Rose led Lia to two large cocoons, though one of the two was distinctly larger than the other. The “small” cocoon was the size of Lia in her humanoid form, but the big cocoon was perhaps five or even six times that size.
“I assume the big one’s the troll?” Lia asked.
“Yeah.” Rose confirmed. “I’ve gone ahead and checked their options, the ones I can make for the troll are all big, bulky bruisers, but the queen bee has a few more interesting options. She seems to be able to produce drones for us, albeit at a pretty low rate. I would have checked what their combination makes, but Analysis is telling me that undoing that required completely undoing their cocoons and the troll was really tough to get into a cocoon.”
“The drone thing sounds nice, but…I really want to see what their combination makes.” Lia said. “And if I hate all the options, then we’ll just get a bunch of nice stuff and make a random roll like we did for Bella.”
“Are you…sure that’s wise?” Rose asked. “It feels risky.”
“It is risky.” Lia said. “High risk, high return. I highly doubt we could have made Bella exactly the way she she is with just normal conversion. Admittedly I suggest this because I love the gambling aspect of it, but…I feel like between you and Bella we’re set for heavy hitters for a while, and we’re going to be doing a lot of indoors fighting anyway, and this thing is kinda…big for that.”
“It could be handy outside of the dungeon and even outside of combat.” Rose said. “If nothing else, it could make for an excellent laborer when remodeling this place.”
`I suppose you’re right.” Lia admitted. “How are our stores of modeling wax looking?”
“We’ve filled up nicely while you were away, the material from the beehive converts to modeling wax with almost perfect efficiency. Why?”
“I’ll fill up my dimensional storage with it, and if the combination options for the two are bad we can split the cocoon and I’ll empty out my dimensional storage onto it. It’ll use a lot of modeling wax, sure, but it should allow us to get it safely cocooned once again.”
“I see no issue with that.” Rose said. “Shall we see what we get, then?”
“Yes. Help me move the queen’s cocoon to the troll, please.”
The two pushed the cocoons together, and Lia was about to check the options before pausing and looking at Rose. “Are there rats in there already, or do we need to get more?”
“Amelia dropped us in a couple when she saw what we were doing.” Rose said. “Please, proceed.”
Lia nodded, and turned to look at her options. There were a few that were similar to what Rose had told her about, but two in particular stood out to her.
Swarm War Machine (Bee-Troll):
The Swarm War Machine is a variant of the Swarm Producer line, focused on creating soldiers. At base, the Swarm War Machine can produce one Lesser Swarm Foot Soldier every day, but as the Swarm War Machine’s level increases, the number and strength of the produced creatures grows.
At high levels, the Swarm War Machine becomes able to produce Swarm Drones and other non-combatants. Creatures produced use the Swarm War Machine’s “base race” as a template, becoming weaker variants of it.
Greater Swarm Sub-Queen (Bee-Troll):
The Swarm Sub-Queen is a variant of the Swarm Queen focused on producing new creatures instead of converting creatures. At base, the Greater Swarm Sub-Queen can produce two Lesser Swarm Drones every day, but as the Greater Swarm Sub-Queen’s level increases, the number and strength of produces creatures grow.
At high levels, the Greater Swarm Sub-Queen becomes able to produce a greater variety of creatures. Creatures produced use the Greater Swarm War Machine’s “base race” as a template, becoming weaker variants of it.
“As things stand right now, do we need more workers or more soldiers?” Lia asked.
“Tough question.” Rose said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Right now, we need soldiers more, but the moment we finish conquering this dungeon we’re going to need a lot more workers to make renovations.”
“Alright, workers it is, then.” Lia said, placing a hand on the cocoon and beginning to convert it to a Greater Swarm Sub-Queen. “This is going to become a producer that will give us two…weaker versions of bee-trolls, whatever those are, as drones every day. Hopefully that will help with the labor situation.”
“That should be plenty.” Rose said. “Shall we go check out that building, then?”
“Yes.” Lia said, nodding. She grabbed Rose’s hand, and began to lead her out of their encampment. “Let me show you where it is.”
----------------------------------------
“Well, I can’t get the greatest grasp on how the outward defenses are, but at the very least it passes muster from the inside.” Rose said. “I don’t see any glaring issues with it, and the walls seem to be magically reinforced. I’m…I don’t have all the Skills and tools I’m used to using for checking out enchantments, but my gut is telling me it’s alright work.”
“That’s good to hear.” Lia said. “The fortifications were supposedly designed according to your principles, so hopefully they should pass muster.”
