Author Note:
Hi folks, it's been a long time. Finally finished this super long chapter. Even though I could spearate it into 3 or 4 chapters, I decided to wrap it in one.
Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately, with the situation at work (new bosses, and the most competent co-worker being promoted to a subsidiary company) and my dear's health issue (chronic kidney), I can't promise you a more regular chapters. Sorry. At least I want to finish this story, you can count me on that.
Anyway, here it is. One alveria's chapter after this for the epilogue of vol. 1
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“My execution? Really?”
With Maa’s remark, the room temperature dropped significantly, forcing me to apply fire enchantment thoroughly to the Dungeon Lord body in order not to freeze. The view before me had turned foggy and several morphers were emerging from the ground.
(Like I’ll let you escape!)
I released a pack of earth spikes in the general area where Maa’ had been standing, right when I sensed his presence began to split from his image under the fog cover. After all, the dungeon was the extension of my consciousness, although what I could sense were very limited when I inside the Dungeon Lord.
My spikes impaled only a morpher, however. Therefore I fired a barrage of earth spikes, starting from around me and the snake and spreading to the entire room.
*CRANK!* *CRANK!* *CRANK!*
My earth spikes met ice spikes half-way with loud sounds. Nonetheless, they were being pushed back his magic output clearly far superior than mine. To respond, I sent the snake forward to wrack the advancing ice with its hard scales, while I myself trying to locate the old mage.
His morphers reacted, together they swarmed the giant reptile. One after another, they turned into ice while holding its long body, trying to stop its movement. Yet, with a strong vigor and the cold resistance, my dragon-to-be easily broke free, destroying the water guardians as if they were fragile glasses. Although, they would return only seconds later. As the process repeated, it became a stalemate.
(There!)
I casted wind enchantment to my legs and kicked the ground hard once I sensed Maa’. Through the tick mist, I swung my fist-emitting-heat once I got close, towards the seemed empty space which I knew where the Fantastica Executive was hiding.
My mistake was, I didn’t prepare for a counter. His staff appeared out of thin air, parrying my swing. Then, a clean kick to my torso that followed put me out of balance. As I took a step back to recover, he froze my lower half. Although the ice melted almost right away thanks to the fire enchantment, the delay made me fell and I had to roll over to avoid being flattenned by his staff-turning-spiky-bludgeon.
When I sat back up, Maa’ had made a distance and put several floating ice spears between us. Actually, not only between us. I looked around and realized I had been surrounded by the similar spears facing my way, ready to skewer me anytime just like in the first room.
Stealing a glance to the giant snake, I was hoping I could get some assistance. Opposite to my expectation, however, it was struggling hard against the ever-increasing-morphers and needed help itself. The reptile’s movement had become dull somehow, which raised me a question, as there were no apparent wounds and it should be way too soon for its stamina to be depleted.
“Urgh!” I exclaimed in surprise as an ice spear pierced my back.
“Do you have the time to look around?” Maa’ asked. “How about now?”
The other floating spears began to fly towards me. I tried to escape. Unsuccess, though. Since they came literally from all directions I didn’t really have a place to run. While defending, from the corner of my eyes I found the reason of my snake’s sluggishness. A morpher was throwing itself into the snake’s opening mouth, causing my poor monster to hiss in pain. Afterward, its movement became even slower than before.
Came to think of it, even though it had hard scales that could repel external attacks, the soft internals organs weren’t protected. Maa’ understood this and had his water guardians using the monster’s big stature to invade its inner part. Now, after it hardly able to move around, the morphers were coming into its mouth non-stop, one after another, until it didn’t move at all.
(This is bad, I can’t win like this. I need to get out of here!)
Losing my will to continue the hopeless fight, I opened a portal below my feet under the neverending ice spear rain. Just in time, because at the same moment I slipped below, Maa’ shot an icy tornado, the same spell that had killed me before. It passed above my head and I landed safely in the new room.
My relief was short lived, however. When I looked above, the tornado was appearing from the portal. My weakened-and-thoroughly-skewered-body jumped backward in reflex, but the spell bounced towards me after hitting the floor. Unable to avoid contact, in my panic my consciousness escaped from the Dungeon Lord.
‘AAARGHHH!!’
My voiceless scream echoed as the
“How foolish,” I heard Maa’, who had followed to the new room, muttered in front of my unrecognizable pieces of my Dungeon Lord.
(Uh. If I was composed enough to remember closing the portal, that spell would have been dispersed and you would still be trapped in that enclosed room, you know. But, I find a way to stay conscious, and that fire enchantment was effective. Not too bad. Just wait, old man, I’m not done yet.)
Maa’ looked around, trying to figure where he was. I knew it better though, we were in one of the earlier rooms of the second level. Fortunately, although I had chosen the room in random, it was nowhere near my heart chamber. The time he would need to get a way out should be enough for me to prepare the next round.
The second level, after all, was a complex maze full with one-way passages - making use of strong wind to force adventurers following a direction; and pedestals that required adventurers to either answer questions or put right stone slabs on them - which each would open a new passage or change the wind direction of a one-way passage.
