Aeglisa was enjoying her growth in power while annihilating some middle-grade ‘Invaders’ that were hiding from her ‘near’ a black hole and a field of asteroids, I must be careful to not accidentally use the true name of the ‘Invaders’ at Leo’s front and cause a disaster, names are imbued of power, after all.
“I can directly feel my Patron’s powers and Leo’s evolution as a Dungeon through my bones, as this rate it wouldn’t be long before he accepts one of my ‘aspects’ on his Title and I Rank Up enough to dominate the annoying Council,” Lisa said while dismembering an Invader’s tentacles, and using their weakness or Bane, as the Patrons of the East Guard say, to kill them without permitting them to reincarnate.
Unfortunately, the Soulkeeper is impartial and reincarnate even the Invaders if their souls go to her location. Only if her husband was still ‘alive’, the Ex-Phantasmas wouldn’t have to worry too much about it as her husband would understand the necessity of killing once for all the Invaders.
“Lisa?” Leonhardt’s voice sounded inside of her head when she finished her day job and was going back to her house to make some experimentations with a new Race of monsters discovered in the field of asteroids she was fighting earlier.
“Yes, Leo?” Lisa said, mentally cursing at the inconvenience of not having the Gift to facilitate their conversations. Buf if she had the Gift, it would have made impossible for her to become a Patron or killing the Invaders.
“Oh, it worked. I was worried about how would I exactly call you when you said I had just to think about you. Anyways, can you come here? I have finished decorating the Dungeon and I want you to see it.”
“I am going in a moment, let me just pick the scroll that will permit you to control the spy. I didn’t think you would finish so quickly, so I let it on my house.”
“Okay. And it makes happy how you trust in me to already think I made a good job in the Dungeon.”
Aeglisa could have given a smartphone to Leonhardt to make their conversations easier and less intrusive, the feeling of having another voice in your head isn’t that good, but she decided against it because she discovered how the primal thought pattern of Leonhardt works. He can do anything boring to him if he has a good enough compensation, so I need to have an ample list of rewards I can give him for completing bets I make with him.
She quickly finished the rest of the Invaders and made a portable portal to her house appear with her tablet, going through it she found herself on the throne room of an old-fashioned blue castle. It was her Royal Family’s castle before she made herself a Patron with her own powers.
“Qu-”
Lisa heard one of her servants accidentally calling her of her past title, but she silenced the noises in the room just like the Herald Ex-Phantasma did when he called the Dungeon Cores and Dungeon Masters.
She strode through the long and complicated halls until she arrived at her brother’s room where she let the scroll to him study it and maybe learn something from it. “Brother, it’s me. Can you open it? I need a scroll I let with you.” Lisa said.
“Come in.” Her brother, the current King of all the ‘mortals’ Ex-Phantasmas, said.
“Brother, did you not make that brat you call of a son, Drauq, clean all this?” Lisa said after entering the room and noticing everything was out of place in the ever-blue bedroom.
“That boy has more pressing matters to deal in D6C6S3 than cleaning my bedroom, a shame I can’t ask for a maid to clean all this because of all my secret documents here.” The king said laughing. He is the man that is in the throne for more years than he can count in his mortal hand that only had three fingers, sacrificing his own name and patches of his prideful blue skin to prolong his longevity until his son become strong enough to substitute him as the King of all the mortals Ex-Phantasmas.
Lisa went through all the secret documents without a problem and found the spy’s scroll behind one that talked about a zombie invasion in a parallel world. “Goodbye, Brother. It was good to see you, sorry for only giving this scroll to you some hours ago and already picking it back.” She turned to leave the room.
“Wait, Lisa. Do you really need to leave now? It was a long time ago since we had a good siblings talk, I know you are more important than the King now. But I am asking this as your brother.” The King said with a forlorn expression on his aged eyes and face, all the dignity of a King left him to have a chance to talk with his sister.
Lisa sighed and resigned. “Later I will come here to talk with you. I just need to answer my Champion’s callings first.”
