Chapter 24

Pan grumbled to himself. Yagaru had regressed to referring to Pan as “creator,” and no matter what Pan said, the ancient sounding youngster refused to call him anything else. Even Elaria was picking up on it, changing from master to creator after realizing how much it bothered Pan. His frustration only added to her enthusiasm, prompting her to contact him just to call him creator, then cut off communication with a giggle. Despite the annoyance, he enjoyed the conversations, and the past few days he had contact with them had been a treat.

Yagaru was much more reserved, and liked to be by himself for long periods of introspection and reflection. He had improved his abilities with magic greatly in a few days, although the progress was slowing down as he worked past the basics. He was also incredibly lazy, preferring to hunt by sending a massive wave of energy into the water, and eating whatever floated to the top. He would only move when a goliath catfish swam by, as he considered them a delicacy, and would chase them down.

Pan moved Yagaru’s lair to where Behemoth had been previously, and moved Behemoth’s island a quarter of the way around the swamp, directly across from the silk forest. Pan dug out a new room for Yagaru, a massive quarter mile diameter room with a massive island in the middle. There was a hundred yard long stone bridge connection to the island, where the adventurers would face Yagaru. The water in the room was the deepest in the whole cave, and was up to fifty feet deep. The island was three hundred yards across, and faced the massive body of water in the back of the room where Yagaru dwelled. The nearly water level island was perfect for a fight, since Yagaru would be able to leap out of the water and snag unwary adventurers who came too close. It was flat, with no cover, forcing them to face Yagaru on solid ground when he decided it was time.

In the large body of water behind the island, Pan hid an entrance to Yagaru's lair. It was submerged, but led to a cave that was above the waterline, letting Yagaru have a nice dry hidden abode. Pan had been amused when Yagaru had asked him to teach him to read and give him giant books, but he had complied. Pan hadn’t read all of the books he received, electing to only read the ones that pertained to his immediate pursuits, such as alchemy manuals or bestiaries. Yagaru didn’t even want the information transferred into his head, saying that the information was easier to use if he learned it himself. When Pan asked him, he explained, when knowledge is transferred to me, it is like a big ball in my mind that I know, but isn’t easily accessed. I know what is there, but I have to search for it, and it takes awhile to make it my knowledge and truly know it. If I learn myself, I am forced to go through the whole process, and understand it myself. It gives me a deeper understanding of the material.

Pan cut him off there, before he could start a philosophical rambling on the nature of learning, and just gave him the books. It should keep him busy for awhile, especially figuring out how to actually read the books. Pan even created a giant lectern for the crocodile, smiling at the idea of the stubby-limbed aquatic reptile trying to maneuver a book into position, not to mention turning the page.

Pan was disappointed when Yagaru used force magic to move the items, something he hadn’t realized Yagaru knew how to do. Force magic was based on pure mana, so all magical creatures, and people for that matter, could use it. But it was the most basic form of magic, prompting many magic users to move on to more powerful elements. Pan was impressed with Yagaru's tenacity, since delicate manipulations of force magic were notoriously hard to master. Sure, he tore a few pages here and there, but the fact that he could manipulate a single page at all was impressive. Sure, the four-foot tall books were easier to grasp than a regularly sized one, but it was impressive nonetheless.

With Yagaru situated, he had turned to Elaria, asking her what she needed. She confused him. At some moments, she acted all prim and proper, but would suddenly step out of it to tease him. If he asked her to do something, like when he assigned her to guard his core, she was downright serious, and accepted the duty with reverence, but he appreciated it. She treated him in a way he imagined a close friend or sister would, while still being cognizant of the importance of her duty. When he offered his services to her, she asked for help in creating a set of royal guards. For now, she would have five, but as time went on, their numbers would increase. They would be promoted from the ranks of the new and improved dungeon ants she could produce. She could still produce the old variety, since they were still needed to stock the first floor, but he had designed a newer, better version along with her recent upgrade.

They weren't all that different from the originals, just larger, sleeker, stronger, and more elegant to match with the new appearance of the queen. They were within the abilities of a D ranked adventurer, so some were sent to the first floor as “rare” variants. But she was asking for elites, and Pan felt inclined to give them to her. She was his first named creature after all, and wasn’t meant to be a front line fighter. A core of elite royal guard could serve that purpose quite easily. He didn’t want to make them named bosses, but it would be a loss for the presumably highly trained warrior’s experience to be lost upon death. He had a few ideas on how to solve the issue, but it would take some experimentation. He promised Elaria that she would get her royal guard, but it would happen in due time when he felt he could get it right.

