifrit/Etc or it could be that they will be a hybrid of Ifrit/etc. A direct offspring of a dungeon is simply too rare a creature to study and now he is about to study two.
"This was all that the Merchant had available Professor." Grimoire pulled off the cover off of the tray he had been carrying in, revealing two common chicken eggs.
"Source?" I asked my assistant.
"Old Man Brown's farm." Grimoire stated bluntly.
Relatively low stagnancy, still I could feel the stiffness in the mana of the egg, as Grimoire implied they were the lowest quality that the Merchant had available. "Good enough." I had my assistant place the tray in front of the Keeper who looked at the eggs confused.
"You want me to plow eggs?" Ah, definitely didn't come with a user manual for this body it would seem.
"Merely infuse your heat into them."
"Wouldn't that cook them?"
"I shall take additional precautions then." With a flourish of my hands a magic circle had formed around the two eggs, which will limit and control the flow of mana and heat into the egg without compromising the Keeper's blessings. "There, do it now."
I watched as the Keeper held his hands over both eggs and saw them glow with energy, tapping my fingers with excitement as I watched. Then the Keeper's approximation of eyes widened as he saw the changes taking place.
"I think I... fertilised them? Is that the right word?" I watched the Keeper move his hands away able to see something that I could not.
"Grimoire, my eye glasses!" I was about to reach my hand out expectantly but Grimore had already shoved my glasses into my face. Of course I could see perfectly, 20 20 vision was pivotal to a mages toolkit and I went through extreme measures to keep it that way. That said, glass imbued with Dungeon mana and engraved with highly specific magic circles to recreate the Dungeon's ability to assess anything that they look at was equally valuable, and with far less self inflicted surgery to achieve.
[F Rank Monster Fire Chicken Egg: A Chicken egg fertilised by a Ifrit, what were you expecting?]
Peel back the layers of mana...
[Blessing of Echidna: likely to grow into a powerful monster]
[Blessing of Hephaestus: High dexterity, suitable to manufacturing]
[Blessing of Aziraphale: An infusion of holy power may lead to angelic evolutions]
Yes this should be a most fascinating specimen!
"Now to incubate these specimens! With our mage tower we can cut down on the incubation time by five years!" I let out a laugh at my boast! This was the latest in our incubation technology! Not even a dungeon can-why is the Keeper looking at us with those pitying eyes?
"I'll be back in a minute." The Keeper went down the elevator into the dungeon, I could see it from the top of the newly rebuilt mages tower, after the Dungeon so rudely appropriated it for one of the legs of the Gashadokuro, and came back moments later a massive slab of stone hoisted over his head in one hand. After setting it down I could see some branches having formed a cup on top of the slab of stone. "I need you two to swear to secrecy what I'm about to show you." The Keeper explained as he took one of the eggs from before and put it into the cup of branches. "And I need a way of channelling mana from the dungeon into this thing on top of that."
"A pitifully easy task secrecy." I quickly pulled out a scroll of spider's silk and an inkwell of specialised fluid, I quickly wrote out a oath of secrecy agreeing that neither Grimoire or I will reveal the contents of the Keeper's idea via direct or indirect methods, nothing lethal for the punishment, only that if I or Grimoire violate the terms then two thirds of the power of the offending party will be transferred to the Keeper.
"Acceptable?" I held up the scroll to the Keeper.
"Acceptable, where do we sign?" Using an obsidian blade I slashed my thumb and had blood come out, followed by Grimoire doing the same, we both stamp our thumbs on our part of the contract and leave it out on the table for the Keeper to do the same. The Keeper looked at his own hand for a moment before he just shrugged his shoulders and pressed the thumb into his part of the contract. It burnt up in green fire and I felt the strings of the contract tie around me a few moments later.
"Did I ruin it?" The Keeper asked confused by the sight.
"No no the contract has been signed. Now what do you want to show us?"
Grimoire brought over my Diamond, hideously expensive thing diamonds. Even a dungeon must consume a hideous amount of mana to produce one of just this size, and the only alternative is to dig deep into the earth where Coal has had the intense heat and pressure to be crushed and formed into a diamond. Grimoire's necromancy was better suited to carving into marble and limestone than my own telekinetics, so I left him the task of creating a slot for the diamond filled with the Keeper's dungeon mana and a focusing array to ensure that it went where we needed it. I watched as the mana flowed with my Dungeon appraisal glasses into the stone, then within a few moments I was met with a great spout of shock!
