I, Ouroboros, wasn't quite sure if Keeper was just talented at making horrors or if this was the handiwork of one of the cores. A little of both? Hard to say.
[B Rank Monster Genmu-A turtle with a serpent for a tail, made in the image of the Northern God Xuanwu of Winter, thus blessed with his power over the domain of winter]
B-Rank was low balling this thing's potential, the domain of Winter covers three topics, the first being snow which also means water, cold which covers temperature and all the horrors it encompasses and finally it was a period of time. Monsters who could manipulate time were especially great horrors to my knowledge. The oversized black Turtle the size of a large chest with a long snake sticking out of it's behind went down first, it's high defensive power meaning that it'll be able to take on anything of the same rank.
[C Rank Monster Flock of Famine-Over a dozen Kapri Soul bounded together by the Legion magic formation, because of their few numbers though they lack the power to be a true Legion, thus instead a unit]
The Flock flew out of My mouth, their small size making them suitable to scout, and to steal.
[C Rank Monster Blue Rose Lion: A bush of rare Blue Roses which have shaped themselves into a Lion with all the predatory characteristics implied therein, an excellent support type creature]
A male lion made out of thorny brambles and with a mane compose entirely of blue roses, ran out of the Dragon's mouth and sat down on top of the turtle's back, letting the latter carry him into battle.
[B Rank Monster Quetzal-A seemingly impossible hybrid of Harpy and Lamia, this creature's physical appearance closely resembles that of the God Quetzalcoatl, who has blessed this creature with the power of the Sky, Sun and Agriculture]
I've never seen such a timid looking B Rank, she kept looking above her as if expecting something to fall on her head. What did Keeper do to her?
[E Rank Monster Gobroc-A Badger Therianthrope born of goblins, hyper aggressive and immensely durable for it's size]
A group of small humanoid badgers walked out of the jaws of my dungeon next, one brushed against the other and the two of them nearly ripped each other's throats out before being bonked on the head by the next one and moved on.
[C Rank Monster Dullahan Wolf-A Werewolf that died a especially brutal death, buried alive, starved to the brink of death and decapitated, in that order, has created a formidable undead warrior]
The Dullahan woman was dressed as a barbarian, her head kept in a leather sack on her waist.
[B Rank Monster Wendigo Dire Troll-Cannibalism is one of the ultimate forms of betrayal, for this the punishment is endless torment as broken creature, a wendigo/A Dire Troll is the end result of one troll consuming another, the second troll's body starts regenerating inside of the other, growing their limbs, organs and other body parts like cancerous tumours]
I could tell that Hel didn't like bringing along one of Lucifer's creations, but Keeper had it under control, apparently. Might have something to do with the Kapri that was sitting on its shoulder.
[B Rank Monster Nyarl-A faceless abomination claimed by the God of Forbidden and Forgotten knowledge, don't look under the cloak]
A figure dressed in a robe floated down into the dungeon, the cloak certainly projected the image of a humanoid figure, the tentacles beneath the cloak and the single seemingly painted on eye beneath the cloak implied differently. Are we lucky that only one of the insane cores managed to spawn an abomination claimed by a god so dangerous even the system refuses to mention it by name? Truth be told, while humans may dislike fractured dungeons they're usually the ones to get calls from the gods directly, if the Dungeon's constant hybridisation manages to make something to stroke their ego's then the odds are good that the Gods will try to buy it off of them. Three of the B-Ranks here wouldn't be in the running if not for stumbling into the image of the gods. That wasn't to imply that I didn't bring my own hybrid creations along, or rather Sebastian's hybrid creation.
[D Rank Monster Animated Muryan Armour-A shed exo-skeleton of a Muryan Demi-human converted into armour by a master smith and animated by a poltergeist]
A group of ghostly figures inside of the humanoid exoskeletons armed with slashing claws easily big enough to be made into swords walked out of my dungeon's mouth. The Muryan people know gratitude quite well, a few of their exoskeletons here, some expert crafters there, and one contracted Necromancer to finish the process off. With these I shouldn't appear to be any different than the other fractured cores. Now to begin the hunt.
"Where's the Keeper!?" The troll growled as he turned to face the group with his main head.
"Absent." Hel, or rather my Gargoyle made in her image, walked out of the jaws of my dungeon looking at the group before her. "I sensed an intruder trying to assert their influence on my floor in his dungeon. I assume that he's disposing of the interloper."
"Should we split up? Or stay together?" The Turtle asked looking around at the group voicing his curiosity, and got smacked on the top of his head by the snake tail.
"Fool! Most of us are support types, including us! Or have you forgotten that I have to drag you everywhere!?" Even sharing a monster body these two are still prone to arguments.
