《Wraith Eminence-an evil dungeon core》


 Prologue

    <h1 style="text-align: center">Prologue</h1>


    The Adventurers moved through the ruins of the castle, taking on the groups of orcs and goblins that shot at them from behind piles of rubble. The orcs dropped their bows as the Adventurers got close, drawing spears and axes and charging into melee. One of the Adventurers in bronze-leafed steel plate armor led the charge on the Hag and her guards; his divine magic met her dark spells in flash of radiant gold and purple energy. In the chaos of the battle, no one noticed a man in black leather armor split off from the rest of the party. Picking the lock on an iron-bound door he slipped inside, giving a quick look about to check for traps or guards. The room appeared to have been part of a mining operation under the castle but it now looked to serve as a treasury with crates of merchants goods, bags of grain and a wooden chest bound in steel with a large lock. Knelling down before the chest, the rogue spent a few moments in concentration as he felt for the gears within, oblivious to all else. Gold, silver and copper coins from across a dozen different kingdoms and from ancient fallen empires glittered in the light of a lantern lit on the wall. A scabbard, dagger, and belt inscribed with runes that looked to be magically enchanted as well as a few red, blue and orange potions.


    ¡°Looks like you green-skinned bastards won¡¯t be enjoying your loot much longer,¡± the rogue chuckled to himself and began stuffing his pockets.


    He stopped, his eyes going wide as he lifted a black diamond the size of his fist with what looked like a blood-red ruby embedded within the center of it. ¡°Amazing,¡± He whispered, slipping it into a pocket by his chest. His eyes went even wider and he gasped and looked down at the bloody blade emerging from his chest. He toppled over, and the hobgoblin who had managed to kill the rogue turned to the door it had silently opened only to take an arrow to the throat.


    ¡°Damn it! Who was supposed to be watching the rogue?¡± the man in bronze-leaf armor asked accusingly, turning to his party members.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    A man in red robes and a tall staff sheepishly raised his hand, ¡°Sorry Kern, I was working on keeping my focus for my [storm rage] spell and didn¡¯t notice him slip off.¡±


    The paladin shook his head, looking down at the fallen rogue. ¡°I always told you, Darren, that your greed would get you killed someday. Well, let¡¯s see what he was trying to steal this time.¡± He said shaking his head at the antics of the newest member of their party, it was so hard to get good quality rogues these days.


    They searched Darren¡¯s belongings and a woman in the party who had also been killed, leaving nothing to waste. The party''s ranger picked up the black diamond and put it in her satchel. No one saw the grin from a shadow in the corner as something or someone watched her pick up the diamond, unknowingly spelling doom for her and her party.


    A week later the entire party was dead in an inn along with everyone else in the building, the entire party had been looted and searched but the assassin had not found the core and was forced to report failure to his master. A young woman just starting her adventuring career boarded an airship with her mithril sword and plague wood bow given to her by her aunt along with a mysterious black diamond. Three weeks later the airship did not arrive at its destination and fishermen found its wreckage floating about in the open sea. The dark assassin, a short halfling smiled, the grin barely visible under the half-skull mask that covered his face, its two long fangs extending past his chin, his eyes and nose concealed behind a black mist. He and his own party of dark Adventurers found another ruin of a castle and murdered the goblins and orcs using it as a base; the halfling placed the diamond in the center of a cavern deep beneath the castle. The diamond began glowing more vibrantly, a deeply sinister dark purple glow that could only be seen because of the cavern devoid of light.

 Book One, Chapter Two: First Conquest

    Chapter Two


    First Conquest


    It took weeks for Wraith to expand his territory to the first rogue monster, although he had been able to find some new materials to understand in the meantime; obsidian had enabled him to give Ember a small spear, a short sword, a bow and arrows once Ember had been able to explain the concepts to Wraith.


