Ch.17 Discrepancies

The annoyed scholar was not happy that so many soldiers have died in his charge, useless as they are, the more alive at the end of the mission the better he will look to the higher-ups. The problem now is that some of the Mages actually died to this newly born Dungeon and to slimes no less, this insult cannot be forgiven and the Mage Academy will not compromise with anyone that dare kills any of its mages be it peasant or nobles.

The mages group tightly, not allowing anything to escape their mana field, by pumping mana into their life auras they can use it as a sixth sense that can be absorbed back to power instantly with no loss if non of it leaves their aura. There Mana field however showed nothing but sand and gravel, although the few elemental earth mages could see further than the slimes all they saw was water and small pieces of weirdly shaped stones.

Walking further, the entrance of room five was a lot more active, the ground had sunk about four feet under the weight of around 500 or so soldiers, the mages noticed that the water under the slime nest was now a powerful torrent many of the slimes would get detach from the powerful current heading to the fifth room while replaced with new ones coming back from the room in a counter current. This loop was seemly cause by the water escaping the troop's massive weight, the door's present to them was narrow and only suitable for one soldier to enter at a time the door had stairs going up to the middle, small clustered sand could be seen on the higher steps hinting that our massive group is the cause.

To think this Dungeon is smart enough to place so many traps against numbers, Mmhhmmm... I shouldn't return for help, casting so many spells and the one ice spell has eaten over 30 of my mana though I can absorb mana and nothing else inside this dungeon it's best to save my supplies for the boss. The scholar quickly asks the man to report on what happened. Sir Scholar, we tried to look further inside the room but only found a waterfall and a small room where both doors connected leading to what seems like a bridge of metal, one of our colleagues when to check the situation only to be pushed by the massive whirlpool running two feet above the bridge, he tried holding into the sides of it but had his fingers cut off and turn into a mass of blood seconds after falling.

The mages were distress what was happening in this place? Taking a look they saw thousands of small diamonds made of metal spinning around the bottom of the whirlpool, some of them escaping the mass and slicing across the "S" shape bridge, small cracks on them while nothing on the bridge. The two mages that were surveying the area quickly noticed that a pipe hidden slightly between the merging door exits supplied water to the ceiling. The many holes and long curving exits shaped the water spinning a funnel Creating this deathly whirlpool.

The scholar attempted to find any way to stop this contraction but found nothing too useful, blasting the ceiling or breaking the main pipe seems possible as it will stop the momentum of the swirling water but it will also cause it to overflow back into the sand and gravel rooms turning the whole place into a swamp with a whole nest of weak but affective slimes, these annoying pests will have an easy time killing the soldiers and my mages can't keep fighting and wasting our mana if we are forced to use Elemental mana we will have no way to replenish ourselves.

Goddamit! This Dungeon only wants us dead! nowhere on the Mage Academy Library does it say that Prismatic Dungeon Cores places nothing but death traps in each room, all records say that malformed monstrosity of all shapes and sizes will just flow out till the core runs out of Mana. But this one... it has no powerful creatures apart from the metal slimes these useless basterds gifted it. With no other ideas the scholars talked among themselves for a solution, they sacrifice a few soldiers with Earth and Wind having the best results. Earth's heavy armor allowed them to make it past the room at the cost of all their Elemental Mana, mostly from repairs from random attacks from the Blue slimes water bolts, the unlucky ones died to diamond-shaped blades escaping the whirlpool and slashing their armor like paper. The wind quickly took wing, the slow ones got shot down by waves of water bolts or pulled by the slime tentacles as they felt from the ceiling, the momentum pulling their lower body to the whirlpool and getting cut in half by the bridge bladed ends.

The soldiers were furious that they were used as guinea pigs but had no way to disobey the mages, two prideful to return for the rest of the 285 mages to simply freeze the water or levitate us over. The six lucky soldiers were now ordered to move past this room and survey the next, with a belly full of fury they followed each other to the next room. the first invaders to make it past the blender room were greeted by walls of poison Ivy there sharp leaves promising great pain, the walls continued and split into other passages all of them had a soft blue glowing light entangled in vines, looking closely it was a stick of some sort. The rest of the cave was barely lit with the same pale white glow as the previous rooms, the soldiers knew that this was a maze and it will be fatal to get lost in it, quickly returning to the Blender room they reported to the mages.

