Fending off a Griffin was a different story than trying to fend off a group of weak F-Rank monsters. Even taking away the Griffin's biggest advantage with the low ceiling of the second floor they still had an affinity for wind magic that they had to deal with. Arrows were turned away with passive wind magic, the gates were torn down using brute strength.
"Lahire!"
The issue here came from the merry bomber and his fire magic. Apas spread her wings, all the air in the room was pulled together and being fed to her for oxygen. The Goblins on the other hand suffocated. Slowly the XP bar, temporary name, started to fill up, splitting between Apas and myself, each goblin would only be worth about one point of XP, but there were a bunch of them.
"Boss."
Apas's attention was on the room that had a market styled tent attached to the top, After only three rooms though? I see two paths set up to either side of us, we're going to investigate both. For our first pick, we found a small lake, being fed water by a small waterfall. Inside were fish, attempting to climb the falls with a bucket next to the water.
We're taking the bucket with us, Filled with water, let's give the sea food some place where we can breed them for passive mana gains.
Apas licked her lips in appreciation and used her beak to pick up the bucket and dunk it in water filling it.
Porter Team!
A single Giant Wasp flew over, landed on the bucket, and went back to our dungeon. Next was to figure out what was in the next room over. And the end result of our investigation was... a bar. We opted to ignore that, it was probably full of traps, not for customers, for people who try to leave without paying, when I get my own bar set up I'll rig it that way. Now onto the boss of the next floor! Pressing our front paws onto the door the way opened for us.
"I thought I smelled fresh blood." We were greeted by the sight of a goblin, however that didn't last for long, his body immediately bulked up as if being inflated like a balloon, armour formed around him and a massive halberd appeared in his hands.
[D Ranked monster: Ogre-A ferocious Hobgoblin warrior who through many battles has evolved into a larger and stronger form able to send mere flying with the most casual swing of his weapon]
From a nearby wall a shadow oozed and from that blob a monster was formed, a pitch black bear.
[D Rank Monster: Black Bear-A Ferocious bear who has gained the power to move through, attack through and hide inside of Shadows]
Well now this is new.
"So you summoned the bear. That's roughly average for newly established cores I'm afraid to inform you." Ogre hopped onto the back of the bear as he looked down at us.
'Average' you say? I can live with being average. Take them down.
Apas screeched as she utilised her signature technique, sucking all the oxygen from the room and extinguishing the flames in the torches around the room.
"We'll call that fatal mistake number 1."
The room was plunged into darkness, and the bear struck. The entire room slammed down on us like the jaws of a great angry beast, and then we were back in the dungeon again.
Apas was still in the process of being respawned, in the mean time I went to one of my empty rooms and made a hole, not deep enough to break through to the floor below, at least not yet, and I filled it with water. I had my fish and other kinds of bones brought over and dumped into the water and Archie reanimated the lot of them for me. For now I'll save them for dinner for Apas, if I have to go to an underwater dungeon I'll have them named but until then, this was the better allotment of resources. Speaking of resources I looked to my XP bar.
[10/100]
So in other words, we just have to do that 18 more times. Fewer if we can kill the boss the next time around.
[Mana 12/300]
[Mana 20/300]
Unlike Apas, the hundreds of F Ranked monsters in my dungeon didn't have dramatic Mana bonuses but there was mana being built up to the point that they even exceeded what she was capable of by herself. For now I went back to the Chat room.
[Dungeon Keeper: So I need to come up with ideas about who I'm going to pick for my first floor's patron, ideas ladies and gents?]
[Graves: You have one of your floors expanded to that level already?]
[Dungeon Keeper: No, but rather than going back and remaking my floors I am the type who'd rather just get them right in the first place and be done with it. How about you Graves. You started out with one of your floors already consecrated right?]
[Graves: Of course! I was born to the patron of the Order of the White Flame!]
Ah fire and religious titles. This'll end well.
[Graves: However for attracting the most visitors I recommend the Glory]
[Dungeon Keeper: "The Glory?"]
