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The Dungeon, Medea Island

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By the following morning, I had my three new shamans. Each Kobold was raised to the level of a Drake-kin and was granted the knowledge of casting or controlling their respective elements' magic.

Like both air and water, Earth magic was manipulating extant sources of each classical element. My new earth shaman could raise platforms and barriers with a stomp, cause the earth beneath his enemy's feet to become like quicksand, or even collapse a tunnel completely. On this floor, with this theme, he was perfect. I also made a 'light' shaman and a 'metal' shaman.

Metal magic was what I would call a 'second tier' element. If air, water, earth, and fire are all at the first tier, then the second tier includes the various combinations of the elements I've observed and a more specialized expression.

Lightning was fire and air, of course. Metal is a higher expression of earth. Light is a higher expression of fire. Not sure what shadow is, exactly. My 'mana type wheel' is pretty spotty, to be honest.

Anyway, back to the reason I created the shamans.

At my command, they each stood before a stone golem. If this works, I can have them do the metal golems afterward. Each manipulates their magic in the described way and with the correct intent, and before each of them appears a small being made of mana.

They were fascinating.

Without any mana interference from the delvers, I could bring a tendril of mana down from the quietly swirling pool on the ceiling to poke them. With the poke, I sent through a single thought. Hello.

The sprites, only attached to my kobolds by a very thin tendril, immediately 'grabbed' the bigger tendrils I used. Hi! Hi! Hi!

I was a little shocked at their eagerness, but I suppose a being made entirely of mana, and likely dependent on it for their existence, would happily switch to a larger source of mana if given the option.

I have a contract for you. I sent it to all three. I provide bodies for you to inhabit, and you will follow my orders; in return, I'll provide you with mana until the body is destroyed. If the body is destroyed, I'll give you a new one. If you wish to continue the contract, that is. There were a few seconds of silence. As I was about to continue, all three came to the same conclusion.

OK! OK! OK!

Each sprite, without hesitation, rammed straight into the golem bodies. They passed through the stone as if it didn't exist, diving straight for the glowing, mana-filled cores in the chests. Settling within the center of the cores, they seemed to gorge themselves on the mana inside. Once done, they spread their mana through the channels I'd provided. Each of their aspects affected the bodies they inhabited.

The skin of the earth sprite's golem essentially turned to dirt. Its eyes and the spaces between its joints glowed a deep green. The metal sprite's golem had glowing silver eyes and joints, while the end of its three-fingered hands and three-toed feet became extremely sharp and metallic. The Light stone golem had yellowy-orange eyes, the gaps between its limbs glowing a similar color. Actually...

A quick reach and twist of the light sprite's golem had the two eyes merge into one central eye. The sprite hummed in approval.

Stand up, please.

The three golems, previously sat on 'seats' of stone, stood.

I examined my new golems from every angle, both with the vision of my kobolds and my mana-sight. The Sprites had wholly replaced my mana in their channels and began pooling it around their cores without consuming it. It reminded me very much of how I pool mana around my Core.

If I didn't know better, I would call the earth sprite's golem an elemental. It seemed highly suited to its new body and integrated faster than the others. It also experienced the most drastic change. Hmm. Even if it isn't, I'm going to call it one. Turning my attention to the metal spirit, I found myself slightly disappointed. Id hadn't changed that much, just gained sharper limbs and potentially a more rigid exterior.

Actually... If I'm right about the earth spirit being suited to the stone golem body, perhaps the metal spirit would experience a greater... connection... to the metal golems. I quickly send the metal spirit a message.

I believe you are unsuited to this body. I have another that you might find more appropriate. Are you okay with switching bodies?

Sure! Body where!?

Wow. These things are very agreeable and excitable. Perhaps... they are young? I directed the metal spirit to walk the stone golem body to the chamber where I stored the metal golems.

These are all made of metals. Some are stronger than others. Which would you like?

OOOH! THIS!

The metal spirit gathered up all its mana, pulling every drop from the mana channels of the stone golem, and leaped out towards the golem constructed of moonsilver. Well, not entirely. This specific golem was made of both moonsilver and mithril. The mithril mainly composed the outer armor plates to capitalize on its increased density and toughness. The metal spirit sunk into the golem body and again distributed its mana within seconds. The speed of its possession of the golem was comparable to the earth elemental's.

It stood and raised its clawed hands, observing them. Each claw was wickedly sharp and serrated, with a pulse of mana running from the core to the extremities the individual claws detached from the palm, attached only by a cord of mana. Now, they could freely rotate around the palm. Further mana pulses had each golem's joints perform a similar action. My new elemental was less a golem and more a series of disconnected limbs.

And it was beautiful.

I may have indulged in an evil cackle.

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Somewhere in the Dungeon, Medea Island

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Kataren shivered in her cell. It had been some time since she was last delivered food and the last few... Days? Weeks? Months?! Well, however long it had been, it hadn't been enjoyable.

The dungeon had still been feeding her, to be fair. The fish was delicious, well cooked, and properly seasoned, which was just another thing added to the list of things weird about this place. Despite the new variety of food, the dungeon continued to provide the fruit. The fruit was never... it was never the same. None could match the first.

