Chapter 17 - A Good Day For A Dungeon
The situation after the battle had calmed down and I finally felt it safe to take some
time off, from being a hard-working dungeon core.
This was because I was finally able to again evolve and it even was a special one, at
least I had a feeling it would be quite a milestone to achieve, Tier 5. I initiated the evolution and felt the mana condense into my core and my domain, though this time the constellation was vastly more powerful and complex. I even feared that the dwarfs and Draugr would notice the evolution I was undergoing.
Nevertheless, I was too excited to stop and couldn't anyway so I just let it happen.
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I awoke sometime later and first off all took a look at how much time had passed. It turned out that I was only away for half a week. The dwarfs and Draugr were currently rebuilding their homes and didn’t plan to delve my dungeon until the end of the week.
Though I noticed some of the more powerful creatures around my dungeon curiously looking directly at my core after the evolution. After looking into this I noticed that I send out a unique wave of energy, though I didn’t yet know why.
Having reassured myself that nothing went wrong I finally had a look at what I evolved into. From my old Experigist Dungeon I turned into an entrapping experigist Dungeon.
The evolution brought with it hundreds of new things, but of course, I first looked at the major changes. I was now able to imprison entities within my dungeon that I either wanted to be contained or wasn’t able to kill. Through this, I would even be able to summon and use the race of the contained creature.
Furthermore, I was now able to control stronger creatures within my domain while still using the same amount of mana and control. After looking at this further I realized that this would not only allow me to summon creatures a full tier above me but also upgrade some of the ones I already had. Namely the guardians and especially the alpha guardian solar bear from zone 5.
The last but definitely not least major change was my new ability to absorb sentient creatures. Beforehand I was mostly unable to spawn and use any sentient, sapient, or highly intelligent creatures because they would use too much of my own.
But now I was able to call them into my service. Though they had to agree to serve me and had to be cared for diligently because they could cancel the contract at any time. It was a risk worth taking because of the diplomatic and strategic advantages it would allow me.
I was so excited by the new changes that I just ignored the minor, uninterested ones. I immediately started to use the second major change I had undergone. This allowed me to drastically increase the difficulty of my dungeon and balance out the zones a bit better.
The first one was the one I started with. I transformed the red mouse itself and the most powerful of its offspring into the tier 2 weak variant, the radiant mouse. The rest of its offspring I left how it was, this would allow me to present a fair challenge for the fair divers. While being able to exterminate any threatening enemies with the stronger radiant mice.
The mouse royalty too got an upgrade. Not only did I increase their numbers drastically but I too evolved some of them into the Mouse king and queen, Tier 2 weak. When before the 2 rulers were only king and queen in position now they too were King and queen in power. But sadly they were still quick to flee any battle.
The second zone too got an upgrade. Now the host guardian would have different strength levels depending on the intruders they fought against. From their normal tier, 1 peek up to tier 2.
In the third zone, every little challenge guardian was upgraded to tier 2 peek, which should balance out the too little strength difference I had between zone 2 and 3. The death bat now was a ghastly bat, the anguillian warrior was now a fighter and the overslime was now a mother slime.
Inside the 4th zone, I didn’t change anything at all, the challenge the zone provided was perfectly in line with what I wanted of the zone.
The fifth though was my biggest trouble child, the solar bear from before was too weak for my tastes, especially as an alpha guardian. So I immediately punched him up into tier 4. Now called a nova bear, the guardian was sure to redeem me the challenge I had always lacked before.
The sixth zone too got some much-needed upgrade. Namely, the two guardians were powered up into tier 3 peek versions, though their race didn’t change at all.
Within the 7th zone, I didn’t change all too much, I only added a tier 5 weak version of the worm to the brittle earth area, the drilling worm.
With the last zone finished I again took a look at the changes. I would not be able to use any other of my two major changes yet. The imprisonment was right now relatively useless because I had no threat I was scared of and no one to interrogate. And I too had no sentient species I could absorb into my dungeons, the Draugr were too free and egoistic and the dwarfs were too stubborn and didn’t trust me.
With nothing else to do I simply observed and inspected the two drastically different civilizations outside of my dungeon.
The dwarfs were now finally finished with the repairs and the village was in an even better state than it was before. On the other hand, the Draugr settlement looked quite shabby and weird. Instead of the dwarfs masterfully build stone homes into the earth and walls, the Draugr had tents and huts.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
They used skin hide, logs, and shabby stonework to construct their homes. Though no one should be fooled into believing that these buildings were not to last for long. Weird scribbles cultivated shadow-mana and darkness-mana through the tents strengthening the structure. Furthermore, these tents were set up in a magical layout, this allowed the structures to support each other and be used as a defensive measure.
Once, during a powerful monster attack, one of the Draugr leaders used the mana and formation of the village to summon a creature. Though it had the same name as my ability it was drastically different. Instead of forming the monster out of pure mana the Draugr and his supporters opened a rift in the air which spat out the shadow monster. Halfway through the battle, the beast evaporated and the group of summoners sacked down, exhausted.
After experiencing the way the Draugr lived I assumed them to be a race of merciless and moralless shadow mana manipulators, that worked together to further themselves.
