《Down the Deep Blue Hole》 Volume 1 prologue: What a way to go We were running. Panting. Huffing. Screaming. Begging. Then falling. Tumbling. We could not outrun them. We werenot slow, they were just too fast. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Anthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Suborder: Vespidea Tribe: Formicacea Genus: Vespa Species: Vespa S. Apita Formica A hybrid that blew the rules of evolution and science. An experiment that escaped the quarantines of the First Biological War and proceeded to terrorize all civilisation in the vicinity. The Japanese Harvester Hornets, or more commenly known by the names The Slaughter Hornets or The Harvesters.Stolen story; please report. There is an unspoken rule with these devils. " Enter the domain of the Harvester and be glad for the swift death that presents itself". Born and bred to kill and tear apart any living thing that enters its domain, these devils have established themselves to be one of the most succesful insects to be bred ever and has begun to break down the ecosystems all around the world. So, therefore it is the duty of those who let those critters lose to take them back right? I am known as Breeder to my collegues, my real name is irrelevant, and I am (sadly) the person who brought these hybrids to existence.I couldn''t help it, I mean, it''s not everyday that the oppurtunity to hybridise killer bees, harvester ants and japanese hornets together right? Well, now I have made a huge mess. These hornets, they have little weaknesses. It''s too late for me. I can feels it, the venom coursing through my veins, into my heart, my brain. I can''t feels my legs, I lift up my hand, was it ever so big? Is it swollen? My throat feels dry, my chest hurts. Why is the ground so close? When did I fall down? Why is it so cold? You know... I never meant for them to be killers, I just wanted them to be able to defend themselves. Maybe in my next life, I can perfect them again. Ah....I let out my breath, my final breath as my lids drooped shut. I wonder if they have pizza where the dead goes. Do I get my bonuses deducted because of my creations? ... ... ... ... ... ... ? Volume 1 Chapter 1: No there is no pizza ? ?? ????????????????? Hold on. Back up. Since when was there a cave here. Strike that, since when did I enter a cave. If I remember correctly...... those hornets'' nest is in the trees so why.......even if they brought me back to their nest..... No. I definitely died. I can feel it in my bones, or whatever is my bones now because I definitely do NOT feels like I even have bones. I opened my eyes. Or more accurately....acutally, I don''t even know now. Why the hell is my body a crystal? Hello? Knock knock Administrator?(A.N.: kumo desu ka, nani ka reference) You done goofed now. Alright, deep breaths, stay calm..... LIKE HELL I CAN! Just give me my pizza.......I''m done. I don''t even have the cheats that the reincarnators have in the novels. Where is my Blue Screen! My Status! My Cheats! Gimme! I want it! Throw in some pizza too, I''m hungry. Actually....... back up, back up. If memory serves, I have to yell "STATUS!" and a screen similar to an RPG''s will appear right? Riiiigggghhht? "Status!".................... "״̬£¡"............. "statut!"......(A.N.: google translate is amazing) ... " Just give me bloodymenufor freaks sake!"Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Menu
Status Catalogue
You currently only have 1 notification
Oh what? I see, it''s "menu", not "status". Hmmmm, what is this notification thing about.
Please select you starting creature.
Wait.... How in the world do I select my starting creature. What are those creatures in the first place? ... "Select starting creature!" *cricket chirping* I see. The creator of these blue boxes must be some sadistic individual who loves to see a poor innocent person like me struggle.(A.N.: nah, I just wanted to try comedy) Let''s try.....hmmmm....Oh let''s check the sho-catalogue.
Catalogue
Monster Creature [locked] [locked] [locked] [locked]
It''s just like a game''s mechanics huh.. Alright, lets pick the monster option first then, from what I read for leisure in my recent past life, this should be the best option.
Access Denied
Huh? Volume 1 Chapter 2: I Choose You! Okay, deep breaths. There has to be a fair reason for this right? Let me just double check.
Access Denied
So it''s confirmed that selecting the "Monsters" option is denied. Hmmmmm....... Let''s go with a different options. One thing I have learned in my (past) life is to take the most obscure option which may or may not just work. It won''t hurt to try. I mean, come on. who does not like a cookie cake right? ... Right, no more digressing and lets get back to business. Let me just try......... "Tutorial!"..... "Tutorial Mode!"...... "Help!"... "Archive!"... No effect. Well, I thought so. Probably no way that the creator of these blue screens wou- Hold on. These areBluescreens. Then how about, say.... "Green Screen!".... "Purple Screen!"... "White Screen!"... .... This may call for some drastic measures. I have wasted precious time trying to figure you out you garbage stinking pile of @#$&! Just give me some hints already jeez! *sigh* One last try. They say third time is the charm. "Guide" Ohhhh, it worked. I can feel it. Lucky~! "MonsterGuide"
Monster Guide The guide availible to all new-born dungeons regarding their starting Monster Race. The starter race of a dungeon is of the utmost importance as it determines the direction in which the dungeon itself heads as a whole. There is a huge variety of races to choose from, all of them with their own perks as well as disadvantages. As the dungeon evolves itself and its monsters, the attributes or characteristecs of the monsters may begin to vary and no longer resemble the starting race itself. However, as long as the monster bears even the most miniscule of semblance to the notable features of the starter race, it should still be plausible. For example, take a dungeon that took goblins as its starter race. As it grows and changes, the goblins may evolve to become hobgoblins, which is the main evolution in the evolution path of a goblin. Further down, said hobgolin then evolves into a minotaur. While a minotaur bears little to no semblance to goblins, the characteristic trait of the goblin which is low intelligence still carries over to the minotaur. This marvel of evolution allows for truly complex and diverse options for dungeons. Remember, the path the creature took to evolve to the new creature bears a huge importance. Taking the same example, a minotaur evolved from a goblinis far inferior to a minotaur that has evolved from an imp. This is because of the key traits that has been passed over during evolution which is defined by the dungeon. Making the correct choice in starter creatures to complement the further evolutions is a key decision that a new-born dungeon will have to make. However, it is not as if the evolved creature will be fully confined to the dungeon''s starter race. The answer is Variants. Variants are, as the name suggests, a variation of the current species. A variant is vastly superior to any of its non-variant cousins even in a disadvantageous position. A goblin variant of the weakest kind is easily capable of holding its ground against 5 goblins. Still, variants are a rare occurence which requires specific situations to be met before mutating into a variant. Choose wisely, dungeon, for this choice will determine your life to come.
Interesting.... I still like the fact that it said "availible to all new-born dungeons" when I spent literally forever to find this out. Okay maybe not for ever buthey just get the joke. Down to the real juicy parts of my new life as a dungeon now. Let us begin the info-dump starting phase. "Creature Guide"
Creature Guide A guide regarding the starting Creature Race availible to all new-born dungeons. What is the point of having Monsters when they would starve without food anyways. Thus the reason for the dungeon creatures. While usually confused with the dungeon monsters themsleves, a dungeon creature is vastly different when compared to a dungeon monster. A dungeon creature is far weaker that a dungeon monster and usually is simply a mirror image of common docile monsters of the wild. However, it is possible for the dungeon to influence them to evolve and mutate into different versions of their former selves. Meant as a food source for the dungeon monsters, a dungeon can influnce them to become slower and easier to catch, make them fatter or go the other direction and make them violent and defensive and a deterrent to potential intruders[intruder guide currently locked]. Most dungeons can spawn[see spawn guide] creatures at minimal costs, or simply breed them and allow them to populate as both options are viable. While not as an important choice as choosing the Starter Monster Race, picking the correct food source allows the monster to grow easier. Choose wisely, dungeon, for this choice will determin your life to come.
Uh-huh. I''m very excited. Not~. I was just thrown into this heap of garbage with no prior warning, now you are expecting me to make a life long decision? Pfft, and people thought picking their Junior College was a huge decision. At least they had the time and prior time to freaking consider their choices.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Basic Starter Guide has been read. Now presenting the list for Starter Monster Race
Great, here it comes.
Starter Monster Races
Goblin[recommended] A tried and true race that has become synonymous with dungeons. With high versatility, high breeding rates and an all rounded status. These little critter, while weak, make up for it in their numbers. If 100 does not work, throw in 1000. If it still does not work, throw in 10,000. Even with comparatively low intelligence, they make up for it with their capability to learn and adapt. This allows for many many different branches of evolution and provides a huge amount of utility to the dungeon. One of the disadvantages, however, is that their population explodes when not controlled and they tend to consume all the food source in the vicinity.
Imp The weakest of all Demons, the reflection of the goblin in the Demon world. It''s true, they even look the same, minus the wings and tail. With a weak affinity for weak magic, they utilise the same concepts as the goblins. Swarming with numbers. However, they breed far slower and are able to learn and adapt far slower. Their evolution path is also more limited due to their Demon heritage. This is not saying that they are weak, as an imp can easily out duel a goblin with its crafty tricks and its evolutions are not to be scoffed at. Their daily food intake, however, leads much to be desired
Insect The embodiment of fear of all mankind, these chitinous monsters march without tiring until their goal is accomplished. With them, there is only one goal. Keep the Queen alive and let her rule the world, or however big the dungeon is. Most of these insects have little to no free will, only following the orders from above, putting them at one of the lowest intelligence levels in this list. But, in contrary, the Queen on the other hand posses one of the highest intelligence in this list. Simply put, evolve the Queen and the insects evolve with her. With sufficient aid, these critters can pull of complex strategies well before any of the other races. On the other hand, these bugs breeds comparatively slower and also has a more limited evolution path, which is by no means any weaker.
Animal[recommended] The name explains itself. The dungeon can select one species of the animals(mammals usually) as its starting race and works off from there. Possesing an uncanny amount of intelligence for a starter race, these animals are easily one of the stronger starting races. In retrospect, they have an extremely long gestation period compared to the above and take far longer to be combat ready. Forming packs at the early stages and and a Party later, animals have a strong cohesive nature even if they were solitary in the wild. While most go for predators, non-predatory animals can also be changed to become predatory. With a fairly diverse evolution path, these monsters are reconmmended as a starting race.
Reptile The name explains itself. The dungeon can select one species of reptiles as its starting race and works off from there. These scaly little beasts posses humongous amounts of strength which can be easily underestimated. With a high affinity for toxin, these creatures are highly adaptable and can respond to almost any enemy with the vast amounts of tools this race provides. With a decently long gestation period, these monsters may take time to get combat ready. Still, even a newborn reptile monster can kill the unwary.They posses a fairly diverse evolution path and are capable assasins.
Undead The dead that has returned to life in the depths of the dungeon. By usilising the souls of the dead who still cling onto life, the dungeon is capable of creating the undead to fight for it. These undead cannot feel pain and can only die by specific means. Generally, they tend to weaken under the sun but exceptions exist. This also makes them unable to reproduce until the dungeon discovers an undead race that has functional reproductive organs. With little to no intelligence, these undead exist only to serve their ressurector and are capable of decimating enemies with there devastating strength and tenacity. Choosing this option will also provoke certain parties, as well as turn all the dungeon creatures undead as well. They have a limited evolution path which can lead to an intelligent being.
Aquatic[locked] --------------
Spirit[conditions not met] --------------
Golem[conditions not met --------------
Larval The weakest of all the races, yet also posses the most potential. Hatched from fragile eggs that takes an adequete amount of time to hatch, these critters overwhelm their enemies with numbers. They are highly adaptable and will assimiliate with any of the surroundings to form unique variants. This makes their evolutionary path one of the most versatile in the entire list. Although they are still very weak as larva, once they achieve certain conditions they are capable of metamorphing into a far more potent force.
Custom By selecting one or more of the races as a base, one can customise its characteristics and change it in such a way that it suits the desired path the dungeon wishes to take. One example is an Arachnid dungeon, which is a variation of the insects into arachne. {this option is only availible to dungeons with unusually high intelligence.}
Ohhhhh kay... That''s one tough cookie. I like the idea of insects, no wait the larva, but imps man who does not want Demons... ... I guess I have to respect my past life. I will recreate those living tarnations of hornets and I WILL succeed... ... No, hold the phone. If I were to pick insect, then that means that spiders and other bugs will be out huh. Oooooh that''s a tough one. If I were to pick larval... but that may mean not being able to get my hornets.... GOSH DARN IT why do these choices have to be so hard. No wait, wait wait wait wait, let me just check that again. "customise its characteristics and change it in such a way that it suits the desired path the dungeon wishes". Ho ho. Oh ho ho. I have found it boys. Here it comes.
You have selected to customise one of the starting races. Please select the Race you wish to customise
Goblin
Imp
Animal
Insect
Larval
Undead
Reptile
"Larva"
Please specify your customisations.
What was that thing again. Oh yeah, it''s called oviparous isn''t it. The one where they all lay eggs. Yeah, I like that. It opens a lot more options as well. Let''s make this the dominant trait and replace whatever the larva has.
You have changed your dungeon Monster Race characteristic to be oviaparous. All of your monsters are now egg-laying. Do you wish to confirm and proceed with larva as you starting monster? [Y/N]
GO! Oviparous Larva I choose You! Volume 1 Chapter 3: Not quite what was planned
You have confirmed the choice and is now an Oviparous dungeon. Traits are now generating....
.....
Please check status for further information
Nice! I have no idea what that trait thing is but at least I got what I wanted. Alright, time to check my status here. "Menu, Status"
Access Denied
INTeresting...... I don''t suppose you canguide me a little.
Please select starting creature
Oh, it worked. How nice. So then, you infernal blue boxes, would you so kindly display my starting creatures.
Plant life All different kinds of plant life, to trees, moss, ferns to flowers, fungi and algae. These producers of infinite food will surely be a wonderful addition to you dungeon. While these plants are immobile and not dangerous, they have a wonderful versatility and can be changed to suit the dungeon''s desires.
Insect[recommended] The name may be a little misleading, since this actually encompasses all of the bugs, not just insects. From worms to spiders, scorpions to ants, these are the perfect cheap yet effective source of food capable of rapidly replenishing their supply all on their own. They are hardy yet dangerous and pose a capable force.
Animal Is there anything more filling than a nice whole boar, a great cut of beef? The answer is, probably not much. Animals are a fantastic source of food for the dungeons creatures, allowing them to stay sated for a long period of time. They also allow the creatures to practice hunting. On the other hand, the take a long time to replenish their supply, so the dungoen must keep a close eye on their population.
Crystals[conditions not met] ----------
This is a no brainer. If we are picking freaking pseudo maggots then the only option is to go with inse- haha just kidding its plants. I mean, look at caterpillars, what is their main source of food? Plus, what some of the most toxic living things on Earth in my past life. No it is not MOBA players its plants. Take nightshade, angel''s trumpet and whatnot. No better choice, for me at least. Woohoo let''s go, on a trip in a-
Do you wish to confirm your choice for your Dungeon Creature as Plant Life
Ah, yes please. With a cherry on top
You have now finished with selecting the races of your dungeon. Status of dungeon is now accessible. Options in Catalogue unlocked. Guide to spawning now availible. You have acquired an achievement. Information on Achievements now availible.
That''s nice... wait achievements? They have avhievement!? Okay boys, buckle up we going on a achievement spree! Try all options! Spare no cost! Nah just kidding, who would even care. Welp, "Status"This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Status
Name [none]
Dungeon points -
Animus -
Achievements [achievements]
Titles -
Further Details [Further Details]
Interesting once again..... So much new information. I wonder what I could do with those. For now, let''s just take a look at the achievements.
Achievements
[Unique Dungeon]: Due to certan reasons, your dungeon has acquired a characteristic that is unique. Your dungeon''s unique trait is oviparous. (Similar traits can still be unique) {As a reward you have recieved 10 animus}
Right... unique. I mean, I guess huh. They did say that similar traits can still be unique which means that this is not an extremely rare occurence but rare all the same. Still no idea what a trait is though but...meh, I''ll find out some other day. For now, I''m just going to start my dungeon. My lovelies, wait for me.
You have now chosen to start your dungeon. You have been given [300 Dungeon Points(DP)]. Use the DP to purchase 10 larva eggs in the Catalogue.
All righty! Ready, get set and GO! "Menu, Catalogue, Purchase 10 eggs"
You have purchased 10 larva eggs. Please place them down beside the dungeon core. The closer the monster is to the core, the greater the influence the core holds over the monster.
The core? Oh, you mean the wierd crytal object? Wait, that''s me isn''t it. Yeap, it''s me. Come to think of it, why is my vision so far away from my- You know what. The more I''m going to think about it the more I''m going to get confused. Ignorance is bliss. Let''s just take this for granted and be done with it. Let''s see, "Place Eggs, 10" Oh! They appeared! Wow, that is some next level technology right there. A fantasy world is amazing no doubt.
You have been give [100 DP]. Please use the DP to purchase 20 plant seeds in the Catalogue, then plant them close to the eggs. The closer the plant is to the core, the greater the influence the core holds over the plant.
Influnce? Bah, I''m just going to tire myself out at this rate. Okay..."Menu, Catalogue, Purchase 20 Plants, Plant Plants, 20"
For the final step, you may infuse animus into one of the eggs to allow them to mutate easier and change into a Variant. Use this [10 Animus] well. Animus is a unique resource that only dungeons can utilise. Similar to mana, which a dungeon can manipulate with relative ease, Animus is far harder to come by but it provides a far more potent boost to a monster or creature''s evolution. Animus can be either gained through achievements or through other means. (gain animus through such a method to know its description)
Ok? So I guessing this is like the equivilant of premium currency, minus that we can''t exactly cash here to pay to win. So let me just pour it- How do I do it again. Let''s see, animus, animus, feel the animus. Oh! I feel it! It''s swirling inside me, fuoo it actually feels rather pleasant. Its those feelings where you drink a nice cuppa coffe in the morning and the warmth stays in you kind of feel. Okay now to draw out some of it.... like taking a ladle and scooping it out, the ladle is the size of... of 10 animus. Now to pour it over the eggs. Carefully... Carefully... Ohhhh this is stressfull. Wait. No! No! NONONONONONONO! Not at a time like this! Why is this happening! How do I even need to sneeze with no nose! Hello? Logic? Wai- ah-Ah-AH--- ACHOO! Oh dear, the ladle spilt. Ohhhh dear, that was not supposed to happen. I can now only watch in dismay as the seeds absorbed the spilt animus. Oops Volume 1 Chapter 4: It was all planned All planned baby, all planned. I totally knew the sneeze was coming you know. Just testing to see if it worked you know. Nya ha ha ha. I mean, this is beyond expectations. Who would have ever known that this would happen. Oh? Out of the loop? Let me just casually back-track a little and witness the magic. ---------------------------just a moment earlier--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The seeds were sucking up the animus like a dry sponge in water, execpt that that sponge currently shows no point at which it will fill up. "No, no, no, no, stop stop stop! That was meant for my eggs you jerk! Give it back, throw it up!" was what I was screaming. Not like it helps but hey, at least it made me feel good. Slowly, ever so agonizingly slowly, the last drops of animus (it behaved like a liquid, not sure what it really is though) was absorbed by the seeds, they shuddered for a moment before laying still once again, as if all of this never happened. *sniff* Give it back. Oh well, I guess no use crying over spilt animus, I mean, I still have some left. I really don''t want to tap into my reserves due to my hoarding issues but if it is like this I don''t think I can help it. So... animus animus where ar-
Due to a completely unexpected event, the Animus that was meant for one was given to the other. In a peculiar twist of the wonders of nature, the freshly sowed seeds has greatly attuned to your dungeon. Due to your dungeon being young and due to the oviparous characteristic of your dungeon, the plant life of your dungeon has completely evolved to a whole new level. You have now discovered a new Evolution Path for your plants to allow them to undergo mutation to evolve into a monster. Your plant life is now easier to influence and they now posses enough sentience to actively change according to the dungeon''s commands. All future plant life in the dungeon will have this trait.
Plant->Monster path[Stage 1]: {1/20} Complete all conditions to freely spawn in the most basic of plants monsters in a dungeon.
Eh? Huh? Who? What? When? How? Ummm....I''ll take it! Yipee! Totally Worth it! I have zero idea still but who cares right? Hm? I was crying over the animus earlier? Wha-I wasn''t OK! I wasn''t! No one saw that! That did not happen! Erase it from memory! Begone! Sayonara! Out of the window! That, ummm, happened in an alternate reality. If you give me anymore of that junk, I will really cry you know.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
Achievement Get!
While spilling animus is not a rare occurence, for a new-born dungeon, this situation may result in great distress. Most of the time, when drawing upon a substantial portion of the dungeon''s animus supply, some form of stress is forced upon the dungeon. This makes handling large amounts of animus dangerous due to the possibility of the dungeon having a mishap and potentially spill the animus. This time, however, the spill did not go to waste as a freak evolution coincidentally took place utilising the animus. This rare event has awarded you with an achievement. You have been compensated [10 Animus] due to lack of prior warning.
[Monstrous Creatures]: A complete coincidence that resulted in the change of the creatures of the dungeon at a genetic level. Creatures of the dungeon now resemble monsters and are capable of more robust and diverse evolutions. They are also more succeptible to the dungeons influence and are capable of responding to its commands. {You have been awarded [100 DP and 5 starting creatures]}
Fantastic! Wonderful! Subarashi! I am the conquerer! Praise the lord! Raise your do-*ahem*. Okay, now it it time to utilize these wonderful gifts that have been prepared for me. Muahahaha! Ahaha-*cough**cough**retch* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And so, it brings us to the current situation. I am fabulous am I not? Praise me! Come on, don''t be shy, praise me more! Well then, I guess its the waiting game now. Cannot wait? Well too bad! The best wine is the oldest wines left to ferment properly you know. Behold my ultimate creation! Dun-dun-dun! ... ... ... Just hatch already..... Volume 1 Chapter 5: Today shall be henceforth known as: The Hatching Day Hi, to everyone who is listening to my monologues out there, I am deeply sorry. Right now, I am reflecting silently in a quite corner of my cave. I, the wondero-I mean humble dungeon, has commited a grave sin. I acted out of my boundaries, was egoistic, selfish and complacent. Please, good lord, forgive my sins. I have repented and deeply regret my actions, forgiveness from you is the only one I seek. So please... JUST HATCH THE EGGS ALREADY! I wanna cry.... 2 weeks. 2 ENTIRE WEEKS I had to sit here in this god forsaken empty cave literally doing nothing. I can''t even watch paint dry! I mean, yeah at least the seeds have germinated but STILL.....please. I don''t think I can live long enough, I''m dying, save me. Someone save m- *crack* ?? Did my ears decieve me? Is that the sound that I yearn to hear? The tell tale crack of... of the stone? Or something far, far mor- *crack* Ha! You cannot trick me, dear wall. I, wonderous and glorious dungeon itself, shall not be decieved by the evidently obvious sound of the crack that signals something that I so very much desire but NO I will not be decieved. *crack*crack* Oh you poor poor wall. How ever lonely you are? You just wish for attention, I respect that, but you cannot use such foolish trickery my friend, for a simple stone cannot make such a noise. *crack*snap*crunch* Would you shut it! I''m trying t- *craaaaaaaack*crrk*carack* What are these, these imaginary fluids on my imaginary face. Oh, they are tears, tears of unspeakable joy born throught the experience of such hardship and suffering. Rejoice, me, for I have conquered the greates enemy of all. Today shall be a day that will always be remembered in this dungeon, a day where the creeping dread of boredom is vanquished. The first eggs that cracked under the watchful eye of the dungeon itself, its care and concern that has finally bore fruit. The blood, sweat and lots of tears bringing joy and happiness to all in the dungeon. The first hatching of the larva. Let us sing and remember this day, for it shall always be something to learn from. I wonder if I could check the status of these newborn larvae. "Menu,Status, Larva"
Name -
Status Effects hatchling(all stats -60%), hungry(leads to starving)
HP 10/10
MP -
EXP Lvl 0 [0/10]
Abilities -
Further details [Further details]
A freshly hatched larva is highly vunerable and poses little to no threat. This is, however, their most adaptive state and they are able to meld themselves into the environment and gain special abilities. These monsters may be weak, but their jaws are well developed even just hatched.
I see, so they are pretty much fodder at this point. *Sigh*, why did I pick these guys, I should have just picked insect race instead. No use crying over spilt animus I guess, time to get to business. Today, we begin our dungeon experience. Go war cry! Oooouuuuuu! Let''s see, I have nothing in this desolate cave minus my 25 plants. Come to think of it, how did they grow even with no light?Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Plant status
Abilities Vakiosynthesis(Instead of photosynthesising, these plants utilise the ambient mana in the atmosphere of the dungeon to create food instead)
Species Name Vakiolum
Interesting..... That was rather unexpected... Okay, let''s put 5 of you larva here, 5 of you on the plants. Let''s just see how this turns out. Hmmm, nah scratch that let''s just put all of them on the plants. Eat up my hearties, for we have a long road ahead. ... ... This is... surprisingly boring.... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 more weeks.... my heart, it can''t take so much boredom. I mean, it''s fun and all watching the little larva eat up and stuff but if you watch them do it ALL DAY for 2 WEEKS, you are bound to go a little bonkers. Not that I''m saying I''m not, I mean I am not okay.. I''m not. Either way, I had purchased 5 more vakiolum (priced at [50 DP]), allowed them to breed and now I have nearly and endless supply of them. Muahahahaha, behold the might and cunning of the Dungeon Lord, tremble in fear! Gahahahaaa! Aaanyways, the larva has now grown into somewhat of a juvenile. Their food requirement has also increased but thanks to yours truly''s amazing planning I will be fine for food for now. The larva are truly adaptable, I mean, look at what some of them even developed.
Larva Status(x5)
Name -
Status Effects -
HP 20/20
MP -
EXP Lvl 1 [1/15]
Abilites Vakiosis(incorprating the compoents required for vakiosynthesis, these larva generally do not require food as they simply feed off the mana in the atmosphere. While perfectly capable of movement, they generally do not move unless there is a threat or the mana in the area is depleted)
Just look at that, efficiency in all its glory. Feel the power, kneel in my presence, muahahahaa. *Ahem*, next up, we have.
Larva Status(x5)
Name: -
Status Effects -
HP 25/25
MP -
EXP Lvl 2 [5/20]
Abilities -
They are all herbivoures though. *Sigh*, my old habits are taking over, I really need to name their species. It''s just a small habit that eventually snowballed into compulsion, I couldn''t help it you know. You need to name your creations. Well, here goes. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Anthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Dipetra Species: Largotta Done, my newly named species, combining the words larva and maggot to give largot. Perfect, my obssesion is now satisfied, now we can just go back to our daily business.
Achievement Get!
What now?.... Volume 1 Chapter 6: The O so glorious sounds of evolution (not quite)
Achievement get!
[Species Discoverer]: The creator of a new species, the discovery of an unknown or modified existing species or simply the first to name it. {You have recieved [100 DP] as a reward}{As the owner of the species, you have recieved [2 Evolution Seeds] as a reward}
I like the sound of that! It contains the word evolution, so it should be good right? Evolution=Good. Sooooo. Haiya!
Evolution Seeds can only be used on max level monsters
I see. Of course there couldn''t be something so broken as that right? But then agian, its only 10 levels and some of them are even completed. Hmmmm, I think I''ll hold on to these seeds. Now, let the grind fest commence! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahho my pets, I have once again subjected myself to another 2 weeks of crippling boredom for your sakes you know. Alrighty. Wind up and review my progress for a second. Firstly, the mana synthesising larva have taken up new characteristics. Two of them have evolved to be more efficient in their mana synthesis. Evolving a whole separate system for mana purification, these 2 larvae are now the purest source of mana in the entire dungeon. Even their feces are valuable, since all the excess purified mana they create gets excreted. This allowed for the ability of the plants to be ranked up to tier II, [Vakiosysnthesis II]. Oh, before I continue, here is the description for skills, abilites and ranks.
Abilities: The inherent ability of a creature, monster, or any other living thing(exeptions exist). Abilities are passive in nature and are mostly active all the time or will activate when conditions are met. One is capable of aquiring an ability either though evolution or mutation or by reaching a state where one is similar to possesing the ability. This triggers the mana in the body which allows for the ability to surface. Having an abillity to do an action will always be superior to one where abilities are absent(exeptions exist). [Eg. By regularly ingesting small amounts of poison and surviving one can eventually acquire the [Poison Resistance] ability, which allows one to be able to resist poisons to a certain degree.]
Skills: The skill a creature, monster or any other living things posses(exeptions exist). Skills are active in nature and most require the user to consiously use them in order to benefit from the skills effects. One is capable of acquiring a skill either through evolution or mutation or by executing an action which is similar to that of the skill. This triggers the mana in the body which allows for the skill to surface. Having a skill to do an action will always be superior to one where skills are absent(exeptions exist). Some skills require mana to activate. [Eg. By swinging a sword many many times such that every strike becomes a powerful blow without fail one can eventually acquire the [Slash] skill which allows for an empowered blow that is faster and stronger.] Skills posses cooldowns but it can become 0.
Rank{Ability, Skill}: The rank of an ability or skill. A rank up, while not uncommon, is difficult to achieve. Through continuos use of the skill or ability, a breakthrough or an external catalyst, the skill or ability is capable of "ranking up". The rank up of a skill or ability will result in a far more capable version of their skill or ability, in which the difference cannot be compared. The ranks of the skill or ability comes in Tiers. The lowest at Tier 1 and the highest varies from skill to skill, though the most common value is X(10). The difficulty to rank up also increases exponentially the higher Tier the skill is, making rank ups more and more unlikely the more advanced the skill is. Also, the skill or ability is capable of changing into a far more capable version of their current skill, called a "class up". [More information will be given when conditions are met]
There you have it. Which is why I am so elated. The mana-purifying larva, which I have decided to call Managots, acted as a catalyst for a much needed ability rank up. Think of them like a living battery. Now my plants, my Vakiolum are now invincible! With only mana, they shall conquer the wooorld! I mean, ahem, that is indeed a nice ability. The rest of the mana-synthesising larva have instead opted for a different option. Tunneling. As they say, if you can''t find a solution just run away from it right?... ... Right? Somebody please agree..anyone... Fine, anyways, I have decided to call them the Larvarcks, who are capable tunnelers who dig far and wide in search of an area with high mana density to stay. They are still slower than a snail when digging though...Stolen story; please report. Next up! 4 of the plant eating larva have almost reached max level, plateuing at level 8. I have no idea why it is happening but they are getting no experience points anymore from eating the plants. Hmph! I will resolve this issue you know. I will find a solution! Mark my words! Still, they have grown to a fairly enormous size(relatively), about 5-7cm long(A.N.: 2-3 inch). I feel like they pack quite the puch. I don''t think anyone will not tremble at the sight of a 6cm long pale milk coloured maggot looking larva crawling so slowly towards them. Now the last guy.... He has got to be my favourite. He has never grown much ever since he hatched, and was fairly weak and lost out on all the good feeding spots. Somehow, he did not change into a mana-synthesiser which intrigues me. I wonder if there is any reason for it..... Either way, he has now utilised his size to his advantage! Yeah, you guessed it, he is my first parasite! Oh, I actually don''t know if its really a he or not, I''m just guessing. Small size, a mouthpart circular in nature with rows upon rows of teeth, designed to latch onto his host. Then, he just simply sucks sustenece from there. I have no idea why the other larva also don''t really care about him as well. Just the perfect life you could have. Then suddenly a strong violent push suddenly slammed into my face. Or whatever my face was. "Who the hell was that?" Of course, it is always at these moments that regrets surface because right now...there is a tunnel from my cave that lead directly to an ants'' nest. And not just any ants'' nest. A dungeon. Volume 1 Chapter 7: Fantasy clinche in a nutshell
You have encountered a dungeon!
You have been challenged to a Dungeon Battle!
