Humans, Elementals, and Kobolds!
Celes awoke to a notification
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[You are now a dungeon fairy
You have been bonded to 'Carl' {Quintessential Core of Creation} Lvl 3
New affinity unlocked: Dungeon {Unique}
Some abilities may be given to the dungeon host.
New Abilities unlocked:
Limited Mob Control - If allowed by the dungeon host, you may give commands to monsters.
Possession - You may possess a monster and take control. NOTE: Your normal body will be unconscious while in this state. {Shared}
Permanent Resident - You are now permanently bonded to this dungeon. If either of you die, so will the other.
Gift of Tongues - You now understand all languages {Shared}
True Telepathy - You and your host now share a strong bond, you may now communicate, send images, or even send feelings to one another, no matter the distance. {Shared}
NOTICE: You now cultivate Dungeon Mana - Dungeon mana shares the same affinity as the host dungeon.
NOTICE: You now cultivate Quintessence]
Celes did not expect these changes. From the description of the affinity, she expected that she'd have brief control over the dungeon, but she didn't realize she'd share skills with Carl.
Also, she wasn't sure how Carl would react when he saw her new, 'Permanent Resident' Ability.
...
Once I Said yes to the prompt on my screen, I got a new pop up.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
You are now Bond to dungeon fairy: Celestia Aldruid
You now share Several skills: ...]
I didn't really mind the new skills, the gift of tongue skill seemed useful, now the fights in the dungeon would be a lot more entertaining.
As for the Permanent Resident ability, I kind of expected it. Over the past few weeks, I had grown to like the little fairy.
I don't particularly want either of us to die, so I'm going to keep upgrading my dungeon to the point where nothing can challenge me.
...
Felix was your average farm hand. He would help a client out for a few months, get paid, and move on.
Felix's parents died when he was young.
His mother died giving birth to him, and his father got conscripted into the army.
Felix was left parentless at the age of 12, and had to go about doing menial labour just to earn enough to eat.
On this particular job, Felix was managing the fields of a particularly wealthy... and fat shepherd.
He had been on the job for 2 weeks now, it was an easy one too.
Twice a day, all he had to do was Water and feed the sheep. It was such a simple task.
Yet, he still managed to screw it up.
He let one of the sheep escape.
ON HIS WATCH!
And it wasn't just any sheep, oh nooo... It was the Shepherd's prized award winning sheep. The shepherd even said, "If that sheep escapes, that'll cost you a silver." That was how much Felix made in a month for celestials sake!
Anyway, that is why Felix is currently running through a monster infested wood... to find a damn sheep.
"Baaaaa", Felix heard, somewhere in the distance.
Felix changed course, heading in the direction of the sound.
Although Felix looked somewhat scrawny, he was anything but. He had been working in manual labour since he was 12.
Felix was extremely skilled in navigating the forest. After all, his dad often used to take him out hunting, and when his dad died, he had to live in the forest for periods of time, and hunt gaim, just so he could eat.
Felix continued chasing the bleats, leading him into a small clearing.
Felix had absolutely no clue where he was. He had never gone this far into the forest before.
Looking around, Felix noticed something peculiar. A stone stairway leading down into the ground.
"Who made this?" Felix thought to himself, as he continued to scope out the area.
Suddenly, he heard ableet from down the hole.
"Of course the FREAKING sheep is down the dark scary hole that probably leads to certain death."
Still, Felix took out a torch made from a bundle of cloth soaked in alcohol, and began to walk towards the hole.
After about 10 minutes of walking, Feli still wasn't at the bottom, "This is a deep stairwell," Felix thought to himself.
After another minute, Felix began to hear the sounds of fighting.
And after a little more walking Felix finally reached a branch in the stairwell.
One way led to an open cave area with what looked to be a wall made of scraps.
The other way led further down.
Felix was about to continue going down, when he heard something speedily running up the stairwell.
Not having time to think, Felix hid behind a stalagmite.
Felix saw a massive goblin running out from the entrance shouting out "Dungeon!"
Although Felix did not speak Goblin, 'Dungeon' was a word that was universal.
A mask of shock fell upon his face. If down there was a dungeon, then this could be bad.
But... It could also be an opportunity.
Suddenly, several more figures all came out. They looked extremely worse for wear, and looked like they would collapse any second.
After all the figures had left his line of sight, he finally dared to leave the protection of the stalagmite.
"Baaaaa", the sound rang out across the cave.
And there it was, a massive fat sheep trying to get its foot unstuck from a hole in the rocks.
Felix sighed.
