Dungeon Annihilation 30

Hey Guys! Everyone ready for the upcoming week!? I know I am. 

Regan

It was around midnight when Raven returned to the dungeon. She pulled a nice sized cart behind here laden with plants. As soon as she entered my aura, I absorbed everything one item at a time. I found it interesting that I could just absorb plants without any issue, but had to wait until anything with intelligence was dead.

I closed my eyes and focused on the plants so I could learn everything about them. I had a blank book open on the ground near my core. I was writing everything down so I would have a second medium. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my own memory. It was rather crystal clear actually, but it was always good to have a backup. 

It took me a close to three hours to absorb everything and inscribe it to the book, but I felt it was worth it. I had some very interesting specimen to work with. There were also a lot of poisons making me wonder what exactly that old elf had been before he became a simple herbalist. 

“Welcome back Raven. Did any trouble occur?” I said when I was finally done.

“No, master,” she said with an obvious pout. I didn’t doubt she was hoping to make Ivan try something so she could cut him in half.

“Maybe next time,” I said laughing at her expression. “I do have some good news for you. I captured a dark mana user that should be able to help you grow your power. For starters, I want you to learn how he turns invisible. It would be a great asset for the dungeon.”

She visibly brightened at that and started bouncing on her heels. “Can I go now?”

“Sure. He doesn’t get much say in the matter,” I replied before moving her to Cell three. Ennio was staring at the wall without much else to do. I was considering making some form of entertainment for the cells and the colony, but I wasn’t sure what would be a good choice. It was a decision for later though. 

Ennio jumped when Raven appeared right next to him. I told him this was his student then moved up the dungeon. He would handle it the way he saw fit. If she couldn’t learn then I would have to either deal with him or she just wasn’t able to grow.

On the twentieth floor I looked at the almost endless amount of space I had to work with. If this space adjustment kept up for every floor, I would eventually be able to fit a planet in the dungeon. I was only on the twenty through twenty-fifth floor and already had a hundred kilometers to work with. At least this one would grow naturally.

I couldn’t go too over the top, my mana was still recovering from creating the Factory floor as well as the upgrade to Pride. I was running close to ten percent which I did not appreciate. When I hit tier ten, I had raised my tower up as high as it would go just to have the space to work with, but filling it was turning into a small nightmare.

I moved across the twentieth floor after turning the five floors into a mega floor and started seeding with the plants I already had. Given the dungeon aura and mana in the ambient air, they would grow much faster than in nature. Even the plants that were out of their environment would grow better than normal.

I did make sure to separate certain plants. While the old elf had warned me about the two that could devastate an area. There were a few others that would compete against each other. With a hundred kilometers, I could devote large plots of land to each plant and still have room left over.

It was close to dawn before I finished gardening. Checking in on Raven showed she learned a bit of the dark elements magic. Ennio appeared to be a good teacher. They were still in the middle of practicing so I moved away and turned towards the rest of the dungeon. It was time to get my daily news. 

A few parties were inside diving. Moving closer, I eavesdropped to hear the latest happenings in the town. While nothing to extreme was going on I did learn to interesting tidbits. There was a tournament taking place in a few days, and my dungeon had been edging towards getting a higher rank. 

If my dungeon got a higher rank, then more powerful adventurers would have to be called to dive it. While coin did drop from my dungeon with ease, there wasn’t enough of it to entice stronger parties to my halls. As barely anyone had made it passed Pride, the rest of the dungeon was an enigma.

There was a simple solution, I could release the people in my colony. That would fix the number of deaths to closer to what they actually should be. I was just hesitant to lose that mana income. It had reached a five grand total and hour. That was a nice amount

With the new curse magic that I pulled from Ennio and his band, I could keep them silent about what they’ve seen in the dungeon. After a few minutes of internal debate, I decided I would take a wait and see approach. I did want to check out the guildmaster of the adventurer Guild to get a read on her. It could factor into my decision going forward.

As for the adventurer tournament, I wasn’t too interested in it. If I or any of my minions particapated, I would be revealing my hand to the mortals. That wouldn’t do. Still, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get some practice in case I ever was drawn into close quarters combat. With my shadow monster avatar, I could overpower just about anything that had come my way. The first time that wasn’t the case was going to mean my death.