That was, of course, set to work against normal adventurers. But that geezer was far from normal, I doubted the maze could contain him for too long. Therefore, I had to start my preparation right away and thus left the room.
I checked the main group of the invaders, Tsalja and her companions, before I went anywhere else. I found it was strange for them to still be in the same first level’s last room after all this time. Although, after a better look, there were traces of them climbing down to the second level. I then concluded it had to be because of the work of my mana-suckers. Being considerably weakened, they had no choice but to return upwards.
The adventurers were currently distributing the mana recovery potions among the ones with worse condition, the mages and healers, whom, by my order, were the primary targets for the mana-suckers. Apparently, although they understood it was a mana shortage symptom, they still couldn’t comprehend how and why it happened.
I grinned in my mind. Drinking recovery potion might prolong their life, but it also meant more mana for me in the long term. And as my little mana-suckers kept on sucking, they would only grow stronger and drain faster. They would eventually fall, it was inevitable.
I was about to left the stupid adventurers on their own when I came across something interesting. There was a big frog lurking in the shadow. The voracious-eater, the one that had evolved when I had been screaming over my frustration after my lost to Jiwa, it somehow had survived the slaughter. Moreover, the creature was eating up the invaders’ mana from afar. Slowly but steady.
If someone could see mana, like Halili, they would see a thread coming from the adventurers to the voracious-eater’s chewing mouth. I couldn’t see it, but since it was happening within my dungeon I could sense it somehow.
(So, it wasn’t just the mana-suckers. And my theory was right, voracious-eaters can eat mana. Probably a shot magic too, to some degree. Good, finally a useful evolution from the frogs family.)
I let it knew my presence, before I touched its core with my mind and injected it with a generous amount of mana. Through our link, it sent a grateful feeling. And through the same link, I warned it not to rash and stayed cautious, even it had become much stronger now with the mana I had given.
Feeling satisfied, I moved my consciousness to the forest room in the third level, where once again I spent a lot of mana. I handed out the promised mana prizes to every one of a hundred and twenty-six survivors of the mock battle, a bonus to all seventy fierce rats as the winner, and a bonus for the eleven raptors that had been involved in killing the rattibull and survived.
Finished with my obligation, I considered on how I should welcome Maa’. From my experience, I knew my chance would remain slim, if not non-existent, unless I did something to his overpowered magic.
(Let see… From his fighting style, the old man seems very confident with his mana pool. Maybe I can make use of this?
(Yeah, I’ve those mana-suckers and the new voracious-eaters. The cheater won’t realize even if I drain at a faster rate than to the rest of the adventurers, will he?
(If I can somehow reduce his mana, the number of spells he can use should be limited. It shouldn’t be too one-sided like last time.
(Alright. But I still need a second plan, just in case…
(Hmm, the fire enchantment was effective, wasn’t it?
(Maybe I can enchant my monsters as well?
(No, wait, why not a new race with inherent fire enchantment then? That way I won’t need to worry with the mana upkeep for the enchantment…
(And maybe a place with inherent fire enchantment too! If the location has a very high temperature, the old man’s magic’s effectiveness will be halfed from the start!
(… Hmm, like, a volcano?)
Smiling in my mind, I connected myself my consciousness to the cores of big-eaters survivors in the room and injected some mana, forcing them to evolve into voracious-eaters.
*Ding!*
With your intervention, {Big-Eaters} have evolved into {Voracious-Eaterd}.
‘Find a good hiding place where you can eat Maa’s mana once he enters the room,’ I ordered.
Done with that, my consciousness moved to check Maa’. The Executive was wandering in a one-way passage not too far from where I left him. The thing was, he was walking opposite to the wind direction. By erecting a wind barrier around him, which splitted the air current to his sides, he walked as if it was a normal passage.
I moved ahead to the next room, which had more air pressure caused by a colder temperature, and created cores of mana-suckers. Maa’ arrived in the room not long after the cores had grown splendidly into the tiny monsters. I then had them approached him in a smaller group one in a time to reduce detection risk.
At the time my consciousness left the room, Maa’ was fabricating a dummy slab made of ice in front of a pedestal, with no less than seventy of the mosquito evolutions under his clothes. I did hope he wouldn’t feel too itchy to realize the tiny monsters.
Returning to the forest room in the third level, I considered changing the room into a suitable environment, but decided it wasn’t wise. The creatures without heat resistance would suffer or even die. Therefore, I made a new room between the forest room and the heart chamber with
Bigger than the first level’s last room but much smaller than the third level’s forest room. Pouring my mana, I raised a small rocky mountain - or calling it hill would probably be more appropriate, in the middle of the two cubic kilometers room, along with a magma chamber beneath and a path from the chamber and the top of the hill. It was the first time for me creating magma and it turned out the required mana was tremendous.
I checked my mana, only around thirty thousand left. Thinking back, they were mostly had gone for the forest and volcano room establishments and the mana prizes of the mock battles. The lite golems and their armaments of the earlier battle was the next in the list. It didn’t matter though, with the merchants and adventurers dying here and there, my mana was increasing even now.