[Graves: Of course! The blessing she gave me allows me to resurrect Adventurers who have been killed in my Dungeon! Without fear of death Adventurers from all over the continent flock to me!]
Well, it's not like I don't understand the feeling, I'm going to be applying a similar strategy soon enough in raiding Lithilas.
[Dungeon Keeper: Who else, Jewel mentioned six or seven before Lithilas contacted me]
[Graves: Ah then you've heard of Pluto yes?]
[Dungeon Keeper: I thought you got all your bling from trading with Jewel?]
[Graves: Jewel made a contract with "God of Wealth" Pluto, I made a contract with 'God of Death' Pluto]
[Dungeon Keeper: There's a difference?]
[Graves: Blessings are tailor made to the one who is going to receive them, a blessing that eliminates or weakens undead might be welcomed in another dungeon but not mine, both Jewel and I have made a contract with the goddess of love and death Cliodona, the Glory, Jewel got Schema's for undead who had 'eternally preserved beauty' whereas I got the blessing that lets me resurrect people who have died in my dungeon thereby reuniting the dead loved ones with the ones still alive]
Without the awkward dying in-between part, I presume. I still can't believe there are people so vain that they turned themselves into an undead.
[Dungeon Keeper: Well right now my first floor is shaping up to be a breeding ground for different monsters, one of the gods of fertility isn't a bad option]
I mused to myself on the subject.
[Graves: Aside from Pluto and Cliodono I also recommend Anubis, a deity of death tasked with judging the weight of mortals upon death]
A god of weight loss?
[Dungeon Keeper: What does he do with the fat ones?]
[Graves: What he judges is not the physical body, but how much the soul is weighed down by sins. Those who exceed a certain threshold have their heart torn out and eaten by him, thereby sentencing them to never reincarnate]
[Dungeon Keeper: And I want this inside my dungeon because?]
[Graves: He granted my undead the power to regenerate]
Well that's one way of doing it. Course aside from Archie, Thing and the Wisps I don't have any undead to speak of, I really probably should though considering this whole mountain is basically begging to be turned into one.
[Dungeon Keeper: Thank you for your suggestions everyone]
A few moments later and Apas appeared in my core room and made a show out of stretching out like the giant lazy cat that she was.
[Dungeon Keeper: I'm off to raid Lithilas again fellas, wish me luck]
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And thus the master disappeared, alongside the great Devourer Apas. Once again the master has left me, the Archaeologist in charge of this dungeon.
[Mana 150/300]
Not a vast amount, but I've worked with less. Once more I feed the mana into the mountain, as I have been doing constantly with the left over mana that is generated by the Devourer and all the other monsters living here combined. I do not have the power for a true evolution, not yet, but I am working on it. The Mountain is covered in deposits of fossils the master has yet to awaken, I already led him to the prime choices, now that we have a proper water room I even revive the great crocodile to feast on the flesh there. Do not crush the bones and shells you mindless brute, we have a need for them. I seek out the pockets of flesh across the mountain, of the creatures that have already been resurrected, each day my influence across the mountain grows. Each time a creature is reborn it suffocates, suffocates under the influence of limestone that is under my power, killing monsters under the Master's control doesn't promote his strength any, but us killing each other, promoting our own strength? There's endless potential there. What would I do if I took this power for myself! The stone I could shape, the creatures I could bring to life! Sadly it is not meant to be, the master thus far has not shown any interest in promoting my own strength beyond the usefulness in strengthening others. And so that is what I have been doing. I've reanimated but a few branches in the nest, rooted them to be one with the mountain and wrapped their leaves around the eggs, upgrading it so that strength may be fed to the young ones inside of the eggs, their forms unconfirmed, for the time being, but power is being fed to them, millions of years of evolution guiding them down the path to obtain more power. And they are not the only one either. The trees are also being fed with power, processes that would take hundreds of years are currently occurring in the span of mere hours. Candidates will abound for the first floor boss, a position that I will happily concede as it means I will obtain a shot at the second floor boss position and the even greater power it promises, and even that I will concede for the right to the third floor boss, and the fourth, fifth, for the longer my talents are polished the stronger and stronger I shall become. But as I've said, my power is for the master to decide. Even Now I sense his return.
