Valens carefully examined its current favorite template. The creature was fierce and strong, fast and vicious, a true predator. He had discovered the hawks a few days ago and had just unlocked the template and he loved it. Hawks were by far better than the tiny birds he had been using previously, and they hunted almost everything in the dungeon from the mice to snakes. The larger hawks would even take out a fox on occasion. However, the two floors of the current dungeon weren’t very conducive for the large birds.
The first and second floors were both rather similar, both emphasizing width and length rather than the ceiling height. There were a few minor differences like the second floor had bushes and lizards, but for the most part, they were identical. While the ceilings were high enough for the birds to fly around a little, the aerial dives that the hawks favored weren't possible with the low ceilings. He had talked with Magnus about changing around one or both of the floors but the drake had pointed out that he was expanding so quickly that it would make more sense for him to have the third floor favor his hawks.
Magnus was asleep again, the drake seemed to have gotten a bit bored with the monotonous expansion. He had told Valens to wake him up if anything interesting happened, but for some reason, the drake hadn’t been that interested to see the hawk template and had immediately fallen back asleep.
The lizard boss was also growing well, Valens had taken to sending her to attack any creature that got to the evolutionary cap in the dungeon. Those creatures couldn’t evolve but their experience would feed his boss. That being said he wasn’t just ordering creatures to allow the boss to kill them, that wouldn’t be fair, and as a result, the poor lizard had been killed on four separate occasions. Despite these setbacks, the lizard was sitting at a solid level six, only four more levels until she could evolve. Valens had figured out how to check the status of his minions by himself; it was rather simple; he just needed to examine the active pattern of a creature deeply enough until it popped up. It didn’t even need it to be a boss to check he could determine the exact power level of any creature in his dungeon. Magnus had been a bit put out just a little about not being able to teach the core how to do something it had thrown off his growth expectations for some reason.
Valens was also almost finished with the second floor, to his disappointment it looked like it would be about the same size as the first floor. That was a bit of a disappointment but Magnus had said that he would be able to get a larger floor when finally got to tier two. Which meant he had to finish making his first ten floors, which was going to take a while. Actually, maybe not he was getting progressively faster and faster at creating floors, the second floor was practically done and it had taken less than half the time to make as the first. So he should get progressively faster at making floors until he finished the tenth as he was getting better at making them while the floors weren’t getting any bigger. Getting back to work the domain of the dungeon started moving outwards at a rapid pace, just a little bit more to finish the second floor.
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Slowly she slunk across the ground and the hunter was patient as she closed in on her prey. The prey sat lazily and at ease arrogantly sitting out in the open as if none could harm it, the creature had grown fat and lazy on its strength. The Great One had marked it for destruction and so it would now soon learn who the real master of the floors was. The thick grass of the great one brushed her back and concealed her from her foe, not even a whisper of sound betrayed her presence as she crept across the soft dirt.
The hunter carefully positioned herself behind her prey, although the prey was arrogant it was not entirely without a reason for that. It was strong prey and would surely slay her if she grew careless, to her great shame this had happened before but by the grace of the Great One, she hunted once more.
With a final scamper and a mighty leap, the hunter struck her pointed fangs sinking into vulnerable flesh. The red-furred prey yipped and whined trying to throw her from its back but she held on tightly sinking her claws deep into its hide. Her jaws slowly pressed down on the back of the prey’s neck, blood seeping from her maw as the prey fought to escape. The hunter would not be denied however, this was the will of the Great One she would see it done. Her jaws drew back and she struck, again and again, fresh waves of blood flowing from the pitiful prey, waste of the Great One’s grace. There was a final snap and the prey fell limp to the ground, it was done, it had been a good hunt.
The hunter dragged her corpse of prey into her den, it was time to rest. There were no hunts to be made right now, the Great One was silent as he continued to expand his domain. She feasted on the body of her prey as she rested in her den, the Great One could sustain her body but eating was still an important pastime. Without warm flesh to fill her belly, she felt uncomfortable, it was bad enough that she had failed several hunts before deciding the activity was necessary even if it did take too much time.
Settling down by the bones of her kill the hunter drifted off to sleep and dream of the great hunts to be had, new creatures to be fought and the coming day when she would not have to hide from her prey.
The hunter went on many hunts and had many victories but also numerous failures which all resulted in her death. But the hunts became easier and easier as time went on she could feel strength gathering as her strength grew closer and closer to that of her prey. The hunter also learned to study her prey and find the best way to slay them.
There had been a new type of prey that had started to appear recently, they were odd compared both to the hunter and every other creature she had encountered before. For starters they stood stupidly upright in an ungainly manner, this made it much easier to knock them over. Their forepaws didn’t even have proper claws, just blunted stubby tips that frankly reminded the hunter of the lesser creatures of the Great One that was never her prey, the ones that scrambled amongst the grass and ran from everything.