But never mind the food. She was still in a cell: a bland stone room with no entertainment, nor any way to interact with anything.

The only meaningful interaction she had daily was when one of the lizard monsters delivered food. Then one day, even that was lost. The lizard had been replaced. Or maybe it was the same lizard...

The first time she saw it, she was horrified. She would never forget the clack of its feet on the stone or those flaming eyes. Its stare was soulless; the stillness of it as it stood there was somehow the worst part. Nothing was that still. Everything moved and shifted. However, the part that concerned her most was the core in its ribcage.

An oval core lay within that bony cavity, with a very pronounced point. No monster had a pointed core. It was the very thing that set humans apart from demons.

The lizard skeleton pushed the food tray through the slot, then left.

It didn't make any noise beyond the even cadence of bone on stone.

After it was gone, Kataren found herself in a thoughtful mood. She idly chewed her fish as she worked through the consequences of what she had just seen.

It was a skeleton of one of the lizard monsters. Kataren had heard of necromancy before. Who hadn't? After a single necromancer had almost succeeded in sieging Andrias, the Phenoc capital, the king had declared the practice illegal. Necromancers across the realm were hunted, and their grimoires and strongholds were destroyed.

It was safe to say no writings on how to create undead existed anymore.

This means the dungeon had either absorbed the knowledge from its old conquerors or that it had stumbled upon the secret on its own. It's impossible that one of the guilders it has killed since its discovery had known.

The other thing was that its core was pointed. The cores they harvested from the lizards on the third floor were pointed too, but not to this extent. The difference between the two was incredibly significant. It meant that the lizards could be the dungeon's previous conquerors or normal monsters the dungeon is raising to... do something.

Again, it all goes back to the strangeness of this dungeon.

No other dungeon made monsters that began forming human-like cores. It had never happened, not ever, anywhere. As far as she was aware, it wasn't even possible.

So that left the other possibility... which raised even more questions.

If the lizards were once a sapient species, where had they gone? Why were there none on the surface?

...

Just how old is this dungeon?!

And how deep does it go?

Kataren was left with more questions than ever before.

Well. There's only one way to find the answers.

Time to bargain with a dungeon.

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The Dungeon, Medea Island

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"Hey, Dungeon! HELLOOOOO! I want to talk!" The female prisoner called. She's been doing that all morning. To be honest, I don't know what to do about it.

I don't have a monster capable of human speech yet. I mean, I could modify one of the kobolds to speak phenocian, but... urgh. I don't know. I haven't yet spoken to any of the local humans. This would be the first. My dungeon side wants nothing to do with them, but the human side... is conflicted.

Thanks to the more intelligent monsters in the dungeon, I have companionship now, but it's not quite the same. All my monsters worship me. Talking to someone who doesn't... It's tempting. Very tempting.

I turn my attention from the human and back to my room of golems and elementals.

I now have four earth elements, one light-aspected stone golem. As for the metal golems, I had all but one possessed by metal spirits, turning them into metal elementals. The last metal golem was a plain iron one, and I gave it a light sprite.

The metal elementals were quite diverse. Different metals seemed to affect the sprites differently. The copper and orichalcum elementals were decidedly feminine; the androgynous forms I had initially provided the golems were quickly warped into a more... shapely figure. As far as I'm aware, the sprites are genderless... so I have no clue why this happened at all.

The reaction of the mirthil-moonsilver elemental was unique to that exact composition of golem. None of the other types had created detached limbs, keeping their limbs firmly connected to their torsos. The metal that composed their bodies became very malleable, the ends of their limbs shifting between different weapons on the fly.

The earth elementals were pretty chill. They could shift the color of the dirt on their outer shell, effectively disguising themselves. They could also warp the stone they touched directly, such as recessing themselves into walls to disguise themselves better. They preferred to stay there, passively absorbing mana. I was fine, okay that for now, but I made it clear that they'd reveal themselves and fight if any humans found themselves down here.

I spread the stone golems across the mines and planned to make a few more soon.

The metal golems, I think I'll keep in reserve. I have an idea for a floor later. They'd fit perfectly. For now, they can guard my core directly.

I made several more passes over the seventh floor, then looked back up at the sixth. Hmm. Perhaps... Lava golems? A combination of fire and earth aspected mana? Perhaps fire sprites in stone golems. That would probably provide the right effect.

It might be interesting. The fifth might also benefit from these earth golems. I'm sure they'll prove an interesting addition.

The fourth floor was just fine. The Ratten was warring with themselves while keeping up their numbers if the humans made it past Mushu.

The third, second, and first floors were okay, for now. I only needed to make a couple of adjustments to the traps.

Inevitably, my attention was drawn back to the woman in the cell. She was still calling out, though it was a bit more unenthusiastic.

"I know you can understand me. Come on! I'm going to go insane in this stone box!"

Le Sigh. I suppose I should talk to her. I don't want to kill them, and releasing them is out of the question without some assurance they won't just start delving me again.

I make minor modifications to a kobold's voice box and send it to the girl. Now, time to figure out what the hell she wants.

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