While Ian was enchanting the goblin floor, the five goblins and one hobgoblin were training in the learning room. Mina was practicing forms with her sword, Pugi was punching and kicking with all her might, Izu was trying to make water into as many shapes as possible, Narcy was sleeping while sweating up a storm, and Yervin was sneaking around while invisible, occasionally sniffing himself with a grumpy face. Botan was the only one absent as he was studying in the classroom.
“I wonder why these groups of monsters are coming everyday,” yelled Mina to the rest of the group while wiping sweat off of her brow.
“Don’t know, but considering that maze floor we have to walk through everytime, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about,” said Yervin as he started to pick dirt from beneath his fingernails.
“I wonder if Ian’ll make us not fight again tomorrow?” interjected Izu.
“I hope not. Fighting those wolves was a good experience. I know now that I need to take baths all the time or my invisibility is worthless.”
“Still, based on what you said, I doubt any of us, besides you, would last more than a few seconds against something stronger.”
“Even if it’s a few seconds, those few seconds will be worthwhile!” smiled Pugi.
“I agree!” Mina smiled back.
Izu sighed, while Yervin continued to pick dirt as he ignored the two of them.
Izu turned to look at Narcy, “You think she’s making any progress in relaying her thoughts to us?”
“Of course, we’ve all been hearing her voice for hours now,” said Yervin while waving his hand at Izu.
“Don’t be an ass, Yervin.”
“Sorry, but if one of us heard her voice, we’d say something.”
“Fine.”
Izu returned to making shapes with water, while Yervin shrugged his shoulders and turned invisible.
The goblins continued their practice, and Ian his enchanting, as the day turned.
♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️
Ian’s focus had not waned, as he was quite enjoying enchanting his high level healing magic. He hadn’t had many chances to use healing magic so far, and it was pleasant to do so again. However, the shaking of the trees, and the rumble of the ground shifted his focus to outside his dungeon.
Through the evergreen trees, an enormous, wrinkled humanoid appeared. No hair covered its body revealing a pinkish-tan skin. Its back and large, plump tail were more pink, while its fat belly was more tan. Its arms were stubby, but contained five digits and full movement. Its legs were so short that they barely lifted its bulbous body off of the ground. The head, which reached the top of the trees, had beady, black eyes, two slits for its nostrils, and a thin line separating its lips that went from ear to ear.
The being lumbered through the trees in front of his dungeon, knocking one over occasionally. Behind the first one, lumbered in three more: one that reached the shoulder of the first, while the other two reached reached its waist.
If the ugly creatures weren’t enough to draw Ian’s interest, the two quadrupeds that were led on chains by the smaller, wrinkled humanoids were also intriguing. They had no heads. The front legs, which were longer than their back legs, were attached to the very front of the organism. Their entire body was covered in a dark green fur, which looked a lot more like moss, from their headless front to the long, flat tail that extended from the top of their hind legs. The legs themselves had no toes or hooves of any kind. There were rough edges on the bottom of the leg, but he couldn’t ascertain if they even had feet.
Even though both creatures were chained with metal rings around their waists, one was carrying the other on its back. The one on the other’s back had large, unusual bumps covering it’s chest and frontal area. He had a hard time telling, but they seemed to pulse.
One of the smaller humanoids jerked the chain, which caused the quadruped to stumble and almost toss the individual on its back onto the ground.
The second largest one narrowed its eyes and opened its mouth. A tongue that filled up its entire mouth and more shot out and wrapped around the smaller one. It slithered around the smaller one, until the smaller one’s own tongue shot out and wrapped around the other’s tongue. Afterwards, they both retracted their tongues.
The largest one gave a glance at the exchange, but continued on towards Ian’s dungeon.
An odd exchange, but Ian decided to learn more about them after he could create them on his own. Eventually, the group entered his dungeon, his entrance now quite the gaping hole to accommodate them. However, their entrance introduced quite the displeasing notification.
WARNING!
An Invader has entered your dungeon.
If they reach the core room, they will be able to replace their soul with yours. As a result, they will gain complete control over the dungeon.
….What? ….What the depths? ….God dammit, Tidon!!! This should be something you tell new dungeons. You know, the thing that can actually cause them harm. As much as he grumbled, he assumed that Tidon had a good reason. Even if they were more inept than he had assumed after meeting them, the gods still did their jobs well and were far more powerful than him. Sahar may have not understood his transfer formations initially, but that was only because it wasn’t a process she had considered herself. There were plenty of her magics that he never was able to comprehend.