Returning from my train of thought, I used
*Ding!*
Requirements meet. New race is acquired!You have successfully created Lava Golem race.
I estimated the newcomer’s power level, it should be able to handle a morpher in either solid ice or liquid water form easily. Although there was a strong temptation to make lava fighter golems too, I resisted. Creating a strong monster from zero did cost a lot. And judging from the lava golem, which had almost thrice its original golem counterpart price, the fighter should be the same if not had more expensive ratio.
If there was any golem survivor, I could use them for evolution material instead. Unfortunately, all of my golems and morphers had been annihilated along with the fighter golem Rowd when I had been unconscious. Creating a normal golem first then evolving it wouldn’t make the cost any cheaper.
(Hmm. Considering the amount of mana left, will it be alright to add more normal lava golem? Won’t evolving other race, by adding fire element, be economically better?)
Deciding so, I directed my mind to my dragons to be, the raptors. When I was about to move my consciousness, however, the volcano was erupting for the first time. The thundering sound, enough to make me cringed and closed my non-existent ears with my non-existent hands, and the following lava that swept the shaking ground waried me.
Yet, to my delight, not only the lava golem withstood the hot current, it was also absorbing both the molten rock and the dangerous gas. Although there were no visible changes outside, I knew it got stronger inside. Actually, after a better look, the black frame had become thicker and the burning red parts were brighter.
Not to waste the good news, I created another nine of lava golems and released them into the lava flow, making no more than fifteen thousand mana points left in my possession. It was still increasing, though, so no worries. I just hoped the two and half meters tall humanoids could get close to their evolution forms, the lava fighter golem, with the amount they were absorbing.
Departing from the volcano room, what I found was a chaotic forest room. Last time I there, before I created the volcano room, I hadn’t realized as I had been in deep thought. There was an ongoing war between the lizard family and the rat family, and the third neutral party dragged in between.
The cause was the raptors, according to the report from s-flies. Their leader, the smart looking raptor that had eaten the rattibull’s core during the mock battle, had been scheming to kill another rattibull and eat its core too. The very act had invited revenge from the rats and hence the war.
(Uh, why… right in the middle of my preparation against Maa’ too!)
I brought myself towards one of the two hills in the room, which had been claimed by the raptors as their headquarter. Over there I saw their leader, now a lizardman of some sort, with brown scales covering most of his body and a pair of small horns on his head.
(Horn? Is it because he ate rattibulls? Hmm, but if that’s the case, how did the fierce rats turn into rattibull and have horns to begin with? … Nevermind, the dragons have horns too, don’t they? It suits my plan.)
I rid of my useless thought and observed the situation. The lizardman was standing tall in the middle of the hill while chewing a rat and giving orders around. A busy scene. Except for several scattered groups that were feasting on corpses of fierce rats and what looked like remnants of a rattibull, they seemed uninterrupted by the bustle in their surrounding.
When I approached, the leader had to be feeling my presence, as he hurriedly kneeling down. The other lizards and their evolutions followed, they stopped whatever they had been doing and showed a submissive posture.
‘You better have a good reason for causing this mess in the middle of a raid, lizard. For your own good,’ I threatened.
“Master-ss. Having few stronger individuals give us better chance than many weakling-ss,” the lizardman replied. Hzard was his race name.
“Kee kee keek… Then why don’t you sacrifice yourself to make me stronger!” said a figure jumping down from a portal that opened above the hzard.
The reptile hissed, he quickly rounded himself and received the newcomer’s claw with his back, which was covered with hard scales. The black furred attacker then flipped the lizardman using his bullhorn and charged forward, planting his sharp teeth in his prey’s shoulder while holding the arms with his own.
“Hissssss!”
Didn’t want to stay at disadvantageous position, the evolution of raptor wrapped his long tail to his attacker’s thigh. His long neck and snout also allowed him to bite his opponent’s shoulder in return.
‘ENOUGH!’ I roared.
Every creature flinched before freezing altogether. The rattibulls and fierce rats that had come down from the portal, along with the raptors that had moved to defend their base, including the lizard boss and the horned ratman that being locked each other.
‘Let go!’ I told.
Reluctantly the ratman released his teeth and the lizardman did the same. Separated, they glared each other with killing intent but didn’t dare to make further move.
“Kee keek… Master, I ‘now they are your favorite, but they killed our brethren. We want revenge!” the ratman, a rattaur, protested.
‘Didn’t you kill your own brethren too in order to evolve?’ I replied coldly.
The rat boss expression changed. He couldn’t find an answer, but obviously not satisfied.
‘Listen,’ I said. ‘I give you two a way to compete, slay the mage Maa’ for me, and I’ll evolve whoever able to do it. You can continue the bloodshed after the raid if you want, but remember, whoever get the evolution reward will have huge advantage over the other.’
“Master-ss,” the hzard hissed. “Even you were lost to him, how do you expect us to win-ss?”
