I decided to turn the 11th floor into a fortress. For starters, I captured some of the stronger boar from the forest. After a few minutes of learn and inspect the mountain boar skill became available. From there, I gained the mountain bear, mountain deer, and mountain lion. There were other mobs, bees and wasp with paralyzing venom. Some mountain spiders that were more than large enough to be threats to the bears.
My mana fibers spread, and I acquired every fauna and flora mob I could. Why would I go to all the trouble, well because I was going to burn the floor down and restructure it.
“That’s a stupid idea.” Emily said. I turned to my nekomata and shrugged.
“It would make life easier. A single heavily defended fortress is easier to defend than spread out camps.” As we spoke, I busied myself redesigning the mountain bear with modify. Thus far I was able to make it humanoid without compromising much of the strength. Upping the brain power with a mana stone and adding an earth mana stone to boost the defense wasn’t a bad start. This humanoid species would be my worker. I gave them strong hands and wide backs. The crafting skill was also added to my creation.
“Ok, I get that. Choose your battle ground and deny your opponent every advantage. That’s the basic when preparing for war. What I’m talking about is choosing to be under siege. Why would you want to limit mobility?” Emily said.
It was two weeks ago, when I conquered my first few tribes. Since then I spready my influence like wild fire. Already, the females were pregnant. From what I recalled about human women mobility was greatly lowered during pregnancy.
“We don’t have the steel to build a mobile fortress. The mountains have some of the materials we need but, we would have to deplete them all to build a mobile fortress.” The new creature required the body of a living bear. Luckily, I had a few hundred stored.
“Boss, if that’s what is needed to keep your progeny safe, then I don’t see why you’re against it.” Again, the picture was larger than that. My focus was stealth vs full defense. A named golem was making its way toward me. I honestly didn’t know, if I could take it on right now.
Energy crackled from my fingertips, as I modified a bear. Bones snapped and crunched under the weight of my mana, as the image I pictured came into being. A knock on the door sounded. Karin came bursting in her tail dancing around.
“Boss, owe,” She crashed into the bear. The massive creature reached down and picked the nekomata back to her feet.
“The women of the new tribe, their ready to be mated. If you don’t go to them soon, they may get aggressive.” I rolled my shoulders and went back to work. The endurance stat was coming in handy.
Much later, I sat on my balcony watching hundreds of, I decided to name them the Teddies. They worked tirelessly clearing the space for the mobile fortress. Some argued with one another over the size of the structure they were tasked to clear an area for. The foremen threatened to bury his axe in the Teddy’s head. 15ft tall ursine workers made short work of the massive trees and cleared a massive space.
As time was against me, I began to use mana fibers and inspect to locate the iron within the mountain. The Teddies were busy creating molds for the fortress.
I started by creating the basic sea serpent. Without the water mana stone. What I got was a simple snake. It was large and surely a constrictor, but just a snake. I added three earth mana stones to the mob and watched its scales harden to something akin to concrete. I added two more stones and those scales become denser.
Earth Serpent lv70
A large serpent of earth. It lives its life underground in search of earth mana stones. As it slowly devours more and consumes precious metals it’s scales become denser. Ancient Earth Serpents are known to have scales akin to tungsten.
I found the stones in the mountain. Where the dungeon’s mana met the mountain some of the stones formed naturally. With that I crafted dozens of the serpents and ordered them to consume all the iron in the mountains.
Over the next few days, I went about mating with the trolls and slaying the chiefs. Slowly, I began to establish pig farms and slaughter houses. The teddies were able to take up the jobs of farmer and slaughterer with ease. With the area I needed cleared, I created a mold for the hull of our vessel out of my own wood.
Time was ticking away as traps were set and mountains began to shrink in size. The serpents didn’t just consume iron, they also found, aluminum, copper, and lead. I took a small amount of steel and began to turn my focus to building a battery, alternator, and engine. If the mobile fortress couldn’t fly, then what was the point of it.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The truth was, I had no idea what I was doing. I needed something like a jet engine a lot of them. If I had something that just blasted magic, or floated the fortress. That would be great. I took the iron and shaped it with my hands. Using my perception and inhuman muscle control I shaped the metal to form a small turbine. It was like a fidget spinner.
Mana could be set alight. Though, it was more like the sudden change from neutral to fire alignment. Alright, how long did it take one of my fireballs to dissipate when cut off from my mana pool. With the most basic of fireballs in my hand. I held it aloft condensed so little energy escaped it.
