Demon Lord of the Swarm Arc 1 End (original chapter Chapter 86)
As the four adventurers approached the large double doors that were the last barrier between them and the Demon Lord, Valerie felt the amount of magic in the area rise sharply. It was almost intoxicating…
"Val? Hello Val?"
She looked up sharply when a hand waved in front of her face. Damien was looking at her in concern. "What?"
"You've been standing there looking like an idiot for the last couple of minutes." He informed her. "What's up?"
"The amount of mana in this area is incredibly dense." She answered. "Much more dense than I'd expect of a week old Dungeon and Demon Lord."
"Val, you were, what, eight when the last Dungeon was overrun and the Demon Lord was killed?" the Knight asked with a raised eyebrow.
"My teacher showed me readings that he had taken in the first four floors of that Dungeon prior to the Demon Lord getting killed." The Fire Mage snapped at him. "The feeling of the mana on this section of the floor is almost equal to the density of the end of the third floor of that Dungeon!"
"That…isn't good." Garret said after a moment.
"It does not change our task, merely confirming the danger we face." Cynthia said stoically.
"Right." Damien nodded. "I'll take point. I've read that the doors of the Demon Lord's lair are never trapped for some reason, but I have the best defence to take any nasty surprises that may be around there."
"Are you sure? You've taken some bad hits throughout the dungeon." Cynthia asked in concern.
Garret coughed a word that sounded suspiciously like 'Pitfall.'
Generously deciding to not throttle his party member for being a cheeky bugger, Damien merely glowered at him before starting forwards again, followed by the others.
As they approached the doors, they creaked open, revealing a large empty room…and a person standing in front of a throne. Exuding an invisible aura of power, Valerie felt her mouth dry up as she beheld the Demon Lord of the Dungeon.
Standing two inches or so taller than Damien, whipcord thin, but with muscles revealed by the tight-ish clothes the figure wore, she could tell that this was no mere newborn but a warrior. The sight of breasts, albeit hidden beneath its clothes surprised her. A female Demon Lord? That was a new one. All of the recorded Demon Lords had either been male or had a form that didn't seem to have any gender. She had long brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders and was rather stunning.
The clothes themselves seemed to be made of some strange material that she recognised as the silken threads of spiders, as well as armoured by an unknown substance across key locations on the body. Light armour, intended to protect whilst not hindering movement or agility by any verifiable degree. So, a speed-type fighter? The short sword and buckler in her hands suggested that as well.
The stance of the Demon Lord was what caught her eye next. It was relaxed, but not unguarded. From the way she stood, Valerie could see that this woman was an experienced combatant and was ready to attack or dodge the moment she or her companions made an aggressive move against her.
"You know." The Demon Lord spoke up in a mildly irked voice. "It is usually considered impolite to keep a lady waiting, isn't it?"
"A woman…is the Demon Lord." Damien said flatly, as if completely unable to register such an absurdity. Understandable, but it pissed off Valerie a little.
"An uncommon occurrence?" the Demon Lord enquired, and Valerie noticed that her face was actually partially covered by a half-face mask made out of the same material as her clothes.
"Considering all of the others have either been genderless or male, yes." Garret said dryly.
"Ah. Curious." The woman looked thoughtful for a moment. "Anyway, before you attack, I'd like to talk for a moment if that's alright."
"Demon, what tricks are you pulling?" Cynthia demanded.
"I was a human, you know." The Demon Lord retorted. "Urgh, religious fanatics, I swear…"
"I say we play along." Valerie suggested. "Let's see what she wants."
"I have to advise against this." Cynthia said frostily. "For all we know, she has some form of mind magic and is planning on brainwashing us into being her slaves or something."
"I don't have mind magic." The Demon Lord rolled her eyes in apparent exasperation. "Not that a staid and devoted follower of a religion like you will believe me."
"What do you want to know?" Garret asked, preventing Cynthia from going on a diatribe. It was a sad fact that she abhorred demons, to the point that she discriminated against any full-blood demons that she came across. As her family had been murdered by rampaging monsters caused by the last Dungeon growing, this was somewhat understandable.
