《Seventh reincarnation is as a dungeon》 Prolog* Its dark and I can''t move. Yep I died again. So it should be my seventh reincarnation but there is something not right about this one. Even that time when I woke up in a womb I could at least move slightly and it fell wet this time I felt nothing. For now let''s test if I remember everything correctly from before this rebirth. Originally I was middle aged man that liked to play paper rpg and tabletop games. But certain day after playing up to third in the morning and drinking little to much I decided to go home on foot. When I was on the bridge truck going from the other side of the road turned right in my direction so I jumped from the bridge straight into the river in winter. I don''t need to ad how it ended. After that I meet a goddess, not that beautiful, nice goddess but old wrinkled overworked one. After that she got into explanation about mulltiverse. So from what I got to know about gods they are divided by the size of their domain. Supreme gods are responsible for whole multiverse, high gods for universe, gods for galaxies lesser gods for a planets. But because I was still somewhat in shock and suffered from a brain fart, you know my death and all that, I did call her lesser god and told her that she looks like Old Witch. I mean character from a certain tabletop game that is really powerful but, she misunderstood me and got really angry. it looks that even goddess have those day of the month, especially if their 89763th application for levee in row gets rejected. So story goes like that. I lived many lives before this one, and after each death I reincarnated without memory of my previous lives. In every of those lives I was overall good man, and from time to time women and once even a pigeon. Because of that I was able to gather enough of soul credit to get a special ability of my choosing on my next reincarnation. But because goddess got somewhat offended by my complements my cheat got chosen by her. And it was, being forever reincarnated and having my memories of previous lives intact. Someone would tell that its great and made me practically immortal. And he would right about it but it has its own problems. Like having hard time to get used to new set of rules every time and doing it without any cheat only as average Joe. My reincarnations gone like this:
  1. Human knight - died at the age of 23. I went into forest to hunt some feral goblins. Didn''t find Feral goblins but a whole tribe of goblins. Tribal man eating goblins. Got caught and roasted alive.
  2. Ork alchemist - died at the age of 25. I lived in rural province of certain kingdom. After few years I got contracted by a earl ruling it. In the end I got burned in my own workshop by my competitor.
  3. Half-elf court Mage - died at the age of 29. First world with rpg like window system. Day before my 30th birthday by accident I found Queen having naked party with two Grand knights at the same time. No she didn''t ask me to join, but started to scream for guards to apprehend the rapist. She mean me. Grand knight also started to scream how I tried to rape the Queen. I knew that King would rater execute me than tell everyone that his queen is a slut. So knowing that I will die I thrown fire ball and into the bedroom and a made Royal Roast with two sausages and four eggs. After that I tried to run but got hit with an arrow to a knee form one of the guards. Having to choose between getting caught, tortured and brutally executed, or killing myself the choice was clear. I decided to wait until king will get there and start his monolog. Old lecher fu..ing maids whole day, how jealous... I mean, how horrible. And I the middle of his talk I activated certain item I had with myself and gone kaboom. His face was hilarious at that moment.
  4. Dwarven Rune scholar - died at the age of 37. After goblins invaded my city I tried to retreat with rest of the population, but got surrounded by certain tribe of goblins. At that moment learning from my previous experiences I decide that going kaboom was better than to suffering. And I did it, going out with more than five hundreds goblins around me that got in the range of explosion.
  5. Lizard-men summoner, blood mage - died at the age of 45. World was quite peaceful until fire dragons attacked. Its most likely sound like I heroically fought against fire dragons right. Not at all I was going to but after dragons made forest I was going close by catch fire there was a goblin stampede. This time I didn''t had time to go kaboom, so the last thing I seen was goblin taking my shoes and running away with them.
  6. Human farmer - died at the age of 63. From time to time everyone needs time to catch breath so because of that I decided to become a farmer. Of course I done it on my own conditions. When I was 63 my "farm" was bigger than some aristocrats territories and I was even producing alchemical ingredients. I also passed my knowledge about magic, fighting, alchemy and enchanting to my family. But then one day third prince of Maya kingdom decided to take my twelve years old granddaughter as his 67th concubine. Of course I told him to scram but he didn''t take it well. He ordered his knights to kill my family and burn my farm. So I activated glyph that I hidden before my main door. It made swamp under them to stop them from moving. It was a special kind producing explosive gas. And after that I gave it small spark. And that''s how you make an royal roast. After that I made my family and servants pack all we had and run away while I stayed behind to stop pursuit.
After all my lives I learned than thought you will never be ready for everything you should still try and do so. And so after such a long live you can tell that my home become quite a fortress, a magic powered fortress. I send of my family by secret teleportation gate that I had used a lot of magic stones and connections to build. After that I destroyed the gate so no one can trace them and activated home defenses. Battalion of Earth golems, two Squadrons of wind spirits, another of fire elementals and even some automatons. When they got in position I activated all the traps and started to wait. Kingdom wasn''t ready for this.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. First battalion of knights in shining armors fallen in to the trap and got completely whipped out, second attack was made by an army infantry brigade and thought they did take heavy loses we fought to a standstill. They decided to ask for whole division to support them and after it came they started to push back my forces even when they were taking heavy losses. After they pushed me to the wall and started their preaching I done what I do best when my live is nearing its end. I made all the buildings that had whole division of army inside between them go kaboom. Story of the life finished and it looks that nothing is missing so is there anyone who can tell me what is happening with me now. Devil, god, tooth fairy anyone ?
Ding,ding
You connected to the god line, after signal chose god you want to connect with.
What the hell, this is something new. Chapter-1* If you want to contact Azer god of magic press one. If you want to contact Luna goddess of the moon and hunting press two If you want... I didn''t wait more and pressed one We are sorry but Azer god of magic is right now conducting magical experiments. You can press one to go back to contact list or wait for the signal and leave a message. Oh, hell I should know that it won''t be this easy. With bureaucracy nothing is. So I''ve gone back to the list and tried to contact one of the other gods. But it didn''t go well. Luna goodness of moon gone hunting, Likrus god of dead was in an opera, Bacchus god of wine went to visit new vineyard, Blistus god of fire was dueling Blatus god of Hell fires over whose flames are better, etc. I didn''t try gods that were responsible for any of the races simply because I decided its somewhat risky not knowing politics and diplomatic status of this world. After all I didn''t want any god sending his ass lickers after me. In the end I even tried Alkro god of reincarnation but the answer I got was: You are 52 837 738 in line please wait for your turn. Really! What is happening on this world for there being such a long line? Well this smells dangerous. But still this so much waiting would bore me to dead, and I think it''s too early for another reincarnation especially with such giant queue. So I did try some other Gods and Goddess. Each time I failed until I got to Calypso goddess of dreams and nightmares.
Ding, ding
I don''t know who or what you are but you better have really good reason to be on this line right now when I was going to take my beauty nap. Or you will never for the rest of you meager live be able to sleep peacefully. Now start talking before I really get pissed off.
- So yes, the thing I wanted no know is thing that you already asked yourself oh beautiful goddess. I would like to know what am I? - When you contact gods there are tree rules:
  1. Don''t piss off gods.
  2. Don''t make gods angry.
  3. Don''t make gods mad.
Also most of them like some god old ass kissing.
Stop with useless ass kissing. I''m not in the mood for that right now. But what kind of stupid bastard you are? To not even know what you are, when you were able to get on this line, are you so useless that you can''t even open your status? Waaait the minute you are one of those reincarnated aren''t you. Now I''m little interested, for now let''s see your folder.
Ups it looks like I broke all tree rules in one go. But for now it looks like she got interested in my past so I should be mostly ok. So it''s one of the worlds with support system hm. That almost guarantees some degree of developed magic. Existence of god of magic is big give away of that if you think about it now. It also means that those living on the planet should know how to use the magic. My original world had god of magic but no one knew how to use it at least officially, publically it was only in stories but who knows the truth hidden behind scenes? So when goddess is still occupied I should take a look on my status.
Don''t even try it. Now that you already stopped me from my nap you better do not try to spoil my fun.