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The hunter ignored all of that though as new orders came from the Great One, it was time for a new hunt. The hunter prowled forth from her den and found that she had once again been moved. This happened every so often but most areas looked rather similar to one another so it wasn’t a problem, it might have been slightly more convenient to stay in familiar hunting grounds though.
Stalking through the grassy plane the hunter reflected on the blessings of the Great One, her prey would almost always live near her den; it was very rare for her to have to climb to the previous domains of the Great One. Closing in on her prey the hunter found that it was once again a greenskin, honestly, these things were annoying and entirely too numerous. The hunter carefully concealed herself in a bush and waited as the greenskin grew closer. She liked bushes, they were much easier to hide in than grass and they seemed to attract greenskins for whatever reason, the hunter never would have lowered herself to eat a plant.
As the greenskin grew closer the hunter coiled herself in preparation, she had hunted greenskins many times in the past this would be quick. As the unfortunate goblin came into range it was greeted by a flying ball of scales and teeth that stuck it right in the chest. Goblins weren’t the most limber or dexterous creatures in the world and the heavy strike was more than enough to send the monster tumbling flat on its back.
The hunter recovered quickly, she had done this tactic many times before and pounced on the greenskin’s exposed throat. With a quick and easy tear, her claws ripped the neck of the greenskin open, scuttling away out of the way of the thrashing the hunter watched the death throes of her prey with dispassion. Another good hunt.
New strength settled into her being as it had many times before but this time it was different. The power held within her frame and built to its limit and the hunter felt poised on the brink of something new.
...Threshold Met Beginning Evolution…
Weird thoughts and ideas briefly invaded the hunter’s mind but they were swiftly swept away as agony raced through her. The power that she had carefully built up since her creation overflowed her body as the very basis of her form was changed and upgraded. The hunter grimly clung to consciousness as her flesh and bones writhed and changed, but it was a good pain, the pain of rebirth and power.
Eventually, the glorious agony ceased and the hunter examined her new form. She was larger than before, her scales covering her in uniform armor, her claws were larger and sharper and her fangs seemed even more dangerous. Taking a step forward the hunter felt the coiled power of her new body, gazing over at a group of greenskins in the distance she decided that now would be a wonderful time to test out her new power. It was purely for educational purposes the hunter needed to know what she was now capable of, and the annoying greenskins were right there.
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The pack raced across the land searching, always searching, their hunting grounds lay empty, food was becoming ever harder to find. The Alpha howled and the pack ground to a halt paws digging into the soft forest floor snuffling and whimpering as the Alpha scented the air. None dared challenge the Alpha; he was far more powerful than any other in the pack.
Picking up a scent the Alpha howled and the pack followed after him in complete silence the hunt had now begun. Carefully the Alpha guided the pack through the forest following one scent through the gnarled trees. It was a scent unlike any the Alpha had ever discovered before, but it sang to his senses ripe with the promise of power. The lopping strides of the pack carried them far across the forest as they steadily closed in on a seemingly innocuous-looking hole in the middle of a plain. The scent that drew them with ever greater fervor as they closed in on the dungeon promising the one thing that every wolf desired, prey.
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“Sir! High Magus wait.” The youth dashed forward clutching a file to his chest and gasping as he tried to catch his breath.
Gabriel stopped his forward march grumbling to himself as one of his papers fluttered to the ground. “What is it boy? Speak up.”
“The mana compass its..” The boy stopped at a loss for words and proffered his file to the older mage.
Taking the report he scanned through the contents and had to bite back a curse. The mana compass was detecting a higher concentration of mana somewhere to the northeast. This could mean a lot of things but most famously mana compasses were used to find one thing.
“Is it a dungeon sir? It's gotta be right?” The boy had apparently recovered and his excitement was palpable as he practically bounced after Gabriel as he set off to the guild’s main tower.
“Calm down boy and not necessarily.” Gabriel stormed up the stairs of the tower, this was not going to be a fun day. “It could be a lot of things, mana storm, new nexus location, even some of the more powerful spells and monsters can set the compass off as well.” Frankly, he thought that the things were much more trouble than they were worth but the compasses were required for every branch of the Mage Guild so he had no real choice in the matter.
“But it's got to be a dungeon right sir?” The youth asked again with shining eyes, probably imagining the riches and wonders of the many stories about dungeons.
“Maybe, boy maybe.” Even if it wasn’t a dungeon this was going to be a mess why did this have to happen in this city of all places. This was supposed to be a quiet little city on the frontier that nothing ever happened to. “Even if it's not a dungeon, we're still going to have to figure out what set the compass off.” There wasn’t any way he could hide the news, this required a full mobilization of the entire guild branch, the Bancrofts were going to be insufferable when they got wind of this. “Send word to recall all active mages and our knight groups.” The boy scuttled off to carry the message and Gabriel shouted into the now empty space. “And someone find me Silas, it's time for the lazy old man to earn his keep.”