Treyni was trapped inside of a void, surrounding her were thirty enemies taking the form of wooden statues, the statues taking the form of gods of the Sea. Minor entities like Dagon, Calypso, Charybdis to major like Poseidon, Mizuchi and Indra, they weren't all of the water gods that Leviathan had taken blessings from, but most of them were here. Focusing on water gods first meant that the fifty of them were the first ones that Leviathan was able to contract with, and now most of them were here. Treyni was not having a good day. In a battle of compatibility a wood element will win out against a water element, but there are factor's that can over turn compatibility, Ranking, Boss Level, Numbers and experience were all working against Treyni here. This was and will always be the Keeper's dungeon, but Treyni wasn't sure if she would still be the floor's boss or not at the end.
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Credit where do, The Leviathan's Beasts were formidable, even with their bodies trapped within their own he had to struggle with all his might against them. One was a snail, it's shell and flesh bright and colourful, and annoyingly magic resistant, deflecting away about two thirds of the magically produced slime that made up the Lake Slime's being that it tried to use to dissolve it and flat out absorbed the remaining third. There was the kraken, a deadly and efficient hunter, specialising in moving fast and hitting hard. The Megalodon, a violent shark creature the size of most boats and capable of easily scuttling them with ease. The Mosasaur, a huge crocodilian creature built for a life in the water with specialised jaws for swallowing prey whole. The Island Turtle, a massive beast capable of maintaining an entire eco-system on its back, this one was quite young when Leviathan trapped it with a chain. Knight Crabs, huge crab monsters that wear shells from much larger and more formidable creatures on their backs, excellent defenders, going as far as to guard flocks of other sea life, if only to use them as food themselves. Boxing Shrimp. Killer Whale. Stealth Ray.
These were just a few examples of the creatures trapped in the third floor filled with lake slime, their souls now trapped in a primordial ooze of mortal combat to see who would come out victorious. The Lake slime though? There's a reason why such a massive creature is considered a mere D Rank, it's too stupid and too passive to survive in this place with so many other contenders seeking to take it's place as their very lives depend on it.
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While the others struggled against the enemies before them with all their might, Archie was alone. There were no enemies caught with him when he went into the cocoon of evolution, not ones that hadn't suffocated by now anyway. With no rivals to speak of all Archie had to do was wait for the system to finish processing the power and evolve him, then out of no where a light opened in the darkness and out stepped a figure, skin pale as death with touches of acid burns and hair and toga wreathing him in darkness, never seen by Archie before, and yet instantly recognised.
"Lord Pluto!?" Archie immediately bowed. "I'm honoured with your-"
"Save it." Pluto snapped by way of reply, turning around the way he came. "Come." Archie immediately stood up straight and followed, his body taking on a soul form and arriving in a library. "My issue is that I have a monster under my command with an absurd amount of power gathered who has no idea how to utilise any of it. That changes now." Pluto waved his arms. "Necromancy..." Several books fell into Archie's arms. "Soul anatomy..." Another book. "Chimera's..." Several more Books, Archie was having a hard time balancing now. "Geomancy..." Archie flat out collapsed under a pile of books. "Metallurgy and Gemology." More books fell onto Archie's head as it poked out. "That should do it." And on that note, Pluto turned around to leave, dealing with matters of governing his realm.
"How much of these do I have to learn?" Archie asked sounding concerned.
"For now?" Pluto paused not turning to face Archie. "All of them."
Archie wasn't physically capable of sighing, but he was in a spiritual body right now so he figured that he had the right to do so as he randomly picked up a book and started reading.
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Treyni was not having a good time, even a tree will drown in water if given too much of it, and right now Treyni was drowning, the various figure heads of Leviathan having a death match with each other over the right to claim her soul and her body. Even after she switched to the form of the Leshen the enemy was still overwhelming them, and then a sound like a bell echoed out.
[Quest Complete! Defeat Leviathan!]
Treyni suddenly felt a new power enter her, the power of symbiosis. And then she wasn't alone, her various Treants appearing alongside her, bows at the ready to fight, the water entities looked at each other and a thought occurred. They cannot all become the boss, that is why they are fighting with each other. But these new creatures represent an opportunity, they can all get bodies to survive the evolution now, but who would claim the boss's?