Dungeon Battle: A battle between 2, or more, dungeons with their very life at stake. A Dungeon Battle may not be declined. When 2 dungeons meet, they can either choose to negotiate or engage in a Dungeon Battle. The two dungeons will settle a time for a grace period before the battle commences. A dungeon may use every availible resource during the battle. The battle ends when the enemy is no longer capable of combat, the core destroyed or the negotiated conditions fulfilled. Losing a Dungeon Battle results in death of the dungeon unless specified otherwise. Winning a Dungeon Battle will result in ability to purchase(price may differ) any items in the Catalogue that the opponent dungeon can access. It will also result in the possesion of whatever monsters and creatures that are left by the enemy dungeon. Achievements and titles will not be transferred, but DP and Animus will. New information will be displayed on theStatus window.
Grace Period: Due to the fact that you are a new-born dungeon, you have a non-negotiable minimal 2 month grace period. The opposing dungeon does not accept negotiations. You have also been credited [300 DP] to use during your battle to compensate for the difference in age.
You may now proceed with the preparations for the dungeon Battle. Good Luck!
Time left till end of Grace Period: 2 months
Oohhhh crap. ----------Opponent Dungeon POV-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So hungry. So thirsty. Never fulfilled. The weak perish. The strong survive. To slaughter the weak and devour the strong, the unspoken rule of the jungle, the law of club and fang. From the moment I was born, I began expanding my domain. To discover. To search and to destroy. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat! They come, they die. I, drained from the exertion, devour them whole. Their creatures, their monsters, their existence, I shall relish in delight. None can withstand my power, none will escape my hunger. I shall come. And I will feast. Your fear, your desire, I will enjoy them as I slowly, slowly tear your heart apart. You hear that, naive fool? You have enroached upon my domain, you have let yourself known, and I will answer your declaration. By licking your crystal clean. You are young and ignorant, you stand no chance, but I do hope that you can entertain me. A meal is better enjoyed with pleasure. AH! The pleasure! The joy! The ectasy of absorbing the core. The raw power that courses through my body, my monsters tingling with excitement. 2 months. 2 months you have. And 2 months I will glady wait. You cannot run, little prey, you cannot run... "Monsters! Prepare! For so long we have waited! For so long we have endured! But no more! For soon, we shall FEAST!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do I do? What do I do? Okay, deep breaths buddy, deeeeeeeeeeep *inhaleeee* breffsh *exhaaale*. See? Everything is perfectly fine, we will get through this no problem. I mean, come on, its just a bajillion ants 1-2cm long which can rend apart my thin defenses then take my core and tear it apart and kill me and... NOTHING IS FIIIIINE! What do you MEAN by Dungeon Battle! Give me back my peace, my security! I protest! Dungeon''s should have rights! We have feelings! We need day off! Strike! Protest, protest, protest, protest, pro..... .... ... .. . te. . . s . . t. What was that? "guuuuuuoooo*clack*ooo*click*oooooo!" Ah, just the enemy dungeon, no biggie. I mean, they are simply revved into a frenzy right? I mean, no way a bunch of beserking monsters itching for blood will be violent after 2 months right? .. .. .. *intense sweating* AAAHHHHHHH! SOMEBODY SAVE ME! HELP ME! HEEERULP! HEEERULP! Please... anything.... No? FINE! I, the almighty and fearless dungeon, the ruler of the larva, the birther of plants will have to get his hands dirty again! Because someone just does not wish to lend a liiiitle helping hand. OK. Chop chop, down to business, put on those thinking caps and turn it into overdrive. We can, no we will, no we MUST win! For the greater good, for everyone and finally, for me. Larva, ya hear me? Get down to business ya largots, no more slacking! Today, training begins! Ahahahaha! -----(pause to skip laughing)------ Haha-*cough*cough*! ... That did not happen. I repeat that did not happen. Aaanyways, lets quickly check our DP storage. Hmmm, [500 DP]. Wow, that''s a substancial amount! That would be... let me count... ... ... 16 larva eggs with a little suplus or 50 plant seeds. Ahhhh, that''s still no good. We have not enough numbers to overwhelm them with, our fighting force is pathetically weak. In the first place, the larva themsleves were not geared towards combat. Just why.... If we could have had 100 larva, or 1000 larva, the story may be different but.... I only have 10(+16) larva. Not even 30 of them..... I am weak. I mean, only temporarily weak! I don''t mean anything by that ok? I''m weak at all, and I''m not disatisfied with it.... I think... I hope... I guess.. How do I even do this... (Hmmm, lets tell you to go there, and you to-no hey you, I meant there not there! Okay back to you, I will need you to do this, listen closely okay? This rides on you. Okay. Firstly...*whisper*whisper*) --------------------3rd Person POV------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The new-born dungeon, eventually, got down to work. He started immediately by sending his rock digging larva to, well, dig. They were named Larvacks by their creator, a truly unique species. They worked by firstly pressing their mouthpiece onto the surface of the rock. By doing this, they can sense for mana rich areas which they can then travel to. After finding a spot in close proximity to a mana rich area, they then begin to dig. Though, honestly, eat is a better word. Unnoticed by the dungeon, these hardy larva actuallyeat the stone, possesing an extremely powerful digestive system to do so. This digestive system is actually fueled by the excretion of a mana purifying larva, since the pure mana contained in it is actually very beneficial to temporarily enhancing the digestive system that makes the larva capable of digesting stone. Granted, limestone is fairly easy to be dissolved by acid, but that is still a pretty amazing feat achieved by a little critter. Of course, the larva will then ever so slowly head towards the mana rich area before settling down to absorb the mana. However, one of the 3 Larvacks has discovered a new, better way to absorb mana, or a resource, to be more exact.Eat the stone, digest the stone and get the mana. Or so it thought. The mana in the strange glittering limestone was so rich that it overshadowed that of the feces, the excess mana leaking out was already enough to fuel the digestive system. The sudden influx of mana, sadly, was a little too much for the poor critter to bear. Pain immediately shot through its body as the mana stuggled to escape. The mana pushed andpushed on the walls of the larva''s belly. It bloated, then deflated, then bloated again, strands of drool trickling out its maw as it moaned in pain. There was only two ways it could end. Get rid of the mana or explode as the mana rushes to escaped into the atmosphere. It continued to groanas it frantically attempted to utilise the mana. Converting to energy failed, energy was in excess and no longer possible. Attempt to expel mana has failed, the mana was released too deep to get out and too early to go the other side. One last insane idea the larva had, was to convert the mana into EXP. It worked, barely. It''s HP ticking at a measly 2/25, the larva on it''s last breath managed to pull through.
Congratulations! Due to experiencing something drastically different from your usual behaviour, you have been awarded {x2 EXP gain} for only this event.MAX level achieved, unable to direct excess EXP.Directing excess EXP into appropriate alternatives. Skill [Basic Tunnel] has ranked up to [Basic Tunnel II], Skill [Primitive Mana Sense] has ranked up to [Primitive Mana Sense II]. New ability has been gained! You have acquired [Primitive Mana Conversion].By surviving unscathed an ordeal that normally renders one''s intestines annihilated has acquired you the ability [Hardy Stomach].
With an influx of level ups, skills and abilities, the now level-capped larvack slowly hobbled away. It appears as if it will not be munching on stone for some time. Anyone would, after this traumatic experience, only thanks to the larvae''s high adaptability that gave it the miniscule chance to survive.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. On the other hand of the spectrum, the other 2 larvacks have returned to the dungeon bearing wonderful news. They have found a source of water and directed part of it to the dungeon. It was no more than a mere trickle, but that was all the dungeon had needed. Sacrificing [10 Animus], he gave the plants a quick boost to the water and allowed them to absorb the water. Slowly, as the unaccustomed roots of the plant gradually accepted the foreign liquid, they recieved a breakthrough. The dungeon knew, from his past life, that in order for the most efficient method of photosynthesis required water(non-cyclic pathway), so he hypothesised: Would water hold the same effect over mana-synthesis? Turns out, his guess was spot on.
Upon absorbing water, the Vakiolum(using animus) has altered their mana-sysnthesis reaction into one that includes the use of water. This has tremendously boosted the effects of the synthesis, allowing the skill [Vakiosynthesis II] to rank up to [Vakiosynthesis III]. Now, the plants are capable of creating a compund which stores a special energy that when utilised(or consumed by other entities) will release a quick burst of mana. The mana is different from ambient mana as it can be converted immediately into energy, allowing even non-mana manipulating creatures to be able to use its effects. This compund is found most commonly in the leaves of the plant.
Plants are now capable of producing items which benefit you dungeon! A new section has been added to their Status.
Production: [Basic Manaleaf: A leaf that when consumed is able to release a quick burst of energy or mana. Requires: {Mana}{Water}. Production Time: (1/4h)]
The dungeon immediately made procedures for the valuable manaleaf to be harvested. Enough where he would not be short on the good, yet not so much that it detriments the growth of the plant. He still cares for them all the same, if not more so now. Back the the larvae, the 4 plant eating larvae are still grounded at level 8. Puzzled, the dungeon simply..... simply ignored it and carried on. After a full 10 minutes of self praise, he decided that he should allow the plant eating larvae to be his main line of offense, as well as defense. Then, he proceeded to purchase 10 more larva eggs and set them close to the dungeon core. In 2 weeks, they would hatch and bump up the forces to 20 larvae. A puny number compared to the mass of ants of the enemy dungeon but at least, their numbers were doubled. Contemplating for a second, he requested the larvacks(2 of them, the other was still recovering) to bring him some stone. After a good amount of head scratching, he somehow managed to convince the larvacks that the stone he wanted was not a goopy mess, but in its original state. With a nice pile of pebbles, he made the larvae throw them at each other. Initially, they failed terribly, so much that the dungeon commented that "The worst fails in history would run away with their tails between their legs once they see you." Eventually, after days of non-stop practicing, they managed to be able to fling nicely sized pebbles at a decent speed. Most of them missed, but it will have to do. The dungeon also requested for larvacks to cut out, and he meant cut out, a larger piece of stone. He then made the larva attempt to fling it again. Again, the disastrous results shall not be mentioned. In the end, they ahieved it, but by that time even the dungeon had ran out of cuss words. After the dungeon felt somewhat satisfied with their ranged attacking capability, he began making them undergo melee training. In normal dungeon battles where starter creatures are concerned, melee skirmishes hold great importance. The capability to not only attack and kill the enemy but also get out unscathed is crucial. One may hold great offensive power, able to immediately wipe out everything that it approaches yet unable to retreat once the time comes is by no means effective. It would simply result in a wasteful death. One may be capable of dodging every attack, but unable to land a decisive blow will eventually lead to its demise. Thus, not only efficient planning the leader must have, but also the correct troops who are properly capable in melee combat will victory be likely. And even then it is a wavy one. The melee capabilities of the larva were, garbage, for lack of a better word. Slow, bulky and teeth that could not even scratch the feeble skin of the other larva, they were the worst possible close range fighters ever. The dungeon was in such a state of panic and rage that it took a full hour for him to calm down. Trying again, and again, and again in a desperate bid to improve their combat ablilities but to no avail. It appears as if these larva were not geared towards battle, not as if the raging dungeon will ever find out. Thus, the dungeon decided to just focus on the stone throwing exercises, which the larva seem to beat least capable of accomplishing. The little adventure of our dear larvack, the one who nearly died, has not gone unnoticed by the dungeon either. As the larvack had now recovered, he spent one full hour coaxing and persuading the larvack into "not eating the stone, just ask your friends. You don''t have to eat the stone to get the pebbles" and acquiring some fairly glittery stone pebbles. He then gave them to the managots, who seem to love the new source of food(mana) and appear to becompletely fine munching on those pebbles. Seeing this, the dungeon made the larvacks regularly bring those stones to the managots until the supply ran out.
Time left till end of Grace Period: 1 month 2 weeks
The eggs have hatched and the new born larva timidly crawl out. The dungeon was escalated. He finally had his long desired melee crack troops. After sating their hunger with the plants, he proceeded to immediately give them combat training. The reward? The best combatant will be able to take 1 manaleaf home. Pitting them against each other, to maim and not to kill, while at the same time make sure each strike is capable of killing. The younger the larva is, the more adaptable they are. They quickly took to the combat training, some even adapting features to aid them. The dungeon believes that the rest will follow suit.
Time left till end of Grace Period: 1 month
Most of the larva of the second generation have grown to have sharper teeth, stronger skin and are quick and agile. They are constantly on the watch, since the dungeon has since limited their food supply and allowed for the stealing of food through a quick battle. Leave enough so that they won''t die and you can keep the rest, was the dungeon''s instructions. Sneakier methods such as sneaking the food away is also an option, an option which a certain parasite seem to accomplish pretty well. On the topic about the parasitic larva, who is currently the only one, the dungeon had made him join in the combat training the moment the larva were strong enough. At first, it was bullied and completely stomped, but it soon struck back to claim his debt. To do what parasites do best. Find a host, or multiple hosts, and leech them dry. Evolving to be unoticable, capable of toning down the colour of its skin to black or back to the original milky white, it waited in the shadows of the dungeon(which is pretty much the entire dungeon) for the unsuspecting larva and latch onto them. While they feed, he releases a chemical which numbs their skin, and bites down. Similar to a leech, he gorges himself on the now nutrient rich blood and silently drops off, sated and unnoticed. The dungeon was very happy with his development and has even been giving him manaleaves in secret, although not in large numbers. In combat, the parasite was also a now a deadly force. Once he is latched onto you, you are pretty much dead. What the dungeon likes to call "a marvelous duelist" and "a fantastic assasin", the parasite is in fact capable of draining its host dry. Through the use of a specially developed organ which formed when it was in dire need, the parasite is somehow able to convert blood directly into something akin to mana, compress it, and store it in a specially protected location. The dungeon believes this is formed when he absorbed the blood of the larvack capable of mana conversion. The entire dungeon enters a stressed mood, where every creature and monster is on its toes, or entire body.
Time left till end of Grace Period: 3 weeks
Time left till end of Grace period: 2 weeks
Time left till end of Grace period: 1 week
TIme left till end of Grace period: 1 day
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It''s coming. It'' coming. Oh my goodness. That was one looooooooooooooooooong month. Well, actually 2 months but those freaking largots were souseless, even a garbage dump would be too good for them. I do hope my efforts paid off. I really do. Come on, come on. The suspense is killing me. Is everything prepared? Check? OK check. That? Good, I got it. Hmmm, quick scan..... seems good to me.
Time left till end of Grace period: 0s
It''s TIIIIIIIMEEEEE! Blare the trumpets! Ring the bells! Sound the fanfare! Let this party!
Dungeon Battle has begun!
BEGIN! Volume 1 Chapter 8: Do like the French do: Make a hasty retreat
Dungeon Battle: During the Dungeon Battle, you can gain DP. For every enemy monster of creature that die in your domain, you will recieve half of their DP value. For every friendly creature or monster who perishes in your domain, you may only gain a tenth of their DP value. This value can vary from monster to monster, creature to creature.
Dungeon Battle: The blockage obstructing the tunnel to connecting the two dungeons has been removed. Monsters and creatures may now pass through.
Dungeon Battle: Mapping: In order to attain the layout of the enemy dungeon, you must first have a friendly monster or creature traverse the hostile territory. The traversed area will then be revealed. It will remain revealed even after you monster or creature perishes.
"GUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOO!" Nope, not my stomach, it''s the enemy dungeon. I would like to call their technique the floodgate techinique. Why? Because they had been waiting at the entrance, smothering it, waiting for the floodgates to be released. And flood they did. My dungeon was suddenly filled with the spine shivering clicks of insectoid legs against the cold hard stone. Nevertheless, I had forseen such a situation. What? I can''t hear that. Speak lowder, I can''t hear those praises they need to be lowder! I am the greatest, the master, the tactician! Such a simple yet foolish plan, I have forseen it all! To give a quick rundown, I have split my larva into 4 different squadrons. Team Clipeum is made up of 8 of my fighter larva, the strongest 8. Their duty was to hold back the enemy at all cost except death. I will not letany of my adorable larva to perish. Next, Team Obturbo was made of 4 of the older larva, the stone throwing ones. Their job was to distract the ants so that Team Clipeum can finish them off. Then, we have our elite team. Team Equites is made of my 3 larvacks and 2 other fighter larvae. Why are the larvacks considered as my elite? Let me pose a counter question. Take a man who works everyday in the mine, a master at that. A single swing of his pickaxe, even the dullest pick, is able to crack and split hard stone. Now imagine that on a soft body. The soft body would simply crumble against the force, so logically, it should work the same here. The larvacks were to eat the main threats enemy and neutralize them, with 2 larva to gaurd them in case of emergency. Lastly, our last team. Team Sicarius, containing my single parasite larva, is currently on standby. I will send it in if need be but most of this battle he will be standing by the sidelines. So, as the seething swarm of ants closed in onto Team Clipeum, they instictively spread out but still stayed within reach of each other. Immediately, the battle was thrown into a chaotic melee. The ants were desperately trying to bite off the skin of the larva but failed horribly in doing so. They were then picked off one by one by the larvae and faced the crunching death of their jaws. My training clearly paid off, alright. They were skilled, but not complacent. They knew that a single mistake can still cost them their lives. The ants were crawling up them, they could not kill the ants fast enough. The ants attempted to search for softer areas to attack, but were immediately removed. Then came a rain of stone. Team Obturbo had done their job well. I need to praise them after this. Just had when Team Clipeum was almost overwhelmed by numbers, the barrage of stones came and crushed a large number of the ants. Startled, some of them froze still, which led to their swift demise. However, I believe that this may not work as effectively the second time. It also appears that some of the ants have leaked through and heading towards Team Obturbo. Fret not, for I, the master strategist have made full preparations!Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Team Equites, do your thing! Team Clipeum, stay strong! Together, we will win this! ... Now a full hour has passed and Istill see no end to the ant swarm. Granted, they were thinning out but my larva are getting tired. The manaleaves can only do so much, and my pebble and stone stockpile are also almost depleted. Some of the more unfortunate larva in Team Clipeum had suffered the acidic stings of the ants. But no worries, they were thinning out! Hope! The light! I see it! ...No....No..NO! Please, not them! Why now! Please! The worst fear that I had, why must it happen. Because now, marching in neat rows in perfect unison, are the might of the ant empire. Their strongest force, an army that none can conquer. The soldier ants. They were faster, stronger and better. They had fearsome mandibles that were capable of ripping even my fighting larva into 2, an acidic sting that would melt their insides into mush and worst of all, they could not fight back. They were just as large as them, their armour tougher, their jaws stronger, their numbers overwhelming. No way.... In a desperate bid, I immediately had Team Clipeum retreat slightly, forming a \/ shape with the soldier ants coming in from the wider side. Then, I had the ends close off to for a0, while the front lining larva struggle to defend, Team Equites would charge in and mutilate the ants so much that they were helpless. The strategy worked, kind of. A couple of times during the melee the soldier ants overextendted and were separated from their allies. Me, being the fantastic dungeon I am, would not miss out on such an easy kill. Round them off and finish them off. My interior was now strewn with ant corpses and more were still coming. A couple times when the soldier ant lines where thin Team Equites charged through, dealing massive damage and causing pandemonium. However, the enemy soon learned to be careful and the soldier ants kept close and making no openings. We were losing, gradually, but still losing. We need. To. RETREAAAT! There is a Chinese saying from my previous life that running away is not always a bad decision(ÈýÊ®Áù¼Æ×ßΪÉϼÆ). Do what the French do best and make a HASTY RETREAT! Pull back! Initiate Plan StoneFall. Round up! Retreat! The last of my larva pull back as a huge chunk of sone slammed onto the entrance, crushing whichever unfortunate ants that were still there. This would seal the entrance.... for now. It will be time for round 2 soon, and I will be readier yet. The mightiest, the greatest, the smartest dungeon did not run away! He did not! It was atacticalretreat okay? It wasn''t cowardice okay? Ant dungeon! I do not know who you are, but the cost of humiliating me is steep. Be prepared to face the full payback! With interest! Gyahahahahahahah-*cough*cough*! ----------------Ant dungeon POV------------------------------------------------ I am angry. I am furious! My beautiful little prey, I could even sense its desperation. It was SO CLOSE! The fear, the anguish, the desperation, OOHH how delicious they were. I have never layed my toungue on a dish ever so divine, I have to savour it, relish in it, burn the rich flavour into my mind, sear it into my memory. Yet, my little prey had so cunninglyslipped from my grasp. It had used interesting techniques and strategies, some of which even I had never seen before. It was weak, very weak, too weak. Yet, my numbers that I sent in, only half returned to tell the tale. Of the strange green things that they munched on and suddenly outstrip them in every sense of combat ability. Of the fear where there were creatures which could break through even the toughest soldier''s amour. Of fear, the greatest of all, were the unrelenting cunning their commander had. Every weakness, every mistake, it had capitalised. None were unpunished and the price they paid for commiting such a sin was death. My monsters could only watch asthe best soldiers, the strongest elite force, simply crumble on their 6 legs, never to raise again. I am hungrier now. You have brought this upon yourself, little prey. My hunger cannot only be sated with your crystal alone now. I will not.. "My Queen. It is time. For our little prey, will have to SUFFER!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We bring you this short interlude on the current program
Larvack x2
Name -
HP 40/40
MP -
EXP Lvl 9 [15/50]
Description A mana-synthesising larva who has evolved to tunnel into the earth in search of areas with higher mana density. With a strong stomach that can even digest stone, these strong jawed monsters are not to be underestimatd in battle.
Abilities [Basic Tunneling][Primitive Mana Sense][Vakiosis]
Larvack
Name -
HP 55/55
MP -
EXP Lvl 10 [MAX]
Description A mana-synthesising larva who has evolved to tunnel into the earth in searchof areas with higher mana density. With a hardy stomach that can digest stone and even a lesser impure mana crystal, this strong jawed monster in definitely not to be underestimaded in battle. With a keener sense for mana, this monster is able too sniff out crystallized mana within a short range even when its buried in stone. It''s hardy stomach is also capable of absorbing and changing the quality of mana, as well as digest most rocks without needing mana. It also has a fairly decent tunnel speed.
Abilities [Basic Tunnel II][Primitive Mana Sense II][Hardy Stomach][Primitive Mana Conversion][Vakiosis]
Managot x2
Name -
HP 50/50
MP 0/10
EXP Lvl 9 [0/50]
Description A mana-synthesising larva who decided, instead of look for mana, just make more. These peculiar monsters have the capability to purify mana, making their mana-synthesis much more effective. They have pores on their skin to allow maximum mana flow. They, in fact, purify mana so well that their feces are a valuable source of mana. The feces canbe used to fertilize plants or allow the Larvacks to digest stone faster and better.
Abilities [Vakiosis II][Primitive Mana Condensation]
Largot x4
Name -
HP 50/50
MP -
EXP Lvl 8 [45/45]
Description A common herbivorous larva.
Skill [Primitive Slingshot]
Parasigot
Name -
HP 30/30
MP -
EXP Lvl 9 [0/50]
Description The runt of the batch of larva that has evolved into a parasitic lifestyle. This larva is capable of changing its skin colour in shades of black as a form of camouflage. Once on its host, it is capable of numbing the host before biting and sucking the host''s blood. It is capable of compressing the blood into a special organ and thus is able to feed for a long time. It is fully capable of draining its host of blood and killing its host.
Abilities [Primitive Camouflage][Primitive Energy Storage]
Skill [Basic Numbing Bite]
Militarva x10
Name -
HP 70/70
MP -
EXP Lvl 7 [25/30]
Description Born and bred from young, these larvae excel at one thing and one thing only. Combat. These eveready combatants are capable melee fighters who are while agile still able to take a beating. Armed with sharp teeth, tough hide and keen eyesight(better than the other near blind largots), these are a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
Plants
Species Vakiolum
Abilities [Vakiosysthesis III]
Production [Basic Manaleaf: Requires:{Mana}{Water}. Rate1/4h)]
Stolen novel; please report.
Rarity: While skills and abilities also have ranks, there is also the rarity of the skill. The rarity of the skill is denoted by a colour coded system. While the ranks and class determine the prowness of the skill, the rarity simply depicts the difficulty to achieve the skill or ability. As a general rule of thumb, the rarer the skill, the better it is. This is, however, not to be confused with power as a Rare skill may not even hold a candle to a Common skill, but still harder to acquire.
Inferior: Denoted by gray coloration. Inferior skills or abilites are generally easy to acquire but are as a result also usually weaker. Common: Denoted by white coloration. Common skills are, well, common. Fairly easy to acquire and the most common seen class of skills and abilities. Efficient yet useful, these are the most seen skills and abilities in daily life. Uncommon: Denoted by green coloration. Uncommon skills and abilities are significantly harder to acquire compared to common. While still achievable, they require special conditions and generally are not commonly seen. Rare: Denoted by blue coloration. Rare skills are very rare and are difficult to acquire. Specific conditions need to be met in the correct way in order to achieve the rare skill of ability. Epic: Denoted by purple coloration. Epic skills and abilites are capable of changing the tides of the battle single-handedly or capable of changing the lives of millions. Epic skills are always extremely potent and posses huge utility, which also makes them tremendously hard to acquire. Legendary: Denoted by orange coloration. Legendary skills are very, very hard to even come close to have a chance to acquire the skill or ability. The only legendary skills ever recorded where held by creatures and heroes of the legends. Phantasmical(Fantasical): Denoted by rainbow coloration. Little is known about this rarity as there has only been a single record that dates too far into the past to be reliable.
Rarity is also applicable to Product quality as well as achievements.
Class Up: Upon reaching the highest Tier of a skill or ability and achieving the specified conditions, one may allow their skill or ability to "class up". This is vastly different from a rank up as the very nature of the skill or ability will change following the class up. For example, [Poision Resisance X] can be class upped into [Poison Immunity]. The former is simply resisting the effects of the poison, while the latter is complete immunity to poison. Thus, a skill or ability of the higher class will always be superior statwise. As a skill or ability undergoes "class up", it will generally(but not always) increase in rarity as well. Hence most class ups also include a rarity increase.
Volume 1 Chapter 9: Instead of going to you, how about you come to us? *Huff*Huff*Wheeze* We''re safe....for now. I reeaaally don''t like the feeling I''m getting from the opposing dungeon. The desire to kill, or killing intent, I can even feel it. His bloodlust is out of this world man...Was his mother a Vampire? Haha, geddit, cause he thirts for blood! Hahaha! *Ahem* Down to my current situation. My final line of defense, named Plan Stonefall, was my insurance policy just in case all else fails. You see, I did not let my larvacks go free either. Near the entrance to the tunnel, I had the larvacks create many, many intersecting tunnels that cut out into a boulder with the bottom aligning nicely with the ground. It took an entire month to create this you know? Praise me more! So as I was explaining, the boulder is now veeeery loosely attached to the ceiling. Not so much such that simply touching it will not cause it to fall, but enough that when I got my larvack to cut through the last portion, the trap immediately deploys and will fall down. From the best of my knowledge, ants can''t really tunnel that well but knowing how dungeons work........ it''s probably not likely that I have more than 2 weeks of leeway. I''ll have to utilise this time well. I mean, of course I will! I am the best and everyone knows that!
You have succesfully created and deployed a trap! TheTrap option in the Catalogue is now open!
OH! Ooohhhhh! This is goooooood! A new option in the Catalogue? Hell yeah! Let''s go! "Menu, Catalogue"
Catalogue
Monster Creature Trap [Locked] [Locked] [Locked]
Oooohhhhhh. "Trap"
Trap
Availible Traps [Falling Boulder]
[Falling Boulder] A simple yet effective trap, it involves a boulder falling down from the ceiling. Required Build Time: 1 month (can be sped up with DP)[100DP/week] Deployment: Manual (1 Larvack required) Deploy Time: 2 mins Recharge Time: Never
Faaantastic! Actually, not so much. I only have 2 weeks tops, this takes 1 month to buil- Hold up. How much DP do I have? Hmmmmmm.......mmmmmm........Hrrmmmm.....Ummmuu......eeettooooo.... WHAT! [1000 DP]?! How? I mean, I did kill a lot of ants but still, isn''t that a little too much? How many ants did I kill? 1,2,3,4.. arrgh I lost count. I won''t complain though, I need that fat and juuiiiicy DP. Moar! The more the merrier! It appears that it costs [400 DP] to insta build a trap, but it seems like I can economize a little.... ------------------------------------3rd Person POV---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The dungeon master began to prepare once again. Firstly, he had the largots and militarvae to dispose of all the ant corpses into a corner, mix it in with some of the plant fibres(they were destroyed in the battle) and covered it with some stone pebbles. A wise choice, since the soon to be rotting dead ants may lead to disease, which would be detrimental to his dungeon. However, the reason why he had added plants and covered it with stone is still unkown. The 3 larvack were went back to hard work again, creating pebbles and making traps. The previous battle may have tired them, but there was no time to rest. The enemy was restless and soon, the second wave will come. The managots were better off, having stayed in the back the entire skirmish. These larva were working hard as well. They were trying very hard, in fact, to attempt to increase the mana quality of the dungeon. This, of course, made their feces completely useless as a result and were thrown into the pile with the dead ants. That being said, they had managed to acquire a skill [Primitive mana Purification] as a result(black used to substitute white). As a side note, the dungeon master had hypothesised that there is never such a thing called "impurity" present in mana. Simply put, those that are considered "impurities" are actually simply energies that were currently not needed. Similar to purifying gold, other precious metals such as silver or even platinum is considered an impurity and removed. Those were in no way not valuable, just not currently wanted. Thus, the dungeon master suspected the feces still have uses and he had simply.....thrown it away.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. An area with higher mana density is very beneficial to the dungeon. The plants function better, which will produce the much needed manaleaves, the larvacks will have plenty of energy to continue digging and the injured militarvae will be able to recover faster. If achieved, the mana density increase will provide the much needed boost for them to increase their chance at winning the Dungeon Battle. The dungeon master had also closely scrutinized the strange glittery stone. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a strange, tiny light blue crystal embedded in the stone. This strange crystal was small, very small but also quite easy to find within the chunk of stone. Before long, the dungeon master had recieved a notice regarding the stone.
You have discovered a lesser impure mana crystal. The most basic of mana crystals, they still provide a substantial amount of mana. You have now recieved more information about the lesser impure mana crystal. It can now be purchased in the Catalogue. Conditions for [Mana Manipulation]:{1/10} achieved. Conditions for [Domain manipulation]:{1/5} achieved.