There was also the fact that taking over a dungeon was not a new concept. It was simply a concept that never had any evidence of succeeding. There were many tales, including his own experiments, of individuals attempting to take over dungeons. Of course, any that had succeeded would be unlikely to leave records behind as they became a dungeon, but what was the difference between his experiments and this pink meat sack. Something must separate being an Invader and someone just trying to take over a dungeon.
Ian’s thoughts sped to the back of his mind as the creatures started to talk.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Blckthck?” asked the second largest wrinkled humanoid.
“Of course, if the voice was right, we can rule over this dungeon and create an abundance of our species!” replied the largest sack of flesh, Blckthck.
Ian’s biggest surprise was not what they said, although the voice part was intriguing, but the fact that he could understand them even though all they were doing was licking each other. It looked like that tongue exchange outside was more than some creature fetish.
The smaller one holding the chains interrupted the couple, “Mom! Dad! The telepaths are gone!”
“What?!” they shouted as both tongues completely enveloped the child.
Ian glanced around and wanted to slap himself for not noticing. Damn those weird tongues. He turned his focus to the two quadrupeds. The one with large bumps over most of its body was laying on the ground, while the other shouted at it.
“Mirielle! Please wake up! Don’t leave me!” the creature sobbed. “Damn those monsters! You shouldn’t have taken the burden of mind control all on yourself! Even though I’m weak, I could have handled a little….”
He was going to try to figure out which group was the sapient group, but it didn’t really matter much to him now. The group of lard tubes were making their way deeper into the dungeon, thankfully at a slow pace. Meanwhile, Ian created a blink hobgoblin and infused his consciousness into it. As he started to run towards the G- rank floor, he stopped and smacked himself on the head. They were in the entrance hall, and he couldn’t go there! Dammit!
He didn’t want to waste the time he had inside the hobgoblin, so he waited, hoping the two quadrupeds would decide to go deeper into the dungeon.
The sobs of the quadruped quieted down, until they stopped. Soon after, they stood up and moved the barely breathing quadruped onto their back. The conscious one struggled as the other slowly floated onto its back.
“Let’s see if this dungeon will accept a dungeon contract. For us and the village.”
“Hoho,” Ian said to himself as he ran towards the entrance of the G- rank floor. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to deal with the saggy meat people as he was on a different instance. Although, they would have to deal with an instanced copy of a blink hobgoblin.
The quadruped slowly wobbled into the G- rank floor as all the creatures seemed to pay it no mind. Soon after, Ian ran up.
“Ah!” yelled the quadruped as it sent an telepathic attack at Ian.
Ian quickly brushed the light tapping at his mind away and greeted the individual, “Hello. So, you want to make a dungeon contract?”
The quadruped had stumbled from Ian brushing off its attack and simply stood there staring at him. Or, at least, what he assumed was staring, as staring was hard to do without eyes.
The silence continued for a while, until Ian repeated himself.
“....uh….wait….what?! Really?!” the creature shouted into his mind.
“Yes, really. By the way, my name’s Ian. What’s yours?”
“My name? My name’s Cynthia.”
Of course, even though their names were translated as Mirielle and Cynthia to Ian. What was actually sent to him were images of wonder and praise for Mirielle and of the moons and hunting for Cynthia.
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“So, Cynthia,” Ian began, “let’s form that dungeon contract. What do you want?”
Meanwhile, back in Ian’s core room.
“Hey, Helper, what are some good things for a dungeon to get out of a dungeon contract?”
“A dungeon only receives one thing from a dungeon contract.”
“What is it?”
“Complete servitude from the contractee.”
“So, they become a dungeon monster or creature?”
“No.”
“What are they then?”
“A dungeon contractee.”
“....*sigh*. Alright, anything a dungeon contractee can do that a dungeon monster or creature can’t?”
“They can leave the dungeon without disappearing.”
As Cynthia was mumbling to herself about a dungeon coming to her, Ian’s hobgoblin pumped his fist.
Cynthia jumped at his action and stuttered out, “O-of course. I want you to eliminate the threat to my village, and with that all villagers will become your dungeon contractees. H-however, I also have a personal request. Please heal my friend, Mirielle!”
“Agreed,” Ian responded immediately.
Dungeon Contract Formed
Requirements:
* Defeat all threats to Cynthia’s village. 0/553 threats eliminated.
* Heal Cynthia’s friend Miriella. 0/1 healed.
Rewards:
* Cynthia is your dungeon contractee even without fulfilling any requirements. 1/1
* Miriella is your dungeon contractee after she is healed. 0/1
* Any other villagers from Cynthia’s village that are saved will become your dungeon contractees. 0/857
⦕Dungeon War⦖
You have entered a dungeon war against the Ogre tribe Kath’lak.
