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The Dungeon, Unnamed Island, Kalenic Sea

Five Days Post-Delve

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I'd thought shoving mana into random fish and letting them mutate on their own would give me inspiration for a new monster. Or create a new monster wholesale, in the best case.

And I was right.~

I'd crammed over a hundred fish of various species packed into my second floor, each fully saturated with mana. There, they struggled for survival. They either used their mana to their advantage or died to feed another. Quite a few mutated some exciting features I couldn't wait to explore, but there were three I earmarked for immediate elevation to monsterhood.

Firstly, the humble Angelfish. A beautiful yet territorial and aggressive fish, Its leading edges and trailing fins had become quite sharp. The scales on its leading edge were ablative, metallic, and shaped roughly like an arrowhead. Its ability to accelerate quickly in a straight line was also considerably boosted. The Arrowfish would be a potent addition to my defense; I was sure of it.

All it needed was a breeding population, which I happily provided by modifying other fish into the same shape. It was only a little work to rid the fish of their loner nature. Instead, they would swim in schools of five to six at minimum. Larger schools could reach up to twenty members, which complemented their smaller size, around 7-8 inches in length.

Just imagine a swarm of arrowheads moving at speed straight at you. They could hamstring people, cutting tendons and disabling them for their larger allies.

Said allies were long, banded fish that had gained mass, more powerful muscles, and a mouth filled with big sharp teeth. Its original black, grey, and red coloring gained a bit of a sinister tone, the red spots seeming more like bloodstains from its messy feeding method. Ripping its prey to shreds, if it wasn't obvious. It wasn't a very social fish; I saw no need to change that. When introduced to more of their own kind, they'd prefer to spread and claim individual territories than school together.

It also grew from half a foot to two feet long, big enough to seriously threaten invaders and rip a good chunk of flesh off with every bite. In the end, it was probably for the best they weren't schooling creatures; they were vicious enough on their own. Too many would overwhelm any who even tried to pass them.

Thus, the Vicious Bloodfish was born.

With two good monsters, I decided I'd only need one more to round out the selection. I had a smaller harassing monster and a medium-sized damage dealer, so the final fish needed to be an area-denial specialist.

Five days into my experiment, I found the perfect one.

An otherwise normal blue-toned fish had gained incredibly sharp scales and could shed them all when threatened. In the dark water, what looked like a blue, sparkly cloud was instead thousands of tiny scales, each sharp enough to cut and draw blood. I mutated the fish further to have multiple layers of scales ready to emerge, like a shark's teeth. I also made sure the monsters were about a foot long, so they had enough scales to saturate a large enough area to matter. When multiple fish shed their scales together... they could fill an entire flooded corridor.

Thus, the Sharp-Scaled Bluefish was named.

Yeah, I know. Not exactly imaginative. I don't know the actual names of these animals, and I wasn't an ocean biologist before I ended up here. Sue me.

Names aside, the Bluefish, Arrowfish, and Bloodfish all gained their own flooded spawning chambers, hopefully keeping their populations high. I also made sure all the 'failed' monsters were eliminated.

Some of them turned out... poorly. For example, the one that mutated lungs. Then drowned.

Yeah, that wasn't pretty.

But either way, it was time to move on to my Boss Monster.

This time, the boss arena was submerged entirely, with no air pockets. Unlike Sebastian, this boss wouldn't be fighting on their lonesome. I ensured there were plenty of access points for fish monster reinforcements to flood in when required. The cuboid chamber was well decorated and carved with meaningless runes and symbols to give it ambiance.

While the boss monster would be supported, it still had to stand on its own merits. The only individually strong monster I had on this floor was the Bloodfish, so It was an easy choice.

I took a female Bloodfish, which were slightly larger and more territorial, and enlarged it another three feet, to a total of five. I added significant girth and weight to the beefy fish, so it was in proportion. I empowered its muscles further to keep its speed despite its new size, and I added sharp edges to its fins and tail, similar to the Arrowfish. I also increased its brain size in comparison to the body. I only stopped when it felt about equal in intelligence to Sebastian. With not a little gravitas, I pushed a thought through our connection.

You are the Bloodfish Queen, Sanguina.

In response, I felt an acquiescence and the sense of... fealty? Is that what this is?