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Wiping out the Goblin camp netted myself another five points for growth, and another five for Apas. I have no idea what god or goddess I have to bribe for 'Instancing' but whoever it is I want their number.
"You again." It seemed like the alternate versions of the boss or whatever it was at least communicated with each other, as I once again watch the same goblin turn into a Ogre and a bear slowly emerge from the nearby wall. I find it odd that they proceed with the theatrics instead of just appearing before his opponents in this configuration. "I would've thought you learned your lesson from the last time." I learned not to plunge the shadow monster into a room full of darkness.
So instead we charged, the ogre swung his weapon and we dodged to the side, then the bear paw flew out from the shadow and four claws were rammed through our chest, disappeared as soon as they came out the other side leaving a large gaping hole in our chest and then we died again.
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Apas spoke to me on the way out, she wanted a break from dying over and over and I couldn't disagree with her, ten more points under our individual belts so we'll be taking a break for a while. Even without waiting for Apas to respawn it's better to scout the area around my dungeon for a while, and maybe prepare defences for my dungeon, I should see if I can steal some of the old man's turrets the next time that I'm over there, but what would I operate them with? Food for thought. For now though I need to worry about my own house.
[Dungeon Keeper: So does anyone have a read on a Adventurer's guild and what the story about that is? My interface a while ago told me that I let off a beacon letting them know where I was]
[Graves: There are groups who regularly delve into my dungeon, for reasons we've talked about already]
[Jewel: I have visitors on the regular too, albeit usually not looking for a fight]
Well that's what happens when you turn your dungeon into a brothel.
[Graves: If my knowledge serves me correctly the Adventurer's HQ should be in the old man's city]
[Dungeon Keeper: The one that was under attack by the golem dungeon?]
[Graves: Correct]
Well that might explain it.
[Graves: While we were launching suicide missions inside of the bastard's body their jobs involves doing things taking place outside of the dungeon proper, rescuing people caught up in the attacks for starters, attacking the bastard from outside for instance]
I couldn't imagine it was very easy trying to get inside of a golem's body, even if it was hollow.
[Jewel: Right now they should be trying to chase Conquerete down and seeing how much more damage they can do]
The bastard already lost his right hand. Still it would be nice to know where I actually was, which is where scouting with Apas comes into play.
[Jewel: Either way I don't think you're going to see many legitimate delvers soon]
[Dungeon Keeper: Legitimate Delvers? What about the Illegitimate ones?]
[Lithilas: You sent a beacon out to every Adventurer's guild on the continent. Mine is the closest and through them I have been made aware of your location but I am the closest to you. You have a week before they get there by my estimates. Then there are the illegitimate groups. People who think they can use you. Nobles who want to use you to set up their own Dungeon City, bandits who want to fortify you into a fortress to facilitate their own antics, rogue mages who would drain you to fuel their own power. Those are just the reasons I can think of off the top of my head. Get your first floor ready for uninvited company]
...Archie!
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A wagon arrived outside of the new dungeon. It took them a while to find the entrance, the damned hole was three stories into the air, and it's entrance faced the sea, it's not enough that the damned dungeon is out in the middle of no where, it also had to be difficult to access to. Luckily they were surrounded by resources.
"Start chopping trees!"
People dressed in rags picked up lumber axes and went into the woods. At least one thought about planting the axe into the back of the leader of the group's head, and was rewarded with crippling pain. Pick axes went to work carving grooves into the stone, others went through the process of chopping down the nearby trees, hacking off branches, using knives they stripped bark from the trees and men in mages robes used magic to dry the wood out. Some of the logs were cut short, others split into planks. The plants were brought to the edge where the mountain met the water, where gashes were carved into the mountain by the men with pick axes and then jammed inside. The Logs were brought over, lined up under the stairs to prop them up, triangle cut wood chunks slotted into the support beams to provide extra stability and give the specially cut wooden boards something that they can fit into.