Today had definitely been eventful, he grabbed the lead he had attached to his belt, and walked over to the sheep. He attached the sheep to the lead, helped to get its foot unstuck, and hastily left the so-called dungeon. He had a plan.
...
"Was that a human?" I asked Celes.
Celes, who was looking through my vision said, "Yes, it was, but did you see that sheep, it looked so fluffy! I wonder what Goaty would think of her."
"But more importantly, they now know I'm a dungeon, what do I do?!"
"Well, It's obvious, you just need to make it so that no one can get to your core. Personally, I suggest you move the storage room to your core room. No one could possibly get through all those monsters, unless they had an army." Celes said.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask you, is there a way to limit the number of people that can be in each room at a time?" I asked.
"As a matter of fact, yes, if a party has more than 20 people in it, then they are not allowed to enter. Whatever mysterious force that rules over dungeons won't allow it."
That's reassuring, I was worried that several thousand people could just enter my dungeon and wipe everything out, and kill him.
Then I had a thought.
"Hey, Celes, what if people just break the stone around my dungeon?"
"Huh, well then, it gets broken, if you want to stop people from destroying your dungeon, then you should just make it out of stronger materials." Celes replied matter of factly.
Hearing this, I decided to combine stone with stone.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[You have combined 'stone' with 'stone'
Name: Reinforced Stone
Mana Cost: 2.5 per square metre (Original 5)
Rarity: Common
Item Type: Building Material
Description: An enhanced version of stone. Stronger in every way.
Alteration Made by: Enhancer - Temperature resistance; can resist any temperatures.
Alteration Made by: Quinessence - Ethereal; creatures from your dungeon may seamlessly go through these walls.]
While that was good, the benefits didn't really reassure me of its strength.
"What happens if I combine it with itself again?" I thought.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[You have combined 'Reinforced stone' with 'Reinforced stone'
Name: Flesh of Gaia
Congratulations, You have made a unique item!]
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[Out of all 8 supreme beings, the hardiest of all is Gaia, her flesh was deemed impenetrable. Not even the other supreme beings could pierce it.
In a village, once lived a small orcish girl.
While this girl was poor, she made the most of it. Her mother and father were killed by human slavers, and since then the girl, Gaia, swore to get revenge.
and she did...
With her strong spirit, and fierce rage, she managed to learn the ancient Orcish art 'Blessing of Earth'.
Having been able to cultivate this monstrous technique, Gaia was formally recognized as a God among the Orcs. She ruled.
Using her new found power, she crushed all humans on her planet before ascending even higher. Ascending to the realm of a supreme being, second to only one...
Name: Flesh of Gaia
Mana Cost: 50 per square metre (Original 100)
Rarity: Unique
Item Type: Building Material
Description: "When talking to this particular God, don't mention her height, HAHA!... Seriously though... don't do it...", One of the strongest known materials. This stone is known as an orcish Relic, be wary.
Alteration Made by: Enhancer - Retains properties of 'Reinforced Stone'
Alteration Made by: Quinessence - If broken, the Earth God Gaia will be summoned to that location!]
...
I was surprised to say the least. Obtaining the supposed skin of one of the strongest beings in existence was not an everyday occurance.
And what the heck was that extra ability, if broken it would summon a most likely enraged Earth Goddess, the heck was that about.
but...
If the cost and description were anything to go off, it would most likely be pretty strong...
But then again, that cost was extraordinary.
out of curiosity, I tried combining Flesh of Gaia with itself, but...
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[What you wish to create requires more mana than you produce daily.
How the heck can stone cost that much!
I decided, even though it would be costly, it would be the safer option, but even then it would most likely take me several months to replace everything with the Flesh of Gaia.
So I decided to start by converting everything with Reinforced stone first.
Suddenly, something happened in my dungeon.
It caught my attention.
I immediately directed my attention to room two.
It was the moss. Coming out of a piece of moss, was a small glowing white orb.
I had completely forgotten about it since the fight, but now another one had bloomed. Instead of sending it away like the other one, I watched it.
I waited a few minutes, and nothing happened.
After waiting even longer, I gave up and decided to absorb it.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[You have absorbed quinessence spirit.
Name: Quinessence elemental "Ooooo, spooky floaty lights, I'm truly terrified!"
Mana Cost: 1,000+
Base Stats:
Base Stats:
Strength: 0
Endurance: 0
Dexterity: 0
Intelligence: 0
Wisdom: 0
Charisma: 0
Spirit: 0
Description: A blank canvas. Whenever the elemental touches something, it will turn into an elemental of that thing; Transformation time: 1 hour.