Considering the job done, the dungeon master looked away and proceeded to do other things. From army planning and procedure to making sure production is still at its maximun rate, he was busy. And the business helped distract him from his current fears and worries. For now... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -2 weeks- My stratergies are sound. This is a battle I cannot lose. I must not lose. I have so many more things I have to do. The flames of the future greatest dungeon cannot be snuffed out here! I wil- *PSSHHT*! That was the dreaded sound, earlier than I expected even. I watch as my boulder blocking the entrancemelt as a swarm of ants rushed in once again. This time, instead of doing the funnel technique I did last time, where I had larvae arranged in a \/ formation and put the pressure on the vertice, this time I was ready for a swarm. The most effective method to defend against a swarm was what I like to call the gorge technique. A curious thing I had discovered was if done fast enough, the half-digested stone acted as a strong and fantastic glue. Doing so, I made a huge extended tunnel covering the entrance that slooowly narrowed into a 10 ant sized hole. Thus, my larva would not be fighting 10 against a thousand but 10 against 10 a hundred times. The ants nearly filled up the tunnel to the brim, a seething mass of insects constantly clambering over each other. Theystreamed out of the tunnel, in such great numbers and speed that one questioning their senses that only 10 ants can exit at one point of time. The battle ensued once again. Ant fell again and again, like a never ending stream of water, came back again and again. The unrelenting tenacity reminds me of the ants in my old life. Their shining quality in contrast to their mindless personality. Yes, the mindless ants controlled by the Quee- The Queen. How could I ever have forgotten. More so, it''s a dungeon''s Queen. Which means that that must be my goal. One of the conditions of winning the Dungeon Battle:"enemy dungeon may no longer fight back" or something similar..and the Queen is the only one capable of recieving instructions according to the starting monster guide. This has to be the way, this in the only way! Stratergy Impromptu complete! Commence implemetation! I mean, seriously, the ants don''t stop coming do they? For now, we push back! Fighto! You over there, don''t you see that your friend over there is engaging 1v8? Help him out! Team Equites, There is an opening there! Charge in halfway and meet up with Team Clipeum, then back out. Team Obturbo, on my signal! Aaaaaaaaaannnnd, now! Team Sicarius, those 3, take them out! We''re doing just fine, keep this up! .... ..... .....*crrk*clack*crrk*... ... ... Oh my lord..... what in the world is that abomination? If those previous soldier ants were soldiers, then these would be super soldiers. They were like the consort of the omnipotent king, the guides, the gaurds, the escorts. They were the Royal Ants. Armed to the teeth, with a razor sharp mandible as long as my larvae and double their size, these lumbering giants were a terror. A single Royal Ant required the entire of Team Equites and Team Clipeum to take down, allowing the other soldiers and normal ants to continue streaming in. They barely fit into the tunnels, no in fact they were too large for it, they simply pushed through it with brute force. The once favourable tides of battle once again swung into the opponents favour. The element of surprise gave them the upper hand. Making my larvae move into a - ) formation(the single larca at the front facing the tunnel), the lone larva held off 2 of the Royal ants simultaneously while slowly retreating. The rest of the ants and soldiers were finished off by the rest at the back. I call this the trap technique. Why? Because just as the 2 Royal Ants seemingly gained the upper hand, a boulder fell from the ceiling and squashed them flat. Yup, I''m creative alright. It''s called the trap technique since it leads tougher enemies to the trap with a single larva while the rest hold off the weaker ones. Repeating this another 3 times, I, sad to say, had ran out of traps. I could only build 4 traps in this 2 weeks, just when I need them the most... but at least, we were still holding off. Granted, they have a queen, which means that a battle of attrition results in my loss. But I won''t let it come to that. I will win this battle, this war. None of my monsters will die. I vow in the name of pizza. ---(2 hours)--- I''m tired. I''m exhausted. 2 hours of close attention to every minute detail. I mean, come on, who would not get tired. I got bored? Nah, no way I can get bored if mylife is on the line. Still, it gets pretty tiring you know. Anyways, the final preparations are met. Time to implement Operation Trojan Ant, or OTA! Team Sicarius, do you copy? Crrsht, over. I need backup at coordinates: tunnel entrance, please send assistance, over. Also, watch out, you may never know when the enemy might just send in the...i...r..........Queen....... I watch, in dumbfounded silence, as the Queenheaved herself through the entrance, the walls of the tunnel melting away. Volume 1 Chapter 10: Your glorious Majesty The Ant Queen. A being of power. High intelligence. Spear like front 2 legs that pierced the stone with a *ting*ting* sound as she stepped. An army to command. Her head itself larger than my larvae, a small mouth but with multiple mandibles, each indiviually moving as if she was constantly eating something. Thick feelers that thinned from the base, drooping, then bursting into many branches at the tips just like a dandelion. Her thorax hidden by her gargantuan abdomen. Unable to be supported by her two back legs, it was dragged across the floor, making her advance slow, yet making it more onminous. It was as if this was a ghost story, and the ghost was coming closer and you could not run away. Except this was real. Very real. My monsters were thrown into chaos, my plants trampled. She screeched, and the ants swarmed again with heated fervour. The bloodlust almost visible, it felt... it felt like she was gloating. Gloating over the fact that I was helpless to do anything to help my dear monsters. I cursed ar myself. If not for this infernal crystal I would have long jumped into the battle to help them out. They needed help, they neededme. -----3rd person POV---- The militarvae were strewn across the floor, their skin flayed and cut in multiple areas, still leaking copper blue lifeblood. They have served their duty to their last breath, 5 of which will never rise to serve again. The larvacks were running. Ducking into holes and popping out the other, they attempted to slow down the advance. They spewed half-digested stone, gluing many ants to the stone floor. To buy time for their dungeon master, in hopes he could pull through. The largots somehow managed to latch onto the ceiling, tossing whatever pebbles they had carried. Soon, the seething tides of ants will claim them, yet they did not run. They stood their ground and readied their jaws, ready for whatever was to come. The parasite stirred mayhem, going in and out of the ant¡¯s congregation. Suddenly flashing white and then back to black, draining whatever he could dry, in hopes of aiding the defence in any way possible. It was then flung far away, out of sight. ------------------ They were getting so close. Too close. The Queen was closing in. Dread ran through my bones. My managots cowered near my core. I do not blame them, they had little to no offensive capability. They did not run, they did not even hide. They planned to stay¡­ and fight? The enemy queen closed in, her jet black eyes focused onto my core. Raising one of her blade-like legs, she plunged it towards my core. @#&*:^%$ The pain, it was not something that I can describe. It hurts, it rends me apart. I cannot think, I can only try to see. No¡­¡­. what are you doing?! NO! The queen¡¯s leg¡­ why is it in my larva? Someone please answer me? Oi! Somebody tell me! WHY! Why is my managot skewered? Is it still breathing? I can save it. I must save it. I have already lost so much. I have to keep what is left. I felt my animus, like water in a basin. I swirled it, and felt the swirl. I tried to understand it, the viscosity, the responsiveness and the behaviour. I tossed away the ladle and poured all my animus onto the managot. All [110 Animus]. In my mind, I had just one wish, ¡°live¡±. And a strange thing happened. Animus was originally colourless, only with a shimmering that betrayed its presence. Yet, this animus was green. The colour of nature, of plants and trees, of life. Of the first ever living things to tread foot on land. The beginning. The mother. The one who encompasses us all. My will, my drive, my desire, had completely changed the effect the animus has. It was no longer simply animus, but life animus. Life, the disruptor, the invader, the one that should not have existed. Yet, by sheer coincidence, life had formed. Life had thrived. Life had survived. The will to live, the desire to survive, the drive to continueand the wish tocarry on, my unspoken words of anguish were all acknowledged loud and clear in the animus. I had no voice, yet my intentions were understood. It, no she, looked at me. Or at least in the direction of my core. I could feel her. Her sadness, her helplessness and self-berating that she could not have been of more use to me.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. You misunderstand, my child, my creation. I never meant to use you, just like those hornets. I only intended to explore, to understand, to learn. Take my last gift, will you? As a well wish to make sure you can still live one. I am forsaken, I can feel it. The enemy dungeon¡¯s queen is closing. Take the others, you can still run. Live on and be happy, okay? No, what are you doin- No way. What in the world is this¡­ ----(3rd person pov)---- The managot, saddened by the pain she was causing the dungeon lord, was touched by him. She could not understand his words, she could not understand his commands. But she understood his emotions. He cared for her, every fibre of his being. He had painfully waited for all of them to hatch, watched over them as they grew, and protected them when they were attacked. Now, at his death¡¯s door, he had asked them to leave, to die alone in a desolate place where none of his remains will ever live to tell the tale. He would be gone, wiped from existence, the existence called the dungeon will never be discovered, and never remembered. And. SHE. WILL. NOT. LET. THAT. HAPPEN. She soaked in the animus, the warmth of her creator pulsated in her bloodstream. It was absorbed, condensed, purified by the same system that did it for mana. She felt it. Fragments of emotions, pieces of knowledge and finally, one word. Queen. To fight fire with fire, an eye for an eye, a sin for a sin, a queen for a queen. Her body healed, then morphedand shifted, enlarging to encompass her new-found powers. She would never be able to morph and take to the skies like the rest of her kin, but to her, that was naught to her creator¡¯s joy. With whatever excess energy she had, she filled the eggs in her body with mana and energy. Charged to the brim, the eggs shot out of her body and exploded with a resounding *crack*. The babies were small, weak. Yet they tore apart the strong. The royal ants crumbled under the combined assault of the 25 hatchlings. The queen, sensing danger, immediately moved away for safety. Screeching, she called for reinforcements. They were even worse, and stronger than the royal ants. Standing grand and tall, with sleek black armour and a fearsome mandible, what was most fearsome about them was not their jaws. It was their acid. The very same that had destroyed the first [falling boulder] trap, they can spit a concentrated acid that can even dissolve stone. The new-born larvae stood no chance. Yet, they stood strong. For every 2 that fell, one acid spitter would perish along with them, their insides sizzling as the larvae suicide dived into their body chuck full of acid. The mangot queen was heartbroken. Her first 25 children, her first chance to contribute to the dungeon, to aid her master who was always helping her. They were murdered, slaughteredin front of her eyes. She begged, in whichever way she can, for the dungeon to look away. Exhausted from the egg laying and the ordeal of turning into a queen, she slumped flat onto the ground, her consciousness lost. And the dungeon, the dungeon was LIVID. His precious new queen, a dear existence, was made to watch in every clear detail the melting flesh of her children, the death throes of the larvae still echoing in her ears. He would not have this. He WILL not have this. The strength of a dungeon¡¯s influence is determined by their strength of will. While the closer it is to the dungeon¡¯s core, the strength of will of the dungeon master is still the determining factor of its influence. And right now, the dungeon master had a lot of will to spare. With very bad intentions. He forced and pressed and TORE at the mind of the ant queen. The most painful memories, the most excruciating paint. The ant queen screeched, screamed, bellowed as all her neurons fired out simultaneously, the very DNA of her existence was being peeled, layer by layer, one at a time. The dungeon master, he did not laugh, he did not smile. He did not relish as the ant queen thrashed about, flailing all her 6 legs in the most violent of fashions. He will not let her live, he will not let her experience hope. He will not give her a swift death, but a sure death. For that, he whispered: ¡°Those primitive and inferior creatures you are can only look forward, and wonder what¡¯s lies beneath. For us, we like to look above, and fathom what we can become. Look up, queen, for this is the last chance you have.¡± (a parasite fell) Volume 1 Chapter 11: 25 drops of blood ----(3rd person POV)---- The parasite landed. It did not miss. It master did not allow the Ant Queen to suffer. It will, in his place. It will make the Ant Queen experience the pain she had caused. For the first time in its life, itgorged itself on blood. Not just blood, it wanted her life. Her soul. Her being. It will not allow her to find peace in death. It pulled, dragged and devoured the Ant Queen. Its body swollen 3 times its original size, still showing no signs of stopping. Unable to compress the blood fast enough, its stomach was stretched to the limit and past. Yet, it did not stop. The Ant Queen will pay, and it will make sure she pays for every drop she spilled a thousand fold. -------------------------------- The Ant Queen, in all her former glory, howled and collapsed. I did not stop, she will not welcome death. She will fear death, I will make sure of that. I fractured her mind, her sanity gone, her intelligence nowhere to be found. Now naught but a mere ant, no longer her butit,she will nourish my other children. I will destroy her brood, I will make the enemy pay. Gone was the thought of simply winning, I won''t just win now. I will never be satisfied simply winning. I will do what they did to me with no remorse. I planned to let you all live, you know? It could have worked out better for both of us you know? But you chose not to, and now, you pay the price. "BLOOD FEUD!" My 5 fallen warriors, I will make sure your deaths were not in vain. My 25 precious drops of blood, I will avenge you. People may say that revenge only brings about more revenge, that you feel empty after. Do I look like I care now? Every ant, every egg, every larvae will be destroyed. We will counter attack here. This will not be our final stand, this will be the point where we turn the tables upside town. -----(3rd person POV)----- Without their queen, the ants quickly crumbled. They crumpled like paper under the pressure of all the surviving larvae, who showed no mercy. The larvae where relentless, their tiny eyes gleaming in delight every time they tore an ant from limb to limb. The ants may have numbers, but without a commander, they were the same as facing the larval army alone. They had no coordination, they had no intelligence. Clueless, they ran in circles before meeting their demise in the jaws of the larvae.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. They pushed through, cleaning up every last ant. The Ant Queen still twitching in pain as she was sucked dry. In fact, the parasite had bloated so large that it was almost as large as the Queen itself. Slowly, but surely, it will draw the last breath of the Queen. Until then, she will live her remaining life in agony. They pushed to the connecting tunnel, ants no longer pouring through. One by one, they carefully entered, in case any more ants were still lying in wait. However, what was on the other side was nothing but a wasteland, nothing like the lush green that was their home. There were 3 main rooms in total. As the map data was transferred to the dungeon master, he deduced that one of them was a nursery, one was for food storage(it was empty) and the final being the queens chambers. The rest of the connecting tunnels, pockets and small rooms were the living quaters of the ants. Immediately, the larvae set out to conquer this dungeon. With haste and caution, they advanced. The few ants that were left behind were slaughtered, the helpless larva was given the same treatment and the eggs smashed. It was a massacre and the dungeon master knew it. He was going to cull the entire nest of ants with no remorse. To him, it was fair payback. The payback for the spilt 25 drops of blood a thousandfold. A blood feud. Slowly they inched their way towards the enemy''s crystal. ----(ant dungeon POV)--- No. No. Please. Please forgive me. Let me live. I don''t want to die. I didn''t mean it. Please, I beg you. Mercy. Please. I just wanted to eat. I wanted to savour. I didn''t mean it. Please. No I want to live. Don''t destroy my core. Anything but that. I''ll give you anything, I''ll serve you. Just let me live. Let m-GYYAAAAAAAAA! --------------------------------- The dungeon master forced his will onto the enemy dungeon. It is not as simple as it sounds. To manipulate one''s will in not simple, and it is only due to the emotional outburst that he is capable of doing so. The recoil of such a forceful manoeuvre is tremendous. Even so, the dungeon master had forcefully injected feelings into the enemy core. Pain. Agony. Anguish. One of the victory conditions of the battle was to render the opponent unable to fight, allowing the other to claim victory,and he fully well intended to abuse that rule. His victory was ensured but at what costs. His warriors fallen, the blood of his children spilt, all of them will never return to the land of the living. With a final yell, he shattered the enemy''s core.
Congratulations! You have won the Dungeon Battle! More information will be availible in the notifications tab.
Then he cried. For at the center of the enemy''s core, split beautifully into 5 pristine pieces, were 25 blood red gems. Volume 1 Chapter 12: Farming Simulator 3000 *Dong* "In memory of our fallen, our comrades, and our friend." *Dong* "In memory of our children, our future, and our family." *Dong* "In memory of the 5 fallen. In memory of the 25 killed." *Dong* "We will mourn for them. We will remember them. Forever." *Dong* "We will carry on their legacy. So may they rest in peace, knowing that we will continue on." "So now, we shall reap what we have sown. We will enjoy this bountiful harvest! The gifts that our dead have left behind, we will use them well." And so, I finished my burial for my larvae who pershed in battle. The new-born were dissovled so much by the acid that none of them remained. Instead, I used a half melted leaf to represent them, a young shoot yet to see the world, denied the oppurtunity to grow. The dead militarvae were put together, arranged neatly in rows as if they were going to fight one last battle. One of them was split cleanly in half, at least it did not suffer a painful death. The larvacks then proceeded to spew stone-glue over them, sealing them in stone. Nothing will disturb their slumber now. To top it off, I bought a seed from the catalogue and laid it on the peak of the mound. It will serve as a gravestone, and a representation of their contribution to allow us to continue on living. Then, we began to harvest our rewards. The first, most visible one, was of course the enemy''s core. I had no idea what it did, but my instincts told me it was of tremendous value. From what I read from the novels in my past life, the core of a dungeon was usually a powerful source of energy, able to store and release massive amounts of energy. It was also a potent evolution tool, if I remember correctly. The next were the corpses of the ants. As per the same reasoning, the corpses of monsters were valuable as a resource. Alchemy, magic crafting were just a few examples. So many things I could do, so little time to do it. The ant corpses will begin to rot soon, I''ll have to make good use of them while I can. Then, there was the level ups of my monsters, Thay had fought their hearts out and now recieved the equivalant rewards for their effort. They had acquired new skills and all of them had achieved MAX levels, awaiting for the conditions for evolution to be met. I had sent them to collect and gather all the ant corpses, while thinking about what to do in the meantime. Icould focus more on my larva''s evolution, but the plants interest me more. It has been nagging me ever since I recieved the [Monster Creature] notification. I was fully capable of turning my plants into a potent force. In my past life, some of the greatest dangers of traversing in unknown vegetation is not the creatures that inhabit it but the greenery itself. Plants have proven time and again of their adaptibility, highly responsive to the environment and some developing freaky defenses to boot. This avenue has sooo many options, I wanna explore them all. Of course, it doesn''t mean that I will leave my adorable larvae alone. I had full intention of making them the stronger and better. My new Queen awaits, my Teams at the ready. They were bursting at the seams, full of potential, ready to evolve. They just needed atiiiiny push, one that I will be happy to provide. I will master my manipulation arts and give them the best evolution ever. That time will be the time they graduate from being juveniles and into adult larvae. Not to forget, I had rewards to claim myself from winning the Dungeon Battle. Scores upon scores of unread notifications blinked at the corner of my view, constantly reminding me of the things I still have yet to acquire. Now you see why I am the greatest dungeon master of all? Tremble in my presence, puny mortals! Muahahahahaha! Now, I command you to obey me! Show me my glorious loot!
Enemy Dungeon Core destroyed. Dungeon Battle has ended!
Dungeon Battle Loot: The loot claimed by the victor of the Dungeon Battle. Said loot includes the DP and Animus of enemy dungeon, grants acces to limited items in the Catalogue (items are correlated to enemy dungeon), core of the enemy dungeon, all of the enemy dungeon''s creatures and other relavant items.
Achievement Get!
[Victor]: Win your first Dungeon Battle. No rewards.
You have acquired [5 Dungeon Core Fragments] and [25 Odd Gems].Inventory tab in dungeon status now availible.
You have taken over: 0 ants, 0 Soldier Ants, 0 Royal Ants, 0 Acid Ants, 0 Queen Ants, 0 ant larvae, 0 ant eggs
Dungeon Inventory: A strange space inside the Dungeon Core that has been magially enlarged. The dungeon is able to deposit and withdraw items to and from the inventory with ease. Inventory has a limited capacity which can be upgraded [means are concealed]. Living things that do not belong to the dungeon cannot be stored, while living things belonglonging to the dungeon can be stored in a separate space. This space, too, has a limited capacity. The time experienced by items are slowed down, meaning objects that spoil easily will spoil slower. This is, however, not equal to not spoiling at all. The time slow-down ability can also be upgraded.
Enemy dungeon''s inventory has been transfered. You have acquired [2000 DP] and [100 Animus]. You have acquired [Ant''s Tome of Knowledge].
For your first victory against an older dungeon, you have been credited [1000 DP] and [100 Animus]. You have been credited [1 Evolution Seeds]. Your Dungeon Experience has increased. You are now able to influence a larger area.
For your cruel yet effective manipulation of mana and your domain against the enemy dungeon, you have advanced in the path to discover the secrets of the respective areas. [Mana Manipulation]:{3/10}, [Domain Manipulation]:{3/5}.
You have aquired a new skill!
[Primitive Mind Blast]: A strong blast of mana that attacks not the body but the mind. With careful mana manipulation, this skill has an infinite number of uses albeit cruel. This skill may not be activated consiously. The skill may only be activated by specific conditions. The skill will only target those who trigger the skill.
[Ant''s Tome of Knowledge]: You have acquired a map of the area. You now have more in-depth knowledge on ants and their community. You now have more knowledge on acid using monsters. You now have new knowledge on battle stratergies.
You have acquired the full domain of the enemy dungeon. You may now use it as you wish.
Wow.............That is.... a lot of loot. I must say..... that is a lot of loot. Only the best for the best, yeah? Yahooooo! Here comes the money~! *Ahem*, let''s get straight down to business. First up, I have to evolve my dear larvae. My cute and adorable critter are about to grow up. This must be how a parent feels when they send their child to school for the first time, isn''t it? It feels so fulfilling. Line up, ya''ll. Today is our evolution day! First up! Our greatest contributor of all. Team Clipeum, who stayed as our strong and sturdy shield to the end.I shall make you the strongest army ever, may you all ever continue to protect our home. Next! It is only for them that Team Clipeum could succeed, who delayed the enemy, who ripped the enemy apart. Team Equites! I shall grant you, hardy stomachy larvack, 1 Evolution Seed. Fret not, you two, I will not let you fall behind. I would never forget you five would I? I''m really sorry but I do not have enough Evolution Seeds to go around, but I swear in the name of pepperoni pizza that I will make you powerful. Top it off with a hawaiin! Mark my words, you will not be the same after I''m done with you, in a good way of course. Team Sicarius, well done out there! Taking down the Ant Queen all by yourself, you have outdone my expectations! Here you go, 1 Evolution Seed. Now we have you two. My dear Queen. Use this last Evolution Seed well. Thank you so much for your contributions to this dungeon and may you ever continue to do so. The other, please aid your Queen, for she will need help. Now, my friends, let''s huddle up! We''ve got some evolving to do! ----(3rd Person POV)---- The dungeon master concentrated. He concentrated, focused, and reached out. ... ... And grasped nothing. He tried again... Nothing. He tried again... Nothing. But that did not deter him. He was determined to make his dreams come true, and in the name of super supreme he will not give up until his ideals where achieved. He tried once again, and this time, he felt something. It was elusive, feeble, weak. Yet it was pulsating, it was flowing, it was moving. It throbbed with raw energy, unrefined, with so much potential, yet it also felt weak, unfulfilling. The dungeon master frowned. He felt that the mana was too diluted. He wanted it to be stronger, denser, better. He reached out once again, and this time, he tried to pull. Yanking hard, he tugged at the string of mana that he felt. Then he pretty much fell flat onto his bum, or the equivalant for a dungeon master. The mana flowing in the air was surprisingly resistant to forceful changes. After trying and failing a couple times, he adapted a solid stratergy. Softly guide the mana, not to force, but suggest, the direction to travel. As the mana drew closer to his core, he whispered to the mana softly, to curl around his core. Aiding the mana by having a weak pull from the core (switch on mana absorbtion), the mana swirled around his core. In trace amounts, but there none the less. Slowly, with tremendous patience and a very steady hand, he started gathering the mana. Pull it from the atmosphere, guide it to his core and allow it to orbit his core. After an adequete period of time, sufficient mana was present that its presence was beginning to be noticed. The larvacks and managots, who are experienced in mana, squealed in delight. They knew what their creator was doing, and they were very excited for what''s to come. The dungeon master sifted through the mana orbiting his core(he had stopped collecting). He could feel the differences of the mana from the pure mana he desired. Though the impurities where in no way junk, he desired for pure mana only and nothing else. The mana spoke to him, images of the earth, the ground, the diamond hard stone. Of the ages the earth has endured, the eons of pressure and heat. It was earth mana. The mana spoke to him again, a burning sensation, an image of a flame, an image of violence. Of the thunder and explosions, of searing white hot plasma. Violent, yet so short lived. Living the brightest they can, making the biggest impact they can. It was fire mana. Repeating this process over and over again, the dungeon master sifted through the mana before he found it.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The oldest, the ageless. The first, the original. It was pure mana, and concentrated was a vibrant royal blue, glowing, shifting. It circled the slowest around the dungeon master''s core, as if it was tired from a long journey and was seeking a place to rest. And a place to rest the dungeon master shall give. He guided the mana away from the core, swirled it, spun it. Like a weaver, the mana spun and rotated faster and faster, gathering, condensing. The mana then took shape, a glowing blue sphere, hovering and spinning rapidly closely to the core. It was almost humming. The dungeon master requested for one of the militarvae to head forward, presented the mana to the larva, then disperesed it. The mana immediately sought to escape, but the dungeon master guided it back. At a distance, one could see a larva surrounded by tendrils of blue, looping and turning before diving back into the larva''s body. Slowly, the larva began to change. For the first time in the dungeon, a monster hadmolted. Seemingly insignificant, a molting was actually a crucial part of an insect''s life. It gave it more room to grow, it made it stronger, and it is when traits truely start to show. Almost all larva hatched from the dungeon purchased eggs will hatch exactly the same. However, as their environment changes, they adapt and change. There is just one crucial point missing in the picture. They are allthe same. No matter if the larva was a meat eating monster or a harmless grazer, they were in the end still hatchlings, jouveniles. The molting allowed them toexpress who they were, allowed their genes, still dormant in their body, to truly awaken. Molting is the first step of Genome Expression, where the larva will truly determine where it will head, where it will evolve, and a differentiate themsleves from the rest. This is the reason why the larva are such unqiue monsters. Repeating this process slowly over and over again during the week, the dungeon master had succesfully allowed all except those who possesed the seeds of evolution to evolve. The militarvae where now fearsome. With a clearly formed layered exoskeleton that allowed for maximum protection withou hindering movement. Their jaws were now larger, with longer and serrated teeth, and between the supposed kinks in their armour jutted out barbed thorns. The larvacks have evolved to be shorter, stouter. Their jaws where small, but capable of expanding to the size of their head. Their mouth lining capable of releasing fluids in small amouts that can dissolve stone. Their stomach was stronger, no longer needing mana to strenghthen it. They could now sense for mana farther, for higher densities of mana. In return, they had their eyesight deprove. Exhanging their eyesight at the cost of mana sensing may seem unfair at first, but in a dungeon with little to no light, there was no need for eyes in the first place. Their former beady eyes now just a dot, they had immediately began tunneling and expanding the dungeon, as well as search for mana. The largots were now far larger than before, a hulking behemoth compared to the rest. Nearly doubling in size, these slow and gentle giants calmy feed off the plants in the dungeon. Their jaws were very unique. Instead of teeth, they had multiple mandible like protrusions lining the circular mouth, branching off into two sections at the tip. These jointed "tooth" segments were capable of grabbing and plucking leaves off the plant, gently snipping off the desired leaves. Similar to tentacles, they moves with much dexterity, each individually moving on its own, some searching, some cutting, some taking. The non-queen managot had evolved into something special. During the battle, it had absorbed some of the residual animus released. Thus, its evolution had taken a totally different turn. It had evolved with only the queen in mind, forgoing some of of its beneficial capabilities in return for others that can aid the Queen. It was a Consort. Its mouth had no teeth, designed instead for suction. It would use this suction to transfer the eggs delivered by the Queen safely. It had many little hairs all over its body, sensing vibrations in the air. It was always on guard, ready to alert its allies when a potential hostile entity was near. It also served to enhance its touch, allowing it to quite accurately feel which egg was ready to hatch. It helped purify the mana surrounding the Queen, allowing her to live in a luxurious environment where she could live with minimal effort, losing her ability to synthesise mana in the process. In return, she always had the first meal whenever the larvacks brought in the lesser impure mana crystals, which now served as its main source of mana. It was just a way the Queen showed gratitude to its service. The dungeon master was ecstatic. The evolutions he had help fuel with pure mana had shown great results. Unable to wait any longer, he began making preparations for the others to evolve. Firstly, he thought. What type of mana to use. Using pure mana had yielded great results, but in the end the evolutions were stillpure evolutions without any variations. Those who hold the Evolution Seed are not normal, but in fact somewhat more similar to avariant. Meaning, using pure mana would only serve to defeit the purpose. A long and hard thought process went on, with a lot of imaginary coffee and cookie (the latte and double chocolate were the best, said the dungeon master), and he finally came to a conclusion. For his Queen, it had to be life mana. No questions asked there. For his parasite, it was a difficult choice. If he used dark mana, he may be able to create a skilled assasin, assisting from the shadows. But that was not what a parasite fundamentally was. A parasite is a creature that takes from its host without giving any in return. It may or may not remain undetected, leeching off its host, eventually causing the host to suffer, and possibly die. A parasite was never meant to hide, it was meant totake, tosteal. Yes, dark mana could do all that, but the other could do much, much more. The dungeon master had decided to attempt to utilize death mana, one that was in the tracest of quantities. Most probably the only reason for its presence was the horrific deaths during the Dungeon Battle. A parasite can hide, like the shadow of death, and strike. By then, it would be too late, for death already had you in his grasps, or so the dungeon master thought. Lastly, for the larvack, the dungeon master had decided, naturally, on water mana. From the words of the dungeon master: "Surprised? I bet! They may think ''oh my god water mana is so useless, you should use earth mana it will make it dig stone better''(A.N.: please use a sing-song voice for this), let me tell you. Water is better. What happens to water exposed to stone for a millenia? Nothing. What happens to the stone? It breaks, it gets eroded, it shatters. Water triumphs stone, no matter how much you ask. Back in my previous life, there was a famous martial artist who drew inspiration for Tai Chi from water dripping through stone. Back in my past life, water was used to cleanly cut through steel, titanium. Water is far too powerful for mere plebs to understand. Only I, the mighties, the great-" And thus, he once again gathered and filtered the mana, except this time into its different attributes. Life struggles against his control, ever yearning to escape, giving the dungeon master a severe migraine in the process. The water mana was peaceful, a little too peaceful perhaps. It proved to be the hardest mana to gather, but once it was separated it was relatively easy to control as long as there was no major change in direction needed. Death, on the other had, scared the living dungeon out of the dungeon master. Everytime he came into contact with the mana, he was bombarded with scenes and memories of carnage and death. It would stay deathly calm, then suddenly shoot out into multiple tendrils in completely random directions. By far the hardest to control and manipulate, and also the hardest to come by. The dungeon master was thankful that he would not need to use this again. Hopefully. Pouring the respective mana into each of the Evolution Seeds, the seeds rattled, shook, and started to change in appearance. The life seed was shaped like an egg, smooth, round and a vibrant green. The water seed leaked, well, water. In very small quantities of course, but no doubt leaking water, creating a watery sheen on the surface of the seed. The death seed was dead. In every sense of the word. It was abnormally bloated, leaked out a foul smelling and viscous fluid, a sickly black with barbs adorning the surface. Not something one might want for breakfast. Nevertheless, once the seeds have fully absorbed all the mana, the monsters tucked in. The first visible change was in the larvack. Although its physical appearance was no doubt identical to its cousins, it had clear streaks of turquoise across its body. From its head to its tail, the dark stripes glowed, then dimmed, then glowed again. The streaks were actually absorbing mana, though not to be synthesised but rather to allow the larvack to use the skill that had caused the demise of the 25 Queenborn larvae. It could now produce acid. The dungeon master did not hate it, rather, he welcomed it. An acid spitting larva would providehuge amounts of utility to the dungeon, and no way the dungeon master could let a potential like that go to waste. While unable to do so yet, the dungeon master believed that under spartan training there may be hopes for his delusions yet. The next to change was the Queen. She grew larger, longer, not so much but definitely so. Her body pulsating with energy, she knew. Her eggs would be born healthy, resilient to disease. They would hatch to be strong and capable larvae who would contribute back to the dungeon. However, she was met with a problem. While never attempting to do so after the battle, she now could no longer produce eggs. She was devastated, and began weeping in earnest, leaning ont oher consort for support. The dungeon master comforted her, and claimed that there is a justifyable reason for the situation, one that he will crack no matter the cost (no deaths or any form of harm will be brought upon the dungeon inhabitants). Lastly, the parasite. After draining of whatever infernal fluids where present in the seed, swallowed the seed whole. Even the dungeon master shuddered as he saw the barbed seed travel down the gullet of the larva. However, its effects were instantaneous. The larva shrinked, becoming smaller; it had very weak eyes, relying solely on its other senses alone. On the surface, it seems like a normal runty larva, but the dungeon master knows the secrets that lie beneath the colour changing skin. Yes, skin, for it almost had no exoskeletion. Whatever twisted devices the parasite had at its disposal, no one knew. Not even the parasite himself. He dared not try it on any of its kin, thus deciding that it would wait till the oppurtune moment. Satisfied, the dungeon master laid back (or the equivalant) and stretched his arms. It had been a very long week and he was tired. But he was nowhere near complete with his plan. The plants. The pile of ants, dead plants and feces that were thrown into a corner and covered with stone had turned into a deep, rich, black and crumbly material. Yes, it wascompost. Immediately, the dungeon master got the larvack to crush down stone into tiny pebbles and a bit of coarse stone powder. Mixing it evenly with the help of his larvae, he managed to create some crude form of soil. With the majority of the ant corpses still in his inventory, there were plenty of (dead) ants to spare. Redoing the process, he once again created a compost heap and allowed it to do its thing. I another 3 months, a new batch of compost will be ready again. With the help the the largots'' dextrous mouth-tentacle things, they slowly peeled the roots off the rock and set it gently into the soil. A thin layer was all they needed, but the soil was in limited supply. Some plants will just have to wait. As a little added boost, the dungeon master gathered a ball of pure mana and allowed it to flow into the soil. Once again, a beautiful lightshow was created and bright tendrils of mana curled and looped in the air, before eventually all ending up the soil. The moment the roots of the plants came into contact with the soil, nothing happened. It was normal, plants do not respond so fast anyways. Added to an unsure environment, they were bound to be hesitant. But, the moment the dungeon master had redirected the flow of water (courtesy of the larvacks) into the soil, the mana flowed from the soil into the water. Then into the roots of the plants. Then, the magic happened. Mana coursed through the xylem of the plants, through the stems and into the leaves, where it was synthesised into energy fairly easily. That was not the amazing part. It was because of the mana that flowed through the roots that it accelerated a procedure that would take weeks, even months. The roots, empowered by the mana, grew rapidly and started madly absorbing whatever it could. Nitrogen compounds, potassium, phosphorous, water, mana, everything. The roots spread far and wide, firmly anchoring the plants into the soil. The roots of the many plants intertwined, creating a messy network of roots that would leave even the most professional of wire untanglers in a ragin fit. This carpet of roots secured the soil. It held it in place. It became part of the dugeon, the floor of the dungeon. Sensing the sudden release of energy, the other plants closer also blew their stores and accelerated the growth of their roots. Soon, the once loose soil that was simply a mixture of primitive compost and stone becameearth, part of the ground, part of the dungeon. The plants, fuelled by the sudden influx of nutrients, aided by the mana,grew. New leaves sprouted, the stems hardended, the plants shot up to almost triple their original height (which isn''t saying much, they were floor huggers prior). These newly developed plants, standing proud and tall, twisting and turning in the most magical of fashion, like watching the giant beanstalk grow in slow motion. Then,itappeared. At first, to the entire dungeon, it looked like an oddly shaped leaf. However, as that plant continued its growth spurt, it had grown larger, rounder. It looked like many leaves glued together in the most artistic way possible, help on a soft pedestal of short, fluffy leaves. The entire dungeon watched, enraptured, as the first flower bloomed. Volume 1 Chapter 13: Flower Power ----(3rd Person POV)---- A bright red flower. It was a small flower, four petals, shaped like an ixora. Three long anthers shot out of the center, a bright yellow tip signifying that it is ready to pollinate. Where the petals met, the center of the flower, the short stigma peeked out its heads. All it would take is for one pollen grain and the ovule of the flower would be fertislized. The ovule. The ovum. Its name is exactly the same as the ones of other species. They serve the same purpose and are commonly called one thing. Eggs. It behaved like eggs, it acted like eggs. It bore a stunning similarity. So,techinically speaking, the flowering plants could be considered asegg-laying.Oviparous. Meaning, the dungeon can have anincreased amount of influence on said plants. And influence he did. Plants are a curious type of creature. Well, most creatures are fairly curious to begin with. They have no levels, could rarely evolve without extreme circumstances, yet are a far more advanced version of themselves in the wild. Wolves as a dungeon creature could eventually turn into a Blood Wolf, an uncommonly found "monster" in the wilderness. Then there were Dire Wolves and so on. The curious thing is, the dungeon creatures had no levels, since it goes against the laws of the dungeon. However, if by any chance, the creaturesdo fall into the boundaries of the dungeon, then, their hidden statuseswill be unlocked, giving the dungeon a huge boost. It was actually what the ant dungeon had done, choosing ants for both monsters and creatures and allowing for a massive army. The dungeon master noticed the feeble connection as well, a fault in the system, a loophole that was exploited. Due the perhaps intentional vagueness of the dungeon definitions, the plants were somehow deemed as Oviparous, despite being obviously not. Information flowed through the dungeon master''s head, about the basics of Herbylogy, of the basics of Apothecary, of Alchemy. To grow the plants, to use the properties of the plants and the transmutative capabilities. Hurridly, he ordered the largots to carfully take a snippet of the pollen and place it onto the stigma. With his attention fully focused on the flower alone, he saw the pollen grains inching down towards the ovary. But he was unsatisfied. He was no plant expert, even in his previous life, but he knew the most advanced of genetics. He could not see, hear or touch any of the pollen grains, he did not even have enough knowledge about mana to use it to sense it. But he could feel it, the primitive instincts of the dungeon that had laid dormant had bloomed just like the flower, a weak incling, a small tug, sort of like a gut feeling where you know you forgot to bring something to school but not know what it is. He had some time, the pollen was slow. Slowly, he once again gathered mana from the atmosphere, drew some life mana from his reserves (the mana orbiting his core), and fed it through the style. Then he saw it, one of the pollen grains at the back had drawn in most of the mana, now pumping with vigour. But it was too slow, it would never reach the ovules in time. And the dungeon did not want that. Guiding the remaining mana (he was pretty good with it at this point), he made it coat the pollen grain before pushing it down the style. Aided by the mana, the pollen grain zoomed past the rest of its competitors and landed smack into the ovary. A couple moments later, the flower has been fertilized. --(1 day later)-- No longer needing its flower, the petals fell, covered with the hidden sweet smelling nectar. Hypnotised by the scent. the largots clambered over this rare prize, every larva for itself. The ovary of the flower swelled, soon, the first fruit of the dungeon would ripen and ready to be eaten. Or so the dungeon master hopes, some fruits are inedible. The mouths of the herb munching largots watered in expectation, the Queen''s consort also making preparations to fight the largots to present the fruit to its Queen. Turns out, there was no need to. The fruit turned out to be similar to a raspberry, extremely sweet and fulfilling. Gingerly, the largots separated the tiny fruits off the receptacle and passed it on to the consort before digging in themsleves. Every larva in the dungeon had a wonderful day as they savoured the sweet and juicy fruit. The dungeon was happy too, for there was now a new source of food and a new way for the plant to reproduce. In the forseeable future, the plants will benefit from each others'' strong traits and grow as a whole species.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Your plants are now capable of producing a new product!