Finally, there was the exit. The first thing to do was provide a route to my crystal for the mana stream. I added a long, thin grate of thick stone along the top edge of the room, with holes large enough to put an arm through but not much else. Not that the hand on that arm could reach the other side of the wall. The actual door was a ten-foot diameter circular hole blocked by a square of stone set into the wall. Finally, I saturated the door with mana and impressed the intent that it was to move aside when Sanguina died and linked them with a thin ribbon of mana. I added the same enchantment to Sebastian's exit, though that one would remove the stone bar that prevented the doors from opening.

Now I just needed a bit of... decoration.

Those corpses littering my entryway will do nicely. Actually, you know what? I already have the 'temple reclaimed by nature' vibe with all the carvings, so why not take it all the way?

I bored short holes in the walls that looked like dart traps but did nothing. I had exposed spike traps. I couldn't make fake spear traps without a way to create wood, which was disappointing.

Why make them fake?

To hide the real traps, of course.

I brought in various corals and other plant-like animals from the reef, including urchins and sea stars. I littered them across the floor in a random distribution. A quick mana infusion made them sharper and brittle, hopefully enough to pierce an unarmored foot. Some slow-acting poison wouldn't go amiss, either.

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Then, for the final touch, I had the corpses stripped to their bones. One, I kept in a single piece and placed in the corner of the Queen's arena. The other, I'd spread around enough that any invaders would find random bones among the corals and in dead ends. As for their weapons, I piled them into a stone chest; at a dead end you needed to pass a flooded tunnel to find.

And so, my Flooded Labyrinth was complete. For now, at least. The Starlit Caverns above seemed a bit bare in comparison, so I upped the number of stone arms in the place, leaving some lying broken on the ground and others grasping from the walls. I also made stone hands in the walls of the twisting passages, just to freak people out when they brushed up against them in passing.

With some potential powerhouses coming in to potentially murder me, I needed as many defenses as I could create.

Let's up the numbers of my defenders, shall we?

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The Guildship Delver, Near the Unnamed Island, Kalenic Sea

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Felin walked across the deck of the small guild-owned ship. It was only a small ship. One just big enough to carry their evaluation team and quick enough to get to the newly discovered island within two days.

The tanned man reached over his shoulder, ensuring his longsword remained firmly in its sheath. This new armor still wasn't comfortable to him, but that'd get better with time. Satisfied, he grunted and blew a black strand of hair out of his eyes. He'd need to get that cut when they got back. A glance towards the bow revealed where his oldest friend stood, staring at the horizon. Without hesitation, he stomped over, his heavy footfalls making the wood deck creak slightly.

"We're close," Layla stated, her gaze unwavering as he approached. "Its absorption rate isn't as powerful as I've seen from other Lost dungeons. If it is a Lost Dungeon it was in hibernation, and those merchants woke it up." Felin grunted again, looking into the sky. He couldn't see the winds of mana like Layla could, but he trusted her judgment. He could see the island on the horizon, slowly growing as they approached.

"I don't like it." He said after a few minutes of silence. His deep and gravelly voice perfectly matched his rough and scarred facial features.

"I know you don't," Layla replied. "But we're the highest-ranked party they have on hand right now. They've given us this mission, and we will carry it out. The winds confirm a dungeon, at least. Nothing else could cause such a widespread change in their patterns." She turned to face him, her pale skin only highlighted by the black silk blindfold covering what he knew were sightless eyes. Black as the void, yet sparkling with starlight.

"Tell Teak and Herna to begin prep. We'll be there in an hour." Felin grunted and promptly turned around, approaching the staircase leading below deck.

Finding the two other party members was easy since they weren't hiding. Teak was a brown-haired, pale-skinned man from the northern parts of the Phenoc Kingdom. His dark eyes almost glinted in the candlelight. He was a rogue, clad in monster-leather armor with two intricately carved and lovingly cared-for daggers sheathed at his hips. On the table was his crossbow, which he bent over and maintained with his gloved hands. His thin fingers moved quickly and deliberately, faster than an average human could, even with decades of training and conditioning. The crossbow was pointed at him in a flash, and a bolt loosed. Felin didn't move. The bolt hit the wooden doorframe beside him with a thunk, less than a foot from his head.

He didn't change his expression at all, not a single flinch. Teak sighed, looking aggravated.

"Damn. I'll catch you by surprise one day," He promised. Felin grunted, pulled out the bolt, and casually tossed it back at the man.