Your dungeon creatures may leave the dungeon, but if they die outside of the dungeon, they cannot respawn.
If a dungeon creature dies outside the dungeon, their mana is released into the world.
After all threats to Cynthia’s village are eliminated, you shall receive an appropriate award.
“I’m a dungeon contractee already?! Why?!” screamed Cynthia.
Ian could only scratch his head, “What’s a Dungeon War? It seems pretty straightforward, but if dungeons were having wars all the time, I feel like it would have been readily apparent.”
“Hey, Ian! Why the hell am I your dungeon contractee already?! You haven’t even done anything yet!”
“Calm yourself. I’ll still heal your friend and save your village. Let me heal your friend first, then I’ll ask the Helper why it happened.”
“You better!”
Ian let the emotionally stressed girl yell at him all she wanted. He’d dealt with similar cases before. The hobgoblin walked over to Mirielle on Cynthia’s back. He placed his hand on one of the lumps and slowly spread healing mana through her. This minor healing magic combined with vision and light mana healed minor wounds and gave him an image of the her internal injuries. It was one of the more unique internal structures that he had come across. The structure that acted as her brain, which was contained within her chest, was covered in malignant tumors. In fact, Ian wondered how the girl was still alive.
Due to his lacking knowledge of their species biological structure, he’d have to use more mana than normal. Pumping a patient full of healing mana with a more general image wasn’t how he liked to go about treatment, but the girl was barely hanging on. He could only hope her body still contained her soul.
“Cynthia, let me examine your brain, so I can get a better idea of its structure.”
“Brain?”
“Your telepathic organ.”
“Oh! Please, do!”
Ian scanned Cynthia and used that information for his mental image. Of course, every individual’s brain structure was different, so matching it perfectly would change who she was. He didn’t know why it happened considering the soul and the fact that he hadn’t changed much. Although, he didn’t exactly have an outside observer to tell him of his own changes after becoming a dungeon.
His image focused on the absence of tumors and reverting to its previous state. The tumors transformed back into normal telepathic organ matter. The tendrils that extended through the body of Mirielle reduced in size and puffiness, along with the little bumps that covered them. He had to maintain the transfer of magic as it slowly returned to normal. Afterwards, the hobgoblin Ian inhabited fell to the ground gasping for breath.
“This body was not made for healing mana or maintaining such a high level healing spell. Thankfully none of its mana pathways or gates are ruined, it just needs to rest for a bit. Although, resting while those hairless tonguers roam the dungeon isn’t such a great idea. I should probably just inhabit another hobgoblin,” he mumbled from the hobgoblin’s mouth.
“....What are you talking about? Is Mirielle okay?!”
“She’s as fine as I can do without any knowledge of your species’ biological structure and limits on my magic because this body isn’t refined. Basically, what I’m saying is when she wakes up, she’ll be a better telepath than before.”
“That means she’s fine right?!”
“....Yeah, she’s fine.”
“Really?!”
“Yes, but it will probably take a while for her to wake up. I assume she was mind controlling all those monsters, which means I have to ask, why did she not mind control those things that had you chained up?”
“....Fine, I’ll trust you and answer your question. It gets exponentially harder to control something the more intelligence it is. Besides, those Flesh Tongues have dealt with us before and have developed resistances to our telepathy. Although, I don’t know how, as it’s supposed to be taboo to mind control any living things….one….one of the other villages might have broken the taboo then.”
“Hmm, good to know.”
“You don’t think I’m lying?”
“I considered it, but unless it’s a very obvious situation that I shouldn’t trust someone, I tend to trust people.”
“That’s never backfired on you?”
“Of course it has. However, once I know someone has lied to me, I know not to trust them, and I never do again.”
“....That seems a bit harsh.”
“Maybe, and I am exaggerating a bit.”
“Um, okay? Now that you’ve healed Mirielle, you’ll save my village right?”
“I will, but first I’ve got to get rid of….what did you call them? Flesh Tongues?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll get rid of them first, then I’ll start the dungeon war.”
Question marks assaulted his mind as he ran further into the dungeon with his hobgoblin. Just as he was almost out of sight of Cynthia he received a loud telepathic message.
“Wait! You didn’t ask that Helper person why I was already your dungeon contractee!”
Ian continued running as he pretended not to hear her. Answering that question was not as important as killing the invaders. They had already killed the hobgoblin in their instance and were on the water elemental room on the G rank floor. He’d have to meet them on the G+ rank floor.