[manaberry] A berry made from energy derived through mana-synthesis. Thus, they are chuck full of mana and are also very sweet as well. The floweres of the mana berry are small and not easily fertilised on their own without help. The nectar and pollen of the flower is unusually delicous for its rarity. [Requires:{mana}{water}{soil Grade F}].[External assistance for pollination is required].[Flower lasts for only 1 day without pollination].[Production rate:{1/12Hrs}]
Absolutely delicous indeed. The rate of production also means that cross-pollination is viable as well, which made the dungeon master tremble in excitement. Over time, natural selection will take over and bring about the strongest and best of plants, producing the most manaleaves and manaberries of the highest quality, so he thought. Prodding about here and there, he tweaked the plants a little. Perhaps making the roots thicker in certain areas, some of the plants shorter, some of the leaves bigger and other things like that. Life was tranquil and peaceful. The Queen was living her life happily, enjoying the regular meals of mana crystals and the purified mana from her consort. Just as the dungeon master preached to her, she did not abuse her consort and gave her the best treatment possible. The larvacks were expanding the dungeon, cleaning up and rearranging the former ant dungeon. Soon, there will be much more room for the dungeon, not that they have anything to do with it. The largots were... more like farmers. They tended the plants carfully, sometimes even using a broken ant exoskeleton to hold water to water the plants were they deemed neccesary. They sort of hoed the soil with their mouthparts, breaking apart the clumped up portions and mixing it well. Under the tender care of the largots, the plants grew. As for the parasite, not much could be said. He was pretty much starving all the time, poor thing. He dared not attempt to suck his friends'' blood in fear that he could kill them. The evolution had granted him a liiiitle too much power and too little control. Having power and ability was in no way a bad thing, but if one could not utilise it properly, they may hurt the ones they loved. Fearing that, the parasite suffered in silence. Of course, the dungeon master noticed him and reprimanded him. That they were all a family under the mightiest dungeon master of all time, the creator and destroyer, the one who defines the forms and the bringer of life and death. So he had the militarvae bleed themselves and pooled the blood into a, well, pool made by the larvacks. Then, the parasite would drink from there. Unless the parasite could use magic (which it could not), there was not way the other larvae would be harmed. The bleeding also served to enhace the regenerative ability of the militarvae, so it was killing two ants with one stone. The militarvae did not slack off as well. They mantained their food limitations themselves even after the dungeon master had removed it. They would engage in mock battles every meal and fight for the food. That being said, a lot more food was left behind for the loser but the system still remained. They regularly did their patrols (not that it was needed), constantly trained themselves and practiced the battle strategies. Sometimes, they even got the larvack to practice with them, pulling of rather complicated manouvres for creatures of their intelligence. No doubt due to the dungeon master. ---(dungeon master POV)--- You see that? My power! My glory! My pride and joy! The glooooorious dungeon! Bow in respect to me, insolent ones. I may pardon you for your crimes if you beg for it. Go on, do it. You know you want it. Gyahahahahahah-*cough*cough* ---(3rd Person POV)--- (2 weeks) A full 2 weeks have passed. The dungeon was now about slightly older than 4 months. The plants were growing splendidly and the entirety of the original cave was now covered with a lush green. Not that the dugeon inhabitants could appretiate it, for it was still in total darkness. The larvacks were continuously digging out braches, the seeded larvack in the lead in search for more mana crystals. They had tunneled far and wide (1 meter at most), discovering uninhabited pockets in the earth. Sometimes, by sheer chance, some form of soil. The dirt was carefully placed next to the dungeon core for the dungeon master to do further investigations on the dirt. They had full trust in their master. He had done so much for them, he won them the battle, helped evolve them and improved their food as well. If he told them to dig, they will dig. If he told them to stop, they will stop. If he ever told them to sacrifice their lives, they would gladly do so too, knowing fully well that their deaths wouldn''t be in vain. Not that he would ever do that, just a speculation. So they tunneled in earnest, discovering many veins of lesser impure mana crystals as well. But then again, life could never be so smooth for a dungeon.
You have encountered a Dungeon!
Volume 1 Chapter 14: Beeeeez Oh my gods please no. Anything but that. Why, just why? Why do these things always happen to me? I relax for second and this sh*t happens? Hello? Kami-sama? Anybody home? Cause you about to get a HUGE complaint! Brace for impact! Prepare for retreat! Use all availible resources and arm the traps! We will not allow anyone to die again! In the name of fried pork cutlets! If I do not keep my word, may I never touch a pork cutlet again! Not that I can ever eat a pork cutlet in this current form anyways *sniff*. But that''s not the point, you get my meaning! Pweep pweep! All aboard! We are off!
The Dungeon wishes to converse with you. Do you wish to accept the enemy Envoy Request? [Y/N]
Eh? Whah? No battle? No bloodthirsty monsters craving for flesh? No swarms upon swarms of enemy monsters aiming for my core? Ehhhhhh...... No, wait. This could all be a ploy, a trick for me to lower my guard. I cannot be careless. All dungeons are simply battle crazed simpletons who would resort to any form of dishonourable deceit to kill the enemy dungeon. They are all unfriendly, all of them, all of them....
The Envoy Request will expire in [10 mins]. Upon expiring,the conditions of the Envoy will no longer be valid.
Eh? Conditions? What conditions? I demand an explanation! Hello? Give me a bloodyguide on th-
Dungeon Envoy: The other alternative to having a Dungeon Battle when two or more Dungeons meet. And Envoy Request will be given if a Dungeon requests for an Envoy{this can be denied} or all Dungeons do not show aggresive behaviour{this can be denied}.An Envoy Request can be denied, which leads directly to a default Dungeon Battle (deathmatch). During the Envoy, dungeons may not perform actions that may directly or indirectly cause harm or distress to the other party and their inhabitants during or after the Envoy. The Envoy must consist of monsters or creatures intelligent enough to understand the most basic of thought, with at least 3 members being so. The Envoy Request has a default expiration time of 1 hour which can be altered if given as a direct request by a dungeon. Upon expiration, all conditions attatched to the Envoy will be voided. The Envoy Request will not be entertained if a Dungeon has challenged the other party to a Dungeon Battle. However, if there are 3 or more Dungeons,the parties who did not put forth the challenge may still hold an Envoy on their own. An Envoy may still result in a Dungeon Battle, but the conditions can be altered with mutual agreement.
I......I see. I kinda forgot about the guide huh..... Long time no see, I guess. You bring back quite some sour memories alright. So, first of all, we should accept this Envoy thingy. No Dungeon Battle sounds gooood. Lets accept this bad boy right away!
You have accepted the Envoy Request. Please select your Envoy Party members(minimum of three required). The Envoy will be held at the connecting tunnel of both Dungeons.
Right, let''s see. If they required intelligent creatures, we might have to send our Queen here. There has to be three creatures, which I have. I am just reluctant, just in case. Bah! We''ll tear our hairs out at this rate. They said no harm intended, an Envoy Request was sent voluntarily, no harm can be done, we''re all set! I pick my [Queen], her [Consort], my [Parasigot], my seeded [Larvack], one of my [Largots] and three more [Militarvae] just to be sure. I mean, it''s common to bring bodyguards to diplomatic events isn''t it. Team Nuntius(temp) is a go! So lah dee dah dah we all started to head towards the connecting tunnel and this message popped up.
[Dungeon Possesion]: The possesion of a dungeon monster or creature. The dungeon master may posses one of his or her monsters or creatures and control it at will. To posses beings of higher intelligence, even the dungeon''s inhabitants, requires full willing consent of the party. A forced possesion is possible. Due to the special circumstances, you have been temporarily granted this skill to carry out your Envoy with greater ease. Use the skill well, Dungeon Master.
Soooooo, apparently we need to- Ooohhhhh, I get it. We dungeon masters being like all ghosty and stuff means that we can''t exactly communicate with each other, so this is a measure against that. Still, I wonder how would we communicate with monsters alone. Not that it''s not nice and all to get to be inside of something physical again but how do we communicate still. Pheromones? Squeaks? Bah, I''ll just go with the flow and figure it out on the way. Let me see... If I posses my Queen, it means that she will be at the front, exposed and stuff and also tell the dungeon who exactly is my most important larva. If I use the parasite it will be exactly the same thing, ditto for the larvack. I doubt that any of the other monsters actually have enough intelligence to..... never mind. Hmmmm, how should I do this....... Oh, oh, I got it! I can posses the parasite, get it to be as small as possible and camouflage of the largot, thus it would appear as if it is the largot and not the parasite that I am possesing. Set! Let''s go, in three, two, one, possesion. And I must say, this is rather disorientating. Imagine a gian toilet bowl that has a looooong and swirly pipe at the end which eventually connects to the parasite. Now I am inside the giant toilet bowl''s bowl part, you know, the one where the poop go when you take a dump. So, possesion is pretty much like flushing the entire toilet bowl, and I go whhhhheeeeee and I end up inside the parasite. This field of view is garbage. It is so small, so short and blurry as crap. No wait, hold on, eeeehhhhhmm, switch this on, switch that on, much better. Parasite''s sense of smell and hearing is by far the better option that its sight. So, lets shrink down, match the colour of the largot, slowly, slowly, perfect. We ready to go boys! And so, our little Envoy party, tentatively named Team Nuntius, headed to the connecting tunnels ----(3rd Person POV)---- It was indeed a sight to behold, the larvae of all different kinds wriggling and squirming to the tunnel. After a bit of jostling and other larva shenanigans, they eventually got to the connecting tunnel of the two dungeons. The change in the dungeon''s compositions became quite visible. From the semi-white limestone to it changed into a darker shade of limestone, with splashes of siltstone, with a lot more pores in the rock. The tunnel was a little small, slightly slanting upwards (towards the other dungeon), and seeing that the other party has yet to arrive, the dungeon master got his seeded larvack to expand the tunnel a little. Slowly, a rich buzzing sound filled the air. You know those movies with giant insects, where their wings seem to beat in slow motion, leaving afterimages behind and whatnot, landing with a loud *thump* and slowly folding in their wings and shaking a little? The bees entrance was something similar. The first bees landed before hastily clearing away. Then, she came. The Queen Bee, flightless and abnormally large, her abdomen bloated to an unimaginable size. Carried by four strong bees, she was set down before she began to inch her way towards the larva. Seeing this, the ever curteous(or so he believes) dungeon master went foward instead so as to not trouble the Queen as much. After settling down and finding their most comfortable positions, the Envoy began.
The Envoy is now underway. All conditions of the Envoy Request are still valid. You may now discuss whatever terms you wish. To aid in the conversation, [Dungeon Possesion] has been granted to both Dungeons temporarily. Some examples of possible topics would be: (specific conditions for a Dungeon Battle), (items for trading), (exchange of labour), (exchange of knowledge). The Envoy can break down, by which the most recent conditions of the Dungeon Battle will be taken as finalized and be implemeted. Current relationship status with Dungeon: {Neutral (0)}
----------------------------------- "Eerrm, hello I guess.... Salutation!" "My greetings to you, young dungeon. May I ask what brings you to my domain?" Oh gods, hearing a voice come from a freaking bee not even moving her mandibles is creepy~. Well, either way, this dungeon is one I do NOT want as an enemy. In fact, I would love to have... him? Her? As my ally. I did see some relationship status thing so I''mguessing there is some sort of like "friendly" or "trusted" status like those NPC relationship status in RPGs that I used to play. Oh, I have to answer the question! "Ah, you see.... I was kind of expanding my dungeon then I kind of hit yours. I mean, I didn''t know there were so many dungeons in such a tiny area man!" "It is understandable. Young dungeons can simply appear in the blink of an eye at random, some take a little longer. I have lost count of the times a young one broke through my home. I gave them a chance for a more peaceful solution, of course, but most of them denied. Expanding your domain is, also, an instinct of a dungeon. I must say, you are rather intelligent for a dungeon of your age. You even have a common [Victor] achievement, that is rather impressive." Errr, help? Wait what? Are my achievements all visible? Oh my god then all those- "No need to worry, only some are visible. You need to learn to suppress your audible thoughts, I can hear every word you are thinking you know?" "Wait... then the part about the relationship thing...." "Yes, I heard that too. I would like to have a peaceful relation as well. It gets rather boring after years of being stuck in stone. I wish for a friend to whom I can converse with, and share my discoveries and creations. I am sure you wish for that too, a dungeon with too much sentience can be a bad thing after all. If only this area was accessible to those dungeon companions....."You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "Hold up! Pause! Did you just say Dungeon Companions? Like, let me guess, Dungeon Fairies or Imps or Shades or-" "Please slow down! To answer your question, I have no idea. I only know about the existence of such beings and I am not sure how either. If you wish to, we can exchange information on this regard." "Ohhhhh, I completely forgot! We can trade stuff, okay let''s see. I have an [Ant''s Tome of knowledge], I have a bunch of [Manaleaves] and [Manaberries] and I have-" "Slow down! I feel like I''m trying to count the number of times a bee beats its wings in a second. Which is 600 per second by the way. I have a couple of [Honeycaps], [Honey Grade H], [Beeswax Grade G] that I am willing to spare. Are you alright if we meet up after we have collected our items?" "No problemo! Oh, and one more question. How in the world are we talking if our monsters do not open their mouths?" "You misudnderstand, it is not the monsters who are speaking, it is us. We are communicating using the [Language of the Dungeon], which for some strange can only be used when we are in a physical body. Hence the reason for the need of possesion." "Oh, thank you very much. I, um, am going to grab my stuff now. I''ll see you in 10 minutes I guess?"
Envoy Interval: You and the other Dungeon have agreed for an interval during the Envoy. You have {10 mins} to collect your items you wish to present for [Trading]. Time left: {10 mins}
Righty, let''s get this sorted out. What are some of the things that have value in my dungeon? Hmmm, manaleaves are one, the berries as well.... I don''t thi- No, wait a minute. They arebees, so I think any form of pollen or nectar would be valuable right? Okay, I got everything I need, lets head back. -(a few moments later)- "HOW DID YOU GET THAT FLOWER?!?!?!" Ow, my ears. My imaginary hair and ears are literally flapping from the force of that guy''s shouting. Like, seriously, it''s just a flower. "It is notjust a flower, my friend. It my home, my food, my lifeline. You have no idea how hard I have endured without a meal of proper honey for my Queen. Honeycaps just don''t cut it. Furthermore, the quality...... just perfect. The finest you can find for miles around. The scent, the sweet, sweet nectar and the firm yet powdery pollen grains, this whets my appetite. I need to have this, tell me, how did you manage to acquire this." "I used soil and water, simple as that. " "You are lying. You cannot be otherwise. The quality of such a product is not able to be produced by mere soil and water. Tell me now, how did you do it." If you are not going to believe it just say it buddy. Not like I did anything else. Meh I''ll just say it''s a trade secret and be done with it. "Trade secret. Bweh(sticking his toungue out)" Oh oops, he/she looks so agitated. I did not anger him/her by chance did I? Ummm, it''s just a prank bro, no need to get mad. "I need to have this. If I cannot get the method to procure it, you will procure it for me. I will give anything in return. Name your price. Anything within reason is fair game. " Oh, what? Errrr, okay? "Can I knowall of the items you have? No, scratch that. It''s alright, you know, I can just give you some of the flowers for fre-" "You misunderstand. I meant an eternal supply, and in return for that I will give you anything you wish in return. Name your price." "Oh. Alright, I have one thing that I want. I need you to comply with this request willingly and wholeheartedly. Swear that you will not break this agreement." "I swear that as long as it is within my means, in the name of the Dungeon God, I will hold true to your conditions." "Be my friend." ..... ...... .......... ............. ..................... ...........................*awkward* ........................................................ "Errrrr, is that not alright?" "No... it is a very one sided agreement isn''t it?" "Is being a friend with me so hard? I wonder what is wrong, do I smell? Let me prep some deo-" "It is unfair for you, you realize that? An endless supply of a premium food source that is extremely hard to come by and you are giving it to me at the mere condition of friendship?" "Pfft! Mere friendship, you say. Mark the words of the greates-I mean, humble dungeon! Friendship is magic! Repeat after me! Friendship is magic! With friendship, you can overcome any obstacles, any troubles! When you are down, your friends will cheer you up! When you are in trouble, your friend will help you! Friends are awesome, okay?" "It is still too good of a deal. I need to give somethi-" "Think of it as an investment with our still shaky friendship, okay? We just met, think of it as a gift. In time to come, we can rely on each other without the need for any of that trading garbage. We can simply give and take as we like. This is what friends are for, yeah? To help each other. And if you need good food for your Queen, I will be happy to provide! So, it''s a deal?" "In the name of the Creator, the Father of all Dungeons, the first Dungeon Master, I swear that for the rest of eternity, I will be a true friend to this Dungeon. Hear my pledge, Dungeon God, for if at any time he requires my assistance, I shall be there to aid him. From now till the end of time, we shall remain as ''Friends''."
You have made a "Friend"!
Relationship status with Dungeon has been set to "Friendly". Reputation points [+6000], you need [4000] more reputation to set relationship status to "Trusted". As a friend, you may not engage in activities or perform actions that will harm your friend in any way. Help your friend or complete their requests to earn reputation points to improve your relationship. Current benefits: {Dungeons will send aid if one party is caught in a Dungeon Battle}, {Dungeons will provide food if one is experiencing a shortage}, {knowledge can be freely exchanged up to "uncommon" rarity}, {goods can be freely exchanged up to "common" rarity}
Achievement Get!
[Friendship is Magic]: Make your first Dungeon Friend. You start off as "Friendly" for your relationship status. Reward: [+6000] reputation points!
Yahooooooo! Totally worth! Best friends foooorever! Okay first of all, let''s get the plants shifted over closer to this area. Oh! Let''s expand this middle portion too, create a shared area! That sounds cool! But that achievement though.... what a rip-off... "By the way, are you a he or a she? I''m a he, by the way." "She." ... ... *blush*blush* ------(Bee Dungeon POV)----- (slight flashback to when she was discovered by him) *Sigh* Another silly dungeon who could not control their instincts. Why are they all sostuipid. Can''t we just all get along? I''m just trying to live a nice, civilised life and here you all are so eager to break it. You want to go? Those young ones, they are all the same. The usual, let me send an Envoy Request, they''ll reject it anyways but just in case. I am born as an intelligent Dungeon. I posses far more intelligence compared to other dungeons. How? Simple, I just do. It''s in my instinct, which are far more refined and superior compared to the other primitive dungeons. Those silly ones who just keep on coming andcomingnon-stop! Argh, take a break, will you? It''s already bad enough that somehow plants can''t grow in my dungeon. They just can''t take root. They have no water and the hard rock prevents their roots from, haaaah. I had to stick with fungi. I worked overtime to find a way for my bees to be proficient enough to make honey from the crappiest of raw materials, then I blew literally all my animus tosomehow get the fungi to evolve into Honeycaps, little yellow mushrooms that grow on decaying matter. Which is, of course, the useless drones. I only have one hive and I have no intention of starting another, so those guys can just die for all I care. Only the females will remain. The royal jelly made from the honeycaps werehorrible, so much that I only fed my Queen enough of it so that she would remain as Queen. The rest of the time, she fed of the honey made from the juices of the honeycap mixed with some of its spored. Its bad, but not as bad as the royal jelly. And who would have thought, the dungeon who broke into my domain actually accepted my Envoy Request. As per the conditions, I cannot harm it in any way, but I can still scout it out. Let''s go all out, just in case it still has a thought of battle in mind. I''ll show it my huge Queen, that''ll give it second thoughts, I hope. So, I decided to bring a couple of my worker bees and four soldier bees to carry my Queen. In the connecting tunnel, the other dungeon was already there. Why was the tunnel sofreakingsmall? Oh, it was expanding it for me? How nice, not that that will ever help you. If you are useless, I''ll just kill you. Then, I had methim. Sophisticated and far more wise than I am. Yet, just like a child, so full of questions. His thoughts exploding out of his possesed monster, a barrage of emotions and flood of thoughts when I even touched the surface of his mind. Always wandering, always thinking. I posses a unique ability of being able to read a little about the information regarding a dungeon, including all of the above. I saw it, an achievement on a Dungeon Battle, the first battle at that. You see, normally, when dungeons of this calibre fight each other, it only results in an inferior quality of battle where simpletons just throw their monsters at each other and take it to a match of brute force. That won''t even merit an achievement. To acquire an inferior achievement, the dungeon must show some form of technique and stratergy in its battle. Which for a lowly and inferior being is already pretty impressive. Then, to get the common one, it has to win a battle that is against something waaay stronger that them, use more complicated stratergies. Then there is the fact that it says [Victor] and not [Winner]. He had won a complete victory. That was impossible. For a mere young dungeon against a far older one is already tantamount to suicide and he had a complete victory? Not the fact that it was the enemy that was dumb buthim that was the reason for the victory? That was unfathomable, and yet, there he stood. My degree of respect and desire for him rose again, after he brought me that flower. It was like a bonding gift, when two dungeons get together to create a new dungeon, each sacrificing half of their core. Usually, gifts were exchanged when such a promise to bond was made. Flowers were nice but his, oh, was perfect. I was enraptured, hypnotised, charmed by that scent. I could already feel the quality oozing from it. Oh, the nectar hidden in the depths of the flower, so sweet, so tangy. I could taste the smell, it was just too good. I need to know how to get this. Then, I can debate on whether to keep this guy alive. If he was greedy, like any other dungeon, he will die a sad death. So much potential, wasted. But he did not betray my expectations. He had not asked for anything other than friendship. I vowed in the name of our creator, when the vow broken would cause our very fibre of our being to be unmade. Then we established the tiniest of connection. I felt it then. He would be a dungeon that I should and would never fight. The power he posses, the knowledge that he has, the care and concern he has for his dungeon monsters and creatures. He desired partnership, happy now that he had achieved one. He was smart, creative, and completely random. He was like a counterpart to me, who liked to be serious and fixated, carefree and free-flowing. I had learned that he was he and he learned that I was she. Ah, I wonder how our child would look like....... ---------------------- "Alrighty, everything is done. Anything else you want? He-Hey, are you listening? Don''t space out on me oi!" Volume 1 chapter 15: I have green fingers Greetings. I am a simple and humble dungeon master. My monsters are larvae, my creatures are plants. By sheer coincidence, I managed to get my plants to become a strange and stronger version of themselves. After a tragic battle with an ant dungeon, I had proceeded to evolve my larva and ignore my plants. Then, I made friends with a bee dungeon. Now, I am reflecting on my past and current life, to see if I had done something to anger the gods. Please.... you don''t have to stick with me for every single second you know? The bee dungeon can never give me a moment of private time. She literally sticks with me the entire time, one of her honey bees always in my dungeon. I already said, dammit, that there is a specially designated area for you to collect nectar from my flowers alright! Come on!
But I want the ones closer to you, honey~
AAHHHHH, CREEEPYYYY! What is with this yandere! Get me out! *sniff* Just kill me already. I don''t know why but like a couple days after we became friends, she literally began pestering me about some bonding thing which I still don''t get. Like what become one and enjoy our gifts for each other and stuff. IE! (japanese for no) Stop! Those descriptions are too graphic! I was a virgin in my previous life and now I''m just a young dungeon not even a year old, please no adult stuff now...... there''s no need to clear out the area of dungeons OK? No it is fine, I already have no privacy thanks to you already, having other dungeons around won''t get worst than this. Wha-Don''t sulk okay? Fi-Fine! I''ll put the flowers closer to my core for you okay?
Yay! I love you honey!
.... Kill me already. This is bad for my core. I need to distract myself. Hm? What is it, my Queen? You are nodding in this direction... hmmm let''s see. That''s a wall alright. Yup, that''s a wall. Er? Oh, the other direction you say? Hmmmm, let''s see. Yup, that''s another wall alright. That''s a wall. Queen? Umm, okay, you are moving towards my core..... you are thumping the ground.... I see! You want an expansion and a separate room! Okay, larvacks I need you t-No? That''s not it? Now I''m confused. I''m really sorry, my Queen, I am kind of in a little shock right now. Hold on.... let me see..... (draw a nice line straight and do some math. The number of times she hit the ground and the two directions she pointed at and do some simulatneou-she is making me do complex numbers? No let''s try that again with here and.......) ----(pause while dungeon master fails horribly at understanding his Queen)---- I need to give myself a gian facepalm right now. Someone just slap my crystal right now! Actually, don''t do that, your life will be in danger after that courtesy of a certain bee *cough*cough* dungeon. IT WAS THE FREAKING PLANTS! I need to get some serious nourishment for my brain right now. Like seriously, how can I ever be so dumb. Me? The greatest? The best? Never, that''s the answer. I was temporarily having a system reboot to function better, thus the misunderstandings are to be expected. I repeat, they areto be expected okay? *Ahem* Either way, it''s fun time! First, we need to get the plants into shape. ''Plants have no shapes'' you argue, let me tell you one important thing. This is a dungeon. None of the rules of common sense apply, a dungeon can be yandere, a dungeon can be yandere......... I wanna cry... I didn''t sign up for this. Right, enough digressing. Into serious mode we go, to prep our plants into a good shape. Give me diversity! Give me aaaaall the goodies that plants that have to offer. I present to you the impromptu table that the mighty dungeon master has set up for you.
