Chapter 37: Laundry List.
[By Your Orders, 10000 Creatures have died! Milestone Achieved!]
Huh… neat. I guess the enemy dungeon is still burning. Ten thousand dead huh? A mortifying event yet strangly... I felt nothing.
[Experience +10000!]
[10130/1000]
Level Up!
[9130/2000]
Level Up!
[7130/4000]
Level Up!
[3130/8000]
Suddenly, I could feel an influx of strength hit me. My core seeming to solidify with my senses growing sharper and my body heavier.
[Level 5 Reached! Milestone Achieved!]
+10 Minion Capacity!
+Skill!
Detecting Affinity…
Generating Skill…
+Skill Water Jet LvL 1 added!
NEAT!
I opened my dungeon interface, eyeing my new stats and skill.
[Dungeon System Interface!]
[Name: Hiro Dungeon]
[Level: 5]
[HP: 10000/10000]
[MP: 3000/3000]
[DEVOTION: 100]
[EXP 3130/8000]
Tamed Monsters: 36/50
Pylons: 5/5
[SKILL LIST]
Bubble Blow: LvL1
* Using mana, you create a bubble of charged mana. When it pops, it releases a light burst of mana. 5MP
Squirt Water: LvL1
* Squirt Water. Using Mana you create and squirt water out of your beak. 5MP
Water Jet: LvL 1
* Fire a stream of water from your mouth using mana. 20 MP
Summon Rock: LvL1
* Summon a small Rock. That's it. It summons a rock. 10 MP
Impart Instruction: LvL1
* Teach skills and share experience to minions or selected creatures.
Squeakerlocation: LvL3
* Using squeaks, you ping your nearby surroundings to paint an image in your mind. 1 MP
Purify: LvL 5
* Gathering Light mana, you may attempt to purify a source of your choice, rendering it free of curses, poison and disease. Effectiveness scales with level. 50MP
Minion Synchronization: LvL 8
* Take control of a minion for the duration of Eight minutes. Duration scales with skill level. COOLDOWN[12 HOURS]
Neat. Turning to Slimey, I immediately used impart instruction, dumping all of my newly gathered experience into the slime who shuddered as she held me.
“L-l-lord Hiro! I can feel you inside me!”
My mind shut off momentarily.
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.
Of course the exp given was only enough to level Slimey up once. But it at least seemed to placate her as she dissolved into a pink puddle.
“More! MORE! MORRRRE! I WANT MORE OF YOUR LOVE!!!”
OR NOT!?
Suddenly I was being hoisted into the air, Slimey resuming her human form, her eyes staring at me with heart-shaped pupils.
Ah… quack.
"MORE! MY LORD I WANT MORE OF YOUR BLESSING!"
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Whoa! Stop! You're shaking me! SQUEEZING ME!
"GIVE IT TO ME!!!!!" Slimey screamed, her voice filling up my entire head as she opened her mouth with serrated teeth showing.
SETTLE DOWN! I snapped, my mental command causing Slimey to freeze in place.
Slimey quickly kowtowed, bowing, the slime holding me aloft as her face hit the floor so hard it splattered and deformed.
“Forgive me my Lord! I did not mean to offend!” Slimey shrieked, her voice in my mind breaking before she peeled her face off the floor to gaze at me with cleaning liquid flowing from her face. “Punish me my Lord! TAKE ONE OF MY CORES AND CRUSH IT IN YOUR MIGHTY MAW AS COMPENSATION FOR MY INSOLENCE!!”
Slimey spit out a core, offering it to me on her tongue slick with goo.
Errr. I'll pass. We want you to get stronger not weaker…
“Yes, of course my lord.” Slimey replied, swallowing the orb.
Be patient. I sent, the latter coddling me close as she wiggled her way onto the throne with me in her arms.
****
Using my slimes and Capruxas to shape my throne room and the burial ground for my deceased goblins, I pondered my options as I waited for Chloe to evolve.
Should I make an exp run to a higher strata? Start my clean up of the enemy dungeon now?
Or should I explore the sewer and catacombs more?
Maybe I should focus on renovating my domain? Once I had my composters up and running it would be a small task to get a functioning kingdom.
[MINION: CHLOE HAS EVOLVED FROM SKELETON ORB MAGE TO ANIMUSFLAM DULLAHAN!]
[Stage 1 of 3]
Huh?
My interface lit up, the pit of bones and carcasses giving off a rainbow glow as Chloe's status appeared, showcasing a strew of new abilities.
Anima Abilities! And spells! The Skeleton somehow being augment-
Then it hit me, the unicorns!
Unicorns were beings that were created from high concentrations of anima mana, their very beings infused with anima!
Meaning…
Meaning……
MATERIALS USED AFFECTED MINION EVOLUTION!
Of course it made sense! How could I have been so dumb?!
Suddenly, an idea, one that popped into my head as I eyed the defeated dungeon cores being batted around by Spooderman and another spider.
Slimey, are you hungry?
?
I beckoned my spiders over, ordering them to bring their toys.