In the meantime, she decided that she wanted to find a hobby, and since she had no idea of which one to pick, she asked Pan for help. Like he did for Yagaru, he transferred the knowledge of how to read into her mind, and gave her the basic books on the main crafting skills: alchemy, enchanting, smithing, tailoring, and crafting. He told her to read them and come back to him when she had made her decision. With his boss monsters busy, he returned to his task of carving out the fourth floor, mentally chuckling to himself over how quickly he had gone from wanting to talk, to wanting some peace. The contact was good. But the barrage of requests and questions over the past few days had been tiresome. He was fortunate that as a dungeon, each level up seemed to expand his mind, and his ability to multitask was second to none.

His work on sculpting the fourth floor was going well, and he was simultaneously working on his alchemy, as he usually did. His multitasking was how he managed to level both of his crafting skill so fast, as well as his access to virtually unlimited amounts of resources. A human crafter would need years to reach the same level pan had with his crafting skills, less if they had all day to study and research. A mage college or guild could train an adept alchemist in a year, but the training and resources were expensive, something a rich mage might undergo to expand their abilities.

Pan was not yet ready to start populating his new floor, or even add plants for that matter, but it was coming along nicely. It had been three days since his named monsters had fully awakened, and during that time he had expanded the floor to over four square miles in a roughly circular area. It was still rough and incomplete, but he felt that he was a few days away from designing monsters for the floor. He hadn’t even lit the area, but to his senses, it was as beautiful as it would be deadly.

He spent another few days adding finishing touches and polishing up the newest floor, while he pondered over ways to properly create elite guards for Elaria. He had a plan, but the experiments had gone…. Poorly. He did feel that he was close to a breakthrough, and that soon enough he would be ready. Elaria had already selected five special warrior ants to receive the upgrade, and was waiting on Pan’s modifications. He had finished the fourth floor’s layout, and had focused all of his attention on making his idea work. He really wanted those elites, not just because they would make him safer, but because it would get Elaria to stop nagging him. It took a full day of concentration, and over twenty thousand mana, but he finally made it work.

Elaria, bring me the five. I’m ready, he called out to her. All he heard from her end was, Finally.

Internally sighing in agitation, he waited for the new elites to arrive. They came, and lined up in front of his core. He pumped mana into one of them, deciding to do one at a time. He increased her size, going for a six-foot tall warrior in the same shape as the queen. Her body looked like a smaller version of Elaria, for now. He then buffed her armor, adding much more than the queen had, as the royal guard wouldn’t be casters. He didn’t let them become bulky since he wanted quick warriors. Instead of pointed forelimbs like the queen had, these had a full blade in place of their hands. He added the same silver highlights to their armor, but instead of adding buffs to their magical control, he increased their agility and strength attributes. They had some basic abilities with dark magic, mainly movement skills and extra elemental damage added on to their attacks. They were intelligent, but nowhere near their queen or Yagaru.

All considered, each individual royal guard could match up favorably against an above average C ranked adventurer, and would only get better as they improved. Pan made the new and improved warrior ants an evolution for the warrior ants, so that even if one died there would be more to replace her. To ensure that he wouldn’t lose all of their experiences and skill if they died, he created five items. They were elegant silver bands that would fit the head of each royal guard, holding a amethyst against their forehead. It had taken him days to figure out a successful method of doing what he wanted, but his work had led to these. The experience and skills of each ant would be stored in the gem, in a manner he had based on skill books. If one of the guards died, all of their skill could be passed on to the next generation of guards, allowing them to constantly improve. Their personalities weren’t stored, so each ant kept their ego when they gained the rank, but they would know the history of the wearers, and would add to the cumulative knowledge. Each royal guard member would raise a protege to replace them when they fell since they would need to know the skills and be familiar with the fighting techniques in order to maximize the knowledge transferred.

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Pan knew that some would be lost on each transfer, but the following guard would have a better starting point, and could hopefully leapfrog their predecessor. The pattern would continue until it plateaued, but by that point he figured their skill might keep them alive long enough that it wouldn’t matter. And so the first elites in Pan’s dungeon were born. He gave a band to the first royal guard, and then forcefully evolved the rest of them, giving them their headgear as well. He knew that the silver jewelry would be a prized piece of loot by adventurers, but all he really needed to keep was the gem. To circumvent this, he had had to design a special enchantment, which was why it had taken so long to get to this point. The research had greatly improved his skill with enchanting however, and he was very pleased with that.