“Kee kee keek… I ‘ave to agree with the bastard, Master,” commented the rattaur beside him.
‘I’ll give you a fire enchantment that will help you survive the freezing spell, a weapon of your choice that can absorb mana for you, and a right as the queen of your race. The method is up to you,’ I said.
The two exchanged a glance and looked unsure. Ignoring them, I continued, ‘You can choose a weapon from the list of items now.’
“Kee keek… Then I’m first,” the rattibull evolution claimed, didn’t want his rival to get a head start. “I want that exotic weapon that looks like an arm’s extension, keek…,” he said, sending the image of a pair of katars through our link. I hadn’t know such a weapon was there in my long list until the rattaur pointed out.
The replica of the weapon appeared following the light particles. I then made a core of the same type as the one in the first room’s stone pedestal for mana tribute. Except, I removed the minimum mana level limiter, so it would begin absorbing regardless the target’s remaining mana, and the mana would be accumulated in the core instead of directly go to me.
‘Done,’ I said, after attaching the core to the weapon and setting the absorbing surface.
The rattaur happily took the katars from ground and tested their sharpness. He got surprised and pulled off his hand right away, though, when touching the blade.
‘Touch the core to collect the mana,’ I told. Turning to the only hzard in my dungeon, I said, ‘It’s your turn.’
“... How exactly the absorbing mana ability works-ss, Master-ss?” he asked, instead of choosing a weapon.
‘It’ll absorb mana when the target comes in contact with the blade,’ I answered. ‘The longer it touches, the more it’ll absorb.’
“... Then-ss, can I have the ability to breath fire-ss?”
“Kee kee keek, master said weapon. What are you thinking?”
“The weapon is for melee-ss. I’m already strong in melee-ss.”
‘You can do it yourself after you become a queen. Now, what weapon do you want?’
“... Spear-ss. Sword-ss. Axe-ss. Shield-ss. And a chain-ss.”
“Keek! Are you mad? How are you going to use that many?”
“…”
I felt the hzard was making a fun of me, but then, he shouldn’t dare to. Dungeon creatures were very loyal to their master after all, making them trustworthy more than the humans. Considering calmly, I concluded the smart monster had to have a reason behind his ridiculous request. However, I wasn’t in the mood to just approved everything he asked, neither to make an effort to find the reason. I simply created replica of sword and shield and set them with cores.
‘There. Find the rest yourself from the adventurers,’ I told, ending the discussion.
Next, I connected to the hzard’s core and injected some heat. Not as much as the lava golem, but should be enough to prevent ice from forming. I then applied
*Ding!*
With your intervention, {Hzard} has evolved into {Hzard - Fire variant}.
Moving to the rattaur, I injected heat to his core as well. Unfortunately, I had no knowledge of the previous katar wielder or how the weapon should be used. However, since the rattaur’s body structure put emphasis on speed, I used
*Ding!*
With your intervention, {Rattaur} has evolved into {Rattaur - Fire variant}.
The two’s appearance changed slightly. The hzard’s brown scales had become darker, while the rattaur’s black fur was now a bit reddish. They checked their own hands and body, figuring out the changes.
Last but not least, I appointed the two as queens of their respective race family.
‘Your target is almost here, queens,’ I told, as I sensed Maa’ almost cleared the second level. ‘Good luck!’ I said.
“Kee kee keek… One thing, Master. I’m a male. I don’t ‘now ‘bout the bastard here, but I prefer to be called King rather than Queen,” the rat boss said.
I nodded, in my mind. ‘Understandable. I’ll refer you both as kings from now on.”
“Kee kee keek… Thank you. Don’t forget your promise, I will be the one who take this thorn mage out from our home,” he declared, before opening a portal and signalling his retainers to follow him through.
Meanwhile, the lizard boss didn’t move at all from his standing still position. He was probably experimenting with his new ability as a race quee- king, or making a plan, or whatever useful, I hoped.
I withdrew from the hill, leaving the hzard and raptors and went to the room entrance. Maa’ would appear soon, but there was still a little time I could use. Thus, I created various traps and spread them throughout the forest room. Naturally, my creatures knew where they were located and should be able to avoid them.
Maa’ finally showed himself in the forest room. He curiously observed the change of scenery for a while, before entering the forest. A step of his triggered my arrow trap, then another triggered a boulder to drop from a tall tree, then fell a ball of water that could drown people. Too bad they never past his wind barrier, but I had expected that much.
At the same time, the voracious-eaters had began working on his mana, eating the substance from afar.
Suddenly a portal opened above Maa’ and the appearing rat king thrusted with his new weapons. The wind barrier blew him away, however. Yet, with a salto he lightly landed and then charged again. And again. And again. He attacked relentlessly from various angles with amazing speed. Stabbing. Slashing. Headbutt. Tail whip.
Maa’ fought back. At first, he tried to freeze the rattaur, but since it didn’t work he shot ice spikes and ice spears combined with some wind blasts. The agile ratman couldn’t forever escape, and soon he was cornered. I called for help, which several stone bats and cave pumas answered. Sadly, they were quickly wiped out and became ice statues. Or to be precise, broken ice statues. In the end, the rattaur had to run through a portal to save his own life.