"Step aside!" As if the choice was natural, a brute of a man wearing a toga appeared and a crown of sea shells stepped forward, Poseidon, the current sea god, or rather the figurehead made in his appearance. The others could only make bitter faces and step aside as the sea god stepped forward, fully intending to claim dominion over this floor. And then another figure appeared through a door of light. "Pluto!?" The Poseidon impersonator took a step back as he looked at the entity before him. Pluto was from a pantheon that rivalled Poseidon's, the two of them were therefore bitter and hated enemies. "What are you doing here!?"
"A follower of mine has been filling this place with my power." And there wasn't enough room for the two of them. "Begone." And then the entire soul plane was drowned in mud. Wood was considered strong against water, but earth was also strong against water, but earth was also weak against wood. The mud became a highly nutritious fertiliser for the wood type monsters, one that had the souls of the water types trapped inside of it.
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Not all of them could be knock out winners, the slime was a newborn, even with the benefit of being the original it still couldn't stand up to all the other monster souls that were inside of it's body and they ultimately ate it, and then they ate each other. The end result was a conjoined mess of a soul that had taken root inside of the lake slime, then a new figure appeared inside of the soul space, one with the lower body of a long eel, a crown of horns and a head of hair and beard made completely out of see through water. Leviathan was a pain in his tail, and so were his bratty children that he had taken on as patrons, so having someone to stick it to them like this really was a blessing, doing this much was really no big deal.
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***The sound of music accompanied me as various... runes flew at me, at my drums, I swung my maces on top of my drums as they came, in the mean time the other vikings were rowing us along the river cave as we went along, singing along with the music. "I am a Dwarf and I'm Digging a hole, diggy diggy hole! Diggy, diggy Hole!" *###* My axe broke off against the body of the skeleton, no matter, this place was full of weapons, I picked up a sword from the pile of bodies building at my feet and swung the bastard's head off. Having gotten some breathing room I pulled a belt off of my waist and downed it, and then the next round started. *###* One Eye of newt, one green emerald, one dash of unicorn's urine, and thus my spell was complete, flying onto my hands in the process. "A touch from cursed hands makes objects fly and flutter by. Be very still for them to land and you maybe amused by the butterflies." My talking animated skull informed me helpfully from the side, so I touched him with my 'Cursed Touch' and he turned into a mass of butterflies. *###*
I was fairly confident that the sound of breaking glass snapped me out of my near death experience recall of my memories. So to recap, I was a musician, a warrior, a mage, and a potion maker? What the hell is wrong with me? Looking around my core room my eyes naturally landed on my core, my core that had tripled in size, my core that was currently lopsided and filled with cracks.
[Dungeon Core has suffered severe structural damage due to rapid advancement. As the core heals your floors will gradually be unlocked for use with their full benefits. Currently the number of floors available have been reduced down to a bare minimum state.]
I looked around, this wasn't my first floor, there wasn't any limestone here and even if there was I'm pretty sure that my floor wasn't a set of stairs going up where the hallway leading to the summoning and store rooms were supposed to be. And another message from the system. Lovely.
[The Monsters that you have integrated into floor are undergoing evolution, for your safety your core has been moved to another floor while this process is completed]
My safety? Well I guess my Leviathan strategy has back fired a bit. Ah, another new message, and upon seeing the contents my cold crystaline heart skipped a beat.
[Message from system creator: Nicely done, it's not often that someone manages to come up with a loop hole, and now patched. Here's a little something, something as thanks]
A loud thunk punctuated the message. So not only was there some kind of entity behind the dungeon system, but I had gotten it's attention. And what did I get for it? A globe, made out of some kind of metal?
[Participation Trophy from the DM, put it somewhere people can look at it with pride!]
My non-existent eyes twitched. I couldn't even break it down for mana. What the hell was this thing made out of?
