Flying into the Orange biome from the opening cavern the sounds of trickling water, false winds, and blowing leaves filled my ears. In a way this forest was my first attempt at an autumnal theme so seeing how well it turned out gave me hopes for the future dungeon’s. Although I’ll probably go further with the concept of color changing plant life.
Suddenly the pleasant sounds of nature were interrupted by a quickly encroaching voice.
‘In the future she needs to keep it down or this atmosphere will be ruined...’ I thought as Amber burst from the tree line in an eruption of leaves.
“Almost... there!” she yelled breaking her fall with a roll before shifting her [Persona’s] legs into her tail and vaulting forward with her momentum in a spring like maneuver. It seemed to me she was about to crash into one of the biome’s maple trees but Amber was prepared. Just before her torso slammed into the bark she wrapped her tail around the tail with practiced ease. Making use of her stationary tail Amber spun once around the tree, releasing her grip at the apex of her spin, launching her self straight towards the bottom of the inclined biome.
Still flying through the air but descending rapidly Amber removed her shield engraved with a roaring bear decal from her hip. Shifting once again into her [Persona] form she hooked her human like legs into the straps within the shield. I could only watch with impressed silence as she stuck her landing, used her weight to ride the shield towards me, and kicked the shield back into her grip with a small hop upon slowing down.
“That one looked pretty good. New P.B.?”
Smiling at me as she caught her breath the Ringneck Lamia checked the stopwatch her sisters gifted her and shook her head “Yeah I had a feeling... That was 4.3 seconds off pace. I’ve been feeling a bit off today since we got back.”
Over the course of the last week Amber had become something of a fitness addict. It had started with simple weight lifting after losing a practice match against Melina but now she jogged the length of her entire biome several times a day. After she’d grown used to the exercise Amber had come to me for advice. Not one for exercise I’d drawn a complete blank. Best I could come up with was beating her own personal records. Little did I know she’d begin racing down the top of her biome at breakneck speeds always chasing a better time. she wants to try setting times on other floors and biomes but I had to veto the idea. After all seeing the Orange biome mini boss racing around the Red biome’s desert would cause some confusion.
Patting her on the shoulder only to shake my hand free of sweat moments later I said “Well you’ll get it next time. That shield move in particular was really impressive.”
Grinning she removed the shield from her hip once again “Speaking of... I want some bears.”
Nodding I brought up the almost ancient black bear template Mary earned me months ago and asked, “Anything in particular or just bears?”
“Fast bears. Fast as you can make them.”
“Well fast typically means air element buuuuut... what if we threw in some nature powers too? That gives them plenty to work with in this terrain.”
Scratching her chin in thought Amber nodded “Leaf bears sound good to me. I only have 2 other asks, koi fish and some foxes. Specifically I’d like Fennec Foxes gifted in illusions like me.”
Already making the adjustments to the Red Fox template’s ears I asked “If you don’t mind I’d also like to try my hand at adding Will o Wisps. Lila’s still running tests on how to make pure magic monsters for me so they aren’t quite ready yet. Still I think floating flames that lead people off the safe paths would fit in here pretty well.”
Shrugging Amber answered while emitting some magic fog from her palms “That’s fine with me. We’ll probably have some good synergy.”
Releasing several dozen of the Fennec Foxes into the tree line I didn’t change too much about them other than their paws. On the bottom of each individual pad I embedded fragments of Light and Air crystals. My hopes are that they can manipulate either element to turn invisible or move so fast they become untraceable to the naked eye after evolving. Invisible creatures could serve to further the Ringneck’s illusions.
Without much of a plan in mind I only created a handful of koi inside the springs dotted around the biome. I’m pretty sure Amber only chose koi because they had orange scales but they could become something cool anyway. Only change I made was extending their tail fins a few feet behind them. I’d always loves how koi and beta fish tails looked and got a carried away.
Finally I spaced the augmented black bears evenly around the forest. Of the Orange biome’s creatures these were easily filled with the most potential in my opinion. Using what I’ve already learned about creatures composed entirely of magic I did my best to leave segments of the different bear’s anatomy “empty”. Once that was done I filled the empty spaces with Nature attuned mana.
I’m still learning how, something made more difficult since each mana type has its own quirks, but Nature mana has been the easiest to pick up since it’s the closest to organic material. It had started with the idea that mana is life in its purest form. Considering I make living creatures with just mana I figured my theory wasn’t far off and got to work with the goal of granting creatures stronger affinities than what the Elemental Elk’s crystals alone could manage. They’d served me well so far but they’d always been a rudimentary way of granting my creatures additional powers. To make stronger creatures not only do I need better templates, but I must also increase the proficiency with which I use them. Learning to make use of raw mana is how I plan to do just that.