Alteration Made by: Enhancer - Elemental has the ability to morph into any desired shape.
Alteration Made by: Quinessence - Multi-elemental: elementals can take on the form of higher affinities when touching the correct elements.
That sounded awesome, I assume if I had left it sitting there for an hour it would've turned into an air elemental.
Now that I think about it, the other elemental I left should've turned into an air elemental by now.
Directing my consciousness to my storage room, I saw something incredible...
A MASSIVE, 10 story hall giant. It was like a sentient tornado! It had a ghostly looking face that reminded me of a skull, massive gusts of wind shot out from it. It was TERRIFYING!
The closer monsters to it were even picked up and thrown across the room.
Suddenly, I realised how useful that morph ability was going to be.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
[Name: Quintessential Air Elemental "I did think the room needed a bit of airing out, after all, you stink!"
Mana Cost: 1,000+
Base Stats: +1 per 10 mana
Strength: 30
Endurance: 30
Dexterity: 100
Intelligence: 100
Wisdom: 100
Charisma: 0
Spirit: 100
Description: A fierce sentient gust of wind, taking on the form of an extremely powerful quintessence monster (Scales with Mana)
Alteration Made by: Enhancer - Maintains abilities from Quintessence Elemental
Alteration Made by: Quinessence - Can Control all air within a 10 metre radius (+1 metre per 100 mana)]
I ordered that all elementals should maintain the size of the original quintessence elemental, changing colour with each different element.
...
Several weeks went by with nothing happening, I had been spending all my mana on upgrading the walls to the Flesh of Gaia.
I had been playing around with elementals, I tested the stone and air elemental, and that turned into a sand elemental, which was really cool. Using the morph ability, it was like a liquid, constantly shifting shape. It was awesome.
[Name: Quintessential Sand Elemental "Trust me, this guy makes waves at parties, everybody wants to sea him!"
Mana Cost: 1,000+
Base Stats: +1 per 10 mana
Strength: 50
Endurance: 50
Dexterity: 150
Intelligence: 50
Wisdom: 40
Charisma: 0
Spirit: 100
Description: An grouping of grains of sand coming together to create this behemoth, taking on the form of an extremely powerful quintessence monster (Scales with Mana)
Alteration Made by: Enhancer - Maintains abilities from Quintessence Elemental
Alteration Made by: Quinessence - Can Control all sand within a 10 metre radius (+1 metre per 100 mana)]
The elementals seemed really cool, and I could already imagine fights between adventurers and the elementals, where a sand elemental dodges a sword slash, by morphing its body around the blade, and then shoot a stream of sand at the enemy.
I was giddy from excitement, the prospects to come seemed endless.
...
George had gotten the report from Gobshaw a few weeks ago, and the mysterious stairwell being a dungeon was not something he had been expecting.
But something still confused him, how did that mana allow everyone to cultivate.
Something was going on behind the scenes here, and George wanted to know more.
He made the goblins that went on the expedition to swear a blood oath that they wouldn't tell anyone, threatening their families if they disagreed.
George promoted them, and ordered for them to be trained into strong, killing machines, he would send them back to the dungeon. But for now, he let them rest.
...
After Felix had returned to the estate, he put the sheep back into the paddock to graze with its friends, before turning in for the night.
After the next few weeks, Felix's contract expired, and he left the fat merchants estate with 4 silver coins! that's almost double what he would normally get.
"The rich really do spare no expense" Felix sighed.
Felix walked back into the forest, he'd need to hunt his own gaim tonight, after all he'd need to save every penny to buy out the land...
...
Kobold commander Denmen was sitting in his army tent, with his strategist team, and his lieutenants.
"Okay, like we strategized: I'll take a team of 20,000 Kobolds to take Goblin city #3347, We'll continue taking the towns until we get to #3340, from there we'll head over and meet up with another group led by General Burrows, where we'll try and take the cities in the 3330's district.
We'll continue using the resources we plunder to support our other forces." Denmen stated, revising the jist of their plan.
"I combined with the 20,000 soldiers should be more than enough to take the Goblin cities." He continued.
The other kobolds in the room just looked at him and nodded, blatant respect in their eyes. The Kobold Generals were praised as heroes to the kobold people, any kobold that got to work under these legends were envied by all.
Of course this respect is deserved.
Outside the tent, soldiers could be heard talking "Hey, I heard that General Denmen took on an entire goblin city by himself, and won!"
"Yeah, I heard that too, he must be so strong, I bet his strength is in the hundreds!"
...
Carl, none the wiser to the different events happening in the World, continued working on the dungeon.
And whether he liked it or not, he was a part of them now.