Dungeon Robotics 9 -17

Good evening! Hope everyone made it through January alright!

Chapter 17
Regan
Back in the command module of the orbital fleet, I inspected the readings taken during the battle with Obolus. The whole continent was lighting up like a fourth of July feastival. It looked like Obolus’s awakening caused a chain reaction and the others were waking up.
“I fear the battle will be much worse going forward,” Jarvis noted pulling up screens for the members of the command.
In one area composed mostly of mountains, with large almost creature that had to be close to four meters in height. If I wasn’t mistaken, they were called Bugbears in this world. Their bear like bodies, with a nearly goblin head made them rough to look at. Similar to the lizardmen, they were swarming the mountains making for the dungeon in that area.
On another screen, we had harpies. They blotted out the sky, there were so many of them. They were also making for their origin dungeon. While they were no bigger than an average mortal, a few that we saw were on par with a dragon if the readings were right.
This went on for the other three dungeons. These three were in a completely different category as a scene straight out of a horror science fiction movie played. Insects the size of buses or even larger tore through the landscape. It was at this point that I found that the continent was actually divided between the two types of monsters.
“Should we just burn the entire continent?” I said more to myself as I looked the displays over.
“I’m not sure that would be healthy for the planet,” Jarvis retorted.
I grabbed his shoulder and patted it. “I know. I was just talking out loud.” I turned back to the screens and concentrated on my dungeons. I had expended less mana than I had anticipated, but I still needed to wait a day or two to launch another attack. “Get the platforms ready for a synchronized attack on all five remaining dungeons. We can’t let them regroup. You have twelve hours.”
“Understood!”
I gently placed my hand on Alara’s cheek. “You best take some of this time to check on your dungeon. I know we were only in there for a day, but you never know what could happen.”
“Okay! I’ll be back!” She leapt up and kissed me before she vanished, heading back to her dungeon.
Once the others of the party also left, I grabbed Sophia by the back of her shirt before she could make a run for it. “What!? I was helpful!” She said with a pout.
I sighed not really enjoying this. “I know that. It was still dangerous for you to go in there without any of us knowing. We could have accidently hit you.”
“Can I help with the next one?”
I stared at her at a loss before I finally laughed. “Fine, but you’re to stay SAFELY in the back. I am not so shallow as to turn away someone that was that helpful in the last dungeon. Your homework though is to study up even more on gravity.” Holding my hand out, I created several books on the working on gravity fields, physics, and anything else that might help increase her strength. “Twelve hours, young lady.”
“Thank you, Regan!” she hugged me before she flew away with her stack of books.
Watching her go, I got an idea. “Jarvis!”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Give me all the data from Obolus’s floors.”
A few seconds later, several files opened on my screens. I cracked my metal knuckles and got to work. If my idea worked, I would either crack the planet, or quite literally pull the dungeon cores out like a splinter.
~~~
Jarvis looked up from the schematic that I was having him double check. “You think it will be possible?”
I shifted the display to show Apollos’ Arrow being fired to reduce the total mass of the dungeon. “At full strength, no. But after we carve out the top sections of their floors like we did with Obolus, then it should be doable.”
“True. The power requirements will be off the charts.”
“Yes. That is one concern that I have.”
“The prototype is ready.”
I looked at Jarvis as realization hit me. I had asked him to work on various projects as my lead researcher. One of those projects was creating a device that we could launch into the maelstrom and pull mana from the storm. It wouldn’t be as efficient as if I placed a core next to the storm, but I wouldn’t have to worry about the energy feeding an overload.
“Let me think it over. We already know the maelstrom was artificially created. There is more than one thing that could be hiding inside that storm.”
“Understood. I will ready the device and await your orders.”
I leaned back and took in the time. I told everyone twelve hours, but the new plan would take a while to be ready. I also had to consider the mana expenditure. I could handle it with my current production, however, I would be so close to empty, I could reach out and touch the bottom of the barrel so to speak.
I leaned back to consider my options. Nothing I created would net me much mana in the time I had set the others. Even with the extra time needed to enact the new plan, I couldn’t think of many times I could do that would generate much mana. Not in the values that I would needed. The only viable option was likely the device that Jarvis created.
I was running the numbers when I felt a call from my main dungeon. “Father. Z2 has been injured.”
Not wasting any time, I teleported to their location in the dungeon. I found them grouped around Z2 who had a large hole burned through her stomach. I pushed them out of the way and placed my hand on the wound. She might have a fleshier form since her transformation, but most of her insides still retained semblance to robotics.
