Attune your fourth floor to the Arches of Proliferation:
It is only possible to enter or leave the floor by stepping through an arch
Floor must contain at least 4 arches
All arches in your fourth floor spread your domain at a rate of 1 milliliter/3 second per non minion within the floor
I scanned the interface message and froze. Wasn’t that broken as all hell? Couldn’t I just construct a thousand arches and gain 1000 times the proliferation rate?
To test, I quickly constructed an arch in the town and after a moment calculated that it was spreading cilia at the expected rate of 1 ml per 3 seconds per person. I then constructed a second arch, and...Ah, that made sense. Instead of both arches spreading cilia at a rate of 1 ml/3 seconds per person each, the spreading rate was split evenly between them. This meant that I couldn’t easily abuse the ability and that I should never really try for more than 4 arches.
On the other hand, this ability was vastly more powerful than its substituents by virtue of the fact that it could bypass the square-cube law. The primary problem with [Considered Proliferation] was that it would always expand from a set point. This would result in a polynomial reduction in expansion rate that I doubted I would be able to bypass with additional population since most of the volume would be in the sky — and space — and under the ground. [Arches of Proliferation] however, bypassed this entirely by allowing me to move the arches over time.
Giddy that I had lucked into perhaps the most powerful combination of abilities, I constructed three arches 10 feet underground and a fourth at the location where the most slaves were arriving from. Next, I informed Cortana of the change and bid her to encourage Christina to build a devastating choke point around the arch. After a moment of consideration, I built a fifth arch underground, and then rigged a high-pressure steam box right underneath the western arch. If things got really hairy, I could manually trigger the trap and destroy the arch without collapsing the biome effect.
There was still the question of what ‘cannot enter the floor’ actually meant in practice, and whether an ultra-high tier individual would be able to bypass the biome effect through sheer levels. Before I could properly investigate those questions, a kerfuffle in the town and a strange proclamation drew my attention.
“I vow to protect you with my life!” Kellar said.
Huh?
It took me a second to even figure out the magnitude of the panic descending on my humans. Gella had rushed out, presumably to free more slaves, and spread the news that praying to me can make them ‘immune’ to the locust. Kellar had similarly rushed out but had instead rushed around the town and parked himself right in front of my cave entrance while spouting a nonstop stream of devoted mutterings that I ignored on principle. Similarly, a great panic had descended on the town and the number of prayers I was receiving per second had skyrocketed by an order of magnitude. Something about...Inquisitors?
It was only when I looked at my telescope and trained it farther afield did I realize what had riled up the humans so badly. Racing toward my forest from the west was a group of seven cloaked figures. They sprinted over the land with preternatural grace as their pitch-black cloaks snapped and twisted in the wind of their passing. For some strange reason, none of the shadow swarmlings flying above them descended to attack, which was the only reason their charge was so visible. They were still perhaps a half hour away but extrapolating their land speed to the typical trend in leveling humans put them somewhere in the late tenth tier, or perhaps early eleventh.
Uh oh...
Wait. I should be able to feel such powerful individuals coming from miles away. Literally. How...Oh wow.
The group slammed into my most outer reaches and I instantly understood. While they still looked like sprinting humans from my telescope, my cilia told an entirely different story. They pierced the veil around the invaders with ease. Instead of humans, the seven Inquisitors were tall, purple-skinned bipedal monsters with a thick beard of tentacles sprouting from their chins. They had no noses and floated an inch above the ground as their three overly long clawed fingers channeled some purple levitation magic behind them.
It made perfect sense. I hadn’t felt the so-called Inquisitors coming from miles away because they didn’t have souls. Instead, they were covered in that all too familiar shell of crystallized golden fibers I had learned to hate not so long ago. The Inquisitors weren’t ultra-high-tier humans rushing to stop me but rather summoned minions directly controlled by Deia.
Deia must have some skill to allow her minions to leave her—
“Mama!”
—domain. I could also extrapolate Deia’s level from the strength of her seven minions—
“Mama look!”
My train of thought derailed and I devoted a fraction of my attention to my excitable little daughter as the rest of my focus commanded my Orbital Guardians to unleash hell on the Inquisitors.
Yes, dear? What is it?