- I wouldn''t ever dream to do it.
And you would never again be able to.
Mommy, all seven of you, your son is dogging bullets here. I don''t want to be tortured in nightmares or worse. That''s why I tried so many gods before her. Gods of dreams can be really terrifying when angered. In one of my previous lives I did heard a story about how one of the gods done something to offend god of dreams and nightmares there. After that he was never again able to sleep. After some decades when they meet again that god died simply from hearth attack by only being greeted by that god of dreams and nightmares. I''m desperate here to stay alive and sane while dancing on the line over minefield on monocycle and balancing egg in spoon hold with my mouth.
You really did piss of that old harpy didn''t you? What you didn''t know is that she also sucked your luck out of you. That''s why you had all those unlucky deaths. But after all this time it looks like your luck finished returned back to normal.
That old witch, I should known it was her doing normally you wouldn''t be so unlucky to get killed so many times so young. How many times you can throw a double one on twenty sided dice? If I get a chance I will pay her back.
You there stop dreaming about vengeance and start to listen. Or maybe you want to enter eternal dream?
- Yes ma''am, no ma''am I''m listening - Carefully, remember don''t piss her off.
So hear me. First you are a dungeon, from your data I see that you should know what the dungeon is to some limited degree. Really what the hell you were doing when you should be studding? Watching princesses bathing? Don''t try to deny it. I have it all in your folder you pervert.
Every poor Alchemist has times when he dreams of marrying into riches. And that princess really had those 90-60-90 sizes, blue eyes and long blond hair. But not all things were so great. Do you know how much I suffered when I discovered that ninety nine percent of female elves are practically flat, no those small things don''t count. Almost all busty elves stay in the central parts of their countries, and thought I tried many times I was never able to see one.
Did I allow you to talk you perverted dog, If you like to day dream so much maybe I should send you into dream where you marry an gay giant and have your first night, perverts like would like it, won''t they? No? Then shut up and allow me to finish so I can go back to sleep.
Where was I, ah yes dungeons. So yes, you reincarnated as a dungeon. There are also other types of dungeons ones with hive minds, primal and awakened. If you thought that you are only one of your kind then sorry but you are not. At most you are somewhat rare one. Dungeons are simply one of many races that exist, thought one of the high ranked ones, and not even close to being one of the weirdest one.
How you will go around your business is all up to you. Information about what you can do will be in yours status, and you should know how to use it don''t you. That would be all for now.
- Uh, yeah. Tank you o great goddess. Then I think I should start with all this dungenering, so if you excuse me I won''t be taking any more of your time. - I better scram before she decides that she will play some pranks on me.
Wait for a second. I just looked in to the place where your dungeon is, and I''ve got small proposition for you that will benefit both of us.
Most likely more her than me, but its situation that you either do what she wants or die in pains so...Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. - Of course I will listen to it.
So then from me you will get one low quality plant and one small animal so you can get faster start. In exchange you will own me another favor, what do you say?
- Another favor? Are there more than one?
Of course there are let me count. First you stopped me from taking my nap. That is practically a capital offense, so be happy that you are going out easy. Second you got explanation you wanted. And third will be this deal, won''t be it?
- Yes it will be - What the hell it''s worse than talking do insurance dealer. Before you even know not only you got hooked but you are already gnawing at a fishing rod.
So we got a deal. You will be able to chose your new additions by using yours status. Now before we finish some trivia about world and place you will end at. Around twelve hundred years ago started a war between some countries that no longer exist. They were each supported by sun pantheon and night pantheon. Later more countries got involved. And even later some of the racial gods whom those involved races were followers got involved. In thousand years lot of countries got destroyed, population slaughtered, races exterminated and even few gods perished later came peace. Not because of diplomacy but because between borders of nations there is a lot of wilderness now, and survivors were too exhausted to continue. But now mere two hundred years later different races are stirring up for round two. Some races didn''t even stop fighting for a moment. And you landed in one such hot zone.
To be more specific mountain range you landed in goes from sough up north where it starts branch out to east and west. West is also direction in which your holes entrance is directed. For the races in you surrounding you got two human kingdoms to the south, to the north in western mountain chain you got Dwarves and in eastern one Drows. But those are only races that will at most want to use you and won''t kill you immediately. Now for the worse part. Straight west of you there is group of mountains where Duergar live those guys will slurp you dry if they will get the chance. But to the east you got High Elves that will kill you without question, those guys even backstabbed and try to this very day exterminate Drows and Blomers, so if they find you, you are royally screwed, as you are now.
Yawn, that''s all for now I will call when I will need something. Goodnight. And don''t forget light up your core so you will see something in that dark hole of yours, you lard loving pervert.
Uff, that''s why I hate contacting gods. You always finish being entangled in their webs, or maybe it was because that time when I was dwarf it was a spider goddess. Well for now I can only hope that she won''t try to make me commit suicide. Its new life, it''s too early for reincarnation. Its looks like folks up on the surface got screwed pretty badly in their wars, and some of those are still going on. I don''t know how close I am to any of those nations, thanks Calypso. But knowing life, intelligent or not, there is something ready to eat me close by. My long time Surviving plan is pretty easy and can close in three points:
  1. Get stronger so no one will eat you, can dungeon core even be eaten?
  2. Get strong enough so when discovered by others they will want to talk first and not make my core into necklace.
  3. Get strong some more, overkill does not exist.
Then as that''s out of the way time to start up this dungeon business. - Let there be light! - Fuck, not so bright, now to dark get it little brighter, yes perfect. Now I can look around. Hm, it looks like round room around five meters in diameter with me in the middle. But neither bottom of the cave or top of it is flat, for me they look like craters from an explosion, but they are to smooth for that. So most likely my core absorbed all this stone. And right now my purple spherical fist sized core is inside tree meter high half transparent blue crystal like pillar. It''s called azulit and is highly valued as material for jewelry so there may be a lot of people that will come into my dungeon with pickaxes just for it. Entrance to room is around a size where child can crawl through so it''s not bad for now. As for now no one should get interested in it. So the time has come for main attraction, open yourself status.
Core name
none
Dungeon name
none
Titles
none
Dungeon rank
1
Core level
1
Avatar level
0
Core barrier integrity
100%
Mana
50k/100k
Mana generation
3450/24H
Mana absorption
0
Soul power
0
Attributes
*Intelligence
237
*Wisdom
345
Intelligence and wisdom is like I thought they will be, after all those are attributes of the mind so it''s not weird for person that reincarnates few times to have them quite high. Names make sense, titles to, gigantic mana also makes sense for a dungeon. So that levees tree things to learn.
Core barrier integrity
Core barrier is a defensive mechanism that creates mana barrier to defend core from any attacks.
Not bad at all no one wants to have dirty hands on my heart, brain, kidney like core. And mana barrier makes sense in case of dungeon, with its big mana reserve it should be able to neutralize quite a lot of attacks. Now for the other one.
Mana absorption
Mana released by living beings existing in dungeon or ceasing to is absorbed by dungeon.
Soul power
Every soul is made from ego and soul power that surrounds it. Thought ego cannot be toughed soul energy is released in the moment of dead or when alive in much smaller amount as its always generated but soul can only hold limited amount of it. That limits increases when being become more powerful. It helps dungeon with interference into its minion''s natural growth.
This is something new, and I will need to experiment with it first before I fully understanding it. There is also few different levels to get, it looks that dungeon is like few bodies with single mind. Status finished for now, time for skills.
Race skills
*Absorb Beginner
*Create
- live Beginner
- inorganic material Beginner
- Liquid Beginner
*Growth Beginner
*Skill giver Beginner
*Appraisal Beginner
Acquired skills
Blessings
Other
Absorb
Absorb mana and mater, in case of mater it can be transformed into mana. Absorbed matter can be released. Skill can be only used when there is no enemy in surrounding. Acquiring matter ability 5%.
Create
Use mana to create object of yours choosing. Object may wary from simple stone to whole house and even new live.
Growth
Quickens growth of young organism into its fully developed form.