"It'll take a while before we can enter the dungeon proper." One of the men explained to the leader of the band.
"Then we'll have time, and we'll kill anything else that tries to enter the dungeon in the mean time, deny it resources until we're ready to claim it." Behind them were a pair of black holes.
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I ask you this, what are eyes? Squishy, round balls of flesh inside of the head that you use to see with, oh this is true. But what about the undead who lack these eyes and instead only have the holes they used to occupy? The undead can see out of those perfectly fine. Boring two eyes into the rock face isn't a task of great difficulty for Archie, even outside of the dungeon, it took Archie some practice before he got it right through but like Lithilas told them they had time. And More important than that, he had people to consult with on how he would deal with them.
[Graves: Minimal low quality clothing? Metal bands around their throats? Sounds like slaves to me]
[Dungeon Keeper: Slaves?]
[Jewel: The Humans study us, try to learn about our abilities. The Contracts are the simplest, bind one to the will to another. In comparison to making monsters out of thin air and mana it's easy]
Well, she's not wrong.
[Jewel: There's much worse that could be done. If their bindings were tattooed on it would be impossible to break their contracts. The collars mean that they're merely indebted and will eventually be free]
[Dungeon Keeper: What should I do?]
[Lithilas: That depends on who they are and what they are doing]
[Lithilas: What's the situation? What are they doing? Have they mentioned their plans yet?]
[Dungeon Keeper: They're building a staircase right now, my door is three stories in the air and faces the sea so it's hard for them to get to as is]
[Graves: They're not just going to scale the wall?]
[Jewel: That would seem to be the case]
[Dungeon Keeper: Am I missing something here?]
Well yeah if they have the mountaineering equipment then just scaling the wall to me dungeon is going to be a lot faster but a lot harder if they have no long term plans.
[Jewel: Remember our talk about the mobile dungeons, the Pirate fleet Leviathan?] [Graves: If you're facing the sea that probably means you're on that Pirate bastard's route]
[Dungeon Keeper: Should I be afraid?]
[Lithilas: If you were to seal yourself up for a few days while he would become aware of your existence from the chat room he probably wouldn't know where your dungeon is and you could at least buy yourself a few month's while he circles on his route. But if those humans are building a base around your dungeon, whether he knows you're there or not, he'll wreck the lot of you regardless, eat the pieces and then move onto his next stop, unless whatever group there can pay whatever price he demands of them. Leviathan is a monster]
And If I want to survive I'm gonna have to learn how to be a bigger monster.
[Dungeon Keeper: Can I send my monsters onto raids without me?]
[Dungeon Keeper: This one at a time thing is taking too long]
[Lithilas: You can send them without you, but you can't send them one at a time. Your mana regeneration won't support the effort that it would take to send them out on more than one mission]
Damn it. I felt Apas getting my attention. Just send her on the raid?
[Dungeon Keeper: Sorry Lithilas, I'm borrowing your second floor again.]
[Lithilas: Focus on getting strong enough to deal with your invaders if you have time to feel sorry.]
[Would you like to raid Dungeon Lithilas? Yes/No]
[Yes]
[Please designate Raid Captain]
The option for a Raid captain didn't appear before, is it because I only want to send Apas by herself?
[1 Contracted monster: Apas Griffin 10 Giant Wasps]
Like that my monsters disappeared. I didn't have high expectations that she'd beat those two this time, but at the very least she'll be able to strip that place for parts.
In the mean time, Archie! We need to start getting stronger monsters like crazy, do you have any ideas?
Suddenly the dungeon shook.
[Mana 297/300]
[Mana 290/300]
My mana, previously maxed out, was now being siphoned out as my skull's eyes glowed. I concentrated on Archie as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on here.
[Archie the Animated Skull: 49/60]
What in the world?
[Archie the Animated Skull: 53/60]
Archie, is there something that you haven't told me?