    The bow was the most difficult to make since he didn¡¯t have any wood, but he eventually was able to make one out of flexible bone. The lichen he had found had evolved due to the mana that had been leaking from his core and now it glowed a deep purple color in response to changes in the environment; Wraith found that since it was in his territory, he was able to turn the glow on and off. Although this was of limited application, he had used this to give Ember spiraling colors all over his body to increase his intimidation and mystic. The iron he found wasn¡¯t very useful, he couldn¡¯t forge it into usable material for weapons as he still couldn¡¯t understand how that worked and it was too heavy to strengthen Ember¡¯s bones and still allow him to fly.


    They had prepared for the first challenge, Ember had scouted the area and told him it was a gigantic Spider Queen and her brood. Ember had practiced with his bow by having Wraith light up random patches of lichen and then Ember fired at them as they steadily grew closer to him, their lights turning off and on like an advancing opponent. Ember practiced hunting the bats with his sword and spear by flying up to their nest where the males would come forward to fight him before being stabbed through the chest, which had the added benefit of giving Wraith tiny boosts to his mana pool. The day finally came to issue the challenge by extending his mana an inch into the Spider Queen''s hunting ground.


    Are you sure you¡¯re ready for this?he asked for the fifth time.


    ¡°For the last time ,yes boss, besides if I die you can just give me a new body,¡± he said with a bit of irritation.


    Unless they decide to come here and destroy my core, you said yourself that my spores wouldn¡¯t do much to them since they are resistant to poison and it will take me a while to move you into your new body,Wraith countered.


    ¡°Do you want to stay within this tiny sphere of territory forever? You won¡¯t be able to do much on an adventure if we¡¯re too afraid to fight a rogue monster and her minions,¡± Ember said egging him on.


    Fine, he said grudgingly,but no showing off, like when you tried to do a summersault and skewer that bat it hit you so hard it knocked your skull off.


    Ember rubbed his spinal column at the memory, ¡°You fixed that issue, right?¡± he asked.


    Yes, now go fight the Spider Queen, Wraith said pushing his mana into the spider queen¡¯s territory, feeling her natural monster magic resist his.


    There was a scuttling sound and from a hole in the ceiling dropped hundreds of spiders the size of his gem. Ember began releasing arrow after arrow, sometimes hitting three spiders at the same time, but they advanced on him like a wave. He dropped his bow and drew his sword, spinning it through the air as he backed up into Wraith¡¯s territory, so he could get a boost to his mana from their deaths. The spores had little effect on them, only making the spiders slow down and occasionally seize up before getting back up and going on the attack.


    The spiders overwhelmed Ember, but their tiny fangs were useless against bone and he began thrashing on the ground squishing as many as he could. There was a flurry of movement as the spiders abandoned their attack and they heard the rapid click of claws on stone. Ember looked up to see the Spider Queen, three times his size advancing on him. He jumped to his feet and brandished his sword and spear at her. Now came the real fight, her pincers could snap his bones and her speed and agility made her hard to hit.


    She lunged forward, and Ember jumped and slid underneath her, having studied her the few times she had come out to hunt in her territory. He sprang to his feet and jumped into the air, pumping his wings. He wasn¡¯t fast enough. She turned and spat out a net of webbing which flew over him and brought him down to the ground. She stalked forward slowly, sure of her victim¡¯s defeat, but Wraith had added something to Ember¡¯s bones for just this occasion. Obsidian blades sprung from groves in his skeleton frame, shredding the web and he turned and stabbed his spear into one of her clusters of eyes.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.The Spider Queen went berserk, thrashing at the spear until Ember darted forward and stabbed his sword up to the hilt in her abdomen, before leaping and rolling away. She shrieked before finally collapsing and her spiders fled, and just like that the resistance to Wraith¡¯s mana was gone and he felt her mana rush into him as he converted it and pushed it back into her old territory slowly expanding it out to the left side.