Skill giver
Use soul power to give skill to a creature or contracted beings.
All skills are straight forward and what you would expect from a dungeon. So it looks like it''s time for work. So here we go. Uff, ehm, ara how the hell do I even move from here? Chapter-2 - Little left, no, slower, yes that''s better, now right, and up, and down, got it! - Flying is really hard piece of bread when you have no one to teach you how to do it right, no she whose name shall not be spoken does not count. Itried to get my concusses from core for what I think was at least few hours only to discover that I could do that only in my territory, and room in with is my core for some weird reason was not part of it. After some more time used on experiments I did find out that I needed to use absorb skill to incorporate core room into my dungeon, really where is manual for this thing I would love to make complain to god responsible for that but it looks like there isn''t one responsible for dungeons. Those primal and hive dungeons most likely know those things by instinct and awakened dungeons know that from experience, its only poor rein carted dungeons that have it hard sniff, sniff. But now I got some control ever my consciousness and can get it to move around the way i want. I also discovered that thought I can be invisible while floating around I also can show my presence by becoming orb that can switch colors, an flying disco ball, thought my natural one is purple and only reason I know about it is because crystal pillar that grows around my core can partially work as mirror. It looks that now I will need get to work after all my great underground kingdom wont build itself especially that right now it''s only my core room and small, around tree on tree meters, entrance cave. Standard trope of dungeon is making them an labyrinth that will enhance all so called "intelligent live" to come or crawl inside and then start killing, robbing, and plundering, no rape for the most time, what did someone thought that there will be an elf on goblina action? Sorry but beside some people with special tastes there for the most part there will be only reverse. Now returning to subject at hand those ways are the way that those primal and hive dungeons do things, this is they instinct they lure, they trap, they eat. But from what I heard there is a phase when some dungeons stop doing that, and they reinforce they forces not allowing anyone to enter sometimes I heard that the monsters worked together like an army. This most likely happen when dungeon awakens to become fully intelligent, ablest this is what I think after adding my own knowledge and what goddess told me about existence of different kind of dungeons, how this happens I don''t know do they level up, gain enough intelligence and wisdom or maybe they eat enough brains, the thing is that at that moment they are already quite powerful and only grow stronger. I decided to go way of royalty and ditch carrot and mace approach for building my own small kingdom, who wants dirty thieves in his house anyway? So I loosen my fingers, figuratively speaking of course, and get ready to work. After opening my skills I enter my life creating menu and chose plants, there were are only tree positions an completely normal moss, Luminas mushrooms that emit low level light and bonus choice that I most got from the goddess. So what shall I chose for the bonus plant should it be an rose or maybe daisy. Oh choices, choices why are you so hard, of course it won''t be none of those. After all I was once an alchemist, maybe I was average and lived in rural dukedom but I still have some knowledge about plants that most likely don''t exist in this world but for this choice I''m only limited by my knowledge, so it was quite easy to find an plant that will be quite useful for me and its name is pop grape. Its name maybe not grate and its only low quality alchemical ingredient that most alchemist won''t even use but is also has its good sides. This one comes from time I was an farmer in that world it was treated as weed, but I done some research on it. Every flower will absorb mana from air and change into tree to five seeds that look like blue grape, every of this grapes holds condensed mana so each seed if eaten in its fully developed state allows you to help regenerate mana or can be made into mana potion to help regenerate mana, that kind of weakest of the weakest but it''s still something, up until now its grate is it not, but then there is question why its treated like weed and that''s because time to gather its fully grown seed is only one hour before it goes poof and mana disperse completely from seed. But if you take it at right moment it can be stored for long time. There is another thing that it will help me with right now and it''s also tied with my research but this time about differences between animals and monster and why farm animals don''t assimilate mana in the air. All live beings generate mana, some can use it and others not, but normal animals are unable to hold mana in their body and because of that they won''t evolve into monsters in normal conditions. They can only change by digesting a lot of mana by food, there was that time when while being an farmer I experimented on old bull that could die in few months at most. I feed it with pop grapes for some time and when I did gone to find it one morning I found two death cows with having their behind ripped apart, after that I barely finished of bull turned monster with my own ass intact. But from that time I learned lesson that will be helpful right now and that is if I use pop grape as source of food for both creatures and animals in my dungeon that should speed up they process of evolution, and I won''t even need to care about gathering them as animals will learn after some time, the smarter ones at least, when is best time to eat them by themselves.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Now that I finished this part it''s time to go to the creature part of the menu and get my other bonus. For creatures I have an Murbak, its something like fat finger long larva, an snail and a spider. On first glance you can tell that its small ecosystem with two plant eaters and one predator. Best addition to it would be an omnivore, simply because it will be biggest creature in my dungeon and it would be important to my future, but at the same time it could be somewhat hard for it to survive only by hunting especially on beginning before ecosystem fully grows. Originally I wanted to get an porcupine, you know future possibilities of flying poison needles, but it was to big so I gone for smaller size and chose hedgehog, but I don''t have any intention to color it blue thought I can''t tell if it wont one day be rolling. Now that we got our bonuses out of the way it''s time to make this place bigger, right now it''s only my core room and entrance room to the west. Dungeon is practically like my body so I have no problem with moving it around to certain degree that''s why I started by moving my core room a lot farther away from entrance, we don''t want any dirty hands on my core do we. Rooms I made cost me around five thousands mana each for five on five meters and being up to tree meters in height. After absorbing material from places for my new rooms I created them. I could go and create rooms from begging and stone would be changed into mana to lower costs but I decided that for now I will store material from rooms and if there will be need I can always change it into mana. After my changes dungeon gained two new rooms after entrance room from last of them there was northern and southern tunnels going out. Northern one will take you into blind corridor that have two rooms where after first one second is in eastern direction, in this second room I plan to make nurseries and make it my experimental ground. Southern corridor is an mirror reflection of the northern one only having one more room that is my core room. with those simple works my mana gone down by thirty thousand living me little more than twenty one thousands mana to work with on the rest. Now it''s time to release the beasts, or at least allow them to crawl around. For my experimental breeding ground I chose last room of the northern tunnel, it isn''t really that more dangerous to have it there than having it before my core room or maybe someone thinks that an hedgehog can save me, maybe from really drunk goblin that will mistake it for an apple but such thinks don''t happen in real life beside that one time with fruit spider but its only an exception not an rule. All of my current rooms beside my core room have floor made from earth while walls and ceiling from stone, it''s quite good for what I need it for but still i will do some changes to it making layer of earth better for plants and get some holes in the wall with layer of dirt for future nurseries. After completing those changes I started making few patches of moss, some pop grapes creepers on the walls and added few luminas mushrooms for some light. after that I activated growth skill to speed up plants in their expansion, it slowed my mana generation but it''s still more economical than doing all the waiting. After few hours of singing about big breasted girls and farming, every farmer goes sometime to an inn and when men get drunk they sing so it''s all good, I decided that there is enough plant life to add some herbivores so I added few groups of Murbaks and snails, holes i