Wondering where was my other king, I found him playing with some adventurers in the first level. He maimed his preys, drained their mana dry, killed them, and went to ambush another group afterwards. Had eaten two rattibulls, he was probably stronger than the fighter golem Rowd used to be, thus adventurers below B-rank stood no chance. It was clear the reptile man was gathering resource, probably planning to evolve himself before facing Maa’.
Back to the Executive, he had been reactivating his continuous freezing field and morpher summoning, leaving a trail of ice and now-a-dozen-but-keep-increasing morphers guarding around him. It didn’t make him invincible though, when a landmine was triggered it destroyed a number of the morphers and gave his mana-barrier a considerable damage for a moment.
The incident was enough making Maa’ took out a recovery potion. It was then when the horned ratman decided to reappear. His hand came through a portal, breaking the being drunk potion bottle, and pulled it back before the enraged wizard could do anything.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
(Good job! To take a mana potion out, his mana must be running low. Finally! As long as we can prevent him to recover, we should be able to corner him!)
My rat king began using hit and run tactic with the support of traps placement from me and occasional snipe from a squad of armed monkeys. Our coordination got better over time. In fact, if this continued, it would be a matter of time before the mage fell.
Still, Maa’ wasn’t stupid. He learnt our patterns and his bait almost costed me the rattaur, if not for some gi-ants pulling the unconscious rodent to underground together and several rattibulls sacrificed themselves to cover the escape.
‘You’ve done enough, get some rest first,’ I told, after restoring the rattibull evolution.
“Kee kee keek. Crazy opponent. No wonder you are so troubled, Master.”
‘Indeed.’
I left him and went back to Maa’, who had his morphers swept his surrounding area while the person himself taking a rest and gulping another mana recovery potion.
(!! Uwaah, I let him drank the potion!)
Nevertheless, I couldn’t let the water guardians to find the hiding voracious-eaters, thus I blasted them with landmines. I also planted several mines under the resting mage, which created a huge fire pillar. To my frustration, however, although I managed to extinguish the barrier, the man was left unharmed. And a pack of bullets from the monkey squad a second later could only meet a newly erected mana-barrier.
In the hope to finish his last bit of mana before he recovered too much, once again I planted landmines under his feet and created another fire pillar. Yet, this time I caught only his morpher clone. The real Maa’ had managed to slip after the bullets had hit.
I grimaced. Then spammed the landmines over and over, but they never landed a clean hit. It was like Maa’ had already predicted my attacks and got better at evading every time. It obviously didn’t work. In the end, I could only watch as the Executive walked away, not sure on what I should do.
Sighing, I let my consciousness wandered through the vast forest room looking for ideas. Many moments later, I found myself back in where the battle had taken place. Only, the frozen corpses there had lost their cores. The rattibulls, stone bats, and cave pumas. Wondering on what had happened, it turned out to be the rattaur’s doing, according to the s-flies. Not only them, the gi-ants that had saved the rattaur also had become a core-less corpse.
(What is he doing? Surely eating a core, especially a strong one’s like rattibull’s, is a short way to get a lot of mana in one go. But to even deliberately kill your saviors for that…)
I looked for the ratman. I did found him in the first level, he was scavenging the corpse of the giant snake, but at the same time I felt the level was too quiet somehow. I therefore scanned the entire level and it turned out it had been cleaned up. All freezing creatures had become core-less and there were only few alive things.
Tsalja’s main group, who had only a half-dozen left, were heading towards the exit and would soon meet Alveria and Crystela who moved the opposite direction. Those were the only remaining adventurers. Other than them were the rattaur, the hzard, and a frogman with stone frame.
(Frogman?)
When I checked, it urned out he was the evolution of voracious-eater called omnifroga.
(Ah, it’s the first voracious-eater, isn’t it? Did he evolve after eating the adventurer’s mana? Wait, the stone frame… Don’t tell me… Yes, no mistake, he must’ve eaten the boss Rowd’s core that was hold by Tsalja. Good job taking it back, froggy.
(Hmm, what's the hzard doing there, by the way? Uwaah, he stabs froggy!? Why?!!)
The frogman tried to fight, but he was no match to the lizardman. He lost his life and had his core forcefully taken out. And eaten. I understood the live in a dungeon was about kill or be killed, but couldn’t help feeling sick when I saw the ones I had interacted with being murdered in front of me.
‘Mind to explain what’re you doing? Why do you need to kill your comrade when there’re obvious enemies you can hunt?’
Looking up, the lizardman replied. “Master-ss,” he hissed, while swallowing the cores of the sword and shield I had given him. “Unlike you, we don’t have a comprehensive understanding of a body structure-ss. The little that we know comes from the evolution path we unlock-ss, and from other’s core we eat-ss.’
‘Kee kee keek… That’s right, Master,’ the horned ratman, already back to the forest room in the third level, commented through our link. ‘That’s how things are for us, kee keek.’
