Alistair inspected his new armor with Identify, still in disbelief at the staggering value of this prize compared to anything they had won before.
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ITEM:
Tier: [Legendary]
Name: Rulkith Lusak (Sentiel's Garb)
Qualities:
[Soulbound] [Kinetic Regeneration And Strengthening] [Protection Of Mind And Soul] [Poison Protection] [Summoner's Storage] [Comfort Array]
Description: A full set of enchanted sepaskarite alloy armor. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is inscribed with powerful and useful enchantments. It was crafted by Nuk, a 7th grade Master Craftsdwarf. It protects the user from harm of physical and magical nature. It is enchanted with [Kinetic Regeneration & Strengthening], [Summoner's Storage], [Protection of Mind and Soul], and the [Comfort Array] enchantment.
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Alistair was quite happy with the upgrade to his armor, though he lamented the loss of the Graxidae material it was made of. Seeing the Freedom of Movement and Healing Touch enchantments disappear after having been integrated into his armor for so long felt strange.
There was no way they could afford to let this dungeon slip away, even considering Alistair's above-average luck. The potential of having people farm this dungeon was invaluable; the sheer diversity of loot could offer endless insights into enchantments and provide them with plants and alchemical ingredients they could potentially propagate—all within a relatively safe environment. He exchanged a glance with Riseth and knew she was thinking the exact same thing. If it came down to it, they would use the Realm Catcher to ensure this dungeon could be integrated into Rathos.
Dungeon-enchanted materials were highly coveted, often providing fresh, creative, and arcane insights into rune structures. While the unaspected concept runework remained elusive, the newly attuned kinetic runes were crystal clear to Alistair. He was already beginning to glean valuable insights from them. Once he had the time to fully dissect the enchantment structure and return to Rathos, he planned to share his findings, contributing to the ever-expanding knowledge of enchantments.
P.A.L. did his best to keep them in the dungeon longer, but once they mentioned contacting their people to move the station immediately, he almost seemed eager for them to leave. He rushed them into the elevator, which moved noticeably faster than it had during their previous rides. Even the elevator’s cheery tunes were accelerated, which momentarily worried them before they came to an abrupt halt, the doors opening to the dungeon's entrance lobby. P.A.L. cheerfully wished them a great day and urged them to come back soon.
They waved and stepped out of the dungeon, finding themselves back on the underside of the flying island, with the sun just beginning to rise over the horizon.
"That was fucking weird," Alistair said, glancing back at the dungeon door embedded in the rocky surface.
"But definitely worth it. I’m going to contact Nessyra immediately," Riseth replied.
It didn’t take much to convince Nessyra. She promptly sent them a return message informing them that she had rescheduled the next recruitment tour to prioritize securing the dungeon after Alistair and Riseth confirmed that the island could be moved without magical interference. The Kaiakos arrived within a week, and during that time, Alistair and Riseth sticked close to the dungeon and regularly visited the Liliy, though they didn’t discover many new beasts of interest in the area. King, however, who traveled further than them, quickly grew bored with the monsters on the planet. Fortunately, The Platinum Lily’s Pet Battle events were completed three days into their wait. They had to reassure the Administrator that King wasn’t just an ordinary summon, which led the admin to spend extra time creating stronger beasts that could potentially challenge him. Luckily, since the event was life-guarded, creating such beasts was less intensive than the Administrator had initially feared, as confirmed by his P.A.L. persona.
When the Kaiakos finally arrived, Alistair used his Telekinesis to lift the entire island into orbit, carefully loading it into the massive empty hangar of the Kaiakos and assisting the crew in securing it. They handed over the beasts they had captured, along with detailed instructions for the beastmasters. In return, they received a comprehensive update on the progress of the Lacustrine expansion. Multiple smaller colonies had been successfully established across the planet, finalizing the planetary defense grid and utilizing natural formations such as dragonveins and cycling river systems as bases of operation. These efforts would be reinforced and expanded from there, but for now, Alistair and Riseth were relieved to know that Lacustrine, and to a lesser extent Nautilis, were well-protected.
In other news, Alistair's suggestion to elevate mundane Earth plants with magic was met with partial success. He was shown images of fields and orchards where the plants grew unevenly and in patches—some had successfully absorbed the infused essences, growing much more slowly than the mundane variants. However, the end results for most crops were still unknown, and the herbalists and botanists were cautiously optimistic that if not this batch, another would eventually yield desirable results.
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An expeditionary team had also discovered another dungeon on Lacustrine, though it was fairly standard, featuring a diverse array of monsters within a cave system. The dungeon core wasn’t as intelligent as those they had previously encountered, but it did produce a unique, extremely sturdy ore. This provided them with an endless source of material that meshed well with their Dragonstalk bamboo.