previously made in the walls become nurseries that were be safe from predators. After another turn of waiting and bunch of dwarven songs about drinking and working i decided there is enough herbivores and it''s time for some more aggressive fauna. So here comes the spider and my personal star the hedgehog, and also their nurseries. With this my works is complete so now its waiting, oh well at least i have something to look on for time being. After another few hours, thought I don''t have clock after doing some mystic arts called mathematic I used my mana generation for time counting and it looks like it already was more than two days since talk with goodness. There could easily be seen an ecosystems pyramid than formed in my beast room, on top was of course an hedgehogs, living in most as pair of adults plus young ones. Spiders where somewhat of an surprise, originally I thought they will be one more snack for hedgehog as their size even counting with legs was not much bigger than an snail and they poison would barely make humans scratch the place where they were bitten, I don''t know maybe it simply that kind of spider but they against a norm were not an solitary ones, so there were times when in group they attacked and sometimes killed young hedgehogs once I even seen big swarm killing one that was grown up thought after that most of the swarm was eaten by other hedgehogs. Snails and Murbaks were only an prey I didn''t see any weird quirks from them for now. Aggressiveness of spiders and theirs swarming tactics did really surprise me, but they were not the only ones as there were also times when different families of hedgehogs worked together to stop bigger spider swarms from becoming an danger for them after that one adult died. Was it an dungeon itself or maybe great concentration of mana coming from dungeon core that made them so adaptable, this was something I never heard about but I also were never truly interested in dungeons up until now. For now it''s a thing that I will need to investigate in future when there will be more specimen for me to look into, for now there is only waiting to see what future will brings. Chapter-3
Core name
none
Dungeon name
none
Titles
none
Dungeon rank
1
Core level
1
Avatar level
0
Core barrier integrity
100%
Mana
98341/100k
Mana generation
3450/24H
Mana absorption
0
Soul power
3
Attributes
*Intelligence
237
*Wisdom
345
Race skills
*Absorb Beginner
*Create
- live Beginner
- inorganic material Beginner
- Liquid Beginner
*Growth Beginner
*Skill giver Beginner
*Appraisal Beginner
Acquired skills
*Sight
- Mana sight Beginner
Blessings
Other
Right now it was almost four weeks since I become an dungeon, there weren''t any big changes. Thought there were some smaller ones and some discoveries. When I got bored of looking at how by little beasties are killing each other, I decided to try to regain one of skills from my previous life so called mana sight, it''s an skill used to see mana as the name tells itself, this skill is really useful for mages, to see how their spells work when used and to try and improve them later or by enchanters to create better quality items. Thought there is not that many people obtaining this skill because of it bad press. In history of many of my previous worlds there were many young, arrogant and impatient mages that blown their eyeballs when concentrating mana in their eyes without having ability or help of someone who cold manipulate mana outside if something starts going bad, this and also existence of it in form of spell, and there were sometimes items with this ability that could be bought. I personally never had problems with it in my previous incarnations, but this time lack of mentioned eyeballs was quite problematic for me. So I took more time for me to obtain it than normally, and before learning the skill I was flying as purple ball with eyeballs sticking out I think one of hedgehogs that seen me got heart attack. But sill it was worth to obtain this skill, thanks to that I learned interesting things about my abilities. When I summon an creature thought I form it from mana I does not have an mana itself at that point. Another thing is that they come to be being souls, when I observed one hedgehog there was a moment when his mana after growing up to certain level vanished. I looked in to some other creatures and it happened every time so I decided to go on killing spree and ordered my creatures to kill some other before and after mana vanishing, with that I was able to deduce that vanishing mana become an soul, also that point of soul power I gained helped out me with that question. Right now I''m trying to obtain soul sight to help with further observation of this process but without success for now. Skills are not something easily obtainable and even if you know how do it faster every advancement will take longer than the previous one of course there always were and will be geniuses that brake those rules. Next joyous occasion was appearance of my fist evolved species, it was an swarm spider. Swarm spider Spiders become part of hive mind commanded by an single female. Females were around size of a hand and males half or less. their poison thought still week become stronger and if there would be enough of them baiting together it may become dangerous. But reign of terror of first swarm was short lived as practically all hedgehogs in room gone to attack it, there tree dead hedgehogs after that, one killed by female spider, but in the and they won. After all current generation of hedgehogs even without evolving when grown up were more than thirty centimeters long. This accident showed me also that evolved species can''t be hold in original nursery room as they may one day completely destroy its less powerful neighbors. So I made room before this one also hold creatures and plants in it and also ordered for all my evolved creatures to come into it in future. After some time flew by there was another evolution, this time it was snail from the second room that become an sticky snail. Sticky snail Its mucus is strong and fast working adhesive. It was quite funny to look at spiders sticking to its shell or being stuck to ground until they got rid of their glued leg. What was interesting is that snail with spider stuck to its shell weren''t attacked by that spiders swarm. Murbaks also changed quite a lot growing from finger sized up to hand sized in grown up form right now, and their evolution thought not much bigger created armored chitin shell around its body and it was able to curl up. Yesterday one of them while being on the wall curled up on the wall and rolled through pursuing it spider swarm smashing right into female and crushing her. I still don''t know if it was accident or not. This all made me think, as there is not much more that I can do right now, there is process of evolution and species advancement so why they happen. From observing my creatures I think that evolution may start with adaptation, when beast get stressed enough by the same type of danger it will adapt and if that will be not enough there will be evolution happening. If this theory is true that would allow me to make species evolve forcefully like sending my spiders into room full off poisonous plants so those witch survive will gain immunity to poison or maybe become more poisonous them self. This is all for future when I will have more mana to waste and more possible hazards to create. But how evolution differs from advancement? It''s should be quite simple, Goblin can evolve into poison goblin but it still will be goblin on its base but when it advances into hobgoblin it base species changes. And that''s all there is to it. Now that is out of the way its time to concentrate on amendment, from what I heard it should happen when you surpass limit of your own species but I never was able to confirm it. Only sure thing is that the more powerful original species is the harder it get. I heard about few high humans being alive while there was only one legend about giant being able to advance. From my own experience I know that hobgoblins can be find one in every hundred or two of the goblins, if you are lucky or unlucky like me.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Now what time do we have, ah yes fifteen mana to hundred thousand. It''s here, time to get my dungeon rank up start counting, five, four, tree, two, one!
Ding, dong!
Your dungeon advanced to rank two.
Wait the mana minute here, where is my reward? No bonus, no skill advancement, no new species? I fell wronged here let''s call godline, system is broken here... remembering her witch shall not be named... maybe better not. Oh, well only thing that changed is my mana limit got twice as big and my mana dropped to fat, round zero. Its looks like more boring waiting for me... brrr... what is this feeling? it can''t be, I''m getting invaded! Oh hell, I''m not ready for guests, let''s see what is going on first. What welcomed me was bunch of one horned, six legged, dark blue beetles. Beside the horn, there was also pair of sharp mandibles and sturdy carapace on them, it wouldn''t be that bad if not for that each was size of grown man hand and there was thirty two of them. Add to that one that entered right now, twice as big as others and with spikes all over its black carapace, this was most likely an evolved one and taking in consideration behavior of others this one was an alpha, thought I''m not sure if it was an male or female, it''s time for appraisal to shine.