The problem was his mana pathways weren’t fully healed yet. Using mana to heal one’s own pathways didn’t work, so he would have to….*sigh*. The possessed hobgoblin rubbed his temples. If he was on a floor without intruders, then he could just use the dungeon mana to heal himself. Huh, if he could do that, then could he cast a spell on himself? A wide smirk crossed Ian’s hobgoblin face. His running now had a slight hop to it.
Once he reached the swallow room of the G+ rank floor, he sat down and let his healing mana flow over him. Both the spell to heal his mana pathways, and the spell to make the upcoming fight enjoyable. He needed to be quick about it, but it had been over a year since he could fight with his magic properly. A couple of seconds versus a couple of minutes wouldn’t make that much of a difference in preparing for his upcoming dungeon war. Thus, Ian sat and waited for the flesh tongues to enter the room.
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A short while later, the four of them lumbered into the room. Upon seeing another hobgoblin sitting close to the entrance, the largest, Blckthck, shot his tongue at it. His tongue continued extending, but it never hit the hobgoblin. A look of confusion appeared on his face before he saw a small smirk on the hobgoblin’s face.
A large force smacked into the back of his head causing Blckthck to face plant into the ground. With his tongue laying on his back, he leaped up, face red with rage. Pillars of fire erupted where the hobgoblin sat. As the fire disappeared, all that remained were the hobgoblin’s charred remains.
Blckthck’s grin pushed his ears upwards as his long tongue retracted back into his body.
“Let’s go,” he ordered as the four of them stomped past the hobgoblin’s charred remains.
One of the two children’s tongues extend to the charred pile as they walked by. As its tongue touched the pile, a skeletal hand grabbed its tongue causing it to squeal in fear.
“Now, now,” a skull with muscle starting to grow on it spoke from the pile, “you can’t leave the fight just yet.”
“Slklck!” the second largest one shouted as her tongue shot towards the reforming hobgoblin. However, it never reached, and the end of the tongue plopped to the ground.
The mother’s body flopped to the ground, her head no longer present. A completely smooth line spread from shoulder to shoulder where blood now flowed from freely. The head itself was now sitting on the floor next to the reforming, Ian possessed hobgoblin.
The air distorted and Blckthck’s skin rippled as his tongue quivered, “Lsthnss! Let go of my son, you murderer!”
Ian’s faced distorted, “Murderer?! How am I the murderer when you come in here to kill and replace me?!”
Blckthck’s eyes narrowed, “You’re the dungeon? If so, I’ll kill you here and now, and replace you!”
Ian sneered, “Doubtful.”
He punched Blckthck’s son across the room as a tongue was headed towards him. Using his other fist he punched the tongue to the side. His skin started to rip, but he ignored it.
The two children were hiding behind the father and shivering. Damn, now he really felt like the bad guy. Talking it out wasn’t possible as he already killed the mother, but he could at least ascertain why they did what they did.
“Hey, Blckthck. Why did you treat those telepaths the way that you did? They’re thinking individuals like you, so why?”
“Why? Why wouldn’t we? Their telepathic abilities may be useful, but that’s only when used for our purposes. Other beings should work for our purposes or be killed.”
Ian continued to punch the tongue out of the way, while Blckthck answered him. Quite a versatile tongue that could talk and attack at the same time.
“What did you do with my playthings?!” yelled the son.
“You took our amusement and now Mom away! I hate you!” shouted the other.
Ian gritted his teeth. Why did he have to deal with seemingly sapient monsters, dammit. He didn't know of it was a part of their nature or if they were indoctrinated by their parents, but for his safety and the dungeon contract he made, he wouldn’t be able to let the children leave.
….They were monsters right? Even if they weren’t, they were Invaders trying to kill him. But what if only the father was an Invader? Could he kill the father and make the children leave? If they were monsters, and their vile hatred and treatment of other species was in their nature would he be fine with that? Also, as a dungeon he was supposed to kill Invaders. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t wiped out whole monster communities before.
….He wanted to vomit, but he had to kill them. For his own sanity, he could only hope being vile towards other beings was in their species’ nature. It wasn’t as if humans and other sapients weren’t similar in some ways, but at least it was mainly due to nurture and not nature.
As he continued to punch the tongue out of the way, and prevent Blckthck from casting any magic, he started flying in the air.
“I’m a dungeon, so I’m going to have to kill you now.”
Blckthck’s eye’s quivered as beams of light shot towards him. His last thought was simply ‘Damn this hobgoblin, it should have been me.’
All Invaders Killed.
Congratulations!
Ian landed on the ground and hugged himself. He wanted to hug Estella so much right now. With that, he removed his consciousness from the hobgoblin with a heavy heart. Killing people to save the universe wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought, was it?