Plant Evolution Options
Option A Offense. Plants who posses properties most suited for offensive purposes. Examples are poisonous plants which can be easily harvested and plants that have parts which can, say, be thrown and explode.
Option B Defense. Plants who posses properties most suited for defensive purposes. Examples are poisonous plants which can inflict harm upon contact and plants who can be used as traps.
Option C Utility. Plants who posses properties most suited to provide utility. Examples are plants that can be made into ropes and plants that can be made into other raw materials (like rubber or glue).
Option D Support. Plants who posses properties most suited to provide support to its allies. Examples are plants that can provide good food (or can be processed into good food), can produce items that can boost allies'' performance. Alchemical and apotherical plants fall under this category.
Option E Monster. Self-explanatory. A plant that has become a monster (can be sentient). Can fall under any if not all of the above options.
Judging from that... We should probably head for a Option D and B path right? NOT! Got you, hahahaha. Like seriously, what''s the point of having all that when the plants can be monsters and evolve themselves? Yup! Option E is a go! E for Effort right? That is what the meme is right? I hope? Anyways, I''ve got to somehow unlock the plant''s monster evolution path somehow. Unfortunately, I do know who to ask regarding this....... I hate my life. "Yes, what do you want honey? Oh, could it be that you have finally prepared yourself? Kyaaa, I''m not mentally prepared for this! Give me a moment, I need to make haste. Darling has finally agreed, I have to present my very best. Where is my premium jelly, not here, not here~ Ah, there it is! Here you go, darling~" "Erm. First off, I did not agree to anything. Please get that sorted. Next, I need some of your advice regarding something. And, ummmm, you can keep the weird-looking jelly. It''s important right?" He-hey, why is she looking so pissed? Eehhhh, help? "Mou, darling. Has anyone ever taught you never to reject a girl''s gift?" The Queen bee she was possesing repositioned herself to a more regal pose. "So, what is the issue that brings honey to my hive? I will help in whatever way I can" Ah, yes. I forgot to mention but, during the course of the couple of weeks, our reputation points have been rocketing upwards like crazy. I think it''s because unlike RPGs this is actually a two way thing, so the other party actually can raise the status on their own as well. We now sit at "Trusted" status, halfway to "Oathsworn" status (which sounds creepy as hell) at [10,000] reputation points. Don''t bother asking, I stopped doing so within 3 days. This 6 month old dungeon will no longer question the power of the yan-yan. *Haaah* Why is life so cruel? "You see, I have the [Monstrous Creatures] achievement, which has unlocked lik-" "You have that!? Oh, I''m so sorry, please continue." "No problem, so as I was saying, I can make my plants turn into monsters. The thing is, I don''t really know how, so I was wondering if you could help me out here. I only have {1/20} of the conditions unlocked. So I was wondering if you had any ideas on what to try...." *Bee dungeon deep in thought* "Mmmmmm, I know of some things we could try. First of all is manipulating the dungeon influence inside them and condense it. However, not doing this carefully may destroy the entire plant itself. Another would be mana manipulation, manipulate mana both inside and outside the plants, it''s worth a shot. Using animus is another method, but rather costly. Giving the plants more items to work with is also an option, maybe you could give them some honey in the soil? That can work... Possesion of the plants may also help, especially in understanding their composition, allowing you to make modifications easier. Having a concrete image of your desired end-product is important as well, but I have full confidence that darling is well able to do it. Right?" Ummmm, not reall-I mean, yes ma''am! With full confidence! So don''t look like you are going to rip my face apart, I like my face.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. "Ah yes, a dungeon core may help as well." "?" "You can break down a dungeon''s core into a very special resource, you know?It''s like cracking an egg, you hold it over the monster or creature, take the core and crack it. The energy will flow and the core will disappear, then you can tell the energy what to do. It''s really fun, you know? I''ve done it a lot of times, the crack is so satisfying.... Hiyaa, the image of me and honey cracking a freshly claimed dungeon core. Mmmmm!" Um, please stop whatever delusions you have about me this instance. And don''t talk about egg cracking so easily, I''m an oviparous dungeon you know? Oi, are you even listening? Either way, that is a lot of things to try. Hopefully, by the end of the month I can at least satisfy half of the conditions. Why do I have the weird feeling that the plants participating in a dungeon battle is needed? Oh well, must be just a feeling. Peh, nothing to worry about. Let me just head back to my dungeon. Back to my limestone walls and away from the breccia. Out, peace! Phew, I''m back. That dungeon is one cr- you heard nothing bee. You can go away now. I said go away, go on, shoo. Ah, never mind. Forget it. Let me just focus on my plants. First of all, the most important one of all is option D. An army marches on its stomach, as the saying goes. Don''t get it? Well, it pretty much means that the quality and quantity of food determines the people''s (in this case larvae) happiness and morale. I was also a gourmet in my past life (a pizza with ten different kinds of cheese was surprisingly tasty...I''ll need to work on getting cows too...), so the taste of the food is very important to me. Right now, we have rather limited numbers, so it is in my best interest to increase my food supply. And variety as well. Munching on the same flavour of Vakiolum leaves must get pretty boring. I have the DP to spare anyways. Like seriously, [3100 DP]? First off, let''s purchase 30 larva eggs from the Catalogue. Must have that larva going, lovely lovely larvae. Place them next to my core, aaand perfect. [2200 DP] left. Now, let me check the plant section of my Catalogue. I''m pretty sure at some point in my dungeon life, there was a notification about added variety of plants in the Catalogue.
Plant Life
Vakiolum Seeds Cost: [10 DP] each. Mature Time: [3 days]. Requires: [Mana]. A hardy and adaptive shrub-like plant which can grow as long as there is mana present. It reproduces by suckers, so it does not flower. Variations that have been discovered can be added at additional costs.
Flower Seeds Cost: [10 DP] each. Mature Time: [4 days]. Requires: [soil][water][sunlight]. A pretty flower. Low possibility of producing fruit.
Sticktrap Seeds Cost: [20 DP] each. Mature Time: [4 days]. Requires: [soil][water][sunlight]. A grass that has a sticky surface which is very useful for slowing down enemies. Allies too.
Basic Tree Cost: [500 DP] each. Mature Time: [5 years]. Requires: [soil][water][sunlight]. A tall tree. May or may not flower to produce edible fruit.
Random Seed Cost: [1000 DP]. Mature Time: [unknown]. Requires: [unknown]. @#$%&*^$%@#%^. Can only be purchased once. Cannot be spliced.
Right. Not helpful in the slightest, Catalogue. Not helpful. I have some soil and a little water but I havezero sunlight. Or light for that matter. Haaah, I wonder if there was anyway to modify the seeds. Hello Catalogue? Can you like, give me a splicer or something?
You have unlocked theSplicer. You may now use the Splicer in the Catalogue. The Splicer can help you splice seeds with each other to produce a new seed. This process can be done with DP (costs may vary) with random effects or can be done manuallly (no DP cost). The product will be added to the Catalogue and can be removed. Note, removing a seed willl be permanant and its effects will not be retrieved. The cost of the seed will be the average price of the spliced seeds regardless of the effects of the seed. The splicer can currently only splice 2 seeds at once.
I see. So this is pretty much a gacha huh. Yeah, it''s a gacha alright. Except that you can now control your outputs. I feel somewhat better now. At least Catalogue has been rather nice to me. Now let''s get to work and start splicing some seeds.
Splicer
(insert seed) (insert seed) (collect product here)
Let''s see. What exactly do I want. Hmmm, I can''t pick. Oh well, since it is beneficial to us both, I''m going to splice the flower seeds with my vakiolum.
Honey? What exactly did you do? I somehow got aSporarrangium for no reason. It''s you right? I thought it would be. Kyaaa, my darling is so amazing! *mwack*
I''m literally getting the shivers from this lass over here. SOD, save my dugeon! Please. If you have anymore surprises just do it now while I am still prepared.
I''m guessing this is due to our "Trusted" status? I love you so much honey, thank you for procuring such a wonderful gift for me. I will treasure this well. Oh, let me give you some DP as well. It seems like it requires DP to work. Hyaa, darling using something that came from my core. *Haa*haa*
Alright, let''s just ignore her completely. Nope, I know no bee dungeon, officer. I think she went that way. Yes, please leave me alone, I am innocent. *Sigh* I do hope she didn''t give me some crazy amount of DP.
You have recieved [1000 DP] from your trusted friend. [+100] relationship points.
I''m going to die from all these surprises. My heart will wear itself out. I mean, my core. Just fantastic, this eccentric bee lady. Give me back my peaceful life. She just gave me a months and more DP in just a couple of seconds like it was nothing. Forget it, might as well just use it. A true gentleman will never question his gifts. Ah, I can''t hear you~
Vakiolum Seeds Flower seeds (collect product here)
Aaaaaand Begin! Manual splicing! Ooohhh, I feel it. The throbbing of both seeds as they combine. I focus of the flower. I imagined.... imagined an orchid. Of pure white, in contrast to the dark. It would be fragrant, yet light. A flower that you could smell from far away but not get overwhelmed by the scent up close. It would be small, with its long stamens hanging out of the flower. Its black stigma lying flat on the bottommost petal, a stark contrast to the snow white flower. Its petals where thin, yet long, it looked fragile and delicate, but also at the same time strong enough to hold under the weight of multiple bees. Next I focused on the plant. I drew on most of the vakiolum''s hardy properties, making the plant able to grow even in the absence of light. The flower would bear fruit, it would be edible, but I had no idea on what it would be. I needed a name, and I decided on calling this flower the Beelflower, since the bees will be its primary form of pollination. *sigh* I know, I know. The bees where much better at pollination so I had no choice okay.
Seeds spliced! You are now able to purchase [Beelflower Seeds] in the Catalogue. This seed cannot be spliced yet. Cosst: [10 DP]. Mature Time: [5 days]. Requires: [Mana][Water][Soil].
I quickly bought 10 of those seeds. Now I''m left with... still [2200 DP]. Welp, not complaining. Either way, Let''s hurry up and plant these seeds. I''ll focus on my larvae training until they finish growing. ---(5 days later)--- ----(Bee dungeon POV)---- What in the world is thatlovely smell. *Blush* Oh, darling~ How could you, meanie. You prepared such a nice surprise for me, I have nothing to give in return you know. Unless you wish for me to pay with my-*gasp* honeyecchi! ---------------------------------- I''m getting the chills for some reason....... Volume 1 Chapter 16: I still have green fingers I regret my life decisions. I mean, yes the beelflowers were a huge hit but, at what costs. Now I am going to stuck with this yandere dungeon for the rest of my life now. Yeap, relationship status with bee dungeon is now at "Trusted", MAX reputation points. I wanna cry..... To all those who are wondering why we haven''t moved on to the "Oathsworn" status yet, read the name again. We are in no way sworn to each other, meaning that we are not Oathsworn. Real life is really different from those games huh. Aaanyways, the beelflower was a huge fail-success. I have managed to once again improve the food supply of the bees, who by now have simply left the fungi to dry. Seriously, they are going to go extinct you know? You still have to care for your creatures you know? *Sigh* Never mind, this one handful of a dungeon can go suck a.........beelflower. What did you think I was going to say? Hm? Right, following the ''spectacular'' success of the beelflowers, which by the way have somehow managed to incorprate themsleves into my current so called ecosystem. It''s just a bunch of plants honestly. They kind of hybridised themselves with the manaberry flowers, so when they initially simply just spreading seeds with somthing similar to a blueberry bunch, they have become much better now. Now, they are the only flowers you will find in my dungeon, the rest have lost out in this selection. The white orchid looking flower was now pink at the tips, with one more very small petal at the top (the flower is sideways so yeah) which sort of shelters the stigma. The flower requires full on support from the bees (or a very bored largot) to be polliniated, which is kind ofnot what I wanted but hey I''m not complaining. The best part? I can now harvest manaberries in bunches, around five of those per bunch.
[Manaberry] Requires: {external aid in pollination},{water},{soil},{mana}. Production Rate: {5/12Hrs}. An extremely sweet and nourishing berry borne by a beelflower.
Juuuiiicy! Now, I still have lots of time, so let''s carry on with some more experimentation. We have so much good results from experimentation don''t we? Right, now onto the next splice. Actually.... no. I wish to create a new plant. Multiple actually. Ooohh my creativity cap is on! Grind those gears and get going! Make a list of the plants we need.
Food Production [minimal achieved] [Manaberry](vakiolum)
Diplomatic [do not proceed any further] [Beelflower]
Defensive [not in demand but completely absent] -
Offense [not in demand but completely absent] -
Supportive [minimal achieved] [Manaleaf]
Utility [not in demand but completely absent] -
Monster {1/20}
Right, from the looks of this, I need my defenses and offenses stat. Defensive plants can double as utility, so that should be fine for now. Let me see, I would first need a hanging plant with vine-like structures, a plant that can hide and house my larvae, hopefully some toxic plants as well. Welp, it''s time to use our great friend, Domain Manipulation. Not that I have the skill, but this should help a little. Let''s get one of my vakiolum seeds lying around (from the berries), aaand hup. I dove into the seed. No, I''m serious. It''s that toilet bowl thing again, just that this time it''s more like an elevator, since I do not enter the seed, but rather simply inside the seed to observe it. .. .. Gah! It''s hard to explain. So right now I''m staring at the seed, no, the fully grown plant. The seed will grow into a healthy vakiolum, bear beelflowers and eventually die. That''s fine and all but.... I don''t want that. So the first thing I did was turn the plant upside-down. The plant will now be anchored not on the floor but the ceiling. It would grow strong roots, very strong roots, capable of holding on to the stone up till a whole 5 kg of wieight. It would grow multiple long vines with short leaves at fairly regular intervals, eventually allowing the vines to touch the ground. Once they reach the ground, long and thin roots would spread out, drawing in nutrients from the soil. Their flowers would be high up to avoid competition, but it would also be a lot smaller to compensate for its slight lack of nutrients.
Congratulations! Through manipulating your domain and concentrating your influence, you have delved deeper into the secrets of this path. [Domain Manipulation]: {4/5}. You have unlocked a (Vine) variation to your Vakiolum. It can be added to the seed at no additional cost.
Perfect. Now select that and splice it with a sticktrap seed.
Vakiolum(vine) seed Sticktrap seed (collect product here)
Now begin manual splicing! The power! The potential! All possible because of me! Yay me! Focus.... We need to caaarefully set this thing up now. We do not want this to be non-beneficial to us, but we still want to keep those features that can be. Tough choices man. Firstly, the grass is completely out of the sticktrap. Gone! Here is the interesting part. I can make the leaves of my plant sticky, BUT that would also mean that my dear larva and the bees can get caught in it as well. I need a way to counteract that. I don''t see a friendly fire off button, so I guess I will have to do it myself. I think the most important thing is to make sure that the leaves are not sticky all the time. I made it such that they were able to control the secretion of the sticky fluid. Thus, when time comes for a Dungeon Battle, I can immediately get them to make their leaves sticky and slow down the enemies. Next up, a self defense mechanism. I mean, sure they already have the leaves but, I need to make them perfect. Once they are suddenly pulled by a large force (generally at 4.5 kg), their roots will immediately loosen up and the entire plant falls down. Then, even on the vines there will be sticky fluid, allowing the plant to entrap whatever was the cause. The plant would also release a pheromone when doing so such that all nearby vines would do the same as well. That will hopefully give the troublemaker no chance to escape. 10kg should be their limit for the falling sticky net. Yes, go! I shall call it the vakiolum variation [sticknet] for their last resort reaction. Through time, they probable would develop better versions of these skills but for now, this will do.
Seeds Spliced! You are now able to purchase [Sticknet Vakiolum(vine)] in the Catalogue at [15 DP] each. The seed cannot be spliced yet. Mature Time: [5 days]. Requires: {Mana},{Water},{Soil}
Wowee! That is one heck of a deal! Let''s get, like, 20 of them stat! Ok, now we chuck them at the ceiling and all should be ok. [1900 DP], still looking good. Next up! We need to have a somewhat poisonous plant. Just so happens that I know of a treacherous ground which readily has venom availible. *Sigh* Life is harsh. "Honey came again! I''m so happy! But darling doesn''t look too well, have you been having enough rest? Dungeons need to rest too OK? Take care of your health, alright? Wait, what if I just take care of honey when he is-kyaaa!" "First off. I''m completely fine, so get your delusion of me out of your mind. Next, I need some venom. I wonder if you could spare me som-" "Hurry! Get the Elite Soldier Bees right now! Get them to test their venom, I need the strongest dose of venom right now! Ha? They are busy? Tell them to drop it, my orders." Oi, oi. No need to go so far. I just need a small sample right now. He-Hello? Are you even listening? Oi! That was.... awful. At least I got my samples now. *Haaaaa* Give me back my peaceful life. Alright, now we need to somehow incorprate this into a seed. Hmmmmm. I could also incorprate this into my larva as well. A poison team? That sounds good. I''m just going to casually grab 5 of those eggs and see if I can incorprate venom into them. I''ll do my larva first, then the plants. First off, I used my domain manipulation again, zoom down the elevator into the egg. I sensed the pulsing life force in the egg, one that will soon hatch into a larva. So, I decided to give these five a small head start. I took a nice portion of my bee venom and saturated them with mana. Pure mana. The now throbbing with energy venom flowed in my grasps just like mana did, so I slowly poured it into the eggs. The venom immediately started to act and began to kill the still developing embryo. But I did not panic. I cannot. With a steady hand, I guided the venom to not destroy, but join with the larval embryo. It resisted my directions, it did not want to join. It was not meant to join, it was meant for only one, one that would use it to defend its home. But I suggested otherwise, for I too, will use this venom to defendmy home. I will not use this venom. I would usemine. I filled the venom with even thicker mana, condensed and pulsing. I willed it, willed it to change. To flow like water, yet sting like the fire. A composite mana, Poison Mana. A milky green, very similar to the colour of chlorine gas. Honey bee venom is an irritant, causing inflamation and anti-coagulation. Very effective in deterring, not so effective inkilling. It can, but only in large amounts. It was meant for the hive to stand together and overwhelm their foe. My larvae would not. They must stand alone and fight. To utilize whatever means they had to outsmart their enemy, to wait, to ambush, to retreat and wait again. Their venom was their weapon, their ally, their lifeline. The venom slowly broke down into venom mana, infusing and incoperating into the larvae. I smiled. They would be a wonderful addition to my armada.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Wonderful! You have made excellent use of mana manipulation of incoperate an element into raw mana. You have managed to manually procure a composite mana. You have managed to incorperate mana into your monsters. With deeper understanding, you now delve deeper into the secrets of this path. [Mana Manipulation]: {6/10}
Pooooose! I did it! Soon, I shall be unstoppable! Invincible! Muahahaha*cough*! Okay, on to the plants. Using the same technique, I turned the venom into poison mana and allowed it to be incorporated into the vakiolum. This is, by the way, a non-flowering one. My other dungeon monsters have no poison resisting capabilites, so doing this and causing the leaching of toxins into the other plants is pretty bad. Either way, long story short, I got this result.
You have unlocked a variation to your vakiolum. The (toxic) variation can be added to your seed at the cost of [15 DP]. (Toxic): The vakiolum now contains mild toxins that act as a inhibitor in the respiration pathway. It''s not lethal in small amounts, but the same cannot be said otherwise. It is possible to develope resistance towards this toxin.
That is... rather expensive. Welp, we''ll get 16 of them for now an even our DP balance at [1500 DP]. Hmmm, I can''t really think of anything else to do.... Oh! The tree! Let''s quickly splice it with a vakiolum seed, and see the results. Cool, trees are so much more different compared to little plants.The way they grow, the way they take root, it is all so different. I''m afraid I''m losing confidence in this one. Gaaaah. Focus me! The greatest dungeon master needs a good tree! Think of a tree! Hmmmm, let''s imagine a tree. An apple tree, a mango tree, a pear tree, all the fruits. Waaah, the all look soo delicious. I would like the tree to have, say, many thick main branches but the other ones a little thinner. I would, I would like the leaves to be nice and large, a little like a heart shape. Oh my! Why not just make the tree grow its own vines! This is a fantasy world anyways, might as well go all out. I''m bored as crap from all that serious stuff. Lemme do something fun for a change. Let''s make the tree''s centre trunk so thick that it''s centre is hollow. Yes, and there would be holes leading to this empty space above most of the large main branches. Let it take shape.... It would look fairly similar to an umbrella, like those pine tree''s shape but a lot fatter at the bottom. The vines would bear the flowers, which will look like bleeding hearts from my past life. Ooohhh, this is looking good! Some of the vines would droop to the floor, just like the vine version of the current vakiolum. For reproduction wise, it''s definitely got to be fruit. Lots of fruit. All the varieties that I can imagine right now. Heck, make it grow strawberries and cherries as well. No, make the flowers accept any pollen from fruit bearing flowers. This way, any other fantasy fruit can be produced as well. But we need more, throw more onto this tree. I''m blowing a lot of DP on this, gotta make it count. It''s sap would be very useful, I don''t have a concrete idea on how, so I''m just going to tell it to be useful. The leaves got to be different as well, denoted by their coloration. Some when ground into pulp would be a potent toxin, some when consumed will give ahuuuge burst of energy, some when boiled will produce a broth that has healing abilites, some can be used as antidotes and sooooo much more. Creativity is OP! Heck, make it grow lights as well, and make it able to house larvae as well. Add this, add that! No, that has got to go.... it''s useless. *Phew* That was quite the ordeal. I spent literally half a day customizing my tree to the most minute of detail. I completely lost count on what I had put in. Ohhh boy this is going to be sweet. Finish the Splicing! Let me see the final product! Huh? I fee.l...sl..e...e...p...y.....
*#% Err@r in^gener@ting *#% Requ&ire *#% Unstabl~< Animu$&*# Authori$@tion Commence. Generating...... Animus depleted.warning Animus depleted. Utilising all availible resources..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have never drunk before in my life. So can someone please tell me, am I drunk? Cause my core isdefinitely smaller compared to before and I have asplitting headache. Gaargh! It hurts. My brain feels like someone took a jackhammer and slammed right into it. It''s called a hangover right? Hm? Wait, what is that? *Gasp* My tree! It''s ready!
[*#% Tree]: A tree of unknown origin created by a dungeon. Possesing features that many would kill to acquire, this tree is close to being omnipotent. It''s seeds are only capable of inheriting some of its qualities, thus making this plant unique. This tree is of an unknown rarity. The seed of this tree cannot be spliced. The full extent of its abilites are unknown. Cost: [X Animus]. Mature Time: [Minimal 100 years]. Requires: [unknown].
Eh? Errrr, okay? This is getting weird. Why in the world is there garbles in the blue boxes? Hello administrator? Fix your boxes! Jeez. I guess I''ll have to ask that bee lady again for this. I really am starting to rely on her a little huh. I mean, she is really nice if you do take away her yandere tendencies. Her voice sounds very pleasing too. "HONEY! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" Hey, pipe down. My hair and ears are flapping from the gust again. "Nothing much. I tried to splice a tree and *bam* I fell asleep. No biggie here." "No biggie my foot! Dungeons do not enter such a deep sleep so easily. They only do that when they need to restore a major functional error in their system, its called hibernation. But the thing is, you did not hibernate! What happened? What did you do?" "Ehhh, what do you mean by I did not hibernate?" "When a dungeon hibernates, all the monsters and creatures still continue as per normal. When you fell asleep, as you say, all your creatures and monsters simply flopped and did not move for a whole 2 weeks! 2 weeks!" What! I was asleep for 2 weeks?! Wait, what about my monsters and plants? If they did not move it meants that they are... "I helped you feed them, no need to worry, darling. So tell me,what exactly did you do?" I''m getting the chills. Like the kind a cheating husband gets found out by his wife without knowing he got found out, and the wife is super angry at him. "I just spliced a tree, simple as that." "Explain to me, then, why was the dungeon core that you acquired completely gone, with your crystal core now a quater of its original size." Gufua! What! A quater? Isn''t that like, really bad? "What do you mean by the other dungeon core completely gone." "Check you inventory. Your Animus as well." No way! The ant dungeon core is really gone, all that''s left is the 25 gems and...... [0 Animus]?! "I had to inject you all the Animus I had, you know. Couldn''t even get to enjoy it properly. You owe me one, okay honey? One time of core to core direct Animus transfer. Seriously, what did you do that took [8000 Animus]?" E-Eh-EHHHHHHH?!?!? Firstly, I had to use so much animus? Oh my god, I can''t repay you that, it''s too much. You probably saved my life too, judging from the fact that my core is tiny now. You even fed my monsters and kept my creatures alive. I need to thank you, so much. No wait, why does the transfer sound eerily similar to mouth to mouth? Erm... "Honey. Honestly, you have to warn me when you this kind of thing okay? It is alright to rely on me, we are more than just friends alright? I''ll do anything for my darling and he would do anything for me, isn''t that right? So next time, don''t just fall asleep like that, okay? Oh! Darling~! I managed to make something real nice! Hold on for a second. La la la~" Hmmm. That is quite the information overload. Judging from the fact that she also knows about dungeons extensively, and the fact that she saved my life, I think I can confide in her for this one. I mean, yan-yan will keep your secret safe no matter what! Even if it means that yan-yan will kill, yan-yan will still do it for you! This kind of yandere logic..... strangely doubles my confidence in her. "So I was wondering, do you know what these red gems are?-" "Darling~ Look! It''s Exotic Jelly-" Welp, a bee had flown into the larva I was possesing (which was the seeded larvack) and knocked the red gem into the jelly. For a moment, me and her both kind of laughed at the funny thing that happed, but as I reached out for the gem. ... .... .... It dissolved. Volume 1 Chapter 17: A quest for the Queen fingered "Erm, was that supposed to happen?" (me) "No...I don''t think so...." (bee dungeon) "Then, can anyone help explain to us why did a hard gem just dissolve inside an extremely thick and goopy honey, jelly thing and leave no traces behind?" "I''m curious too. Darling~Always so full of surprises. You meanie! Mou!" Creepy. Please stop that. Like ser-Hold on, what''s happening to the thing? A quick flashback: I dropped one of my 25 [odd gems] into the bee dungeon''s [exotic jelly]. Done, end of flashback. So now, the exotic jelly was sloooowly turning solid, from a rich deep yellow to a blood red, slowly solidifying. I tapped on the now rock hard jelly and it let out a satisfying *thunk*thunk* sound. Intrigued, the bee dungeon tapped it too, which caused it to shatter. The shattered pieces then melted, kind of like a semi liquid jellO, like those jellies during an earthquake, and wobbled back together. It, like,folded in on itself, slowly crushing itself down, compressing and becoming more and more opaque. Then it shattered again and process repeated itself, until all was left was the original blood red gem. It looked exactly the same. "So, errr, I''m guessing that is not what exotic jelly is supposed to do, right?" "Not what I had in mind, but this looks interesting too. I wonder what this can do...The product of me and honey''s love..." No, stop that. It''s giving me goosebumps. Hmm, what do I do... My head is still spinning from my 2 week nap-coma event, I can''t think straight. First off, let me just do the same thing I did with the lesser impure mana crystals. Focus on the crystal, focus, focus....focussss. Concentrate my attention, ignore everything else, nothing is existent in this world other than this red gem. Focus... focus...
[Odd Gem]: Rarity unknown. An odd blood red gem.
Quest unlocked!
The Queen''s Tears
Description A battle hard fought and won, but at what cost. A Queen has shed her tears as her blood spilt. Never will she sire children again, until the debt is returned. 25 blood red gems that must be returned, each carrying a curse that must be lifted. To return the blood, to repay the debt. The 25 drops of blood that must be returned to where it belongs, in the Queen''s heart.
Known Curse lifting materials [Pixie Dust],[Moonglow],[Diamond Tear],[Heartbleed Petal]
Lifted Curses [Exotic Jelly]
Progress {1/25}
Time Limit Indefinite
Reward The debt repaid, the blood returned, the Queen''s tears will finally be fulfilled. Now, the Queen will sire her children again, stronger, more powerful, to rise against the odds that have claimed their brothers and sisters.
Completion condition Upon achieving {10/25} quest progress, the Queen may begin to sire eggs. To complete the quest, the Queen must ingest the gems. Any further gems after that will have a diminished effect, thus it would be more efficient to allow the Queen to ingest all availible gems at once. Allowing the Queen to ingest more than 10 gems at once will have bonus effects.
Ah. I see. That is... rather informative. "Darling, your Queen couldn''t lay eggs? Also, what is with this abnormally hard quest. This is a rank A* difficulty you know?" Erm, what''s with the sudden terminology here? Difficulty rank?
Quest Difficulty Rank: With the lowest at H and highest at S (which stands for Special), the difficulty rank determines the difficulty of the quest. A rank H quest can be simple herb collection for an adventurer or ploughing a field as farmer, while rank A quests can be a Dragon subjugation or gathering materials for a Epic-Legendary rarity item. The quest difficulty may come with "-", "+", "*". The minus sign is to signify that the quest is relatively easy for its difficulty, which is still higher than that of the lower difficulty. The plus sign is to denote that it is relatively hard for its difficulty, which is still lower than that of the higher difficulty. The asterisk sign is to denote the extreme difficulty of the quest, usually not appearing until rank A. Note: If a quest''s difficulty reaches 10 "+" or 10 "-", it will immediately be promoted or demoted to the other rank respectively.
Oohhh. That was informative. Wait, hold on. EEEHHHHH! RANK A*??? What is with that abnormal level of difficulty? I''m just a soon to be 1 year old dungeon and this garbage pops up. *Sigh* Kami-sama, what did I ever do in my past and past past lives to deserve this. I begging you, kami-sama. *Haaa* I''m sighing a lot now huh. Just one year old soon and already sighing like an old man. Well, for my Queen! Yes! I shall rise against all odds and lift all 25 curses! The RPG gathering obsession is back! All side quests, all extras, we will complete them!! Ya hear me? I swear on yakitori! Ooouuu! "*Ahem*, so about that exotic jelly that you were talking about, I''m curious as to what it does. Maybe it will give me a clue on what are the other materials needed to cure my Queen." "Hai~No problem. What the exotic jelly does is it pretty much tastes extremely good, your berries won''t come close to its taste. It''s exotic, you know? Extremely hard to make, took me about 1 entire month. It can even raise levels by simply being eaten you know? It also gives a Queen a huge boost to her abilities." Wha-Eh? It was that rare? No wonder its rarity is unknown to me, not common enough. I need to expand my repetoir of knowledge, to know more about this world! But first, I need to sort out my tree. First of all, it is far too big to grow right now. Secondly, it takes a minimal of 100 years to grow. I''m going to be a great-grandfather by th- NOPE! I''m going to be a single old man. Yup. Single. So please stop drooling, oi! Right, thirdly, I have no idea what it needs to grow, coupled with the fact that I only have one seed, I cannot risk it. Still, I feel like I can make this work somehow. Woohoo, dungeon instincts are overpowered! Ican make this tree work, just that, I have no idea how. It''s another of those gut feeling situations, soo.... YOLO! (you only live once, which is not really true since I kind of reincarnated but meh) Grab one of the odd gems and force it into the seed. Who care? It''s just a *&#$GAARARGH.......What in the living dungeon was that? When I fully inserted the gem into the seed, an intense and agonizing pain assaulted me. What the heck... Well, it appears that the seed has no changes, but... you never know, let me just double check.
Lifted Curses [Exotic Jelly][Dream Tree]
*Whistle* Now that, is a fine discovery. High risk? High reward! And I got that reward baby! Come on, praise me more, don''t be shy!