Name: none
Race: Spiked beetle
Level: 34
Hah, is this all? It looks that my appraisal is to low level to get more information on species that don''t belong to me. But this changes one thing about this situation. Me wants beetle, bug version not juice one. I will start diplomatically. - Why did you come here and what are you looking for spiked beetle? I doesn''t even look at me, shining ever its head. I think its sniffing? - Hey wait you bastard, you are not allowed to enter further! Time for last ditch effort to get it solved in diplomatic way. I will try to initiate contract, every species can try to create contract with another but for most its really troublesome, with rituals, alchemical concoctions and others things needed. But for dungeon, is as easy as snapping fingers, of course if I had fingers, and hand, and arm also would be useful, I really start to miss having body with appendages. But returning to reality I have an beetle to cache and I''m out of pokeba... mana, yes mana that what I wanted to say. - Contract! Aaaaaaand it didn''t work. The only thing I felt from it was hunger, and it thinks that there is buffet ready for it. But I won''t sell my monsters so cheaply so it''s time to mobilize them. All to the crossroads room. - Get moving guys or you will become snack. There was sixteen hedgehogs, five spider swarms, nine armored murbaks and sixty sticky snails. The real problem I have is that armor of those beetles, I truly don''t have much to penetrate it, there is no other way than to concentrate on legs first and slowly take apart the rest. For my lineup in first line are snails that I ordered to start moving from one side of the room to another so the floor will have layer of adhesive than I hope will slow down the beetles, and thought they won''t be able to damage beetles by themselves but beetles are not used to killing or eating them so they may glue their mandibles and become easier to take down. Main forces was sixteen hedgehogs that were to take the main charge on themselves, the thing that made me worried in this plan is them not having thought hide and being easily cut up by beetles mandibles also their needles will be pretty useless against that carapace, still only they can do this work. Spiders will wait for when the lines clash and try to swarm them attacking every weak point they will be able to find, and if any of my creatures has chance to penetrate that shell is those five spider females with their long fangs. And for last its time for armored murbaks that will be hiding on the ceiling ready to drop as bombs the moment beetles start fighting hedgehogs. Beetles were sniffing around the rooms they passed by, most likely looking for an snack, so it took them more time that I thought it would to get into crossroads room. When they entered the room, there was small confusion in the group when seeing my own forces, but it quickly ended when spiked beetle entered room and it roared on them, thought it happened on the wavelength were no man could hear it, as dungeon can understand all languages and have herring that works on all levels it was no problem for me. Next it moved before rest of its herd to try to intimidate my own creatures and thought some of them would ran away if they could my will hold them in place. As it seen that its roars did not work spiked beetle grunted and rest of the herd started to charge on my defenders. First they met with swamp of sticky snails, it worked quite nice making some beetles lose an leg or in case of those than gone after snails, treating them as an snack on the way, got their mandibles stuck together making it impossible to open them. That way seven of charging beetles got completely stuck to the ground and few more lose some legs or couldn''t open their mandibles, not bad for bunch of snails. And after appetizers it''s time for main course. Line of the twenty five beetles meet only sixteen hedgehogs and I must tell it gone better that I thought. Beetles tried to use their horns in while charging straight but hedgehogs were agile enough to evade it and start battling in close combat, needle versus horn, mandibles versus teeth. Needles showed their usefulness striking eyes of the bugs and blocking mandibles from wounding hedgehops flesh itself, what was more that I thought they would do. When they gone into close quarters battle, rodent incisors showed their strength and started cutting beetles legs of. But battle was not one sided as they fought against superior numbers. Suddenly I heard squeak of pain from hedgehogs as they started to spill their blood for me. One really unfortunate one moved before the line and got attacked by tree of the beetles, getting its front pawns cut of together and having part of its snout also cut and if off, if that was not enough damn bugs started to eat it alive. Thought hedgehogs were keeping line better than I thought they could, fight didn''t look that good for them as they had problem with penetrating beetles armor and doing them critical damage but I still had some cards to play and now when the lines stopped moving around its time use them. Whole fight Armored murbaks were moving on the ceiling to keep them positioned over beetles that were chosen as their targets so when the battle line stabilized there was only one thing to say. - Bombs away. Six hit right on target squashing the beetles under them self''s, two got one side of their legs crashed getting them out of the fight completely and one that was really lucky and moved at the last moment evaded attack completely. Thought the attack was successful thee tree that didn''t hit directly ended up splattered on the floor, and the other six that survived were more or less wounded. Originally murbacks and their armored variant don''t have any offensive capability on them self so right now they only worked to block the beetles patch, helping take some pressure from hedgehogs, their chitin armor was so hard that beetles had problem to wound them at all. For now front is in stalemate with hedgehops using Murbaks to reduce number of beetles they have to fight at the same time, is this mammal intelligence coming over bugs brutality? Time has come for counter attack so i ordered spiders swarm to go on the offence, with their speed they immediately were on the enemy. One of the female spiders even used armored Murbak to jump on an beetle and strike with her fangs in the place where head and back armor joined, that beetle immediately tried to throw her of in his pain trashing but it was too late as she used her venom to weaken it after with one of hedgehogs gone and bitten of its legs making it unable to fight anymore. But not all were as successful, one less lucky after taking down her first one tried to jump on another one from the ground and got couch in its mandibles ending cut in half. Her swarm started to disperse and it took a lot from me to order so many such primitive minds to get back into fight. Thought I taken a lot of losses battle shifted to my advantage, currently there were only seven beetles left to kill, then I heard it. - rrrrrooooo I completely forgot about this spiked bastard, come we will finish you with the rest of yours herd. When I seen how fast it started do charge I was really quite shocked, not because of its speed, not because of its ferocity and for sure not because of it charging like an gallant knight but because it was running wrong way, it ran toward the exit and the rest of its herd tried to break an ran with it. - You bastard the hell you are running, you were to become my precious level up and give me new evolution, come back here!!! It didn''t look back and simply run with five other beetles that were able to brake contact with my forces on its hells. I didn''t sent my forces to pursuit because only my tree remaining spider swarms could cache up with it and that would not be enough to take them down, after all I shouldn''t get my forces killed stupidly. After I was sure that the spiked beetle left my forces started finishing of beetles that were only immobilized. I won thought it was quite unsatisfying for me as that spiked beetle ran away, and that was more that I thought it was able to decide for itself,. In the end my remaining forces counted nine hedgehogs, form with one most likely will die and two are crippled, six armored murbaks that were wounded mostly from fall but all should live, tree spider swarms that thought were great on offence were also soft targets for mandibles and horns of the beetles I also had close to forty sticky snails left. i ordered my creatures to go back and lick their wounds and started to look through messages I got becouse of thisbattle
Level up
Your core become level two.
Level two and my stats stayed the same for me that is not weird at all taking in account how large my intelligence and wisdom already are.
You gained newcreature
Blue beetle was added to data base
Blue beetle
Six legged one horned blue beetle with hard carapace.
I''m quite happy that I got new creature and its quite strong one but I''m still really disappointed that spiked bastard run away. Now I will have to start unlocking blue ones evolutions from complete zero and its unknown how long it will take even with the help of pop grape. Haa, really how disappointing. Even my gains from this battle are disporting. Oh well it looks like it''s back to more waiting and looking at my monsters killing each other.
Ding, dong
Calypso godness of dreams and nightmares is calling, do you want to answer.
Chapter-4
Ding, dong
Calypso goddess of dreams and nightmares is calling, do you want to answer.
So what should I be doing right now, throwing out trash? No, murbaks eat them.
Calypso goddess of dreams and nightmares is calling, do you want to answer.
Maybe ironing socks? No, still don''t have legs.
Calypso goddess of dreams and nightmares is calling, do you want to answer.
Oh, I know, I need to dust of my core, yes that''s what I should be doing.
Calypso goddess of dreams and nightmares is forcing call through.
What do you think you are doing ignoring my call? Did you already got tired of living?
- Oh dear goddess of course no. I wwwaaasss, that''s right, I was trying to save this dyeing hedgehog. -squik- come weakly from little critter. This guy was that one hedgehog that gone before the rest of the line and got his paws and snout ripped off, right now there were also some others things spilling from the wounds on his sides. - squik, squik, squik - Oh shut up, you will walk it off.
Oh so how did you want to heal this needle rat. If I remember you don''t have anything to hell it with. To think that pervert like you would want to save another male, or maybe your preferences changed? Maybe you want that dream with that''s giants big spe...
- No, no I''m still hetero, no right now I''m even more, I''m crystal sexual. And I''m saving this courageous warrior, ( with stupidly got himself mutilated by going before the rest of the line), for the better protection of my dungeon. I will try to feed it my mana to try and help him recover, ( maybe he will even evolve, or go kaboom, either way I will have some fun)
Oh, thought it could be fun looking how this rat explodes from being pumped up with mana...
- squik, squik - it looks like this guy wasn''t happy with exploding into pieces.
I have different work for you. In certain kobold tribe there is... no wait a second... there was an dream weaver that did me a favor in the past. And before her demise moment ago she asked me for safe place for her tribe, so I told her about this new dungeon with whom her tribe could make a contract. Do you understand what I mean by that?
- I think so, from I understand there is small tribe of kobolds going straight for my dungeon and in exchange for contract, I will have them become my slaves, I mean servants, and I will allow them to live in dungeon is that right.
Yes that''s right. And as you told it yourself you will get new servants so even if I send them to you without asking its like I''m making you a favor, to small and weak little you. So you are still be in debt with me on three favors. Aren''t you?
- Yes, yes I understand. But could I know at least how many there is coming and how much longer before they come?
Originally there were two hundred of them, but if they will be dropping dead with this speed further, then in the two months that it will take them to get to your place there should still be something around hundred coming to your dungeon. I only told them what to do to get safe place to live, after they get to you and make contract they are all yours.
