While the village of Bruns was under attack…

“My Lord, this is a spirit,” The goblin kneeled as he looked up at Dylan’s ‘form’. “The spirit is awakened through the absorption of my mana. Using my skill [Spirit Control], I can bring the spirit under my command and make it obey me.”

“Then how do you do the magic?” Dylan immediately pressed with his [Dungeon Communication], startling the goblin shaman, who immediately stumbled over his words to piece together an explanation.

“M-My lord… We shamans use the power of spirits to use magic… We channel our mana into the spirits, allowing them to use their own magic.” As the shaman continued with his explanation, he began to explain with more haste and excitement, slightly startling Dylan, Grotho and Kuraura, who were still listening. “Spirits are split into different categories, but My Lord only has two types of spirits, the Earth and Nature spirits, within the Dungeon. I am only knowledgeable as to what the Earth spirits can do, as I have summoned and contracted with one. With the earth spirit, I need to use the mana I have gathered in my monster core to feed through it, allowing it to use its abilities. This is where the skill [Spirit Control] comes in, My Lord. Without [Spirit Control], the amount of mana I would need to cast a spell would be nearly double the cost, as I would need to force the spirit to cast its spell whilst controlling it with mana. Forming the initial contract with the spirit using the skill is costly, but saves more mana when you need it.” After blowing out all of that information, the shaman seemed kind of winded, yet Dylan still wanted to press more.

“What types of magic can you use then?” Dylan pushed in curiosity. He was tempted to push for magic-wielding monsters as quickly as possible, as he had seen the destruction a lone goblin shaman could cause. “Also, you have a magic core in you? Is that how it works?”

“My Lord, to answer your first question, the magic I have available to me right now is merely earth magic which the spirit is capable of. I cannot use magic by myself, other than spirit magic. The spirit is the one who uses the earth magic, and I use spirit magic to manipulate the earth spirit into using earth magic. That’s how spirit magic works. For My Lord’s other question, I was created with a magic core inside of me already with the power of My Lord…” The goblin shaman hastily explained in response to Dylan’s question.

Dylan had just begun to ask another question, when he detected the arrival of a large number of the monsters which he had called over, and a small disturbance near his entrance, caused by an intruding organism. Deciding to address the intruder first, Dylan moved his view over with [Dungeon Vision], spotting a grey rabbit which had waltzed into the dungeon, and had begun to nibble on some grass. Interestingly, the rabbit had a horn growing out of its forehead, which curved upwards towards the ceiling of the forest cave. Other than the horn, the rabbit appeared to be larger in size, with long hind legs and elongated ears. The rabbit seemed to warily check its surroundings before hiding underneath a bush, burrowing near its roots before falling asleep.

Nice. I want that. Go. Dylan chuckled in his head as he called the nearest sizable monster to kill the rabbit; a clawed spider. The spider lightly climbed down from the tree it was on before slowly making its way to the bush. Dylan watched in anticipation as the monster slowly stepped towards the bush, extending its claws…

BOOM!

The whole bush shook and rattled as the rabbit shot out from its cover, rocketing headfirst into the spider with tremendous force. The force of the rabbit’s ram knocked the spider back as it issued a hideous shriek, green ichor spurting out of a fresh crack in its carapace. The rabbit landed back on the ground and continued to face off against the spider, surprising Dylan.

Wouldn’t a rabbit usually run away from a conflict? Dylan thought to himself while observing the fight. Then again…This rabbit is most likely a monster, meaning it might be aggressive towards another monster anyway. He decided to continue watching the fight, as not all of the monsters he wanted to evolve had arrived.

The rabbit aggressively made several headbutts at the spider, though with not nearly as much force as its first push off of the bush’s stem(trunk). After missing grabs on the rabbit several times, the spider hissed in what Dylan believed to be frustration, before leaping high into the air, grabbing onto a nearby tree with its claws and legs before turning around to face the rabbit. After a moment of waiting, the spider leaped towards the rabbit again, causing it to rush forward with a headbutt. The spider reached forwards with its claws mid-leap and managed to grab the rabbit’s horn with both claws. The spider lifted its caught prey up to its mouth, which stretched wide to reveal vicious fangs. However, the rabbit immediately kicked the spider in its face, causing it to shriek as it released the rabbit. As the rabbit landed on the ground it turned around to press the assault again, only to find that the spider had leaped onto another tree.

