《Arcane Evolution》Time is Relative
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Year 1
You know it's not so bad. You just need to get in the right mind space. Always be improving.
And so far, that hasn’t been that hard. Plenty to learn about from Kronos. And a hole dungeon to work on. I have dug out the giant dome and reinforced the walls with my strongest materials, but I'm waiting until I've completed my enchanting lessons to complete the floor.
I ran a few simulations with my kobolds as the adventurers. The true kobolds were both strong and very smart. But I wasn’t satisfied so I armed them with the best slime weapons and armor mana could buy.
I created 12 teams and told them to practice their magic with the wisps. I gave them a week to practice their magic especially the healers and then set up a system were every 20 minuets the teems in order were teleported to the start of the dungeon and ordered to try to make it to the 3rd floor via one the 4 elevators I installed to open up after you kill the floor 2 boss.
Every time they exposed a weakness somewhere in my dungeon, I fixed it for the next team. Every time they died, I respawned them in a waiting room and when it was there teams turn again the process started over.
It's so fun watching me and them improve at such a rapid pace, I'm sure I'll never get bored of this.
Year 30
I'm so bored of this. Ive ran out of things to improve in my first 2 floors without just completely changing them. There were some benefits that came out of the years of fighting. Some of my creatures have evolved. Their names have been getting a little long now days, for example the floor 2 boss.
*Identify: True Infused Alpha Dire Wolf Druid Floor 1 Boss*
The evolutions were kind of basic in their naming schemes but you couldn’t deny the massive increase in power that they came with. Pluss while some just evolved into a stronger bigger form some instead mutated and evolved for better control and strength to their preferred element.
*Evolution blueprints: alpha wolf, dire wolf, alpha dire wolf, wolf druid, spark wolf, ember wolf, tide wolf, shadow wolf, flash wolf, gust wolf, trap spider, trap viper, pistol minnow, spear hare, wind shear eagle, alpha bear, alpha badger, alpha lion, King lava crab, spark hare, golem sentinel, enchanted golem, enchanted slime, enchanted golem sentinel, alpha kobold, kobold healer, alpha kobold healer, kobold mage, alpha kobold mage, kobold warrior, alpha kobold warrior, kobold tank, alpha kobold tank, kobold rouge, alpha kobold rouge, lesser draconic kobold, elemental wisp, alpha tiger...*
Most of them were just alpha versions of all the beasts or basic elementally attuned versions of their base template. While some are just greater versions of what they were, like dire wolf or elemental wisp.
The ones who evolved the most were the kobolds their constant running of the dungeon really pushed them along. When they evolved into lesser draconic kobolds, they didn’t lose any of their previous ability's even though they lost their titles. I guess they're just not good enough at them for their current race.
Which is super strong by the way they have almost no trouble now with even the 2nd floor boss when there working together and he evolved into a golem sentinel and I enchanted him and his slime like crazy.
After I learned everything I could about enchanting, I noticed a resemblance to some of the symbols used in my different magic circles. So, my next goal is to finish my third-floor and to try to Frankenstein some of my creatures together.
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Year 50
I think Kronos is enjoying this too much or has just gone insane. The years have done a lot for his recovery and he's recently gained back a majority of his mana control and can now use it to interact with the world. Recently he has been laughing to himself while righting cryptic messages on random walls around my dungeon.
As far as I can tell they don't mean anything. When I ask about it, he just says ill know when he's done. Weve been together for 40 years now so I trust him enough that I leave him to it.
On other news my 3rd floor Is finally complete. It’s a massive ruined city scape that’s Architectual style is a mix of this worlds culture and the urban metropoles cities of earth.
The lore is that there was a great catastrophe that accrued here long ago and the cities now ruled by the animals and plants that now call it home along with the golem protectors that defend it still to today.
The elevators lower you into the outskirts of one of the city's 4 sections split up by 4 rivers flowing from the spring inside the still functional palace/castle in the center to the edge of the dome where it drops into a mote of lava turning to mist and rising to the dome ceiling.
