Rick quickly passed through the city gates with a large bag of plants strapped to his back and a limp, he was skilled enough in alchemy to cure any disfigurement that would cause a limp, but this was a little trick he picked up over the years. The guards don’t spend much time searching the crippled old alchemist, there are some people who even some friendly passersby that let him in front of them.
Soon he arrived at this alchemy shop and entered to the ring of the shopfront bell, behind the counter a young man jumped in surprise and quickly beamed at Rick, “your back master, I’ve got a few questioned written down”.
As the man was dragging down a book from a shelf Rick’s question caused him to freeze and smile wryly, “do you get the things I ordered”
After a brief moment he answered professionally as if he was someone completely different, “No master, there were complications--”
“complications” questioned Rick
“yes,” the man continued, “some of the plants you ordered haven't been seen on this continent for hundreds of years and raised several flags. Others were easier to obtain, so much so that a few of the items on the list were considered general goods and I even received strange looks when I ordered them from a specialty store. All your items will arrive by next week.”
Ricks smirked and murmured, “it was a good idea to take your clan as followers” as he exited the shop.
The man saw Rick slipping away and hastily called out, “wait, you still haven’t answered my alchemy questions” while waving his handwritten notes.
Rick picked up the pace and unashamedly replied, “I’ll get around to your questions when I get my delivery”, causing the man stuck behind the counter to sigh, ‘It is very difficult to get anything out of that old monster’ he absentmindedly thought.
Moments later the bell rung again and with a friendly smile he greeted, “Hello Mr. Lucifer, what brings you to the surface world today”
Lucifer smiled back and replied, “oh I just have some business with your clan Adrian”
Adrian’s smile cramped as he awkwardly replied “I haven’t told the clan about you so it will take some convincing”
Lucifer smiled in response and launched a pure mana infused fist at the man.
Adrian was caught off guard but still managed to get his arms up to block, however, he wasn’t a warrior to begin with and his arms shattered along with his ribs.
As blood filled Adrian's lungs he tried to speak, but nothing came out. Lucifer could see his questioning gaze and guessed what he was being asked, he simply replied, “you weren’t supposed to know about me, but you do and I don’t know how much Rick told you”
Adrian stopped moving and his surprised expression gradually relaxed into the familiar face of a dead man. Lucifer frowned the walked up to Adrian's body and stomped on his kneecap.
The dead man screamed startling Lucifer, Adrian's and Lucifer's eyes met and Lucifer could see the fear in the man's eyes, he said, “good to know” before stomping on Adrian's head several times until nothing remained then left the building.
Lucifer moved through the city back streets and entered a small unassuming building.
Rick entered the dungeon and felt a chill on the back of his neck, however, he immediately saw a rare ingredient, “ohh this is rare, these things are usually picked when there are so near the entrance, lucky”
several hours later he saw a man walking through the dungeon by himself and his soul binding was tingling, “Lucifer, its been a while”
Lucifer looked unsurprised at Ricks sudden appearance and replied, “do you have the seeds”
Rick happily answered, “of course, although some of my “gardens” have either been raided or destroyed by time which is disappointing, however, I do have some of my best work with me, some of these plants have been selectively bred and crossbred by me for longer than Swadia has existed for”
“are they useful,” asked Lucifer.
Rick looked offended for a moment before he explained, “useful, Kingdoms would go to war against each other for these plants, Although most of them have their own problems the effects are miraculous”
“problems” Lucifer questioned.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
This time Rick almost stumbled on a nearby root as he was following Lucifer, “nothing is perfect” Rick defended his creations, “some of them have special growing conditions that are a little strict, but the effect is well worth the effort”
Lucifer ducked under a low branch and asked, “so I take it that these plants can’t grow in the wild by themselves, so what are these special growing conditions”
Rick contemplated for a moment before replying, “well depends on the plant, most of my secret gardens have arrays set up to change the environment for these special plants, however, as a dungeon, you could easily create environments that would allow these p[lants to flourish.
One example is a selectively bred mana flower which I’m sure your not interested in the name of, this flower requi9red a ridiculous amount of ambient mana to grow, for normal mages this is a problem and really expensive to grow, but the dungeon is the perfect growing ground for this plant and could just about be planted anywhere, and most importantly the essence from these plants have been selectively bred for maximum essence”
By this point Rick was following Lucifer though secret corridor. Rick continued explaining the pros and cons of his plants until they arrived in a small room, Golem stood there motionless inside the room until it noticed Lucifer, it gave a small bow then went back to being motionless.
Rick stopped talking and asked, “what are we doing here?”
“you're the one following me” replied Lucifer “I’m here taking care of business”
This was the second time Lucifer received a questioning gaze today, this time he activated Ricks soul bond intending to give him unbearable pain, however, Lucifer noticed that something was blocking most of the signal.
Rick doubled over in pain, but Lucifer knew it didn’t hurt him that much and he made his decision, he infused pure mana into his body causing multiple blood vessels to burst, then he dashed towards Rick.
Rick clenched his jaw and went was about to dodge to the side, however, his speed as an old mage was far slower than an enhanced body Lucifer was using.
Large mana infused arms wrapped around Rick and prevented him from moving, he struggled and Lucifer was surprised that he was losing his grip, Rick’s body was becoming larger.
After several moments, just as Rick was about to grow out of Lucifers grip golem turned to them and his arm cannon exploded. Boom, instantly a shockwave destroyed everyone's hearing in the small room as the projectile effortlessly passed through both of their chests.
