Thinking back, the entire process had taken… ten minutes? That was also the amount of time it took a health pool to completely regenerate, so I was able to reach a simple conclusion thanks to that. This new aspect alters the way health regeneration works, so that instead of gradually healing over time, it gave a reusable burst healing factor. Given that the wolf only had six tails, and that the first one isn’t usable for this purpose, five seems to be the limit. Unless the wolf just happened to only be an hour old, which I found unlikely.
Still, five ‘full heals’ before it ran out once fully charged, and the ability to automatically grow a charge every ten minutes… that seemed to be more than worth trading away a slow recovery speed. Even if, for some reason, I needed more than five lives within a ten minute period, I could supplement my recovery with potions and spells. Speaking of which… I should probably make sure that they still work.
After a quick test, I was pleased to discover that recovery potions, pills, and spells all still worked as normal. The only thing that was affected was my automatic recovery rate. There was still the question of whether enchanted items that boost that amount would give me a natural recovery speed again, or increase the rate I grew my life saving scales. I would have to test that later, when I didn’t have other stuff to worry about.
“Yang, can you come down here and get this body? You should be able to finally finish your divine quest with this, I think.” I spoke into the intercom, calling down the girl in question.
“Yes, Master.” Soon after she answered, both her and Yin appeared nearby. As Yin looked at the massive corpse, she scoffed lightly and looked away. No doubt she still held a grudge for it freezing her like that…
“Uhm.. Master, this will take a while.” Yang spoke after she pulled out a skinning knife I had Celeste make for her. Yeah… skinning a beast this big… Would probably take most of a day. Then there’s the matter of its bones, which can also be used for weapons. We should probably save the meat as well, since it might be good to cook…
“I’ll leave first, then.” I nodded to Yang, before turning and flying into the air. Now that there wasn’t a whole lot to do here, I could head to my lab. Celeste, make a note that I need to find a critter to experiment with later.
“Yeah, yeah.” The AI replied in my head.
While I was flying, I went ahead and did a test, making two more of the scales for the Aspect of Health on the back of my hands. I wanted to see if five was a hard limit, or if I could potentially stock up on them. Since I wouldn’t be able to tell the results right away, I decided to check up on them again later.
When I arrived at my lab, I smiled at the large pile of element seeds that sat there waiting for me, before depositing them all in my inventory. Next, I went over and checked the information on the terminal that Celeste had set up after my… unfortunate episode last time. On it were recordings of monsters being created, as well as sensor readings listing the amount of mana it took to create them. This would be useful for my upcoming monster making marathon! Though, I should have them go deeper into the dungeons so that they can place more scanners and get a larger sample size.
Anyways, where was I? “John, you in there?” Okay, scratch that.
“I’m here, Sharon.” I called out from the basement, looking at the walls and figuring out how I would expand this room to conduct my research. Soon, Sharon was down to join me, back in her normal elf body. I had no doubt she just ran over here from the scene of the fight, because she was breathing a bit heavily.
“What are you up to?” She asked curiously, looking over the terminal.
“About to get started on my monster mayhem. Care to join me? Could use an extra pair of hands, and someone to talk with.”
She thought about it for a minute, before nodding. “Sure. Any ideas what you’re making first.”
“...Absolutely none.” I sighed, looking at the terminal. “From the information that thing gave me, I can determine a few patterns in monster spawns. For instance, skeletons never spawn with blood mana, and lizards never spawn with fur mana. However, the ratios seem completely random. I was thinking about having Celeste compile a program to assess the creatures and the mana requirements to spawn them, in order to reverse engineer the conditions for custom monsters. But right now, we don’t have enough samples.”
Sharon raised an eyebrow curiously. “If stuff like blood and skin mana is necessary, then how have you been spawning ettins until now? I am pretty sure that you don’t train either of those affinities. Even I only trained them to a basic level.”
“Ah… well, actually they aren’t needed. Monsters are formed in two steps. The first step is the catalyst, where elemental mana comes together in certain quantities and patterns, then triggers the gathering and formation of other mana types to fill in the body. But that makes it even harder, because I can’t tell what the reactions to base mana types interacting will be. Goblins and trolls only differ by about a hundred mana, but that mana changes their size, intellect, and strength by a large amount.”
Sharon nodded her head, seeming to understand. “So the problem is figuring out how the first and second steps interact, right?” When I agreed, she continued. “Would it be impossible to skip straight to the second step? If you had enough of the different mana types, I mean.”
I thought about it, but shook my head. “No… even if I set up a machine able to refine every type of mana, which I can’t, the first step is crucial. Without it, then the gathering of mana wouldn’t have a physical anchor.”
Sharon nodded again. “Well… what about an artificial grove? You could use it for simulation practice, maybe? Make a machine without an AI, give it a soul, and then make it a grove. If you can command it with user input, you could conduct your tests there, in a safe environment without worry.”