[20/10000]
Monster eggs were well known for their ability to gain points if they are used to kill monsters, but to gain points just by sitting on a block of stone while wrapped in branches.
"What is the meaning of this?" I asked as I made my shock known.
"One of my monsters came up with a way of turning Mana into power." The Ifrit stated as if he didn't just casually spit out a mind blowing secret of the highest order.
"Mana into... are you serious!?" This was mind boggling! If this ever got out.
"Thus the swearing you two to secrecy." The Keeper replied shrugging his shoulders. As we were talking the diamond ran out of power and fell out of place. Yes of course it was so hideously expensive, it was quite likely that whatever he had done was only realistically possible within the dungeon proper. "I'll be right back." The Keeper flew back into the dungeon, and when he came out he was carrying a bag of holding. "This should do it." The Keeper opened up the bag, pulling out several diamonds in the process, full of the tell tale blessing of Pluto, meaning that their storage capacity, and thus worth, was several times that of my own diamond, and slotted into the stone slab. The Power glowed, the mana flowed and I nearly choked at what I saw.
[60/10000]
How is that possible!? I once again peeled away the mana as I looked at the blessings.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
[Giant Slayer 1: Power bonuses will be doubled]
"There are monsters in that slab!" I connected the dots on what was happening and I was jealous I didn't think of it first. "Five of them! D-Rank right!?"
"Armoured Jawfish, nasty little bastards." The Keeper informed me. He was reanimating monsters, killing them by suffocation, and using the technically to transfer their points into the egg. Ingenious!
[140/10000]
[300/10000]
[620/10000]
[1260/10000]
[2540/10000]
[5100/10000]
[10280/10000]
Suddenly, the Egg was covered in the light of evolution. I counted the number for Giant Slayer with my Appraisal glasses again. [Glant Slayer 8]
"Should we keep going?" The Ifrit asked something pretty insane.
"Of course not!" I snapped back by way of reply. "Unless you're planning on turning your offspring into giants!"
"Then let's try the 'instant adult' option first." The Keeper pressed his finger into the air above the egg. The Egg burst knocking myself and Grimoire back as we watched the creature in question float up into the air. Bones formed in midair, taking material from the slab of rock in the process, the outline of a large bird like creature formed from the bones as flesh filled in. Fire took things from there, trailing down the creature's body and completing the body of dog sized bird like creature. I quickly found my glasses again and looked at the newborn creature resting atop the slab of stone.
[D Rank Monster Fiery Peacock-A relative of the Cockatrice that has received the Blessing of the heavens, his fiery gaze can turn whatever he looks at into ashes]
"Astounding!" I quickly circled around the creature with my glasses, the creature in question, a large dark red bird with colourful plumage on it's head and going down a long tail of feathers, looking confused as he attempted to follow my gaze. "The description mentions that it's a relative of the Cockatrice! Is the Ash vision a variation of the cockatrice's petrifying gaze!?" Grimoire reached out and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Perhaps we should save the speculation until after we've examined the second specimen?" The stone slab was largely intact, but it would be put aside for now as it was instead too severely damaged to be of any use.
In the mean time the Fiery Peacock would be put away into captivity until such a time that it can be properly documented. This technique was an excellent method for raising familiars, we should charge for this, with the Keeper's permission of course. The Ifrit flew back carrying another slab of stone with a fresh cup of branches prepared. In went the egg, another eight rounds of reanimation and suffocation, and then the creature was ready to hatch, and this time the option of 'Greater potential for growth but a infant' was selected instead. The mana swirled more dramatically this time, but the stone slab was not sacrificed for material this time as instead the cocoon expanded and then the tell tale sound of the crying of a newborn echoed out. Quickly my glasses were put to work.
[F/C Rank Monster Passista-A Unique species of Harpy with powerful holy fire capabilities, due to their unique and colourful feathered crests their appearance is often mimicked to create unique outfits for festival dancers, this one is considerably young thus a lower ranking]
She was a infant, her arms and legs covered in downy fluff that was warm to the touch like trapped heat.
"Well I suppose that answers all of my questions." The Keeper stated as he let out a sigh. "I should be getting back to my business now." The Keeper turned around to leave however I stopped him.