[Adamantium: A piece of indestructible material used by the gods for forging weapons]
I blinked stupidly for a moment. I ran my dungeon feelers over the globe part of the trophy and watched it spin. Upon further examination I found a bolt running through the trophy to enable said spinning. I looked to my stone stalactite I stuck my core onto. I unbolted the globe and walked over to the core, Mentally screaming in pain as I shoved the bolt through the cracks in my core that nearly tore it in half and bolted it into the stand the globe use to be on. Alright, now that that was done what other ways could I-I did it again didn't I?
[Congratulations for upgrading your core Room!]
The entire room shifted around, becoming cleaner and neater. Tiling replaced the ground, Support pillars sprung up around the room, and my chat room screen appeared to become a full blown computer. A small pedestal had been created from which the former globe I had replaced was floating above. Okay? This is new.
[Adamantine Pedestal: This pedestal will absorb 70% of the shock done to your core in the future, try not to let it break]
Stolen novel; please report.
Well... okay that's good news. I wasn't planning on stressing the thing out any time soon and now it looks like I won't be.
[Dungeon Core Chat: The latest version of Dungeon Core Chat Room, now with unlimited roaming it is possible to extend Chat functions to any core in the world]
Upon closer look at the globe, it was covered in small lights, each no bigger than a pin hole and few enough you wouldn't see them at first glance, they also followed very specific grooves as if carved into place, most of them consisted of white dots, others had various shades of colour to them. Were these all Dungeon Cores?
[Administrator Status Gained: Do to your connection to a high number of cores you have gained the status as a dungeon administrator]
Why are you dumping these things onto me!? Huu. I need to go into the chat group before I get anymore notifications.
[Lithilas: What did you do?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Yo, Lithilas... nice to see that you're okay too]
[Lithilas: What. Did. You. Do!?]
I didn't even have a body and I winced.
[Dungeon Keeper: About? My core is a little cracked right now so...]
[Lithilas: Leviathan is dead, you're still alive, you just shot up to the top of the administrator ranks in the chat system and your entire dungeon is wrapped in an evolutionary cocoon. Do I need to repeat the question?]
I probably shouldn't make him repeat the question.
[Dungeon Keeper: So I came up with an idea to destroy Leviathan, I integrated three of my monsters into my three floors, then I sent them all on a raid into Leviathan]
The period of silence that took place was probably Lithilas picking his jaw up from the floor.
[Dungeon Keeper: Before you try it out for yourself, you should know that I got contacted by the system creator who patched it, and I think he called himself "The DM"]
[Lithilas: Of course he did. What happened next?]
[Dungeon Keeper: He gave me a participation trophy, the description said it was indestructible so I integrated it into the pedestal for my core]
I skipped the part about where I bolted it through my core. I got the feeling I shouldn't talk about that part.
[Lithilas: How did you integrate a trophy from that troll into your pedestal?]
A pause as if the old man was coming to a sudden realisation.
[Lithilas: You bolted it through your core didn't you?]
[Dungeon Keeper: Anyway! What kind of privileges do I get from Administrative duties?]
[Lithilas: No Privileges, only work]
[Lithilas: You're supposed to boss around all the lower ranking cores, which in this case is all of them, but they don't have to obey you, especially if you haven't earned their respect yet]
[Lithilas: It's supposed to be something that you earn from being connected to 10 other dungeons in your area, and even then that's the most basic requirement!]
[Lithilas: Does this have something to do with the trophy?]
[Lithilas: In fact if you show where your level of strength really stands then they might try to walk all over you]
[Dungeon Keeper: I beat Leviathan though!]
[Lithilas: You got lucky! Just bumping off a third of his levels put you into a coma! I suspect the only reason you are still alive is because someone else took advantage of the fact that Leviathan was in a weakened state to finish what you started]
Before I could retort, more people started coming into the chat.
[Jewel: Keeper, are you awake yet?]
[Jewel: I've been trying to pump Mana into the leyline to help you heal but you're a little far away so I don't know how it's going]
[Dungeon Keeper: Awake, currently getting scolded]
[Jewel: One of my vassals is outside of your Dungeon right now, I'm sending over some supplies and personnel for you]
[Lithilas: What happened after this fool fell into a coma, does anyone know?]