‘... Does it have anything to do with why you set a blaze in the forest?’ I asked, after moving my attention to his place.
“Oh, this? Kee kee keek. I found a rare- wait, here comes my prey. *Stab!* *Slice!* … *Grab!* *Gulp!* Fu~ This is amazing, keek. Sorry, Master, it’s a rare white spider with annoying invisibility. I burn their nest to lure it out. Kee keek…”
‘! That flaming spider just now was a terrortula?!’
“Keek… terrortula? Sorry, I didn’t check. Does it matter?”
‘Uh, nevermind.’
(The second terrortula has finally appeared and you just killed it? Uh, I want to smack him good…)
“Keek, I now understand how to become invisible. After I feast the rest of the grilled spiders, we can finally turn the table, Master. Kee kee keek…”
‘Your time’s up-ss, rodent-ss. It’s my turn now-ss,’ the hzard said.
Following his words, the reptile fell to his four and began shedding skin. I couldn’t help but to watch the process expectantly.
What came out from the old scaled-skin was a majestic figure. It was a dragon! Not the four legged beast but a humanoid type, with sharp claws on all two legs and two arms. What covering him looked more like a metal armor than hard scales, and the metal-like scales were all over the body. Most of them were of dark color, except the front parts - or the lower parts, if he was walking in four - from neck to tail, which had dark yellow color.
Spoiler :
http%3a%2f%2fimg.photobucket.com%2falbums%2f1003%2fZ...ahamut.png [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/Zzzzz/ccbahamut.png]
Spreading his bat-like wings and straightening his long neck, his loud roar could be heard in the whole first level. It caused the adventurers of both Alveria’s and Tsalja’s groups, which now had met, restless. Not that I care. My dragonoid race then kicked the ground and flapped his wings, he was testing his flight ability. Probably because he had also absorbed the experience and knowledge of his preys after eating their cores, he flew smoothly despite it was his first time.
‘Splendid,’ I praised. Thinking for a moment, I said, ‘Since your previous race was hzard, I’ll call you Hazard from now on. May you become a hazard for our enemies.’
“It’s a great honor to receive a name from you, Master,” he bowed his long-horned head in the mid-air. His hissing was gone, replaced by a deep, heavy voice. “With your permission, I’ll go take care of your concern now.”
I nodded. “Good luck.”
Opening a portal parallel with the floor, the dragonoid folded his wings and dived in. Just when it was closing, the other king called.
‘I would like to have a name too, Master. Keek.’
Thus, I went back to the rattaur’s location in the forest room. He had finished his meals and evolved into a ratsassin. His overall appearance looked like an armored version of his previous self, with snake’s scales became a helmet, a body armor, arm protectors, and shin protectors. His fur had reverted to black, though.
Not only his appearance, his overall fighting abilities had also increased. Every scratch he made would be lethal, as they were poisonous in addition to causing burns as before. And of course, he inherited the ability to blend with his surrounding and muffled step characteristic of terrortula. Unlike the dragonoid, however, the rodent man decided to keep his gifted weapons, the pair of katars, with him.
(An assassin, huh? Let see… Do I know any infamous assassin? From mangas or games, maybe? Hmm. Assassin… assassination… ansatsu... ansatsuken?)
‘Alright. From now on you’re Ken, my sword and fist to deal with enemies.’
“Keek. Thank you,” the armored ratman screeched happily. “Then, I will take my leave,” he said, crossing the katars in front of him and bowing, before vanishing from sight. When a portal opened and then closed again, I knew he had left the still burning, formerly spider nest location.
I sensed where Hazard was and moved my consciousness there. A vast area of the forest had turned white and a raging blizzard made the visibility almost zero. Not a very friendly situation for a flyer like the dragonoid. Still, the battle was very intense. The morphers continuously shot ice shards from their both arms like anti-aircraft machine guns, forcing the winged reptile to fly low between the trees. There were some obvious injuries on him.
(This… it’s completely different than any of the previous battles. Was the old man holding back?)
*KA-BOOM!*
A group of morphers that got too close together were blasted by Hazard’s breath. Their number didn’t seem to decrease, though, as more morphers emerged from the snowy ground. Several merged up into a giant morphers, which its fist was bigger than the dragonoid. It wasn’t fast enough to catch him, however, and had to collapse after one of its legs was blown up by another breath.
‘Haz!’ I called.
‘Master!’ he replied, while making a sharp turn, causing two of his pursuers to shoot each other.
‘Help me locate the white wiz-’
‘ABOVE!!’
Too late. As his tail swing crushed a morpher’s upper body, a tornado came from his back. With my warning, he was able to turn around and receive the hit at front. It pushed him to crash the ground and dragged him quite afar afterwards, nevertheless.
Although he managed to reduce the spell’s strength by eating up its mana while receiving the it, it was still the spell that had destroyed my Dungeon Lord twice. To be able to stand up afterwards, and even fight the approaching morphers despite losing an arm, had countless cracks in his metal scales, and had his wings torn up, I really had to give him a plause.