“Set. Raven.” I called to the two girls grabbing Raven from her training. There were some bandits outside the valley. They would make good practice dummies for me to wail on. No one miss them either. 

“We’re going outside for a bit. I want to practice with the sword and some magic in actual combat. Set, you’re going to be support on this one. Use your magic to confuse the enemy. Raven. I know you wanted to get your murder on so this will be a good chance for you,” I explained to the two girls. I thought about the rest of my minions but couldn’t think of anyone else that I could easily bring out of the dungeon.

I teleported us outside slightly to the edge of the dungeon. When I hit tier two my aura expanded quite a distance so I could set up just inside the forested area. It made leaving the dungeon much easier. After a quick discussion we elected to avoid the town, taking a roundabout path to the Thonaca pass. 

Other than a few hunters, the outskirts of the valley were quite empty. The valley was quite massive. It could have easily fit New York City and then some. It took a few minutes to get around the town that was quickly growing in the center of the valley. It reminded me of a giant Y. 

We soon reached the wall that spanned the pass. An equally impressive feat given that the wall already reached a height of seven meters or so. People were streaming in and out through the gate. Golden Dawn members checked people coming in, but were relatively lazy about the people leaving. 

Joining the line, we were out in only a few minutes. Most of the people stayed on the road leading down the pass, but some were breaking off into the woods. The appeared to be hunters mostly. We stayed on the road for a half an hour or so, before breaking off into the surroundings.

This was the furthest from my dungeon I had ever come and it was interesting to say the least. I could still tell exactly what was going on inside the dungeon but felt slightly disconnected from it all at the same time. I wasn’t sure of the distance I could travel. When I asked Set she said that most host stayed within a hundred kilometer radius of their cores. For obvious reasons.

“Now… how to find these rats,” I mumbled once we were in a clearing a ways from the road. “I wanted to test this anyways.” I held out my hand and tried to summon a Hunter like I did in the dungeon, only substituting the goblin section with the new oni workings. As I expected the spell failed. I tried again, only using the spell script by carving it into the ground. Next, I funneled my mana into the spell construct. 

The magic circle solidified as sparks of mana jumped from the ground. A few seconds later, a Hunter much different from the ones in my dungeon appeared. A female with dark ebony skin that was just under around one eighty centimeters in height. She had a two horns emerging from the top of her forehead. I felt the spell about to finish, but pushed enough mana in so that the creature would be at least tier two.

Once the spell finished, she kneeled like the other Onis had. Ripples of shadow echoed out from her fists when they hit the ground, a black coat that mirrored the Hunters back in the dungeon releasing small wisps of darkness into the surroundings. As my mana was influenced by my avatar body, she had taken a shadow aspect it appeared. 

“Kami.”

“Huntress. Hmm.” I thought about all the languages from Earth. “Let’s call you Sikara.”

“Yes. Kami. Command me and your prey will dread the day you set my sights on them,” Sikara said.

“I like your attitude. We’re hunting some bandits in the area. They will have a heavy blood scent to them unless they are hygienic and know how to bathe. Find them,” I ordered.

She bowed her head then jumped from the oni salute. I folded my arms to watch as I wanted to see what would come of this. I always found it fascinating that new creatures that I summoned had relatively strong personalities. Sikara moved over to the shadows cast by the trees around us. Kneeling she placed her hand inside the shadow. Quite literally, as her hand vanished into it like the shadows were a liquid.

I sensed Sikara’s mana pulse and switched my eyes to mana sense. She was using the shadows as a type of sonar by pulsing her mana through them. It was quite an ingenious use of the magic. Switching back to normal sight, I noticed that Raven was observing as best she could. It was a good lesson on the use of shadow and darkness mana.

After ten minutes or so had gone by, Sikara stood from her spot. “Kami. I have found a nest of the mortals a bit to the west. I can’t be sure, but I place their numbers around fifty.”

“Four versus fifty. The odds sound about right,” I said with a grin. Raven did gulp but until just recently she was a slave so I didn’t blame her. 