“I figured it out! Look! I can whistle!” Betsy punctuated that by belting out a single warbling note through pursed lips that periodically cut in and out as she struggled to hold the whistle. Beside her, the wind spirit did blithe backflips as she encouraged the beholder with expansive gestures and whistles and warbles of her own.
That’s great dear, but it's dangerous in the sky right now, There was no reason why a monster that could levitate an inch off the ground couldn’t rise higher. Come inside for now. You can play with your new friend some other time.
“Wait! Enemies!” Betsy gasped. “Mama! Can I laser them? I’ll be super duper safe way up in the sky. I triple uber duper promise! Please, please, can I fight them. PLEASE!”
The first of my Eyelit Effigies stepped into the path of Inquisitors and were summarily executed. It wasn’t even a battle as the Inquisitors unleashed a series of purple orbs that withered the trees in seconds. Even after I switched my items to chaos resistance gear, my trees got instantly one shot.
Betsy, it is defin—
“No look! Staaaaaaaaaare!”
To my surprise, Betsy’s long-distance attack on the Inquisitors had an effect. They each slowed as a thin layer of stone formed around them. Betsy’s damage was minimal, but her crowd control allowed my Orbital Guardians to all land charged-up eye beams on a single Inquisitor all at once.
The other six inquisitors rushed onwards as one of their numbers stumbled. Its purple skin was faintly scorched and it tried valiantly to break out, but the nonstop explosions pushed it down and didn’t let it raise its hands to summon the spell that allowed it to float. A second later, its fate was sealed as Cortana and the last of my Eyelit Effigies joined the assault with her own eye based ranged attacks.
Huh.
Alright dear, but stay as high as you can alright? These invaders are dangerous.
“Ok! I will.”
Despite it all, the Inquisitor didn’t die and I ran a few calculations to figure out what the hell was going on. A rough estimate indicated that I was outputting somewhere in the range of 15,000 mixed damage per second to the thing. Based on how much visible damage it was taking and my old guesstimates on its health, it had somewhere around...half a million effective hit points. That wouldn’t be a big deal on its own as I could kill it in 30 seconds if that was its only defense. No. It definitely had some sort of regeneration ability that was regenerating most if not all the damage I was dealing to it. I rushed through a half dozen calculations but forced myself to stop as I realized there were too many unknown variables.
Whatever the case, the entire might of my minions would require minutes or even hours to take down a single one of these things.
And there were seven.
Hmm...A pickle.
----------------------------------------
Kellar flexed his fists as he stood at the entrance to the home of his Lord. He licked his lips, a thousand stories of the wrath of Inquisitors flashing through his mind. He didn’t let such dreadful thoughts cloud his mind. He was the Shield. The champion of his God. Chosen specifically because he could stop these creatures. He was given the gift of true sight, after all.
With calm, smooth motions, Kellar tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and gently wrapped it around his eyes. He shouldn’t need them for what was to come. With direct motions, Kellar removed his shirt and fell into a broad defensive stance.
His enhanced vision fed him information as a faint smile lifted the corner of his lips.
He was ready.
From the forest that generously sustained his people, six figures raced out from between the trees. Despite closed eyes, Kellar saw them for what they truly were. Monstrous, purple, tentacles abominations. Yet more proof of Deia’s twisted nature.
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They were here.
A purple bolt flew at him at blistering speeds. Yet he saw all. The twitch of the monster's fingers heralded not just the projectile, but its path and speed as well. With the surety of all-sight. Kellar ducked, smoothly caressing the underside of the projectile as he used his skills to leach energy from the attack.
Two projectiles this time. Kellar saw them both and his smile widened. His open hand closed into a fist and a beam of golden light shattered against the lead Inquisitor. Kellar saw it stumble but he didn’t let his mind linger. He was motion. Flow. He channeled every ounce of tier-five might granted to him by the All Mighty and gathered the strength from the two attacks racing at him.
He saw everything, and so some part of his mind noted how the veins of his arms had gained a purple hue. A devastating power thrummed in his veins every second he held onto his stolen power. But Kellar didn’t rush. He didn’t hurry.
Every second was precious, but no second could be rushed. That was not the way, and so as calm as the moon on a starless night, he waited until the opportune moment.
Release!
The earth exploded in a great wall, pushing back the company of monsters.