Dylan was stunned by this behavior, as he hadn’t forcibly evolved the spider to have a better understanding of the tactics it would need to use to gain an advantage. The rabbit continued to circle around the trees, glaring at the spider which awaited above it. The spider in turn continued to wait, occasionally twitching and shifting its position. The exchange continued for nearly 5 minutes before Dylan decided to ignore it. I want that spider to get the experience. It seems to be exceptionally intelligent even compared to the others. But it will have to work for it, I’m busy now and this fight will waste valuable time. Dylan had seen the clawed spiders drop onto their prey for an initial ambush, but he had yet to see any of them retreat when endangered, to the point where many of Dylan’s clawed spiders ended up dying when facing off against giant centipedes, boars, wolves, or goblins. The behavior of this spider was simply astounding for an arachnid, and Dylan wanted to see if it would manage to triumph against its faster opponent. Bringing his vision back to his core, Dylan looked down on the monsters who were ready to evolve.

Well this is quite the number isn’t it?

There were several dozen swarm ants crawling over the floor in the clearing, as well as a couple of lure butterflies resting on the hard-shell centipede. Several giant centipedes, wolves, and boars were also awaiting Dylan. There was even a heavy bombardier beetle crawling over the grass nearby, and it too was ready for evolution. Lastly, several normal goblins had arrived from the breeding caves. Including these monsters, hundreds of normal insects had arrived from the many breeding caves and forest cave, and Dylan wanted to get to work immediately.

Dylan immediately started off by mass-evolving all of the insects which had evolutions to their stronger counterparts. From this process alone, Dylan’s newfound mana capacity had been drained several times over, forcing him to take small breaks after evolving groups at a time. Luckily, the costs of evolving the insects to their pre-determined evolutions was cheaper than summoning the evolved monster itself, as the insects had accumulated enough mana to make the process of evolution cheaper, and the massive amounts of monsters within the dungeon helped with his mana regeneration. From this process, Dylan gained over 100 giant centipedes, several hundred swarm ants, a few lure butterflies, several dozen sickle-blade mantises, some leaping and heavy bombardier beetles, and dozens of viper and clawed spiders. After clearing out the small fry, Dylan called over the giant centipedes, boars, wolves, and goblins.

The number of giant centipedes ready for evolution wasn’t vast, as most of Dylan’s forces had been crushed by the goblin shaman. In fact, nearly all of the monsters in this particular group were from the breeding caves which Dylan tried to always keep stocked. This was why the boars who hadn’t fought against the goblins and the goblin shaman were ready to evolve. Dylan started the process by immediately evolving the giant centipedes into hard-shell centipedes, increasing the numbers of this specific evolution slightly. He then looked towards the goblins. There were only 6 of these normal goblins ready to evolve, and Dylan was mildly conflicted. On one hand, increasing the number of goblin shamans he had would be incredibly useful for the upcoming battle. On the other hand, they did cost more mana to produce and would need to be defended from melee fighters, as he had experienced with the other goblin shaman from before.

I’ll risk it. Dylan decided to evolve all of them into goblin shamans, as he needed the immense firepower they would bring. After all of the goblins finished evolving, several of them immediately looked at their evolved bodies in what seemed to be horror.

“M-My Lord…” One of the goblins stammered as he clutched at his bony frame. “Why are we like this now? Wh-Why My Lord…” The goblin questioned pitifully as his eyes began to well up with tears. This greatly confused Dylan, so he turned to Grotho, who also had a pitying look in his eyes.

“Why are they like this now?” Dylan prompted with [Dungeon Communication].

“My Lord… Goblins like us we… We view body strength as the highest form.” Grotho stammered. “To have body weak is very worrying for goblins.”

Dylan quickly thought it through before coming to a realization. Aha! That makes a lot more sense now! Dylan thought to himself. The reason why those goblins are freaking out is because they are the ones I’ve subordinated from the outside, while the goblins who aren’t freaking out are the ones I summoned previously…

This also helped to further explain why the goblin shaman who stood next to Dylan’s ‘form’ had no qualms with his supposed weak body. Despite the similarities in species and allegiance, the difference between summoning and subordination was evident. Sighing mentally, Dylan turned to the worried goblin shamans.