The King’s face it up with joy. “Then I will be waiting for you, your first Champion is important, you need to take good care of him.”
“Goodbye, Brother.” Lisa went to her room under the castle and prepared her hologram to go to D6C6S3 with the scroll as she herself can’t go because of all the danger of causing more powerful Invaders to attack the planet.
Lisa’s room under the castle wasn’t a place where she slept, it was the place where she kept all her experiments with [Blue Evolution] and [Pink Evolution]. There are innumerable cages and habitats here with everything she ever used her powers on.
“Found it.” She picked the ball that permits her hologram to be sent with the scroll to Leo’s planet and activated it. The ball was a Legendary Item known as Ball of Dreams that permit almost any projection to carry items or exist in any part of the universe.
“Lisa, are you prepared to lose?” Leonhardt said as soon as Lisa’s hologram appeared at the Dungeon’s entrance where the moss and Dragonblood trees are.
Lisa whistled seeing the magnificent trees being illuminated by what she thought Leo would take at least forty levels to have, light runes. “So bright and pretty, never thought in my life I would say any of those two words to something created by you.” She jokingly said, also noticing the extra job Leonhardt did to cover the out of place stalagmites and stalactites with moss. The smaller animals’ sounds also complement the experience, before, this place was too quiet.
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“It’s still too early to be so impressed, let’s continue going deeper.” Alderam led the way to the Antkins’ area. “This place will even get better in the future when I learn to make water runes and make rain here. And I didn’t show you because it’s not technically part of my ‘Dungeon’, but I changed the place where I test [Blue Evolution] and I am thinking to profit with it later. For now, it is just an oddity. Later I will show you, the Dungeon’s decoration is more important than that. ”
Then Aeglisa passed through the area of the Antkins and flamboyant trees, praising Leo by his decision of letting the Antkins’ nature work in their lair. Insect monsters really like of their nest in their own way.
Lisa gradually perceived a path opening in the middle to an area full of bright yellow acacia flowers being illuminated by Law Runes, she felt as if she was once again walking on a carpet and being lead to her past throne. An enjoyable and nostalgic sensation indeed.
“I wonder what that little guy will become if evolved? Since it is so slothful.” Lisa saw the squirrel resting on the meditating Alraune together with the fox observing them with a smile. “A mix of a bear with a squirrel or maybe something with a humanoid form?”
“I don’t know, but I hope it becomes capable of fighting after becoming a Named Monster,” Leonhardt said.
“Why would you let it become a Named Monster? Isn’t it by what you told me just a normal animal from D6C6S3?” Lisa looked more intensively at the squirrel, a shame she couldn’t use the power of her eyes in this form to discover all its evolution potential.
“Because only it can completely control Dhasharan. I don’t want it to die and my best monster suddenly destroying everything in its anger with its lightning.”
“So it is for necessity more than curiosity about how it will evolve?” Lisa sighed, feeling disappointed. And I thought I would see a rare animal, well… I’m bound to see one when Leo finishes his [Blue Evolution] course.
“Sorry, Lisa. But this Dungeon’s survival is more important any curiosity I can have.” Leonhardt prepared to show Lisa his final Dungeon’s area. “Are you prepared? This is what my monsters decided to call ‘Gem Lake’.”
The lake at Lisa’s front had innumerable small spots of lights that shined interchangeably between all rainbow colors, looking like it had gems hidden deep inside of it. And that wasn’t the end of it, in the ceiling, there were the same sets of Light Runes shining in the same pattern so brightly that someone without a good eye would think they were actually reflecting the light from within the lake.
Lisa for sure had already seen many things more beautiful than this, the vision far away from the ring of asteroids of a big planet or when her first monster born was one of the first things she thinks of when the subject is about the word ‘beautiful’.
But this didn’t lessen the beauty and impact of the scene made by her Champion.