"What of these two?" I asked indicating the valuable scientific specimens that the Keeper was about to leave behind.
"Oh right..."
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So now I had extra monsters wandering around my dungeon, a peacock and a peacock type demi-human baby. Apas looked like she had mixed feelings about the child.
"I assume that you've arranged for a sitter for this child." Even after giving Apas my explanation, or excuse as she seemed to treat the subject, she didn't seem happy to learn that I basically went out and conceived another child behind her back. "So that means that you're not going to do it."
I let out a sigh as I debated the methods by which I would go contact Jewel, considering the description I received for the Passista she seemed the most likely candidate to want her. The Normal Dungeon Chat function didn't seem to work so long as my core was stuck in another realm. So I guess that means I'm going to have to get Charles to send a message for me. Fantastic.
"Alright let's focus on our kids for a while." I prepared three more stone slabs with Armoured Jawfish Fossils inside and cups of branches on top. "Archie I'm counting on you to handle this with your usual level of precision. No more than nine times understood?" I do not want Giant Killer throwing unknown factors into their evolution.
"Thy will be done master!" Archie gave a bow as he turned to face the stone slabs like they were the most important things in the world.
"Alright what about our other project?" It was a weird thing to note at this point, but apparently dungeon creatures are natural omniglots.
So if given a new language to learn, say magic chants, they do so extremely quickly like I had. The Dungeon monsters I assigned the task of learning magic had done so with extreme efficiency, the ones who were learning combat less so. But the casters would be enough for my plan to bring low the Wolf's Den dungeon, the next question I needed answered was what to do with the dungeons surrounding the den afterwards.
[Ouroboros: Why don't we just eat them?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Because I'm not a cannibal, it seems to be the kind of thing that Hel disapproves of and she has us by our balls]
[Ouroboros: That's a stretch of logic there chief]
[Dungeon Keeper: I'm not taking the chance]
[Ouroboros: What should we do with any enemy dungeons we find then?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Do you remember the kinds of things that Lithilas warned you not to do?]
[Ouroboros: Yeah?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Let's list them]
[Ouroboros: Don't let anyone into your core room, always keep our boss doors locked, don't turn our dungeons into a monster]
[Dungeon Keeper: Well that ship has sailed] [Ouroboros: You're probably better off than I am, your monsters aren't trying to consume your other floors or you after all]
Wait a second...
[Dungeon Keeper: What happens if we get stuck inside of a living creature?]
[Ouroboros: Our will is subsumed, our dungeon functions taken away from us as we turn into a power source for the creature in question]
I blinked stupidly. I suddenly felt all of the Dungeon Monsters jump at once at the sound of my maniacal laughter.
"Should we be concerned?" Solarius asked Apas who shook her head in response.
"Be more scared for whoever he's going after." Apas replied while fondly looking at the three eggs that each got their own stone pedestals and mana flowing into them.
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Another day, another attack to fend off. I was the only source of mana for the surrounding dungeons, which should mean that they don't do things like attacking me several times a day, the issue here was my quest from Lucifer.
[Quest: Eat Five Hel Dungeons]
If I ever got my hands on that feathery bastard! So eating me was their only hope for getting out of this god forsaken place and eating them was mine, so what else is a dog supposed to do? Fenrir encouraged me as well, the glutton, so here I was trying to break into the other dungeons and subsume them to my will, which was not going as well as I would like all things considered. Then there was that wave of different monsters from a little while ago, simply bizarre. With any luck I wouldn't-Blegh! My entire floor was suddenly consumed in a wave of foul smelling odours that made me want to puke, my Cerberus and other hounds covered their snouts as they nearly puked. The one responsible lumbered into my dungeon as my eyes went wide.
[D Rank Monster Skunk Ape-A large physically strong monster capable of producing large amounts of foul odour to incapacitate a group of targets]
That's Cheating! More of those annoying undead birds flew into the dungeon and attached themselves to the back of the necks of my hounds and I was helpless to do anything but watch as the life was sucked out of them, my Cerberus reduced to mere loot, a shield shaped like a trophy plaque with three dog heads. The Ape continued to move, and I was helpless to stop him, even as I sent more of my hounds into the breach in order to kill them off.