“Soon, you will realize that even a mighty foe can be toppled with the power of the mind.” Dylan said to them. “The magic you new goblin shamans can put out can allow you to defeat even a goblin berserker, so stop worrying too much, there are types of strength other than physical.” After the goblins finally began to calm down, Dylan turned to the wolves and boars. Something needed to be done to make these two species strong enough to help in the upcoming battle.

He called the few wolves over. Unfortunately, the number which was ready to evolve only numbered 5, and Dylan had a feeling that they wouldn’t be able to reach pass the (C-) rank no matter how much mana he currently had on them. He just wouldn’t have enough mana to do it. Activating [Forceful Evolution], Dylan got to work…

Current Time…

Maxin and Uruga looked down on the village of Bruns they had just destroyed. Not a single house remained unscathed. Many of the houses had been burnt down, and had collapsed in on themselves. Wolves roamed the streets and ruins, picking at the charred and mangled corpses of villagers and livestock. Piles of corpses had been arranged near the center of the village for the wolves to feast. They had taken their sweet time hunting down all of the villagers, leaving no shed or house unturned. Many people had been eaten alive by overeager wolves, and many more had burned to death.

“Hehehe… That was fun…” Uruga growled in satisfaction, a toothy smile etched onto his face. “If there’s another village on the way there we should have some fun again.”

“Good idea… But what about our little prisoners…” Maxin’s red eyes gleamed with hate as he gazed down on the two humans who had survived the initial assault. One of them, a young female mage who manipulated earth magic, was knocked out on the ground, with both of her legs burned off, the wounds cauterized due to intense heat. Other than the cauterized leg wounds, her body was mysteriously unharmed. On the ground next to her lay a man, or what remained of him. He was barely breathing and was unconscious, his head and chest was a charred and blackened mass yet something kept him alive. Maxin suspected this man, who had skewered the eyes of one of his Dire Wolves, to have a fairly powerful trick up his sleeve, and thus was willing to take him and the girl along as rations or an offering to their god. Afterall, their god was capable of finding and squeezing out the use in nearly anything given to him.

Dylan had finished evolving the wolves and boars, and the giant bat, enhancing their body structures and musculature to a great deal, increasing the intelligence of the wolves and the strength and aggression of the boars greatly. The results were a mean pack of large white wolves rippling with muscle, razor-sharp fangs peeking out, a (D-) ranked monster which had been named the [Whistle Wolf]. The boar had been pumped in size greatly, it had to be nearly the size of a cow. It had little to no intelligence, yet its body was built like a tank, with heavy muscle and thick skin laid over sturdy bones. The boar had a highly aggressive temperament, and had the [Rage] skill, so Dylan decided to name it the [Rage Boar], another (D-) ranked monster. The giant bat, on the other hand, got a different upgrade. Its body had been kept at the same size, yet muscle density had greatly increased for the bat. Its wings were even larger than before, measuring at 10 feet from wingtip to wingtip. The bat’s finger bones had extended growths out of them which ended in sharp blades, so Dylan decided to name it the [Sickle-Wing Bat]. The Sickle-Wing Bat was an (E+) ranked monster. Dylan sighed in frustration as he finally evolved the bat. He had only been able to create (D-) and (E+) ranked monsters as his trump cards for now, and that had taken him hours. The only monsters left for evolution were the Lure Butterflies, a Heavy Bombardier Beetle, and Kuraura. Dylan sent all of the other evolved monsters to the breeding caves with specific [Dungeon Orders] before preparing for a long day of evolving and expanding. Although the night had been productive, Dylan was still worried. A message from the voice of the world startled Dylan randomly.

Ding!

You can now [Summon]: Horned Hare (F+).

So it was a hare… Dylan chuckled to himself mentally as he looked towards the scene of the fight. There, he saw the victor munching on the body of the horned hare, which had been covered in webs. The surrounding trees and ground in a 20-foot radius of the spider’s tree had been covered in spider silk, and the monster itself was ready to evolve.

That’s what you’ve been doing this whole time? Hurry up and come here to evolve! Dylan sent a [Dungeon Order] to the spider before returning to his core to store up mana for evolutions.