Dungeon Annihilation 2 - 35

Good morning folks!

Regan/Earle

Back at the tower after leaving the countess, I began to work on the next part of my plan. The Fury needed pilots, and good ones. This mission to Jade Wind was only the first of many such missions I had planned for the future. For instants, I could now scout the entire continent in a matter of days creating what might be the most accurate map of the landmass possessed by anyone.

“Master.”

I turned to see Set waiting for me. “Set? What is it?”

“Yes. I wanted to inform you that I was approached by the adventurer named Ioa. She wanted to request your aid in the upcoming raid on Greed.”

Raid? Ah, that’s right. Raids were what adventurers called groups of over twenty-five people that attacked an objective in dungeons. Snickering developed into a full-blown laugh as I realized that the adventurers had just let me know that they were going to raid my dungeon.

“Should I set a trap for them?” I murmured as I looked at the mine.

“I heard that the countess was going to be asked to participate.”

“So I would risk killing the woman. Not sure that is much of a loss?” I asked not sure why she brought it up.

“I thought you considered her special.”

“A moments diversion,” I said waving the notion off. I started moving toward the Fury.

“My apologies. I assumed you wanted to experiment creating children with her.” My strides paused in midair.

“I can get her pregnant?” I asked making sure I heard correctly. “I thought dungeons lost half of their cultivation when the sire a child.

“No. That is only if you sire a dungeon core with another dungeon core. Whatever properties you gave your avatar body will be transferred though your seed into the mother. She will then provide the mana as would normally be the case during pregnancy.”

“What are the chances of pregnancy happening after only one session?”

“About the same as a normal mortal couple. The seed of a dungeon avatar is in part magical. It can last for much longer than a mortals.”

“Isn’t that fascinating. I will need to give more thought to this. There is some merit in that line of research.”

“Then leaving the mortals to their natural fate?”

“Yes. Yes. If they succeed, then so be it.”

“Very well.”

Set bowed before she flew away. It was becoming rarer to see her in her natural fairy form rather than her illusioned version. I narrowed my eyes at her as it felt like she wanted to protect the mortals. That didn’t make sense no matter how you sliced it. As a dungeon fairy, she wanted me to kill the mortals to purify their tainted mana. It would be odd for her to have a change of heart.

“Best to keep an eye on her,” I mumbled. I shook my head and turned back to the Fury. “Pilots!” Clapping my hands, I got to work.

I had quite a few blueprints I could work with now. The Hunters or the Oni were my best choices for this work. With a gesture, I created a sort of holograph display of the being I was going to create. I played with the idea behind him for several minutes. The clearer my image, then the better the summoning magic would work.

I did make a few altercations that I felt would assist the being in its work. For one, I replaced all its bones with a metal alloy to increase his strength and durability. Playing with the skin, I was able to create a carbon fiber layer just below the surface of the skin membrane. An enemy would be able to cut the outer layer, but it would be hard to do much more.

I decided to go a few steps further and replaced an eye with a cybernetic or rather magicnetic eye that could link with the Fury and similar systems. It would all the being to see at night, day, without light, as well as detect magic being used. It would make attacks on enemy targets at night as easy as taking candy from a baby.

There were a few more altercations I wanted to make to increase the effectiveness of the biological systems as well. Sadly, as soon as I started with those changes the mana cost reached numbers I couldn’t afford at the moment. Though, it would have broken the balance of this world to create a being that could pull the mana from another being via a sucker on the hand.

I undid most of the changes but left the blueprint in my mind for later when I had access to a bit more mana. With nothing more to change, I allowed the summoning magic to take affect and a whirlpool formed in front of me as my mana poured into the creation. A man soon took form in front of me.

Sporting short blond hair, and what I was sure the ladies would call a perfect face, the man emerged from the summoning magic. Three horns that were slightly out of focus sat across his head. He was wearing a jumpsuit and had what appeared to be two pistols strapped to his waist. One eye a golden color, the other a mechanical red, he took in his surroundings with interest.

“What is your purpose?” I demanded.

The man knelt instantly. “To fly the Fury and similar craft.”

“Good. How about we call you, Fang. Since you will soon be striking against anyone I perceive as a threat.”

“As you will it, master.”

“Familiarize yourself with your new friend. I expect you both to return from any missions given to you. Neither of you were exactly easy to create.”