More projectiles, but Kellar didn’t mind. His thoughts were elsewhere. Deep in meditation as he danced and dodged. Each motion precise. Perfect. The Lord was relying on him and he could not fail. It was impossible.
Release!
Not a single projectile landed. He was one with himself. Finally at peace. This was his purpose. And he was good at it.
Release!
His hands were stiff. His fingers were purple and trapped in perpetual claws. The veins that had glowed purple were gone. He couldn’t see any veins in either arm anymore. Just solid purple diseased flesh. Hard as crystal but Kellar forced his dead limbs to move, rejecting the weakness of his form.
Release!
They were upon him. He burned his movement ability, dashing back, but it wasn’t enough. Impossible! The Inquisitor matched his retreat. For a second, time seemed to slow. Despite his covered eyes, he saw the creature for what it was. Its creased disgusting face. The slimy mucous that oozed from between its beard of tentacles. Its two beady black eyes that glinting with pure malice.
It punched him.
He activated his most powerful skill and blocked.
His right arm shattered.
The world flickered.
Pain.
His perfect connection to the world vanished like smoke.
Pain.
Black on purple on green on brown. Dazed visions of a beautiful canopy.
Pain.
A friendly face.
Relief.
Her elegant locks cascaded down the side of her concerned face.
The haze retreated and Kellar blinked his eyes. His blindfold was gone but the world was not as it once was. Everything had a purple tint. Tainted. His body was marred. Purple veins pulsed evilly across his exposed chest, spreading the poison through his body. His left arm was entirely consumed, a mere unmoving crystal that ignored his commands. Better than his right, however. Broken. Gone. Where had it gone?
“Thank you for saving him Cortana.”
Kellar groaned. That voice. It was familiar. Cortana? Christina! Yes.
He rolled over, flopping over as his right arm failed to catch him. Right arm?
“Shh, you’re ok, Kellar. Rest now.”
He couldn’t rest. He was the Shield.
“I can’t rest.”
He had...something to do. What was it? A mission. A task.
“I have...I failed.”
The thought crushed him. He collapsed, unable to comprehend the concept in its entirety.
“Hush Kellar,” Gentle hands cradled him. He felt himself turn over to a more comfortable position. “You didn’t fail. You did better than anyone can expect of you.”
Kellar froze. “You’re right. I can still fight. I can still protect. I just need the Lord to grant me more strength. Then I can...I can...”
“What?” Christina grabbed Kellar by the chin, forcing him to look at her. “You would go crawling back to that thing after everything it's done? Look at you. Your body is broken. Haven’t you given enough?”
Kellar tried to push her hand away, but his arm just twitched at the shoulder.
“I haven’t given anything,” Kellar insisted. Begging her with his gaze to help him stand. Help him return to the fight. “Everything I have was given to me. My levels. My strength. A home. Hope.”
“So, what,” Christina stood, looking down at him with barely concealed disgust. “Even when everything you have is taken from you. When all the gifts given to you are lost because you had faith until the very end. What then? You’ll crawl back begging for scraps like a good little pup?”
“The Lord needs me,” Kellar coughed. Struggling to push back the darkness that had begun playing at the edge of his vision. “Please Christina, help me up.”
“Oh yeah?” Christina barked out a condescending laugh. “Well if the lord needs you so much, then ask her to help you up. I’m sure she will listen!”
Kellar coughed again, whispering a short prayer to his hope. His salvation.
I messed up. I’m sorry. If you just give me the strength to stand, I will fix it.
Seconds passed in comfortable silence, but nothing happened. No flood of strength reinforced his limbs. No rejuvenating wave of healing fixed the damage he had taken. All that happened was a tiny bump of warmth in the center of his chest.
Kellar sighed. All the urgency he had felt vanished in an instant. If it was not meant to be, then it was not meant to be.
“Didn’t answer did she?” Christina said. “Typical. Use us like rags and once we are torn and broken they abandon us. And we fall for it! It's the most obvious thing in the world, and yet we are the ones to suffer again and again. It's like an instinct. A disgusting submissive habit that we can’t break free of.”
“You’re wrong,” Kellar murmured. Darkness was closing in. A strange sort of peace muffled her words. He still felt compelled to answer, but her words washed over him like warm waves. He had done his part.
“Oh, yeah? Face it! You’ve just replaced one master for another. You don’t want to be free!”
