Dungeon Madness: The Divine Dungeon Book Two Page 14

  She really knew how to get me to do what she wanted. Tonight, I would tear out some stone from the walls and make glass tanks that connected to each other. Then, to make it look interesting, I would make small light potion pockets behind the tanks. Then the jellyfish would seem luminescent and pretty for Dani. Hmm. Actually…

  I was comparing the jellyfish with another pattern in my mind and coming up with a match that made me nervous.

  “Mmhm?” Dani was watching the huge, glittering group walk toward the first Boss room.

  That got her attention.

  “What? You sound nervous, is it loose in here?” She was looking around wildly, scanning the dungeon when nothing apparent appeared. “Where is it? What did you do?”

  Dale perked up and looked around suspiciously when I said these words. People were going to start thinking he was paranoid.

  Dani winced, “If you feel you need to…” Of course, that was all the permission I needed, so an Essence ‘seed’ of the new Mob combination came into being. I did create it in the ‘test’ room, of course. I made a small tank of water before it was fully formed, and after a moment a small jellyfish *plopped* into the water and began drifting about.

  “Alright, I don’t see the issue? You made a jellyfish.” Dani looked at me like I was going insane.

  I pressured her.

  She focused in on it, looking at its body and pattern. “Did you…? It is a cross between a jellyfish and a Wisp? It has a Beast Core? But… but it’s in the F-ranks!”

 

  “It is F-rank zero, I am not sure how this is useful. Plus, it is trapped in a tank.” Dani looked ready to squash my plan before hearing the details, so I spoke quickly.

  I began directing a bit of concentrated Essence into the stingers hanging below the body, and two of them lit up. The Essence in the creature began building, its rank shooting higher, faster than I had ever been able to do without detonating a creature. At F-rank five, it began rising in the water and soon broke the surface. It slowly floated around the room, staying at a constant height.

  Dani was impressed and yet had not seen the worth yet, “So it can float, but it is still…” I began forcing Essence into the creature, and its rank kept getting higher and higher. I didn’t use my personal Essence, instead opting to direct the unrefined and corrupted loose Essence in the dungeon into the creature. “Cal! What are you doing?! It will explode, or worse!”

  It did not explode, so I stopped the flow of Essence when it had reached D-rank five, just at the edge of my ability to control the newly formed Magical Beast. It still had no intelligence, and drifted slowly around. This is where I came into the picture! I imposed my will on the Mob that was full of every type of Essence and corruption, and focused on the stingers hanging from the body.

  *Cr-r-ack!* A huge section of the floor had grown into spikes, impacting the wall with enough force to shatter a large chunk to rubble. I focused on another stinger, and a massive gout of flame *Whooshed* out, superheating the stone spikes. When they began to melt, I held two stingers close together and forced Essence and corruption through them. The air in front of the Mob shattered as the temperature dropped so fast that the minimal moisture in the air froze. The superheated stone spikes exploded, the temperature differential putting too much stress on the material.

  I whooped in excitement, that last bit had been a happy accident!

  Dani had stopped moving and asking questions, her body becoming a very pale light. “Cal… just… how?”

  I waited to answer until I saw that Dale was distracted with a huge swarm of Mobs. I may have sent a few extra at them. A dozen or so. Hopefully the terror would drown out my voice as I softly informed Dani,

  “Well, I suppose, but how are you able to use those incantations? The spells?” Dani desperately searched for answers, her world had just been turned on its side.

  Dani looked, and gave a short laugh.

  “Literally only you would think of this, or be able to pull it off.” Instead of a claw-like end of the stinger, I had created a growth that was the exact pattern of the inversed Essence accumulation Rune, an Essence release Rune.

  I chuckled smugly.

  “Yes, you did.” Dani murmured. “How did you create an icy blast? Fire and water would make steam, correct?”

  I crowed, proud that she had noticed the effect.

  She was almost as excited as I was, but her next words dampened the enthusiasm. “Oh. What is happening to the Mob now, though?”

  I looked at the jelly, who was slowly drifting to the ground.

  I started pouring Essence back into the jelly, and it quickly rose in ranking, and was soon able to float again. It drifted around the room, uncaring of obstacles or other creatures that I put in its way. This was not a creature that would attack others unless I was in control, it was simply too unintelligent. On the other hand, when the creatures saw the floating jelly they seemed to become mesmerized. They followed the floating Mob in a daze.

