Charles was sitting in the underground fortress alongside his neighbour in the Dungeon Keeper. Not too far away the scribe was busily painting something as other people worked on building up more of the fortress. The Dungeon Keeper of course was wearing his new Avatar form like a suit.
"So you're really selling the idea that this Ifrit is your dungeon avatar?" Admittedly my fiery avatar was looking a little more dim than usual, after I walked off my drawbridge thinking that I could fly, and it turned out I couldn't. I didn't know how. "You do understand that Avatar's aren't supposed to be able to leave their dungeon right?"
"I just wanted to go outside! Is that so bad!? I've been inside for weeks!" My complaints went unanswered.
"Build a staircase for your dungeon then." Charles stated as if it was obvious. "Either that or lessons on how to use that body." The Scribe clapped his hands twice to get the group's attention and then proceeded to turn around the painting that he had been working on. It closely resembled a coat of arms, but it was splayed with the image of a griffin.
"If that's supposed to be Apas, then you should know that she might be getting an upgrade soon, the Blessing I just got included Sphinx form for her as part of the deal." The Scribe looked like he could cry. Picking up the beautiful painting he looked at it one last time before raising it above his knee.
"It's not appropriate to paint your girlfriend's tits all over our shields and banners, no matter how much the men would like to look at them. We're sticking with the Griffin iconography." The Scribe jumped over and hugged Charles with his arms and legs in an expression of sheer joy, he pushed the man off of him.
"My list of monsters says that I got a griffin Schema, I'll be able to start producing them in a bit more time." Whenever I get brought up to making D Rank Monsters.
"We might just ask you to do that. At that time we'll bring some mares over to begin producing offspring with them." Winged horses for him and the men to fly around in battle. I could get behind that.
"What do you know about the Scorpion of the North?" I asked looking at the knight before me with interest. "My sponsor told me to destroy it."
"Dangerous, that's what it is. Are you sure you didn't pick the right sponsor?" Charles asked looking at the Dungeon.
"Picking a fight with Leviathan isn't dangerous?" I asked suspiciously.
"Yes it is. The Scorpion probably refers to a group of slave dealers who work up north, their symbol is the manticore, head of a human, body of a lion, scorpion tail." Ah yes, a fusion of the three deadliest animals on the planet. Well no not really... my head hurts. "They mainly deal in non-humans."
"Which may tie into the other half of the request that she gave me, building a demi-human city." Which would be difficult mostly because I didn't know what that means.
"Demi-humans is a catch all term for sapient non-human races. Human, Elves and Dwarfs were all created by using a purely human template, I come from the base species, Elves and Dwarfs from attempts to improve upon them through the same system of evolution that your monsters go through." Charles explained in simple terms.
"Did they? Improve upon them I mean?" I asked my human ally.
"There are pros and cons. Longer life spans, improved physical ability, greater magical power. But they lose out in one aspect: Fertility and growth. An Elf or Dwarf will age at one tenth the rate a human does, and that includes growing into adulthood, a female human ovulates once a month, an Elf or Dwarf once a year." To Charles the message was clear. 'If you want to have a family go stay safe behind your walls with the rest of the rabble. The rest of you, grind.' "But demi-humans are different. As opposed to 'a type of human' and demi-human is 'a monster that has acquired human features.'"
"Like the manticore? Or the monsters in Jewel's dungeon?" That's why Echidna tried to give Jewel a sponsorship, a city of human monster hybrids is popping up over there thanks to her antics but that just warrants more questions. "A city? Is that why she's zeroed in on me?"
"Perhaps." Charles stated bluntly. "We both know that you're not a normal dungeon. Most dungeons act according to a predetermined set of instincts determined by what the first thing they ate was. If you were a 'normal' dungeon that honour would probably go to all this limestone around here, which probably would mean that you would turn into a undead obsessed lunatic like that Consecrated Mass Grave. That though does raise the question of what the first thing you ate was."
"Ain't that a pretty private question?" I was legitimately put off by the question.
"Not really, most of them wear it on their proverbial shirts like a name tag." Charles replied tapping his finger.
"I'm not." I stated as I tried to act offended.