I quickly connected to his core and sent my mana to recover him. In the meantime, Ken had tracked the icy tornado spell back to its source and launched a sneak attack. Few shallow cut was all he managed, however, before he was surrounded. With his footprints left on the snow and without any long range in his arsenal, the morphers that shooting ice shards soon owned the ratsassin. I quickly connected with his core too, keeping both kings in their life line against multiple enemies.
‘Withdraw!’ I commanded. ‘I’ll take care the rest.’
‘We still can-’
‘Don’t make me repeat myself!’
‘Keek. Alright. Don’t die, Master.’
‘As you wish, but we will come to aid after we recover.’
The two reluctantly agreed and then each tried to make a distance to open a portal. Their opponents wouldn't let them escape easily, though, and I had to blast some landmines in order to help. At least they passed through to the other side of the portals, although not without some morphers that persistently attached. Still, with such a great distance there should be a limit on what Maa’ could do and they were in the middle of their own underlings anyway. They should be fine.
Thus, I cut the connection with their core and turned my consciousness to the volcano room, my last line of defense.
Yet, the lava golems were nowhere to be seen, and I began to panic when I couldn’t find their presence after I searched.
(... Did something happen while I was gone?)
I rushed to the heart chamber and be glad to find my dungeon heart was intact. It didn’t seem anyone had entered either. However, seeing my heart was so open on the wall, I couldn’t help to feel uneasy.
(Ah, if I remember correctly… Yup, I was right.)
I didn’t remember if it was there from the beginning or the function had been added somewhen as my dungeon grew, but I could make a dummy heart with
It had the same size as my real one, and did beat like a real dungeon heart. I mean, the rhythmical glow inside the crystal heart was like a pulse. However, it couldn’t imitate my unique rainbow-color crystal heart and had normal heart’s dark red instead.
(Not that he knows my heart color. Well, being an experienced adventurer, Maa’ probably can tell it’s a fake. Hmm, but it’s still better than nothing I suppose.)
Satisfied with my work, once again I looked for the lava golems. According to the s-flies, no one had come into or out from the room. However, they couldn’t provide me the information within, since the volcano room was too hot for the s-flies.
(Funny. Are they really died? But what could have happen?)
Thinking it wasn’t convenience if I couldn’t know of what happen in the volcano room, I connected to several s-flies’ core and injected them with magma heat, just like the way I had done with the rattaur and the hzard.
*Ding!*
With your intervention, {S-Flies} have evolved into {S-Flies - Fire variant}.
I told the new variant s-flies to enter the volcano room and began their surveillance mission. At the time, the ground was shaking. Shortly after, the volcano was coughing, and followed by a rain of volcanic ashes. A crazy idea of what might happen crossed my mind.
(It can’t be… No, it’s possible. The lava made them stronger, if they followed their instinct to look for the source…)
My consciousness entered the crater and followed the path down to the magma chamber. Soon, I spotted the ten cores inside the magma. Disappointed at what should be my defenders had become, I reached them with my consciousness in the hope that I still could restore them. Yet, I pleasantly surprised with what I found.
They hadn’t lost their consciousness nor in dormant state like a killed monster. Instead, it was like they were sleeping. My reach made them awoke and their presence became more obvious instantly, although still overshadowed by the magma’s great heat.
‘The enemy is coming. I need you to get out from there. Now,’ I told, through our link.
Ten cores were moving upwards to the magma surface. A humanoid-shape magma then came out, followed by others. They were nothing like the lava golems I had left, less solid, almost like the morphers. Except, what were dripping from their bodies weren’t harmless water but very hot molten rock, which soon reabsorbed by their main bodies. They were a completely new entity different from the lava golem, a race called inferno.
The ten infernos gathered in one place and merged into one giant inferno, which then climbing up the crater.
Meanwhile, an s-fly notified through our link that Maa’ was approaching the end of the forest room. Thus, once again I used
*Ding!*
Requirements meet. New skill is acquired!You can now use
*Ding!*
Requirements meet. New skill is acquired!You can now use
*Ding!*
Requirements meet. New subskill is acquired!You can now use
(Uwaah… What’s this? I can’t... stand...)
I tried to get up, but fell again as soon. Without a solid body, it was so hard to maintain a form, let alone moving. I was nothing but a lump of hot liquid, flowing down from my throne to the raised platform and continued to the floor. Fortunately, Maa’ walked slowly with caution. He even took a stop in front of the forest room’s exit, probably wanted to recover as much mana as possible before progressing any further.
And so, I used the next half hour, or possibly more, to figure how to control the new body.
I still failed to personally welcome the guest when he came, however, and the party started without me. The old mage, with a set of armor of ice on him so he could withstand the hot volcanic ground, summoned his morphers and they clashed with my infernos. At the beginning, my lava guardians overwhelmed the water guardians with ease, evaporating them with each contact.
The white-haired Executive managed to cover the morphers’ weakness with sheer number, however. One would appear as soon as the other was dispersed, with about the same rate. While stalling my army by doing so, he rained the field with ice spears. Not they were effective, as they already lost most of their masses before reaching their targets, and burnt the moment they touched the infernos.