[Archie the Animated Skull: 60/60]
[Evolution for Archie the Animated Skull available]
Archie, how are you level grinding so?
[Possible Evolutions for Archie the Animated Skull]
[E-Rank Bone Mage-A skeleton that has begun to grasp the basics of magic. Has managed to grasp basic Earth Magic]
[E-Rank Bone Priest-A Skeleton worshipper of a god of death.]
[E Rank Bone Warlock-A skeleton Warlock with the God of Underground Pluto as his patron]
I blinked stupidly at the screen before me.
[Bone Warlock Selected]
A mass of blue mana wrapped Archie and the section of wall that he had embedded himself into, and several moments later a full skeleton fell away from the wall.
[E-Rank Bone Warlork, Archie]
"Thank you master for this opportunity!"
You can talk? No before that explain yourself Archie! What did you do!?
"What You have told me to." Archie gestured grandly around himself. "I have linked to your dungeon and searched high and low for fossils to reanimate, the strongest I have sought out and brought under your glory, others have been added to your mobs, but the ones that we have not been able to get to have suffered."
You've been reanimating monsters outside of the dungeon?
"Quite. While linked to the limestone I have been expanding my influence with the influx of C-rank mana from the visitor, animated monsters trapped in the stone suffocate under my influence thereby giving power."
And you've been channelling this to yourself all this time?
"No master, until but a moment ago I have not channelled a single point of power into myself." Meaning that you ranked up sixty or so points of power into yourself just now? Where have you been channelling all of this power into?
Archie led me to the nest first.
"I cannot link to all of the monsters in the dungeon master, only the ones not considered to be alive or the ones part of the environment." Archie brushed away branches in the nest, where saplings have grown around a pair of eggs. "The Eggs exist in an inbetween state until they are born."
[F Rank Monster Egg 504/10000]
"Forgive me for my slowness master, I can only control but a fraction of the flow of power." Archie kowtowed as he got onto his knees.
I can't imagine what kind of face I would be making right now were I able to. This is only a fraction?
"Indeed master." Five times the amount of Power that I need in order to rank up is 'but a fraction?' "There have been... complications master. Take my sight, and I shall show you."
I switched to Archie's point of view who in turn switched to another point of view below us, not to the outside where the humans were hard at work building their way up to my entrance, but below us at the future site of my second floor. Wooden pillars dotted the floor proper, probably left overs from the time that Lithilas and his people came through here and lodged wooden supports for when they stripped my mountain of it's most valuable fossils. Branches long since amputated had started to grow out to catch sunlight that would never come, the trees were littered with roots from the beams, from the trees as I was starting to realise. I separated from Archie.
"Organsms considered to be part of the mountain also receives Power from the smothering, only a fraction of it is going to me, and from there I can only direct a fraction into the eggs. Tunnels below us is only one place of many where the power is being directed." Show me!
[Red Wood Tree 527/100000]
What are they going to become when that bar is filled out? What kind of insane monster will be born then? Do we even benefit from this madness?
[Red Wood Tree properties: Filter, Photosynthesis]
[Photosynthesis-A process by which plants convert light into mana for personal use]
[Current Photosynthesis Production 0]
Of course, because it's buried under a mountain. Archie.
"Yes master?"
Can we make them grow bigger?
"It will take some work, but it is quite doable master." Start with this one, keep increasing its size until its leafy green branches are poking out of the mountain.
"At once Master!"
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Outside the make shift lumber and construction camp was hard at work building a staircase that leads to the entrance of the lime stone dungeon, pickaxes were swinging, trees were falling, timber was being broken up and installed, all the usual good things. Then the Mountain shook. The carpenters that had been working to install the staircase held onto the log they had been working with for dear life like it was his only means of survival, the tent that had been set up next to the mountain for the armoured man in charge of the expeditionary force was suddenly crushed, a mass of limestone falling off of the top of the mountain as a tree suddenly broke through the mountain, covering a section of it in leaves glowing with the faint colour of mana.