"The Boss isn't here?" The lion rose bush stretched out and curled up. "Alright time for a nap." Is this really a C Rank, or is it just the dungeon's personality showing through? Hel loudly clapped her hands drawing the attention of the various monsters of her motly crew of idiots.
"Whichever one of you finds the entrance that leads back to the dungeon in the mortal plane gets to go back there, you may kill whatever you find along the way and start banking those points to start building your floors back up." And thus the ten different cores took their monsters and went in different directions, some had to make entrances. The sooner that they complete the objective for Hel the sooner that they get out from under the Keeper.
I knew that we were working on a time table, even after incapacitating all the bosses and tying down the monsters we had a limited amount of time to reach the core and break it. Running out onto the first platform I already could tell that there was something wrong, there were no monsters spawning let alone the ones that Arclight described in her report, which also meant the path to the upper floors had been cut too.
"What do we do now?" One of the Centaur's asked looking at me concerned.
"We Jump." The Keeper had inadvertently provided quite the loop hole to this quote unquote tower, with a simple hop I had jumped off the edge of the platform and arrived at the one directly below it after grabbing the ledge and swinging over. The hand was paralysed and wouldn't be going anywhere, thus I was able to enter the core room quite easily. Taking out my mace I took in the room. The Sphinx, The Dryad, the Chimera slime, and Arclight's ring, and in the centre of the room a ill defined statue of a roughly humanoid figure with a metal claw that was holding the core, contrary to what the seeming intelligence of the dungeon implied it had yet to develop a true consciousness of it's own, instead cribbing off of the person or people it had eaten, like a hunter dressing itself in the skin of it's prey. There was also a slate that had been planted in front of the core itself, words written on it.
"'If you are reading this, then you should be congratulated for reaching my core room. I won't judge you for your methods, I have pulled quite a few dirty tricks myself. That said, if you mean this core harm you are free to take a swing at it, so long as you understand that when you fail to hurt it, you're answering to me.'"
I took my mace in my hands. No offence core, but we cannot suffer a path to the lord of traitors left open. Thus I took a swing. The Core made a ringing noise after I struck it, as if it was a massive bell instead of a small dungeon core barely five floors big. There was a small crack left in the material, albeit one that quickly healed up.
"Adamantine." I quickly concluded looking at the claw that was holding the core, which meant that damaging the damned thing had just gotten that much harder, and that rate of healing. This was supposedly one of the realms of the dead. And given the hideously potent mana generating facilities that he saw on the way over here... "The core is trading mana for quick repairs from other cores in the area." If it's just one or two cores that they need to smash that shouldn't- A dull boom was let out as the entire dungeon shook. "Was that what I think it was?" And then the entire dungeon started to shake.
So suicide myself and return to my dungeon Plan A, expel such a hideous amount of magical power that my body breaks apart and I can go back home. The result? I made it very cold in the immediate area which then immediately went back to normal, the other fire elementals living here even took offence to it too. So Suicide plan B then, I began gathering as much of the fire element around me as possible, concentrating it inside of my body with the intention of having it explode.
[843594/800]
[1128978/800]
No plan was perfect. I was wracking up quite a body count from my fellow denizens of this plain of fire. Then I saw the sky open up, and a pair of confused and questioning eyes looking inside of the place that was rapidly turning from red hot forge to freezing cold icebox. Well this was awkward. Before I could correct my mistake and ask for help I was once again hit with the familiar sensation of being whisked away by an outside force.
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"Are you sure this time?" I heard Charles familiar grumpy voice asking for answers to the situation. "This is the fifth summon." It was like a red hot sun had been dropped into the room, which all things considered would probably be me in this case. Before his armour melted into his body Charles waved his hand and a fraction of the heat coming off of my body was turned into kinetic energy and I was sent flying through the air and soon crashed into my own dungeon. I melted my way inside, and then exploded, releasing massive quantities of mana in the process. A fraction of that mana reformed on the spot, the rest? Into the tower, scorched the dungeon of everyone who was still loitering inside.
Levi was down, Leonaidas was down, Thing was sealed, Archie and Saphee were both down while Apas had been taken outside of the dungeon. I let the fire mana pool into the second floor, let Treyni whose mana cocoon has thus far been desperately starved for energy drank it in, and then the dungeon shook. Thing's body was ripped out of the ground as a massive wooden tree raised the mountain that he had been integrated into directly into the air, numerous tree branches stabbing through Thing's body while hollow channels appeared inside of the Tree.