“Should we destroy or endeavor to capture them, master?” Set inquired giving me a pause. That would solve one of my problems. If we captured this group and the other one in the other pass, then I could release the adventurers from the colony to keep my rank down. Of course, I could just add this bunch to the colony and increase my total overall mana gain. Decisions, decisions.

“Let’s see how the confrontation goes. We might not have much choice in the matter.”

“Understood,” Set said bowing her head.

“Lead the way, Sikara.”

~~~

An hour later, we were on the outskirts of a campsite. Several tents surrounded a cave opening which appeared to serve as their leader’s lodging. There were more organized then expected with a watcher covering every angle of approach. Still, they were far enough part that we could pick them off without the other noticing.

“Quick and quiet,” I whispered labeling targets for each of the girls. I had learned how to do the shadow meddle trick from Sikara on the way here, while Raven and Set could work together to disappear from sight. We choose targets with one being directly next to the mountain wall face. I gave him to the pair while Sikara and I took a bit more difficult targets. 

Thankfully, the bandits hadn’t cleared the trees from around their campsite leaving a nice path to them via the shadows. I nodded to Sikara and we entered the shadows. It was a strange experience to say the least. It appeared as if everything had been inverted. Walking with ease up the man that I had chosen for my target, I found something interesting. 

His shadow version stood before me. I decided to take a risk and drew my sword. The image of the blade was wavy in the black and white world I was in. I carefully lined the tip of the blade up then shot forward. The blade easily slid through the man and exited out his back to sink into the tree he was leaning against.

The shadow man reached up with his hands as if he couldn’t understand the intense pain in his chest then they dropped to his sides. I pulled the blade free dark spots forming where the blood landed. I reached up and the world shifted as if coming out from under water. I looked to my feet where the body of the man I’d just slain in the shadow realm laid. Once back on the normal plane, I felt a rush of mana from the death of the man. 

“This is going to be fun,” I mumbled with a what I knew was a wicked looking grin.

Using the shadows, I moved to the spot we chose to meet at once we took care of our targets. Sikara was waiting for me and the pair arrived shortly after I did. Raven looked a bit winded but Set appeared the same as always.

“This should be easier than we anticipated. Sikara finish off the perimeter. I’m going to move into the camp. Set and Raven follow along and be ready to assist if something happens.” A simple plan was best in my opinion. That way we could adapt to anything that might rise up suddenly.

Sikara and I dived back into the shadows. I noticed that on the other side in the shadow realm, she looked like a twice bleached silhouette. She moved off almost as if she was borne to move through the realm. I moved through the shadows over to the camp. It was a bit more difficult compared to the surroundings. 

He shadows were more broken, but after a bit of playing around, I found I could move through the darkness of the broken ground. I wanted to test a few theories, so I was careful to make sure that I didn’t bother anything as I moved through the camp. I came to a tent and was pleased to see a few people snoring inside. I guess being a bandit meant you worked at night.

I drew my sword then created one of the poisons I’d recently came about. I coated the blade with a decent coating. I checked the four men and decided on one that looked the most thick skinned. I moved closer and nicked his arm. I wanted to see if poison could carry over or if I needed to be out of the shadow realm.

I waited a few seconds then saw the man’s arm turn black. That meant there was some sort of reaction between the material plane and the shadow plane. It would do to research it some more. I wiped the blade clean of the poison then created a different kind. This wouldn’t result in instant death.

This time I stabbed the man’s shadow instead of the physical part. Unlike the first time, the man didn’t react to the poison, but to the intense pain from being stabbed. He yelled out, waking up the rest of the people in the tent. They saw the dead man in started shouting that something was going on. 

The fact that the numbing poison didn’t work on the man’s shadow was interesting but now I had to clean up this mess. I sheathed my sword and drew the pistol that was created when my avatar was. I aimed at the head of one of the men still remaining with the injured man. Placing the barrel next to the standing man’s head, I pulled the trigger. 

There was no sound and the next thing, the man’s head was in pieces around the tent. The injured man started screaming for a new reason. I leveled the gun and repeated the process. The gun created by the magic certainly packed a punch. It not only removed the man’s head but also put a decent hole in the ground. 