"First, how are Dungeons and Demon Lords created and for what purpose from your perspective?" the woman asked. "I have some information that I need confirmation of."
How are they created? Why? What on earth…?
"We humans -in fact, all of the civilised races- would be curious to know the answer to those questions ourselves." Damien said slowly. "No divine augury has revealed the reason, nor has asking any high-ranking demon."
"Ah…is it from lack of effort or lack of ability, I wonder…?" the Demon Lord mused. "For my part, I am told that Dungeons and Demon Lords are created by the Will of the Planet itself and that your world is lacking in something called 'life energy' and that my dungeon produces it as it expands. As a consequence, monsters feed off of it and grow numerous."
Shock filled the four adventurers. No wonder the auguries had failed. No wonder demons didn't know the answer. The planet itself was making the Dungeons? What madness was this?
"Is there a drought going on in the world above, or perhaps a suspicious lack of successful crops for no apparent reason?" the Demon Lord pressed.
"The harvests have been getting less bountiful for some reason." Garret admitted. "I think it started about…what, two years ago?"
"Something like that." Valerie agreed neutrally. "There's no drought though."
"Not true; there's one over in the Zuma Theocracy, where the last Dungeon was sited." Damien corrected her.
"Hmm…interesting…so this whole 'will of the planet' thing isn't as unbelievable as it sounds." The woman before them mused aloud.
"That doesn't explain why the monsters go nuts and kill innocent people because of your Dungeon!" Cynthia barked.
"Do you mourn every hair that falls from your head when you have your hair cut?" the Demon Lord asked with a flat tone of voice. "Or mourn every bit of detritus every time you cut your nails? To the planet, each individual human life is probably worth far, far less than that. I haven't communicated with the Planet, so this is merely an educated guess, but I suspect it operates under a 'you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs' mentality."
'It made sense.' a part of Valerie's mind thought, even as the rest of her mind became numb. 'A planet would view creatures as small as humans or any of the other races as dust mites or something even smaller and more insignificant. I regularly buy spells to destroy mites in order to keep allergies away from my companions…if the planet feels it needs to restore life to parts of itself and cause casualties in the process, I think it would do it…'
"And we should believe you because of why, exactly?" the Priestess scoffed.
"My lack of cause for lying to you, perhaps?" the Demon Lord drawled. "What possible reason could I have for deceiving you, hmm?"
"I do not know, but I will not trust you!" Cynthia growled.
The woman sighed and placed her hand over her face before dragging it down her face, seemingly exasperated. "And I thought those idiots from The Fallen were nuts for worshiping the Endbringers." She muttered.
"The who?" Val asked before she could stop herself.
"I was reincarnated into this body from another world entirely, one where three giant beasts were destroying humanity, which we referred to as the Endbringers." The Demon Lord answered absently. "Some morons decided worshiping them would maybe save them from their attacks…more fool them."
"Did your gods not intervene?" Garret asked curiously.
"If my world had any gods, they did not." A small smile flashed across her face for a moment. "As it turned out, the greatest threat was the one we called our greatest protector, Scion, rather than the Endbringers. He was what you might call a physical god, as strong as a god without actually being a god. He rampaged across multiple realities and killed millions, perhaps billions, of people before I got tired of it and used the power of another to fully unlock my own power, at the cost of my sanity. I hunted him down, mind controlling every warrior from my home world who could make a difference to do so. In the end, I killed him…and then I allowed someone to kill me, so I in turn would not become a greater monster than Scion."
A gnawing sensation of fear grew in Valerie's mind. By all the gods…if what she was saying was true…
"I lost the power to control people's minds when I reincarnated, thankfully, and I also lost the insanity that was threatening to overwhelm my mind." The Demon Lord really was smiling now. "Just about the worst part of this second life of mine is the fact that people are still going to want to kill me because I control a Dungeon. Such is life, I suppose."
