From what can be observed this city had several different facilities, the Churches, the merchant's building, the castle, black smith's, the Library was most important for my immediate goals, a bank and of course the adventurer's guild. There were other buildings but they lacked the relevance to be worth mentioning. My immediate goals were clear: obtain intelligence that my master desires and then return to the dungeon. The so-called Giant Slayer didn't even realise that he only destroyed my half finished armour. Do the Adventurers even realise that I've been sneaking out? I hope not. For now my mission brings me to the library, where the information master desires on the Dark Continent awaits, along with anything else of value that I can find. Magic, gods, other dungeons. The Library once again went dark and I went to work, telekinetically lifting books out of their shelves and opening them to read.
To begin with Magic. My kinetic affinity is one of the so-called 'broad' categories which is considered vital across the board. Others include Information, Support and Curse. Elemental categories such as the Fire Frost Fiend's fire affinity is about manipulating specific things such as heat, whereas kinetic affinity is about moving things such as air, stone or even my own body. Fire is a form of matter all on it's own, the fuel and the oxygen to burn, I can move things around to make things hotter but I cannot 'create fire' so much as 'set things on fire' in much the same way the Master's avatar does not create ice so much as freezes water. It was all so much fine minutia and terminology.
Through my studies I realised I had a second affinity: knowledge, magically conveying information. The finest example of this I can think of is the Master's 'Chat Group' in which they converse with one another, it was also how I could 'see' the books that I had been reading or 'hear' the conversations that I ease drop on. Perhaps if you combined 'knowledge & fire' it would tell you how hot or cold something is? Or Earth and Knowledge would tell you the history behind a stone work or who had walked along a path? I myself possess memories of before I was given sentience by the master, of a field of battle filled with gore and steel. That was another thing that I was learning: Magic was not fixed, it was the result of formula's construed through the use of raw mana which produces light as a by product, or shaped by our thoughts and voices.
Thus Knowledge was also an important component across the board of magic. Support was about internals, about manipulating the mana inside of your body to produce an effect such as increasing strength, healing and in the case of the master, creating creatures such as us inside of his dungeon, it can also be used negatively such as weakening a enemy or spreading death throughout their body, all magic starts from within, from your commands, even the act of carving a ritual circle in stone starts from intent, thus support is also a form of magic used across the board. Curse is more misleading, the books I've read have suggested alternatives such as Target or Limit, the concept being that you can narrow the effect of the spell to strengthen it's properties, say for instance you want to cast a spell on a entire battlefield but only want to target your enemies, by setting specific conditions that your enemy might unilaterally have such as skin colour, hair colour or eye colour the spell would exclude those who do not meet the requirements and only affect those who do. If a spell could be tuned perfectly to a specific individual it is said to become a curse, a permanent casting that can almost never be removed, a Dungeon Contract is a fine example of this.
Elemental affinities include a variety of different categories, earth, water, wind, fire, nature, metal, death, light, shadow and the list goes on and on. Most tantalising, there were six magics said to be of the 'divine category' from which it is said that all magic has been spawned: Space, Time, Soul, Gravity, Creation and Metamorphosis. Space and Time are relatively self explanatory, Soul is about manipulating spiritual elements, Gravity the attractive and repulsive force between objects, Creation Inorganic matter and Metamorphosis organic matter. These were said to be the magic of the gods, a watered down version was fed to the people of this plane and others. Dungeons were said to be the creation of the gods, to be more specific a god. A god who collects no prayers, has no followers, or at least none who he answers to nor answers to him, and thus far has not once been known to directly contact someone only leaving behind indirect messages. Strange. Moving on.
The Dark Continent, the Demon lord's territory, originally a disjointed mixture of demi-human races, undead and demon touched, but now? Now thanks to Leviathan all the information coming out of it is being cut off we know nothing about now.
I put the books back where I found them for another night and move on with my spying. This City's dungeon had many gods and many churches dedicated to those gods, Ratatoskr the God Messengers, Mab Goddess of the Small Things That Dwell in Shadows and there were others in this block dedicated to the churches. For now my priority is acquiring a list of these deities names, what blessings they can give and get the information back to the Keeper's dungeon. Next was the Black Smith's, in comparison to the three girls weapons the workmanship was about the same, but the materials were of a higher quality, and no wonder, dwarfs. Dwarfs as far as the eye can see crisscrossed this district.