I.. actually really liked that idea. I was just about to agree to give it a try, when Celeste spoke up in my head. “Do you have any idea how hard it would be to program an interface capable of manipulating every mana type in a three dimensional world? Give it a hundred years, and the tech I’d need to build something like that might be available. For now, though, you can forget about it.”
I chuckled dryly after hearing her response. “Celeste says that’s a no go.”
“Hmm…” She thought about it again, before sighing. “I got nothing. Looks like you really need to get more information, first?”
I nodded again at that. “Seems like the only option. But, that means we’ll be dungeon diving again.” I couldn’t help but grin at that. “And it’s got to be us, because the others aren’t high enough levels yet.” Though, the secondary team would be able to go too, since Brian and Nathan received the same huge level increase that we had.
Speaking of which, I decided to spend my entire 100 stat points on intelligence, boosting my available mana to three thousand, and my recovery rate to twenty mana a second. With this, I should have more than enough mana to work with for a while, and can begin focusing my future points on my physical stats. And since I was approaching the level 100 benchmark, I was quite interested to see what I would be getting.
“Basically, an--” No spoilers! “Fine, fine…” Celeste replied wryly in my head when I stopped her from spoiling the level rewards. I wanted to work towards it myself and earn those rewards. It’s like spoiling a Christmas present, you just don’t do it, you know?
Anyways, with this, we made plans to try and conquer the demon dungeon in a week. Why the demon dungeon? Because the elemental ones and the plant ones would be too easy for me, and the undead one is too risky. We could do the goblin one, but the demons seemed so much more interesting.
“You just want to see if you can find a sexy succubus, don’t you?” Celeste had to get the last word in to tease me. I swear, that’s not it!
Chapter 63 - The Seven Circles
So, our group was currently at the entrance to the demon dungeon. With me was Sharon, Celeste, Yin, and Yo, all equipped with their best gear, and r
eady to conquer this series of caves. Well, that was the plan at least, and we knew that the first two floors would be easy for us. During this last week, Nathan and his group had gone into the dungeon twice, and the reports from it gave us quite a bit of information about the dungeon, even though they were stopped at the third floor.
Now entering the Seven Circles of Sin
That was the name of this dungeon, and it had some unique characteristics. The dungeon itself was arranged in a complex spiral leading down, and each layer had a theme. For the first layer, the enemies were berserk imps, who seemed to grow stronger the more of their kind were killed. This was referred to as the ‘Wrath’ circle.
The second layer was a bit more complicated, because the enemies used magic attacks to drain stamina, earning it the title of the ‘Sloth’ circle. Nathan’s group easily passed through this one because of Sam’s inexhaustible stamina. Being a skeleton did have some advantages.
The third layer, which was the deepest layer we had information on, was more troublesome for Nathan’s group. This was the ‘Greed’ circle, where enemies would steal directly from your inventory and use what was in there against you. For Nathan, that rendered him practically useless, but it shouldn’t be so much of a problem for us.
“We going to do this, or just sit around all day?” Celeste asked with a wide grin as she walked into the first circle.
“Let’s go!” Yo ran in behind her happily, while the rest of us followed. In order to train her telekinesis, Yin chose to remain in her human form inside this dungeon. After all, there was only limited room to fly in a cave, and she could not use weather magic to help in there. In her hands, she held a long leather whip that seemed to crackle with static energy every time it moved.
Celeste, getting ready for the battles ahead, called out her mechanical cat minions. It had been a long time since I had seen these, but I knew they would likely be enough for the first few floors. Like Sam, Celeste and her minions wouldn’t have to worry about stamina being an issue. She countered the second floor perfectly, while we could counter the first due to overwhelming power.
For now, Sharon did not call out any of her companions, nor did she use her transformation power. “Let’s use our area attacks on this floor. Kill the imps before they have the chance to power up.”
I nodded at the suggestion, getting ready to use my magic. From the information we had obtained, demons have a decent resistance to both fire and darkness, so I won’t be using those elements much. Instead, I planned to use mostly the Gravity element, as I had not had a chance to test it in battle yet.
Our first encounter occurred roughly five minutes after we had entered the red caves. Ten humanoids were flying in a dense swarm ahead, each one red skinned and no more than two feet tall. Upon seeing us, they let out a chittering screech and flew at us in a fury.
Sending out a ripple of mana, I controlled the gravity around the imps to increase, sending them crashing into the ground. Their tiny wings could no longer support their weight, so when Yin grabbed them with her mind and ripped them in half, there was almost no resistance. “That was easy.” I then looked over at Yin, making sure that she was okay from the telekinetic exertion. These were only small creatures, so the amount of force her mind was using was less than normal, at least.