Rick grunted at the foot-sized hole being opened up in his chest and bit down harder causing some liquid to come out of his lips, Lucifer thought ‘false teeth’ before his consciousness was suddenly impacted by something.
Lucifer tried to move his consciousness outside of his body but instead found himself stuck in a small gem inside Ricks' hand.
Rick finally stopped growing at 3 meters tall, golem charged Rick now that its single-use cannon was empty.
Rick smirked before giving a spinning backhand to the automation instantly beheading it, but golems don’t require heads so Rick was surprised when golems sword arm slashed at him.
The sword cleanly loped off Ricks oversized arm and went for another attack, however, this time Rick was ready, he threw a barrel like it weighed nothing from his storage ring, it hit golem and exploded into a rain of an unknown liquid.
Golem went to slash again, but founds its joints were stuck and the surface of its body was rapidly being eroded away by the unknown substance, it only took 30 seconds before Golem was reduced to a puddle of chunky metal soup on the ground.
Meanwhile, Lucifer was cursing Rick as he found the gem extremely difficult to escape from, Rick chuckled at Lucifer pointless struggle and said, “there is no point in struggling because I made that material myself, with all the plant essence I got from your dungeon I might add haha… so care to tell me why you attacked me”
Rick was already moving towards the exit when Lucifer replied, “this gem isn’t reason enough?”
“you couldn’t have known about this gem” countered Rick.
Lucifer coldly replied, “I guess I just have trust issues than”
“issues is such an understatement” rebuked Rick.
Rick cursed as he found the way blocked, “fuck, why is it blocked, you can’t modify the dungeon why living things are nearby”
This time it was Lucifers turn to laugh, “of course I can, how do you think I expand a dungeon floor if it is impossible when something is around, the actual rule is I can’t modify the dungeon around living creatures that aren’t under my control”
“does it look like I’m under your control” Rick angrily barked back. Rick punched the wall and only a small section of rock fell away, he sighed and put escaping on hold for the moment, he pulled several vials out of his storage rings and began drinking them.
The hole in his chest closed at a visible rate and his arm grew a small stump but stopped growing further.
“so are there any other rules I don’t know about” grunted Rick as he began punching the wall sending rock flying.
Lucifer casually said “plenty, there is a reason I kept you away from the more sensitive areas of the dungeon, I bet you don’t even know I have two labs, one for idiots to see and the one I actually use”
“trust issues don’t even begin to describe you” Rick corrected himself.
“you expect me to trust a man who so readily took on a soul bond, a man who spends all his time collecting items from my dungeon, then when I actually need you to fight for the dungeon you half-ass it--”
“half-ass” Rick grunted as he punched the wall again. Blood now covered his fist and he was forced to stop to take another healing potion.
“local saying” Lucifer answered before continuing as if none of this happened, “I’ve seen your kind before too many times, your someone who is only interested in benefits, which means funny enough that I can trust you, but that's only as long as the benefits I give outway what others can give”
Rick stood back up and began smashing the wall again, “well there is no way you will be able to defend yourself against the Magedom, so I guess you were right”
Lucifer laughed, “indeed, it was a hard lesson to learn, but benefit based alliances only last if one of its members is too powerful for another to steal said benefits”
Rick laughed “HA, most people don’t learn that their entire life, they always end up dying with confusion written all over their faces, like they couldn’t imagine someone could buy their bought alliance”
Lucifer chuckled to himself as Rick hadn’t noticed that his consciousness was out of the crystal.
For several hours they both talked while Lucifer directed his voice to come out next to the crystal, they seemed to come to an understanding, that this was inevitable, neither of them was wrong but they would end up fighting anyway. They were both just following what was best for themselves.
Rick sat down exhausted as he cursed Lucifer, “I should be out of this tunnel by now goddammit”
Lucifer laughingly said “yes you would have, if I wasn’t placing more walls in-front of you as you dug”
A chill went down Ricks' spine when he finally noticed Lucifer wasn’t inside the gem anymore, “how?” he asked.
Lucifer replied “I’ve recently gotten a jail full of human prisoners, it really helps with studying the soul and consciousness when you have a supply of people to experiment on”
Rick couldn’t believe it and said “but even if you understand how this crystal works you still shouldn’t be able to get out”
Lucifer laughingly explained, “don’t you remember that my real body is just a core, I’ve always got a connection to that thing regardless of what I do which I thought was a curse, but I was able to slowly follow the connection to it out of the crystal”
Rick slumped down against the wall and absentmindedly said, “so I guess you win then, even if you lose against the Magedom, you can just kill yourself and start again... how lucky”
Lucifer took on an unusually serious tone as he replied, “well not necessarily, every moment I stay as a dungeon my mind is slightly altered, and every time I reincarnated my mind was as it was when I died, so this is a gamble, will I be able to live long enough to study the soul and undo the damage that has been done, or hopefully erase my memories and start again without such a twisted mind and sad memories, or will I be killed and reincarnate into some sort of monster that feels joy at dying people”
Rick was bewildered and asked, “then why stay as a dungeon”
“because its fun” Lucifer happily replied.
Rick didn’t have time to reply when the roof suddenly gave way and crushed him into meat paste.
Lucifer flew his consciousness over to his lab where there was a waiting body and possessed it. Once that was done he removed the room and all the other traps he had prepared for Rick earlier.