    Wraith began absorbing the body, examining every inch of it as he did so and deactivated Ember¡¯s body as he began to modify it. The spider¡¯s pincers were incorporated into Ember¡¯s skull and the rapid web spinning organ in its abdomen in Ember¡¯s pelvis. The only problem was that the organ and poison glands needed to be alive to work and that meant he would need to eat now and require other parts of an active body like a ghoul. He wouldn¡¯t need certain organs like kidneys, liver or an appendix. Ember only needed a throat and a stomach to eat and a bowel tract to excrete waste. Wraith added two bags of thick skin with muscles to make them expand and contract like a pair of bellows. He filled them with the mushrooms and it increased Ember¡¯s breath weapon to ten feet. The throat stomach and bowel tract were visible through the rib cage, carried in a long bag of skin attached all along the spinal column, the inside of the skin pulsing with a green light.


    Wraith turned from his newly acquired territory to the one beside it, a monster territory controlled by a giant rat as big as the Spider Queen. The rat had a nasty row of teeth and had grown by feeding on the waste washing down from an underground stream. It had mutated by some source of magic, making its strength disproportionate to its size. It was able to move boulders, which it did when fishing in the river for a bit of waste or some dead thing that had washed downstream and under a rock.


    Have you rested Ember?Wraith asked.


    ¡°I feel pretty good now, why do you ask?¡± Ember said, stretching purely for effect, since his body had no muscles which could become fatigued. ¡°Wait, you don¡¯t plan on challenging another monster now, do you?¡± Ember asked panicking. ¡°We only defeated the spider queen yesterday!¡±


    You¡¯d better get ready,Wraith said instead of answering Ember, I¡¯ve already issued the challenge and it¡¯s coming this way, I suggest using your bow and staying out of it''s range.


    Ember muttered some choice phrases under his breath and leaped into the air. The rat ran into the clearing and jumped at Ember, almost reaching him before landing back to earth ten feet below. Ember pulled back his bone bow and let an arrow fly; the rats tail snapped forward and deflected the missile and the rat snarled, leaping onto a stalagmite, climbing up it to get at Ember. Ember continued firing arrows, but his quiver was soon empty. The rat leaped again, and Ember did a barrel roll in the air, drawing his sword and slashing at the rat¡¯s back leg, managing to score a shallow cut. The rat landed on all fours and snapped its yellow teeth in rage.


    Use your breath and web and try and incapacitate it, Wraith suggested.


    ¡°Try not to distract me, boss, this isn¡¯t as easy as it looks,¡± Ember said, rolling to the side and avoiding a tail strike which split a rock in two where he had been.


    Ember turned and let loose a net of web that pinned the rat to the ground, until the rat flexed and the webs started to snap. Ember fired repeatedly but the rat¡¯s strength allowed it to easily snap the webs and slowly advance forward. Ember gave up and flung his spear, which managed stick in the rat¡¯s eye. The bow wasn¡¯t deep enough to kill but the rat howled in rage. It swungat Ember and this time the tip of its tail caught him in the side, flinging him against a stalagmite. Ember lay slumped, unable to move his broken body as he lifted his head while the rat charged. Ember used his lungs to expel a stream of spores. The rate fell back coughing and snorting, Ember slowly rose to his feet as Wraith managed o repair his bones one by one, he raised his sword, intending to finally finish it. The rat suddenly flinched and rolled over on to its back.


    Is it dead?He asked, uncertain as to this new development.


    ¡°Nope. Congratulations, Lord Wraith, you just got your first vassal, he just surrendered. You may now enter his territory freely and his natural monster magic won¡¯t oppose you,¡± Ember said

 Chapter 3: Aggressive Takeover

    Chapter Three


    Aggressive Takeover


    ¡°You¡¯re not serious it¡¯s been one day since we fought the rat¡­¡± Ember began but was cut off.


    I¡¯m naming him Gnarl, Wraith said only half listening to Ember¡¯s ranting, he was busy and he was always talking to me, granted there was no one else to talk to and even if there was how could talk to them compare to talking to him?


    ¡°Whatever!¡± Ember exclaimed, ¡°You weren¡¯t even able to give me any upgrades after defeating him because you can¡¯t understand how the magic affecting him works yet. These two we¡¯ve beaten were maybe some of the weakest monsters in this cavern, how am I supposed to beat the rest of them?¡± He asked shouting.