Interacting with some enchantment script I have on the walls it condenses into storm clouds that don’t rain much but give a menacing atmosphere and sometimes strikes down lightning. At the top of the dome is a massive crystal that gives off a small amount of light. Mixed with the clouds it's enough to see but not very far which is the perfect conditions for many of my creatures.
The 4 sections of the city are not copy pasted but they do follow the same pattern. Moving to the palace from the elevators it goes open rural and factory area with plenty of space and grace for my larger creatures who need a running start and mostly broken-down golems. A denser housing area that starts melding with more medium creatures and hole golems that aren't that strong yet. Dence metropolitan area that’s been heavily forested with a couple of Tee Ent's a few tribes of kobold along with the creatures and fully functional strong golems.
A section of city that’s collapsed into sewers and ancient catacombs here you'll face a few more aquatic creatures in flooded bits and golem sentinels in the catacombs. Then huge noble estates are guarded by enchanted sentinel golems and occupied by large kobold tribes who ride a variety of creatures and are led by my veteran draconic kobolds and who's gardens contain dryad, pixies, and many tree Ent’s.
Then you need to find a way across the moat to the castle. Theres a tree that’s collapsed across but that’s a trap that will drop you in and if you try to lay your own path across or fly the castle walls will barrage you nonstop with various heavy artillery. To get cross you need to collect the pieces of a key and bring it to an altar near the moat that will lower a draw bridge you can safely pass on.
Of course, any large enough groups of creatures have an alpha or 2 to lead them. Many creatures have slime armor and alphas/leaders have enchanted slime armor all with scaling protection based on closeness to the castle and almost everything is infused. While only a hand full of normal plants have deadly lovers, mostly the ones at important intersections all tee Ent’s and dryads have them.
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Strongly magic creatures and golems now had the upgraded elemental wisps as partners too. Then you can't forget traps. Ive installed some from previous floors but mainly focused on new ones like mines, tesla coils, swinging logs, collapsing buildings, dart trap, gun trap, collapse into crocodile filled sewer, flash bang ambush, fireworks to attract a horde of monsters, or a backs vault that if attempted to break into releases a giant sentinel golem so big and heavy I had to reinforce the ground on the hole block to prevent him from shattering the earth with every step.
Of course, there were chests and valuable materials scattered around the place to make up for the danger. Of course, I didn’t make that too easy for them ether some of the chests are fake and explode if opened or are golems shaped like chests that bite down of them when they reach in, aka mimics.
There were also many ‘new’ creatures around from my Frankenstein experiments. Ive been pretty affective at scaling up or down parts of some creatures and attaching them too others. Many were complete abominations that had to be poot down but some come out quite satisfactory. Being given the mutant tag in the process.
The successes include a horse with a spear horn, a winged horse with a spear horn, winged kobold in all their variants, eagle or tiger eyes in more docile creatures to help their sight, a kobolds protective scales grafted on a few different creatures, a mix between an elephant and a rhino with a kobolds protective scales to make an even more powerful charging tank, owl bear, a griffin, a traditional looking chimaera, poison snake and or spider fangs for any creature the bites as an attack, replacing normal useless tails with giant deadly scorpion tails, giving a fox 9 tails just so I could call it a 9 tail fox, replacing elementally inclined creatures hearts with elemental golem hearts to increase their magic power.
And finally, my favorite discovery used to impower almost all my creatures and golems on floor 3 now, replacing a creature's blood with a blood/material hybrid slime. This discovery was revolutionizing for my creature's power. Depending on the material used it can greatly increase a creature's magical power and they have complete control over their blood so they can't bleed out and can even use it as a weapon if need be. There was only one problem, the slime core had to also be inserted.
This increased their intelligence and once again increased my creature's magical power. Making them truly dangerous in the arcane arts for their level but came with the side effect of splitting their earned XP between the core and body greatly slowing their rate of leveling.
But now knowing that my time dilation lasts so long that shouldn't be as much of a problem.
With all of this work I've put in over the years it's going to take more than just a good healer this time. Especially with my crowning gem the palace and its boss the dragon that now rules it.