I allowed my feeling of being generally impressed to set in before I moved onto the investigation into the Merchant's union where to my surprise I found more evolved, demi-humans this time. Raising a Demi-human through evolution is harder than one might think. It isn't just about taking an animal out onto the battlefield and having them slay monsters, evolution rarely provides something that wasn't there to begin with merely grows and expands on it. Yes Apas had Echidna's blessing, but she already had master's infrequent possession of her slowly drawing out and enhancing her intellect. It's much harder to raise an animal's intelligence via 'proper methods' thus it is a surprise to see so many Centaur's gathered here already, yet as my memory serves me horses are among the easiest to level on the battlefield. For a mount, the rider is treated as a weapon, their kills and power gained shared. The ones he saw here were being used to haul carriages, which sharply clashes with his memories.
The Centaur's of yore were treated as knight families themselves, each one of them carefully cultivated and bred as you would a prise stallion, they weren't common fodder to haul goods around. What exactly happened with this city? The Adventurer's guild and the bank would be my final stops, for tonight I had to investigate the castle, the entrance to the dungeon.
[You have Entered the Dungeon of Lithilas]
I felt an indescribable pressure from the statues, like the power of the divine itself was bearing down on me, I shot forward as fast as I could move myself.
"Well now isn't this a surprise." I screeched to a halt in front of the first floor's boss, a Squirrel of all creatures, The Messenger God Ratatoskr, or one of his kin. "And Here I thought that the Keeper would still be busy in whatever world he found himself in."
"Greetings Messenger." My time in the library bore many fruits indeed, the power to directly relay my thoughts and intentions in the form of words. "I am the Keeper's fourth floor boss, the Artefact Spirit Legion Leonaidas. I have come to your city riding in the loot bag of an adventurer, attempting to discern the guild's intentions towards my master."
"Yes I heard about the raid. My own lord has had his monsters express their disapproval." The Squirrel stated crossing his fore limbs and tapping a foot. "My Lord has long since admired the Adventurers for their wanderlust. The point is moot anyway, seeing the dungeons that connect to 'Helheim' as well. It is a wonder then when Adventurers became afraid to go to new places?" The Squirrel questioned no one in particular. "But to answer your question, the adventurers are not under My lord's control."
Which made sense to a degree. The Adventurer Guilds are less of an organised force and more of a loose knit alliance of thugs. My mind wandered back to memories not my own, when the kingdom has a threat they need to deal with they send the army, or if that's over kill parts of it. 'Adventurers' are little more than common thugs, violent idiots that if left to their own devices would run around causing no end of trouble and so have been organised into something useful, a massive hoard of disposable fools to toss into unknowns like dungeons and see what happens.
The mana in the floor swirled and coalesced like a new monster was being formed but I didn't sense the approach of life. Yet a figure appeared, not a monster but a human, a lithe adventurer walked forward dressed in loose clothes and light armour a sword hanging at his waist. The Dungeon Avatar. Not even the master's form was this well defined, and he skipped several steps by integrating an amorphous monster into himself. People told legends about this one 'the Lone Adventurer' a wounded warrior in the depths of the dungeon, always just ahead of the Adventurers progress, asking them about the dungeon, it's monsters or it's puzzles. It left the implications that there are people indirectly responsible for a lot of people getting hurt.
"What do you know about how the Keeper's doing?" The Young man asked looking at me suspiciously.
"Lord Lithilas." I tilted my body forward in an approximation of a bow. "Last that I knew, the Master has regained control of his body after the Giant Slayer and his cohorts conspired to expel him, sadly Lady Levi was defeated, but Lady Treyni finished her evolution in time to protect the master. The Giant Slayer was contracted and sent here to attempt to find information on the dark continent. Finally Lady Apas seems to be pregnant with the Master's child!" A cool breeze blew through the halls of the dungeon unto which Leonaidas's enthusiasm immediately died. The Dungeon Avatar raised his mana constructed hand to his face and let out a sigh.