This egoistic behavior was further underlined when a group of humanoids came to talk with the Draugr. They clearly came with peaceful intentions and were just trying to communicate with the dark dwarfs when they were immediately attacked.
The traders quickly fled and abandoned my domain. This saddened me greatly because I wanted to know what these travelers knew. Though to my delight, I saw them one month later when they reached the dwarfish village.
They had again begun to delve the dungeon and I was only waiting for something to go awry. Namely, when the Draugr started to delve too and met the dwarfs inside my dungeon, this surely would result in a catastrophic collision.
Distracting myself from the bad predictions I instead took a look at the traders. They had a translator with them, an old dwarf which knew the language of dwarfs and those of the traders. The merchants were from the yak folk and some gnomes.
They came from the surface and explored the depths and beneath to find new and unexplored trading possibilities. Though they too had other passengers, travelers, and adventurers who had come to see the depths and to protect the caravan. Others joined the caravan on its way out to go and see the surface.
Their races ranged from Galeb duhr and high Grimlocks to troglodytes and even avians. The two races I was the most interested in were the Galeb duhr and the avians.
The avian race reminded me of the narcullians I had left behind when I fled my previous home. Though after thorough analyzation I could find no hint that related them to my lost attackers except the feeling I had.
Though I quickly ignored it to take a look at the Galeb duhr, especially the tier 5 jeweled galeb duhr and his female partner the gemeb duhr. What interested me about them was their close relation to jewels and gems, which were similar to my own core.
I was slightly scared but also interested. Though the most intriguing was how they both found each other. Two drastically different evolutions for the same race were still so similar. I planned to manipulate the two into somehow coming into the dungeon, any way possible.
While I did that I observed the merchants and their tales. They told of a vast variety of different advanced civilizations below and above ground. The elders, up to 70 years old, close to two times my age, enchanted the village children with tales and legends.
They told of the first and most powerful monsters or races. Of creatures who had already reached tier 10 and maybe even beyond.
Throughout my observation, I summarised the situation of the continent I found myself in. Sadly no stories were told of landmasses beyond the continent we subsided on. As it seemed I found myself smack in the center of the continent of Armadeous.
The landmass is surrounded by water on all sides, though the far north tells of a bridge of ice. Throughout the continent, thousands of races begin their rise to greatness, in jungles, plains, crystal forests, flying islands, gravity-less areas, or everburning tornados.
Every place found at least one race who could inhabit it and nothing was left alone. Though the most powerful races found themselves close to mana springs, coming from below. Beneath the earth, it was rumored that even more species fought for dominance over the mana richer areas. It was just more difficult to find them, especially when one got deeper and all-powerful monsters roamed the depths.
During this, I also found out that I was not even that far away from where I was born. To reach this I set myself as my next big goal, maybe one day I would again see the sun.
This was about all the information I observed because just then the two Galeb duhr entered my domain. Once they were inside they somehow sensed that I was watching them. I talked this down to their closeness to jewels and stone and high cultivation.
I greeted them and they were quite surprised that their assumption was true. Their friendliness immediately infected me and we hit it off quite well, probably due to my racial closeness to them.
We talked for quite a while and exchanged information. I liked them even so much that I proposed that we should sign a contract. They questioned me first on the permanency and borders of the contract, but afterward quickly agreed.
Over the week that the two were under my service, they pointed out flaws and inconsistencies inside my dungeon, allowing me to improve my dungeon.
After this something drastic happened, the Draugr for the first time dived my dungeon. There they nearly immediately clashed with the dwarfs and a fight broke out. I feared that this would result in both races abandoning my dungeon and came to a decision.
I would use both of the galeb duhr as my emmissionaries and poker a peacetriety between the two races. I informed the two races of the meeting and threatened to get aggressive if they didn’t agree.
The dwarfs already knew of a presence inside the tunnels and quickly agreed, intrigued and rightfully scared. On the other hand, the Draugr wouldn’t be convinced if I threatened them so I instead lured them in with riches and power.
So after a week of preparation time, two groups of diplomats found themselves inside my new Entrance hall. I had created this “zone” in the time the two races stopped delving. It was a large embellished hall. Decorated with impressive works of art, two rows of pillars would guide the delver towards the entrance of the dungeon. Just before the large gatehouse into my first zone, an area was prepared for any future services or buildings.
On the way through the hallway doors would provide the necessary rooms for various situations. I had a prison, research and experimentation room, an area with accommodations for the people serving me, and of course the throne hall.
This was something highly necessary, I wasn’t yet able to sit in the room myself but it would still present an oppressing power. One of my monsters, a full-fleshed Boss nighthaunt, tier 6 peek, guided the diplomats inside the room. The monster was the twice evolved version of the beasts the Draugr leaders rode into battle with.
It currently was the most powerful creature inside my dungeon and normally personally guarded my core room. The boss add-on was what allowed it to be on the top of tier 6 and also made it significantly cheaper for me to summon.
As the door closed behind the diplomats and they sat their sweating and trembling bodies on the prepared seats the meeting started. My two represents entered the room, greeted everyone at once, and sat at the two seats closest to the throne.
The boss nighthaunt lay down to my throne’s feet and calmed down. Slowly the other guests too pulled themselves up and the meeting could start for good!!!