To avoid losing the gem, or at least the knowledge stored in it, he had had to create something new. It had taken stuff he learned from both the necromancer’s cruel soul affecting enchantments, and the spatial ring he had absorbed so long ago. He created an identical copy of each gem, and tied the two together with enchantments. When the wearer died, the information stored in the gem would be sent to the other, along the connection he created, destroying the first in the process. Then, he only had to copy the information into a new gem, and make a new circlet. This way, he always had a master backup, even if something interfered with the transfer. They would update the backup every day to minimize the potential loss, if that was even possible. After realizing all he could do, he was sure that with magic, and especially enchantment, nothing was impossible.

Thank you creator, Elaria said to him. He could sense the mischievous tone in her voice, and ignored it. He was starting to accept his title of creator. It felt good to be exalted.

You’re welcome, Elaria. You should probably see to their training.

Training? She asked him.

He explained the purpose of the gems, and why it had taken him so long. Despite her youth, she still knew enough to be astounded by what he had made, and began thanking him profusely. If he had given her tear ducts, he was sure she would’ve been crying with joy. This way her guards transcended death, and she was grateful to him for figuring out a way to make it happen. He eventually calmed her down, and returned to the slow process of carving his new floor.

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Archmage Faltrar was meeting with his guild. They were discussing the actions they would take, and had already taken to address the danger of the mage poison. He was meeting with the leaders of his guild to get all of the up to date information on the situation, and ensure that their plans had succeeded.

“Mage Lutheen, how has the foray into Borrander city gone?”

“It had gone well Archmage, the apothecary who we bought the poison from has been disposed of. The guards reported it as an accident of course. We have the rest of his supply. He revealed the location of his ledger after some coercion, and we have tracked down most of the people who purchased the substance. Our involvement is not suspected, people die all the time in a dungeon, and as long as no bodies are found, the locals will suspect they died the same as most adventurers do. Our mages have done an admirable job disguising themselves as the victim and entering the dungeon, and I recommend that they receive a bonus.”

He clears his throat and looked to the archmage, who nodded before asking, “And what of the man who sold the poison?”

Lutheen looked uncomfortable, and his eyes traveled to his boots as he shifted nervously.

“Um, we know who it was, a skilled adventurer by the name of John. He didn’t say how he got the substance, so he is our top priority. If he dies, then so does the knowledge, at least for a while. We know he lives on the third floor but we haven’t been able to eliminate him yet.”

“He lives in the dungeon? And why can’t we kill him?”

“Yes, well you see the dungeon created a sort of ‘inn’ where you pay for rooms with mana. He rents a room with his party and we can’t break in. They are very skilled, but we are planning an ambush on the floor. We need to ensure that there are no witnesses so it has to be deep in the swamp. It’s just hard because they never go to the same place two days in a row. But we’re working on it.”

“Good. See that he’s dead within the week. I will not allow failure, and we need to delay the spread of this news for as long as possible. We need to kill this man and find how he made the poison. Each day we get is another day to prepare. It’s going to be hard to gain control of the dungeon if it becomes necessary to do so. If the dungeon is producing the stuff, we may have to destroy it, which would be a shame.”

He paused for a moment, daydreaming about running a mage guild that had control of a dungeon. Just the thought of it made him hope the dungeon wasn’t producing the poison. If it was just a recipe the man had developed with herbs he found, they would be able to leave it... Or maybe not. What could the other mage guilds do if he had sole control of the anti-mage poison? Shaking his head, he looked back at Lutheen, who nodded emphatically.

“Understood sir. It will be done.”

He turned to face the next leader, moving to the second order of business.

“Mage Edgar, do we have any news from the palace or word on the other plan?”

“Yes and yes. The king, may he live long and healthy,” responded the old man in his gravelly voice, spitting after the last part, “has told us to fuck off. He likes the new situation, and he has that Peter boy wrapped around his little finger. You know how much he has been trying to curtail the nobility, and turn the crown into the absolute authority in the realm? Well, having a new Duke in his pocket will help him with that, and he doesn’t want any of our meddling.” He paused, letting the news sink in.

“And the other thing?”

Edgar cracked a nearly toothless smile.

“That’s going great.”

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Drake helped his party prepare for the new day. Recently he had taken to sharing a room with Cassandra, so he was a bit less of a morning person than usual. He still did the exercises and stretches, waking himself up for what would be a harder than average day. Today, they would try to fight the giant metal bug, and hopefully get one of the boss tokens, as well as that extremely valuable carapace. Once they were all ready, and the potions were doled out, they descended the tree, ready to face the swamp. He stopped by the entrance to the next floor to look at the three carved plaques. He was hoping the fourth would be ready, since he needed to know what bosses they would have to face.