"So that I understand this clearly, a monster, somehow fused directly into a Dungeon Heart, has managed to knock up one of its own contracted monsters?" Lord Lithilas's Avatar asked face twitching as he processed the implications.
"Quite Correct." I replied confused by what should be by all accounts a joyous occasion. "Your Master is a sorcerer's wet dream you know that right?" Lord Lithilas stated as he let out a sigh. "We're going to Keeper's dungeon. Is there Anything else you need to get while you're here?"
"I was going to investigate the bank and pick up one of the latest generation Bags of Holding." The ones that connect two separate spaces as opposed to the ones that the master uses which are bigger on the inside than the outside. "The Master seems fond of finding ways to weaponize them."
The Avatar gestured with his hand and one of the bags in question appeared next to him.
"The bank vault is part of one of my floors. Now let's go."
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[You Are Being Raided By Lithilas]
Somehow I don't think that is quite the right word. Still the little Squirrel was a thankful sight on the eve of war, I'd like a veteran's opinion on how the other dungeons are doing. But first: what's up with the sack?
Stolen story; please report.
"Your ring tells me you do horrifying things with the first generation bag of holding and he's now wondering if you will continue to do so with the others."
My Ring? To my surprise the Squirrel spat something out of his cheeks, which then floated up above him dripping slobber, a insignia ring. Leonaidas is that you?
"Quite. My efforts to infiltrate the adventurer's base of operations was quite fruitful. I have an extensive amount of information about different dungeons, gods that can or should be contracted and various potentially useful magics. Additionally-" Leonaidas did a loop around the bag. "-this an latest generation Bag of Holding."
The ones that connect to different bank vaults?
"Quite. Lithilas has one inside of his dungeon." You have brought me a portal that connects to another place inside of a different dungeon?
"What are you scheming now?" Lithilas's squirrel body took a step back.
Which is understandable considering I was the guy who nearly broke the system eating Leviathan. Loop Hole Abuse. I could hear the Squirrel groaning from down there. I took Squirrel Lithilas with me as we entered Helheim where the other cores were waiting around. A glowing cocoon of evolution slammed into Solarius's familiar form once again squashing her. Off to the side several cocoons had already been prepared, inside each of them was a different monster who had taken turns pushing boulders off the top of the tower. The Boulders were ingenious in their simplicity. One of my Skeleton Hands sealed inside of a boulder of Marble, pushed off the ledge of the top of the tower by a group of dungeon monsters with the intention of slamming it into Solarius's body. The Quetzal's spawn point was again wrapped in silks by my group of spider monsters as she reappeared trapped inside of it. The Effect of Giant Killer kicks in and applies its XP multiplier before dividing it up between myself, the hand and the monsters who pushed the rock and their dungeon. Alright that's enough for group H for now. I grabbed the evolution cocoon before it could beam Solarius again.
"You insolent whelp! I am a Godkin! How dare you treat me in this manner!"
Group I get into position with a new boulder. The Squirrel looked at the as if his brain had stopped working.
"What in the name of all that is sane are you doing?" Lithilas asked once his brain rebooted. I am taking broken malfunctioning monsters barely able to function properly and I am making them not suck! The fastest way to do that is to wring them through a few lines of evolution, so I set up an operation to abuse the tools I have been given with reckless abandon.
"And abusing the Sun God's kin in the process." The Nyarl, whom I had taken to calling Merlin, noted as he sat on the Genmu's back reading from a book. Do I hear volunteers to aid in the process? "I am but a humble Nyarl, lacking experience and so choose to defer to the wisdom of my elders."
Good lad.
"Exactly what kinds of horrors have you been breeding in this place?" Lithilas asked as he started sizing up the cocoons and the two high ranked monsters casually hanging out. They didn't leave me a choice. This one used to be a big tumour made out of turtle shell and snake meat. Those little undead birds over there were skeleton chickens. And this big huge Cocoon used to be a Spikey.
"The Heck's a Spikey?" Thank you for making my point for me! On that note the cocoon we were talking about popped. Ah she's done cooking.