"Fine then." Charles looked over the area, the roof was being put on the base as they spoke, adding the last line of defence to this base in the process, at least for now. "After we're finished securing the roof there's the matter of the rest of the defences to deal with the stampede." With the matter of their bunker dealt with they would have to start expanding on their defences soon enough. Especially the ones for dealing with Leviathan and the Stampede they kept expecting any day now, and eventually killing the 'Scorpion' that Echidna told him to get rid of. "I've got ideas set for the second floor boss. The stronger my monsters get the worse that we can screw over Leviathan when it gets into range, the question here is should I try and come up with a water level somehow?"
"Fighting Leviathan in its own territory?" Charles looked like he legitimately thought the idea to be mad.
"Well I guess that's to be expected." I said in reply. "I do have an idea for specialists to use against that guy." Which is what led me to the next topic.
"Getting magic books out here is expensive." Charles stated as one of his people carried in a stack of books that I had asked about, books covering earth magic and necromancy. "I hope your man is able to put this to good use." According to Graves Archie already has materials that put him on pair with a high grade Lich, the key most item that he needs to advance his evolution is knowledge, which these books should cover. "And your second floor boss?"
I also had ideas on how to advance my second floor as well, the two key pieces that I would need though is the evolved form of my strongest possible tree, the Red wood, and the Blessing of a specific god that I had set my sights on. But first I would have to fill a out a massive 100 000 point requirement. This wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be, disconnect the two Monster eggs that I had wandering about my first floor, fill out the meters for all of my tree monsters and now the full power of the points from Archie's grinding was going into the red wood.
"We're half way there." We're halfway there from two weeks of grinding. "What about on your end?" One Charles people came in carrying the Ocean slime pack I loaned them, one of them reached inside and pulled out a cement foot print that they had made that was bigger than most of the men here.
"Despite the best efforts of our people to erase your Griffin soon to be Sphinx's trail..." It would seem that she's still drawing in monsters.
"Is she even compatible with something like this?" I asked indicating the fossil.
"No but in the same way that there are monsters compatible with yours that's being drawn in, there's also creatures that prey on them that are being drawn in too." An alarm bell started to ring out. "Speaking of which." Charles went to man his station, I went back into my dungeon.
Another supply carriage was rapidly approaching the dungeon fortress, being chased by a creature resembling a lion. Archie was already getting ready, it took a very specific skill set to play spotter for blind archers, a set of eyes on the outside of the mountain, grafted directly to a set of binoculars to increase the range he could see. Light crystal attached to a specialised red tinted convex glass to focus the light into a beam that Archie was able to see with spotting the lion like creature that was trying to run down the carriage. Getting the timing perfect, directing the Archer's aim, and the moments just before the lion came into range, the shot was released, the arrow flew through the sky and the monster was brought down.
[Dungeon Keeper 135/200]
[Giant Slayer lvl 2 3/5]
Luckily the foot traffic has been attracting creatures like this for a while now. With Giant Slayer even F-ranks yield eight points worth of points divided between myself and my monsters. Trying to accelerate Apas's evolution she's been spending most of her time at Lithilas's place grinding for points, at Charles suggestion no less, though it was also a matter of hoping that she would stop attracting so many monsters to the area. No matter.
"Lion. It doesn't even have the common decency to be edible." Charles grumbled as he directed his men to dump the creature into my dungeon again.
I don't reanimate all of them these days, Archie already has his hands full reanimating the monsters that we were grinding points off of while he was studying necromancy. So instead of acquiring schema's I couldn't use or monsters that i had no where to put, I continued to develop my floors, thus I created a river slime to run through my second floor, and when I reach deep enough to connect to the ocean I'll attach the river slime directly to the ocean to start pumping water into my first floor. For now, Leviathan is drawing near. Charles prepared a war room in the base where he was tracking it's movements via reports from the places Leviathan visited. The some of it was that Leviathan would attack other fleets, not to destroy, but to add to his own, that was how he increases his number of dungeon floors, when he doesn't just rip the dungeons out of the ground and drag them behind him that is. I shudder to imagine what kind of hell that monster has been brewing down there. Time was being bought, but not much, I'd like to at least have my second floor boss to fight with before they get here. For now, lets see what the Chat group has to say.