“You may see it that way,” Kellar murmured again. "But, the difference is. Unlike my old masters. I want to help the Lord, yes? I trust that they have my best interest at heart. That's what really matters."
A second later, his consciousness faded to the rhythmic pounding of his heart. Strong, despite everything.
----------------------------------------
Holy shit on a stick. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When humans want to be, they are overpowered as hell. I mean honestly. A tier 5 holding back six tier-10 monsters for nineteen whole seconds while dealing what I estimated to be nearly 50,000 points of damage in the process? Completely broken.
Shame what happened to him though. Good thing I sent Christina and Cortana over to make sure he didn’t die from his wounds. Another ridiculous skill. Blocking nearly 100,000 damage all by sacrificing an arm?
I would have shaken my head in disbelief if I still had one.
Thing was, I still had six mostly undamaged monsters charging through my first floor. They weren’t even bothering with the tunnels, just bulldozing their way through the walls like they were made of paper. Patently unfair, but who was I complaining, I could modify DNA at a whim.
To slow them down, I started chucking rocks at them since they had no souls to suppress my direct intervention.
I estimated it would still take them around half an hour to reach my core despite the rocks, which meant I had half an hour to figure out some way of defeating these things or I was off to the Gulag. Simple. Just stop six unbelievably powerful monsters who took barely any damage from my minions, dealt enough damage to one shot anything I could throw at them, and could somehow sense my core through a mile of rock.
Hmm.
It was a good question actually. How would I stop such a force? Or more precisely. What was the weakness of Dungeon Monsters? Physical force was out of the question. Even if I had twenty Kellars I doubted I would be able to stop the Deia’s minions. Even if I could somehow elevate Kellar to tier ten, I still doubted he would win handily. The numbers were just stacked too far against me.
That meant I had to do something sneaky to win.
I could try running, but that felt like a truly last resort considering my nature and I wanted to give fighting an honest try before yeeting my core into low earth orbit and restarting.
So what was the weakness of monsters? The obvious difference was their lack of a soul. If I could fill their bodies with my cilia then I could take control of the Inquisitors. The thing was the golden shell surrounding them was still too powerful for me to just break through. All my attempts just glanced off of it like I was hitting it with wet noodles.
That made sense considering our difference in tier, but I couldn’t help but think that the soul was the solution here. What other ways did I have to access the soul...compartment. The slave collar artifact I had stolen from Deia was able to [Harbor Soul] which was how Christina was able to walk around my high-tier areas without repercussions. It was also able to [Command Vessel] so clearly, the artifact must have some access to the soul.
Speaking of, the Dagger of Geas also had access to the soul compartment. It was able to both steal the soul away and insert the soul back into the host without my cilia being present at all.
Wait...
Insert a soul? What would happen if I tried to give an Inquisitor a soul from...let’s say a Shadow Swarmling?
That felt promising, so without waiting for a second longer I summoned a Spectral Nothic using pure mana and placed it in the floor ahead of the Inquisitors. Its claw poked through the floor and it was a trivial task to get its ephemeral claw to pierce the Inquisitor’s foot as it passed by. The ‘attack’ didn’t do any damage but that didn’t matter to the Dagger of Geas. It was inside of the Inquisitor and so could work its magic.
In a fraction of a second the connection was established I ripped the soul out of a Shadow Swarmling in my periphery and shoved it — through the Dagger — into the Inquisitor.
< You cannot craft Artifacts >
Two things happened in rapid succession. First, the golden barrier around the Inquisitor froze in space, no longer connected to the Inquisitor. It didn’t break or dissipate, simply hanging there while the monster continued unimpeded. That alone would have been perfect, except as soon as the soul entered the monster, I received that age-old message and the Inquisitor collapsed in a motionless heap.
I giggled.
The five remaining inquisitors paused as they beheld their fallen comrade. Wind flowed through my tunnels as I spawned a Spectral Treant with a root in each of the invaders.
< You cannot craft Artifacts >
< You cannot craft Artifacts >
< You cannot craft Artifacts >
< You cannot craft Artifacts >
< You cannot craft Artifacts >
Five poor Shadow Swarmlings paid the ultimate price and the rest of the Inquisitors collapsed.
Ahh, it’s good to be a god.
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