A man wearing grey robes that a person would likely forget once they were out of eyesight. I suddenly felt the world around me grow denser as he used some sort of spell on the dark mana around me. Before I could react, I was pulled from the shadow realm. 

“What the… Why is one of the shadow guild attacking us!?” the man shouted pulling a ball and chain that had a skull at the end instead of a ball of iron. 

“I was doing some tests, don’t mind me,” I said leveling the gun at his head. I pulled the trigger, but the man ducked right at that second and the bullet put a hole through the man behind him. 

The robed man started channeling mana into his weapon and green flames appeared on the skull. He twisted and sent the skull flying at me. I drew my sword to block the block but it was still strong enough to knock me through the back of the tent. I slid to a stop and pointed the gun at the robed man. 

Firing, the round snapped across the distance and smashed into the man’s shoulder, spinning him around with a spray of blood. I felt sparks of unholy mana even before the man hit the ground. The skull came flying at me almost as if remoted controlled. I went to counter it with my sword, but the skull changed direction mid-flight and bit down on my leg.

“Mother Fuc!” I spat as I fired a round at the chain. I was surprised when the bullet bounced off.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you’re going to pay for that,” the man said pulling him body up off the ground while grapsing his shoulder. 

“Before that, you mind getting this thing off my leg. It doesn’t hurt but I can feel it draining my mana,” I said pointing at the skull.

“That’s right. Soon you’ll be fighting yourself,” the man said with a crude laugh.

I sighed then shifted my body to the shadow monster version. I had more control over the physical form of that. Something about the mana not trying to maintain the flesh and appearance of the dragonkin. My leg faded from sight then back as the skull fell through it.

I elongated my claws and fangs. “Now. Let’s have some fun.”

I jumped forward crossing the distance in a flash. My hand bounced back as a green barrier formed around the man. I tried again but the same thing happened. I did notice that cracks did form from the second hit. It might be automatic but must require a decent amount of mana to maintain after it had been activated. 

“I heard about the host of the dungeon. Its my lucky day. I didn’t even have to find a way to lure you out.” The man gave a nasty grin before he reached for something on his belt. He pulled what looked like a collar that had nasty red runes on it. I recognized it as the same thing that was on the other dungeon host I saw a few weeks ago. 

“Got to catch them all?” I tried not to start laughing.

“What? Whatever. Soon you’ll be doing everything I saw without a complaint.”

Before he could react, I pressed my hand against the barrier and started to spread my hand over it until it enveloped the entire thing. Once I completely encompassed it, I started to increase the pressure of the barrier. The spell appeared to be a double-edged sword, He was protected but he couldn’t act through it.

A blade passed through my back while I was focusing on the necromancer. Turning my head one eighty, there were ten men and women with their weapons bared. With my free hand I pulled my sword that had fused with my body free. I was really enjoying the free control over my body I got with being shadow.

With rapid movements, I shot my arm forward and brought the blade down on the first man then continued on the path to decapitate another man that was next to him. The others freaked out and tried to run, but I used their shadows to keep them from moving. 

“Master.”

I paused mid-swing as I was about to slice through another man’s neck. “Set. What is it?”

“The rest of the camp has been incapacitated. Only the necromancer and the men you have bound remain. There are ten dead.”

I took a deep breath and returned most of my avatar back to dragonkin. “Thank you. Let’s take everything back to the dungeon. You never know what we might find useful.”

“Understood.”

I created a teleport pad to the dungeon. It would make this a lot easier, though it did require some mana. Still. These people were going to pay for it. I felt the barrier break inside the cocoon of shadows I’d formed which quickly constricted around the man. I revealed just his head and he started taking deep breaths.

“Release me! You will regret this!”

“Now. Now. No one likes a sore loser,” I said while creating a needle filled with a poison that would knock a person out for a few days. Injecting it into the man’s neck he soon passed out. I tossed him along with a bunch of other bandits into the platform and teleported them to the dungeon. 

A few more sendings and all the bandits and their belongings were in the dungeon. I sank the platform several meters under the ground then set a spell to bury it once we teleported to the dungeon. I placed them in the Cell block four that was hidden in the Gothic City. It might not be long before I needed to make a prison floor.