Channeling mana, I healed the wound back to prefect while repairing the damaged mechanical and circuitry at the same time. Natsuo had done a good job keeping her stable but it would have taken him a few more hours to repair everything completely. Z2 sat up once the wound was healed and rubbed her hand over the spot. “I think I regret my change for the first time after that.”
“I bet the pain was much worse than when you were an automaton,” I replied patting her head. Even though they were robots the automata I created could feel some pain, though it was dulled a significant amount. Likely due to them being created via magic. “Did I miss anything?”
“No. I only had the one wound.”
“What managed to hurt you so much?” I asked helping her up. “It almost looked like a laser wound.”
“That was exactly what it was. We found the outer area of the Seal. The undead or whatever it was used a spell or weapon that used a laser to attack,” Puppet explained.
I heard some heavy breathing and noticed that Rens was completely out of breath. “Are you alright?” I asked worried about the old man.
“Yes. My terra magic barely held long enough for us to escape. I poured a bit more mana than I’m used to. I’ve grown so accustomed to having the spirits help me,” Rens explained in between breaths.
I sent some mana over to relieve his exhaustion before turning back to Puppet. “Now. Tell me what you found.”
Puppet filled me in quickly. There wasn’t much to say after all. He had the ability to show me exactly what happened. Looking at the city, I wasn’t sure what to say. It felt like looking at one of the cities on Earth around the twenty one hundreds. There were plenty of fantasy elements thrown in that made it significantly different, but the construction and the overall design were amazingly similar.
Thinking about it, if I was able to come to Murgin, there had to be ways for others to get here as well. Not to mention, I had already seen some civilization cross-overs. The gnomes were amazingly Japanese in their construction and culture. While the rest of the continent was along the lines of Europe. I had only lived on Earth, so I had little idea how the workings of culture over time really developed.
“Let us hope it is just a coincidence,” I mumbled finally then dismissed the video. Even if it was a person from Earth or a similar location, they were likely long gone by this point. After all, my knowledge had already pushed this world through many changes that I still wasn’t sure that were good for it. If another person were around, I doubt they’d just sit in a hole.
“What about the dwarves?” I asked coming back to the other objective of their scouting.
“We encountered them twice. Each ended in conflict, they were not willing to listen or attempt a dialogue.”
“I’d rather not go to blows with them. The tunnels of the Beneath are a difficult territory for us,” I said tapping my chin. I excelled in overwhelming force. I’d rather not have to rely on strike forces. The situation with Obolus had gone well, but overall I was out of my element during the whole episode.
“We will investigate more. The next group we find, we will attempt to take some prisoners. What do you want to do about the Seal?”
“Leave it for now. Its held up this long, even with the weakening we caused by defeating Glorious, as long as we don’t fiddle with it, the Seal should last long enough for us to get some more of our affairs in order.”
“Understood.”
Squeezing his shoulder, I looked to the other members of Puppet’s party. “Nero. About what we talked about.”
“Heading for Celestia? I thought you didn’t want to make more enemies right now?”
I nodded in agreement. “More enemies, yes. However, it may be out of my hands soon.” If my theory was correct, then the maelstrom either held part of Celestia, an entrance, or something else that involved Celestia. I wasn’t sure if the storm was made to keep the high tiered individuals locked inside or to keep something out. Either way, I was on the precipice of breaking a fundamental part of Murgin.
“Celestia was at war last time I was there. I doubt little has changed. Ironically when a being reaches the point of being near immortal, to risk that immortality becomes their greatest fear. The stalemate of my time was already an eon old.”
“I see. What was highest tier in Celestia?”
“Other than my old man, and the upstart Lelune, everyone was between tier five and six.”
“Thank you. I will likely have more questions for you in the future. Until then,” I said with a bow of my head then moved over to Z2. “As one of my first daughters in this realm, I would like you to take better care of yourself. You are the eldest after all.”
She blushed and bobbed her head. “I’ll try.” Looking the group over, I found they were all due an upgrade. My other children and followers were constantly fighting something and thus had moved up in the tiers. Puppet’s group kept being sent to places that they were unable to cultivate as well as they should.
“Stay in the dungeon until I can devise some upgrades. Natsuko needs a new weapon as well. I might as well upgrade everyone.”
Other than Leon, the chaos element given mortal form thanks in part to Z2, they were all automata. They could be prompted to grow if I changed out parts, much like a real robot. I just had to be careful around their brains. Z2 might give me some difficulty due to her flesh parts since flesh likes to grow at a slower pace. Cracking my neck, I got to work on designing the changes.  

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