"You're glad that you've been disempowered?" Damien asked sceptically.
"I was originally someone possessing the power to control arthropods…insects, crabs, worms, spiders." The woman before them shrugged. "Using such a seemingly low-tier power, my team and I became the shadow rulers of an entire city, even managing to overcome vastly more powerful enemies where I should have been killed. I wanted power, yes, but to the point that it cursed me with insanity? No. That isn't something I wanted. Now that I have this new body and my old power back, I can work my way to further strength as my Dungeon grows."
"You assume that you're going to be alive once we're done with you." Cynthia spat.
"I am actually confident I can face you all and win." The Demon Lord retorted, making the adventurers stiffen in shock. "While I would give your teamwork a solid ten out of ten, and your skills a similarly high score, your decision making skills haven't impressed me. I am aware of everything in my Dungeon, so I have heard everything you have said and seen everything that you have done while inside of it. A simple desire for greater rank and prestige has exhausted you physically, mentally and spiritually. It is plain that you people have little to no experience in delving dungeons cautiously and carefully. If you did have to invade my Dungeon, turning back after the third room would have been the most sensible choice, as you had an idea about the way my dungeon worked by that point, as well as what monsters I had and how to fight them. Returning with specialised equipment and more members would have been more advantageous to you at that point."
"You…!" Damien growled.
"Ah yes, Damien the Knight." The Demon Lord looked straight at him, her eyes pinning him in place. "You should not have taken the lead upon entering the dungeon, instead giving that role to the rogue in your group. The two pitfalls and the arrow trap that you tripped served as a suitable punishment for that. This entire escapade is your doing and you should be ashamed of yourself for risking the lives of your friends for the sake of a mere rank."
"We all agreed to enter." Valerie protested.
"Yes, compounding his error." The Demon Lord sighed. "I recall one of you mentioning that during the last Dungeon's life, it took fifty adventurers to invade the Dungeon and slay my predecessor? With over three-quarters of that number dead by the end of it? That should have made you cautious. Because I am willing to bet that the majority of those casualties were not caused by the Dungeon…they were caused by the Demon Lord."
"We shall see." Cynthia curled her lip as she took a firmer grip of her mace. "Unlike the Demon Lord of the Snarling Maw, you have only been alive for a week. There is no possible way for you be as strong as that Demi-Demon was."
"A what now?" the Demon Lord sounded puzzled.
Remembering that this Demon Lord claimed to be a human from another world, Valerie spoke up. "A Demi-Demon is a halfblooded demon. They have one demon parent and a non-demon parent. The one from a decade ago was half-demon, half-Dark Elf, I believe."
"I see. Thank you for the information." The nod she received was genuinely thankful. "One last question before we get to the main business. You are Silver Three-Star Ranked adventurers, correct? How exactly are the adventurers ranked? I have little idea about how strong a bunch of greenhorns might be compared to you four."
"There are a lot of ranks." Garret started. "At the very, very bottom, you have Stone Rank, which has five stars, or seniority ranks, in it. Stone Rankers are usually kids at an Adventurer Academy, although some low-ranked adventurers stay at this rank for their entire lives. Once you achieve the fifth star in Stone Rank, you must go through a basic proficiency test and, if you pass it, you become a Copper One-Star."
"Starting at Copper Rank, the ranks only have three levels within them, but they are much harder to advance between." Valerie continued. "You are unlikely to ever see Stone Ranked Adventurers, just so you know, as they are forbidden from leaving the cities unless with a more senior Adventurer."
"The ranks go Stone, Copper, Brass, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Titanium, Platinum and Diamond." Damien finished. "Most you'll find are Iron or Bronze rank, as it gets harder and harder to advance from One-Star to Three-Star, let alone between Ranks, as you go up. At Titanium, Platinum and Diamond Rank, the levels go back to having five stars, as there are a lot more nuances in how strong someone is at that level."
"I see." The Demon Lord nodded seriously. "And is there actually anyone in the world who has achieved Diamond Five-Star Rank?"