- I understand i will try to get ready for them as fast as I can.
What is with this half assed answer shouldn''t you be more grateful for this gift I gave you, you ungrateful bastard.
- Of course I''m grateful but there is a lot work to be done before they come and its dangerous for me if they decide to try something against me.
Oh don''t worry if you die they will suffer from my hand for the rest of their life for taking my toy... I mean my debtor from me.
Please care more for your toys and don''t allow others to destroy them, remember children under fifteen should not be playing with dungeons.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. - Could we think about plan that doesn''t risk me being destroyed?
Annoying you should better...
Close to the communication screen appeared ball of yellow light from witch sleepy voice of young woman sounded. - Sister you are still using this voice to text system, why won''t you simply talk to them, are you talking to that new dungeon that you were talking about becoming your slave. Ah, good morning mister dungeon. Really sister you shouldn''t be like that, let me help you. Communication screen disappeared and in its place appeared purple ball of light from with angry voice of young child sounded. - Waat, are you doing to your elder sister Rozana, take those blobs of fat from my head, you are always like that... After this exchange both orbs disappeared. That was quite shocking. First toy, and now a slave stepped on by loli with whip. Oh why it''s not women with hot body at least. It looks that Calypso has some complexes about some parts of her body, on the other side her younger sister Rozana, if I remember correctly she should be goddess of sleep, is quite well developed, can this communication system get video talk module like now. In future I need to remember not talk or think about those well developed parts of female body when in contact with Calypso. And Rozana, thought she sounded sleepy she was talking like machinegun, I got a feeling that when she fully starts talking you won''t be able to talk back at all, so I should be careful with her to, at least Calypso allows me to talk, even if she does not care about my opinions at all. Gods, what I got myself into, don''t answer it was rhetoric question. And now back to my own predicament. So Kobolds, what do I even know about them. ah yes now I remember, Lizard-dogs that''s how they are called by common people. As a race they are really divers in their looks, thought they are humanoids their height is only around one meter, thought their physical strength is not much lower than that of humans. Their bodies can be covered in different colors of scales and dog like fur with light brown skin under, they also have tails in some cases dog like in other knee-length lizard ones. They have dog ears and some of them have horns going from the front of the head, their faces resemble humans thought some have short dog like muzzle. If I remember correctly they breed at most twice as fast as humans at the best of times. I also think they have three different advanced species, each of them makes some of their features more visible than others, one becomes more lizard like, another more dog like and last more human like. If it''s about their culture I think they believe that dragons blood flows in their veins, that''s at least what I heard before but for now it''s unknown what kind of culture and beliefs those coming to me will have. So what should I get ready first? Of course defenses In case they will turn hostile, or for this matter if there will be any other hostiles coming my way, you can never go wrong with better defenses, that''s what my experience as a farmer tells me. When I will feel that my defenses got stronger, they will never be strong enough, I will start building some space for Kobolds, I think that water, food source, and big room for their group to live in should be enough for the starters. Wait the moment I forgot there needs to be place for all the filth and I think that murbaks will help with keeping its levels under control. If they will need to build something there should be some threes somewhere close to the entrance that they can use for that. Yes that sound like a plan, it''s time for some work. - sssqqquuuiiikkk Ah, I forgot about this little bastard, really how tenacious you are to even be still alive. Well I could simply go and leave him alone to die but more fun will be to use it as experiment material, and he even gets a chance to survive, how merciful and generous I am, If I had hairs there should be wind blowing that would make them flutter. - squik - Yeh, I''m coming, what''s the haste it''s not like anyone died, yet. You are only spilling somewhat on floor. - squiiik - Ok I know it''s painful but doctor will start pumping you with the medicine right away and you will be getting better, or you will go kaboom, either way you will stop filing pain. - sqquuaak For better control I activated my mana sight, and started observing as my purple mana started to enter hedgehogs body. It looked like filing up half crushed, and full of holes at that, bottle with water, Almost everything I thrown in him spilled out. So I started to control my mana more directly, molding it to block the holes and make the rest of it fill the body. After a moment Sqitak, that''s how I will call little bastard from now, started to grow until it looked like a ball. Because of that I started to lessen the flow of mana and opened some previously blocked holes to lessen the pressure. After some more time I was able to stabilize levels of mana in his body but nothing more happened to him, there was only an round hedgehog squiking. Ow well, we need to wait maybe something will happen. Now we should return to more serious things like what kind of hair should my future avatar have. Should they be long enough to flutter on the wind or short so no one can pull on them. What color should they have traditionally heroic blond, or maybe black for that serious menacing feel, there are also more fantasy colors like blue and green. Oh, what to chose. - squik - Oh be quiet I have some serious thinking to do here about my future. - sqquuiik -What''s so urgent that you are being so loud Sqitak, it''s not like you are dying anymore. I returned to reality and started to look at Sqitak once again only to see some new changes happening to his body. His body and needles started to become purple in color after that ended hid needles become thinner but grown both in number and length. Their tips stayed sharp but rest of the needle become like hairs thought somewhat ticker. Those new hairs grew until they covered Sqitaks whole body. After process stopped I appraised him to see what kind of evolution happened.
Needlehair
All its hairs have hard and sharp needle at its end, those hairs can be manipulated by it. the stronger Needlehair gets the more its control grows, at its peak every hair can be moved independently.
Wow just wow, I was thinking here about my own hair to be, and here fate gives me living toupee, and what should I do with it, get it on my top of my core and tell everyone that those are my new hairs? Fuck you god of fate, if you are pretty women, if you are male or ugly we should act like this never took place. So we have our first evolved hedgehog and its Sqitak. - How do you feel there Sqitak, all appendages back in place? - Squak - I will take this as a yes, now you can scram back to the rest and show of your new hairstyle. - Squak And there goes little bastard speeding away from me as fast he can go looking like fifty centimeters long purple hairball. But who would thought that mana pumping process not only will save his live but also evolve him, it looks like it''s time for some more experiments. chapter-5 Two months passed since She that should not be named talked with me. During this time there were some changes in the dungeon, some to make me stronger and others more to do with coming kobolds. My northern tunnel right now has three rooms that have size of twenty on twenty meters and three meters in height. New room is one that''s currently joined with crossroads room and it''s also living space of Sqitak and three other needlehair''s. Sqitak is now around eighty centimeters long purple hairball with black needles on tips of the hairs, while the other three are only fifty centimeters long and have brown hair and white needle''s. He most likely grown so big because of me injecting him with mana directly, I did try to repeat this experiment again but let''s just say that I''m happy that I don''t need to clean up mess after those. For some time I was even thinking about naming Sqitak, not like simply giving a name but engraving a name in to the soul of weaker existence. Gods have champions, mages familiars and dungeons named monsters. Of course it''s not so simple as simply giving a name, creature named by heighten ranked being will be strengthened but one doing that will need to use a lot of his power for it and also have soul of the named bound to his own forever, and even if named dies its soul will return to the naming one. So this is even more permanent than marriage. Another reason why I didn''t do it until now is because I''m uncertain of how much of my current recourses it would take to do, as such I decided against it for now. My entrance corridor grown from two rooms before crossroads to five, so to make more space for future battles before they reach central parts of the dungeon. All those rooms are now standard size of five on five meters and three meters in height. All of them are pretty much the same barren rooms beside the third one where half of the room from entrance is lowered by half a meter and the other half of the room raised by another half a meter. Thanks to that there is one meter slope with only a single patch in the middle that should allow a Kobold to pass, this