The small ball of flames was black as the night and gave off as much crimson light as a dying star. I took my focus off the ball of flame and it remained as I left it. True it was primed for destruction, but it wasn’t about to explode. I picked the fire ball up. There was a small film water mana around it. Could any mage do this? It was simple and primitive. How much thrust would it have after meeting air out of a turbine?
The final produce of my magic engine was clunky at best, but sturdy. There were controls that would allow the firing of an engine and a measure of control over it. Measurements were used to determine how much energy an engine contained. Panels were made to extract the mana needed to refuel the engines. In total, I was able to install twenty. It was rigged to allow turning and relatively fast movement speed.
Coops were installed for the mountain ravens. The mobs were great for picking off any creatures that would attempt boarding. The ground had become home to the earth serpents. Some had evolved to earth wyrms. The vicious creatures devoured any mob that came too close to their mountains.
The walls to the fortress were put up and the Vicky was made captain of the ship. Fire mana stones were added to the engines and a large mana stone was placed in the center of the ship. There were 244 bathrooms aboard the vessel, three times that number in bedrooms, an entire floor was devoted to live stalk, and at the top was the teddy and sphinx quarters.
The vessel lifted off the ground, as I made my way to the next floor. The floor boss stood in my way.
Crog The Nuclear Giant lv 210
A troll that conquered all other trolls. His hide is stronger than steel and his blows shake mountains. When angered his aura emerges. If you don’t have high radiation resistance, then this fight will prove fatal.
Half of the women I fucked in the past week spewed rads like candy. My resistance was through the roof. The giant was like many of the other trolls. Goliaths of men, with muscles rippling and chests six feet across. They weighed in the tons and could trade blows with large haul trucks.
His hair was a horrid blue that didn’t fit right with his green skin. His teeth were black, and some were falling out. Crog’s head was a mess of scars from battle. He was missing his left ear. On his massive axe were the skulls of ten of his rivals. He kept pounding his axe waiting for his guards to get rid of the upstart.
I stealth killed them on my way in. My height had reached 9ft but this guy towered over me by three. His axe was chipped in places and seemed to glow with radiation. I had the teddies forge me a new sword. It was no Excalibur but the were getting better at mixing aluminum with steel with a bit of nickel. The first few tries at the sword were too brittle. They shattered with a single swing.
The giant slammed his axe and I caught it with my sword. Crog was strong, I had to give him that. As I traded blows with the giant, I began to see a pattern in his attacks. Sparks peeled off our weapons as we fought. Despite the light weight, my sword wasn’t in any danger of breaking.
Every fifth swing the giant left a hole in his side. This time, I took advantage. Using thrust in tandem with my sword thrust I scored a blow between his armor. From the tip of my sword fire spewed forth blistering his skin. The giant’s eyes went wide as I drew back out of his counter swing. The giant tried to pat out the flames to no avail. My fire had him and it wasn’t letting go.
My aura erupted and even the shadows seemed to be aflame. The giant’s aura tried to meet mine, but the green energy was quickly swallowed by the hungry black flames. I smiled at the giant. My flames and the giants healing were battling one would win eventually. I could wait for the giant to die.
A few black fireballs appeared between my fingers. They were the size of softballs but to my body mass that wasn’t so impressive. With a flick the giant erupted in flames, he roared and charged at me axe swinging at random. I threw the other two and stabbed forward. My blade pierced his skull, but his axe tore into my stomach. Rapidly, I cast heal but the damage was dealt.
My hand kept my guts in as my skin attempted to close over them. I limped down the stairs slowly.
“Wow, that was something. I didn’t think he would get a hit in, but look your guts are practically on the floor. This is great. I thought you would never leave floor 11. Do you know how annoying it is to watch you have sex? Ugh, you had to sleep with all of them didn’t you. What is it about guys and green skin?” Luci said. I had missed our talks. My guts weren’t quite back to being inside me, so I needed the distraction.
“Hey boss, who are you talking to?” Emily asked.
“The dungeon Emily.” I said. The nekomata turned her head to the side.
“Oh, one of your mobs great. Why are you so much like one of those brains? I hate those things. They do nothing but subvert my floors.” I looked, and I was lv280 now. Just 120 levels to go and I would exit this place.
“Don’t worry boss Yuffie, Vicky, Karin, and Nia will raise up your children to be perfect little angels . They will surely be ready for the world above, when you return.” Emily said.
“I have faith in them.” I said. They were intelligent. Hopefully inheriting my genes would remove the troll status. An army of loyal children would make ruling the city above much easier in the future. If I wasn’t’ assassinated on this floor, and so long as the named golem doesn’t get to me. I prepared myself to face the 12th floor.