“
The fire variant s-flies continued on providing me the vision of the ongoing battle while I perfecting the control of my Dungeon Lord in the heart chamber.
When I finally joined the party, the first thing I did was I sending a rain of fireballs to Maa’, disrupting his channeling and thus saving another inferno from the cruelty of
The old mage quickly moved away from his position with a barrier up under heavy attack of fireballs and earth spikes. Then suddenly the temperature in the room dropped drastically and, together with the wind that began to blow hard, snow started to fall and mix with the volcanic ashes. A blizzard and a volcano, no matter how weird that combination might sound, it was happening.
To be honest, I don’t remember too much details of what happened afterwards, as I let my instinct took me over in the heat of battle. I still vaguely remember I tried to envelope him with my hot liquid body, but that was all. The next time I came to, I already lost a good chunk of my body mass, with the rest was being constricted by a ice cuffs. He had to keep pouring mana for the cuffsnot to melt.
No matter where I looked, all was white, although I wasn’t sure whether those were ashes or snow. Holes everywhere, some with lava fountain. None of my lava golems could be seen in the devastated room.
“... Have you come to your sense at last, Dungeon Master Arz?”
“Haaa… Haaa… Maa’...,” I recognized the man before me. His neat appearance was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a weary looking old man with tattered clothes, full of burns and cut. He seemed to be more pale than what I had remembered.
“Good grief. You’re the such a troublesome dungeon. B-rank my ass, I’ve underestimated your abnormal growth too much.”
“... Why… are you letting me alive...?”
“Letting you alive? That’s not it. I’ll kill you. But before that, answer me. How many demons are there in this dungeon?”
“... Demons…?”
“Yes, demons. A monster is a creature with core, and a demon is a monster that gain intelligent, there’s no way you don’t know this, do you? I’ve killed a golem type demon in level one, and fought another two in the forest before here, a humanoid-rat and a humanoid-dragon types. How many more are like those?”
“... Demons, huh? What’re you going to do if I tell you?”
“Hunt them, obviously. There’re nothing more dangerous than letting a demon roams free.”
“... Haha… And you want me to tell you?”
“You’re originally a human. You know how much a threat a demon is, especially since we’re this close to a populous town like [Firzoa].”
“... Let me alive, and I’ll make sure they won’t ever come close to any town, village, or any other human settlement.”
“No! You know your circumstance, you’re beyond saving now. You should’ve accepted my earlier offer.”
“... At least let them alone. I guarantee they won’t harm people…”
“You seem to treasure them, boy. But no. They’re way too dangerous. The dragon demon forced me to use the spell I’ve been saving for Guildmaster Dava and the rat demon was sneaky and poisonous. If they can give me this much trouble, they can trample ordinary town-guards without trouble. I’ll finish them before I return.”
“...”
“... Are you going to tell me or not, Dungeon Master Arz?”
“No.”
“... Why’re you so stubborn? Their fate’s sealed, it’s only a matter of time.”
“... Even so, I still say no.”
Sighing, the Executive looked deeply into my hollowed eyes. He finally said, “Very well, I guess there’s nothing left to talk. Farewell, I’ll take your dungeon heart before you regain conscious.”
Maa’ pointed his staff to me and the crystal on the tip began to glow.
(Your mistake, is not killing me right when you’ve the chance, old man.)
My consciousness left the Dungeon Lord before the spell hit, which then splattering the remnants of the inferno. Biting my imaginary lips, I still let a scream of pain out. Of course, only my creatures that were connected through our link could hear me.
It seemed Maa’ was hurted more than I first thought, though. He had put a strong front, but his facade collapsed the moment he thought he had finished me and fell to the floor. Moreover, he was coughing blood and breathing heavily.
“Cursed those demons… If I didn’t have to use the
Forcing himself to get up, he walked unsteadily crossing the room to the exit. I didn’t wait for him, of course, as my consciousness already being pulled to the new Dungeon Lord in the next room. The ratsassin is my race of choice this time.
*Ding!*
Requirements meet. New skill is acquired!You can now use
*Ding!*
Requirements meet. New subskill is acquired!You can now use
Thanks to the solid body and the humanoid type, I didn’t require too much time to adapt. And I had finished activating
“Haa…
A water guardian emerged and slid forward towards the dummy heart. Its hands became a solid pair of ice blades, probably for scraping it from the wall. Meanwhile, the old wizard had rested his back on the wall next to the entrance. He then took another bottle of health recovery potion from his space-storage with a trembling hand.
Perhaps because I made a small sound when closing our gap, or perhaps he simply detected my presence, Maa’ turned my way in surprise. Too late, though. I grabbed his weak shoulders with my sharp claws and sank my teeth in his neck. No barrier, no clone, it was his flesh alright. For the first time, I could get him clean.
His scream and the sound of bottle breaking filled the room as the iron taste of blood entered my mouth, followed by a cold and numb sensation that spread so quick all over me.
(Farewell, old man.)