“That is promising.” Rose said, then paused, a faint blush rising to her face. “As narcissistic as that sounds.”
“Is it really narcissistic if it’s true?” Lia asked. “Your techniques pioneered a new age in…well, almost anything that has to do with warfare.”
“I don’t know, it feels…off. To be honest, sometimes I feel like you’re putting me on more of a pedestal than I deserve to be put on. I think my reputation might have been…exaggerated in the time since my death.”
“Is that so?” Lia asked, tilting her head slightly. “I suppose we’ll have to go through the history books once you get your memories back, we figure out what’s real and what’s exaggerated.”
“Lily did mention that she had found a book on my old life, perhaps I should take the time to read it.” Rose mused. “But that’ll have to wait until we finish with this dungeon, I think. I don’t want to risk…well, getting paralyzed by memories of my past until we finish this takeover.”
“Are you still worried that you’ll start…rebelling or whatever it was you were worried about?” Lia asked. “Because, if anything, I feel like it’s only gotten less likely as time has gone on. But…maybe that’s just me. Do you feel any more…you know?”
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“Not in the slightest, but I suppose that’s what I would say if I was feeling that way.” Rose sighed. “I just…feel like there’s stuff in my past that will require a lot of unpacking, you know? It definitely wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”
Lia laid a comforting hand on Rose’s shoulder. “Well, I’ll be there for you if you need someone to talk to.” She said. “Take your time.”
“Thank you, Lia.” Rose said softly. “Let’s…go in, shall we?”
Lia nodded, and the two entered the main hall. They opened the door and were greeted by two wolf-like monsters further down the hall, which immediately began snarling and sprinting towards the duo.
“Are you powerful enough to take one on yourself?” Rose asked, forming a halberd in her hands. “You’re still fresh from your evolution, yes?”
“I’ll yell if I have an issue.” Lia replied, a ball of flame appearing in her palm. It was…easy, much easier than it had been before her evolution. For a simple spell like this, she barely even had to dedicate a thought, it just…happened. She loosed the ball of flame at one of the charging wolves, watching in satisfaction as it soared towards her target and impacted it directly in the side.
You have dealt 20 damage to Wolf Prowler!
Lia frowned. That wasn’t as much damage as she had been hoping it would do, but she was still level one and weaker than she had previously been. She took a brief moment to check her reserves of Mana, found she still had about forty left, and decided to unload it all at once by using a quick barrage of fireballs.
You have dealt 22 damage to Wolf Prowler!
You have dealt 19 damage to Wolf Prowler!
You have dealt 23 damage to Wolf Prowler!
You have dealt 20 damage to Wolf Prowler!
You have killed Wolf Prowler! You gain 60 EXP and 20 Blood Money!
You have leveled up! You have gained 25 Mana, 20 HP and Stamina, 7 Magic, Magic Defense, and Mental Fortitude, 6 Dexterity, and 5 in all of your other stats!
You have leveled up! You have gained 25 Mana, 20 HP and Stamina, 7 Magic, Magic Defense, and Mental Fortitude, 6 Dexterity, and 5 in all of your other stats!
Around the same time, Rose had reached the other wolf and decapitated it with one swift strike of her halberd, leveling Lia up one more time. “That…wasn’t too bad.” Lia said. “I can get myself back up to competence in no time.”
“Good to hear.” Rose said. “For the time being, shall I take point? I should be able to soak up more damage than you.”
“Go ahead.” Lia replied. “Do you know where you want to look?”
Rose paused. “Not particularly. I was planning on taking my time and exploring to see what the facilities were like.”
“Fair enough.” Lia said. “Lead the way, then.”
They spent an hour or so wandering through the building and taking in the sights. They encountered probably fifteen or so more wolves in that time, which was enough to level Lia up another seven times, before Rose was finally ready to see the tops of the walls. Lia led her to one of the building’s staircases, and the two emerged into the school’s main defensive tower.
“So…this is our main turret.” Lia said. “We…weren’t really allowed above this point as students, so I’m afraid I can’t tell you any details on what might be in there, but there’s an exit to the walls to our left if you want to go.”
“You know…let’s take a look around here first.” Rose said. “We might find something interesting.”
“Alright, then.” Lia said. “I’ve always kinda wondered what they put up there anyway.”
The floor they were on held nothing of note; there were some slits that magic and arrows could be shot through, but nothing that was of immediate use for conquering the dungeon, so they moved upwards.