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Upon hearing the report of the proceeding rooms the Scholar nearly blew his top. What is the meaning of this! After all of these, a maze shows itself how long will that take, how many more soldiers will I need to use to finish my mission. Scholars talk furiously trying to decide, unwillingness creeping on their faces their pride not allowing them to simply return empty-handed for reinforcements, some of them wanted to just use numbers to overwhelmed the Blender Room, while others thought to use all their Mana freezing the whole room and send one soldier to ask for a resupply, shifting the blame unto the useless soldiers for asking us to solve their problem. While the mages fought amongst themselves, Malpetios had finally produced Pure Mana.

At the Core Room. While I was explaining my current Dungeon to Q'ill, I finally felt the converting of Mana was possible again, quickly completing the process I was ready at last for my boss!

[Would Host use 30 Pure Mana to make (Poison Ivy) your floor one Boss.]

Yes! At that moment the oldest Poison Ivy started to uproot from the ground, the original roots I planted now looking healthier and thicker, my Core started to sweat drops of Pure Mana looking clear like liquid diamonds, the roots greedily absorb the offering growing explosively to the point Q'ill hid behind me all of the room in my sizable Core Room nearly gone. I had collected all the Fruits and moved the other roots to my Ivy Maze so it was empty before the transformation now however it felt cramp. The plant stopped growing and I could finally look at its statistics.

(King Rainbow Lily)[Boss]: The massive network of poison ivy from a single root, its life source has been moved from the roots to the giant flower that crowns this creature the king of its species, the network of vines acts as its body.

Rank:1 (+1)

Attacking power: 130 (+65)

Magic power: 300 (+150)

Defense power: 80 (+40)

Magic resistance: 50 (+25)

Agility: 10 (+5)

Mana Conductivity: 10% (+30%) (+5%)

Special skills: Manasynthesis, Chlorokinesis, Dungeon Boss, Rainbow variant, Prismatic Beam.

Manasynthesis: Mana Conductivity increases by 30% greatly increasing Mana Capacity, can absorb mana rapidly from the environment or source.

Chlorokinesis: This allows for the control of plant matter around the user, increases user control of their body.

Dungeon Boss: Increases rank by one, all statistics +50%. Increases connection to the Core's will.

Rainbow Variant: A unique evolution allowing absorption of all elements. Can't use elements apart from earth and nature.

Prismatic Beam: Condense all the elements into a beam of prismatic mana doing damagex10 your magic power, consumption increases with range and girth.

Looking at my boss I was surprised to see keywords Q'ill used before finally being displayed, rank being the newest one showing that this boss was on a whole new level. Mana Conductivity, on the other hand, meant that this creature can purify 10% of its mana normally about the same as a normal creature the boss and unique skills not included. while I marble at the plant's statistics the System reminded me of my mission.

[Host has completed (You're a Dungeon Malpetios!). Would you like to receive the rewards.]

I quickly yelled yes and my (Dungeon Core data and Statistics) skill icon was updated.

[Boss Fusion]: Allows the boss to fuse with Dungeon core preventing the death of the creature's will. Can regenerate the body with mana, protects Boss from Mind and illusion attacks. ( the will can enter Dungeon core mindscape when killed or for communication).

This was perfect! I quickly used it on my first boss, a cloud of rainbow mana rapped around the plant focusing mostly on the giant flower.

[Congratulations Host. (King Rainbow Lily) has been linked to Host mindscape.]

I felt a small nearly unnoticed will, it felt primal with no real congruent thoughts, focusing on it, I got the feelings of hunger, happiness, and protection for my Core. I got closer to the small will and without noticing I felt like I left my body, looking around I could see a Core floating in the middle of the room shining in prismatic colors sometimes warm colors other times dark colors like black. I was able to control the plant like my own body the feeling of having thousands of limbs or vines was taxing on my mind but was durable with practice, I weave a humanoid shape and wave at Q'ill, surprise first then happy she said. Malpetios your finally a Dungeon! Am so happy for you, (sniffle)...(sniffle).

I was a bit ashamed to see her cry and tried to calm her but had no voice to communicate with, I then attempted to send the telekinesis waves I always naturally use when we talked but got instead a Poison Ivy leaf rain straight at my core. I panic and dispersed the mind waves all around me stabbing my boss or the walls the mild feeling of pain was a sensation I thought lost to me. The shock of pain after so long cut the connection to my Boss, disorientation quickly passed and I was able to talk.

That was amazing! I could see and control the boss like my own body, sorry about the leaf storm... I don't know why that happened when I was trying to communicate.

Q'ill stopped crying and started laughing, silly your core can communicate telepathically to creatures around your life aura this fellow however can only control plants telepathically, so when you send me a message it was replaced by that leaf storm.

I nodded and started to use the Boss Fusion link to send mana repairing the small cuts and regrowth of the leaves. Now that I had experienced the feeling of Boss Fusion I thought about how it would best use it to kill my invaders.