    I think you should take another look at Gnarl, his upgrades are what will allow you to keep challenging more monsters, Wraith said a bit smugly.


    ¡°What? How where you able to affect a rogue monster? Their aura should prevent you from affecting their bodies even if they are submitted to you,¡± Ember said and leaped into the air and circled around the stream where Gnarl was knowing on something he had pulled out of its depths. The rat was covered in iron plate armor and its tail had tight metal rings with spikes attached to enhance his tail attacks. ¡°Your planning on having him fight with me? You know challenges are supposed to be one on one, right?¡± Ember asked.


    The spider queen didn¡¯t, Wraith pointed out.


    ¡°It was her territory we were invading, and they were only minions, this might work but other monsters might start to attack us if we start invading territories in¡± Ember cautioned me.


    I care little for the opinion of monsters, Wraith replied.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope this doesn¡¯t come back to bite us in the ass then,¡± Ember said with a sigh giving in reluctantly.


    I am going to challenge the monster serpent that lives in the cave behind the waterfall, its territory has lots of interesting plants in it and it should give me new understanding to upgrade you, Wraith said and began invading the serpent¡¯s territory with his mana.


    The serpent¡¯s response compared to the other monsters was, slow. He poked his head out of the curtain of water but didn¡¯t charge my territory right away. The serpent was fifteen feet long and as thick around as a stalagmite with white shiny scales and black glistening eyes. Its tongue flicked in and out as it tasted the air. The serpent ghosted down into the water causing only a few ripples as it slipped beneath the surface. Gnarl and Ember stood back at the edge of the serpent¡¯s territory looking at the water. There was an avalanche as the serpent landed down from the ceiling and wrapped around Gnarl the larger of the two. It struck at Ember with its fangs, but Ember managed to spin to the side and strike at it with his sword, he made a cut on its neck, but the serpent¡¯s scales turned the blade of the sword preventing him from making a mortal wound.


    The snake turned about and snapped at Ember again. Ember did a summersault over serpent¡¯s head and landed on its neck; the serpent thrashed its neck try to shake him loose, but Ember mentally flicked out the obsidian blades it had used to cut the spider web binding in his first fight. The blades cut into the scales and stuck in like barbs. The serpent began thrashing its whole-body releasing Gnarls who leaped on the snake biting into its flank with his long incisors the snake tried to retreat slithering towards the stream but Gnarl bit into its tail and began dragging it back. The snake struck at him intending to kill it with its poison, but the iron armor prevented it from piercing the rat¡¯s skin. Ember stabbed his sword down into the snake¡¯s spine and the snake began rolling crushing Ember with its body weight. It began twitching violently even as it crushed the body Ember was in and his soul spark was pushed out of it. After a few minutes of twitching the serpent died giving Wraith a burst of dark, earth and water mana from its body, and my own dark mana flooded into the new territory.


    Wraith began absorbing the serpent¡¯s body leaving half of it for Gnarl to eat. The plants grew along the stream using the nutrient-rich soil. The plants he absorbed all had alchemical and magical properties and potential; they were probably what had caused Gnarl to mutate. There were six different types of plants all with dark mana suffused in them which was why they were able to grow underground. He began identifying them even though he had never heard of their names before the knowledge came from somewhere inside him but when he tried to identify that part of himself, he found a wall blocking him.


    A bush with dark purple arrow-shaped leaves and tar colored bark was twilight wormwood. A plant with black leaves and a large petaled flower were black leaf rose which was filled with dark mana and a small bit of fire mana. Another flower with a black staked leaf and black cup-like blossoms made of petals was an abyss flower. A bed of black moss with white bell-like flowers growing from it was Frenn Moss was made of equal parts wind and dark mana. Another plant looked very ordinary from the top with green leaves and red flowers but its roots her slimy and black made completely of dark mana, this was Void-root. Another plant growing in the water had black silky stalks with glowing red spots on the stalks, the stalks were called Blood-herb made of water and dark mana.