  “That is interesting. They seem to have retained the Wisp’s natural defense mechanism.” Dani observed softly.

  I grabbed on to this piece of information,

  “I am uncertain… looks like you will have to find out in your favorite way, human trials!” Dani laughed at my reaction, which was of course glee.

  I reluctantly mumbled.

  “You are thoroughly insane, you know that, right?” Dale thought at me angrily.

  I rebutted, causing Dale to pause in his negative assessment.

  “You kill people! What in the world are you protecting?” Dale furiously demanded.

  I gave him a harsh reminder of the past, Dale didn’t respond, but I did notice that he was attacking a bit more furiously.

  ~Fourteen~

  I muttered with trepidation as the massive group of people worked to crush Raile. As it turns out, you only need about six people with tower shields to hold Raile in place while others beat him to death.

  “Well, they look like they are going to continue down onto the third floor. Here is what I want you to do, start mass producing the monsters down there. If they are going to try to overwhelm us with numbers, we will do the same! Also, get a few of those jellies out there.” Dani angrily direc
ted me.

  I joked with her to lighten the tense mood.

  “How about ‘Assimilators’?” She offered after a few seconds. I was startled out of my focus, creating mobs of Mobs. Heh. Wordplay.

  I tried to divide my thoughts so I could listen and create, but accidentally exploded a kitten by adding the wrong ratio of Essences. Oops.

  She gave me a look, showing she had noticed the kitten, “To assimilate means to absorb mentally, and since you force them to constantly absorb and reabsorb…”

  I created more Cats and a few Assimilators intermittently through the maze, keeping the Assimilators well away from each other. It was difficult enough to power one at a time, two would be very slow. To the point of uselessness even. I completed my goal just as they reached the entrance, and listened in on their conversations.

  “What a useless dungeon.” The shiniest man was complaining. “First I lose my aquarium, then we find bare coppers no matter the power of opponent we face. I thought others had said that potent weapons were found here almost daily. All that is here is trash!”

  “My Lord, the information we were given states that the rewards are often much higher for small or low-ranked groups. Perhaps we should simply be split into smaller groups?” A man in uniform offered. The others around him perked up, getting away from their pompous charge would be a huge relief.

  The haughty man pondered these words for a moment, “No. The information also noted that this floor was unexplored, and the variety of monsters unknown. Let us clear this area, and then we can consider moving in smaller groups on future excursions.” They walked into the labyrinth, entering through the door with a drop of water carved over it. This hallway went forward for a short while before subtly curving to the right.

  I enjoyed my time by giving a play-by-play of the action to Dani, it got her all riled up and bloodthirsty.

  “Woo! How are you doing on sealing the walls with cursed earth by the way?”

  I was filling the walls with Runes, then powering them with corruption to enhance their durability. I did not keep Essence or corruption powering them at all times, but an activation as soon as it was ready would do two things.

  One, it would ensure that the Rune was working properly. Two, it would allow me to activate it with a thought. Then if someone wanted to try smashing through the walls, I could easily make it a worthless endeavor. Unfortunately, Runes on that scale took quite a bit of time to perfect, even more so since I always rechecked and compared to Runes proven to work. I had certainly learned my lesson about activating hastily created Runework.

  I admitted to Dani.

  “That sounds good Cal. How do you want to handle this? If you need to focus hard on the Assimilators you will not be able to control any other Mobs, correct?” Dani was in full battle mode.

  I trailed off as I noticed her staring at me.

  “You want me to join in battle? What if I do exceptionally poorly? What if-“

  I cut her off before she could scare herself, “Dani, there is no one that I trust more. Plus, you have been practicing, and I think you are ready. From here on, the only way to get better is to have actual combat experience. You ready? I believe in you.”

  She took an unnecessary breath, she had no lungs. “I’m ready. Let’s go!” She flew off into the maze, just a streak in my senses. She latched onto a Cloud Cat, just like I knew she would. It had the most similar movements to her normal body.

