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With Iris out of the way, and Kelvin frozen in surprise as she dropped away, the boy and Molly quickly beat him to death between them.
Meanwhile down below Iris popped out of the five foot deep ring of water with a curse. "Dammit! Tark, why is there ice in here? What kind of bull crap are you pulling now!"
Negative reinforcement Iris. The concept has been around your world for a hundred years according to the world book encyclopedia. Fall off the ledge. Get an ice bath. That’s how you learn.
Molly called down at her. “Check your prompts, we got a bonus for fighting a Champion.” Iris got a distant look on her face as she waded around to the ladder, then smiled. “I’m getting close.”
The dungeon didn’t generate a reward since Kelvin wasn’t assigned to the room, so instead there was another smaller cardboard box with a stack of smaller twenty dollars bills. Ten of them divided three ways with none for the cat.
Three adventurers made their way up the stairs, excitedly discussing how close all three of them were to leveling and planning on how to deal with Kelvin the next time.
That night my ant Scouts saw the swarm as they landed on the window screens. Dozens of palm sized forms breathed out sparks of pure Chaos to slowly melt their way through the metal.
Magic is generated by the raw unformed potential reality called Chaos which is what separates universes, once bound by the laws of a universe Chaos becomes magic that can be deliberately shaped.
There are things that pass through Chaos from one universe that taps into it to another. Travelers, refugees, merchants, predators…. parasites.
The worst parasites lay their eggs in Chaos. Those eggs drift until they find a universe that is tapping into Chaos to generate magic. Once pulled in through that tap they hatch and seek out the source of the biggest draw on magic.
Dungeon cores.
Once they get in, they devour the core and take its place. Keeping the dungeon alive as the strongest parasite devours the rest of its swarm. Then it begins to feed on the very defenders of a world as they enter the dungeon. Because sometimes people do die in the dungeons. If a dungeon isn’t dangerous people can’t learn.
Eventually, the parasite reaches its full growth and emerges to ravage a world before returning to Chaos to lay the eggs of the next generation.
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Even on this world, they know of the parasites called dragons.
Thankfully this world is so weak in magic that the dragons are tiny. Unable to grow as they hunt down a core. I also have scouts watching outside of my dungeon so I have time to prepare.
Sparrows. And robins, blue jays, cardinals… All dungeon defenders who can fight the dragon swarmling in the air, while a hastily made set of shelves surround my core to give Kelvin, Envoy, and two other kobolds places to stand and smash anything that reached the heart of the dungeon.
I had to get everything done before the swarmling entered the dungeon. The worst thing about them is they somehow count as adventurers. Once in the dungeon, I can't add anything or replace any defenders that are lost.
Should I get Iris to help? No. Wounds made with Chaos can't be healed by Molly, not yet. Even the tiny little sparks of the swarmling breath would hurt the entire time they took to heal naturally. I don't want the old woman to have to deal with that.
But the cat? Tempting but no. The mangy beast’s yowls would wake up its mistress.
The parasites breach the wire mesh on the window and flutter their way through the house and down the steps to the dungeons.
The birds swarm them.
[ You have killed an Outsider. Reward pending… ]
[ You have killed an Outsider. Reward pending… ]
[ You have killed an Outsider. Reward pending… ]
Seven made it past the multiple flocks of birds. Two managed to land on my dungeon core before getting smashed into multicolored goo by the Kobolds.
I do not get an offer to add them to my summoning list.
With the low level of magic on this world other than the cores. I wasn't going to half to worry about some of the other things the manual listed. Cenomorts, demon lords, the Horde…
But the lesser things. Sprites, imps, primordials… or those things that are Called. The Gentry, Contractors, Jinn… it would only be the weakest of them, but still. Should I warn people?
I had to think about that one.
Most, yes. Warning people would be a good thing. But not the Called. Just telling people to watch out for them would just let the very ones who would fall for their tricks become aware of them and end up being the reason they knew to call them.
I spend the rest of that night writing up a handbook of monstrous threats from beyond and hoped this wasn’t crossing a line on what I was allowed to tell the locals about a larger universe.
The handbook was neatly laid out on the low table in the larger room on the main level. At almost the same moment Kelvin set it down, a series of messages began to come in.
[ Congratulations. You are now a Copper rank 3 Dungeon ]
[ You have been granted the spell Dictum of Law]
[ You have been granted a new room. Research room ]
[ You may now assign the job. Researcher ]
[ You have utterly destroyed the first intrusion into this world ]
[ A reward has been arranged ]
The world went white and once again I found myself in Clement’s almost featureless office. But this time instead of the green skinned angel, I found myself with a slightly too thin young woman wearing Earth clothes with an irritated look on her face.
I couldn't breathe. I could hardly see as my eyes watered up. “Alelan...”
Her irritated look fell away as she stared back at me blankly before she crossed her arms and sighed. “Took you long enough...” Which was all she got out before I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her off her feet. “Hey! Stop swinging me around Fathead! Are you crying? Stop it!”
I sniffed. “You’re crying too.” Then she went limp before worming his arms free and wrapping them around my head as she whispered. “Clement left an actual hourglass on his desk. It looks like we have most of an hour to left to ourselves.” Then she bit my ear.
I had a few minutes' worth of sand left after we… caught up. Just enough time to tell her to get her ward to call her aunt.