way my ability to defend myself should grow quite a bit. Southern tunnel coming from the crossroads has five rooms. It''s also tunnel with rooms for Kobolds from which the biggest one is build at size of twenty on twenty meters and three in height. But let''s start from the beginning, fist there is single standard room to make some space between Kobolds living space and rest of the dungeon. After that is the big room where they will be able to live, If there will come a hundred of them that should give around four meters per Kobold. It may not be big enough space at least in my feeling but they won''t be spending all the time there as I should find quite a lot for them to do, and if they will work loyally there is no reason for me not to increase its size at later date. Other three rooms are standard size one has deep hole for all those things that you don''t want to have lying around in different corners of your dungeon, dung mostly. The second room also has hole but filled with water for drinking, I also hope that they will wash themselves from time to time. Last room for now is also standard, but most likely I will need to make it bigger in the future, and holds only some moss, luminas mushrooms, standard murbaks and snails to become food source, not most tasty one but for now should be enough. The last but not least is new eastern corridor going from the crossroad. There are three standard rooms andat the end of the tunnelmy core room. I done It this way so I will have my own space only for myself, and so the kobolds won''t be able to simply get to my core room from their lair. In future I plan to make it look more like palace with marble floors, paintings and some sculptures, you know even disembodied consciousness wants to look on something better than stone walls. For new creature I got moths thanks to one that that flew inside the cave and got itself eaten by a spider, later It evolved into dust moth which only ability is to throw dust from its wings into eyes of those that would want to eat it. From observing Sqitak after he got his dose of it I think that it has slight irritating effect that for now only works weakly on not defended skin and much better if it gets into eyes. When some male spiders from the swarm got hit by it even female could not force all of them to listen to her orders. Another new evolution would be bright snails, those guys most likely ate to much mushrooms. Because of that they can generate light that is close to the levels of that of luminas mushrooms, not truly useful for me but maybe they will have their uses in the future. Only other change is that the beetles that I added after my first battle against spiked beetle, can right now can grow up to thirty centimeters long. After all those changes I done to my dungeon I''m almost broke on mana. If I didn''t do any changes to dungeon It would reach rank three already. But what I done is what was needed and I can only hope that it will pay off in the future. I also hope that I will be able to get that annoying pest that is riding my dungeon, this time I have trap in place to get him. I cannot wait to... this filling, it looks like he came again. That bastard of a spiked beetle. After he ran away the first time he gathered more of his minions and attacked my dungeon three more times always staying just far enough to be able to run when things turn sour. but this time I will try to get him deeper into the dungeon and close patch behind him. How far has I fallen to have a beetle as enemy, no, no, no he is not an enemy he is only a pebble on my way to be kicked away. Really annoying and tasty pebble but still only pebble. And it''s time to get rid of him. This time he brought forty two beetles with him, it''s actually less than last time, then it was more than fifty. It looks like he reached a limit of what he can gather around here. Right now I don''t have the foggiest idea why he is so obstinate in attacking me but oh well I''m not going to look gifted beetle into the mandibles. This time I''m not going to be defending the third room, a slope room, but in fifth one. From our last battle my forces grown enough to meet him in normal battle. This way I should be able to trap and kill him. I divided my forces into three parts. Main forces in fifth room have thirty of my own beetles and twelve hedgehogs. This way it would be enough to stop him but not enough to make him run away without fighting. Crossroads room forces has twice the number of forces in fifth room and also Sqitak and the needlehair are there, no it''s not a name of a rock band, they will be both my reserve and hammer for counter attack. And last but not least is my third room ambush forces, they are made from sticky snails, armored murbaks and spider swarms that will be waiting under the ceiling until battle in the fifth room will fully start and then they will drop down and block corridor behind spiked beetle trapping him inside a dungeon.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it With all told and done its time to start the operation smash the beetle. Spike and his forces come to third room, calling him spiked bastard of the beetle is really long and quite a mouthful to do every single time so I shortened it. Then he stopped moving at the entrance and started sniffing the air, come on there is nothing in the room, really there is no ambush on the ceiling, you can trust me I''m your friendly neighbor dungeon. He slowly advanced further in the room moving right and left trying most likely to find source of the smell that he sniffed. You bastards on the ceiling don''t dare to sweat on the floor, can bugs even sweat? After few more minutes he decided to move further into the fourth room. Oh boy, for the moment I thought that ambush will fail. He still moved slower than normal until entering fifth room, but when he got there his focus shifted completely to my forces waiting for him. This time he didn''t waste time on trying to intimidate my creatures and simply send his forces charging, himself staying behind as always. He was ready to escape at any time, not this time my enemy. When lines clashed I ordered my ambush forces to block corridor between third and forth room. Sticky snails started to move around making walls, ceiling and floor an adhesive swamp. Armored murbaks moved behind it to create wall to block those illegal immigrants from leaving and become second line of blockade. Behind all this waited spider swarms ready to attack any target that would get past blockade. Mean time my forces in the fifth room were starting to take causalities and began being pushed back, all this was within my expectations. I think it''s time to drop hammer on the anvil. I ordered Sqitak to move his forces to attack. He roared and with wave of his fabulous hair reserve army charged, I called it roar but in truth it was just more of loud squeak. And that''s how the Sqitak and the needlehair faced against the beetles. There weren''t any surprise when eighty centimeters long purple hairball gone into the battle, in his first attack his hair punctured holes in three different beetles at the same time. Normally Sqitak isn''t aggressive, sometimes even cowardly but when he sees any beetle going even remotely close to him he would attack it and make it full of holes before finishing it off, I think he still holds a grudge against them because of that time when they cut him open. Even for such battle I needed to warn him not to attack allied beetles. But right now he already cut loose starting slaughter and other needlehairs were going right behind him, their target, Spike. When spiked bastard seen change on the battlefield he screeched and together with six beetles closest to him started to run away towards exit. Not this time my friend, you aren''t going to run away. Shortly after Spike started to run away Sqitak and his group were able to brake through remaining beetles and continue their pursuit of them. Mopping up remaining enemies in the fifth room was left to the rest of my forces that already had outnumbered their enemies five to one. When spiked bastard got to the blockade he didn''t slowed down, he started to run even faster leaving his escort behind. Thought adhesive swamp didn''t stop him it did slow him down, at the time when he started to get close to the armored murbaks Sqitak started to rip through the beetles that were left behind. I ordered snails to stop working and retred, adhesive they produced was strong and fast working but at the same time it also dried up fast, if it didn''t do that all my rooms would be full of glued creatures wriggling around. When Spike started to move over armored murbaks I ordered spider swarms to attack, thought they couldn''t truly wound him females at least still could inject him with their poison by attacking weak points. Thought poison wasn''t that strong there was enough of it to weaken the bastard and make him slower. When he was able to make it through the blockade armored murbaks moved to the sides allowing Sqitak to pass through. Sqitak didn''t play any games with Spike, right now he was much bigger than his enemy and hit him without stopping his charge, it was like an freight train hitting an car. My nemesis got thoroughly pierced, the way he looked he had more holes than Swiss cheese, he died immediately after. This is how my first enemy passes away. You will be remembered, for now, at least until Friday or maybe Sunday thought if there will be someone stronger opponent coming before that it can happen faster. - Sqitak he is dead you can stop making holes in him - He really hates beetles. So where was I ah yes it''s time to see my spoils.
Level up
Your core become level three.
You gained new creature.
Spiked beetle was added to the data base.
Spiked beetle
Carapace of this beetle is covered with spikes that both increase hardness of it and also can wound his opponents.
