Ah daylight! What a wonderful feeling! Too bad I can FUCKING SEE ANY OF IT!
Being blind sucked. Not having territory sucked. I hated this. Hated everything about the surface. I wanted to go back underground.
“Oh relax, you’re fine.” The Baroness chided before resuming her quiet conversation with Mrs. Vernant.
Says you. I grumbled. The mimic crab holding me glanced up at Felecia, allowing me to look at her as well.
“I kinda like him like this.” Arianna snickered from far away. “He’s much quieter.”
“Not that he says much to us in the first place.” Tyler muttered jokingly.
Damian smacks the back of his head for me, resulting in a short fit of giggling.
Our party of half humans and aquatic monsters was walking straight down a dirt road, just outside of Setterton. We passed through the village itself a few hours ago, causing quite a ruckus, but nothing more than that. The whole point was that we were supposed to be causing rumors after all. Hard to do that by staying quiet.
Last night I actually succeeded in getting a magic detecting mimic crab to work! She’s walking on two stumpy legs now, with giant claw grippers swaying on either side of her, and a rounded, squishy belly. Like a stereotypical fantasy dwarf, but crab. Her stomach looked more akin to a balloon than actual body fat though. Apparently the squishiness is essential for any truly long range magic detection. Arianna and Tyler both had lesser versions of the organ, hiding flush within their own bellies. Grant didn’t get the evolution, on the basis that he was a skeleton, and I didn’t want his bat half to be anything lesser than what it was right now. I offered it to Clyde, but he didn’t take it either.
I didn’t push, obviously, so the smallest member of the Dungeon Rats was still human, minus the amber coloring in his eyes. I knew he could evolve, so why wasn’t he!? Every subtle nudge I gave him to evolve on the sly never worked. Directly asking didn’t work. What was his deal!?
Whatever. In the meantime, I told the mimic crabs to pass me around. Currently, it was this one’s turn to carry me, and therefore evolve. While I fed it a trickle of mana, I shared sight and sound with it, essentially making me *shudder* mortal.
I really missed my semi-omnipotence within my own dungeon.
A trio of fish-men rushed into the procession, each of them carrying various woodland creatures. A handful of mice, some squirrels, and a bird. All alive and mostly uninjured. The crowd parted ways for them as they’d done so many times before, and let them touch the creatures to my core. One by one, the small animals came under my control. I directed the mice to go hunting for bugs, the bird to keep an eye out for danger in the sky above us, and the squirrels to stick around. They’d be getting evolutions too.
“This is going to be so bad for the farms.” Owyn muttered as the mice scattered around the edges of our procession.
“How?” My mimic crab asked with a very childlike voice. She was a crab-taur, meaning she had a human half that was in the process of developing human anatomy, including vocal cords and a proper brain. The humanoid mimic crabs would all get that eventually, but I decided the combat oriented types didn’t necessarily need smarts.
“Dungeon monsters don’t shi- defecate.” Owyn explained. “They don’t leave behind fertilizer for the plants to grow.”
Not the evolved ones anyway. I remind him. I’m sure unevolved ones work just fine.
My mimic crab’s eyes stared holes in the back of Felecia’s head. She clearly heard me, but just as clearly refused to acknowledge it.
A mystery for another day perhaps.
“I dislike this ‘sun’.” Damian muttered. “Can I kill it?”
I laughed. No, you cannot. Though if you find a way, I’ll allow it!
Damian grinned wildly for a second, but faltered just before he took flight. “What do you mean, I can’t, but I’m allowed?”
The humans in my company all seemed surprised. Owyn voiced their concern. “Are… are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, being on the surface is one thing, but directly antagonizing a God is a little…”
I smirk, directing my thoughts to my ride. Hey, would you mind passing me over to Owyn for a second?
The mimic crab holding me frowned sadly, but obliged. The squirrels that had been touching my orb clung to the mimic crab wherever they could, continuing their ride.
Owyn took my core gingerly. “You know, I’m the only one here that can’t explicitly hear you, so wouldn’t it make sense for me to hold you while we walk and talk?”
Ah, but then I can’t evolve my monsters! I then forced Owyn to stop by sharing with him a shortened version of a science documentary about the solar system, the distances between, and the sheer scale of everything.
Even when the memory sharing is over, Owyn continues to stand still. “Oh…”
Yeah! I grin as Owyn passes me back to my mimic crab.