"You know, Teak, one day Felin isn't going to take your little tests with such good humor." Herna joked. The robed woman was swinging back and forth in a hammock. She was also a Phenocian, though from further south. There, the wooded lands bled into dry, sandy plains. Her tanned skin was darker than his own, though nowhere near as dark as someone from Hillia could get. Her orange irises glowed in the light, flickering with the candle's flame.

"We almost there?" She prompted, eyebrow raised. Felin nodded, then turned and left. The others weren't offended by his curtness; it was just his nature.

They were all on the deck as they pulled up alongside a particular beach, flanked by a cave glowing from within with an ethereal teal light.

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The Dungeon, Unnamed Island, Kalenic Sea

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More humans were here! Apart from the sailors, who looked similar to the last ones, four stood out as different.

First, an unnaturally pale woman. Likely an albino by the pure white hair. She wore a black blindfold across the upper half of her face, though I noticed she could track the mana river pouring into my entrance. Also, I didn't think they'd send a defenseless, blind person into a dangerous cave filled with monsters. So... I'd have to take this as tentative confirmation that some humans could see mana. I decided to call her... Neo.

The two men wore leathers, though the one with the longsword on his back had more metal studding his set than the one with daggers and a crossbow.

I dubbed them Knight and Rogue, respectively.

Finally, there was the tan woman with glowing orange eyes! I couldn't be sure, but I guessed she was a pyromancer. I really wanted to see her perform magic. Potentially, I could replicate it for some traps or give it to my monsters. She probably wouldn't be thrilled that most of my dungeon was either filled with water or damp enough that fire wouldn't do much. I also wondered if my crabs were flammable. Hopefully, they weren't. But if they were... I'd need to figure out how to fix that.

Either way, they'd disembarked from the ship a short time later, taken a rowboat to the shore, and walked up to my entrance.

Since they were inside the cave, I could look at them with my own senses rather than Gull's half-decent eyesight. From what I could see, the two men had a significant amount of mana circulating around their bodies. Most of Knight's mana seemed focused on empowering his muscle and bone, with minimal but necessary attention to his nerves. Rogue had the opposite, heavily empowered nerves, with enough muscle and bone improvements to keep up with the increased reflexes and not tear himself apart with every movement.

Pyro's mana wasn't nearly as spread out, though there was some. Most of her mana was gathered in a core. It was nestled next to her heart, like my monsters. Actually, Rogue and Knight had cores too! Where Pyro's seemed specialized to store mana for later use, Rogue and Knight's worked as the heart of their mana circuits.

Neo's mana was focused in three places. About two-thirds of her mana was sitting in her core, while the other third was split between her eyes. I couldn't guess what it was doing beyond letting her see mana. Maybe it upped her perception so much that she needed to wear a blindfold so she didn't go mad? It could grant her telescopic vision or the ability to see colors that didn't exist. I just didn't know.

And it drove me a little mad trying to figure it out.

The little party of four strode confidently into the room. Neo's face was pointed right at the Manastar in the ceiling, and after a few seconds of observation, she spoke for the first time. Her voice was even and smooth. It didn't waver at all.

"That ball of mana up there is terrifying. There is so much mana in it that it should explode and evaporate us all, but it hasn't. Something is preventing that explosion, and I have no idea what." She looked down and glanced around the room. "Second rock to the right of the passage on the far side. The third rock in the stack halfway around the cavern on the left. They're monsters." Within seconds of Neo finishing, Rogue brought up his crossbow, and two bolts were shot with incredible speed. The bolts flew across the room, and both slammed directly into the Assassin Crabs hidden among the rocks.

Well, that was proof enough for me. Neo had mana-sight, which let her identify monsters by their mana. The rocks around them didn't have much mana, only enough to claim them as mine, making them stick out like sore thumbs. Both crabs died within seconds of the shots penetrating their shell. Some kind of armor-piercing bolts? They must be laced with poison too. I couldn't imagine the crabs would have died so quickly otherwise. The party moved to investigate the first crab, where Rogue used one of his daggers to hack off a claw and leg, then dug around inside the cracked shell to find its core. "Fairly large core for such a small monster," He said something, then they moved to the second corpse.

I didn't think I could sneak up on these guys. Or, at least, not while Neo was in play.

Sorry, but you're the primary target now.

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