Twelve days after the Sand Viper recruits made their first dungeon dives I call Holly and Central into the boss room to touch base on our various projects. The dark guild has followed a consistent pattern so far. The first day four groups of adventurers made their first dive. I killed two of the first group then one each on the next three. The day after, four new groups made their first dives. The first group got through with all their members, I killed one each on the next two, and the last group got cocky and tried to take on my second level so I ended up killing the entire party. I gave them every chance to retreat but you just can't help some people. On the third and fourth days nobody enters the dungeon at all. The fifth day Reaver returned.

The high level party took me more seriously the second time. Enchanted weapons. Actual teamwork. My dungeon isn't as strong as I can make it but they breeze through easily. In the dome I've been growing all of the drug plants they gave me, which they immediately harvest. After that there is another day with no dungeon dives. Each day when the first group enters the dungeon they deliver five slaves into my pitfall. The cybrats stun them and drag them down to the underdome for Central. Of the 30 slaves handed over I have 24 still alive. Four of the slaves were killed by Sand Vipers when they struggled or tried to escape before I could grab them, the other two were sick with something and I don't have medicine to treat them with. I keep the slaves seperated and the rest seem healthy enough. All of the slaves are imperfect in some way, missing limbs or eyes, sometimes broken in the head. Central measures the slaves that agree to help us and sends me designs for replacement parts. Then I tell him they are too complex and I can't afford the mana and he makes simpler versions which he describes as "[A tragic bastardization of my aesthetic.]" So far four slaves have undergone surgery to attatch their new parts including the lizardman and his elf friend Lina. It will take time for them to heal from the procedure so they haven't gotten to use them yet. Some of the slaves refuse to fight and Central says I should recycle them, but I let them stay. The help fighting Reaver is an extra, I mostly just wanted to keep them alive.

Holly had me dig out some smaller tunnels to the surface and she has been using them to leave the dungeon and observe the camp discreetly. Yesterday when Reaver's party made their second harvesting trip they brought the last group of slaves into the dungeon and Holly reports that the merchant train set off across the desert hauling a veritable mountain of illicit substances. Even giving only a small amount to each group of boss kills it added up to quite a lot with all the successful dives. I only killed a few more adventurers on the second visit from each group and none of the parties were wiped out. Holly notices that the remaining recruits are all decently strong and skilled. The ones I killed were the weak links in their parties. Holly is also able to meet up with Probe 99, which Central admits he had hanging around the edge of the town after losing 100 to me. He refuses to bring it inside and instead will be shadowing the caravan to their destination to see what the guild is doing with the drugs.

So, what's the status on our forces so far?

"Currently you have forty Cybratlings, fifteen Amphistas and two Bosses active the in the dungeon. Another twenty each of Cybratlings and Amphistas are on standby, building up their numbers. The Amphistas already laid their first clutch so we should have 60 of those by next week. The Cybratling females will give birth in two weeks, and then it takes another week to mature. We also need mana set aside to upgrade the young to Cybratlings of course. If we absorb the extra Amphistas for their mana we can make full Cybratlings at a five to one ratio." Holly taps buttons on her magic screen. "All together, in the next month you should be able to put together a full force of 168 Cybratlings at maximum. That's if your capacity continues to expand enough to keep up with the maximum breeding rates of your monsters. More likely you'll have the capacity to get 100 at the same time with all your other stuff in place."

It's a lot more than we started with. I've been working on some new weapons and armor for them. We might not get as many but they'll be harder to beat.

I've gotten a good variety of weapons and armor from dead adventurers, in addition to the stuff Reaver gave me. All of the stiff metal pieces are sized and shaped for human bodies so they don't fit well on my monsters. I use chainmail as the base instead. With Central's help I make tiny scales of the ceramic carapace from the probes and fit them together on the chainmail base. He also points out the packets of goop surrounding the inner mechanisms which are filled with impact gel. The weird stuff is liquid, but it thickens when struck and absorbs blunt impacts. The probe uses it to cushion delicate components but putting some inside the chainmail suits makes them resist blunt, piercing and slashing damage quite well. My Cybrat King boss gets a full suit of armor as do his two assisting Cybratlings.

The second boss chamber houses an evolved Amphista which turned into a Rank E dungeon boss called the Amphista Broodmother. She has special abilities that allow her to create a sucking vortex of air that pulls Adventurers into her mouth as well as laying eggs that rapidly hatch into fully grown Amphistas. Sadly her spawn don't live very long and can't be used to increase my dungeon population. With the increased mana reserves I expand my dungeon again during the rest days. I install a third floor with another boss chamber today. The first floor is made up of the basic black chambers with lots of pitfalls and cybratlings. The second floor is filled with drug crazed Cybratlings, narcotic smoke and swarming Amphistas coming out of the walls. The third floor is something different that Central and I cooked up. We needed to test out the combat potential of the cyborg slaves, but couldn't risk sending them against the adventurer's early. Since we're already full of contraband and being controlled by a Dark Guild Holly lets me finally make some zombies and I apply Central's designs to them. No need to recover from surgery. No slaves get hurt.