Stay away from my core you darn dirty ape! I'm warning you!
The Monkey arrived at my locked door.
Not so clever now are you!?
The Monkey took out a tube of some kind and emptied it's contents into the lock. The Little bird that had been following them around lit the lock on fire and suddenly it was lit on fire and melted through. What, the hell!? The Skunkape opened the now lock-less door and took out the wolf statue inside holding my core in its mouth with him as the little bone creatures led them to the next floor of my dungeon, I was screaming in pain all along the way but there was a more important issue. Wait are you actually...? My core and pedestal was unceremoniously thrown through the door to the other side.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! SUCK IT LUCIFER!
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The Skunk Ape and Kapri Soul escaped in time for the floor to unceremoniously collapse, now that the dungeon was working to actively break their contract with Lucifer. The other Dungeons were confused but immediately came to an understanding, that to keep themselves sane they had to acquire a new connection to the mortal world. In other words me.
"You don't seem to be very concerned that they're coming after us." My Hel Gargoyle asked Keeper, Hel herself having returned to her palace to manage her estate.
"I'm not." Keeper replied simply, tossing two bags into the enemy dungeon, one tied to a Bone hand.
"Alright lets get outta here folks!" I had no desire to be here when that thing was set off. From above I watched as the Keeper's bomb was detonated. The Hand crawled into one bag of holding dragging another along with it, and then the entire complex of five dungeons and the abandoned shell of a sixth was sucked inside of the bag. Once the unstable vortex was finished I landed back on the ground and Keeper picked up his bag.
"What's the point of doing that?" Hel-Gargoyle asked as she watched Keeper take the bag away, back into his own dungeon as she followed.
"Cannibalism is something you're against correct?" Keeper asked wishing to confirm his theory from before.
"Yes. But what of it?" Hel asked confused as the Keeper let his magic swirl.
"I came up with a compromise." We both watched as the bag was transformed, the other dungeons were likely trying to eat their way out but the Keeper had already beaten them, a new Spatial Jellyfish was soon born, and immediately covered in a cocoon of evolution. "There we go. That should take care of them for now." The Keeper turned to face Hel.
"Which means that we need to renegotiate our deal." Keeper stated as he looked at Hel directly in her eyes. "There is a lunatic on the loose in the world and I am partly responsible for him being free. If I want him taken down I need the ability to coordinate with the dungeons and people on that side, which I can't do so long as I'm stuck here." The Keeper explained as Hel narrowed her eyes at him. "I should also note that I'm asking as a courtesy, I just demonstrated and proved a technique for excising a core from a breach and permanently severing the connection."
"Ratatoskr." Hel called out and a familiar little squirrel wearing a vest emerged from seemingly nowhere.
"You rang milady Hel?" The Squirrel greeted.
"I need you to establish a means of communication between worlds for the Keeper here." Hel stated simply.
"And my compensation?" The Half dead woman threw a bag of something at the Squirrel's feet, who quickly pulled the bag open and started eating the trail mix that was inside of it.
"Delicious!" The Squirrel started rummaging around the pouch that was for some reason attached to his belly and pulled out a small ball of Adamantine, no bigger than the Keeper's thumb. "This should be a more than adequate upgrade to the globe you're keeping in your core room." The Keeper took the ball of metal in his hand as he looked down at the squirrel.
"How do you know about that?" The Keeper asked as they talked about something I didn't know about.
"It's my system after all." The squirrel explained as he threw the sack onto his back.
"Wait a second are you that troll who keeps-"
"Toodles!" And then the Squirrel disappeared seemingly into thin air. The Keeper paused for a moment as he let out an aggravated sigh.
"Do you need time alone or shall we plan our next attack?" The Keeper just sighed as he went to sit in a corner. "Congratulations to the twelfth dungeon of this tower, owner of the Skunkape." Hel stated as she turned to face the creature in question, possessed by his core. "An for your reward, return to the mortal world through a breach." We ended up building a dedicated room for the breaches. Five walls, ten stories high, second to last to my core, walkways and railings. The wall marked out as '12' started to glow with rainbow mist indicating that a breach was now in progress and the one marked out as 'four' was half way finished. "We will reconvene and rest as we scout the next dungeon and select members for it's raid based on the results that we are able to determine from there." Hel stated clapping her hands together. "Dismissed!"