Spooderman skittered up to my throne, holding a cracked core up like an offering that I had Slimey absorb.
Slimey suddenly began to rapidly change colors, her body vibrating violently.
Oh no. Wait!
I could feel an intrusion, a cold will reaching through my bond with Slimey to caress my mind.
Thunder, clouds. A clear image of a sky darkened by lightning and torrential rains.
The phenomenon didn't last long fortunately and Slimey suddenly leveled up, gaining a new skill that didn't seem normal for a slime.
[Abilities Obtained! Electric Discharge LvL 1, Lightning Body.]
Huh. Unexpected but neat. It wasn't unheard of to obtain abilities and skills from cores, but usually they took a lot of introspection and understanding of the core in order to do so. Like a book that needed to be transcribed.
At least for normal folk.
For those that had a system like Ly-.... Me. We didn't need to do so and could just absorb the cores which seemed I be the case with monsters.
How are you feeling Slimey? I asked, the priestess shuddering as her features deformed and sparked with electricity that arced into my body.
“I'm fine my lord.” Slimey replied, her cores visibly shifting.
Interesting. I reached out, probing the damaged cores, testing a hypothesis.
One core, encrusted with crystals gave me images of earth and rock, crystals that span a cavern.
Another, his one covered in bone-like chitin, showed me a cold coffin, one broken with undead bones rising out.
And finally the last core, this one was… different. A pervasive feeling touched my mind, something disgusting, horrid, every part of my being wanting to simultaneously cry and vomit. It showed me sewers and sludge, a putridness that made me sick to my non-existent stomach.
I involuntarily squeaked, bits of black water coming out of my mouth as my body shook violently.
FILTHY FILTHY FILTHY!!!!!
Suddenly the orb was obliterated, pulverized by Slimey who blasted the core with holy mana before taking me into her arms and scrubbing me with her cleaning liquid.
Aaaaaaah. That's better.
Hmm. Recollecting my thoughts, an idea came to me.
Zorin. I sent, the Croco-girl laying on her side upon her bed of silk.
Zorin.
Nothing.
Zorrrrrin.
“Hnnnnng.” Zorin replied, grunting but not moving, the gator girl curling into herself to hug her tail.
Awww.
Suddenly Slimey stretched out, her form red, her gelatinous body stretching out to latch onto
“RESPOND WHEN LORD HIRO TELLS YOU TO!” Slimey screamed, dragging Zorin out of bed as she began to scream.
“NO! NO! JUST FIVE MINUTES!!” Zorin replied, the muscular woman digging her claws into the earth as Slimey dragged her towards the throne by her ankles and tail.
Here, eat this. I sent, Zorin twisting her body to look up at me with a frown.
Slimey threw the rocky core at the lizard's head, the orb bouncing off the yawning creature's head.
Zorin scratched her back, the slouching woman picking up the core and taking a massive bite out of the crystal with a mighty CRUNCH!
Before long, the entire core was gone, Zorin letting out a yawn before slowly closing her eyes and falling asleep standing up.
Seriously?
Then without warning Zorin began to glow, her scales shifting, transforming, giving off a rainbow-like clear pattern in certain areas of her body.
[Abilities Obtained! Mana Reflection LvL 1, Crystal Scales, Crystal Dagger LvL 1.]
Nice!
Judging from the abilities it seemed to have given Zorin harder scales, transforming her appearance a bit with crystal spikes forming on her tail.
With the last core, I would save it for the time being as it seemed to correlate with undead.
Maybe Hector could use it? I turned my focus to the skeleton, the minion walking into my throne room along with several spiders carrying several bundled-up monsters.
Hector bent the knee, bowing to me unprompted which I found odd. Was he gaining sentience? Autonomy? Or did Slimey’s constant demands for me to be worshipped finally rub off?
Whatever the case, I focused on the offering provided by this hunt.
Sixteen goblins, Two gnolls, and three skeletons.
Six of the goblins went to feeding Ayaka, three to my army and the rest were conscripted into my army who would need armor and weapons. I of course refrained from naming them, attempting to put a barrier between me and these monsters with rudimentary sentience.
Hmm. Where are these goblins coming from?
Wait, hold up. One thing at a time Hiro! I still had a clean-up operation to do regarding the dryad as well as locating the treasury, appeasing Slimey, evolving Chloe, and finally, a new addition to my growing laundry list, FINDING SOMETHING FOR MY UNICORN TO EAT!
Buttstallion was milling about, drinking from a pool of water I set up as a basin using a capruxa to dig the hole, slimes to carry sewer water into it, and my purify skill and a cleaning slime to filter the water.
The problem now came with its diet. Zorin was keen to eat anything that moved. My capruxas fed on minerals in the dirt while my spiders and goblins were left to eat what they caught or what remained.
But this big magical horse? It was a herbivore.
Annnnnnnd I may have firebombed its only source of food…
Great.
Ok, no sense sitting around and speculating. It was time to confirm the kill and reap my spoils.