[A Rank Monster Yggdrasil Dryad-The World tree Yggdrasil grows between multiple worlds, it's roots anchoring it to one plain while the branches pierces into others, this one in particular has managed to acquire sapience in the form of it's own Dryad, with alternate forms of Leshen, Carbuncle and White Horn]
Is that from the influences of the other blessings in the dungeon? That reminds me. Treyni's spirit body gave a languid stretch as she stepped down from a throne inside of the Yggdrasil Tree, the sleeping form of several dwarfs(?) slowly waking with her along with numerous other creatures that I would be getting to later.
"Master? It is good to be in the land of the wa-"
We're under attack. A enemy has established a foot hold on the first floor and planted their domain on top of the one we actually want, the other bosses have been incapacitated and Apas has been taken prisoner.
Treyni's mouth went wide with horror, then her features twisted with rage and continued to twist from there. Treyni grew to fifteen feet tall and put on enough muscle that you would never believe she had a feminine form, the flesh on her face hardened and stretched while she grew a massive set of antlers causing her head to resemble a dear skull with a couple dozen point antlers. A third arm emerged from Treyni's side as her toga dropped into a waist cloth revealing hardened twisted burls.
All over the City, chaos had ensued, the wood that I used as a component for my snapped together buildings was reanimated and was now growing out of the buildings themselves in some cases ripping them out of the ground while others nearly split in two. Soon inside of an indistinct warehouse several trees burst out of the ground and wrapped protectively around Apas before breaking off the rods that were holding her.
"Master, I've rescued the Sphinx." Treyni didn't just look masculine in this form, they sounded it too. Good Job Treyni. Now we're going to expel the intruders. There was a hole from where I melted my way into the dungeon, in the middle of the pit left behind there was a bat, bright red and wrapped with blue.
[Fire Frost Club-A weapon containing the essence of the unique Monster Fire Frost Fiend]
So this is the drop from my body, my corpse. Did I not drop anything last time or did it just get caught up in all the chaos?
"Give me a moment and I shall dispose of that right away master."
Forget about it. We'll use it.
"Master!"
Use. It.
"Understood master." Treyni picked up the club as their attention turned to the floor, to the two distinct clashing powers that had made their presence known. "Which one is the enemy?"
The Holy fire, Hel is an ally to us.
"Understood." Treyni held out the club and under my guidance the clashing powers of hot and cold were absorbed into the club before Hel's domain reasserted itself. The club was glowing with power now.
Thing are you there!?
I felt the first floor shake as Thing Regained his consciousness.
Treyni which building is Apas inside of?
A few moments later one of Thing's limbs reached down and breached the building that Apas was being held in, before then depositing her inside of Thing's mouth.
Apas we'll discuss you keeping things from me later, how long exactly will it take for you to give birth or whatever you do?
"Not long. I'm an egg laying species so I'll only need a few weeks."
You're staying inside of the Dungeon until you do, we'll prepare a room for you later. For now there's still the last of the intruders that need to be dealt with. Treyni, into the Breach! The brute that was my second floor boss walked into the breach, her form changing yet again in response to the wintry cold. The wood of the lower body split apart and grew, stretching into a dear body with hooves of wood and roots while the wood grew fur like moss, the cloth again covered Treyni's upper body while it slimmed down into the form of a indifferent woman. Thing has already used kinetic force to drag Jack out of my core room and threw him before the white horn.
"The second floor boss has finished evolving I see." Jack stated as he looked Treyni up and down assessing, judgemental.
"And you are going to pay for what you have done." He will but it won't be in the way that you think Treyni.
[Offer Jack the Giant Slayer a Contract? Yes/No]
"Master!"
Do it!
"Is this a Joke?" Jack asked looking at the message that has appeared before him with suspicion.
"You have taken someone my master fancies as a hostage in order to forcibly rend control of his own body away from him, and now the same fate awaits you. Your killed men are currently in my master's storage waiting to be revived, but at his whim their bodies can be broken down for mana, never to see the light of day again. Your choice, do you get your men back alive or does my master get a snack?" Jack looked at Treyni, eyes judging, assessing, and reluctantly he selected [Yes] on the box before him.
The raid had gone rather poorly, the Dungeon had managed to create a rather formidable guardian to protect its core.
[B Rank Monster Cerberus-A massive three headed hound raised on a diet exclusively of living beings, as such it has become a fierce hunting dog and a savage guardian]
The Troll and the Quetzal did not cooperate at all, their various fire and ice attacks nullifying each other. The support types in the Kapri Souls and the Rose Lion had been destroyed in the cross fire while the immobility of the Genmu was more liability than an asset. The Nyarl was also a liability, whatever spell it had cast had driven the Gobrocs and the Vampiric Mersharks insane. The only one still functioning properly was the headless werewolf and the flying ant armours that I had provided.
[Dungeon Keeper Would like to participate in your raid Allow? Yes/No?]
