“There are so many carriages arriving since yesterday evening… when will it stop?” Thorun commented at the mountains upon mountains of raw materials, ranging from raw ores to precious beast corpses, being delivered by carriages. Due to the lack of personnel handling these mundane matters, Mordred had to summon some of his slaves from his undead dimension. Both living and undead workers are busy scurrying about, unloading the goods and categorizing them based on quantity, quality, and type, but the number of carriages entering the demesne doesn’t seem to decrease at all.
The warehouses were like dry sand absorbing water, they could never be filled. After all, the Cosmagus’ magic arts have the attribute of space. Expanding, folding, shrinking, repairing, and connecting the fabric of space is his specialty.
“I gotta say…” Lyriel arrived next to the duo, “Your demesne is far more lavish than the capital of Sylvarios!”
Currently, they are overseeing the unloading of goods from an elevated position. The relatively small demesne has tall towers consisting of steel and concrete populating the landscape. The demesne layout was also labyrinthian as if this was a military fortress. The road was made out of black asphalt. The utility and modern look of his demesne is far more lavish and advanced than any capital city or their monarch’s dwellings.
“Though… that thing stood up like a sore thumb…” Thorun pointed with his gaze.
Located at the core area of the demesne, specifically next to Demiurge’s mansion, there is a strange pure-white construct consisting of a tubular structure curving up towards the skies. The strange building is protected by the Cosmagus space-attribute Arts, so nobody can or is allowed to get close. Moreover, it has been unceasingly shooting something at the skies where a portal is present not too far from the tube’s edge, but due to Cosmagus’s Arts, nobody can see what it was shooting and where it was shooting.
“Don’t you think it’s time for you to explain some of your schemes, Cosmagus?” Lyriel nudged, interested in the tubular construct.
“There are more pressing matters at hand.” He spared a glance at Lyriel who had come to fetch him. “Since you’re up, then everyone must’ve rested sufficiently. Let’s begin the meeting.” Demiurge activated a short-range group teleportation Magic Arts, bringing them to a meeting room in his mansion.
There, everyone else was already waiting.
“Let’s begin. Today’s agenda is to discuss the Project: Dungeon Master’s timeline. If anyone has questions, don’t wait until I’m finished, just raise your hand and ask.” Demiurge let everyone sit down at the round table before continuing. “As you’re already aware, the dungeon dive is planned 24 months in the future, but we only have one chance, and we must assume that our activity will trigger retaliation from the Seven Kingdom as well.”
The meeting room was comprehensive, there’s even an artifact that allowed the Cosmagus to project some sort of image onto a wall, allowing him to better convey his words.
“Let me describe our target.” The artifact projected a simplified picture of a dungeon, with infographics elaborating further details. “The Dungeon that we know of is not a structure made by God or whatever doctrines have been spread on the populace by the Seven Kingdoms. Dungeons are a species of a living, breathing world that could produce more dimensional layers, or in this case, floors, as they reached maturity.”
“They are the Astrorion…” Selene touched her chin.
“Correct. To increase our chances of success, you should understand the physiology of Astrorions.” Demiurge confirmed, “When adventurers dive into dungeons, they think of the treasures and resources that can be plundered from its belly, but the truth is not as simple as they seem. The Astrorion is also hunting us adventurers for the unique resource that we can generate: souls.''
Everyone in the room frowned, not liking the direction in which this topic led to.
“For the most part, the beast found in the dungeon is completely different compared to the beast found in the wild: they do not have a conflict of interest against each other.”
“Think about it. Why did the dungeon’s ecosystem be systematically designed to resist invaders? From traps, dungeon beasts, and even floor bosses… their structure is not ‘organic’. If you pay closer attention, goblins, and trolls might work together in a dungeon, but on the surface world, they would kill each other. This is because the dungeon dwellers barely contain personalities of their own, they are but mere slaves of the dungeon. Thanks to His Majesty Mordred’s help, I was able to discern the biggest difference between the two.”
He added, “Surface beasts have a ‘whole’ soul, whereas the majority of dungeon beasts have ‘fragmented’ souls.”
Everyone looked at Mordred who was silent all this while. Only now they are aware that the Lich King’s contribution is more than meets the eye.
“How are you so sure that the Astrorions are looking to harvest our souls?” Selene inquired. “In low-rank dungeons, the environment is typically underground caves, but at higher rank, the environment changes significantly. For example, the 56th floor of Garden of Araktamos, a rank 3 Dungeon located in the Metal Kingdom Galvandor, is a magma lake populated with swarm-type fire-attribute piscine. In that situation, if the Astrorion wills it, they could just breed an obscene amount of magma piscine and slaughter them to get all the souls that they needed.”
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“A sound argument, but as I stated earlier, the souls of dungeon creatures are not ‘whole’...” Demiurge retorted.
“I know.” Selene didn’t back down. “If the Astrorion could streamline the process, it’d be far more efficient than collecting souls from adventurers. After all, the infinite multiplied by 0.0001 is still infinite.”
“Let me explain the structure of a dungeon first.” He tried to deter further questions until he finished elaborating. “Astrorion is a high-dimensional lifeform, so physics from the 3rd dimension is not enough to fully elaborate on their physiology. The Dungeon that we adventurers dived in… is not the Astrorion's true body. In the history of the Seven Kingdom, there are no records of an Astrorion being explored or killed.”
