Dungeon Robotics 9 - 8

Good Evening Night City! I hope everyone had a good weekend! I am sorry for not uploading since Thursday. A friend bought Cyberpunk 2077 for me and I got much more enthralled than I expected i would. Cough 50 hours cough. Anyway, I should be good now. Anyway! Enjoy!

Regan

“Thank you. Keep an eye on its power output,” I remarked handing the tablet back to the assistant.

“This new weapon is quite a marvel,” Jarvis said staring out the window.

“It is never a good idea to underestimate the power of the sun.”

“As you say,” Jarvis said with a nod. “When do you plan to use it?”

“Soon. I doubt any of the dungeons on the Southern continent will be open to negotiations. Even if I promise not to reseal them. Most will likely be cranky after their couple thousand year nap.” I rubbed my forehead at the thought of yet another conflict. “Speaking of which, have you managed to time stamp the tree and the magic involved yet?”

The tree that seal the dungeons on the continent hadn’t grown an centimeter in the last thousand years or so, according to the clan that lived around it. With events on this planet spanning Eons, I really wanted to know just who’s magic seal I turned to ash.”

“Negative. By the time we started to investigate, most of the energy had started to unravel. It could have been yesterday or it could have been ten thousand years ago.”

“I see. Keep looking, but go back to your other tasks for the mean time. Your mind is too valuable to waist on projects that likely won’t yield any results.”

“As you wish, master.” Jarvis bowed and moved out of the room. I stared after him once again glad that I created him. Without Jarvis working on mixing my science and magic, the power at my command would be half of what it was. He had also created several talented science teams that were all working on one project or another.

I wanted to send him to over a dozen places, but that wouldn’t be feasible. The mines in the north were going to take a while longer to analyze, the taint from the undead scar wasn’t going anywhere, the constructs were sequestered in the Southern core’s influence, and frankly as much as I hated it, I needed stronger weapons for the coming threats.

Demon cellular design made them incredibly hard to kill. Their ability to straight up ignore mana gave the higher ranked demons a huge advantage over the people of this world. The next ones that showed up wouldn’t be weakened from five thousand years in a sealed state. I would need everything I could think up to throw at them.

Squeezing the rail hard enough that the metal crumpled while watching the planet below the station, I realized that I really wanted to protect this place that I had come to call home. It was ironic that I had to travel through time and space to an entirely new universe to find people that I enjoyed being around.

I felt a gentle hand press against my back. “Everything alright, my love?”

Releasing the handrail, I turned around to take in Alara. I reached out and took her hand. “How is Vlad?”

“It will take a while for him to fully adjust, but the knowledge is there if slightly buried. I or his fairy would explain something, and he would have already completed the task. Even with that, he apparently can’t recall anything from before.”

“That’s good news. We might not get the old Vlad back, but at least his old knowledge won’t make him suffer.”

“Yes. I agree. Plus, he is quite cute, calling me mom.” She squeezed my hand as she gushed about several of the things that Vlad had done to try and make her happy. It was a

“I had heard that maternal instincts could be scary. Looks like that was the truth,” I remarked with a chuckle.

“Say whatever you want. WE brought him back into this world. It is our responsible to make sure he is raised right.”

I reached down and scooped Alara up into my arms, bringing my nose to touch hers. “I never said I wouldn’t raise him. Especially if you feel so strongly about this. I would be more than a fool not to see it through.”

“Good.” She leaned her face in and locked her lips with him. When she had her fill she leaned back out, licking her lips. “Hard yet soft. I can never get enough.”

“Then come back for more,” I said with a grin pulling her face back toward mine. The embrace lasted for several minutes before we broke apart. “Pity. The world calls.”

She smacked my arm. “Likely the only thing that will keep you under control. I fear for when there is no impending doom on the world. You might never let me go,” Alara said hoping down from my arms.

I laughed at the thought. “Careful. I might just bring about world peace to see that happen.”

“Its even scarier that you might do just that,” she replied shaking her head. “My dungeon needs me. I will see you later tonight?”

“Say the word and you can see me whenever you desire.”

She nodded before her avatar vanished. The light around me dimmed a little as it usually did when she left my presence, but Alara had her own things to do. Ever since the battle with the Lich core, she had been much more active in taking care of her dungeon. Now that Vlad was in the picture, she would likely lead by example. She was a prime example of a good mother.

