Lucifer sent Cuddles a message to have fun then had Selenia collect a few people with Rick's help, he needed another body.

He was beginning to find his emotional state as a dungeon more and more uncomfortable the longer he went without a body. Lucifer was not sure if his mental state would revert once he inhabited a body after an extended period of time and he wasn't will to test it.

After directing Selenia to a few specific individuals to capture he moved his consciousness back to his Lab. He never had to actually move his mind around the dungeon to see it clearly, but seeing things himself was an old habit.

This attack showed Lucifer that he was lacking power in more ways than one, first, he didn't have any political power. If he represented a powerful force then people would have to think twice before attacking him. Second, he had a lack of mana, considering this was his main source of actual power this was the most troubling, this attack would have gone much more smoothly if he had more mana to make equipment, or even simply creating more mana crystals would have made the whole event smoother. Third, his dungeon didn't have the power to defend itself against some of the more powerful entities.

The first problem he could solve by revealing himself to more powerful people and striking up deals, everyone seemed to already know about him anyway so it couldn't hurt to make more friends.

Mana was a bigger issue, he couldn't just create it out of thin air like he could most things. Instead, Lucifer would have to think of ways to increase his mana regeneration quickly, this would be the top priority for the moment because it didn't involve complex relationships and he could do everything himself.

And lastly, the third problem tied into the previous two so if he could solve this one the ones before it are irrelevant. Previously Lucifer had held back on creating technologies because he thought the humans would quickly adapt and use them on him, however, considering the time constraints he would have to count on killing everyone who got that far so they couldn't copy him, and hopefully by the time they managed to copy his technology he would have already become strong enough that it didn't matter.

Lucifer nodded to himself as he finalized a loose plan for the future and then asked Selenia how far the new hosts were. Selenia and Rick had gotten caught up in a fight and were still on the land between the two floors killing anyone who got ashore.

He checked the area briefly with his dungeon sense and noticed the people he picked out were neatly tied up to the side. Selenia was surrounded by half drowned soldiers and was testing her new armor to its fullest, Rick stood inside a shadow and was completely ignored by the soldiers, Lucifer thought that was strange until he saw the little fairy sitting on Ricks' shoulder, Lucky was relaxing on Rick while eating little fruits from a miniature bucket Lucifer had made.

His people were taking their time getting him a new body so he looked around for something to do. On a nearby bench he didn't need but only used out of habit, there stood a small figurine made of stone.

The figurine was about 11 inches tall boxy humanoid shape with drills for arms. Several such figures were scattered around the workshop in different levels of completion, these were his failed attempts at creating automated golems.

Lucifer had tried to pry information about this worlds magic from the old alchemist, but Rick had only practised a few spells outside of alchemy so he wasn't very useful in that respect, however, during one of Ricks war stories he mentioned that one particularly annoying foe kept summoning constructs made of earth to fight for him.

Lucifer immediately recognized the description to be something similar to Golems, he excitedly asked Rick how the mage summoned them and to his surprise, Rick actually knew the spell.

Once he tried the spell it only fizzled and popped he questioned Rick.

Rick, replied "magic changes over time, it's been so long its no wonder the spell doesn't work anymore"

"spells stop working?" asked Lucifer.

Rick pondered for a moment then explained " it's complicated, saying it doesn't work anymore is sort of correct but also incorrect, a better interpretation would be the spell doesn't exist anymore"

Rick paused for a moment to gather his thoughts then continued uninterruptedly because Lucifer knew this old man likes teaching, so he would find out what he wanted to know, although in most cases he found Rick's "sudden lessons" annoying.

"ahem... so mana is just one type of energy, and mages use that energy to essentially buy the spirit's/elementals abilities. Humans can create their own spells but only a grandmaster mage can alter the laws of magic enough to bring a new spell into existence, So we magically challenged individuals have to rely on what already exists to cast spells so--"

Lucifer interrupted the incoming speech "and what does that have to do with the spell no longer existing"

Caught off guard in the middle of his lesson Rick stumbled his words, then he replied while making sure to send a sufficiently evil glare at Lucifer for interrupting him, "Nothing is eternal, even spirits. Although noone knows the age limit of a spirit we do know they kill each other for dominance--"

"So the spirit of bonerous maximus dies then that spell won't work anymore"

Rick gruffly replied "I know of no such spell but yes you are right, so in essence, a spell that works one day may not work the next. In fact nearly seven hundred years ago the spirit king of darkness was killed, his plane of existence was irreversibly damaged and many spirits died, a new spirit took its place but the damage had already been done, then within months the church of Umbra was destroyed because most of their magics simply stopped existing, The church of Light then took this oppor--"

Lucifer left once the old man started rambling about one of his stories again.

After reminiscing about a silly conversation with one of his servants he was still left with nothing to do, only a few plant experiments were left on some of the tables. Then he looked to the corner and noticed the familiar presence of the Selenia doll.

Lucifer had spent quite a significant amount of time on creating that doll to look human, or elf to be exact. Since it would be a shame to let this thing go to waste and considering Lucifers current body issue, he decided to use it.

He had been using the body for practice making organs and tissues, so he would make fewer mistakes when modifying his dungeon creatures, because modifications were far more costly on living things.