    Wraith cackled with glee causing Gnarl and Ember to look towards his core in concern since they could hear him through their magical link. These plants would nearly triple his passive mana accumulation and the other mana types would increase his options for enchanting and build monsters in the future. Wraith looked around at his dungeon territory and eyed it critically.


    Ember, what can I do to make my territory more interesting and dangerous? Wraith asked.


    Ember sat down on a mushroom and Wraith released Gnarl from all orders. The rat had begun to wander all over his territory which now as his monster was also its territory. The rat began foraging through mushrooms instinctually telling which were edible and which were poisonous, most were poisonous.


    ¡°Well now we come to the topic of themes. Dungeons, at least ones that have class, have themes. Sometimes the themes will change through floors but unless they are a trash dungeon the theme will remain mostly constant. If your dungeon mana was fire based, I would suggest a volcano theme, obsidian walls, lava for lights, fire elementals and fire-based monster. A mixer is a dungeon with no class, they have a fire room next to a graveyard and an icefield. While good at keeping adventurers on their toes and prevents them from being prepared for elemental attacks it kills the intimidation and awes a good theme will get you. No one talks about mixers because they aren¡¯t impressive a dark ominous cave or an underwater maze is incredibly terrifying. But a castle partly submerged with lava coming out of its windows and icicles hanging from its parapets? Not trash dungeons, they are good for loot and power but nothing else and it will never attract adventurers regularly,¡± Ember said doing his best to explain. ¡°Once you find a theme you work in traps to suit your theme, when you get more soul sparks you create monsters for the themes which is another reason you stick to one theme, if you have a fire room and a water room you¡¯ll have to create separate monsters who can never leave the rooms which cut down on your defense and options.¡±


    I see so my main mana is darkness, so I have to have a darkness-based theme? Wraith asked a little disappointed in the inflexibility of his options.


    ¡°Not necessarily, you could mix mana types for different effects. For example, fire and water mana for a steam dungeon, water, and earth for a mud or silt dungeon. I would suggest making your theme shadow in the future, light, and dark mana this is a rare type of dungeon theme, so it will be harder for adventurers to predict you. You don¡¯t have any light mana right now, so I would just go with darkness mana right now,¡± Ember said. ¡°since you have plants with lots of darkness mana in them, I would start planting them all over the dungeon. Alchemists will want them, so you can lure them here kill them and take part of their soul for new minions. Dark themes can use pretty much any type of traps as long as they aren¡¯t light based on blinding traps or laser fields.¡±


    Ok, I¡¯ll start working on making the theme and your new body, tomorrow we challenge the snail monsters to the east of us! Wraith said. That sounded more impressive in my head.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have a head,¡± Ember reminded Wraith dryly.


    If you don¡¯t keep quiet the next body, I make for you won¡¯t have a head, he retorted only half-jokingly not having a body was something Wraith regretted although he didn¡¯t know why.


    Wraith got straight to work moving stone out of the floor he created a maze of ditches in his territory then opened a ditch into the stream filling the ditches with water so that movement across his dungeon floor would be restricted. The new swamp quickly filled with water and Gnarl swam through the swamp and up into the snake¡¯s old cave where he began tossing out bits of bone and snakes skin to make his own nest in the former monster¡¯s layer. Wraith began using his mana to create tiny sprouts of the herbs, plants, and flowers he had discovered. The bottom of the stream was filled with Blood Herb and the black water plant gave the swamp an eerie look as they lit up the underside with their red lights. The other plants Wraith set growing in the banks, the mana of the dungeon had the plants growing visibly before me as he turned from working on his theme to working on Ember¡¯s boss body. He used the structure of the snake¡¯s body to give Ember an elongated neck and added a tail and transferred the web gland from his hindquarters into cavity two feet up the tail, so Ember wouldn¡¯t have to turn around to shoot webs anymore but only whip his tail forward or the side. Wraith looked at the giant snails in the new territory he planned on conquering tomorrow, their spiked shells would deflect Ember¡¯s sword and spear and they could hide their vulnerable parts from by retracting themselves into their shells.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.??Wraith added a spiked club of hardened bone to the end of the tail. Despite preferring his undead form, he had to admit the snake¡¯s muscles had an advantage over Ember¡¯s skeleton frame which only used dark mana to operate and for strength in place of mana this meant that Wraith had to put a lot of mana into his body for him to control it.