[Dream Tree] A tree that is a dream come to life. It posses many qualities that most will kill to acquire. It''s seeds can only inherit some of its qualities, making this tree unique. This almost omnipotent tree has too many features, most of which are unkown. The seed cannot be spliced. Cost: [X Animus]. Mature Time: [Minimal 100 years]. Requires: [unkown].
Okay, we got the name at least. Whew, that was one hell of a ride. We had so many stuff going on at once! Jeebuz, we''ve got to slow down! I''m not going to plant it just yet, I don''t want to stunt its growth, but I also don''t want it to rot in my inventory. Yup, chuck it beside the core and forget all about it. Life is simple if you don''t know what you are missing right? Alrighty, off we go. Let''s get some of our plants sorted out. We''ve got our Sticknet Vines growing just fine, we''ve got our beelflowers blooming like no tomorrow, our toxic vakiolum are flourishing as well. Nice! Now, we''ve got to handle the larvae now. The eggs are about to hatch!A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. This never gets old. I will always love the sight and sound as the newborn larvae exit their eggs. First up, we need more larvapower in our diggin department! Seven of you all, follow the larvack! They will guide you and show you how to become just like them. Five of you are the venomous ones, you will be on your own just fine. Ten of you, follow the militarvae! No, actually, just five of you will do. Another five, follow the largots and learn the arts of gardening. I expect nothing but the best. Three of you, volunteer yourselves now. I need you to go to the compost heap. You all, from now on, will be in charge of our garbage disposal. That is in no way a bad and dirty duty, you hear me? Our lives actually will hinge on your hard work. Go for it! Ah, thank you very much, you three. Now, the last five of you, I have very special instructions for you. Listen to me now... -------(3rd Person POV)------- And so, the dungeon master set out to work once again. The five soon to be largots were taught the basics of caring for the plant, how to till the earth and to preen the plants. They took it like larva to...to anything actually. Another five under the militarvae were experiencing their first ever spartan training, practising from day to night(not that anyone could tell what time it was). Soon, they will be capable soldiers. The seven larvae under the larvacks were sitting in a corner, evenly spaced out. They were developing their mana-synthesis, where in due time they would begin to tunnel the rocks in search for more mana. The three cleaner larvae where hard at work too. They did not feel demoted or marginalized by their duty, in fact, the other larvae looked at them in respect and envy. For they would always be the first whenever the fruits where ready and they would have the first taste of the honey that the other dungeon regularly sends(despite the complaints of the dungeon master). They would patrol the dungeon, making sure that it was spick and span, leaving no vakiolum unturned. One could almost see the glitter and shine from the areas they went by, for how clean it was. As for the venomous larva, they too joined the training of the militarvae. Their captain(as what the dungeon master likes to call) saw the potential they had as a crack force, an elite squadron. They were pitted against their odds again and again, almost causing some of them to lost confidence in their abilities. Still, they persevered, for they know of the effort the dungeon master had undergone to create them, and they were not going to waste that effort. Of course, by now, every larvae knew of the dungeon master''s random tendencies and a huge inclination towards spartan training, so to them it was all fair and well. As for the final five, they were given a very special role. They would purposely drag and pull down the sticknet vines and consume the sticky fluids released. Even as they are tangled and unable to move, the dungeon master lent no hand and asked them to free themselves. If not, they will not eat, for the dungeon master only allowed them to eat certain foods. Naturally, he did not starve them, but failing to meet his expectations mean that one would go hungry for quite a while. Soon, they would evolve and adapt, hopefully in the direction that the dungeon master wishes. --(2 weeks)--- 2 weeks has passed, and the second generation of larvae where nearing the time to molt. Most of them had already changed and adapted to their current roles. The larvacks now have their number sitting squarely at 10, fully capable and ready to dig and expand. The militarvae have swelled in number as well, 10 militarvae and 5 venomous larvae. The largots now have 10 members, and the cleaner larvae being 3. The most curious adaptation that took place was with the 5 larvae that the dungeon master personally raised. They had almost become one with the sticktrap vines, which was now their main source of food. They could release the same pheromones that cause the nearby sticknet vines to fall, then consume the fluids and plant from there. That being said, they would usually feed only once a day, the five of them sharing one plant. They can consiously control how many vines they wish to drop, and can also spit out a very sticky and viscous fluid from their mouths, which was slightly acidic. Not enough to harm anything, but enough to cause irritation. They would serve a defensive role, slowing down enemies and trapping them with falling sticknet vines. The larvacks, largot and militarvae look almost the same, but the others were different. The cleaner larvae has a rather dark colouration, fairly small in size but not as small as the parasite. They had special mouths to pick up the garbage and put them in a special location, with a second "stomach" in that sense, which can regurgitate any of the items they had consumed. They fed of decaying matter as well, makind their stomachs very strong. A different strong compared to a larvack, but still very strong. They have semi-retractable teeth, all of which are serrated, the serrations in the opposite direction the tooth is facing. This created a huge amount of bacterial growth, making their bitesvery dangerous. One bite can kill you without proper treatment, and you may even spread the disease to your ally as well. They can also secret a slime like fluid, allowing them to clean an area thoroughly. Not very useful in combat, not as useful in sanitation(as in killing bacteria) but very useful in making everything look nice. The venomous larvae looked similar to the militarvae, with a couple of bright yellow stripes. Why? No one had any clue, perhaps due to the fact that they had derived their venom from bee toxin. They ate toxic vakiolum, at first, they were knocked out cold completely. Eventually, they developed a basic resistance and now is able to consume the plant with ease. Things were looking bright for the dungeon master, except for one thing. ---------------------------------------------- "I want a Dungeon Companion." No like seriously, they are so useful as well.
Dungeon Companion: A companion to a dungeon. The companion can be of any race(except for a dungeon) and is most usually an imp. Though those dungeons get easily influenced by their companion and rip themselves apart on the inside. Thus, the most commonly seen companion for a dungeon is usually a race called the Dungeon Fairy. They are a strange variant of the fairies in the fact that they are born with a huge amount of knowledge pertaining to dungeons. Upon sensing a suitable dungeon, they would head to the dungeon and make a contract, in return for their knowledge, they would seek haven in the dungeon and feed off their mana. Of course, some more evil dungeons kill the fairy on the spot, while others fail to do so after the contract is made(due to the fact that the contract does not allow you to harm your companion). There are, of course, more companions than simply dungeon fairies out there, some humans have been documented to have become dungeon companions. A dungeon companion is also able to influence a dungeon, though the degree of influnce varies relevant to the dungeon''s sentience. All dungeon companions are sentient, and some even posses an uncanny intelligence and ability. A dungeon can only have one Companion, though there have been exceptions.
See? I need a fairy. Where is my fairy. *Siiigggh* I want a cute and lovely fairy to mofu mofu.
Honey, you really want a Dungeon Companion, don''t you. I see that these past few days that this has been on your mind non-stop. I have a guess, it''s that you already have a Designated Companion. They are rare, but they exist. Try it, maybe you can find her.
Designated Companion? What''s that? Sounds delicious. Let''s try that ou-Eh? Did you say she? Are you okay? You sick?
But having a female companion would make darling happy, won''t she? And darling will never look away from me, since honey is honey. I don''t want another man close to us as well, I only want to see my darling. If it is a female, I can have a nice long chat with her. *Gehehehe*
Alright, we did not hear that. Yup, I did not hear that. Right, so what is a designated companion?
Designated Dungeon Companion: A dungeon companion that has been decided upon the dungeon''s birth. The exact reasons for this phenomenon is unknown, but some liken the reason to be due to the specific signature of the dungeon. This is still a mysterious area that requires further study, but has generally been shown that the dungeons with a designated companion tend to be more of a threat.
Would you like to call for your companion? (this can only be chosen once) [Y/N]
Yes of course! Here I come, the land of the loli-fairies! Wait for me! I will mofu mofu you t-OW!
SOS! EMERGENCY QUEST!
Save The Companion!
Description Your dungeon companion has met some trouble when approaching your dungeon! An unknown entity has somehow trapped your companion! Please hurry and save your companion, if not, you will never meet her forever.
Time Limit 2 days
Reward You will claim your companion as your own. The rest, will be to your own devices
Completion condition Save your companion at all costs!
Difficulty D+++
..... What are all of you waiting for? We have a Companion to save! Volume 1 Chapter 18: Is anyone afraid of Spooders? You see, this sensor is a finicky thing. Hm? What sensor? Ah, backtrack backtrack. You see, just a while previously, I realized that I had a Designated Dungeon Companion. What''s more is that she needed saving! Oh, this prince of justice will be riding on his steed to your rescue! Fret not, ma lady, for I am here! Your dungeon in shining..er... core is here! Hyahahaha! *Ahem* So, for the serious note. Larvacks, get going! You see where I''m feeling it? Tunnel there? Ah, wait wait wait. I have yet to explain the sensor. Courtesy of our friendly bee dungeon, she had explained that once aware, dungeons are able to sense the general direction their companion is in. This does not matter whether the companion is designated or not, but the binding contracty magic thing must be made to do so. Well, since my companion is a designated one, there is no need and I can straight away sense her general direction. convenient right? Just the thing I needed to make my life easy. Haah~ Blue screen-san. You are such a nice...erm...screen...? Hm? Bee dungeon is missing?Where did she go? Ah, yes, while my larvakcs are going to focus on tunneling, she is going to mobilize her troops. Her fighting capability is still leagues beyond mine after all. Her troop control is better than the ant dungeon''s after all. It would have been fatal for me if the dungeon was actually smart. Like, phew, really dodged the bullet back then. "A little more to the left" Strange, her signals moving around... Come to think of it, I never really knew what kind of trouble she landed herself into huh. Well, judging from all thegod-be-damned number of dungeons surrounding here it''s probably a dungeon. *Sigh*, dungeons again. I hope negotiation is open. I don''t want to fight. But no harming my companion ya here me? If you dare to touch her in anycensored way, I will kill you okay? No touching my potential hare- *shiver*-I mean companion! Yes, companion. So please, bee dungeon, put away your imaginary knife! Don''t castrate me! Wait, can I actually be.... what am I thinking of! Go away, thoughts! "A little bit more to the left" This is the meme right? The kung fu panda meme. Now I just need a firework cannon and a peacock. Actually, that might be viable. Since peacocks lay eggs. Hmmm, I want chickens..... *Crrk*Cruch*crumble*Rukmble*Munch* Ahhhhhh, the sound of larvacks eating the stone is indeed pleasing to the ear. So far, they have dug out a semicircle-ish tunnel, except the bottom being more rounded. Reminds me of a very very wierdly shaped upside down pear, or the larger part of a circle when you cut it into two. The larvacks have taken no breaks, since I have supplied them with manaleaves. Waste of resources? Pfft. I may be a hoarder, but I''m a hoarder who knows when to utilise his hoard properly you know? This close to a year old dungeon is smart you know? But still, I have not encountered any dungeons at all in the vicinity huh. My hypothesis must have been correct, or part of it. Hypothesis: A large number of dungeon "spawn" at around the same time. Then, as they expand, they start to meet other dungeons. They either battle it out or they negotiate and achieve the most favourable outcome. Soon, the weak dungeons will be weeded out and the strongest remain. Since killing other dungeons also give massive benefits, the dungeon who is most combat oriented will end up the strongest. Judging from the stories I read in the past, this also means that those adventurer humans will also be easily dispatched, since the dungeon is strong. Darwin-sama, you are truly amazing. The Law of Natural Selection is applicable to even dungeons as well. Scary. Even so, I must have been one of the latest to spawn huh, judging from the fact that so far all of the dungeons are leaps beyond me in strength. Bee lady is an exception. It was from her stories of dungeons who invaded her and got trashed. She may have been a dungeon of an earlier generation or simply one of the earliest to spawn. No, thinking properly....bah, forget it. I''m not a scientist anyway. ... .... ... ... ... ... ... ... Wait I am!!!!! Well, I''m too lazy anyway. "Some more to the left" Oh, I feel it now. I''m definitely getting close. Very close.I do hope this dungeon is a rational one. I have no desire to fight, but if need be, I shall unleash the full power of Zhu Ge Liang-sama. Of Sun Ze. Behold, my reincarnation cheat! "Break time. Rest well.Prepare for the battle to come" Ah, well, it wasn''t like I was actually talking(no vocal cords), just simply conveying my so called orders. It was something bee dungeon taught me on the fly. The method to convey commands. It was rather useful, though my previous method was not flawed as well. It appears that my previous method was more suited for higher intelligence creatures/monsters. By the way, intelligence is not equal to wisdom. But that shall be a story for a later date. For now, we rest. In case the dungeon is another battle maniac, we need all the energy we can get. So you heard me boys, eat up. Honey, manaberries, eveything. My treat. Just...Not the manaleaves. We need them for tommorow. Hmmm, maybe I should get a larva who only feeds on manaleaves......gehehehe................. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Come to think of it......how did bee lady even know I had a designated companion.... Meh, whatever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *rumble*crumble*krackle* My, that is one looooooooooong tunnel. Its almost a quater of a meter across and it goes on for literally four meters. Four. In a day. Yes, they were buffed(sort of) but still. Man, evolution is scary. I wonder if I could make some man-eating worm thing that can swallow a house whole. Or one of those worms from Magic the Gathering. Those sound really cool..... Either way, let''s send an Envoy Request to this dungeon, I guess.
Envoy Request Sent!
Great! Now we simply have to wait. Please do not reject, please do not reject.
Envoy Rejected! Now commencing default Dungeon Battle (Deathmatch).
Grace Period: 0s
Now starting Dungeon Battle!
Battle Start!
........ famous last words...... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although, of course, since it was an instant battle, there wasn''t enough time for the swarming tactic huh. So, this is the true guerilla warfare. Go me!The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. So, a quick desciption of the enemy dungeon. Hmmmmm. Its a very dark cave.... No sh*t sherlock! Do a better description me! Ah, yes me. The cave is pear shaped(somewhat), about 15 meters long and 4 meters wide, 3 meters tall. A splendid and empty cave. Yup it''s empt-That''s not right! How the hell is the monsters supposed to live if there is nothing in the cave. And where are the monsters, it should not be empty. No, wait, hold on. This must be it, active camouflaging. Like my parasite. I have to be real careful then, and I have just the thing for it. Fuehehehehe...... The long awaited action for the stealthy parasite will begin now. Hm? Yeah yeah, I know. Last fight you did very little. Honestly, I wasn''t confident that you could make it out unscathed but this time, I am pretty confident. Death mana, is, after all, really strong. My assasin, be strong will you? Sneak in and give us the report! Meanwhile, let''s get our logistics sorted, prep some traps and check on the status of our dear bee dungeon friend. This will be a true test for my ability in attrition battles. I should also have a more equal footing now. Yeap, this dungeon will not lose! Still, this is rather boring. I have already gone on an imagiary beach chair with an imaginary parasol sipping an imaginary glass of lemonade. My companion is in some serious trouble right now but...... if I don''t have enough information, it will be akin to charging to my death you know? I don''t want to die 5 daysbefore my birthday. The demon days, was it? From egyptian mythology. Meh, who cares.It''s probably wrong. Ah, you''ve returned! So how was it? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have a serious issue. The enemy cannot be spotted. I have no idea how but the enemy managed to evade our dear parasite''s search. I would love to smoke them out but time is running short. I do not have enough time and resources to develop fire and a smokable plant. This is a crisis. The bees are still mobilizing, I will have to resort to a dangerous tactic if i do wish to reveal the identity of my enemy. Firstly, I took a toxic larva and bled it. Then mix the blood with the goop that is barfed up by the glue larvas. Then, spread the goo onto a militarvae and send it in. Alone. Of course, not too far out. And it will be holding onto a vine(cleverly disguised with the help of the cleaners'' black concoction) so that we can pull it back at a moments notice. So in it went and happily walked around for quite some time. Seeing that nothing happened, it munched on a leaf. Then walked in further. Then munch on a leaf again. Then further, and further, then BAM! Like lightning it came, so fast that even I, a proud FPS gamer, had difficulties seeing. I mean, it was not like I wasn''t paying attention, I blame it on my weakened reflexes but still, it was pretty fast if I do say so myself. A spider. A pitch black spider(thanks to minimal night vision we are able to determine colour. huzzah to logic) that came and pounced onto the militarvae. However, that was its demise. The militarvae that I had put under spartan training will not be fazed by such a simple surprise attack. It was a wonderful attempt, and had shown the intelligence of the enemy dungeon. A clappa for you, my good sir. But not good enough. In that split second, the bait militarva dodged the pounce, curled into a ball(sort of) and stuck out all its spikes. Next, a quick and skillful tossing motion of the vine(the largots who threw stones the previous battle) launched the militarva away from the spider and up into the air. We were small creatures, but we pack quite the punch. With a hearty *smack*, the militarva lodged its spikes into the spider, thanks to gravity. The paralysing poison(toxic blood) flowed through the bloodstream of the spider. It hurridly attempted to shake off the larva but it could not. Looks like the glue had did its job well. You won''t be running away from this one. As if sleepy, the spider''s movements slowed down and slumped to a crawl. It appears that the poison had taken its full effect. With a silent battle cry, the larvae swarmed that one spider and dragged it back into the tunnel. It was then transported to be stored into my inventory. Then, the bait militarva went out again. This techinique worked for three more times before no matter how far it went(as far as the vine allows), the spiders do not come. Either way, now I know of what the type of dungeon the enemy is now. Spiders huh.... I wonder if spooderman exists. Shooting webs and saving pretty girls. Just imagine the harem you would have. Of course, you have to wear a cape of a spider that is labeled as "Spooderman" isn''t that right? right? Well, now that it has come to this, we can safely determine that the enemy is indeed strong and intelligent. The ant guy was just a wall of pure muscle but this time, the enemy is smart. Well, I don''t think enough, because my cute(subject to change) companion is being held by you. I want her back. It''s your fault, I was willing to compromise, but no no no, you had to reject it. Well, gehehehe. COMMENCE THE RAID!!!!!!!! All hands at the ready! Bring in the front line! Dig the trenches! Clear the spiders! Take them on in a team of two! One poison one mili! Set up the vines(barbed wire)! Current formation will be the skirmish! Get theeeeem! And oh boy did the spiders swarm. Theysurged. I mean, yeah defend your home, I did that too, but your techiniques are sloppy. I mean, seriously. In which world does a spider use itslegs and not its fangs to attack. Hello? Compared to my larvae who fought life and death battles, you are lukewarm. You may be smart, but you are rigid. You are not flexible and you cannot change your techniques. That is your failure. Whee, all those chuunibyou worthy novels I read, they didn''t go to waste. Slowly, but surely, over the course of hours, we were gaining territory. 2 militarvae and 2 toxic larvae had to leave the front lines due to being injured. I really needed a healer huh. My temporary first aid through using mana can only do so much. But then, came the closer.
Honey~ Hold on tight! I''m coming!
Yup, the bees are here. My tunnel was suddenly flooded and numerous bees came through the entrance. Cleaning up the rest of the camouflaged spiders was a piece of cake. One sting and they''re gone. Ok, the bees didn''t actually sting. They would die if they did. You know, basic biology. Just a couple of bites and the spiders were ripped apart. Still, the same. The bees were sloppy. Yes, their flight was very fluid, I can''t find major error but the fighting, I want to throw up. There are so many openings. Oh well. We could always do something at a later date. Right now, we had air superiority and a severe numerical advantage. Our troop quality was top *cough* notch and we had a ready supply of food and medicine. Things were looking on the bright side. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Touch wood. Yup, I didn''t forget it this time, alright. Still, we cleared out this cave rather fast huh. Oh well, let''s take a break and rest, while we find the entrance to the other parts of the dungeon. Or we could just dig through the walls. I can feel my companion only a few meters away. Hmmmmm, it''s suspicious you know. There were more spider carcasses than the floor could hold(when they were alive), so there is defnitely a secret passage somewhere. Or just a covered tunnel. I mean, it''s literally pitch black here you know. Well, on with the tapping method. Tap the walls and hear for sounds made by a hollow portion in the wall. So, instead of a *thuck*thuck* you would be hearing a *thonk*thonk* sound. Pretty useful information, I bet. Oh, looks like we found it. It was hidden by spider webs, very poorly made too. Haah, spiders are monsters with so much potential and you go wasting them like that. So we must charge through, for the time is running out! My companion, hang in there! Ooooouuuuuu! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hey, is it just me or...." "No, its not just you......." "Then why is.........." "Filthy........." "So that''s where all its efforts went to.........." "Unforgivable........to do this to darling''s-" Yup. Apparently dungeons have fetishes. Nope, I''m not joking around. I mean, look! WHY THE HELL IS MY COMPANION GAGGED, BLINDFOLDED AND TIED UP(shibari style) IN A FREAKING SPIDER WEB. I would like to go into the details myself as a kindred spirit but........ this is absolutely..... "Kill"(bee dungeon) "I agree" Volume 1 Chapter 19: Famous last words Okay..... This is a problem. I mean, leaving aside the juicy bonda- errrrrr... Ca-calm down? I have no intention of... er...um...any of that sort. Yes! That! So... would you please don''t hold my Queen at needlepoint? This is unfair, dirty! Using hostages is dirty! *Ahem* Back to our origninal business. Right now, we are in a little bit of a dealock with the spiders. I mean, it is to be expected. No sane huma-dungeon would throw everything it has at the enemy in the fist ''room'', they would wait till the enemy reaches closer to the core and hammer them into oblivion. Dungeon instinct, don''t bother asking. No idea why but it exists. So, as I was saying, we are in a deadlock. True, we have the arial advantage but that is as far as it goes. The silken traps laid by the spiders are... sticky, to say the least. My larvae where almost incapacitated by that, since the entire floor is laid with thin strands of silk. I guess even the most primitive of spiders are still smart huh. That said, I wonder if they have a Queen. I mean, spiders are not insects, so this is actually a rather special dungeon. An arachnid dungeon should be quite rare, if I remember my "lectures" correctly, thanks to a certain friendly lust-obssesed dungeon. The spiders were leagues harder than before, so much so that without proper set-up my larvae will get stomped so hard that they would literally poof out of existence. So, instead I simply took a advisor position and got my parasigot to scout. The tiny strands of web do not do as well when the target is tiny as well. We are careful, with plenty of backup. There is also the fact that the Quest has updated.
Save The Companion!
Description Your dungeon companion has met some trouble when approaching your dungeon! An unknown entity has somehow trapped your companion! Please hurry and save your companion, if not, you will never meet her forever.
Time Limit 1 hour
Reward You will claim your companion as your own. The rest, will be to your own devices.
Completion Condition Save your Companion at all costs!
Difficulty D+++
Remarks The Time Limit will no longer apply if the entityis engaged in battle.
I have more time, which is good. The not so good part? I have zero idea on what to do. Like seriously. If you thought ants were tough, there''s spiders. Then there are the spiders. A boss mob I guess. There is this one particular spider which proves to be veeery sneaky with it. I can''t really see its actual appearance, due to all the fighting going on, but I can give a quick rundown. The usual semi-hairy legs of the spider, black in appearance. No need for colouration down in this black cavern anyways. Nice sharp downward facing mandibles that put a bee''s stinger to shame. Eight glistening eyes, you know, the usual. The curious thing is that there are little strands of silk attached to the back legs of the spider, stretching on to who knows where. I mean, I have my own educated guess, but I won''t really know until I actually see it in action. It''s most probably communication, though if it is one-way or two-way I still don''t know. Need to be careful about this... "That spider there, careful."(me) "Hm? Ah, that one. Sure. By the way, do you have any ideas? I have some but they require a lot of death, for both sides. Knowing honey''s personality that is a scenario I would like to avoid."(bee) "Well, that''s going to be fairly troublesome in itself. Spiders are capable fighters in their own territory. Especially in a semi-enclosed space like this. I would suggest retreat and bait, to lure them out of this place. I have some more time, as long as the spiders are kept distracted."(me" "Nope. That won''t work."(bee) "Eh? How?"(me) "This is a Dungeon Battle. I have yet to explain the full details of it, but a more primitive dungeon would view conquered territory as hostile as default. There is absolutely no way they would send monsters into the previous cavern."(bee) "..."(me) "We''ll have to stand off here."(bee) My plan will not work? This dungeon will not allow the plan made by the grand me to work? Oh, I see... Hehehehe. If that is how you want to play your game, I will play it with you. Commence Operation Screw The Spider Dungeon! Or Operation OSTSD! No wait... operation got said twice. Um, I mean, Commence Operation STSD! The mighty plan will prevail. ........ ................ ...................... "I''ve been wanting to ask this for a while, darling, but what exactly are we doing?"(bee)Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "The wonderful plan made by me! If the dungeon does not want to go to the other room, there is no need to. Simply drag them as close as possible and make the room theirs! Then it is their room! Genius me!"(me) "So, how exactly is picking up dead spiders and placing them in the cave going to help with it?"(bee) "Ehh? That''s how it works right? When you dungeon monsters are in the area, that are is considered yours. It''s that right?"(me) "It''slivemonsters, idiot darling. Not dead."(bee) "Oh, oops..."(me) *bonk* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---3rd Person POV--- And so, the 3 dungeons fought. On the side of the larval dungeon, the dungeon master has opted to help ing the battle logistics wise, trying to draw out the battle into one of attrition. Makes a lot of sense, seeing that he does have a sustainable supply of food. The dungeon master has turned the previous cavern of the spider dungeon into something like an outpost, an emergency hospital and a food storage all-in-one. All the fighters, who are mainly bees, fought in half hour rotations. The dungeon master made sure that the spiders had no rest and were always against fresh ''troops''. Unfortunately, some of the weaker and less experienced bees fell prey to the spiders'' deadly jaws, only a quater of them made it back only to die a horrific death as they were slowly dissolved by the spiders'' venom. Even the weakest of spider venom packs enough punch to kill a small bee. That being said, it will only be time when the spider dungeon runs out of combat capable spiders. A plentiful food supply, non-exhausted monsters ready for battle and an almost endless amount of eggs still waiting to hatch(bee side), there is little to no way the spiders can win. It was just a matter of compatibility. The bees'' strong bite can tear off any limb of the spider, coupled with their height advantage and their last resort stinger, the spiders are up against a tough opponent. Spiders were, in the end, ambush hunters. So when they were unable to ambush, they were pretty much useless. How did the bees know their position? The parasigot. Aided by the larval dungeon master, the parasigot had a whale of time sowing chaos deep in the enemy lines. The boss spider(tentative) remained untouched, but any other was free game. When a spider lunging at an exposed back of an ally, it would suddenly drop dead. The parasigot''s new skill worked in a strange way. It feels it had not fully utilised its whole kit, but it appears that it would only be able to use the current skill for now. The skill was called [Leech], and had gained another skill in the midst of the battle called [phlebotomize]. The two skills worked in tandem to create shirveled corpses of spiders throughout the dungeon, wreaking havoc. It was hard to spot and even harder to catch, and once itdidget caught it would immediately turn and fight back to add one more shriveled spider to its name. It was brimming with vitality, its few wounds healing fast. Using the blood of the enemies, it healed and strengthened itself, causing it to take more lives, and use those lives to power-up itself even further. Truly a parasite, benefiting at the expense of its host. The bulk of the larval and bee forces were congregated at the entrance, relying on waves to mow down the enemy. Once or twice, it appeared as if a bee was lagging behind, and the greedy spiders leaped for the kill. Not. It was a bait, and the co-working parasigot and other nearby bees(including the supposedly weak one) closed in to take a very juicy free kill. Thereafter, the spider dungeon learned to ignore those lagging bees, fearing more similar ambushes. A smart choice, just that it wasn''t a good one. The larval dungeon master knew that, and pushed it to his advantage, allowing the bees to stay longer in the fight, sending more bees and sometimes even some of his own larvae into the mix. The slowly retreating, and actually exhausted, monsters were completely ignored as new troops moved in to fill their place. Slowly, and surely, the spider dungeon was losing. The momentum of battle could not be stopped, every opening, every mistake was capitalised by the larval dungeon master. This panicked the spider dungeon, causing it to make even more mistakes. In the back, the boss spider was desperately tugging at the silk strings attached to its back legs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Push to win!!! We have the lead!! Just a bit further aaaaand, secured! One tightly trussed up Dungeon Companion secured! I''ll check the details on the blue boxes later. "One last wave, yeah?"(me) "Anything you say, darling~"(bee) "This thing is in the bag! This is so easy! N-" .................... .......................... You know what they say, don''t celebrate early and trigger flags. Now, we can only stare at the very bloodied corpses of our front line bees. "Gigiiiiii!"(unknown) What was it called? Yeah famous last words. Because my last words are really going to be the last of me. This spider had backup, alright, through another hidden flap. Goblins Short stories and Side stories (1) Life of the Ant Dungeon I was born, and I was hungry. It was just a small nudge, like my instinct tells me so. My hunger drove me to search. My hunger told me to control. I had ants as both my monsters and creatures, the lowly non-monster ants as fodder and feed, the better ants as my army. I expanded, using my DP to carve through the walls. That was a bad choice, I was even hungrier now. I had to find something, anything. I wanted to eat...I had to eat...I must eat. I found it. At long last, a dungeon just like me. ''Just kill it'', I said. But my ants, they were pure junk. They sent too little outside, they did not fight like I wished them to fight. They did not savour the satation of hunger. This had to change. I must teach them the correct way. My instinct will guide me just as my hunger did. I controlled them, suppresed their own instincts, made them my loyal servants who do my every bidding. This was good. I could now even feel it as they killed, my hunger slowly disappating, even if only ever so little. I search, and I destroy. I eat. I consume. 8 dungeons that I have killed. Some I had to find, some wandered into my jaws. This is good. Life is good. Soon, I will become a dungeon so grand, I can consume the world. Ah, another one that has come. Welcome, and goodbye. You shall soon be my nutrition to fuel my growth. Thank you for your kind sacrificeeee. Life of the Queen I looked back at our dungeon core. A rather large core, larger than me. A crystal-like material, as he describes himself, clear like glass. I have no idea what crystals or glass are, but they must be very beautiful. Since our dungeon master''s core is a masterpiece. I could not spot any flaws, the core looked like a huge ball of water, sunk into the stone. Except that a ball of water would have flaws as well. The core had none. It is so smooth, that water would simply run off it, not even a single drop would stick, unlike the coarse stone that was our dungeon. He is a great dungeon core. He cared for us. He grooms us. He would go to any lengths to protect what he deems as his, and that is what we all love about him. I wished to give back to him, a strange fuzzy feeling in my mid-section tells me so. But I could not. It was a strange feeling, the feeling that I had lost something. I wanted to express it, I wanted to tell our core I was sorry, so I did what the dungeon master called ''crying''. It was a strange thing, but now, I think I feel much better if I did not. Feelings. I think the animus did this. I would not have felt otherwise. I feel much more of our little world with these emotions. Sometimes, our dungeon master''s emotions leak into us, and we can feel what he is feeling. Most of the time, it was a really strange feeling, our tiny heart pumping faster and faster, yearning to know more and discover more. Other times, it felt like we were completely satisfied with all that we have. It was a good life, in this dungeon. Ample supply of mana and some crystals to boot. I will take good care of my partner, my Consort as my master calls it. Master. One day, I will make sure that you are happy that you have created us. Uh-uh, that would be incorrect. Master. One day, I will stand beside you, as your kind and loyal Queen. Until then, please wait for me, and for all of us.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Life of the Parasigot Once upon a time, I hated my dungeon master. Now, I revere him. He was quick, and intelligent, sharp and fast. He was a creator, and a destroyer. I witnessed it with my own eyes, on how our master split the mind of our foe. Themind. I had no idea what it was, but all I know is that all of us are completely defenseless in that area. And he could attack us from there. He was a genius too. Guiding me when he sent me on missions. Missions that no other could accomplish but me, once the runt of the clutch. A runt, in fact, I was a defective runt. I was so tiny, so weak, that I needed to stay near our dear master''s core for almost two more days before I could even move further. Master called it ''premature''. No idea what that means. All I know is that I am a unique existence, created by chance and guidance of our creator. I was what he called a ''parasite''. A good one, at that. He said that most parasites act slowly, draining from the victims called ''hosts''. I was intrigued. What was the point of a slow death when you could kill the enemy fast? I was wrong. Too wrong. I was fundamentally mistaken to what a parasite was. I was not a true parasite. I was, I was a mimic. One that attempted to do so and only accomplished a tiny portion of those tales that my master told me. Of how they could hide in the brain and guide the hosts actions. How they could even take over the organs and replace them. How they could stay in the hosts body for years and years, slowly leeching the life our of its victim. And when the host is no longer useful, it was disposed. I was enraptured. That is what I am going to become. A loyal parasite of my master. An ''assasin'' and ''scout''. I would make sure, that all of these expectations of master will not be betrayed. No longer will I lament that my cruel master denied me food and strength. It was to build this for me. And I shall return his gift with my whole self. I will serve him till my final breath, living and dying, and forever unseen by the foe. Life of the lead larvack Rocks taste bad. But master told me to dig. I will dig. Dig. Dig. Dig. Dig. Oh, master is watching me. Meh, I will continue to dig, dig, dig. Oh look, shiny rock! Must taste better than rock. I eat. AH! It hurts! My stomach, it''s going to explode! My master tells me to use the energy. He tells me to use my mana. I don''t know how, but master is showing me how. I use my mana. It drains, my stomach no longer hurts as more. Soon, my stomach was no longer going to explode. I wait and heal, as master tells, and go back to core. My master helps in healing. Master is nice. I will do as master says. If master tells me to train more of us, I will do so. If master asks us to dig big hole, I will dig. I master wants shiny rock, I will git shiny rock. Master~~~ Bee Dungeon''s memories This young little dungeon is a fiesty one, alright. Just like him. Argh! Get out of my head, you cheater! You piece of sh*t! Cheatercheatercheatercheater! You will not get what you want! I will not! *huff*fuu*huff*fuu* I will not make the same mistake twice. I know for sure, that this little dungeon will not. He will never abandon me, right? He will not abandon me for a stronger core right? Darling please! Honey! I will do anything you want, so don''t leave me! *scream* *huff*huff* Deep breaths. That was a bad memory. Just a memory. My little honeydrop will never be so cruel. *teary-eye* Right, darling~? It won''t right? (somewhere in the other dungeon) Gah! Step 21 of Chuunibyou scripture! Exorcise Evil Stalker! Volume 1 Chapter 20: Kimi no Na Wa Hey all. It has been a wonderful journey. To all those out there who listen to my rants, my groans, my monologues, thank you so much. It has truly been a great time, I had so much fun. I was a researcher in my past life, a core member of my alliance during the First Biological War(BW1). Some of my creations which escaped kinda went ham on the ecosystem, so as the one deemed as ''responsible'', I had to fix it. Politics. *sigh* So I died, an anti-climactic death, all alone, at the hands of my incomplete creation. My greatest regret, was that I never really got to finish the anime and find out if the straw hat boy really did become the pirate king. Episode 1500 and still going... Just kidding! I mean, that is the number 2, but number 1 is my regret of not being able to complete my creation. So I got a second chance. As a dungeon. Welp, it has truly been a great run. I enjoyed it all. Why am I having a recollection? Because......(drum roll please)........ I AM GOING TO DIE FOR REAL!!! Like seriously, goblins! Freaking 0.5 meter tall goblins! With big stone clubs! Nowaynowaynowaynoway! No way I am going to beat that! They are giants you know?! Bloody green and disgusting giants! Yes, they are disgusting! They look like a freaking..... goblin. I mean, there is no good way to describe it. They look like the classic goblins you find out there. A small ugly looking humanoid monster, two upward facing canines that jut from the mouth, green skin withenough defects to make even the most resilient of people puke... Ok maybe not that much but you get the point. They are freaking ugly. There''s just one issue. Onetiny issue. My larva do jack sh*t against these f*ck*rs. Like seriously, we can''t do anything. If you are bitten by an ant, will you die? No. Does it hurt? Yes. Will it impede your movement? No again. To the goblins, even the best of us larva are like ants. An annoyance, but not a problem in the slightest. For the bees, well, we are going to need to sacrifice numbers if we even want to minutely live. How so many goblins lived for so long? I don''t even wanna know. That dungeon must have killed many other dungeons and enslaved their monsters and creatures for food. Cannibalism even. "I leave it to your judgement. I trust you, honey"(bee) She''s got my trust in me, huh... So the number one tactic when it comes to dealing with goblins? Swarm it. Aim for the nose, eyes, ears and groin. Ignore all losses and sting it with all you''ve got. I will remember you all for your sacrifices. No sarcasm here. I can''t even feel sympathy for them when they are not my own monsters, what kind of ally am I? I hate my dampened dungeon emotions.... -------------------------------------- ---3rd Person POV--- In the life of a normal human being, one may or may not encounter what is known as a bee. A bee is known for its sting, its particularly painful sting. A last resort, since once the stinger is in, the bee will not be able to take it out of the victim. If it does, it will die. But the main issue is the painful sting. So here comes the hypothetical question. What if you were stung by a bee up the nose, in the ear, into the eye and bang slap into the balls.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The answer: Not good. Or so the goblins can testify. Those screams(or extremely loud ''Giiiii!'', goblins don''t seem to be able to produce such high pitched noises) Still,the loses on both sides are equally heavy. For one, the bees have to sacrifice their lives to have any effect on the goblins at all, not to mention that there are spiders lurking in every corner now. A wildly swinging ''club'' of a goblin easily knocks out 5-7 bees in the air, allowing the spiders to finish them off. Those who climb their bodies are slapped without mercy. They met a gruesome end. The luckier ones were not quite as fortunate as well, they were on a suicide mission after all. They would immediately jam their stinger in and start biting at everything they could. The pain is....great. To say the least. The writhing and still very much alive goblins can testify. There were strangely no female goblins, not that any of the two dungeons noticed in the chaos of battle. They were hurridly evacuating all those in the previous cave while the front line slows the goblins down. Slow down they did, but the goblins are still moving. The number of goblins that died were only in the single digits, incapacitated ones as well, but there were close to 30 goblins present. A fairly large dent, but not for long. Close to a hundred bees covered the floor like a blanket, and many more would join them. It was only a matter of time before the goblins reached the cave. And on to the next. As if possesed(which probably was the case), the goblins started to speed up and ran towards the cave. The entrance was large enough for the goblins, so they entered with ease as the last of the larvae entered the other tunnel. The remaining bees of the suicide group were not as lucky. With their exit blocked(by a particularly fat goblin sitting on the entrance), they had no way to escape. Embracing their deaths, they continued with their last assigned mission to their last breath. The buzzing of wings no longer filled the air. ------------------------------------------------------------------- For the love of god, those goblins are scary. Thank goodness our dear parasigot was there to eliminate the goblins who could not fight back. The bees did not have the power to finish them off, and have goblins resistant to our venom would make itvery bad. Luckily, that guy had hopped on to a passing bee and made a beeline for the exit before the goblins came in. Dude, those goblinsmurdered those bees. Like, those warrior bees are as large as giant hornets in my past life you know? They are huge! Okay, maybe a little smaller. I mean, if I was human, I would smash them together too but...no one wants to antagonize bees. But those buggers seem very resiliant to pain. Thank goodness, the tunnel is too small for them to make it though.