  I took control of an Assimilator, and started slowly drifting toward a point in the maze the huge party would need to cross in order to reach the Boss room. As I drifted, I continuously drew Essence of all types into the body and Core of the floating jellyfish. Now, this took a lot of my attention, but I was still aware of other things going on. I watched as Dani started her approach to the group, right as they were facing a massive swarm of Bashers. Dani leapt from wall to wall, pushing herself higher before the Cat became translucent and started drifting toward the unsuspecting group.

  Dani passed over them, slashing with her claws and inflicting the first casualties to this group. Well. Other than their fish, but… anyway. Her first attack tore open the back of a neck as the man was looking down at the Bashers, exposing himself to the attack from above and behind. His arteries severed, the man dropped to the ground with a gurgle, splashing the Cat with a spray of blood. Her momentum continuing, she landed on the back of a uniformed man and leapt off him with a twist, snapping his neck and regaining altitude.

  She was a beautiful specimen, landing on people and pushing off walls to maintain momentum and confuse her victims. She had just finished off her fourth target when a spear pierced the Cat’s body, followed by a sword. I was nervous for a moment until I saw Dani floating merrily toward a small pride of Cats.

  I worriedly inquired.

  “I am fine, but they killed Purrrrty. I want revenge.” She growled back to me.

  I was watching her in amazement. She had never been more beautiful to me.

  She chuckled, “I knew you would like that.”

  The humans were bemoaning their losses and tightening their formation. A flicker of fear even crossed the leader’s face when no one was looking. He directed two of his remaining guards in thick plate armor to stand near him, obviously hoping that their thick shields would protect them and — by extension — him.

  Dani was about to take control of a Coiled Cat when I stopped her, She agreed, and soon a mangy looking Flesh Cat was slinking toward the group.

  She never ceased to amaze me! Dani was able to switch roles so much more quickly than I was! If I tried to take over a Cat, followed by another Mob with different abilities, I would often fail to use them to their best effect. On the other hand — not really my favorite colloquialism by the way, since I am a gem — Dani had to be physically present at the battles, which worried me. She seemed to be having the time of her life though.

  “Yeah! Take that!” She roared in my mind, an interesting side effect of our bond allowed us to communicate mind to mind when she was possessing a Mob. “Ha ha! Never saw me coming!” She had just taken down a heavily armored man, slashing at his unexposed leg. The armor quickly had blood pouring between the seams, and Dani took advantage of his distraction to open his chest entirely.

  I was observing this and was able to see the total damage when the man died. The Flesh Cat’s ability only opened… well. Flesh. It didn’t damage the bones or organs for some reason, except in weak points such as veins and arteries. I noticed this just before a huge mass of Essence impacted me, catching me completely off guard.

  I grunted, distracting Dani enough that her ride was killed.

  She rushed back to me, noting the glow of dense Essence surrounding me. “Cal, what is the matter? Did you break something?”

  My mind was boiling as I fought to absorb the Essence.

  She gasped in sudden understanding, “That last man was C-ranked! Oh cr
ap, we aren’t ready for this.”

  I grunted in reply. I had been under the misguided assumption that my new cultivation technique would allow me to hold a near-infinite amount of Essence, but had not counted on my D-ranked Mobs being able to acquire the prolific, dense Essence contained in a C-ranked person.

  “You can do this; it has happened before! Remember how I told you that dungeons can go from the F to the B-ranks in a matter of days with the right food? Well you just got the right food to bring you into the C-rankings. This is going to be interesting!” Dani soothed me.

  I wheezed a dry laugh.

  Dani began directing me carefully, and through the pain of holding my atoms together I tried to listen. “Cal, within every dungeon there is one thing that holds true. There is a space in you that is always hungry, always yearning for more. Where fleshy people hold their Essence in their bodies and use it to feed their life-force, you pour it into that tiny hole that can never seem to be filled.”

  Her words made sense — logically — but the meaning eluded me.

  “Narcissism is going to be the death of you.” She mumbled, before speaking at full volume again. “Not your physical body, your aura! You need to go deep Cal. Down to the exact center of your Essence, where the Chi thread is vanishing.”

  I followed her words, then when I got to the center of my Core I looked for a space. Not as a cultivator, not using Essence to enhance my senses, but as a Dungeon, looking at the patterns within my aura. Just as she had promised, there was a tiny void that an atom-sized thread was being sucked into.