"One." Cynthia stated. "She has not been seen since she slew the Demon Lord of the Snarling Maw a decade ago. Supreme Paladin Jessabelle Reed."
"Well that's something at least." The woman sighed. "Now then...to get straight to business, I'm offering you four a chance to surrender right now. I dislike killing unnecessarily and I could certainly use your knowledge of this world, as my information source is very much limited. I doubt you'll take it though."
"Correct." Cynthia said in irritation and anger.
"Professional pride, dontcha know." Garret said with a shrug.
"Surrender isn't in my dictionary." Damien said as he readied his sword.
"And I'm not one to abandon my comrades." Valerie sighed.
"As I thought." The Demon Lord nodded. "Well then, a little introduction on my part is necessary. "I was once known as Taylor Hebert, Weaver of the Wards and Skitter the Warlord. My Demon Name is Hellebore and I am the Demon Lord of the Swarm. Name yourselves, adventurers who seek battle with me."
"Damien, the Iron Knight."
"Valerie, the Fire Witch."
"Cynthia, the Hammer of Demons."
"Garret of the Shadows."
'A title-born Demon Lord?!' Valerie thought with a sinking feeling even as she spoke. It was very, very rare for a Demon Lord of a Dungeon to be born with a title, but when they were, they were often the most powerful enemies in the world for those who sought to defeat them. Most Dungeons earned a title only after creating a sufficient number of a specific type of monsters or a certain type of Dungeon Floor. The previous Demon Lord, the Demon Lord of the Snarling Maw, had specialised in lizards and other monsters with scales and fangs, had only earned its title after the fifth floor had been made.
Compared to the Demon Lord of the Deep, who had created underwater Floors while the Dungeon had been situated in the middle of the desert, who had existed a century ago, the Demon Lord of the Snarling Maw had been weak as hell. And now the four of them were facing off against a Demon Lord of equally frightening power.
'If she's this strong after only a week, I shudder to think how strong she might become after a year.' Valerie thought with a grimace. She put the things the Demon Lord…what the former human Taylor Hebert…had said to the back of her mind. Regardless of what she had said or even the validity of what she had said, they were adventurers and it was their duty to slay Demon Lords and other monsters that threatened the world.
"Tell you what." Taylor smirked. "I'll give you all a bit of an advantage. The walking Ironmongery over there can have one free strike at me. I won't move, nor will I physically block or use magic to stop him. He can even use a skill to increase his attack power."
"You…! Don't frigging well underestimate me!" Damien howled and charged forwards before the others could stop him. Raising his blade high, he shouted out the name of the most powerful offensive skill in his repertoire.
"[Berserk Sword]!"
The red aura that appeared around his blade and arms signalled that the powerful skill had successfully activated. For the duration of this single strike, Damien's physical strength would be doubled and the sword would magnify the damage it dealt, but the price was that he would be weakened overall for a handful of minutes after using it. The overall durability of his sword would be greatly reduced as well.
"Dammit, Damien!" Garret shouted, utterly exasperated with his friend. "We've told you not to use that as anything but a last resort!"
Ignoring him, Damien reached Taylor and swung his sword down, aiming to cut through her collarbone and bisect her from there to the groin. The greatsword shrieked as it cut through the air and slammed into her shoulder, the wind storm the sword ruffling the Demon Lord's hair.
"…huh?" Valerie blinked. Other than her hair being ruffled, the [Berserk Sword] seemingly hadn't done any damage whatsoever. It hadn't even cut through her clothes!
"Wha…at? Impossible!" Damien gasped, even as the red glow faded and his body sagged slightly.
"Hmm. Looks like I should have checked my equipment beforehand." The Demon Lord mused as she grabbed ahold of the blade of the greatsword with one hand. "Evidently my clothes are enchanted with spells that increase the effect of my passive skills. How useful."
"What…are you?!" Cynthia choked out.