[Jewel: The Human in charge of his camp, Charles Pentaghast, set twenty or so of the ships on fire, triggered the appearance of a cyclone, and blew a hole into little under a third of the remaining seventy ships]
[Jewel: The remains then fell into the lap of the three dungeons that Leviathan was in the middle of breaking apart against the ocean floor and they ate them to skewer Leviathan]
[Jewel: The remaining ships are apparently being broken down by the newly formed Trinity]
Is Charles secretly a Badass? He's kind of muscular and is always wearing heavy armour but aside from that he mostly just sits around all day doing paper work.
[Lithilas: And the current state of Keeper's dungeon?]
[Jewel: The three floors are all covered in a cocoon of evolution]
[Lithilas: Ah yes, seeing as how I need to give Graves the lecture again I might as well do both of you at the same time]
[Lithilas: Say hi Graves]
[Ouroboros: Hi guys]
[Dungeon Keeper: ?]
[Jewel: ?]
So apparently when I got cracked for the first time Graves had a panic attack and wrote me off. Not wanting Conquerete to eat Lithilas too he apparently thought it would be a good idea to turn his dungeon into a monster, and used prayer and abused loopholes in his blessings to have a even more explosive growth spurt then I did. I turned mine into a few monsters but unlike him I didn't get the lecture already.
[Lithilas: To turn your dungeon into a monster is to make it so that it's no longer a dungeon, what it does or what form it takes will no longer be your decision]
[Lithilas: You're lucky you parted your floors out to three different monsters, this literal numb skull set up a perpetual cycle of making his floors out of bone that's going to integrate itself into his monster all on their own]
[Ouroboros: Well, I want to support his growth properly after all, if I don't he might end up becoming a huge menace like Leviathan or Conquerete]
[Lithilas: Why do I even bother with you anymore?]
[Dungeon Keeper: We can still dungeon though right?]
[Lithilas: It's hard to say, 'Dungeon' requires an empty container, a pretty massive one at that, living beings usually aren't hollow on the inside]
Well, he makes a good point anyway.
[Lithilas: More importantly, even though dungeons don't function very well inside of living creatures, living creatures do very well with dungeon cores inside of them]
[Lithilas: We seize control over the surrounding area, create life, materials, some particularly mad men tried to take advantage of that to implant dungeon cores inside of them]
[Lithilas: A few of them succeeded]
[Lithilas: Grave's attempt to save me and your plan to kill Leviathan may have given birth to some very dangerous monsters]
Note to self, do not make anymore monster floors. I suspected I knew the answer but I tried to make some material and manipulate mana but I got a pain like... trying to lift too much at the Gym I guess. So I know what a gym is but I can't even remember what limestone was used to build?
[Dungeon Keeper: I don't think I can use my powers very well right now]
[Dungeon Keeper: I think I better wait until my core heals before I try anything, either that or until my floors and finished evolving.]
And as if on cue, the cocoon of evolution finished up on my third floor.
[Dungeon Keeper: Sweet I think the third floor just opened up.]
[Jewel: Really? 1 and 2 are still in the cocoons though]
[Dungeon Keeper: So only my third floor is open right now?]
While we discussed the implications of what was going on...
[You have 1 new message]
I like nothing about where this was going.
[Oceanus: Thanks for dealing with Leviathan, I fixed your monster for you]
Oookay...?
[Dungeon Keeper: Anyone knows a guy named Oceanus?]
[Lithilas: !?]
[Lithilas: Oceanus as in the Primordial Sea god!? The father of all the other gods of water!? That Oceanus!? Why are you talking about him!?]
Oh I really don't like this now.
[Dungeon Keeper: He just sent me a message telling me he sorted out my monster for me]
[Lithilas: I'm just going to stop being surprised now] [Dungeon Keeper: Apparently he wanted to thank me for dealing with Leviathan for him]
[Lithilas: Oceanus is the sea god, the one that all the other water deities answer to, or at least they should, he gave them their own domains to rule over but as I understand it they're rather unfilial sons and daughters and don't listen to their father anymore]
[Lithilas: Considering the fact that Leviathan is both picking off all the other dungeons in this ocean and had a bunch of his ungrateful brats as patrons I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you've gotten his attention]
[Dungeon Keeper: Okay, good to know. I'm going to investigate the third floor now]
I move my awareness up the stairs leading down to my fourth floor and was soon greeted by a large gelatinous membrane.