A few years back when I was still working on combining creatures, I decided on what I wanted my 3rd floor boss to be and asked Kronos to teach me everything he knew about dragons. And he quote told me “when pigs fly.”
So, I doubled down on my efforts and within the week finally succeeded creating a flying pig. He begrudgingly taught me about dragons. Turns out there not one kind of creature or species. Their a magical phenomenon that accurses in many high-level magical species as a kind of mutation that greatly increases their strength, magic, and intelligence.
For a while now I've been using my spare mana to create arcanum for future use and lesser draconic kobolds to grind up and extract draconic essence from. With enough essence to create a blood slime with ‘dragon’ blood and arcanum to compose 25% of an infusion on a creature this size it was time to create my first dragon but first his home.
In the palaces garden is a small village of dryads. Once you get past them it's the castles maze like corridors filled with enchanted golem sentinels a few giant enchanted golem sentinels and many magic traps like stone spikes, fire ball, chain lightning, laser beam, killer frost, wind blade, and shadow chains.
Then finally you reach the entrance to the old throne room. There I made a fake super giant golem that looks like it's been torn too bits. Finally, if your foolish enough to go inside you'll encounter the dragon and its horde. I kept most of the very large horde very shiny but ultimately useless materials and only put in a few actually worth anything materials.
To create my dragon, I decided to start with the golem blueprint creator. Picturing my perfect western fire dragon, I slowly started forming the body. But not from just materials but dead bodies of varies creatures to help give true life to my dragon. When the draconic essence slime was added for blood the process seemed to click and everything seemed to form into truly one finalizing it with a partial arcanum infusion and declaring him the boss he came to life.
The final product turned out beater than I ever hoped. A magnificent creation of death. All those to brave or foolish enough to challenge him shall meet their maker. His magic blasted away a hill side, his claws cut mithril like paper, and his fire breath instantly melted tungsten. To prevent his future battles from destroying the dungeon I used space magic to make the room bigger to give him space and reinforced everything with graphite enchanted to take even more heat and damage.
Satisfied with my work I took a break and appreciated the many beauties admits the death in my dungeon. Sometimes in life you need to just sit-down and appreciate the moment. The fish calmly swam threw the water, the lion stalked its prey, and the pigs gently flew through the sky.
I was no longer the boy from earth. For a long time now, much longer than I lived as a human I've been a dungeon. And it's been a fun if not a little lonely experience. Sitting here and looking back to the past and looking at the timer for the time left here its finally sunk in that I'm never going to have a normal life.
As a human I always felt like I needed to do more in my life before it ended and as a dungeon as an immortal, I always feel like I need to do more with my life before it can begin. When I have all the time in the world, why do I need to be in such a hurry?
From this point on I promise to enjoy this long life to the fullest, taking the time to enjoy what I've created. To go out and experience new things and to never fear the unknown.
It was time to see just what kind of world I can make. Not just a new floor but a place of change of growth for me, my creatures, and my friends.
I pulled up the spell to create a pocket dimension and started pouring all my mana and emotions into it. The spell evolved growing more complex and somehow, I knew it could take more, of not just mana but of other spells and blueprints too.
I started dumping in every spell, every enchantment, every creature, every material blueprint I had. But suddenly I understood I made a mistake. When I added the arcanum the spell suddenly became many times more complex and demanded more mana and picture of wat it should be
But I was already giving it all I had. It needed more; it wasn’t asking anymore it was taking. so, I desperately called for help. And everyone answered.
Kronos and all my creatures from the strongest to the weakest freely gave to the spell what it desired. Filled with hope that we were going to make it through this, it was an almost solid wave of dread when the spell changed once more and began to pull one more.
The weakest of my creatures started to pass out. I desperately tried to shut it down but by efforts were useless. A called for Kronos to help but it was already too late and I along with every living thing in my dungeon were once again pulled into the darkness.
The dungeon went quiet and still, nothing moved and nothing changed. And that is how it stayed for over 9,000 years.
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