“Yeah, well, they start coming in groups of over fifty before the end of the level, according to the reports.” Celeste said with a shrug, continuing on past the bodies of the imps. And sure enough, she was right. We already had the map of this floor, so we were able to quickly make it through. The only real surprise was that every now and then, there would be a second type of demon mixed in with the imps.
This second type appeared to command the imps, standing at seven feet tall with a muscular build. In their hands they would either wield a sword or spear made of a black material. Unlike the imps, these demons seemed to have a language that they spoke in, although it was not one I understood. It seemed like Celeste didn’t know the language either, so it may have been one they themselves created.
The second demons, which I’ll call ‘demon captains’ because of their ability to command the imps, were actually pretty strong. The first time we fought one, it commanded a group of twenty imps. Like the previous battles, I intended to simply end the fight by increasing the gravity and letting the others deal with them. However… the demon captain was not fazed at all, even when his weight tripled.
With my effort focused on restraining the imp horde, I could do little to stop the demon’s advance. And as it saw that I was the one behind its minions being held down, it charged at me with its black sword. In response, Yin whipped at it with her own weapon, which shot lightning at the demon’s chest when it struck. Still, it refused to go down. It wasn’t until Sharon intercepted it with her armor’s blades and stabbed its neck that it finally died.
“What are those things, and why don’t we have any information about them?” I glanced to the fallen demon captain. If it spawned on this floor, or even the floor below, then we should have information on it with the terminal in my lab. However, this type of demon was not listed there.
“Well, they were mentioned in Team B’s reports, but my guess is that they spawn on a lower floor.” Celeste spoke up, though she hadn’t had the chance to attack. Just one of those things was able to resist my gravity effects and Yin’s lightning, so I was a bit worried about what would happen if we fought a whole group of them.
However, my fears were unfounded, as this type of demon never appeared in the same group twice, at least on this floor. The one exception was the floor’s boss, which had two of them. However, unlike the reports we had read, there was not a giant swarm of imps to accompany the boss, only the two demon captains.
The boss of the first floor was… well, there’s really no way around saying it. It was a cerberus. Not THE Cerberus, just a three headed hellhound. The strange thing was that the demon captains were treating it like a pet, rather than being its minions. Well, that made fighting it easy enough.
“Yo, would you mind?” I stepped back to let the slime girl go. Although the cerberus was bigger than we were, it was not necessarily stronger. From what we heard, its level was just a bit under fifty, so it wasn’t hard for Yo to deal with it in a physical confrontation.
“Alright, dad.” Yo spoke with a smile, taking large steps forward and forming her spear with her slime. She eyed the three headed dog for a long moment as it approached her, before turning back to me. “Can I eat it?”
“....Uhm… okay?” I had nearly forgotten about her ability to consume and copy other creatures, as she had only used it shortly after she evolved. But, hearing my answer, she happily returned to the fight. Seeing that she was charging it, the three heads of the hellhound all released a black flame breath, a move which the reports had taken to calling balefire.
The balefire wasn’t a true flame, but a magical construct that ate away at the soul of the person it hit. That’s why I chose for Yo to fight it, because as a fighter class she has the most buffer aura out of any of us. Even if it decreases her experience, it won’t hurt her skills to be hit by it. The problem with the balefire was that it was not easily put out, and continued to burn whoever was hit by it.
To my surprise, Yo actually attempted to dodge the blast, rather than absorb it like she would most other attacks. Though she was not fast enough to dodge all three fire breaths at once, she did reduce the damage to only one side of her body. “Eww… that feels weird.” She groaned, before a thick puddle of goo fell off of her, taking the flame with it.
That was… one way of getting rid of the balefire, I guess? Though, I probably would not have cut off my own arm to do so. However, Yo took a stance with her spear, pulling it back as if to prepare for a thrust. She was still about ten meters away from the cerberus, so there was no way her spear could normally reach, even with the enchantments I put on it. But again she surprised me.
When Yo made the thrust with her spear, her entire bod
y shook from the force, and she even let out a low shout. And following that shout, her spear… grew. The tip of the spear stretched out faster than the hellhound could react, and pierced straight through its middle head. And then, as if that head had become an anchor, Yo’s body launched towards it, being pulled by the spear. “Now… get in my belly!”
Just before she reached the floor boss, her body seemed to explode, the various fragments all twisting through the air to wrap around the cerberus, earning pitiful wails as it tried to struggle free. Slimes are scary.
Seeing that their pet had failed to fight off the intruders, the two demon captains finally took action, charging at us with their swords out. Though, this time Celeste had a turn to take action, and shot each one once with her arm cannon, creating large holes in their bodies. She can be scary, too…
Anyways, with that, we were able to charge straight into the second floor. Here, we met the sloth demons. These were thin, black-skinned demons with long arms and legs. Their face had no eyes or ears, just a large mouth that would emit a yawn every time they did their attacks, which were beams of black energy fired from their hands.
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