Or would have, were it not for the fact that the trapdoor leading upwards was locked. “Any chance you know how to pick locks?” Lia asked hopefully.
“Not without magic.” Rose replied. “And I don’t have any magic that’ll open this for me, unfortunately.”
“Should we just…smash it open?”
“That might work, but it’s also going to draw the attention of everything within earshot.” Rose said. “And with you still not back up to where you were before, I don’t feel comfortable risking you like that. Best just to wait until we can have Chrys and Bella take a crack at it, I’m sure between the two of them they’ll figure something out.”
Lia nodded. “To the walls, then?”
“To the walls, then.” Rose confirmed. She walked over to one of the exits, peeking through the slit in the door to make sure nothing too dangerous was outside, then opened the door and strode through.
Lia followed and saw that there were indeed a couple of wolves on the walls, but those were taken out with a couple of fireballs each. What was more attention-grabbing was the view that the walls offered; while the view inside of campus was as she remembered, looking outwards was…different. Around one hundred yards from the walls, things began to look…strange.
The environment was not the greenery she had grown used to seeing during her studies, and was instead a collection of desolate cliffs and snow. She could make out the occasional blurry shape moving, but the whole thing felt…artificial. It was like the landscape had just been painted on, and lacked any true depth.
“What…is that?” Lia asked. “That’s not what the outside looked like.”
“I’m guessing you haven’t been in too many dungeons, then.” Rose said. “That’s what it looks like outside. Once you cross that line, you’ll be let out into the outside world, probably from some sort of cave entrance. If you go back through that point, you’ll appear at…wherever you last exited from, or a random place on the outskirts if you haven’t been inside before.”
“Oh. What does that…mean for us?” Lia asked.
“It’s a good thing for sure.” Rose said. “These types of dungeons are among the most annoying to raid, as your forces tend to get split up upon entering for the first time. For us, as long as we map out all the exit points, we can focus our defenses there and weaken enemy armies as they set up shop to try and siege us.
“On the other hand…we’ll be boxed in even more than we would be in a regular siege. Yes, we have a lot of exit points, but chances are they all lead to the same chokepoint. We’d have to hold that if we wanted any hope of reliably getting out of here. Well…unless we can teleport into and out of dungeons like Amelia can, but I’m honestly not sure how she’s doing that and it’s probably best not to include that as part of our decision making until we understand it more.”
“You don’t?” Lia asked. “I assumed it was some Hero thing.”
Rose raised a brow. “So, she is a Hero? I had assumed as much, but I wasn’t sure.”
“Yeah. She told me her Job, but…honestly, I can’t remember most of it. She’s an Archsage, but she has, no joke, like ten qualifiers, and Heroic is one of them.”
Rose froze. “You’re…sure about the qualifier thing?” She said carefully. “That should be impossible.”
“That’s what I thought, and that’s what she thought too, but…well, she’s brought back the dead, created dungeons, and tampered with the system for us. It wouldn’t be the first impossible thing about our situation.”
“You…have a point.” Rose said. “But to answer your question, it’s not a Hero thing, not as far as I’m aware. Maybe it’s because she’s a Heroic Archsage, but I never had anything that let me break…everything like she did, and I was supposedly the strongest ever. I get the feeling that there’s something more going on with her and we don’t know what it is. Maybe even she doesn’t know what it is, I can’t really say without talking to her.”
“Huh.” Lia replied. “Interesting.”
“But…back on the topic of fortifying this place, as long as the enchantments are still in working order and we get someone who can actually maintain them, we should be able to hold out against an army of somewhat stronger strength than ourselves. In fact, given the nature of the swarm, we should be able to hold out against significantly larger armies if their average strength is around ours.
“It’s single, strong people we really need to worry about. They’re the ones who will do the most damage to us, and we won’t be able to recoup our losses as easily as we would against an army. But…that’s an issue we’ll probably always have. As far as defensive structures go, this is probably as good as we’re going to get without making our own, and it’s less conspicuous to boot. Well…less conspicuous provided it doesn’t get discovered by some adventurer or something.”
“This is out in the middle of nowhere according to Amelia, so we’ll probably be fine for a little bit.” Lia said. “We just need to be careful about going too far away from here.”
“Good.” Rose replied. “That’s all I really want to see, though. Shall we head back?”
“Let’s.” Lia agreed. “I’ve got about an hour left on my transformation, and I’d like to maybe…get a meal in with you before I have to go back to being a fox? Is that…alright?”
Rose blushed and turned away. “That sounds lovely.”