“Now,” I mumbled turning back to the window. “Time to get to work.”

There so many things I had to do that it was hard sometimes to decide what to work on. That said, the Southern continent or Fuizol Continent was a problem that I wanted to deal with before it got out of hand. Checking everything with a mental once over, I decided to head to there now. Soza was lounging around my core, but I didn’t like leaving her to her own devices for too long. With a thought, I moved to my core there.

The massive metal red dragon moved as soon as I appeared. “Husband! I’m glad you came to visit. I was getting somewhat lonely.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. I know you were sleeping just now,” I retorted. I had tried to reason with her, but that hadn’t worked so far. Thus, I decided to talk a different approach. Be rude to her. Sadly, it hadn’t worked as of yet. At least she wasn’t like Julie and let it fuel her.

“That may be true, but my dreams were of you thus causing me to miss you all the same.”

I just shook my head and mentally checked the status of the core and its surroundings. The barrier was still in working order, and the Constructs appeared to have formed a small town around their crashed ship. If they were going to be trapped, I guess they wanted to make the most out of it. I would actually prefer if they started to live like the mortals, rather than be hell bent on fighting me like the Administrator, the main AI of the Constructs.

“Any trouble out of the prisoners?” I asked completely ignoring her.

Soza gave a pout. “No. They have been well behaved the last few weeks. I’ve noticed there appears to be more personality among the ones walking through their town.”

“I wonder if the Administrator has finally given up.” I ended up shaking my head. I just couldn’t believe it from a society of such mentally linked beings. “No, it could be a ruse. We should keep watch for a while longer.”

“Other than that. I have sensed a deep foreboding from the west.”

I looked at her sharply. “Do you think one of the dungeons are about to wake?”

“It is possible. I haven’t felt anything so sinister in my life.”

I tapped my chin in thought. “I knew it was soon, but I guess some of them are early risers.” I had no accurate way of knowing what being sealed was like for the dungeons. Some of them could have been asleep the entire time, while others might have been watching as if from a veil to wait for their chance to make a move.

“Do we finally get to go to battle?” Soza asked excitedly. Dragons and their desire for combat, I thought with some exasperation. Nova was the same way. He had already demanded to be allowed to join in any battles that Soza took part in. Normally, he would have been required to be Soza’s mate, just on the receiving end, but since she was ‘mated’ with me. That didn’t happen when he lost their fight.

“It is likely,” I replied with a nod.

“Finally! I’ve been so bored here!” She exclaimed bursting into flame and taking her elven form. I sighed and handed her a dress. “Oh. I’ve misplaced the other one.” That’s what she said, but I caught her glancing at a corner of the room. She likely hid it so that I would get a peek at her. Talking some with Nova, I knew he preferred to be without clothes since he felt his form was prefect.

“If you say so. I’m going to check the situation. Stay here,” I said then moved toward the top deck. She pouted but nevertheless stayed put.

I ascended into the air once I was outside and took off heading toward the west. It wasn’t long before my sight landed on the massive monster hordes from last time. In particular, a swarm of lizardmen were heading in the direction of one of the Monster dungeons.

Lizardmen were humanoids but lacked most of the reasoning. They were much in line with the monster version of the goblins, but I hadn’t been able to detect any sort of curse on them, so it appeared natural. Unlike goblins, however, they were much more powerful overall. They would be a hard force to deal with if they grew organized. Something that even a wild dungeon was a natural at performing.

“Two million. There are more since last time I counted.” The monster hordes of the Fuizol Continent were ridiculous in size. They made the one that attacked the valley a year ago look like a motley gathering. I feared I would have to reduce the continent to ash while trying to deal with them. That in its own right had a risk of creating problems.

While I was observing the horde, I felt like a beast was looking at me about to pounce. I spun around in the air but couldn’t find anything. I turned my attention in the direction of the dungeon core that was awakening and realized that was where the sensation was coming from. With a thought I reached out to it but got a defiant negative in response. I also got the mocking sensation. The other host thought I was weak! “Someone wants to play?” I mumbled then smirked as I turned around. “Let’s have some fun.”

I flew back to my core breaking several sound barriers. Once I was in my aura, I teleported to the station. It had was orbiting over the planet keeping in line with the Fuizol continent. Appearing on the bridge, I located First and Jarvis. “Is everything ready?”