The Nature attuned mana quickly filled the gaps between the bear’s missing pieces. It took the form of dark brown and green roots stretching between the segments. None of the bears showed any powers immediately after summoning but I’m hopeful for some interesting evolutions. Ideally linked to the orange leaves blanketing the floor or Maple Trees.
Dismissing the floating screen after placing my desired numbers on [Population Control] I waved to Amber “Alright, I’ll be back when the Wisps are ready. For now how about we summon your tribe?”
Stretching out her legs as a few curious foxes bounced around her Amber replied “Yep! I’ll take them to go fight some of the new bears!”
Having gotten more accustomed to the logic behind my monster’s actions I gave a simple “Have fun.” before summoning 10 Ringneck Lamia’s and heading towards the green biome.
---
Since I had a pretty good idea where she’d be I flew straight down into the Green biome’s undergrowth to find Daphne. Ironic as it was for the only Lamia species capable of soaring through the skies, Daphne always kept to herself down in the darkest levels of her rainforest. Luckily that time wasn’t being wasted and none of the other [Named] could outmatch her accuracy with a bow.
Once I was a good ways into the forest I touched down and called out “Hey Daphne! I’m here to summon your tribe and creatures!”
It didn’t take terribly long for me to spot the approaching Lamia closing in fast. She was flying close to the ground occasionally using nearby tree limbs or vines to keep herself off the ground. In the darkness I would never have seen her coming if not for the glowing arrowheads bouncing inside her quiver. Even then she was darting around so much my eyes were struggling to track her trajectory.
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‘You know the sound of those pulsing arrowheads accompanied with the speed at which she’s approaching would be downright terrifying if I didn’t know what she was like... Maybe she can scare the adventurers by hamming it up?’
Allowing herself to fall to the ground as she arrived Daphne began rapidly apologizing before she could even stop moving “I’m so sorry Father! I know I’m late! I just didn’t think you’d get here so fast and- “
Giving the best smile I could I replied “Don’t worry about. I didn’t mean to interrupt your hard work. Are the [Training Auras] working alright? I know they were too small previously to practice gliding in the dark.”
Nodding rapidly she answered “They’re great! A-actually I was making a small obstacle course for my t-tribe members...”
Smiling at her foresight I said “I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. You’ll be in charge of training them however you see fit after all.”
Her eyes darted to side slightly as she cautiously murmured “A-about that... I wanted to confirm that our tribes will need to eat. If we need to supply our own food I’d like to train my tribe to be hunters.”
“Yes I’d like you all to be self-sufficient. No sentient race shouldn’t know how to do things like farm, run businesses, and yes, even hunt. I won’t let anyone starve within our walls but please try and keep that illusion alive as long as you can. My parents always said hard work taught good morals and keeping a cities worth of Lamia’s and Oni’s fed will be plenty of hard work.”
“Then I’ll do that. I-I want them all to be good people... E-even if we aren’t... you know... “people”.”
Shooting Daphne a look while making the list of templates visible for her I said, “No you are a person, and I’ll be making that crystal clear in the coming weeks to anyone who says otherwise in the coming weeks. That’s the next war we’ll need to win.”
Perhaps sensing the weight behind my tone of voice Daphne did her best to alter the conversation with “A-anyway I was thinking Dart Frogs with my tribe in the Understory, Tapir down here on the forest floor, Jaguars in the Canopy, and Toucan’s with in the Emergent. The only request I have is you make the Dart Frogs coating bioluminescent. I want adventurers to think small groups of frogs could be members of my tribe waiting to ambush them in the trees. S-sorry I’m rambling...”
Releasing the tension from my [Projection] I made the relatively simply change with a few flicks of my wrists and said “No not at all! I’m glad to see you’ve been thinking about it. Do you mind if I add in some sloths and Bright Bulb Spiders? I’ve got some ideas of my own.”
With a nod of curiosity Daphne gave permission and I got to work spreading the spiders around the floor. Where they ended up or evolved into was of little consequence to me but I gave them a healthy population size. What I was really interested in were the Dire Spiders they’d be crossbreeding with. Just like the bears of the Orange biome I instilled them all with raw Nature attuned mana. The result were spiders tall enough to reach a man’s waist with 8 root like legs leading up to an abdomen sprouting small flowers across it.
As for the sloths I didn’t augment their bodies at all. Instead I upgraded their almost nonexistent hunting instincts to monstrous proportions. Now whenever one of the lazy sloths grew hungry they would go into a berserker like rage and hunt down the nearest prey. Of course my new sloths also eat an all meat diet. Should become something interesting later on.