[Lithilas: Maxing out Giant killer is a good idea, you'll rack up experience points faster that way]
[Dungeon Keeper: Your dungeon is taking too long old man, Apas is C Rank, we aren't going to get any Giant slaying done down there, not until we hit the forties according to you]
[Lithilas: There's benefit to fighting additional monsters as well. Your Griffin is starting to get the attention of the gods of my Dungeon]
Well, it's not like large flying type monsters are common in tight underground spaces. Still my first floor already has its sponsor.
[Dungeon Keeper: What about the Scorpion?]
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
[Jewel: They make... attempts to acquire wares from my dungeon and the surroundings, at times breeding them themselves, others stealing them away from those who have]
Not everyone was suitable for the title of nobility, Jewel's territory was only a little over 20 years old after all, by the laws put in place do to the agreements between Jewel and her humans only the hybrids would be considered nobility in her 'Bejewelled City' not their normal full blooded parents. Some people would sooner sell off the child produced in the process than accept nobility in a city state less than a generation old, doubly so if they find themselves with... spares to give away. Naturally Jewel has been cracking down on it but there was a limit to what she could accomplish. It's not like the people she's hunting runs around waving a manticore flag everywhere that they go after all. Speaking of which Apas appeared back in my dungeon, flag and the pole it was attached to in her beak.
[Dungeon Keeper: Think they're coming over soon? I can send Apas over to wreck them]
[Dungeon Keeper: I mean she can exit the dungeon proper right? Right Lithilas?]
[Lithilas: Yes that's right. Graves put together your contracts as well, all three of us will prepare our forces to deal with these... pests]
[Would you Like to Raid Dungeon "Bejewelled Concubine's Mirror?" Yes/No]
[Yes]
[Designated Raid Leader: Contracted Monster Apas the Griffin]
[Transporting in 3. 2. 1.]
----------------------------------------
Apas was once again back inside of the Jewel's dungeon and she wasn't alone. Graves contracted seemed to consist of various priests from it's order of the white flame, Lithilas's looked like a gang of knights, and had considerably more as well. The Priests began contacting their divinities to comb the city state, Lithilas began with a blanket search of the area, but Me? I abused my advantages and flew into the air to comb the entire area. Dungeon mana has a unique scent to it, tells you about what your dealing with. Graves was old and musty, Lithilas smelled like dried bricks, The Keeper was a mixture of scents, the first floor smelled of sea air, the second of the forest, Jewel smelled like the hot desert. Unsurprisingly, the Jewel's dungeon stuck out of the desert area like a giant needle facing the sky, she probably served as the only source of resources out here in this damned place, and her first six floors were dedicated to procreation, what other buildings that were here were all laced with her mana indicating that it was built using resources from the dungeon.
It was Jewel's own fault if you ask her, the only resource that she was offering her delvers were the some what powerful children that she helped them to manufacture, so of course that is what they would be selling off as well. The question here was a matter of where does she find them? If the enemy forces are moving away from the dungeon then she should be looking for a large concentration of Jewel Dungeon mana outside of the confines of the city proper. This might take some time to find. A pause. Scorpion of the North. Last she checked no one actually said that was what their name was, so instead it could be a hint on how to find them, a group who operates in the north. For now Apas flew back to the rest of the people leading the search for answers.
It is said that dead men tell no tales, unless your a necromancer, then the world's your blasphemous oyster. Thanks to Graves they weren't short on necromancers, Blasphemous? Maybe, but when you have people getting killed to separate them from their families desperate times means desperate measures. Apas landed as one of the Knights under Lithilas finished speaking with one of Graves Priests, the dead body that they had just raised had been put back to rest after giving them all the information he could about who had taken his daughter. Nearby a artist finished creating pictures of the men that were responsible, now they would ask around trying to figure out which way they had went or see if they can dig up information on what location they had gone to. They hadn't done this just once or twice either, they brought every person who died a suspicious death, any one who left family behind that now can't be contacted, and brought them in for interrogation and reanimation. Sheer numbers sorting through cases that had been taking the area's dedicated peace keepers and adventurers month's to solve.
"CAW!" The others looked up at Apas who was adding her own two cents on the matter.
"Something you want to add?" Apas knocked over a nearby stand with which the group was planning their strategy meeting and stuck a single talon into the northern part of the map. "'Scorpion of the North.'" The Knight tapped his finger as he recalled the information given to him. "If it's a hint it's not a subtle one." But that doesn't mean that it's not worth looking into.