Everything on this body was complete, but he wasn't quite certain about the brain. The brain was an extremely complex organ and he has had little success in mimicking it, but after messing around with a few bodies while inside them where he could feel the effects, he was almost confident to make a non-retarded brain to use.

Lucifer took a few minutes to form a brain and stuck it inside the doll then connected it to the spine. He sent a few signals from the brain with small mana charges throughout the nervous system, he found nothing wrong.

With no other tests he could think of he shocked the heart into starting and pushed his consciousness into the doll turned chimera. He found nothing wrong.

Something was pulling at the back of his mind for what felt like a long time, but also just a few seconds ago. Annoyed with such a thing he followed the sensation back and was pulled outside the doll.

Once he was outside again he noticed the doll slumped over drooling on the ground with a blank expression.

...

Apparently, Lucifer had just "made himself a retard", in more ways than one.

With another thing to add to his dark history and a newfound respect for the complexity of the brain, Lucifer stopped for a moment, after thinking about the problem for a little longer an idea struck him. If he couldn't create a brain he could just take one.

After browsing through his Earthmails he located the few "intelligent" beings things he could summon.

1st demon- its description had something about tricking people so he assumed it had some level of intelligence, but demon was too vague for him to pin his hopes on.

2nd Succubus again- Lucifer put aside the male-female brain thing for a moment and thought better of using the brain of a slut demon.

3rd Incubus- Slightly better but still the same problem as the last one, he put quite some effort into removing lust form his last body so he didn't want to literally become a horny devil in the next one.

Trent- did a tree even have a brain?

Dlorkivdo- Demon that turns to mist and enters the body usually through the an-- nope man slut it is.

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Lucifer willed the small amount of mana he had into a summoning spell, then several seconds later a clawed hand tore open a hole in space. A slightly tanned tall man of sploosh stepped out of the portal. The only thing distinguishing this demon from a human was his clawed fingers and a small tail protruding from his lower spine.

The incubus inquired to noone in particular "which lonely witch summoned me and why are you already playing hard to get", he then spotted the dull-eyed elf on the ground and said "oh my, was I so beautiful that you fainted, actually now that I get a good look at you I have to wonder how such a pretty little thing needs me. Oh I know everyone needs the gift of the universe now and then"

After the momentary daze Lucifer remembered that he couldn't use magic around other living things so he couldn't kill this aggravating existence for his brain even if he wanted to.

The incubus was moving closer towards the doll and trying to seduce "itself" apparently, while Lucifer's disgust and intention to kill this irritating creature intensified he realized this thing was his summon, this means that he can still use magic with it nearby, he could feel his mana still flowing smoothly in the room so he was now sure and cursed himself for not realizing sooner.

The incubus screamed for a moment then his head twisted several times and was then ripped from its body. Lucifer made a mental note not to summon weird monsters inside his lab in the future, then started removing the brain.

However, after several seconds the demon's body started to shimmer and disappear. This was not a successful day in the lab.

Lucifer once again checked on Selenia's progress and was starting to get irritated when he saw her still fighting groups of soldiers on the little island. Every now and then Selenia would be grappled to the ground, Lucky and Rick would then interfere for a minute then go back to watching Selenia slaughter the men casually.

Suddenly Lucifer heard soft screaming coming from nearby, this was odd because he was hearing the noise come from his lab, not the battlefield.

He returned his attention back to the lab and found Kuro laying on top of a screaming soldier, her tail swished back and forth leasurly and her expression proclaimed, "Look at what I got you, see how amazing a hunter I am, it's even alive. Whos a good kitty, whos a good kitty".

Although the last part was an interpretation on Lucifers part.

This is just what Lucifer needed at the moment so he sent Kuro plenty of mental messages of emotions, proud, grateful, happiness, good kitty. He made a mental note to play with Kuro at some point and ordered the cat to kill it.

Kuro happily leaned down and sunk her fangs into the screaming man's spine, he spasmed for a second then stopped moving completely.

She stood up and curled up in her usual corner in the lab and simply enjoyed her masters "presence"

Lucifer ignored the nagging feeling in the back of his head that told him, "you could have just used the soldier's corpse as a body", as he connected the brain to the doll.

Lucifer wanted to use a body he created himself, so he continued testing even though most of his "tests" failed.

After he told Kuro to remove the dolls head if it didn't move after a while, he merged his consciousness with the doll for the seconds time.

This time the dolls eyes fluttered for a moment and everything seemed to be working. Lucifer stood up on shaky legs and started walking.

Then he started doing more complex movements once he got used to walking, running, jumping. Then he realized he wasn't wearing anything.

A moment later and the doll was clothed with a simple T-shirt, pants and a tight-fitting cloth around the chest to keep everything in place when he moved around. Jiggling was an unintended consequence of using the doll as a body that he wasn't used to.

As he was jumping around with the new body Selenia finally came back with the prisoners. The first thing she saw was a copy of herself jumping around the Lab.

Her eye was stitching slightly as she coldly asked "Lucifer why is this doll still here, and why is it jumping around like an idiot"

The doll replied "I'm testing this new body" as he unconsciously patted his chest.

Selenia yelled "what kind of harassment is this, get out of my body now"

The next moment she was screaming on the floor and Lucifer casually replied with her own voice, "don't tell me what to do, besides this body is only a test and the nerves are all messed up so I can't really feel much enough to enjoy it.

Rick ...