“Yes, sir! All preparations are in order and we await your command.”

I sent the coordinates of the dungeon to the console. “This is our first target. He presumes to hunt me, but he will be the one hunted.”

“What level would you like to set?” Jarvis asked inputting the commands.

“This is the test run, so… Set it to level three,” I ordered

“Understood.”

I moved over to the window and grinned. Time to test some new toys. It was nice of the monster dungeon to wake when it did. Now I didn’t have to test it on Orina. It was new, so there was always the danger of it… malfunctioning. I chuckled as an object moved out from the station.

A large disk that was close to five hundred meters in diameter moved to a location above the dungeon. To someone from Earth, it looked like a flying saucer. Once it was in position, the large disk started to drop quickly gained plasma waves from the friction of passing through the atmosphere.

I turned to watch the camera feeds. When the disk was nearly four hundred thousand meters from the ground. Four pods on the sides broke open and modified Starfalls accelerated towards the ground. Chains were attached that lead back to the disk. The edge of the monster horde that was about to reach the dungeon stopped as they watched the spectacle of the Starfalls burning through the upper atmosphere.

They should have turned and run. Similar to what happened with Alara, the Starfalls impacted the ground and pierced through with unrivaled penetration power. The landscape couldn’t take it and buckled exploding outward as the massive amount of terra mana surged violently turning the area of about ten kilometers into a scene from hell.

Unlike with the original Starfall, however, the energy reached a certain distance then began to be pulled back towards the weapon. The ground looked like a scene from hell, as it was torn to jagged pieces back toward the chains. The energy flowed up the construct before it was beamed back to the station. Everything happened in the span of two or three minutes, but we successfully annihilated close to five hundred thousand of the lizardmen that had been heading toward the dungeon.

“I feel like we can increase the range a bit more,” I stated observing the damage. With the spike successfully dealing with the terra overflow, we could more easily control the energy. It would hurt us to get too greedy, but we needed to consider all our options.

“With some modifications, I agree,” Jarvis said as he moved up next to me. He had close to three dozen screens open around him. Each of his eyes looking at a separate screen. I felt his body would soon need an upgrade to keep up with him mental prowess. “We managed to absorb Eighty seven percent of the energy. The remaining terra energy died out before becoming self-sustaining.”

I nodded. “Begin phase two!” I ordered.

The center of the disk began to open. Beams of light started to spark and collide in the middle of the opening. When the collection of energy was dense enough, another Starfall launched from the Station. With near prefect accuracy, it pierced the energy field which wrapped around it like a sheet.

The enhanced Starfall crossed the distance between the weapon and the planet in a blink of an eye. One moment it was at the weapon, the next it was impacting the ground. The weapon tore through the ground and then the dungeon. I had learned a lot from Alara, plus I was more powerful. The weapon was much more deadly than before.

Much like a volcano erupting, the area around the impact site exploded into the air for hundreds of kilometers as the initial impact site vaporized. The resulting force would have been close to that of an extinction level event if not contained. The Weapon platform contained the blast with barriers forming between its embedded chains. Anyone looking in at the devastation, would likely think that they were looking in on hell.

“Breaching floor ten. Twenty. Thirty. Energy has been reduced by twenty-nine percent. Structural integrity of Heavenfall at Eighty-four percent.”

The modified Starfall kept going. Unlike during Alara’s dungeon, when it hit the divide at floor forty-five, it punched right through. It did take a significant amount of energy from the weapon. I made note of the amount so that I could make adjustments for the next dungeon.

At floor one hundred, there was another barrier, though it was different from the self-defense barrier. It was the dense material of the world that dungeons had to slowly carve through. Heavenfall slammed to a stop, with all its remaining kinetic energy being redirected back along the shaft via spell script. It wouldn’t do to cause another terra wave after all the preparations I made on the surface.

The weapon was torn apart, leaving a ten-kilometer hole that had arcs of heated energy drifting through the air. Dust and debris made it impossible for anything mortal to see or even breath. Not only was the air poisonous, but anything that stepped in the clouds emerging from the hole would cook alive.

“Well. I’d say that worked rather swimmingly,” I noted patting Jarvis on the shoulder.

“I agree. The monster horde that was heading for the dungeon is in full retreat.”

