Lucifer could swear that he was starting to feel a little tired but brushed it off. Below him, Ellora and his subordinates kneeled. Waiting for the rewards he promised them.

Ellora practically radiated excitement and Lucifer was almost tempted to make her wait for fun, however, he had better things to do so he started, “I will begin with Ellora, for she was the first of you with me. You asked me for a stronger body. Lay down and I will begin”

Ellora quickly laid flat noticeably less excited, ‘perhaps she thinks it will hurt’ Lucifer thought before beginning. He stepped down and placed his palm on her chest, ‘hmm this could be improved’

Pure mana and life energy flowed into her body and her consciousness was immediately cut. She was right, it is painful, however, not if your unconscious.

The surrounding men gasped as Ellora’s body slowly deflated, her once large amazonian frame condensed. Her muscles went from oversized to toned in a matter of minutes as her body shrunk. What they didn’t know was that she wasn’t getting weaker, instead, her body was becoming more efficient.

She didn’t lose much height although she was still taller than Selenia who could peek over most men’s heads. Some things got bigger while most things got smaller, all Lucifer didn’t go too far, just slightly larger than Selenia's, as a jab at her and for amusement purposes.

He largely left her face alone, she was rather beautiful once her head wasn’t on a chunky veined neck and he took away all the scars. Although he did tweak a few things here and there, he was sure she wouldn’t mind. Not that it mattered because she was his anyway.

Lucifer let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and stood up appreciating his own work, he could hear someone gulp behind him and he realized he may have gotten too absorbed in his work.

“ahem,” he cleared his throat before starting, “those who wanted to become my dungeon knights, I will have you wait for your improvements at the end, as for the man who wanted to return to his village, I’ve thought about that for some time and have decided. First I will improve your body, although the changed won’t be as extreme as hers, secondly I hear that villages get attacked by low-level monsters occasionally, so I will make a golem to protect said village, and lastly, as a means to spread my benevolence, I will personally go to that village and make the lands more fertile”

Done with his speech he began work on an excited future farmer. This time it didn’t take long to complete, he improved the body's overall performance to above human, almost guaranteeing a long and healthy life. A few improvements to his face to make getting a good wife easier. And that was all.

“next” he simply said and got to work on the fisherman. The body modification for this man was even simpler, a weakened mark of the dungeon so he could fish here in peace, a healthy body that was only slightly stronger than he originally was, and some improvements to his face, because why not.

The merchant was given a more full dungeon mark so he could travel around the dungeon freely as long as he didn’t touch anything, a healthy and attractive body for merchant purposes. And a higher than average dose of life energy in hope that Lucifer would be dealing with him for a long time. Lastly a shop in the dungeon at the entrance.

Lucifer turned towards the future adventurer and the man quickly said, “sir the attribute I want is speed” Lucifer raised a brow and the man continued, “strong people die from bows, but fast people live the longest”

“true” Lucifer agreed, “then fast you shall be”. This modification took longer than expected, mainly because Lucifer always modified his bodies to be strong so he had little experience in this type of modification.

He made the man's bones stronger but lighter, got rid of most body fat making the man look like a certain famous martial artist. Made his muscles more efficient and smaller as he did with Ellora. Extensively improved the man's range of movement in all joints.

Then as an experiment, he tried binding wind element into the man's body, something he had only tried on monsters so far. The man should have a lighter step and be able to cast very basic wind magic instinctually, although he only made the modification minor, he wasn’t sure what would happen to a human if he tried to change the balance of the body to any major degree.

Lucifer finished with some slight modifications to the face then breathed a sigh of relief, it took far more effort to make so many diverse modifications than he thought.

He stood up stretched out and looked towards people obviously eager to become dungeon knights. Lucifer asked them, “I am going to ask you one more time, are you absolutely sure you want to become a dungeon knight, once you do there will be no turning back until you either you have offered a truly great meritorious service to me, or I’ve decided that you have served long enough. Long enough being undecided by me currently.

You will likely die in my service and will lose all freedom in it, your actions and very thoughts will be mine. So I ask for the last time, is this what you want”

The response Lucifer received was less eager now but was still a yes from all those involved. So he began.

This time the enhancements were easier, more complicated but easier because he had done them a dozen times before on his own body.

Massively enhanced muscles, even without using mana they would be strong enough to kill most enemies through brute force.

Hardened skin, although a blade would still be able to penetrate it will make bladed weapons far less effective.

Enhanced mana pathways, made both stronger and wider so they can use practically their whole mana reserve in a single attack.

Larger mana pool, useful for everything, however, the large changes to the bodies magical state would mean that they would have to effectively train again from scratch.

Enhanced bone structure, added bone to sections where it normally isn’t to improve survivability, ribs lose some of their flexibility when they form a solid bone mass.

Tougher and stronger tendons to take the absurd forces their bodies can now exert.

Metal infused bones.

Dampened pain receptors. Along with a few modifications to the brain. Some of which he will keep to himself.

A full dungeon mark so they can effectively do what they want in the dungeon.

The tightest soul bond Lucifer can create.

Lucifer wanted to start experimenting with different types of mana enhancements but held off for the moment, he has the prisoners Ellora designates as ‘dead’ for that. Instead, he just finished with a couple of useful minor enhancements and gave them a set of enchanted armor. The armor was made of one of the better steels Rick made for him.

After he finished and had them line up he was almost tempted to rename them to ‘iron warriors’, but instead said, “you are now my dungeon knights, I have no immediate concerns at the moment so go patrol the dungeon”

A dungeon knight raised his arm up straight, “Sir, what are we patrolling for-- I mean what rules are we enforcing”

Lucifer chuckled to himself, “first off if you're going to salute then chose a different way, and as for the reason your patrolling, I hadn’t really thought about it other than to be seen.”, “hmm” he hummed out loud, “first off no fires, I’m tired of my dungeon almost burning down, there were three major fires since I revealed myself and I've had to resort to using my poison ventilation system as a fire represent system”

“and if we see someone with a fire” one of them asked.

Lucifer replied, “kill them, although you can leave torches alone and campfires I will leave up to your discretion. Second rule, no war parties. I’m tired of groups of forty or so bulldozing through my dungeon and leaving nothing behind for the ‘smaller and more killable parties. Lucky likes to mess with them as a challenge but I just find it boring”

“sir the punishment is...”

Lucifer answered casually, “death again, if your not confident you can take them alone you can use your helmets to talk to your brothers. Most people who join war parties are weak individually so three or four of you should be able to kill them all”

“do we warn them, sir”

“no, I’ll have one of you put a sign up in the dungeon entrance. Also another rule, you can’t use boombsticks unless I give permission, although this may change at a later point”

Ever since Lucifer ‘reveal’ people have been ‘testing’ him and his patience. Some just wanted to get in contact with him, others wanted to find out exactly where the line was, probably so they could toe it for the most benefits. But it was time for Lucifer to start making changes to the city and he would be sure to send these little testers a message.