[B Rank Monster...]
I paused stupidly at the first three words of the description. Where the hell did B-Rank come from?
[B Rank Monster Queen Chimera Slime-A slime that has absorbed several powerful monsters integrating their unique characteristics and abilities into itself, is composed of over 100 smaller slimes]
I blinked stupidly again. How many of Leviathan's monsters did I dissolve down here? Experimentally I shoved some mana into the slime. No reaction from either the slime or the mana. I need to consult about this.
[Dungeon Keeper: Hey Graves, or Ouroboros I guess? You can still see inside of the parts of your Dungeon that you turned into a monster already right?]
[Ouroboros: Yeah? Why?]
[Dungeon Keeper: I need to start looking at what floors I do have and decide if I need to make another entrance don't I?]
With that in mind, I stuck my proverbial head into the giant Jello cube that made up my third floor. This was a lot bigger then I remember it being. I could still see the ceiling, in the same way that you see the sky and the clouds when you look up, but it was very far away, as if I was standing on the floor of the ocean itself. That was more than what I could say about the walls though. They were either flat out no longer there or so far away the difference was negligible. What the hell happened? For now I kept moving my point of awareness further and further ahead but while I was moving my point of awareness around, someone else was moving to meet me.
I was greeted by an over massive figure, in the distance it reminded me a mermaid, but getting closer I soon realised it was anything but. She had the general figure of a mermaid, but the similarities ended there. In lieu of the usual fish tail expected of a mermaid there was instead the massive billowing fins and stinger of a Manta Ray, leading up from where the manta ray's head should be was a hourglass shaped armour made out of some kind of rainbow material. I would call what was above the waistline breasts but honestly I don't think that was the case, oh sure they were in the right place and shape, but in lieu of soft inviting tissue I saw two seaweed green sacks of some kind of neon glowing liquid. To either side of those were arms of long silken material in a approximation of sleeves, ones that cloaked down arm guards of yet more rainbow material, ending in approximations of hands with four tentacle fingers and the smaller part of a crab's claw for a thumb. The face was flat, a mouth full of sharpened triangle shaped teeth and a head of fibre glass like strands resembling the tendrils of a jelly fish, far from being fish like though her eyes were sharp and full of intelligence, even if her face was flat with no nose. Several deep and high pitch noises came out of her mouth, like the sound of a whale's call. Well even if she does try to talk it's not like-
"Thank you for disposing of that wretch Leviathan Master." I stared stupidly for a few moments. Why can I understand what you're saying?
"Is this not one of the powers of Dungeons? To absorb from their environments, process and then spit back out? Leviathan never seemed to have problems communicating with others."
If I had temples I'd be rubbing them right now. Do you have memories of being Leviathan's monster? Which one were you?
"Leviathan enslaved several creatures of the deep as his slaves, you trapped them inside of your dungeon, your slime broke down their bodies and entered a state of evolution. The souls competed with one another and devoured each other into a conjoined mess, Lord Oceanus then came in and sorted our soul and body out into this form that you see before you. If I had to describe myself, I am the sum of their parts."
Am I still getting mana?
"Of course master, this B Rank here is still a part of you dungeon after all."
Can we open up a path to the outside?
"Of course master, please follow me."
The Chimera slime core led me away, it felt like we travelled for miles. Why is it taking so long to reach the other side? What is this place?
"This is the power of the spatial Jelly fish master, it's unique characteristic is a massive internal pocket dimension."
The Chimera explained while she flicked her vaguely hair like strands. We're going over everything that you're made of as soon as we get the chance.
"Shall we start now master?"
The Chimera led me to a wall of coral, this was her body, maybe she could manipulate the space inside of it? Putting her hand on the wall it shifted and opened up, the familiar Dungeon Fog blocking my point of view. So this leads outside?
"Of course master."
If I had the Ifrit body I could exit the dungeon and have a look around outside. My genie summoning circle was all the way back on my third floor though, and I don't think that I'm in good enough shape to reach it now.
"One Moment please master." The chimera floated over next to the exit and started using her claws to transcribe a familiar magic circle on the coral wall.