“Good. Have a few drones keep track of their movements. There are still over a million of them. It wouldn’t do for them to regain their courage and strike us while we deal with the core and host.”

Jarvis nodded in agreement. “The initial test has proved most effective. If our information is correct that should put the floor count at roughly two hundred.”

The old man from the village at the center of the continent had stated that the dungeons couldn’t ascend due to their monster natures. That would mean they were locked at tier four but with the mana levels of a tier five or six. Several thousand years of mana buildup was hard to calculate.

Back down on the planet’s surface, the area around the dungeon was little more than a crater. The surrounding forests were on fire from the intense heat wave that had been released from the friction generated by the backwash of the remaining energy. It was quite amazing to see this level of destruction even if I was the one that caused it.

“How many do you think survived?” I asked looking at the horde that was fleeing from the dungeon area. They weren’t completely bound to it, and thus their free will had kicked in. Never underestimate a creature desire to survive.

“The total is still pending, but we place their number just over a million plus or minus one or two hundred thousand.”

I nodded then noticed something on the edge of my consciousness. “Jarvis. I will speak to you in a moment. Someone is calling me.”

I focused on the sensation of the dungeon communication. The world around me fell away and was replaced by the alternative reality of the meeting room as I liked to call it. My neo modern aesthetic formed around me, though there were a few displays of Alara, in the form of trees with circuits on the edges. Stings of data, mostly ones and zeros with a few occasional magical symbols thrown in, ran down the walls.

I leaned forward in the neon throne excited to see what form this host would take. I didn’t have to wait long as space opposite me to shape. It expanded until I felt it was close to the size of a large house. A large tree took form, and I wondered if it was sort of planet-based dungeon like Alara. That was until what I thought was a vine moved along the bark.

A snake that had to be a kilometer long in reality turned it massive head to look at me. In fact, part of its body wasn’t shown in the communication space, as it faded off to shadow. Red eyes glared at me, but no words came.

“Nice to meet you. I am Regan, the Father Machine.”

“Obolus.” It spoke, and yet, I felt it was closer to the sensation of feeling. All that had emerged from the snake was a hiss, but I clearly understood it. I could only fathom that it was unique to be a dungeon host.

“If you surrender now, I promise not to hurt you anymore,” I said hopeful that I could avoid a fight.

“No.” Came the instant reply. Then a thought that I somehow understood came though this was only the rough translation. “For each layer you’ve peeled off, the next one will be that much stronger.”

I sighed leaning forward to place my chin in my hand. “I think it would be in your best interests to give up. Let me just say the treatment will be closer to that of a friend that as a pet, which will be the case if I have to reach your core manually.”

Not only would it cost me mana and time to deal with these dungeons, but I had plans that involved them protecting this part of the planet in the event of an interstellar invasion. With how large Murgin was, I could barely hope to protect the continent my main core was on, let alone this one that barely had any mortals on it.

If I could have them take this continent that would actually be fine with me. The only problem was that the demon race went after the world’s spirit. Without any idea on how or why they did this, it was too much of a risk to leave them to their own devices in this foreign land.

I blinked coming out of my thoughts. The giant snake just stared at me with unmasked hostility. Not that I could blame him. He had just been waking up after a couple thousand years for me to drop an apartment complex on his head, figuratively speaking. Maybe it was closer to a skyscraper? Having experienced Morka tearing through just under fifteen of my floors, I understood that it was equivalent to having your limbs torn off.

“One more time. Surrender and you won’t have to suffer.”

His glare intensified and I could almost hear the words coming from him. ‘I will not be suppressed again.’

“Very well.”

I waved my hand and broke the link. After the real world returned around me, I took in the bridge. The communication felt like ten or twenty minutes had passed, but as usual, time had stood still in the real world. I supposed it was possible since brains did process information plenty fast enough.

“How was the opponent, sir?” Jarvis asked as I moved back next to him.

I tapped my chin considering Obolus. “Strong and stubborn. Just like every other opponent we’ve faced so far.”

“Then shall we begin?”

My tapping paused for a second before it resumed. “Do it.”

Jarvis nodded then began inputting commands into the control network. Several large structures broke away from the station and flew to assigned places around the large disk. Once in place, the began to enlarge until they were each roughly three kilometers in diameter each. The network began to link their control systems.