[C Rank Monster Taraboon-A twisted Chimera of Ape and Spider, from the front it resembles a giant six limb baboon with four eyes, but from the back it looks like a giant four eyed Tarantula, though it has two heads it only has one brain and personality unlike certain other problematic monsters]
The System was starting to get snarky about all the creatures I've been making it seems. He wouldn't be the first double head I've had to deal with today. We watched as the giant monkey like creature unfolded, it's two heads looking around at it's surroundings, the Spider's front legs resembling giant scythes while both sides were brightly decorated with blood red markings like a baboon. I caught my own spiders looking at the creature enviously. I only have one question though. Which end does the dung come out of? I watched the spider head shoot of length of silk which it then skilfully manipulated until it resembled a tail swaying side to side. Huh. Good to know, go back to your own floor and wait for further instructions. The Taraboon nodded as he climbed onto the platform above and shuffled up the floors from the outside.
"How many times have you done this?" Lithilas asked looking at me concerned.
I have no idea, I just give the boulders to Archie and let him figure out what to do with them. Most of the cores probably have enough points to breach back into the mortal plain by now, except for Solarius's creator here, to be fair she might be able to do something with Giant Killer if I let her take a shot at one of the other B Ranks. But that is a moot point. Lithilas tell me, can these bags of holding transport living beings. Lithilas pondered the question for a moment.
"People stick their hands through to pull out whatever is on the other side, so if they couldn't there would be a problem. There is however the issue of sending through anything big enough to be useful." Lithilas stated as he saw me forming my evil plan.
Perfect! Now I just need to talk to Graves and we can launch our assault on Lucifer's dungeons. And then the ground picked that time to start shaking, I could feel someone poking at me in the Chat Room, which probably means...
The Zombie came running out of Grave's dungoeon.
"Keeper, we have a problem!"
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[Mission: Consume one hundred Hel alligned cores 100/100]
Finally. I should probably thank the Keeper when this is all over, I wouldn't have access to so many cores to eat if he didn't decide to crack open so many dungeons with that little artificial meteor of his, and I got a little something extra out of it too. Tch. No still gonna eat him.
[Breach in Progress]
Even though it says that, in reality old Lucifer is just punching open a hole that was clogged up once already, this wasn't tearing a hole through reality, this was popping the cork. Luckily I still had that bloody bag the Keeper threw at me, one that I was now positioning the impending breach directly under. Partially dissolve the bag so that it'll expel its contents into the other side once it's through and... done. The Bag fell through the breach I created and was spat out the other side, it's damaged and partially dissolved form rapidly deteriorated and the bag explosively released all of it's contents at once. Suddenly a massive mountain was released into the mortal plane, and I entered my new dungeon.
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I observed through my drilled eye holes the massive mountain that had just appeared in the bay of the dungeon. I recognised the stone even though I've never seen it before, a massive stone sphere that I created using mana, how did it get here though? I also look through the drilled eyes of the Tower in Helheim, and saw several blocks of stone reconfiguring themselves back into a familiar stone ship.
[Dungeon Keeper: I don't have any other artificial meteors to through at him, even if I did based on what I'm looking at on my side I don't think it's a good idea]
The Giant stone egg started to crack, it's pieces falling away to reveal several metal constructs, in the shape of ships. Lovely, Leviathan just breached back into reality again and I have no exploits to telefrag him again. Fire? No that won't work either, by the looks of things he's rebuilt his fleet from the ground up for fire proofing. I may have to take extreme measures to save myself.
"What kinds of extreme measures?" Lithilas asked looking concerned.
Discard three quarters of my body extreme.
I started by dissolving the bag of holding, learning the intricacies of its magic and how I could duplicate them or twist them to suit my needs. I see. I need to get into touch with Charles and start- I watched several spears of flame hit the ships closest to land. Looks like he already figured it out. Thing! Treyni! Time to go on the offensive! Thing's arms bent around to take aim at Leviathan with open palms, Treyni's trees released several spells at once releasing a shimmering aura to restrain the ships even as more of the stone fell away from them and the ships themselves started to drift into the ocean. I already felt the people from the town flooding into my fourth floor. Leonaidas, I need you to go down to the Fourth floor and Evacuate everyone into the first as fast as possible.
"At once!" The ring immediately zipped off to the fourth floor.