The zombies are clumsy and dumb on the first attempt, so I hollow out their brains and install a few parts from the probes. Central helps put together the programs to make them move around and fight, which is about all they can do. It's an improvement on the zombie but the resulting Zomborgs are very expensive. Not as much as a probe but I can't afford to use too many of them. The third floor is well lit and has nice white walls instead of the flat black I've been using up above. Each of the chambers has glass tubes full of green goo stretching from floor to ceiling with little tubes to make them bubble. Floating in each tube I put a reproduction of one of the adventurer bodies I have absorbed. Since they aren't monsters it doesn't cost much mana to make them and I give them various nonfunctional cyborg parts for effect. I place the zomborgs in tubes as well and use a circuit to release them when it's time to fight.

I put up more of Central's signage in whatever weird language he uses. He seems to get a laugh out of it at least when I show him the finished rooms. The first room has a large diagram of a human body and its' various parts on one wall and bunch of small pictures of the dead bodies pinned up on the other side. I put in a bunch of desks and chairs along the walls with pens and papers and bits of machinery piled up. The second room has comfortable chairs on one side and a large painting of a small fuzzy animal hanging on a rope with the words, Hang in There, written below. I put the boss in the third room on that floor and don't put any monsters in my boss chamber.

The third floor boss is actually just another Zomborg (I can't make anything stronger than a class E yet), but I equip it with a full suit of the probe armor and some of my new weapons. An upgrade on the Longsword using the Zomborg pattern and some electrical parts makes a sword split down the middle from tip to hilt, made from wet looking black metal. The edges are razor sharp and the entire thing can be electrified, making it crackle with blue lightning arcs. The weapon is called a Vivisector. The Amphista pattern mixed with a blow dart tube makes a Googun, which fires a spray of sticky sap strings like a net. I equip the zomborg with both of them and think he looks quite threatening. The room he is in has a metal table tilted up which the Zomborg boss lays on until the adventurer's enter with a bunch of nasty looking metal arms hanging down from the ceiling around it, tipped with saw blades and pincers. The arms can move and attack but aren't very strong, Central manipulates them while I practice with directly controlling the Zomborg. The boss looks quite frightening encased in black carapace with the red light from his one camera eye shining through the visor. The Vivisector and the Googun are built into the armor gauntlets so he won't be easy to disarm.

I have enough mana capacity to be on my fifth floor by now but I hold back and keep it to three. The zomborgs will make them suspicious but I have much better equipment in development in the lower chambers and their mechanical parts aren't as good as what the slaves... Maybe I should stop calling them slaves? That seems rude. I'll ask what they want to be called later. The people downstairs have better mechnical parts. I need the practice and the testing data from the zomborg fights before I risk using my new helpers for anything. In addition I think the zomborgs will really freak them out, and they deserve it with how awful they all are. With all of that done I check over my monster patterns before it's time to get ready for the dungeon runs tomorrow morning.

Unlocked Archetypes Available Units Insect

Dire Worm: Class G monster with rapid breeding and evolution. Capable of burrowing and sensing movement through vibrations in the soil. Blind and deaf otherwise.

Amphista: Class G+ monster with rapid breeding and evolution. These two headed dire worms are extremely sensitive to vibrations, allowing them to sense prey through soil as well as air pressure. By eating with one head they can pressurize and fire projectiles from the opposite end.

Amphista Broodmother: Class F+ Dungeon Boss. This massive Amphista is slower than its' common kin but far more powerful and durable. Special abilities include Spawn Larva and Suction. Broodmothers are a mutated form of Amphista that is unable to produce viable offspring and becomes overgrown, ruling over a territory by itself.

Animal

Dire Rat: Class G monster with quick breeding and moderate evolution. Posesses sharp teeth and a good sense of smell. Capable of fighting in groups.

Dire Rat King: Class G+ Dungeon Boss. This evolved Dire Rat has increased strength and intelligence compared to its' lesser brethren, and typically rules over a nest.

Ratling: Class F- monster with moderate breeding and moderate evolution. The first evolutionary step of the Rat beastman path, these primitive humanoids are intelligent and dexterous, able to make and use crude weapons and tools. They are cowardly, prefer to fight in groups, and are infamous for their underhanded tactics.

Undead

Bone Rat: Class G+ monster. Unable to breed, evolution strictly defined. Able to perceive life force and fight in groups.

Plague Rat: Class G+ monster. Unable to breed, evolution strictly defined. Possesses sharp teeth and natural poison. Enemies bitten have a chance to contract the Plague, debiliting all stats until cured and dealing damage over time.

Zombie: Class F monster. Unable to breed, evolution strictly defined. Mindless and hungry, these undead can only receive the most basic of instructions but have great strength and durability.

Skeleton: Class F monster. Unable to breed, evolution strictly defined. Skeletons are simple undead capable of using weapons and armor, though their bones are brittle and easily snapped by blunt weapons.

Automaton

Probe: Class ??? artifice. Unable to breed, unable to evolve. This advanced technological servant is not of this world.

Cybrat: Class F- monster with special breeding (produces standard Dire Rats as offspring). Special evolution. This cybernetically upgraded rat is equipped with a powerful weapon replacing its' tail.

Cybrat King: Class F Dungeon Boss. This cunning cybernetic warrior is enhanced with a powerful stabbing tail that doubles as a catapult for flinging its' rat swarm

Cybratling: Class F monster with special breeding (produces standard Ratlings as offspring). Special evolution. This cybernetically upgraded Ratling uses technology to augment its' dirty fighting style

Zomborg: Class E monster. Unable to breed, special evolution. Mindless servant of a machine intelligence, these augmented undead have basic fighting abilities backed up by superior strength and durability.