“Got your sunglasses, Jarvis?” I asked with a chuckle. The giant platforms began to absorb the sunlight at an accelerated pace, all the light in the area of roughly seven hundred kilometers being pulled in. Frankly, it would soon be enough energy to cook Earth. Jarvis looked at me and I gave him a nod. “Fire Apollo’s arrow!”

The platforms redirected all their absorbed energy towards the main platform. Four beams of energy fired simultaneously, entering the barrier that contained my signature. The beams bent and fired straight down into the dungeon after filling every bit of space of the opening. The merged shaft of light caused the air to burn as it sliced through the atmosphere.

Soon, inside the area of the modified chained Starfalls was comparable to being in the corona of the sun at almost a million degrees. The excessive heat was absorbed by the chains to feed the barriers holding the heat back. In the blink of a mortal’s eye, the beam slammed into the dungeon melting through the world barrier in matter of seconds.

With the beam being saturated by my mana from the barrier on the attack platform, I could easily track the beam’s progress through the enemy dungeon. The world’s barrier was almost a kilometer thick by itself. Even with the power of the Apollo’s arrow weapon, it took several minutes to carve through the barrier. Quite impressive when considering the other methods, we would have had to undertake to reach further into Obolus’ dungeon.

“Apollo’s arrow can’t take much more, sir,” Jarvis reported.

“Push it to the limits. Remember this is a test run for later,” I replied. The reflective surfaces were made to handle the heat, but there was still a limit. The mirrors on them were hot enough that a person would be vaporized if they even got near the device.

“Calculations put us at floor one hundred fifty. There is too much interference to be sure.”

“Platform two has suffered a catastrophic level failure on its surface!”

As soon as the report sounded out from the bridge crew, one of the platforms in the distance was torn apart as the heat built up on its reflective surface was no longer directed correctly. A massive explosion sent debris spiraling through the space around the weapons platform. A small amount of energy was redirected to fuel shields that allowed the debris to bounce away harmless from the other sections of the weapon platform. The energy tore through the remaining hull of the device and it turned to slag in less than ten seconds.

“Alright! Stop the attack before we lose even more,” I said displeased to lose one of the platforms even if that was part of the test. It was better to save the rest before they suffered the same fate. “Jarvis. I want you to figure out the cause of the failure. The next version needs to be improved.”

“As you wish,” he replied with a bow.

I turned and zoomed my vision into the melted hole that bore into the planet. It was close to two thousand kilometers deep. Similar to my own dungeon when I considered it. Even with that depth, we were still well inside the mantle of Murgin. This planet was ridiculously large compared to Earth.

Apollo’s arrow had smoothed the edges of the thirty-kilometer diameter hole. With the weapon being tainted by my mana. It would take some time for the core to cleanse and absorb it thus making it impossible for the dungeon to repair the damage quickly. To be on the safe side, I was working on the rate that my cores could cleanse the mana. I figured that I had roughly a week before he could retake the tainted parts of his dungeon. He would be gaining mana every moment, but not nearly as much as if I had fired the beam without the taint.

“I hate to send them in, but I had little choice.”

The fleet had suffered a fair amount of damage during the moon collapsing incident. I still had several new toys that I wanted to test down in the dungeon but boots on the ground were always the best when you wanted the job done right. I accessed the main platform and changed the settings on the barrier.

With a ripple, a gateway opened that showed a fleet waiting. With a quick order, they began moving through then down toward the planet. The air between the chains cooling rapidly as the absorbed heat was sent to the station’s core. By using all of physical world’s natural phenomenon, I had actually gained more mana overall than I had spent so far during this attack. Minus the cost of the destroyed platform of course, that was a hefty blow to my mana ledger.

“Five hundred. Less were repaired than I expected,” I remarked noticing that there were less ships in the fleet than there should have been.

“Some of the damage was more extensive than first believe. We’ve shifted the crews around to the operational ships.”

I nodded in understanding. “Given the moon event. I don’t doubt that there was unexpected damage.” When a pebble could render a ship inoperable if it struck it just right. It was probably a blessing that as many ships survived that did. I would need to work on reflectors for such an occasion in the future. A full barrier shouldn’t be needed to deflect pebbles.

The bottom of the hole would take a few hours to reach, and I was sure there would be a resistance waiting for us. I moved to the Station throne as I waited for the fleet to reach the bottom. Time for my fourth dungeon assault, if you counted Vlad that was.

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