“Yeah.” Owyn repeats, shaking himself out of it. “Alright Damian, good luck.”
“Owyn!” Felecia nearly shouts, shocked.
The Dungeon Rats and Grant all shy away from him as a single organism, seemingly fearing him.
Damian, meanwhile, just grins wildly and takes flight. He quickly left the range at which I was able to talk to him.
“Owyn’s going to die.” One of the kids whispered to the others. Grant nods furiously.
“I’m… probably alright.” Owyn offered.
Which was exactly true. Owyn was only probably true. Just because I believed in the science of my old world didn’t automatically make Gods not exist in this one. Who knew, maybe the sun actually was a God! I mean, the surface was already a dungeon, so why not, right?
I really, really wanted to expand my territory, but I knew it’d be pointless. The outside world was just too powerful to conquer. I’d have to have an inordinate amount of power, in both will and mana to even attempt…
My thoughts churned on that for a minute.
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Huh…
My thoughts rolled over in my head as the humans continued talking to each other. Some of the more humanoid mimic crabs attempted to join in, but the whole topic was just flying right over their heads. Not to mention, they had a very childishly limited vocabulary. I was almost too absorbed in contemplation over my plans that I nearly missed Damian returning to the group.
He landed behind us, crouching atop Mycroft at the rearguard.
“How’d that go for you?” Owyn asked half mockingly.
“There’s another dungeon.”
There’s a wha-?
All eyes turned to the forest where he was looking. Obviously nobody could see anything through the trees, but suddenly the break in the line of sight was more bothersome than comforting.
“What, you mean on the surface?” Owyn asked.
Damian nodded.
“Should we check it out?” Arianna offered.
Take the birds with you. If they have anything threatening you, tell the birds to body-block for you. Scouting only, come back safe.
Arianna, Tyler, and Damian all nodded, taking flight together.
I made Felecia act as my voice for Owyn’s sake. “I thought dungeons would want to be underground. Why would there be any on the surface?”
“They should be.” Owyn said, a little darkly.
I raised an eyebrow at the tone, and had my mimic crab turn to look at him so I could judge his expression. In short, he did not look happy. His hands were drifting to his quiver, looking for either arrows or another gun that he just didn’t have.
“You seem on edge.”
“Monsters on the surface mean a dungeon break. It means one of three things. Either the people meant to be guarding the exit are dead, and the dungeon has just gone through explosive growth, there’s a new entrance to the underground that needs the church to handle, or worst of all, there’s a wandering dungeon on the surface.”
Mrs. Vernant pointed out the obvious. “But Damian just said he saw a dungeon, not monsters, so it’s the third one?”
Owyn nodded grimly. “And that means that something encouraged the dungeon to surface.”
“Lucid’s on the surface.” Felecia pointed out. “But he was forced here by the God Core. Maybe something similar happened to this other dungeon?”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about.” Owyn said.
“Hey, what’s that?” Clyde asked, pointing down the road.
Half running down the road was an unarmored swordsman, with a small entourage of other humans stalling behind him. After a few more paces, the lagging humans stopped outright, making the human running towards us the only one.
Mrs. Vernant put a hand to her brow. “Wait a minute, isn’t that Mr. Mayflower?”
Barry’s dad, and one of the few humans to stick with me after the evacuation, slowed down just in front of us, out of breath. While he paused to catch it back, I paid attention to the people down the road behind him. It just looked like a random smattering of people. A not insignificant amount of them were carrying farming tools like weapons. Was that blood?
“You need to hurry!” Mr. Mayflower sputtered out. The portly man barely raised himself upright. “There’s been a dungeon outbreak in the town ahead! Everyone’s running for their lives!”
Owyn half lunged, ready to immediately run for the village, but I was a little more hesitant. I spoke through my mimic crab. “Hey Owyn? How rare are dungeons on the surface?”
“Rare enough that it’s a really, really big deal.” Owyn said. “I don’t know the numbers.”
“And here we have three within the same day. Myself, the one in the forest, and the one ahead of us in the village.”
“Not a coincidence.” Owyn was picking up my drift.
“Not a coincidence.” The mimic crab nodded. “Let’s go.”
