After the battle under Everlast, Lucid and the survivors returned to Setterton. The people that had taken over the village under the church’s orders were gone, due to circumstances nobody knew about. The three leading theories were that a dungeon scared them off, they left to find a more defensible village, or the church had recalled them at some point. It didn’t matter.
Lucid reclaimed his space in the caves down below, but sealed off the deep caverns with a wall and a promise to explore them once they were ready again. The survivors of the battle numbered few. Only six of Mimi and Rab’s children had survived until the end, as well as only ten fish monsters. Aside from Damian, none of the other true monsters survived, meaning unless a situation ever demanded it, there would never be any more puppeteer squirrels.
Grant officially joined the Dungeon Rat kids as adventurers working for Lucid. The few human thralls that Lucid had also stayed with him in the caves, but over time, as the villagers of Setterton returned one by one, a large stone building was erected outside the cave to house them properly.
Not everyone in Setterton accepted Lucid’s presence, but with the recovery of the kingdom requiring all of the King's soldiers, none were spared to contest Lucid’s recovery. It took nearly a whole month for his core to recover into a complete sphere again, and it was much smaller than before the fight, but he was whole eventually.
Likewise, Abby lost her super-strength in order to regain the ability to bear children, but it would be a long while before Owyn and Abby gathered the courage to take that step. Owyn was converted into a thrall in order to heal his legs, and this time, he refused to return to being enthralled in order to remain close with Abby. In the meantime, Mrs. Vernant began having a most peculiar craving for dungeon cores. As it turned out, she was pregnant.
Grant doted on his younger sister as much as he could. Since his boney figure was too harsh on a baby, his partnered bat was evolved to mimic human skin, and something peculiar happened when their souls melded into one, making Grant a truly immortal vampire like Lucid had always wanted.
When the kingdom finally stabilized, Lucid was fully established within the upper caves, and nobody in Setterton that had disagreed with his presence had stayed. By working with Owyn and the other craftsmen in Setterton, technology exploded throughout the village, establishing itself as a key figure in the development of the world. Small trinkets, like music boxes and toy cars with spring wound motors were sold to the wider world, cementing it as a valuable resource to be invested in.
Time passed, and over time, disagreements grew, forcing Lucid to leave. The entirety of Setterton and a large number of other individuals left with him.
Once more establishing themselves a home outside of any kingdom, the new village without a name enjoyed the technologies that Lucid introduced to the new world. Electricity for lights, heated stoves and homes, and other fantastical comforts. Due to Lucid’s knowledge of his old world, his evolutions took on more industrious purposes, discovering and mining metals for more advances in technology. The mimic crabs found more of their own kind, and even established dedicated suburbs within the village for the monsters that enjoyed the surface.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Years later, the world's first flying aircraft was introduced, powered entirely by batteries, charged either by magic or mechanical means. While initial flights were short, with a mage powering it during flight, they were able to travel vast distances. Though even that was just a small step for Lucid.
With Owyn’s help, organisms were built that could nearly exist in a vacuum. Abby used the airplane to explore the world, making a vital stop at the condemned Setterton to search the deep caves for Entomology for its expertise in insect based evolutions. More advances were made when it came to things like shortening lifespans and establishing new species. They were never able to convince it to relocate or form a true peace with Lucid or any other humans, but a trade system was established, which worked well for both parties involved.
Lucid’s dungeon grew so large that he was able to communicate at vast distances, but even that was merely a temporary measure. Years turned to decades of practice. Experiments were done. Successes and failures, celebrated in equal measure. Airships turned into low orbit space ships, piloted by a pair of individuals, one enthralled communicator and one unenthralled magic wielding pilot. Abby became the first person to see the whole world, even if it was from very far away.
Due to the advances in technology, less and less people had to be farmers, freeing them up to do other things, like develop more magi-tech for themselves. The Dungeon Rats continued their simple lives as adventurers for Lucid, collecting exotic monsters around the world. Felecia found new love, but never had children again. Grant’s little sister Sasha grew up to be a chemist of all things, enjoying life filled with modern conveniences and scientific advances that never saw the rugged life of the outside world. Mr. Mayflower and Mrs. Brook became Mr. and Mrs. Mayflower, parenting a very energetic litter of children. Abby and Owyn had two kids of their own, but never stopped doing what they enjoyed.
Nearly eighty years of development later, Lucid’s dungeon vanished from the world.
Owyn retired from adventuring to become a lecturer, and eventually founder of Mycroft University. Abby never stopped exploring the world, and constantly took Owyn’s students on field trips to learn things in the real world. The village without a name became a city, and eventually the foundation of Lucid Kingdom, but this was after Abby and Owyn’s time. Angler, with his practice of being King of the Pond, made for an interesting first ruler.
As more people immigrated to the kingdom, they would notice people praying not to the Goddess, but supposedly to the moon. Every so often, all of the thralls would look to the moon as one, almost like they heard something. Each of them swore they heard something, but nobody was ever able to actually confirm anything.
It was Abby and Owyn’s oldest grandchild, the one who appointed themselves as head of the Lucid Space Program, and one of the last of Lucid’s still living thralls that eventually heard his voice. Loud and clear.
Phase one complete. Lunar environment established. Survivable environment established beneath the surface.
Send the astronauts.