No problem with any of Daphne’s choices, although the Tapir were a hard one to build off the base horse design, I placed plenty of them in their respective jungle layers. We decided to alter the instincts of every creature than the sloths and spiders to stay within their respective layers. I also planned to modify the drops of the Toucan’s within the Emergence to enhance their value. That way adventurers would have incentive to journey upwards rather than only traverse the floor.
Leaving the population to grow within their [Lust Auras] I turned to Daphne and asked “Ready?”
In response she began inspecting herself feverishly and rehearsing her lines “H-hello I’m Daphne! I know it’s a lot to take in so take a moment to get used to- “
Summoning them before she could delay meeting them indefinitely I brought 10 more Ornate Glider Lamias into the forest with a snap of my fingers.
“W-wait I wasn’t ready!”
Giving a simple salute I flew off towards the Indigo biome.
---
Hovering over the giant crystal filled sinkhole of Iris’s biome I closed my eyes and listened. Even atop the 10 mile deep expanse I could here the strums of her guitar echoing from beneath.
‘Is that “I Need a Hero”? She does realize the irony in the mini boss playing that right?’ I thought weaving in and around the massive crystals as I plummeted head first down the expanse.
Almost at the very bottom of the hole, standing on the edge of a crystal jutting out from the wall and stopped directly in the biome’s center, I spotted Iris just as she dematerialized her crystal guitar and swapped it for a full drum set. Without missing a single note she made the change and picked up the melody.
Once I got within 100 feet of her the song’s previously hidden lyrics echoed in my mind. Soon as it did her attempt at humor dawned on me. Admittedly it was pretty funny.
‘I can feel his approach like the fire in my blood!’
Sitting down and hanging my legs over another nearby outcropping I politely sat down and listened to the rest of the song. I’d never had particularly developed musical tastes back home but even so I could tell Iris had a great voice. Like all great vocalists her voice didn’t just sound good, she poured so much emotion into each note the same feelings would boil up in all those listening. Accompanied with her wide array of playable instruments and sense of rhythm she could very well become famous in this world.
When her voice began to fade from within my mind and she’d played the last note I hovered down clapping all the way “I see you’ve improved again. Can’t wait to hear your next original.”
Lightly tapping her cymbal she answered ‘Soon. The Cascade’s bgm is coming along well. My tribe will have a good selection by the time we open.’
“Any other buffs you’ve found?”
Pushing her foot down to beat the large Bass Drum she answered ‘Just the same as Almar’s. Your beat/rhythm theory was right.’
“Knew it!” I replied pumping a fist into the air. Since Iris’s music could distribute buffs to those who hear it I’d been wondering how she compared to Almar. We’d quickly realized she was limited to the same varieties. Attack, defense, speed, magical attack, and magical defense. At first we assumed that a song’s music genre determined the buff but I’d posited that a song’s rhythm was the main factor. Turns out my gut feeling was right!
‘Higher tempo songs are attack, and slower songs are defense from what I can tell. The magical variants appear when I add vocals and speed is unknown for now. EDM still works though.’
“Strange... sorry but I can’t really give advice when it comes to this sort of thing.”
Rolling her eyes like she was still a teenager Iris tapped her bongos ‘Yeah, I knew that.’
Pursing my lips I asked, “Fine just tell me what you want and I’ll summon your band.”
Sitting down beside a full grand piano bade of crystal she began playing a soothing melody ‘Give me Earth Slimes, Tarantulas and Centipedes with hoarding instincts, a few Tempest Hares, and one Ant Queen.’
“Why just one?”
‘I want to build a colony with her that tunnels around this place. Ants all coming from one queen under my command means I can control the ants indirectly.’
Shrugging I crafted a new Tempest Hare warren and Earth Slimes that could harden into solid amethyst. It hadn’t crossed my mind that the mischievous Tempest Hares would synergize quite well with Iris’s own punk appearance until they started tapping their powerful feet to her rhythm.
Ending up with my own building sized insects releasing bursts of sound from their crystal covered carapaces didn’t sound half bad either. Remembering full well what dungeon centipedes could evolved into I put no limit on the arthropods size. I thought about giving them the same missile appendages as the Concentrated Centipedes we’d fought against but decided to observe their evolutions first.
Finally I summoned one massive Ant Queen. Even though she’d never gone on a nuptial flight the 4 foot tall ant still came with a pair of wings and an enlarged gaster. Interestingly she also came out with a pair of red and blue markings covering her eyes. They eerily reminded me of face paint and I was left wondering if Iris had somehow influenced her new pet.
As the large and’s antennae twitched curiously around Iris and her instruments I asked, “Do you have a name picked out for her?”
‘There’s only one name fit for a Queen.’
“Oh? I asked raising an eyebrow.
Rubbing the ant’s head affectionately with one hand she answered ‘Mercury.’