    Ember had explained to him that as a dark mana-based dungeon, Wraith would want to find true undead, as a Lord Spark he could inhabit anybody Wraith made for him, but lesser sparks would need a mana pattern in a skeletal or corpse frame in order to operate it with any speed or effectiveness. Without this pattern, the undead would be slow and stupid since the soul spark would have to devote almost their entire focus to making the body move and would walk off cliffs and into traps because of their split attention. Wraith would either need to find undead and destroy on conquer them to learn these mana patterns or he would need to create situations where undead would naturally form, torturing people could cause their souls unrest so they would be unable to come back and would form as ghouls, if he could manipulate adventurers into betraying each other the betrayal could cause them to come back as vengeful spirits such as ghosts, drown victims in a particularly violent manner could give me will-o¡¯-the-wisps. Creating undead was an art more than a science and relied on a great deal of luck. All of that was irrelevant however until he was strong enough to actually deal with adventurers.


    Wraith covered Embers frame in thin muscle and covered in with the snake¡¯s white scales; he left the eyes empty and sunken and added the snake¡¯s fangs to Embers mouth, after absorbing the snake¡¯s venom his understanding in poison had increased by several ranks. He now understood the differences in the effects the poisons would all have, the spores of the mushrooms would suffocate an opponent while the spider venom would paralyze an opponent and the snake¡¯s venom would try to stop a living opponents heart. Embers new body was too heavy for his current wing size, so he was forced to double the size of them. The new body wouldn¡¯t be able to use weapons as easily but would be able to take a hit much better than it had previously. Ember was now a little bigger than Gnarl and his strength was now on par with the rats, but his ability to dodge a hit had gone down due to his larger and bulkier frame.


    Ember moved his spark back into the body and began moving it around smashing rocks with his new tail and practicing breathing his poison spray. Gnarl had spikes added to his armor with deep lines etched into them where Wraith added a thick slime of poison. Wraith pushed his mana into the snail¡¯s territory and the snails turned and began sliding over the ground as they moved in closer. Their shells were grey and brown blending in with the rock very well and could be mistaken for boulders apart from their spikes which looked like haphazard stalagmites. The slimy bodies of the snails were a dark blue with light blue spots, they absorbed the plants in their path and their slimy bodies reared up their four spiked eyes stocks twitching as they opened their mouth filled with rows of teeth.


    Hhissss, they chorused.


    There were four snails that moved to attack while the other smaller snails stayed back. Ember leaped up onto the ceiling and breathed poison out over the snails, but the snails didn¡¯t even react. One of them spat a glob of slime out at Ember and he let go of the stalagmite dropping down to avoid the projectile before snapping his wings out and gliding forward. He whipped his tail forward and smashed the shell of the snail in the lead. The shell cracked and began leaking blue ichor. The snail hissed in agony and turned its head around to look at the crack. It spat another glob of mucus on the crack and the mucus hardened sealed the crack.


    Gnarl charged forward and jumped onto the back of the snail and began slamming his armored head into the shell sending small cracks throughout the shell. The snail turned to spit at him, but Ember flew around and attacked him with his sword. It was more awkward to swing since he couldn¡¯t stand erect with his tail, but he opened up a deep cut in the snail before he abandoned the sword dropping it to the ground. It began retreating into its shell, but Gnarl broke off a huge chunk and blue ichor poured out. Gnarl hissed as the blood seared the flesh on his paws. The other two snails finally caught up and attacked in unison spitting at Gnarl. Gnarl rolled to the side and dove into a pool of water. One of the snails tried to follow him but the dirt wasn¡¯t as firm a foundation as the stone floor had been and it tipped forward and landed upside-down in the pool the spikes in its shell sticking in the mud holding it in place.