The Spider Dungeon has called for aid from its allies. Goblins are now officially part of this Dungeon Battle! Since there is terrain that will hinder one or more of the parties'' access to key areas, the terrain has been altered.
Oh F*CK!!!!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---3rd Person POV--- Stone slowly crumble away into dust as the tunnel enlarged for the goblins to pass through. The tunnel was closer to the bee''s dungeon, and the goblins immediately rushed there. They saw the queen bee clutching the core, protecting it. Not that it would help. The lead goblin drooled with greed(affected by its dungeon), and ambled towards it to destroy it. The rewards of killing such a dungeon will not be small. The other dungeon was definitely weaker, unable to do anything but watch. The goblin raised its stone club, ... and struck. And then.................... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Gaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!! It hurrrrts! Why the heck?!?!?! No! NO! NO!!! You will not! I will NOT!! I will never allow it! Never! EVER! "You willNEVER take from ME again! YOU will NEVER harm MY FAMILY again! FOR SHE IS MY OATHSWORN! SHE IS TAPIRA!!!!!!" Volume 1 Chapter 21: kalista cosplay
Do you wish to form an Oathsworn Bond?
YES NO
Heck [yes]!
Accepted
Awaiting partner acknowledgment...
Received
Partner agrees
Do you wish to Name your partner to fulfill Bond Completion?
YES NO
YES!
Accepted
Awaiting partner acknowledgment...
Received
Partneragrees
Yosh. Everything is going well.
Please state quantity of Core sacrificed for Naming Ceromony
Min--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Max
Maximum! Give everything! Leave nothing behind!
Maximum accepted!
Now beginningNamingCeremony
....... ........ ............
Naming Ceremony completed
Congrajulations! You are now Oathsworn with Tapira through the Oath of Names!
As Oathsworn, you now gain 20% of your partner''s maximum strength in proximity with your partner. This applies to your partner as well.
Warning-Core severely damaged-Warning
Pain. Then¡­ I felt a surge of power. It was powerful. I had the power now, the power to protect those I love. Never will my family fall again. What happened in the past, the far past, shall stay in the past. But I will remember it, the pain, the agony as I watched my parents sink to the bottom of the ocean, my siblings murdered in cold blood. My past life will stay as it is, this a is a new life now, one that I shall now live without regrets. For all I know, this may be just me who remembers my past life, meaning, I¡­er¡­ never mind. Now, with this newfound power, we can finally win this fight. Larvae bites were stronger, bee stings were more toxic, pretty much all of us were a stronger version of before. Especially our dear parasigot. It got quite the power up. With a coil and a jump, it landed on a goblin¡¯s head and made its way and settled inside the ear canal of the unaware goblin. With all its skills and abilities active, the goblin soon became a simple shrivelled husk of its original shape. With the goblin dead (to the others for no apparent reason) and a surge in our power (which they clearly felt), we can strike while they are still intimidated. Gogogogogogogo! 3rd person POV And so they fought back, hard. Even with the boost given by the bond, it was still a tough fight. But the strategies of the larva dungeon master tipped the balance in their favour. The goblins found themselves trapped by a tunnel full of rocks and the spiders found that the floor and walls were laden with sticky vines. Literally trapped between a rock and a hard place, the goblins and spiders fought while the rest tried to pry a way out. Normally, no dungeon would pull out when they were already the enemy¡¯s core room, but the naming ceremony scared them. Followed by the ¡°blatant¡± display of confidence the enemy showed, no sane dungeon would try their luck. Which was the wrong choice, but the larva dungeon master sure wasn¡¯t going to tell them that. The enemy numbers (goblins and spiders) thinned by half by the time they exited the connecting tunnel. Followed by the relentless pursuit of the two oathsworn dungeons, they were quickly pushed back, into the spider¡¯s own core room. The goblin dungeon core was strangely not in sight.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. In a desperate act to defend its life and home, the spider that the larva dungeon master had deemed as ¡®boss monster¡¯ came out and stood in the way of the core. For a moment, there was a pause. The calm before the storm. Then the parasigot leaped at the spider. All 1 inch long of the larva shot forward like a bullet, latched itself on the spider and desperately dug and sucked and grabbed. But to no avail. The spider¡¯s armour was just too thick. With a primitive and impromptu slingshot called the largots, a larvack was sent flying at the spider as well, finding that a spider¡¯s chitinous exoskeleton was almost as hard as the stone. Almost. The wails of pain could be heard as the parasigot found its mark. Colour drained from the spider as the parasigot activated its so called trump card, gorging itself and swelling to double, no triple, no five times its original volume, ever increasing as it expanded to contain whatever it could leech off from the spider. When it was finally driven off (with the help of five spiders), a horrific wound that continued to bleed could be seen on the spider¡¯s midsection. It was rather satisfying for the larva dungeon master. The now hasty retreat of the spiders and goblins that suffered from the overwhelming momentum of the two dungeons. They pushed and pushed the enemy horde(the spider group) farther and farther back until they were completely surrounded. Now, there is an unspoken rule with all dungeons. Dungeon battles were the grounds of trickery, lies and deceit, that was absolutely fundamental. But outside of that, there is little honour in it. And a more deeply rooted belief, so deep that some even regarded it as instinct, was to never ever betray your comrade. By betray, it is not abandoning. No, abandoning, traps and such were fair game. No, it was sticking your blade in your ally when they need it the most, that gives all parties involved a very bitter taste in their mouth. ¡°Oi. Oioioioioi.¡± Sticking through the core of the spider dungeon was the blade of a goblin. (A.N. Just kidding. No cliff here...yet) The goblin had a wicked grin(which actually looks rather disgusting) and yanked the sword out of the spider dungeon¡¯s core. The sword that it had kept hidden throughout the entire battle. Then, they disappeared, just like how they entered the battle, taking with them the majority of the broken core. The (so called) boss spider tried to rise, but fell. Its eyes gleamed with hate. ¡®I will kill you even if it costs me my soul¡¯ was what anyone could feel from the dungeon controlled spider. 1st person POV That guy looks pitiful as crap. He¡¯s almost dead in more than one way. The boss spider, I mean. And the dungeon as well. That goblin guy, despicable. Absolutely despicable. ¡°Please¡­..¡± (spider) ??? Wait, what? The spider could speak? No wait.. the more important thing is.. ¡°my children¡­.¡± (spider) Ouch, that voice is so strained. It¡¯s like those anime characters who speak when they are at deaths door, you know? That kind of strained and shaky voice that is soft yet full of strength at the same time. Yeah, it¡¯s really bad. ¡°please¡­¡±(spider) *crrk*criiiick*shatter* Ah, the core broke. It looks like the spider is dead as well. *sigh* What these battles do to you. Look at the spider¡¯s corpse one more time, and decide whether to comply to that guy¡¯s dying wish. I guess I will, I mean, no matter what, the eggs did nothing wrong. Well, it¡¯s rather hypocritical since I massacred some ants but, hey, I decide what I do. I¡¯m a dungeon, I choose what I wanna do. If I want to keep the eggs, I will. So, I look at the broken core of my enemy again. A slight feeling welled in me, I can¡¯t really explain it. The desire to seek justice? No, something else. Bah, who cares. ¡°Hear me, spider guy. I swear an oath to you. I don¡¯t care if you hear me or not, if you care to watch or not, I will avenge you. If you have no one to turn to, you can rely on me. I don¡¯t know why, you caused me a hell lot of trouble and even almost killed my precious little Companion, but there is this strange feeling that I have, and I will follow it.¡± Then, slightly remembering something from my old life, a little carried away by the moment. ¡°I invoke thee Lady of Vengeance. Hear thy oath. The Black Spear shall find its rightful place.¡±
The Spear of Vengeance, Kalista, has heard you Oath
Quest received! Gift of Spider received!
The Betrayer must die
Description: Kill the goblin dungeon who has betrayed his ally.
Reward: -undetermined-
Time Limit: -no limit-
Comepletion Condition: Kill the goblin dungeon
Difficulty: D+++++
The corpse of the spider, the last bit of the core and some other things hidden under the silk all suddenly turned into a milky green mist. Then, they flowed together and gathered around the location of the ¡®boss¡¯ spider corpse and started to swirl in a tighter and tighter circle, getting thicker and thicker until it looks like milkshake. Dang, that made me hungry, not that I could eat though. And then, and then, ¡­ *poofg* came out a milky white egg. ¡°That was¡­. anti-climactic. Though it seems that a new monster in my arsenal would be rather useful. Though who would have thought that the spider guy would actually thank me.. I guess yesterday''s enemies can really be tomorrow''s friends. Beh, who cares.¡± (me) ¡°From what I can infer, it should be a combination of both of your dungeon¡¯s traits. Even though I wanted to bear honey¡¯s first child¡­guuuh¡± (tapira) ¡°*sigh* you still on that gig? I thought you got over it a long time ago.¡± (me) ¡°Love is eternal! It will never falter! It will never fade! It will-¡° (tapira) ¡°Yes, yes. Anyways¡­ we have quite an issue here we have to solve¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± (me) ¡°Brrmm! Mmmmm! Grmmmnmnmnm!¡± Down on the floor was a pretty white-haired fairy look-a-like, tied up, writhing and yelling(muffled). ¡°What in the world do we do now? *Sigh*¡± (me) Volume 1 Chapter 22: My Companion, the shivering ball of shivers "Come here, leader larvack." I requested for the leading larvack(the first to hit max level) to come over so that I can use my dungeon possesion skill on it. "I''ll leave you alone for a while. I have some important issues that I have to complete." Tapira says. Tapira huh.... I didn''t really intend to do it but..... it seems like I subconsiously already gave her a name. I mean, after a while her wierd tendencies went down and she became quite likable. Plus she never interacts like humans do(from my past). Not that I have any fun times with them, it was always research and research...... Bah, enough of the negatives, this isn''t like me. I guess our new bond and the recent mass death of her monsters had transmitted some of her negative emotions to me. I don''t really mind that much, but it still does affect me. The egg that I recieved from the spider dungeon remains idle beside my core. That battle really leaves a sour taste in my mouth. As if sensing my thoughts, the egg shakes just ever so slightly. I could be mistaken.... "Don''t worry. Vengeance is a dish best served when least expected." I whisper to it. Is it just me or does it look satisfied... Can an egg look satisfied? Hmmmm. Worth some invesigation... Of course, there is a good reason to possess my larvack. Our dear little ''fairy'' was still completely wrapped in spider webs, which some might find appealing, buuuut right now I need information and not some other useless time wasting..... I digress. With the ever familiar toilet flush sensation, I possessed the larvack and began to knaw at the silk binding the ''fairy''. But there was just one sliiiight issue. "No, wa-oi! Ga-stay still! Stop!" You see, the thing is that whenever my larvack was lying on her face or moving between her limbs or just chewing at the strings in general... she would just start squirming around and the larvack''s teeth(I think they are teeth) are not the most accurate cutters around. Furthermore, I have to keep the acidic saliva away from her so that she would not melt into a puddle. That liquid can make rocks go squishy, so flesh and bones would not be a problem.... I think. And those rock ripping jaws prove really useless when faced with spider silk. *Sigh* This is going to take a while....
"Puah!" The ''fairy'' let out a small noise as her gag came free. The moment her hands were free, she immediately tore off her blindfold and started smacking the larvack with all her might. "Owowowowowowowowow! Stooooooop! It Huuuuuuurts!" Well, not really, more of like someone throwing marbles at you. Not really dangerous, but painful all the same. I backed off(in the larvack). "Etooooo[A.N.:Eto is japanese for ehhh/errr. Or at least it is for this story], you are my Companion right, if I am not mistaken...." I start off. The ''fairy'' continuing to glare at me, still struggling to remove her bindings on her legs, and whatever was still left. Note to self, spider silk can be very sticky. "Pleased to meet you." I continue. ... ... ... Still no response. "Welcome to my dungeon. ... That is how they say that right? But it makes me sound like...." Me being the ever awesome dungeon master I am, got slightly distracted by my own awesomeness and continued to talk to myself for a while. Hey man, I didn''t talk much back then, the only conversational partners I had were microscopes and needles, with the occasional test-tube. Don''t blame me. "Ah, don''t worry. We are not going to eat you up or anything. In every sense of the word, so rest assured." I affirm my companion. I hope she gets my joke...Did she just smile? I''m not really sure, can''t tell. "Eto.... could I have a response at least?" I say, getting more and more puzzled by the minute. "Ah! I know! Do you want some food and water? Lemme just quickly go get some..." And following that, I immediately instructed largots to grab some berries and use a relatively larger leaf to hold a couple drops of water. Then I had the small group of largots bring the food over. Though before I could say another word, the ''fairy'' let out a small "Hii!(a shout)" and pushed away the meal. Little thuds revertebrated throughout the dungeon as the fruits clattered onto the floor. Taking it for a sign of hostility, the militarvae let out a slight hiss and bristled their spines, slowly inching forward to guard the largots. Seeing this, the fairy immediately backpedaled and crashed into a wall(it''s a ptiy but my dungeon is still rather small), and curled into a shivering ball. ... ... ... ... ... Why do all the people(or dungeons) I have to deal with are all such a pain. Oops, correction, I meant mentally demanding.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "Back!" I commanded the militarvae and they reluctantly backed off. "There there, the scary larvae are off now. You feel any better now?" I asked in the larvack, face to face(mouth?) with her. The ''fairy'' looked up, let out another small yelp, and once again curled into a ball, except this time it was as if she was trying to assimiliate with the wall. Now this is a problem...... Well, no biggie. From my very reliable knowledge(novels and games) reserve, I know the solution is to always just leave them be with all of the life sustaining essentials. "Well, if you need anything, don''t hesisitate to ask. The experience must have been pretty harsh. I''ll let you have some time alone. Food and water''s all here [I point to where I left it]. When you feel better, tell me, okay?" The ''fairy'' seemed to shiver a little less, but just a tiny bit, so I may be wrong. But there should be nothing wrong with being optimistic right?
About a couple of hours have passed and the ''fairy'' seemed convinced that we mean no harm. Although I was a little ticked off by the amount of times I had to get largots running to refill the water that had spilled out from the impromtu leaf container. My effort finally paid off, however, since the ''fairy'' was no longer wall hugging but now looking around. But just as she was reaching for one of the berries...... "HOLD IT RIGHT THEREEEEEEEEEEE!!!" A large bee just suddenly came zipping through the connecting tunnel and crashed into the ''fairy''. Yup, it was Tapira. With her six limbs, she easily pinned down the fairy''s hands and feet and poised her stinger at her throat. "Ta-Tapira? Erm.... What are you doing?" I asked. There had to be a reason for it, since we would never do anything to cause each other harm. "Listen carefully,fairy. I don''t care what kind of creature you are, butno one will take honey''s kindness for granted. Just because you may mean a lot to him doesn''t apply tome! In these two dungeons, there is no free lunch, you got it?" Tapira spat at my companion. "Tapira-" "And frankly speaking, you have proved more than useless. Only in the name of my fallen monsters did I tolerate you to this extent but to see you doingthis.... is just too much to bear. If you are not going to show me why should we keep you, my stinger might just slip...."Tapira was a complete firestorm of anger. Where it came from... I have no idea. "Oi, Tapira-" "I''ve heard of companions who bring great knowledge and power to dungeons, some which many will gladly chip off their core to acquire, from my inherent knowledge. Butyou" She spoke with great contempt "You are such a wreck that I''m surprised that you even qualified to live. I-" "TA-PI-RA!" I stressed. "Yes honey~? Anything I can do for you?" She cooes back, as if her previous conversation was nothing but a lie, her attitude changing 180 degrees. "I would appreciate it if you do not plunge your stinger into the neck of my companion. Also, do get off. She''s already crying. And honestly, I don''t think it''s an act, if that is what you are wary of." "My, darling you are so kind, like you always are. But could you leave extracting something useful out of thisleech here to me?" Tapira continues to praise me. Tapira..... stop causing emotional harm to my companion oi..... "NO. And that is final. Now, please move off her if you would. I have every reason to believe in my companion until she proves otherwise. Jeez, ''fairy'', you should stop weeping, you''re spoiling your face." I said as I nudged Tapira off my companion. "I forgot to introduce her." I spoke to the ''fairy''. "She''s Tapira, my Oathsworn. She was the main reason why we could rescue you, with very heavy losses, so please forgive her. We really mean you no harm, but as Tapira said, we will if you do to us." The ''fairy'' hicced and sobbed, but quickly nodded in acknowledgement. "Still, I never expected a dungeon Companion to be completely terrified of dungeons." I commented as we waited for the ''fairy'' to calm down. "You wanted some of the berries right? Here, you can have it. Think of it as a welcome gift." I told her, dropping the berry on her lap. She stared at it for quite a while, before gingerly touching it with the tip of her finger, then picking it up. "Hur-" Tapira tried to say before I motioned for her to stop. The ''fairy'' looked at her quizzically(she did not see my signal), causing Tapira to make some other noise to seem less suspicious. Though it did not seem to do the trick. The ''fairy'' turned her attention back to her berry, sniffed at it and did a little dab with her tongue. Believing it to be completely safe(which it is), she placed it into her mouth and started chewing. A look of surprise came over her face before tears started rolling down her cheeks again. "Oi oi oi oi oi, what is it now?" I asked but recieved no answer. Not enought, I bet. "Here. The rest of the berries. It''s a package deal." But the ''fairy'' seemed to not get it. "It means they are all yours." Tapira helped fill in. Nice one! The ''fairy'' appeared shocked, rapidly looking at the small pile and us two alternately, before taking a berry from the pile. After affirming that nothing happened, she immediately started to stuff her mouth full of berries, her tears streaming even more. Which of course made both me and Tapira really puzzled. Even me who was a former human never really met anyone who cried when there was extra food. We both observed the ''fairy'' who was chewing as if her life depended on it. Then she sniffled and uttered two words. "Thank you" And a wave of emotion hit me, like never before. Volume 1 Chapter 23: Blue Hourglass Confirmed Emotions¡­¡­¡­ Forever taken for granted by humans, yet so unobtainable by we. They define us, they guide us, they make us. Yet, they are so far. We possess little but three: 1: Ecstasy, the pleasure for our goals fulfilled 2: Hatred, may we never forget those who earn our ire 3: Greed, for we desire the world in our domain¡­¡­and more Our life¡­cold and harsh. The outside¡­warm and kind. We seek it, but never reach it. We feel the world through naught but our tiny cores, yearning for the warmth we do not have. -Dungeon Core [Date unknown]
When I say a flood of emotions overcame me, I literally mean a flood. Don¡¯t understand? Here¡¯s a quick rundown. Dungeon do not have emotions. Well, I do but that is just a semblance, a mere replication. I mean, scientifically speaking, I have no hormones for my emotions anyway¡­ do I? Doesn¡¯t matter. So¡­ like when you put a cold water in a hot test-tube, what do you think will happen? Yeap. The test-tube gets completely overwhelmed by the change. Not that my core cracked or anything¡­ but it is very disorientating. Imagine faceplanting into a whole metric ton of water surging at you at Mach 5, maybe not that bad¡­ but you get the idea. Right now, it appears to me and Tapira almost as if an aura of sorts is surrounding the ¡®fairy¡¯. Can¡¯t really discern much of it, but we can sense gratitude, relief, fear and many more all in this miny cyclone of emotions. So this is why dungeons have companions¡­¡­ Not because of eye-candy or emergency food supply, but because they were living and breathing beings capable of such, to us dungeons, impossible feats. Emotions, from what I asked Tapira before (from her inherent knowledge), dungeons most of the time will get carried away with their false emotions, or fall into ruin because they ignore it. Our companions serve to be our leash. To be our irrationality, to embrace our eccentricity, to preserve our humanity. Even dungeons have taboos, though some do break them. Now, back to our important issue at hand and none of my incessant rambling. The ¡®fairy¡¯ hiccs and sobs, occasionally using her wrist to wipe her tears and mucus, continually chewing and swallowing, with some occasional mumbles of ¡°thank you¡­¡­ thank you¡±. I don¡¯t mind, hehehe, praise me more, hehehehe. Then came the inevitable moment where her hands reached only the cold and hard dungeon floor. No berries. As if not believing it, she reaches around and pats the ground a few times, just to check if her eyes were not seeing things and the berries were really gone. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡± She wordlessly stares at the larvack I¡¯m currently possessing. Tapira growled at the sight. ¡°Sorry, but that is all that you will have.¡± I told my companion. But I agree with Tapira bringing this issue to light. None of my monster, nor creatures, will be freeloaders. None of my family will be weak. I will not be weak. Two times we have fought, and two times with insurmountable losses, one heavier than the next. Never will I feel such pain again. ¡°If you are hungry, you work for it. If you are weak here, you starve. We don¡¯t take leeches and parasites who are not useful in combat, or in the dungeon.¡± I then proceeded to lay our dungeons¡¯ rules to my companion. If I were to die, I wish to die fighting beside my family, to protect their backs while they protect mine. To me, hiding behind someone else is¡­¡­ cowardly. No one should bear the responsibility of someone else¡¯s life on their back on the battlefield in this harsh world. I have to remember, this is a different world now. If she was weak, she trains. If she is scared, she trains. If she is tired, she rests, then train some more. There is nothing Boot Camp Lravare cannot solve. ¡®Spartan training that will guarantee you a fit body able to excel in battle, food and lodging provided! Sign up now!¡¯ I giggle a little at my old world joke. ¡°Well¡­¡­ maybe to start off, could you tell us your name? This lovely dungeon here is Tapira, as for me¡­¡­ I have yet to receive a name. If you could, tell us where we are in this world?¡± I kick start our conversation with a question or two. Man, Tapira is still reeling from the effects of the emotional outburst. Thank RNGesus for my reincarnated human mind. ¡°None. But¡­ map¡­ I have¡± She replied, slightly shaking her head, then proceeding to dab at somewhere on her skirt. She then walked (stumbled, more like) to the wall and started sketching a map. It was a really good sketch, although it was completely white. I would link that kind of artistic talent to Da Vinci level but¡­ it¡¯s just a sketch. But it is still good. Though it¡¯s just a sketch¡­Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Whao, that¡¯s pretty good. It¡¯s where we are, right?¡± Tapira exclaimed, apparently recovering from her minor core (brain equivalent) overload. Then, the ¡®fairy¡¯ stops, then scoots aside allowing us to view her map as a whole, nodding in response to Tapira¡¯s question. From her scale bar (where she learned that I do not know), our island was a semi-oval shape, about 3.5 million square kilometres. Irregular, but in general thick in the center and thin at the sides. At its approximate center was a pool of water, occupying about 1/3 of the surface area. From her 2.5D sketch (cross-section with top), the pool of water contracts in diameter, to becomes what looks like a top (the toy kind). Then, it opens back up, to about the same as the previous surface diameter, thought very slightly expanding out. The pool runs deep. After a sizeable distance, the pool appears to burst into a large cavern filled with water. I say ¡®appears¡¯ because there were only hints of it in the sketch. It pretty much truncates there. But that just makes it even more believable. This formation looks¡­¡­¡­¡­disturbingly familiar. I can¡¯t put my finger on it, but something reminds me about deep pools and sample collection¡­¡­ ¡°Say, is there a reason why the graph ends here? Do you know what¡¯s down there? Ah, let me guess, monster? Strong ones, right?¡± I rattle off a bunch of questions. ¡°Don¡¯t¡­know. Heard¡­monster¡­very strong¡­Kraken.¡± She rapidly shakes her head as if to get the image of a certain giant squid out of her head. ¡°Scared¡± She admits. Hmmmmmmm. ¡°When you came here, did you come from the top?¡± I ask. If my suspicions are answered, then I know what to do. ¡®*Nod*¡¯ was the answer I received. ¡°Where the monsters there weak?¡± I continue ¡®*Shake*¡¯ she returns. ¡°Erm¡­ weaker than the kraken?¡± This time, it was a ¡®*Nod*¡¯. Good, and bad. Now let¡¯s put two and two and three together. A water formation that looks like a deformed abomination of an hourglass, deep pool, more dangerous the lower you get. Throw in our commonplace limestone cavern and¡­.. ¡°I got it!!!!¡± I exclaim, startling Tapira and the ¡®fairy¡¯. ¡°Blue Hole!! That¡¯s where we are! We are in a Blue Hole! It all makes sense now! This is great, we now know where to explore and the resources we can find now!¡± I continue, disregarding their surprise. ¡°Where are we? On the island exactly?¡± I frantically ask. The ¡®fairy¡¯ proceeds to mark our location with an ¡®X¡¯, marking us to be somewhere in the middle of the top-like section of the Blue Hole, fairly (in fact very) close to the water. It should be freshwater up there, we can finally have water now! A free-flowing supply of water and not the drips and drops that come and go. But¡­¡­ ¡°Darling¡­ Doesn¡¯t that mean¡­¡± Tapira trails off, unable to speak our fears. ¡°No doubt about it, alright. We are magnificently and superbly weak. And to succeed, to fulfil our wishes and desires, we have to be strong. We shall make this a goal of ours. We shall claim the surface as ours, and dive down deep into the Hole and view its mysteries for ourselves. Plus, some water based monsters will never hurt.¡± I smile. It¡¯s definitely a long way to go, but a little dungeon can dream. Well, I am a big dungeon now, my birthday is already past. I am now officially one year old! Hurrah! ¡®Fairy¡¯¡­ why are you looking at me with such fearful eyes? Does my magnificence scare you so much? Buahahahaha, as expected of me! As the two dungeons made their way to make preparations for whatever delusions they had, not a single monster (¡­¡­maybe one or two, you never know) had seen the little glint hidden in the folds of the ¡®fairy¡¯s¡¯ skirt.