Fang bowed his head then got up. As he moved to the craft, I checked my mana pool. Creating Fang had put me into dangerously low levels. I decided to give up on the idea of creating a co-pilot today. That should change soon. With Fang and Fury, I would be seeding my sub-cores in several cities to bring in the mana.

~~~

“Four days. I expect you to be back within the week, or I’ll write it off as a failure.”

Julie pouted before she latched herself onto my arm. “Surely Wrakras would be good enough. I should stay by your side!”

“Sure. I’ll make him the lead necromancer from now on. That just leaves the position of dog for you,” I replied digging my fingers into her waist. Julie gasped as blood soon started to flow from the digits. “Sadly, I don’t like pets that don’t do what I say.”

“Sor…ry, my lord. I will… lead the… mission,” she said as pain and pleasure warred in her eyes, but my threat got through her masochist ways. I released her and licked the blood from my fingers. Mostly for her benefit.

I pushed my hand into the shadows and pulled out a black metal cylinder that was completely sealed. There was a latch on the top, but it required a good deal of strength to open. This was to prevent the core from being activated early.

Turning my attention to Fang, I said, “Fang. Get them there. Find a secluded place and deploy the core. I’m sure there will be a commotion given that the gnomes are more advanced than the other countries. Julie, Wrakras. You and your companions will guard the core until I order otherwise. I should join you only a few moments after the seal if broken.”

“I understand,” Wrakras replied with his usual lack of feeling.

“I… understand,” Julie said with a sigh.

The dozen necromancers loaded up with Fang sitting in the pilot seat readying the vessel. I stepped back as the vessel rose into the air. This time in two days. I would have another city in my grasp. Hopefully, with a lot of new toys to play with.

~~~

“Joseph. Good to see you again.”

“Master.” The man bowed his head. I could tell he didn’t appear happy that my host avatar could be this far from the dungeon. He managed to suppress it though, otherwise he would have been in a lot of pain.

“You brought the slaves?” I asked though I already knew the answer. Behind him was over two hundred people that were dressed in a much better state than slaves were usually allowed to be in. I had met him outside the valley given that certain things had… changed.

“As you commanded.”

“Good. Though, I’ve had a change of heart. I want you to take them to the Nyx church. They will be safe there as per our original agreement.”

“Nyx church?”

“Well. You’ll understand when you get there.” I explained how to reach the cathedral hen sent him on his way. “Sikara. Would you like to go hunting?”

“It would be a good change of pass, my lord.”

“Let’s see if we can find something in this forest to entertain us,” I said moving forward with Sikara falling into step behind me. “Now that I think about it. The necromancers launched their attack from somewhere in the forest. I need to look into that.”

“Should I gather some of my sisters?”

“No. For today, we’re just going for a leisurely stroll to kill something. We should be plenty.”

Sikara and I moved into the shadow realm and began tracking various monsters we felt in the forest. There were plenty of targets to choose from, the forest was quite dangerous outside the roads from what my sources told me. I hadn’t spent much time actually conducting much scouting though.

“My master.”

“What is it?” I asked moving next to Sikara as she dropped out of the shadow realm. She was crouching next to an obvious large imprint. The claws alone had to be near half a meter long.

“Something of substantial size moved through the area recently. It might be a worth prey for you.”

“Any ideas on what it is?”

“I have been studying various topics as you ordered me to in my free time but tracking and monster types have not been a subject I have touched on yet.”

“No problem. A bit of excitement for the afternoon. Alright. Let’s find it.”

The beast appeared to not care if something was able to follow it. Thus, its tracks were easy to follow. We soon were in a small gully that was framed by thick brush. For mortals it would have been a significant challenge to past through or circumvent. Sikara and I, being in the shadow realm, were easily able to walk through the mess without a thought. Physical boundaries meaning less in the black and gray world.

A large pit laid in front of us once we reached the bottom of the gully. The signs of continuous use from a large creature was all the evidence we needed that this was some sort of nest. I didn’t particularly feel like fighting whatever we were hunting inside the tunnels.

Holding my hand out, I created a round device similar to a grenade. With the inclusion of magic, I calculated the explosive force to be around five times more than one used by the military back on Earth. With a grin to Sikara, I tossed the device into the hole. It must have been quite the drop as it fell for a long time. The grenade was set to explode when it struck the bottom or after three minutes if it managed to roll on the chance there was a slope.

Three minutes of the bot passed before a much larger explosion than I anticipated ripped through the area of the pit. The ground under our feet shifted as the entire area began to sink from what was likely collapsing tunnels. I grabbed Sikara and used some mana to leap out of the gully then back up the wall.

Hundreds of tons of soil and stone sank nearly forty meters as everything settled. While I was impressed with my weapon. That was close to thirty times more powerful. I would be disappointed if the creature we tracked had died from that initial attack.

Everything had settled for close to ten minutes when the soil began to shift in unnatural ways. A few moments later, I was able to detect the tell-tale signs of terra mana being used. It wasn’t long before a massive creature burst from under the soil with burn marks covering its green hide.

“A land dragon. Neat,” I said taking the beast in. I had made sure to study up on the race that I was partial a member of. Dragons came in many shapes and sizes. A land dragon was a tank of a monster that couldn’t fly but could move through the ground much like a leviathan moved through the water. Its hide allowed it to take a beating and keep going.

“Master. I can feel its power is over the tier three. Are you sure we should engage?”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” I replied pointing at the beast which was looking directly at us.

The dragon roared, causing the ground all around us to shift. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS OFFENSE?!”

“We need combat training and you happened to be the dummy we found.”

Looking the scales over, I couldn’t find an easy target for my rapier. It looked like I would need to move up the tech tree a few years. Holding out my hand again, a rifle formed in my hand. I made sure to optimize it for armor piercing. If this thing were used on Earth, it should be able to go through one or two tanks.

“YOU WILL PAY!”

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