So the forces of the four dungeons rallied together, deciding on a plan of attack. Dungeons can't sense other dungeons before they gain sapience, they don't show up on the radar, but if a contracted monster gets close enough, establishes a connection, if there was another dungeon in the north and Jewel can send one of her contracted monsters there to find it then she might be able to establish a connection and send people on a raid, and if she goes on a raid then we can join her on that raid. But not right now, all of the individuals being sent over here has exhausted the leylines of power so for now they should return to their own dungeons.
----------------------------------------
For now my attention was on my own house. My second floor had four rooms, one dedicated to spiders where their silk was being gathered together and used to weave sheets of silk which would then be shaped and glued together using the sap of my trees as a binding agent to make body armour. Armour that was now seeing use by my Gnolls. Using weapons provided as loot from my dungeon diving adventures my Hyena's were now practising close quarters combat, they would be part of my boarding party when we went to fight Leviathan, if it came to it that is, I was hoping it wouldn't. I couldn't duplicate loot I got from the other dungeons so for now they had to stick with this hodgepodge of equipment and hope that they got some unique evolutions out of it. For now my third room, my wolf room, where I kept a plethora of wolves for the express purpose of breeding with the Dogs that Charles would bring to me and use them as fodder to help fight against the monsters wandering around the neighbourhood passively giving me mana, in eight more month's when they would be born, probably a year after that when they would actually be useful.
Next there was my fourth room, where my river of slime began. I had the slime rise up and breach the first floor connecting to the pond room and letting the fish from above fall down and live inside of itself. Now there was just my fifth room to contend with, the boss room, situated directly under my red wood this particularly massive tree's large roots were hanging from the ceiling, tangling with the other roots in the dungeon from my various Treants. Thus far each of my rooms on this floor featured the themes of multiple organisms working together, the wolves with Charles dogs, the Slime and my other aquatic creatures, the Spiders and the weavers that were making their silks into cloth and armour, the Gnolls who were working together with each other. Symbiosis, which hopefully means that I'm getting the attention of that twin god from the Mimic dungeon, Castor/Pullox. Because of his blessing that the boss in the hedge maze from the Mimic mansion was able to assimilate the surrounding bushes and grow into a C Rank threat, I bet I can get a similar power up for my boss.
[Red Wood Tree 50000/100000]
Just as soon as I can get their power up to a level where they can evolve. Archie?
"Yes Master?"
How do we accelerate the tree's monsterisation?
"Perhaps if we could include pieces from an already evolved plant type monster to reanimate and fuse into the tree proper?"
Wait that's all we have to do? What about the two headed staff, can we use that?
"Master I am not quite sure if that is how this works. Would that not be the same as handing control over the second floor to another?"
Do it!
"As you wish master." Archie put a feather book mark into the tome he was reading and took the staff up to the tree room. With the help of the Gnolls one of the branches was cut off from the red wood leaving behind a sharp point, a similar cut was made into the base of the staff and the two were joined together, as a added layer of security dirt and a silk bandage was wrapped around the grafted tree branch. From there Archie used his magic to reanimate the staff and let it join the tree until a new notification appeared.
[Red Wood Tree/Blood Letting Bush has met the conditions for a conjoined evolution]
I love how my brain works sometimes.
[3 Potential evolution's have been unlocked]
[D Rank Monster Red Wood Dryad-When a tree reaches the age of over 100 years it has the potential to spawn a nature spirit known as a Dryad who embodies spring, the spirit cannot leave a 100 foot radius around it's tree of birth but within that 100 foot radius it is able to control all plant life, the particularly large source tree of this particularly hardy Dryad extends this range to over 1000 meters]
Which makes her more than sufficient for fulfilling my needs on my second floor. Hell I bet I could get her to take control of the forest outside too.
[D Rank Monster Blood Letting Leshen-Where nature is disrupted either through a naturally occurring disaster or by the hands of settlers this Spirit of Autum appears to destroy the source of the disturbance. Is able to rally all the animals within a 100 foot radius and summon roots to strike anywhere that it can see. Due to the unique Properties of Blood Letting Bush these roots drain the health of the creatures caught in their roots and replenishes the Leshen's blood supply]
Well that would take care of the monster problem, but it's not what I'm aiming for. Let's have a look at the last one.
