Dungeon Robotics 130

Evening everyone! I know its Monday but don't let that get you too down. Here's a DR chapter to lighten the mood.

Regan

After resting with Alara for a few hours, I spent the rest of the day working on her dungeon. I was taking my time on the rest as I didn’t want to worry her. I surprised myself when I realized again how much I cared for her. I felt much better once her dungeon was clear of unholy mana. 

We were sitting in Alara’s core room. She held my hands and looked like she wanted to do something to relieve the pain, though we could only let time heal them. Thankfully, there wasn’t so much pain as a numbness. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now you are back to hundred percent,” I said.

Alara curled up on my lap and leaned into my chest. I smiled as I just enjoyed the moment. I was sure I could just enjoy this for a hundred years if I could. It wasn’t long before Alara was asleep. I would have petted her hair but my hands were still smoking slightly from earlier. 

We sat like that for probably seven or eight hours. Alara’s avatar needed sleep before to recover from the tole the unholy mana placed on her in her dungeon. Right now, it was likely because she was just that relaxed. I played my role as bed but let my mind work. I moved throughout my dungeons to make sure everything was good and to find areas that might need improvement. 

The link to the other continent was forming slowly, but surely. While whatever was causing teleporting to cease functioning was also interfering with me being able to move my mind between more cores easily, I was working on ways to counter it. The transponders were one way that I might work around it for my cores up here that were all relatively close to each other.

My next goal would be to test if I could alter some of the satellites already in orbit to work as transponders. The Orbital Station might be self-sufficent, but I feared what might happen if they encounter the threat that was coming without me being able to get there to assist. Many of my automata would likely perish in whatever confrontation that ensued. I couldn’t allow that, as they were basically my children.

I would need to go to Steel Spire or create a new Tower where I can build a sort of uplink. I would have to deal with lag as I moved from one core to the next depending on my current location, but it would be seconds compared to the days it took to move my mind currently. My avatar would be left behind as well, but I could create another that was less… godly.

While I was observing my dungeons, I sensed some people enter the lowest floor of my main dungeon. I noticed mainly because they were putting off enough mana to put the town to shame. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to call them walking nukes. I also sensed someone that had been missing for a few weeks amongst the party.

“Alara.”

She instantly snapped awake. “What is it, my love?”

I smiled. “I have guests in my dungeon. Louella was with them.”

“Your mortal. Okay. I’ll come with you!”

“Well, she’s not really my…” I just let it drop and started the hopscotch process that would get us back to my main dungeon. I got a message stating what I already knew as we moved. We appeared in the center tower of the geode that I created in the Beneath. With a quick glance, I found the quarters she was staying in and moved us over there.

Knocking on the door, a boy answered who had wolf features. He was putting off more mana that I expected from someone his age, but less than the other people in his party. “Can I help you?”

“I am Regan. I am here to see Louella,” I replied.

“Lord Regan? I never expected the dungeon host to come to us,” he muttered as he opened the door fully. I looked around as we entered the room. 

Louella was sitting on a couch brushing the hair of another girl. The girl had similar features to the boy that opened the door leading me to believe they were siblings. A man walked in from another room that looked like your everyday playboy. That was until I looked at him with my other senses.

“I will question why a celestial is in my dungeon later. Considering you’re with Louella, I will take that as you mean no harm,” I said looking the guy over. He might be hiding his true features with powerful magic, but in my dungeon things like that don’t work. He had three sets of wings with each being a different type.

“Damn. What was that, three seconds? I think you’re the first person to see through my magic so quickly,” said the man as he dropped into a chair.

“I know you! You’re Regan right?!” Louella shouted as she pointed at me.

“Yes. You are probably the person that should know that best on this planet,” I replied tilting my head as I looked at her.

“Sorry. My head is a mess. I could barely remember my own name a few weeks ago.”

I snapped my attention to her and scanned her. While I got quite a few readings, I would need to a much more thorough scan to make sure of my findings. One thing was certain. She was close to no longer being mortal. “What happened? You finally decide to go full elemental?” I asked with a chuckle.

“That didn’t take long, but something is telling me that’s not surprising,” Louella replied shaking her head.

I looked the two siblings over again to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Other than obviously being a High race beastkin, I didn’t notice anything with the boy. The girl, however, appeared to have another soul attached to her that was leeching out her mana. It looked like it had been so long that the original soul was struggling to continue to fight the infestation.

The soul noticed that I was looking at it and the girl screamed as she held her head. The soul had attempted to bury itself deeper into the originals. “Oh no, you don’t!” I said as I rushed over to the girl. The boy shouted but I was too busy to listen. I wrapped my hand with spirit mana that shifted it to an ethereal form. I reached into the girl, feeling bad about the horrified look she was giving me. I grabbed the soul and prepared to pull. 

Using my free hand, I created a barely more than frame automaton. Pulling the soul while using mana to protect the girl’s soul, I yanked it free of her. The girl collapsed but her original pale skin instantly started to darken to the golden brown like her brother’s. I turned and slammed the soul into the automaton before it could escape.

“Well, that was close,” I said looking around the room. Alara had a hold on the boy who was struggling to get at me. Louella and the man were staring at me. Both had the ability to see what I had done, with the man being a celestial of some type, and Louella being partial elemental.

“What have you done to her!? I’ll kill you!” shouted the boy. Various parts of his body were starting to change before my eyes. A werewolf?

Louella shook herself and rushed over to the boy. “Yuno! Its okay. He helped her. Look! Her skin matches yours now. Something was inside her.” Her word appeared to help a little as he took a deep breath. 

The girl roused after a moment and sat up. Alara released Yuno and he rushed over to the girl. “Sera! Are you alright?”

“Brother. I feel different. Like something that has haunted me for the last decade has lifted from my shoulders.”

“That is actually very close to the truth.” I looked at the automaton. “How long are you going to pretend to be empty. I’ll do myself a favor and melt you down,” I said.

The metal frame shook before it placed both its hands on its head. “I was soooo close! Thirteen years! For thirteen years, I worked to make that girl a perfect new host for my soul!”

“That’s not very nice of you,” I said tapping the blank faceplate. “I had another old soul try the same thing. Duilin, poor guy. You’ll never see him again.”

“Duilin! What did you do to the Lightning Emperor!? No! What are you going to do to me?!” The automaton took a bashful stance as it covered its nonexistent parts. “Anything but that you cretin!”

A branch suddenly stabbed through the chest of the automaton. I turned to see Alara glaring at the thing. “One more word about my Regan and you’ll be turned into a cog!”

“Yes.” It replied simply.

“For the time being, I’ll deal with you later.” I snapped my fingers and teleported the junk automaton to a sealed room. I had plenty of them due to encounters with people that were like this. I turned back to the rest of the room. “Sorry about that. I worried that the parasite might harm the girl after it saw that I noticed it. I would have informed you had there been more time. I apologize,” I said bowing to Yuno.

“No. I understand. Thank you for helping her.”

“Now.” I turned to Louella. “What to do about fixing you?”