Finally! Mana swirled as I hit [Yes] Keeper what has been-? Instead of Apas, or one of the Keeper's other monsters I was greeted by a eight foot tall man in full body plate mail armour. Was this the New boss of Keeper's Floor? I didn't feel his consciousness so he wasn't in control.
"I am the man that will be taking over this disaster of an operation." The armoured man looked around at the struggling forces and made a series of calculated decisions. "Troll, Snake woman fall back! You in the cloak, switch over to silent casting!"
"Don't tell me what to do!" One of the rear facing troll heads growled angrily. The armoured giant picked that moment to move. The ground behind him rocketed as he moved forward, grabbed the Genmu by it's tail and blocked a paw slam by the Cerberus, then he reached over and wrapped a arm around Solarus's waist and rocketed back to where he was before putting her down again.
"Your organisation is a mess. We need to call an tactical retreat."
I'm not going to argue but we need to do something about that thing first.
"That's easy." The Giant man said by way of reply. The Giant man started with another run, soon arriving at one of the legs of the beast, he smashed the club he was carrying around with him, the red weapon letting out a loud boom as the dog's leg bent in a unnatural direction. With the beast wounded it won't be able to attack them as it pleases, it was time to leave this cursed place.
[Would you Like to End the Raid? Yes/No]
[Yes]
[Ending the Raid in 3. 2. 1]
The monsters returned to my dungeon. Treyni was still waiting for them in the form of a White Horn as the monsters focused on healing.
"Where were you!" The Troll growled into the air, I knew both whose words the puppet was speaking with and who he was talking to. "The master was dealing with this... ruffian as he rampaged in the dungeon." Treyni's body shuddered briefly as I entered it. No offence Treyni but I need to handle this myself. "I was busy recruiting this man, Jack the Giant Slayer, to assist in the raid. He's a professional dungeon Demolition Expert."
"I normally have a team that I can rely on to dismantle enemy dungeons, not to mention advance intelligence." Jack stated as he shrugged his shoulders.
"So you're a stupid git!" The troll stated pointing one of his many fingers at Jack's chest, not understanding what he meant by 'advance intelligence'. "Why should we listen to you?"
Jack took out his mace and got ready to go on the offensive, as if telling the troll to bring it. The Troll merely took a step back and put one of his hands on his axe. Jack moved first, swinging his club like a lever to smash one of the troll's legs with his weapon with enough force to shatter his leg leaving the troll screaming, and then kept the weapon there as the leg let out several crunching noises forcing the led to heal at an odd angle.
"Troll's are characterised by their high durability, but wendigo's are well known for being significantly less durable than the base species." Jack brought out the bat I gave him, the drop from my Fire Frost Fiend body. "Both are known for their weakness to fire." With the club Jack set the troll on fire before kicking him off the edge, screaming. "To answer your other questions, I bring resources, which includes knowledge, not just what I possess specifically but also a plethora of researchers that are able to give me information on what specific weaknesses a enemy possesses. For the Cerberus? It's been specifically raised to target living creatures undead like those birds, the Muryan armours I saw and this flaming brute I kicked off the side would likely just be ignored, unless specifically told not to."
"It's not the dogs that are the main issue, it's the four or five dungeons around it that Lucifer's using to hold it prisoner." Hel stated as she folded her fingers together.
"A fact that surprises me more than it should. Considering that as soon as a dungeon that is connected to Cocytus is discovered on this continent it's destroyed." Jack stated as he crossed his arm.
"What about the other continent?" I asked through Treyni.
"Until Leviathan was taken out of the picture no one's been able to get to it." The others looked at Treyni with their faces wide with surprise. "What am I wrong?"
Officially, The Dungeon Keeper Demolition had failed. Normal Delving would resume immediately, along with authority of the dungeon being returned to Charles so that he can oversee the facilities while Jack returns to the capital to acquire additional materials to deal with the dungeon in question. Unofficially?
"This is so weird?" My consciousness was on it's way to the capital hitching a ride inside of Jack's body as he prepared to make his unofficial, top secret, too important for mail message to his bosses and collect all the possible books on the dungeons of the continent across the sea. Graves was circling around the enemy dungeons looking for any information on how to take them apart.
"You should tend to your dungeons, this is going to be time consuming. I'll let you know when the meeting with the Guild is about to begin."
I don't trust you as far as I can throw you Jack.
"Then trust in the fact I'm not going to do anything stupid while you have my men as hostages."
He was right, unfortunately, of the fifty cores I was caring for there was maybe eight or ten I could trust in a fight against the enemy cores. Not to mention that Leviathan was probably circling around somewhere. If you try to screw me over...
"I won't." For now Jack just wasn't important enough to warrant the undivided attention I would have to give him to make sure he stays out of trouble.