¡®Fairy¡¯ Sensei¡¯s Little Corner: (A.N.: this is a like a miny side story, where ¡®fairy¡¯ explains some of the workings of a dungeon. Since I will not have my entire chapter filled with expositions which will make people rage, I¡¯ll put it here. Do read it. This is actually important stuff. Plus her fragmented speech takes a little too long to explain everything. ) Today¡¯s Topic: Inherent Knowledge All dungeons are born/birthed/gifted with a pool of knowledge called ¡®Inherent Knowledge¡¯. It¡¯s part of the dungeon, and it cannot be stolen. But it can be taken, from sharing through dungeon Envoys or taken by the victor of a dungeon battle. Some of the knowledge may lead a young dungeon astray, as such the knowledge is locked until the young dungeon has met its requirements to unlock it. Needless to say, it¡¯s quite difficult, as most of the times it¡¯s quite dangerous knowledge. Sometimes, the blockage is even unnoticeable, causing the dungeon to not even realize what it¡¯s missing out on. Some theorize that dungeons are formed from the tossed away fragments of souls that do not make it to the afterlife, some say they are reincarnated souls. They all have their own merits but so far none have been able to prove how did dungeons form. Not even the dungeons themselves. The Inherent Knowledge differs from dungeon to dungeon, which is also another factor which makes dungeons unique. Some even link inherent knowledge to dungeon¡¯s imitated emotions. It is unknown how such knowledge is acquired, leaving one to only guess. Volume 1 Chapter 24: I shall never be Bronze! ''Fairy'' Sensei''s little corner: (A.N. Yeah. We are going to need this at the front if not this chapter will be confusing as crap. Well, not really. It¡¯s quite long, but¡­¡­ I find it interesting, so you might want to sit through it. If not, just skip to the line.) Today''s Topic: Placements Placements, or rankings, more commonly known as the Circles, are a way of measuring a dungeon, or a human, or any living creature¡¯s for that matter, level of strength and power. This ranking is meant such that newb humans will not bite off more than they can chew, and the strong ones will not waste their time on something that is not worth it, since weaker dungeons generally have lower value yields. This ¡®dungeon yield¡¯ will be a topic for another day. The circles are arranged in a concentric manner (sample: ?), the most outer circle being the ¡®Ring¡¯, and the inner circles the ¡®Placing Circles¡¯. The Ring is a determinant of the dungeon type, or type in general, is a crude gage to how strong a dungeon or monster is. The type of dungeon is already a good gage on its difficulty, since a Demon dungeon will be of a far greater strength compared to a mere Goblin dungeon. That being said, however, that the Ring simply isn¡¯t enough. An example of how a dungeon is ringed: a wolf dungeon would be of the Canine Ring. Our dungeon is of the UN Ring (UNRinged), since we are not placed yet. A dungeon of a never before seen type would be labelled U Ring (Unknown Ring) until the type receives an official name. Then comes the Placing Circles. The circles¡¯ colouration determines the circles¡¯ own placing with other circles, called ¡®Colour¡¯. The circle rank goes as, order in weak to strong: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Crystal, Legendary, Heroic, Master, Champion, Challenger. The entire system wasn''t just created in one day. When people found more challenging dungeons, or wanted to split up the ranks to have a clearer knowledge of the dungeon, they just added on. Since no one really bothered to follow the previous pattern, the ranking names ended up pretty fragmented. The rankings are set-up in such a way with 3 main blocks of exponentially increasing strength. The Metal (Bronze to Crystal), Seeker (Legendary to Master) and Legend (Champion and Challenger). Challenger because those who hold this title were called ¡®the challenger of the Gods¡¯, or so the stories go. It might not be true. Within the ranks, each Colour has its own number of concentric circles. Metal Colours, except Bronze, has 5 circles each. Bronze has 10. Seeker colours have 3. Champion has 2, Challenger only 1. The innermost circle is the highest(strongest) and the outermost the lowest(weakest). The numbering also increases as the circles expand out. Say for Silver, the innermost would be 1st Circle and outermost 5th. Example: Bronze of the 1st circle would be stronger that Bronze of the 5th circle. Most of the time, the rank is given, but it only applies to humans and other sentient beings. Monsters and dungeons have a natural ranking system of the same system(it is unknown who copied who), so that there would be no discrepancies. to get Placed, a dungeon must win 10 Dungeon Battles. This is a must. How the rank is decided is unknown. It is also exponentially harder to climb in circle placings, but that is once again a topic for another day. (As is the rewards for achieving such placing) That would conclude the basics of the Placements system.
¡°Tapira......what do you suggest we do?¡± I ask. Being honest, I feel slightly bored. It¡¯s two days since we finished our battle. Tapira has already completed her mourning of her fallen monsters by now. ¡°No idea. It¡¯s really up to you to choose. We have a couple of choices, but all of them are too dangerous as of now.¡± Tapira admitted. ¡°Uhn Uhn.¡± The ¡®fairy¡¯s¡¯ hand bobbed up and down. ¡°Placements¡± She said. Ahhhh, that might work. Just yesterday, she was introducing me to this placements thing. It took a little too long, so she simply transferred her knowledge directly to my core. Something about the perks of being a companion...... It also appears that Tapira was already placed, but only at the measly rank of Bronze of the 7th circle. Well, it¡¯s at the level where one cannot simply stroll in and expect to leave alive, but it¡¯s still very weak. And so, it seems like we have a goal now. Get my ¡®Probationals¡¯ done and get a rank. Oh yes, Probationals is just a term for those 10 Dungeon battles. Now 8 for me. But first, we have to get stronger. Much, much stronger.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Well, first of all, we have to check our loot. I mean...... we never checked did we?
Rewards for Dungeon Battle
DP 4000
Animus 200
Misc Gift of Spider Dungeon
Gift of Spider Dungeon
Altered Eggs [Silkworm] 10
Essence of Gift [Altered egg-Unkown] 1
Gift of Dungeon Trait Nest
*Whistle* Quite the haul if I do say so myself. That amount of DP will last me quite a while...... Hmmmmmmm, I think that I should grab 100 seeds to play around with. That would leave me with....7000DP. Nice! Next up, we¡¯re going to splurge a little. 200 eggs! *Sigh*...... only 1000DP left in my piggy-bank. But hey, 200 eggs you know?! Who knows what kinds of adaptations will we see. This gifted trait thing still confuses me.... maybe I should ask my companion? Oh well, just leave that for later I guess. Let¡¯s go! Our grind fest begin!
(3rd person POV) True to his word, the ¡®fairy¡¯ received pretty much little to no (sometimes) food. Her combat was atrocious, all fingers and thumbs in gardening and had absolutely no strength to chisel through the rock. The least she could do was be sort of an errand boy kind of duty, running around to deliver items, and even then she tripped many times on the uneven floor, spilling her goods. Thank goodness that the dungeon master had no physical body, or his face would have fallen off considering how many times he did a facepalm. There was even once where she even ate the poisonous vakiolum to sate her hunger, thankfully not enough to be fatal, but leaving her in quite the pitiful state. Still, he was unwilling to give up on his companion. With the help of Tapira, he launched Boot Camp Beevare, what he calls ¡®Are you starving but too weak? Then look no further, for Boot Camp Beevare will make you ensure you end with tank-tread six-packs. The emergency program for those who lack basic physical capability. Food provided!¡¯ Following that, he rounded up the weakest of his current forces, including his Queen and Consort (and ¡®fairy¡¯ as well), and dropped them into hell. It¡¯s not as if the dungeon master actually attended a military training camp, but for other camps, he did attend. To which he took them blew up their difficulty by..... a lot. There was no clock in the dungeon(s), but there was an instinctual sense for the passage of time. Thus, the dungeon master simply denoted one portion of time as ¡®¡¯1 hour¡®¡¯ and proceeded to name 24 hours as one day. The participants of this ¡°camp¡± had only about four hours of sleep, with another two hours spread out throughout the day as breaks. The rest was pure physical training. With the help of the bees and larvacks, they created weights from beeswax and the hardened dissolved stone of the larvacks. With a bit of trial and error, they even created gym equipment (a crude copy, eg if you consider a looks-to-be-going-to-crumble arch to be a pull up bar) for the ¡®fairy¡¯. They, of course, were well fed. No meaning in starving them when they did such rigorous training, they needed nutrition to build muscle, and not giving them food would defeat the purpose of this ¡°camp¡±. This was the only part of the camp that the ¡®fairy¡¯ actively looked forward to. The gleam in her eyes when the training ended and was food time, plus the fact that she apparently still had energy to run to be the first in line was a sure proof. To give a brief run-down of this two-week long camp, the larval (and some bees) training differed from that of the ¡®fairy¡¯s¡¯. For obvious reasons. There were 5 types of training for the larvae: Endurance, Burst, Stamina, Combat, Strength. Endurance was simply to train their exoskeleton, usually with something hitting it or under a large weight. Nothing lethal, of course. Burst was to train their reflexes, as well as train their speed burst for combat. With the help of the bees and largots, throwing stones at them for them to dodge. There were targets set up, if any of them could hit one of the flying stones in the air to knock down the target, they received extra food. Though, unknown to the dungeon master, it was the larvae¡¯s drive to impress him that was their main motivation, not food. But it worked out in the end, so no big deal. Stamina was where they had to be attached to a cart of sorts, and do laps round the dungeon. After every fixed number of laps, a weight is dropped into the cart. Thus, with ever increasing difficulty the laps will become, to train their stamina. Combat was.... self-explanatory. Simply combat training and nothing else. Under the guidance of leading militarvae and other combat experienced larvae, with bees for aerial combat simulation, they chocked up quite the battle sense. Strength was simply just trying to push a weight from a fixed point to another. Of course the mass of such increases over time (by adding more weights). The Queen in particular even managed to utilize her plentiful mana to some extent. For the ¡®fairy¡¯, she had a much more different (by that means tougher) schedule. Burst, Stamina, Combat, Dexterity, Strength, Dexterity II. For her, Burst, Stamina, Combat remained the same (they were quite similar) Dexterity was flexibility training as well as agility. Those tears and screams of pain when she was stretched to her limits and beyond were pretty terrifying, though it appeared to have some form of effect. Strength was modified, where she used her ¡°gym¡± equipment to train. Such as pull-ups or sit-ups and push-ups and other such mundane physical training. The dungeon master kept a close eye, making sure that she never slacked off. Dexterity II was currently not in effect. The first attempt at it resulted in her faceplanting into the ground at the double bars....so she was banned from taking part until the dungeon master saw fit. It¡¯s pretty much gymnastics, to those curious. And so....... this ¡°Camp¡± of his continued, until two weeks later, the tell-tale crack of eggs hatching resounded throughout both dungeons. It was time to end this little journey and welcome the new life that has come. It¡¯s going to be even busier from now on....... Volume 1 Chapter 25: The Fairys Story Pt 1 Her life.....it was a painful one. Her parents went missing when she was at the tender age of 2 (presumed dead), leaving her to fend for herself. In most cases, when parents are presumed dead, some other couple (or single) in the village would pick up the child. In most cases. Sadly, she was not one of those ¡®most cases¡¯. She was a child between a Fairy and a Shade, which was already very oppressed in their society. To rub more salt on the wound, she was an Albino, a High Variant. With no pre-recorded cases. Easy enough to say, there was fear, apprehension, and with those brings prejudice. The unknown breeds fear, and fear without power breeds scorn. Fairies and Shades grow up fast, at two years old would be the equivalent of a human at 7. Then, after the age of two, their aging would slow down, almost static, maintaining a very youthful constitution until death. In the end, she didn¡¯t die, at least. The very least. No one bothered to give her a name, no one bothered to even care. To everyone, she was an eyesore, a waste of space, only due to the fact that their cowardice didn¡¯t allow them to take a life that she lived. She couldn¡¯t even get close to the scraps left behind by the hunters and foragers, those were taken by the cast-outs of the village. The cast-outs that people still cared about, in the least. They defended them when they saw fit, only as a pitiful excuse just to inflict further harm on her. Treated like an animal, no, even worse, she was denied shelter, food, safety and education. The children bullied her, they ostracised her. Which escalated from mere socially and verbally to physically, before most children came to use her as a stress-relief toy and guinea pig to test their newly learnt spells. Which hurt, a lot. Especially when there is no doctor or healer to help you, no medicinal books available for you. The adults, they were worse. Sometimes, she would be tricked to go on a hunting expedition with the promise of scraps only to be used as bait and abandoned. But even then, the people of the village put up with her no longer, for a trifle thing which was never her fault to begin with. After two years of her parent¡¯s disappearance, she was chased out of the village with magic and arrows, following the death threat should she ever return. She was sad, angry, frustrated. She screamed at the woods which swallowed her parents, she yelled at the sky for the unfairness of it all. But, of course, no one replied. She then headed for the woods.
Normally, any sane person¡¯s first choice would be to head for civilisation, find a place to scrape by and survive. A bad life, but still a life. But after all the pain and suffering, death.....seemed a lot more appealing. No, she told herself, that would not be what papa and mama would want. Strangely, she held a lot of love for her parents, who took blame and abuse when they were still alive. She clung on to her only two bright years of her life, and forged her way through the woods. ¡®If I were to perish, at least let me share my grave with my parents¡¯ were her thoughts. Despite her being a coward, her love for her parents still shone. She never considered why the hunting and foraging group her parents went with came back with a lot less goods than expected. [1 Year Later] She had discovered that she was able to produce a strange, white dust. This dust could be thrown around, used to draw things and she could even move it around with a bit of effort (magic). Using this, she made the most of it as a defence mechanism, showering the forest floor with white when predators came, which would hide her well. She was slender, a little bit too slender, very slender in fact. she wore the exact same dress as she did a year ago, a backless one piece, coloured white by her constant use of her white dust. She had large red eyes, close to blood-red, but with a lighter tone, slightly glowing, but not enough to shine through the night. Her straight, flowing hair was long, very long, owing to the fact that she never cut it in her life, stretching all the way to her shins. It was so white that snow would feel grey when compared to it. Her skin was smooth and flawless, a testimony to her fairy heritage, of a very pale complexion (the Asian kind). She wasn¡¯t short, nor tall, for a fairy-shade half-breed, standing at 6-inches. [Pretty much a moe] If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Her voice was soft, like a feather falling (A.N.try Shiro¡¯s voice), but she never spoke, though she could, only making a sound or two once or twice. Occasionally, when the fog/mist was thick, she would sneak into the village and listen in to one of the lessons. Her parents once told her to study hard, and she wished to honour that. As scared as she was, her piety to her parents was stronger. Though, sadly, the villagers seemed to realize something was sneaking in, so they put up more guards, which didn¡¯t allow her to continue anymore. Though, by now, most fairies of her age are already out of the village (or stayed if they chose to) to pursue their dreams, many of them becoming a dungeon¡¯s Companion. She too, wished such as well. She was walking out of the woods, away from the village for the first time in her life, and soon, by a week or two soon, she found a dungeon. A goblin one. She started making a Companion contract with the goblin dungeon, before a skin creeping icky sensation took over, and she abandoned the contract half-way. Though, she still remained as the dungeon¡¯s companion, attempting to help the dungeon. One of which through suggesting the evolved forms she heard in one of her ¡°classes¡±. Which....worked, to some extent. With a clear goal it was obvious that this goblin dungeon was already far ahead of another dungeon. Under the influence of a companion, it grew, and so did its intelligence. And intelligence is not equal to wisdom. Trickery was a better word. Goblin dungeons start out strong, they were goblins, after all. A single lone female swarmed by a pack of flesh rending goblins stood no chance. But the dungeon was smart. It didn¡¯t kill the female, but dragged her deep into the depths of the dungeon, proceeded to make a goblin pump out of her. The details.......too gruesome. Just know that all her limbs were gone by the end of the day. The fairy, being of course a female as well, was horrified. She tried to stop the dungeon, she tried to convince it, begged it, but it didn¡¯t end well. As she was always listening to the dungeon¡¯s orders, the dungeon started to see her less and less as a companion, more so of an object, one which is supposed to heed its whims on any occasion. The dungeon didn¡¯t take her insubordination well, and proceeded to attempt to apprehend her. Trying to dash out of the dungeon, the fairy poofed out a plume of white dust. But she forgot that a dungeon sees all in its domain, any dungeon. *Gaah!*Iya!*WAI-!*Gufuu*goho* Such sounds filled the dungeon as the fairy was dragged by her hair and limbs, beaten in the process before thrown at the foot of the dungeon¡¯s core. With very horrified eyes, she stared at the core and could only utter two words. ¡°Please.......don¡¯t¡± The dungeon ignored her.
She was still pure, well, in the most biological sense possible. If you count being gang-r****d by seventy goblins and still remain such a way as lucky.....well so be it. *Cough*cough* She retched out what remains of the white fluid pumped into her mouth, remembering something the dungeon said as to leave the best for itself when it got a physical body. Her hair matted with dried semen, her face still slimy and fist and slap marks all over the rest of her body, not to mention what other abominations still stuck on her. Miraculously, her dress was still in one piece. She stared at the core, in its false sleeping state. She knew that the dungeon will not wake up, it was too cocky. It thought she would have resigned to her fate, just like the other had. All of this injustice brought to her in her life, for what reasons?! She questioned the unfairness of it all. All, because she was weak. Her parents died, because she could not fend for herself. Suffered, because she couldn¡¯t and wouldn¡¯t fight back. Chased out, because she was too weak to deny. In the forest, she never had a peaceful day, because she was weak. Now she was defiled, humiliated, another part of her stepped on and trampled in the dirt. She stared at the little shard she held in her hand. It was a sharp piece of a blade, found in the woods, which probably chipped off when the wielder was fighting. She could use it to end her life, and tried to do so on multiple occasions, but never finished the act. Now, it may serve another purpose..... I will not be weak.... I will not be weak. I will NOT be weak! I will not be weak! I WILL NOT! She plunged the shard into the core... Volume 1 Chapter 26: FairysStory Pt 2 ¡°GRRROOOOAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!¡± The screams of agony that none could relate to reverberated throughout the cavern. The dungeon turned its attention towards the fairy, only to find an apathetic face, dimly glowing eyes which appeared devoid of life, yet, her entire being screamed the will, not to survive, but to live. She tugged out the shard, and plunged it into the core again, caring not for her hand which was maimed by her very own weapon. Again, and again, and again, and again. Then.... silence. Without a dungeon, the goblins started to move in on her, but when they leaped at her, all they grasped was a puff of white dust. [the dungeon was too in pain to command the goblins] *Huff*Huff*Hufff*Hufff* she ran, for how long she did not know, but she ran. Goblins had a good nose (not as good as dogs, but still good), and would be able to track her down. And nothing would save her again this time. As she ran, she felt a little tug. Just the slightest of tugs, somewhere close to her heart. Days passed, which turned to weeks, then months as the tugging sensation became stronger and stronger with each passing day. She was compelled to head in that direction, and so she did. She walked and walked, before a very large tug came. Her body told her not to resist, and she had doubts, but followed her instincts and allowed the tug to pull her. Still remaining cautious, the tugging sensation became even stronger, until she felt her feet lift off the ground. ¡°...Eh?¡± before she shot through the sky as if dragged by a bullet train. Though travelling at such speeds, she didn¡¯t feel cold, nor any air resistance at all. Before long(which was really fast, like blink of an eye fast), an island appeared at her feet. It reminded her of one of the stories that the adults of the village used to tell, of a deep blue lake which hides many mystical monsters, as well as the riches they hoard. It looked exactly the illustrations. Too exact, considering the story was supposed to be generations old. ¡°!!!!¡± the ground came closer and closer at blinding speed, and before she could react, she slammed into it. ........... ............. ................Okay, truth be told, she didn¡¯t slam into anything at all. She just phased right through it, before a strong slap like sensation tossed her off her apparent course, landing her into a cavern. She took a look around in the cavern. ¡°Ssscchhrrrllllggggg¡± ¡°H-h-h-hi........¡± As usual, the spiders ignored her and proceeded to tie her up. (Dungeon Battle Later) She didn¡¯t know how long has passed, since she was blindfolded, and she couldn¡¯t ask, since she was (a)gagged and (b)spiders probably would not respond. Though, she¡¯d judge around four days has passed, considering her body clock. On the topic of spiders, she didn¡¯t seem to hear them anymore, after being tossed around a couple of times. Then, a slimy yet cool sensation was felt on her thighs, which proceeded to go between her legs, then to somewhere where one normally would not touch, and of course many other areas. Sometimes it was ticklish, sometimes uncomfortable. Of course, she squirmed and tried to escape her new captor. "No, wa-oi! Ga-stay still! Stop!" A new voice resounded in her head. A voice with a strange and warm quality, something which made her feel as though she had her parents right by her side. It calmed her, but just a bit. *Snip* A sound strangely familiar to teeth snipping something sounded close to her ear. Fear started to build....... ¡°Puah!¡± She let out a small, cute sound as she spat out her loosened gag. She waited for her hands to come free, and once it did, she ripped off her blindfold and proceeded to pummel her ¡®assaulter¡¯. Though her hands hurted more, it seemed. When some more strange creatures brought leaves, she was puzzled. But when they came closer, she realized that it held some strange kind of berry. It was brought closer towards her, closer and closer.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Hiii!¡± She yelled as she slapped it away. To begin with, she was never one of a strong will. She cried to sleep every night, and it was only her sudden outburst with the previous dungeon(goblin) that she ever noticed she could stand up for herself. Then again, any child tossed into an unfamiliar environment, deep beneath the earth face to face with spike bristling larvae with razor teeth would be afraid. And if one of those other scary creatures came by with what looked like a plate with side dishes(the berries), one could easily deduce what the main course was. So a scared child¡¯s natural reaction? Find a safe spot(a corner) and make yourself as small as possible. Which seemed to annoy the dungeon master, apparently.
After being convinced(forced) by the dungeon master, she gingerly took one of the berries. Then she sniffed it, the did a small swab with her tongue. Not poison it seems. she glanced again at the two dungeon masters. ¡°Hur-!¡± the large bee began before immediately bursting into a chorus of *hur*cough*hur*cough*. Strange...... Deeming no ill will visible, the fairy placed the berry in her mouth. And she bit down. And she cried. Now, one must understand that throughout her entire life, she never had a single decent meal. Or even a meal at all. Picking and eating grass and tree bark just to fill her tummy, sometimes going for days on end without food, drinking water that hopefully is bad smelling rainwater. During the cold, harsh winter, she would bury herself in the snow(she only had a one piece) and try to endure the cold. Sometimes, she might even find some fat and juicy leaves, though most of them were toxic and resulted in even more pain. Ironically, the very same leaves were the ones which allowed her to survive winter. Sugar was a luxury for normal fairies in the village, since it was hard to come by and always in high demand. Of course, for her who never had the chance to even scavenge the scraps, sugar was about as unobtainable as achieving the Challenger circle. And the manaberry, is very sweet. Her long since dead taste buds erupted, feeling every moment, every millisecond of this luxury. She was happy enough to die. Though, of course, it never came. Never, she thought, that there would be someone who was so kind. No longer restrained, she immediately filled her mouth with as much as she can, gratitude blooming in her chest, like a burning fire. Her tears would not stop flowing, she could not stop eating, because for the first time since her parents have perished...... She experienced joy.
Fairy Sensei¡¯s Little Corner: Fairy appearance- small child-like body, about an average of 7-8 inches in height. Coloration may vary. Some which can produce a strange powder like substance are dubbed as ¡®Pixies¡¯, although there actually is race called Pixies. All fairies are capable of flight, though if their wings are removed (through a Gift or by force), they will be unable to fly again until their wing regrows. In event of a forceful removal done poorly, or they undergo heavy trauma, they may never regrow their wings, and even if they do, never fly again. Most wings take after the models of dragonfly wings or butterfly/moths. But there are cases where fairies possess other wing models. Shade appearance- mature look and body, about an average of a foot in height. Dark in coloration. Knowledge on this elusive species is limited. Though there are confirmed records of Shades traveling from shadow to shadow, the exact limits and capability of the skill is unknown. They are incapable of flight Hybrids: when two beings of different races mate, unless one of them has a significantly dominant racial gene, they will produce a hybrid. There can be a few types of hybrids. The most common one is a [Halfling], pretty much the general term for one who takes fifty-fifty from both parents¡¯ traits. This is most commonly seen from humans, who are dubbed as the ¡®Blank Race¡¯ due to their ability to take in almost all of the racial traits, though watered down. When the traits are incompatible, it results in death. When a ¡®Halfling¡¯ is not produced, there are a few other possibilities. One of them is a ¡®Fumble¡¯, where the child does not inherit any trait at all, only the appearance. Another, and the more common kind, the ¡®Hit¡¯, where one only takes after one of their parents, though with a higher possibility of atavism. The last, and the rarest, is the ¡®Avitis¡¯, where one takes not only both traits from his/her parents, but both traits are much, much stronger and powerful. Many at times they exhibit one atavistic race. Atavism- a throwback trait reminiscence of the past powerful races. They are not as recessive as one might be led to believe, since some races are still alive today. However, most requires a parent to be one of those races to receive the benefits of such, but atavism bends the rules a little. Under special circumstances, even the child of two normal elves can become a high elf, high elf being the ancestor race. There is one last type, where the child of two different races is none of the above, but of a completely different race, though it will never stretch too far. These races receive much scorn, many names being ¡®mule¡¯, ¡®moreau¡¯ as there is no official name for such an event. Writers note: Termination and reboot Okay, I know I know. I have mentioned time and time again that I would complete this story. A promise that I am intending to keep. The issue is........ I need to study/MUG. Why, you ask. Well, being the last in cohort in my school doesnot help in my defense. Long story short, this is my final year (then a nice 3 month break....yay!) and I seriously need the time to sit down and study. With teachers, family and peers all hounding after me......yeah. Not the best environment for creative writing. That being said, I did make an ending for this.Stolen novel; please report. Also, with some of the (unusually) harsh critisism from my friends who I shared this with, yeah. I need to redo this thing. With a better fleshed out character and personality, smoother arc transition and better backtory and setting. I need time and wiggle room to correct, which I do not have. So............., please understand. I will be free around November, [my bad], so.... no need to bother with this anytime soon. For everyone who stayed with me and supported me, I wish to take this oppurtunity to thank you all once again. I will continue to write everytime I have some free time. This story, is not done yet............ I WILL RETURN!!!! I am an evil person You see. I finished my exams (holy sacred ball-sacks they were tough) and I am now free to write however much I want. But, the issue here is, I am a tad bit too ambitious. So I ended up with like..... 5k words just describing our dear protagonist alone. In point form. You get the idea. I''m taking so much time planning that this story may not see light till Christmas. On the flip side, I will be releasing a junk-food novel (aka a novel that has shallow plot and characters and little planning done. Mostly just to wring some writing impulses) whevenever I feel like it. THAT BEING SAID I''m not that evil. Here''s the prologue. ¡°Guess that¡¯s all I can get out of this guy.¡± Deep underground, a young teenager who appears not older than fourteen mumbles to himself. With a little sigh, he heaves the long dead man towards a towards a chute, labelled with big bolded red words¡¾D I G E S T E R¡¿. ¡°One... Two... Yosh!¡± With a little ¡®oomph¡¯ and a shove the large and muscular man was dumped headfirst into the hatch (conveniently at waist-height), but as the young teen turned around there was a soft *thunk*. Turning, he looked back to see the man¡¯s knee caught onto the rim. Shrugging, he gave it a little push and lifted the foot, allowing the leg to disappear down the now closed lid. Smiling contently, he Rumia-twirled thrice (WN: Rumia is a character from Touhou, frequently depicted as spinning in basically a T-pose but palms facing left and right. Or you can just Google Rumia), landed heavily on his soft chair and spun along the rest of the lab to his desk. There, monitors and machinery of all sorts lined the table, but at the centre were a row of petri-dishes inside an oddly-shaped capsule. ¡°Grow, grow my little children! Though I have been saying that but, now that I gave it a little thought, shouldn¡¯t I say our children? Oh well, I¡¯m sure Elly understands.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. He once again smiles goofily at the ten capsules. In the gel that he himself invented just for them, the results of his long endeavours were finally taking shape. Invisible to the naked eye, or perhaps even a low definition light microscope, the tiny dividing embryo grows. -Meeep ¨C meeeeeeep ¨C meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ¨C -Meeep ¨C meeeeeeep ¨C meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ¨C -Meeep ¨C meeeeeeep ¨C meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ¨C -Meeep ¨C meeeeeeep ¨C meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ¨C ¡°Oh, the buzzer. I didn¡¯t request for anything though?¡± He did a quick check, booting up the monitor closest to him (the CPU is always on) and his fingers tapped at the keyboard. Spamming the right-arrow key, he flipped through many documents and reports that the computer returned. ¡°I guess I am running out of subjects but....... I was pretty sure that...... Oh well. Works fine with me.¡± He then pressed the beak of the meeping Psyduck down and the annoying sound stopped. ¡°Urgh. Tis was a tiring day. Why can¡¯t I get more females or younger ones? The large dudes are so flippin¡¯ heavy.¡± He said that while massaging his shoulder. By himself, naturally. Then, deciding that he was done for the day, he went to the door to greet his surprise visitors. They wore a full body-based armour, with a gaseous support system that was independent of the surrounding atmosphere. Their armour were sealed with rubber, not a gap could be found. Some where white, some where black, but the armour was always the one uniform colour (WN: Not shade though. Probably could sell in an art gallery). In their arms cradled a PK-URDi-7 of the latest ¨C In a split second, perhaps trained by the many time attack events he played in his games, he made his decision once recognizing the threat. The emblem that they proudly bore on their chest, was that of an opposing nation in this war. He picked up his Goo-Gun, loaded a random cartridge (probably a failure from a previous experiment) and started splatting at random. Though that didn¡¯t help. Before the first globlet of Goo even left the barrel, a lead bullet found its way into his skull. Another into his right lung. Then another..... and another..... and....... Under the hail of oppressive fire his corpse was flung onto his desk and then off, knocking away the precious equipment. Even through the final bursts of bullets that were shot ¡®Just to make sure it¡¯s dead, ya know?¡¯, he tightly cradled the ten capsules, now drenched in his flesh and blood. And everything else you find inside a human body that has been put through a blender. Then, the people in armour hurriedly left. The heart and soul of the young boy who found a dream, and sought to reach that dream, was shattered. But only physically. Perhaps by God¡¯s interference or some sacred miracle, he found himself in ¡£¡£¡£¡£ ¡°What. In. The. World. Is. THIS?!¡±