The most intriguing news, however, was about a volcanic planet recently discovered by one of their new exploration vessels. Rich in ores and gems, the planet was also teeming with draconic monsters, including various subspecies of dragons. Alistair was hesitant to visit the planet, knowing that while King was strong, he would struggle to take down even a regular low-tier dragon unless luck or an affinity advantage was on his side. Dragons possessed incredible inherent power advantages, such as a natural mastery of magic and higher-than-average intelligence and cunning, with most dragons becoming sapient by the time they reached grade 8 or 7 at the latest.
Before he departed, Sotarr expressed interest in discussing their summons, and Alistair hoped it was to offer training or assistance for them. However, he suspected Sotarr might instead try to convince him to release Viv from her summoning contract, perhaps keeping her as a pet rather than a summon. Alistair and Riseth had done their best to train King, Fluffy, and Viv. While King and Fluffy made significant progress, Viv struggled to fully grasp the training due to her limited intellect. They had tried various methods, even bringing in Desily, whose concept of Entropy was linked to Viv’s Void concept, but progress with Viv remained slow. Alistair still had a pill of enlightenment but was hesitant to use it. Viv was already quite smart for a cat and would likely reach enlightenment on her own. He also worried that artificially accelerating her intellect might fundamentally change their relationship.
There were other interesting planets that had been discovered that were worth checking out, though the longer they waited, the more powerful the dragons would become; there was also a chance of a particularly ambitious and cruel dragon rising to prominence by slaying its brethren and reaching a high enough grade to traverse space on its own. Since their exploration vessel had prioritized safety, they hadn't approached or observed the dragon's behavior for too long but had at least one instance of two different subtypes fighting where one killed the other.
Alistair mulled things over; further training might not yield the result they needed as the largest thing holding back both Fluffy and King was that they didn't know their core concepts, and none of the measuring items they had indicated that it was one of the assorted concepts they couldn't even narrow it down as there were just too many concepts to go through, Melissa was working on a skill to identify others core concepts but until she made more progress, they wouldn't be able to discern the exact concept, and could only work with the ones they knew their summons had a strong affinity for. He left a message with the crew of the Kaiakos that he wanted to be informed as soon as Melissa managed to develop the skill.
"We need to make a decision," Riseth said, leaning against one of the Kaiakos' bulkheads. "Do we head to that dragon planet and see if King can find a low-tier dragon he could potentially take on, or stick to the plan—collect beasts and use the extra time to prepare him until we hear back from yoursister?"
"I’ve already arranged for them to contact us when she’s ready," Alistair replied. "But if King finds out about this planet, he’ll jump at the chance, ready or not. His pride won’t let him back down."
Riseth nodded thoughtfully. They didn’t like keeping King—or any of their companions—in the dark, but this was likely the safest approach. If King could defeat a low-tier dragon, it would trigger his evolution into a dragon himself. According to the information available, consuming a dragon’s heart would catalyze that transformation. But defeating a dragon was no small feat for a wyvern. King’s unknown core concept and original species would heavily influence what kind of dragon he’d become. Most likely, he’d evolve into a completely new species, becoming the progenitor of that line. The chance that another grikad wyvern had evolved into a dragon and shared King’s concept or a related one and shared similarly rich records was unlikely in the extreme. Especially since Grikas seemed to be a new species to their universe, according to Dexter, as there was a distinct lack of historical information few other monsters shared.
His core concept will, one way or another, be a massive factor, Alistair thought as they prepared to disembark from the Kaiakos. They were the best example of this—neither of them had mastered their concepts yet, but with Sotarr's guidance, they improved by leaps and bounds. Alistair was confident that either of them could easily crush their previous selves in a fight. The realization sent a shudder down his spine, making him acutely aware of just how lucky they were not to have encountered a truly dangerous opponent since leaving the Trial.
Undocking from the Kaiakos, they set a course for a rugged planet they had come across in their initial scouting for a home planet. The planet in question had a strong magical density, but most of its surface was harsh and unforgiving—much like Neshan, with vast deserts, badlands, dense jungles, small salty seas, and a generally hot environment. Such planets often harbored beasts that had either adapted to extreme conditions or altered the environment around them. Both types were highly desirable: the former could provide valuable components like armor plates or specialized aspected cores, while the latter could be a boon to Lacustrine. The equatorial regions of Lacustrine were hot, humid, and covered in their own jungles and rocky terrain, so some of these beasts might feel right at home.
It took their navigation station only a few hours to lock onto the beacon, calculate drift obstacles, and account for interference before they made a brief jump through hyperspace. They soon found themselves orbiting an orange and purple planet. The planet's foliage had a distinct purple hue, creating an intriguing visual that complemented the stunning nebula backdrop. It was orbited by two smaller moons, but as they purposely passed by, neither of them nor their ship's sensors detected any dungeon or notable magical signatures. Instead, they set course for a large canyon, surrounded and partially overgrown by jungle—likely a hotspot for points of interest.
"What do you think we'll find down there?" Alistair asked as the ground loomed closer, their displays lighting up with highlighted beasts and mana signatures detected by the sensors.
Riseth tilted her head thoughtfully. "Definitely more plants, but I'm hoping for some interesting beasts—or even better, an actual realm."