“I can understand why your Monsters call this Gem Lake.” Lisa took the scroll and passed it to Leonhardt, feeling good that her conjecture of finding a way to fix the bad aspects of his Champion was true. However, I need to be careful to not spoil him. If not, he will become just like my nephews, slothful and ambitionless. Something similar to the old strategy of ‘carrot and stick’ should be good enough. “Congratulations, Leon. You won our little bet and earned the right to have this scroll to control the spy.”
“Thank you, Lisa. How do I use the scroll?” Leonhardt toyed with the blue-pink scroll.
“Just open it and say the spy’s name, and you will be able to control it without a problem,” Lisa answered, discreetly looking to the bone hand above Leonhardt that clenched itself when he received the scroll, should I tell him about it? The Herald didn’t do it, so should be fine to me also not.
But why did it got a reaction when he received the scroll?
“Lisa, now that I finished our bet, I want to ask you a few things, it is fine to do so?” Leonhardt placed the scroll on the Dungeon’s storage.
“Yes, ask anything you want.” Is he going to ask for another hint in [Blue Evolution]?
“Doesn’t the place where I get Dungeon upgrades becomes more and more lackluster as I advance? I mean, days ago I struggled to even make a normal ant and had to risk myself going out of the Dungeon just to get some acorns, but now my regeneration is so big and my Dungeon is famous enough that I don’t even make anyone more go pick resources outside. Although I kept some to myself in case of emergency.”
Lisa blankly stared at Leonhardt, not believing the words coming from his mouth.
“Of course, rewards like [Intermediary Monster Race’s list], [Advanced Monster Race’s list] or a [Named Monster Slot] are enticing, but the rest after that is useless. There is no point in gathering DP to get those upgrades. Do you get what I am saying?”
“So you are saying to me that rewards like [Holy Protection] or [Hero’s Bane] which even Legendary Dungeons yearn are useless?” Lisa felt a headache coming to her way and even the monsters in the cages close to her real body felt her mood shift. If the Legendary Dungeons or others Ex-Phantasmas heard him say that, they would kill him for his arrogance.
The Herald maybe not, he would just laugh and say ‘how is good to be young’.
“Now that you said in that way, it seems I am in the wrong here.” Leonhardt scratched his head. “I didn’t even know I would be able to buy something amazing sounding like [Holy Protection] or [Hero’s Bane].”
“Oh, that’s true. You are only Common Rank. Even if you have DP enough to buy them, you wouldn’t be able to do so.” Lisa felt her headache easing.
“My real point is, don’t these upgrades not conform with my current growth?”
“Yes, they don’t conform. Leon, you're only Rank Common. You shouldn’t be this powerful normally, even more since you are a Core-Master. I can understand your frustration, so how about you focus in Rank Up to next Rank which will be similar to your Dungeon’s strength that has an Alraune and those interesting Antkins.” Nevertheless, I don’t think that fox will let you be satisfied with that degree of power.
“Since you talked about the Rank Up, can you tell me what the hidden requisites are?” Leonhardt shamelessly asked.
“No. And even if I wanted I wouldn’t be able to tell you. They vary depending on the Gift’s user.”
“This is my last question then. Do you know the correct path to evolve the [Taming] skill?”
Aeglisa paused to think and tried to compare how Taming works in comparison with what she uses to dominate her monsters. “...No, I don’t think I know.”
“So I will have to implement the two plans forming in my head to increase its range or power.” Leon’s smile seemed wicked for Lisa for some reason. “If not, it will be a pain in the ass to tame all the Antkins that will be born despite that I can instantly tame them.”
Lisa and Leonhardt talked more until the Core-Master had to leave to care of new intruders. When that happened Dhasharan suddenly appeared at Lisa’s front and said. “I didn’t tell this to the Dungeon, but I think you know the answer for what I am searching for. Purple Portal and a power capable of shattering things like everything is made of glass. What do you know about them?”
Lisa’s eyes narrowed with increasing anger. “Tell me more about where did you see those things.”