----------------------------------------
The humans, wisely enough, gave us a wide berth. They stared openly at Mr. Mayflower, Owyn, and the other humans. Notably, they noticed the amber eyes I’d given to each and every single one of my people. Not so subtly, some of them presented magic cores, something which Owyn informed me that they were using to detect enthrallment. Needless to say, they were baffled at the fact that Mr. Mayflower willingly and openly colluded with me and my monsters.
The Dungeon Rat flyers and Damian returned soon after. The dungeon that had surfaced in the forest seemed to have breached out of a hastily torn crack in the ground, and was actively fighting other dungeons trying to do the same. It would potentially either grow to exponentially dangerous states, or a more powerful dungeon would breach eventually and chase it away.
Needless to say, the safest place to be would be by my side.
Of the nearly fifty humans that had fled the village before, only three had the balls to journey along with us back to reclaim the village. The rest elected to run to Setterton, despite our warnings. I could care less, and didn’t really press. The three that came with us wielded simple tools, like shovels and some butchers cleavers.
About an hour of walking later, we saw the village in tatters. I wouldn’t call it ruins, because for the most part the buildings seemed intact, but there was definitely a mess throughout the streets. Broken carts, stalls, a single window broken, etc. I don’t know what I expected. Maybe more fires?
At least the monsters occupying the town were expected.
The mimic crab with the magic detecting body lifted a large claw, pointing for the largest building in the town. A church. Dungeon there.
“What’s the strategy?” Owyn asked.
Damian was practically giddy, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Can I kill the core? I don’t see any boss monsters!”
I counted the few monsters I could see. More than thirty, less than a hundred, assuming they were hiding in buildings. Opposed to my near forty fish monsters. Well, as long as they stick together…
No. I told Damian. Don’t kill it. Consume it. “No strategy.” My mimic crab said, raising a human hand. “Swarm.”
The fish monsters gave out their war cries. Before Angler could get too far, I gave him more specific commands. Save civilians, if there were any. Leave the buildings intact. Drag all the monster corpses out in the open for me to collect. Bonus points if they could collect living monsters. Accept no losses.
The mimic crabs suited for combat followed after them, as well as Mr. Mayflower and the kids with wings. Damian actually collected the kids, commanding them to act as a distraction for him to get into the church easier.
The three villagers that had joined us quivered next to Felecia and Clyde. None of my human thralls looked too bothered by the sight of a fight breaking out before them. I’m sure they were desensitized to it by now.
“Aren’t you going to help?” Mrs. Vernant asked the other villagers.
They flinched, half raising their farm tools before they thought better of themselves. Just because none of my mimic crabs here were suited for combat, didn’t mean they couldn’t fight back. “Uh, but the monsters… they…”
“Friendly!” A mimic crab shouted gleefully. A handful of others cheered. Though as their dungeon, I could tell they were a little cautious about it. They were just trying to make the villagers feel better.
Absolutely adorable.
The invading dungeon didn’t seem to have a theme. It was just a mismatch of ratkin, lizards, some woodland creatures, like wolves, and surprisingly enough, some fish monsters. None of the monsters were humanoid, interestingly enough.
Owyn gave a ‘gimme’ gesture to the villagers. “If you’re not going to join them, I am. Give me that spell core that detects thralls. How far out is it good for?”
The villagers only had one of the spell cores, with the rest being taken by the rest that had left for Setterton. Unlike Owyn’s magic vision, supposedly these spells could detect things far away or even behind walls. Surprised, the villager that held the core held it up for Owyn, activating it at the same time. Their expression softened slightly in surprise.
“You’re not enthralled…”
Owyn snatched the core. “No, I’m not.” He started to leave for the battlefield, but thought better of himself. He turned back around, snatched a hoe from the villager that had the butcher cleavers and ran. Mycroft saw him coming and waited for him. After mounting her, they charged down an alleyway and out of sight.
May as well get going after them. I decided. Our smaller entourage started walking leisurely after the warriors, forcing the villagers to walk after us.
They talked to the Baroness for a while, the usual spiel about being enthralled to me, and how weird that was, etc. I was much more interested in the small war going on in the village. The enemy dungeon had rallied its troops in squads, making it harder to pick off the loners. In better news, Damian returned with the kids, entirely unharmed and with a plumbus core in tow. Quite a large one too, maybe half my own size.
Good boy. I praised Damian. He consumed the core with fervor and walked beside me, placing a hand on my core so I could direct his final evolution.
The journey to Everlast was certainly going to be very interesting.