"So you were serious about having to shed off three of your floors?" Lithilas asked sounding suspicious. Corr-Augh! I felt something tugging at me. Levi's Soul? My Chimera slime was still in the process of reviving, but originally the souls that would fuse together to become hers were Leviathan's contracts, by the sounds of things he was trying to get them back. Archie! I need you to prepare for Leviathan's raid!
"Leviathan can't raid you with me here." Lithilas stated bluntly. "Two parties can't raid the same dungeon, not unless I give my permission and we become the same party. But it also means that you can't raid him."
Leviathan held firmly in place by Treyni's debuffs, I had Thing open fire on the enemy ships with his rail guns. I'm fine with that arrangement. I focused on the branches connecting Thing to Treyni, I didn't need much to make this work in theory, a Small tunnel would be enough. I built from both sides, a small tunnel of Treyni's branches and Thing's bones, lining the inside of the tunnel was the bag of holding that Lithilas had given to me connecting the two ends of the hallway together in a portal.
"Are you planning to-?"
Thing wouldn't be able to move very well like this, he needed legs. Archie, Saphee I need you two to prepare a means of locomotion for Thing, legs preferably. Luckily, the magic from my dungeon has been seeping into the city for months. In theory we should be able to reconfigure the Marble into Legs with a great deal of ease.
In the streets below people were being evacuated while others fought. Charles was leading the counter attack as he slammed spears of fire into the metal plates of the emerging ships while lightning cackled through the air.
"Fire isn't working as well as it used to, prepare to-" Then the sky opened up. The clouds circled above and lightning charged the sky. A god of Storms. Leviathan was regrowing his existing ships, but they weren't the same as before, he might not be contracting the same gods that he use to, or their boons are different. The Lightning from Keeper's rail guns was absorbed into the storm.
"What do we do?" The Tidecaller stated using a staff for support.
"What can we do? Evacuate the rest of the city, my people and yours." Charles stated letting out a sigh. "The City is lost."
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[Mission: Kill the Dungeon Keeper]
[Mission: Kill the Dungeon Keeper]
[Mission: Kill the Dungeon Keeper]
My Gods of Water had not forgotten the embarrassment of having their domains stolen, they couldn't get back at Hades and Oceanus, but they could give me tailor made blessings for killing Keeper. Ah well. It's just a thirty for one deal anyway. I was almost free of the stone anyway, but I had run out of space to regrow my ships. No matter, I heard Lucifer cackling in the back of my mind as he released his freezing cold across the bay and the water froze solid. I love that guy. I hollowed out the ice and let the shells of my ships take form. Suddenly I felt the ground shaking. Where were my contracted monsters they should've been respawned by now? I can't look at what is happening outside with my own eyes. I focused my attention on my reforming Gargoyles. They'd do.
Through the eyes of Charybis's gargoyle I saw the mountain had changed form, like a giant boney skeleton had formed around a tree in the middle of it, that bastard Dungeon Keeper's doing no doubt. The mages of the city were continuously bouncing their pitiful attacks off of my hull, I let them. That's Mythril you fools, thanks to that blasted volcano shooting it at me in molten form I've got plenty. The buildings of the budding dungeon city formed three legs as the entire thing was lifted into the air, the bolts of lightning discarded as the undead trampled over the forest to get away. As I questioned what was going on I saw a tree where the mountain used to be. A Tree that was doubtlessly grown from my ships when this bastard somehow transported his dungeon on top of me. I am going to rip that tree out of the ground and use it as kindling! Several spears emerged from the sides of my ships aimed at the enemy dungeon.
Fire!
The Spears in question were fired out of the ships and harpooned themselves onto the tree. Now as soon as my Vassals reappear I can begin to- Suddenly a massive armoured fish like creature jumped out of the water and clamped down with it's jaws resembling some kind of rainbow material on the chains and bit them apart. I felt a connection to the creature as I realised where my Vassals had gone. Obey me you third rate-
"No!"
The creature swelled like a puffer fish and slammed water into my hull, and I felt the water freezing inside of me, then boil, then freeze. So it was attacking the structural integrity of my hull. Very well. I will retreat for now Keeper, but before I do, I will leave behind a parting gift for your monsters that you stole from me. Enjoy. And then I heard the enemy dungeon scream.