“But… we’ve captured dungeons before. We’ve plundered the dungeon core, and after that, the dungeon just died, not capable of mobilizing any more beasts. The underground construct will eventually be reabsorbed by the world not too long after…” Selene voiced her opinion.
“That’s what they wanted you to think. The ‘Dungeons’ being explored by adventurers are but mere three-dimensional projections of the Astrorion, like a shadow, is but a mere two-dimensional projection of ourselves. It is difficult to elaborate a high-dimensional lifeform to ones who are limited to the third dimension, but Astrorion’s true body can simply phase out and cut off their connection like a lizard cutting off their tail. From henceforth, we should refer the Astrorions and the Dungeons as different entities, with the latter being an extension of the former.”
He continued, “As proof of this, I’ve tracked some of the beast's genetic codes found in multiple dungeons and detected some relation as if they are brothers or sisters despite the different locations of where they were found. From there, we can assume that each Astrorion can generate multiple Dungeons, but our research has yet to find out their limits. What I do know is Asterion's true body is the reason why dungeons can be repopulated far more quickly than normal. I hypothesized that their true body allows them to generate all sorts of beasts and resources inside before sending them into the dungeons.”
“Going back to your argument for a bit, indeed, infinite multiplied by 0.00001 is still infinite, but Astrorion could not generate an infinite amount of resources without something in exchange. Growing beasts and generating all sorts of minerals or other resources in their true body isn’t free, it took something from the Astrorion, but we aren't able to make any educated guess what they are. In addition, as a living entity, Astrorions also need to ‘eat’, but their diet is still unknown since they are not a lifeform constrained to the third dimension like us.”
“Further research is still required, but I can assure you that having an internal cycle with 100% efficiency is not possible for them, or it is something that not every Astrorion can achieve. Either way, they have to get souls from the external world through Dungeons. Otherwise, there’s no reason for them to extend their tendrils, the dungeons, upon the third dimension.”
Mordred stopped, allowing his fellow team members to digest the information and make their own calculations.
“So our objective is to hunt a high-dimensional creature by exploring its… um, appendages?” Ulfrik voiced his concerns. “If everything is as you said, then how can you ensure that the Astrorion won’t disconnect their true body with the dungeon during our subjugation?”
“Your Legendary Arts, I assume?.” Selene muttered, asking Demiurge with her gaze. “A type of space-manipulation denial Arts that ‘solidify’ space.”
The Cosmagus nodded, confirming her conjecture. “Here’s the overview of my plan:
Phase 1 — Preparation Stage.
We must complete all subprojects such as the Space Marine, Power Armor, and Railgun Weaponry projects, while preparing several other contingency plans before the scheduled deadline. At this phase, we also need to save all your closest kin by kidnapping them.
Phase 2 — Fortification Stage.
The target dungeon is located forty-six thousand kilometers deep in the frontier of Earth Kingdom Tellanor, my Gate eliminates the need to ferry or stretch a logistical network over that distance, but we still need to construct a fortress at the mouth of the Dungeon so that we won’t be sandwiched between dungeon creatures and the seven kingdom’s forces in the later stages.
Phase 3 — Diving Stage.
At this stage, I will activate and maintain my Legendary Arts, [Dimensional Anchor], as we begin our descent into the dungeon’s deepest floor, ‘nailing’ the Astrorion’s connection with that dungeon. This action will trigger the Astrorion’s sleeper agents hiding in the seven kingdoms and designate us as targets of extermination. Upon reaching this stage, my Gates or mass teleportation will be greatly hindered as I need to serve as the ‘nail’.
Phase 4 — Boss Hunting
The Dungeon Boss will be a pseudo-rank 4 entity, killing it won’t be an easy task.
Phase 5 — Initiate Intrusion…”
Demiurge goes around explaining the major milestones of Project: Dungeon Master for an hour, with the rest of the team members chimed in once in a while, giving small but important feedback. Once they glossed over the milestones, it was time to discuss each detail, and this process was the one that consumed time and mental energy the most. The whole project experienced countless revisions, with each iteration allowing higher chances of success.
A week later, Demiurge finally formulated the complete plan with the help of everyone.
“...and after that, we wrapped up Phase 9 — Executing Heaven’s Work.” The Cosmagus said, everyone had been exhausted since they didn’t get a wink of sleep, but their eyes shone in absolute confidence. Knowing his plan in detail has given them the conviction that this civilization-changing project is not impossible to achieve. If they succeeded, they would become pioneers.
“Since nobody has anything else to say, then we can proceed to the first phase. Before that, I will once again remind you that your survival hangs on time-stop countermeasures. If you do not have any, I can’t guarantee your survival past Phase—” Demiurge’s words were interrupted by Ulfrik.
“Yes, you’ve mentioned this a hundred times now, we get it.”
Selene added, “I’ll plunder Fulguria’s secret libraries for references, considering they’ll be our enemies in the future. I might be able to develop one suitable for myself, but it’ll siphon my attention elsewhere, so you need to deduce them with your own comprehension.” Her words were directed to Thorun, Lyriel, and Ulfrik since she doesn’t believe Mordred and Demiurge don't have one already.
“Great. I’ll send you to where you’ll be working. Don’t hesitate to communicate if something unexpected comes up..” With a swipe of his hand, he teleported everyone to their future workspace, except Mordred. He faced the Lich King and offered a respectful bow. “Your Majesty, I’ll leave the security of my demesne to you…” he said as a parting word before disappearing with a flicker of light.