[D Rank Schema Blood Red Treant-A Treant born of a particularly massive Tree, due to its origins it's gained a particularly aggressive and blood thirsty demeanor]
Welp that settles it.
[Red Wood Dryad Selected]
Lights emerged from my tree and settled down into the form of a woman wearing large knee length boots and with tree root like toes that were wiggling around like toes as well as large wooden gauntlets complete with fully functional fingers Bearing the twisted faces of Castor and Pollux, her human like private areas were all covered up using large leaves from the red wood. Her hair was long and a bright red, like the leaves watered with blood.
"Good to meet you Master." The Dryad bowed before me. Meet me in the room below us. "Of course master." The Dryad was pulled into the tree, on the floor below she was lowered onto the ground where we met once more.
[Make Unnamed Red Wood Dryad Boss? Yes/No]
I immediately hit the yes button however something else happened too.
[Please name Red Wood Dryad]
Well, I suppose that was only logical. Hmm. Treyni, you are Treyni. A swirl of mana surrounded Treyni and the tree that she came from infusing them both with raw power.
[Treyni the Red Wood Dryad is now the Boss of your Second Floor]
Which means that there was just on finishing touch left. If Treyni is the centre piece of this place, then she should be treated like one. The Ancient Forest.
As before I was sucked out of my dungeon and into a realm of moving constellations. I zeroed into one in particular, one with two heads and three arms. I got a feeling I knew why Castor/Pollux had two names, because they were also two people who shared one body. Castor looked remarkably human, like a middle aged man, one who was wearing a toga while he clipped the branches of a bonsai tree, his brother Pollux on the other hand was stunted and shrivelled, sticking out of his brother's side eating from a bowl of nuts with his one arm.
"I find it strange that you're asking us for a favour, considering that you destroyed our boss once already." Castor stated paying attention not to me but his project.
But I was so impressed with its power your worship.
"Your Griffin threw dust in it's face and blew it up." Pollux retorted bluntly.
Only because the Mystery mansion gave you such poor resources to work with, I know that given better materials you are capable of so much more!
"Half of the materials are from the Mansion that you destroyed!" Castor snapped bluntly.
Only because I am in a hurry your greatness, the enemy is at the gate as it were, Leviathan will soon be at my dungeon.
"And why would we give our blessing to a dungeon that's soon to be destroyed?"
Because I intend to defeat it.
Both of the heads turned to face me, Castor's pruning sheers snapped shut.
"You, intend to defeat The Pirate Fleet Leviathan, a A Ranked monster, which to clarify means a being that can threaten an entire continent." The gardener indicated himself and his parasitic twin with his sheers. "With our blessing? I don't exactly know if you're aware of this but we're not exactly war gods you know."
You say that, but even those pruning shears your using right now can be quite lethal if you put your minds to it.
"...fine fine! Is the same blessing that we gave to that so called mystery mansion okay?"
That is what I was hoping for your worship.
[Blessing of Castor/Pollux: Link together all the plant-life on your floor together in a unified hive consciousness. Secondary form for your Boss monster]
[Objective: Kill Pirate Fleet Leviathan]
[Accept Yes/No?]
[Yes]
Thank you your-
"Begone." And with that I returned to my dungeon.
Already I felt a change in the air as every tree in my dungeon were all linked together in one massive creature, from my archery Treants to even the trees that were sticking outside of the mountain. But that wasn't all, the light of evolution wrapped Treyni once more, as if waiting for my input. Well don't mind if I do.
[D Rank Schema Blood Letting Leshen...]
[D Rank Schema Blood Red Treant...]
Well it's not like I plan for them to go far from the dungeon anyway.
[D Rank Schema Blood Letting Leshen Selected]
Treyni suddenly grew larger, gone was the delicate female form and in it's place was a hulking brute made entirely out of wood, fused into it's right arm was a two headed staff and in lieu of a head was a fascimily of a deer's skull carved entirely out of wood. Oh wow, that is impressive, but what happened to the other one. And just like that, the beast was gone, shrunk down and turned back into Treyni who was now wearing a priestess robe. Welcome to the dungeon Treyni!