    Ember jumped forward and smacked one of the snails in its spiked eyestalk. The snail hissed and shrank back then lunged forward and took a bite out of Ember¡¯s side. The slime of its body burned through the flesh as its teeth tore into the flesh. Ember pulled back bleeding heavily. The two snails moved in to flank him, but Gnarl plowed into the left one and heaved up tipping the snail onto its side. Then he slammed his tail into the soft underbelly cutting through the soft flesh with ease with his spiked tail. He pulled back as his tail burned but the snail hissed and cured up as it began bleeding out covering the ground with blue ichor. The final snail backed up and withdrew into its shell surrendering.


    ¡°Congratulations my lord you¡¯re third¡­¡± Ember said sitting down in exhaustion.


    A bunch of monster beetles just charged into our territory, Wraith interrupted noticing the new threat, they are headed straight for his core!


    ¡°What! Damn it they must have felt threatened by our aggressive takeovers. Order the other snails to fight, heal me and have Gnarl guard your core,¡± he said and then exited his body, so it could be worked on without his own magical aura interfering.


    One of the beetles rushed down the path its head lowered, and small horns extended and that was when one of my first traps made a kill. The thin stone beneath the beetle gave way and it fell into a pit lined with iron stalagmites which pierced its unarmored belly. Seven more of the beetles rushed forward and around the pit trap. One of them stopping at the dead giant snail and lowering its mouth and slurping up the blue ichor appearing to suffer no damage.


    ¡°These snails must have been the beetle¡¯s source of food and we took over an already conquered territory,¡± Ember said flitting above Wraith¡¯s core.


    What are you talking about? Wraith asked I thought a monster¡¯s territory was protected by its mana?


    ¡°There are sub territories like yours, but they are usually not important because prey isn¡¯t usually a threat. When you took over the spider queens and the giant snake¡¯s territory you also gained a bunch of minor territories of things like small mice and rats and other things they preyed on, but since they were the predator when you took over their territory you automatically got their territory as well. I haven¡¯t mentioned it before because I didn¡¯t want you going after it yet but technically all the territories in this cavern are the minor territory of a powerful monster called an otyugh, it feeds on waste or other things that come down from the surface and fall into its pool when it gets hungry it will occasionally eat one of the other monsters down here, we don¡¯t have nearly the power or numbers to kill it or subdue it yet though.¡± Ember said his body glowing a deeper and deeper red.


    Finished, Wraith said making the last of the repairs to Ember¡¯s body.


    Ember flowed back into his body. His tail twitched, and he sprang up into the air unfurling his wings. The beetles were almost at my core and he quickly flicked his tail trapping three of them in a web of netting. The other tree beetles ducked beneath the umbrella-like covering of the giant mushrooms the suffocating poison not even slowing them. Ember landed down on the ground and a beetle rushed him. He breathed out his poison, but the beetle¡¯s momentum carried it forward and Ember scrambled to the side to avoid being impaled but one of the beetle¡¯s horns cut a deep gash in his flank. Ember bit into the beetle¡¯s legs and he yanked ripping it off. The beetle turned and tried to split his stomach open, but Ember twisted in mid-air but was unable to avoid the horns coming back down and they pinned him to the ground. The second beetled turned back around at a sound from its comrade and barreled down on Ember.


    At that moment Gnarl slammed into the beetle¡¯s side and flipped it over into a trap and another pit trap opened up and the beetle fell in its shell protecting it from the brunt of the impact but it was trapped down at the bottom of the hole. The beetle pinning Ember spat a green mucus down and it began burning his flesh away. The body shuddered and died, and Ember floated out and back to my core. The third betel was only a few yards away and it slammed one of its horns into Wraith¡¯s side and cracked his surface. Wraith screamed, and mana blasted out of his body and the beetle was struck by a dark miasma of magic that enveloped the beetle and its body dissolved in seconds leaving only its exoskeleton behind as its flesh rotted and was stripped away by the hungry phantasmal force.