Nothing special but I will take everything I can. There should be still at least few days before Kobolds come into my dungeon so I shouldn''t get one more contingency ready before that. When they become bound by contract there should be any danger after that but there is still a time before they do it and after they come here. For that I should have something to awe them, something that will show them I have power even without them, a monster strong enough to make them feel fear. Right now Sqitak is hands down strongest in the dungeon and best choice for this also I know a way to make him even stronger. - Oh Sqitak come here for a moment, you worked so hard for the dungeon that I have reward for you. - Squak - after this squeak, he started to, manly and with greate determination, run away from my voice. - You stupid hairball, come back here! You cannot escape me, you are inside my dungeon! - Sssqqquuuaaakkk - What do you mean you can try to hide! Come back here and become my guinea pig, I mean take your reward. Chapter-6 - Now I got you! You have nowhere else to run or hide. Give up. - Squak - Sqitak I''m your father. How can you use such foul language while talking to me. - Squ sqi squak - Even if I''m not your father then I''m your grandfather and you need to show me some respect. - Sqi Squak - Oh you. How can you even talk about such small thing when I saved your live. - Sqiuuuak - Enough of it, it''s time for you to take your reward. After a game of hide and seek I was able to corner Sqitak in one of the rooms. To think that one of my creatures would be so disrespectful, sigh. It looks like it''s time to teach him who is the boss around here. - Now Sqitak its time for you to get your name. I concentrated my mana and got ready for ritual. At this time that stupid bag of hairs tried to dig his way through floor. But it''s too late for you Sqitak, so take it, take it all. - With me as a master and you as the one bound to me for all eternity I name you Sqitak Hairsplitter! After ritual activated Sqitak started to shine in purple light from all the mana that was entering his body. With my magic sight I was able to see him getting pumped full of mana to the levels where it wouldn''t be weird if his body would got ripped apart. This is another reason why I didn''t name any creature before, after all my creatures are still quite weak and naming them is like using whole power of nuclear reactor to power night lamp. Maybe I gone too far in comparing my current self with nuclear reactor but overall comparison should be easy enough to understand. If I was able to obtain even the most basic rank of mana manipulation skill I could evade all this risk. But thought I tried to do just that for some time dungeons use their mana in too much different fashion than other beings I lived as. Because of that the type of training I done in my previous lives is not working as good as I thought it would In the current one. Right now I''m working on a method that will be better suited for a dungeon. But let''s return to my guinea pig, I mean my dear grandson. Oh my, did he enter rebellious phase, is that why he has an afro now. To tell the truth its first time since he evolved that I was able to see his body under that mass o hairs. It didn''t change much, Only its size got bigger and color of his body got purple. Thought I don''t think that steam coming from his body is a natural thing. Also if I look closely at his body its titled to the right side and he is only kept standing thanks to his new afro. I think it''s time to wake him up. - SQITAK GET UP!!! When I called him he jumped up and started to move his legs in air trying to run as fast as he could. After landing on floor he gone with full speed away from me. For now I will allow him to take his rest and observe his growth in future. Now there is nothing else left to do than wait for the Kobolds to come. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Week later Kobolds were still not here. They are getting late. Thought if you think about it, if their journey needed to take so much time there could be a lot of things happening to them while on it, like being attacked by goblins. At least it gave me time to increase the size of their bug farm, I mean food farm, to twenty on twenty meters allowing for more French food, bon appetite. During this time there were also two more hedgehogs evolving into needlehair''s, one of them was female that was size bigger than others and become Sqitak''s pair. Sqitak himself is twice the size of the other male needlehair now after naming, and this new female is still only two thirds of his size but is also only one that have a chance to keep pace with him. And from what I didn''t want to see and hear I will soon be great grandpa. This will also be first liter of needlehair''s in dungeon so it will be big day for my dungeon having my strongest species reproducing and not only evolving. This is... my dungeon sense is tingling, there is something coming, and a lot of them. It''s time to take a look. As I suspected its them, Kobolds. Originally I was planning to go all out and try to intimidate them but now after closer look, they seem like someone chewed them and spat them out, I don''t think it will be necessary to the degree I thought it will, but I still should show them who''s the boss around here.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Overall they looked like the Kobolds I knew. Some parts hairy other scaly ore with brown skin, as for body shapes some had dog like legs other human like, tails were either lizard ones or dog ones, for heads all of them had dog like ears thought some had small straight horn on their foreheads or two. Faces were also mix of different parts some had a dogs muzzle, others alligator like jaws and some closely other resembled humans, thought all of those non human bits were of course in right size for humanoid creature. Did you ever seen an alligator with human teeth then here it was, thought even in this case some had predator like teats and others omnivores ones but all of them moved their mounts like humans do so I most likely won''t need to see them a roll to rip meat to eat. There was hundred and twenty one of them In front of my entrance, so it was somewhat more of them that she which I won''t speak her name did tell me there will be but it''s all the better for me. Around third were children and I didn''t see many old ones, as those most likely got killed in their journey. Grownups also didn''t look like a warriors and from what I seen they didn''t had any skills for that so I must conclude that those also fallen while defending rest of the tribe. It''s both good and bad for me, bad because I will need to train them from begging in combat, good because most of leadership also should go to ground so there shouldn''t be many that will try to do something stupid before I contract them and after that they won''t be able to and even won''t want to. While I was skimming through Kobolds statuses I found one of them having first rank of Shaman profession . His name was Grunch he also looked quite Old having his hair and dog like snout already going white. For rest of his appearance he had dog like legs, scaly human hands with claws, lizard tail going to his knees and small green horns going from his forehead. Remainder of his body was hidden behind leather shirt and kilt like rest of the bunch, only difference being that he had also leather coat that looked like having a lot of pockets here and there. While looking over rest of his tribe he was leaning on staff that was weirdly shaped branch that looked like snails shell on one side. He really looked like old wizard. If someone here can be in some position of power its only him. I was starting to get ready to talk to him, but before that I called Sqitak and rest of his herd, he grumbled somewhat as I called him in the middle of his one on one sparing session with Sam, the female needlehair. I also called all the beetles to have them as reserve, close enough to act but far enough to be out of sight. So how should I start it? Serve me minions, no to much doctor evil. Hi am your friendly neighborhood dungeon, no to friendly. Some maniacal laughter, no to classic and best left when you meet a hero. It must be something that will make them serve me and it won''t look like like I''m half mad from talking to evolved hedgehog. It must be a little menacing and ad the same time it must make them ask for my help hmm. Oh well this should be good enough. It''s time to get back to the Kobolds they should finished caching their breath about now. - What do you seek in my dungeon. - Perfect, I introduced myself, forced them to talk and startled them, few even jumped and one I think pissed himself. Guys don''t exaggerate I don''t sound so menacing. Eh, all of them got down on their knees, I didn''t thought they will go that far. If they stay like that we won''t move forward so I will pick my target, I mean my talks partner by myself. So I chose you Grunch. - You there, Shaman called Grunch, talk- Shit guys stop pissing yourself, I''m not going to eat you, I know you are suppressed by me knowing his name but don''t over react, chill out. - Yes, oh great dungeon lord whose voice makes mountains shake. We are what''s remains of Drush tribe. When humans attacked our tribe we escaped north. When we lost our pursuers Dreamweaver of our tribe had an vision, gained by the blessing of merciful and beautiful goddess Calypso, about an dungeon lord that could save as from danger. As such I beseech you great lord have mercy on our tribe and allow as safety of your caves, for that we and our future generations will serve you now and for all eternity. Wow, just wow, so much ass kissing. New list of things to do. First get to know how my voice sounds, until now I talked using only my mind after all. Thought if I will be honest with myself it feels good to have voice so powerful that it makes other respect you. That time when I was dwarf my voice was able to break glasses when I sang and one time when I got mixed up into fight my battle scream made all the dwarves and goblins lose conciseness. When I died back then it was by tribe of goblins called Broken Ears. Originally they belonged to different tribes but it looks like they were survivors of those times I gone to fight goblins, they were thrown away from their original tribes because of their deafness and once they saw me when goblins horde attacked our underground city they gone into frenzy. Returning to previous subject second point on the list will be to get to know how Calypso looks when she shows herself in people''s dreams. I have a hunch that the dream form doesn''t have much in common with her true form. Third point Get to know changes in regional politics. Calypso told me only about overall situation but I still need to get more details. But right now I should first answer Grunch. - Goddess Calypso informed me of tribe of Kobolds moving in my dungeons direction. You told me you seek place for your tribe, that I can provide. In exchange you, your tribe and future generations that will be born from it will serve me. If you and your people accept this contract you will need to swear an oath. Do you sear? - We swear - Choir of uneven voices rose from hundred and twenty one throats invoking magic of contract bounding kobolds souls with my own making them part of my dungeon, my servants. Their fate sealed, from this they this tribe won''t be able to seek help from any racial gods or seek god hood by them self, their one and only master will be myself. - From now on you serve me, as such I greet you in my dungeon.