They set off down the path that led to the metal behemoth, alert and ready for anything that would attack them on the walk over. They easily killed a few of the massive snakes that had devastated the party their first time on the floor, and even lured one of the giant catfish into an ambush. The experience was great, and their delicate white meat was delicious. They were about three-quarters of the way there when the attack came.

A fireball flew at them from behind, and barely missed Drake’s legs as he slid out of they way. These fuckers are trying to maim me, he thought to himself in agitation. With a flick of his fingers, he drew a blade from his sleeve and flung it at the mage, who had stepped out from behind a tree to attack him. The man sneered as the projectile bounced off an invisible barrier, and fell impotently to the ground. His group turned to face the ambusher, but as soon as they did so, a flurry of ice spikes came from behind them. This time, the party wasn’t so lucky, and their tank took an icicle to the back of his knee, dropping him.

Drake reached to his belt, and pulled a bottle from a loop. But stopped when the fire mage called out, “You’re surrounded, give up now or it’ll hurt.”

He gave the man a smile, and tossed the bottle at him. The man smiled back as the bottle shattered on his shield, the liquid inside falling to the ground. He unleashed a gout of fire at the group, and Drakes companions all took off to the left, running across another fire mage. They had been ambushed on a small peninsula, and the only way out was to either swim, or charge the mages. With his group running towards the ice mage and fire mage, Drake would deal with the first before regrouping with them to render aid, or disappear if they were losing. He had invested a lot of time into them, but he would rather live.

The fire mage kept up his blast, laughing as he tried to destroy Drake's legs. He stopped laughing when his fire cut off suddenly, and a blade caught him in the throat. The heat of his fire had evaporated the liquid at his feet, and with the vapor, came the mana poison. He hadn’t perfected the process, and the liquid needed more than room temperature to evaporate, but the mage had provided the necessary heat, spelling his own doom. After quickly looting the man’s coin pouch, Drake slunk into the forest, aiming to flank their attackers and do some reconnaissance.

When he go there, it wasn't looking good. One party member was down, maybe for good. The tank had been healed, and was using his shield to defend the party against fireballs and icicles. It was only a matter of time, and the mages seemed to be sadistically enjoying the group’s predicament. Drake sighed to himself, it seemed that they would have to practice anti-mage combat tactics soon. They were doing it all wrong. You don’t cower and hide, you charge, get into melee range, and beat down their shield and kill them before their magic can overwhelm you. Sure, it hurts a lot, but there’s a chance you survive. At least, that’s how you fought mages before. But with the new potion, Drake had all sorts of new ideas.

The two mages had grouped up, and took turns throwing pot shots at the faltering shield. If one had walked around the party, they could have ended them quickly, but they seemed to have other goals. They were fighting like they wanted prisoners, not corpses. Well, Drake only fought to make corpses, and he would enjoy tearing any mage apart. The arrogant assholes always bothered him.

He snuck around behind them, a startlingly easy thing to do with their attention focused on his party. In a single move, he tossed another potion at the fire mage as he lunged for the ice mage. Both attacks struck at the same time, and his backstab skill showed it’s worth. He had bypassed the shield with a perk he had gained from the assassin side of the stealth skill tree, driving his sword blade into the man’s kidney. He felt every muscle in the mage’s body clench up in pain, and the man dropped, unable to do anything due to the pain, and the poison on Drake’s sword.

The other man turned, hearing his comrade’s groan and the shattering glass. Like before, the liquid fell to the ground, but it was already evaporating due to the ambient heat from all the spells he had thrown. Before he could even cast a spell at Drake, his shield fell. His eyes grew wide, and the left was widened further by Drake’s sword.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 12

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 11,630/100,000  (+1000)

Soul Energy: 23.6/500

Rooms: 125

Floors: 4

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 30,827

Skills: [Dungeon Menu], [Dungeon Manipulation], [Dungeon Absorption], [Dungeon Creation: Level 12], [Dungeon Expansion], [Dungeon Summon], [Targeted Evolution], [Monster Imbuement], [Dungeon Map], [Name Bestowal], [Drop Assignment], [Floor Creation], [Environmental Manipulation], [Dungeon Soul Trap], [Alchemy: Lvl 45], [Enchanting: Lvl 41], [Dungeon Ore Vein], [Mental Communication]

Dungeon Points: 407

Achievements: Evolver, Legend Slayer, Boundless