"Ah, I knew I left something out of my introduction." Taylor smiled, or at least she bared her teeth. "The precise race I reincarnated as is 'Archdemon' and the skill that neutralised your friend's attack here is [Nigh Invulnerable Demonic Body]."
"Oh…hell…" Valerie gulped. An Archdemon, one of the highest ranked demonic races. Almost legendary for their physical and magical strength and endurance, they were as rare as hen's teeth and more deadly than a basilisk. With one of the giant snakes, at least you knew to look for a serpent the length of a small city's curtain wall, but with Archdemons, they had two separate forms to switch between, so just because you knew what their demonic form looked like didn't mean they couldn't sneak up on you using their human form, the perfect wolf in sheep's clothing.
"Shit." Garret drew and threw a dagger in one motion, even as he spoke. It literally bounced off her other shoulder without doing anything.
"My turn." The Demon Lord growled. She tugged hard at the greatsword in her hand, throwing Damien off-balance, before slamming her short sword into his side using the flat of the blade. It flashed white upon impact and Damien was sent flying through the air to crash onto the ground to the right in a heap of limbs and metal. Valerie could see that the place where his armour had been struck had a dent the size and shape of a short sword's blade.
"A…an enchanted blade?!" Valerie stammered out. Enchanters were not rare at all, but most of them were old fogies who were more interested in their own research than actually selling their services to those who needed them, so aside from Gold-Rank adventurers and up, Kingdom Army Officers and Royalty, you rarely saw anything but the most basic of items, made by Apprentices and Journeymen to earn a bit of extra cash, on the market and in the field.
"Don't just stand there! Kill her!" Cynthia roared. "I'll heal Damien while you hold her off!"
"No, you won't." Taylor said and pointed a finger at her. "Dungeon Teleport!"
With a loud POP, the priestess vanished from the room.
"Sent her back to the first room. It'll take her a while to get back here." The Demon Lord said in satisfaction. "Once she is, I can take care of her. Until then, I'll beat you all senseless."
"Spirit-!" Valerie started to chant. The next second, Taylor had travelled the distance between them with a single leap and had driven her shield-hand's fist into her stomach, making the Mage fold around it.
"Gurk…!" she choked before flying back a couple of meters, dropping her staff as she did, and curling into a ball as she tried not to regurgitate the contents of her stomach.
"Your greatest weakness is your dependence on chanting." The Demon Lord informed her. "I'll take this."
Picking up Valerie's staff, she threw it to the far side of the room to prevent her from grabbing it again.
"And that leaves…Garret." Taylor mused with her eyes shut. "Who is using some kind of super stealth skill to vanish from my ability to see him with my eyes. A very impressive technique. However…"
Abruptly, she turned around and a deluge of insects erupted from her mouth, slamming into what was apparently empty space but was revealed to have Garret lurking invisibly. He reappeared with a shriek as the swarm of bugs bowled him over, infiltrating his clothes and biting at his flesh. Taylor appeared next to him in a blur of movement and struck him on the back of his neck, rendering him unconscious.
"In my Dungeon, I am able to see the location of anyone or anything simply by willing it. Add into the fact that one of my former teammates was a Stranger par excellence and you are not very effective against me. Imp makes you look like an amateur by comparison." She informed him before dodging to one side to avoid a swing of a greatsword aimed at her neck.
"Stay still!" Damien shouted as he readied his weapon for another strike.
"Nope. You only get one freebie." Taylor quipped and, after dodging another swipe of his two-handed sword, darted in, slamming the edged length of her weapon on Damien's unarmoured hand, cutting it down to the bone.
"GAAAAAAAAH!" he roared in pain as blood spurted from the wound. Then the sword flashed white again and it cut through his arm completely, making him scream in agony and disbelief.
"DAMIEN!" Valerie screamed in horror. He was maimed. Crippled for life. His days as an adventurer over for good, unless he could scrape together enough coin to pay someone to make him a fully functional artificial limb.
"You stepped into the lion's den. Don't blame the lion for biting your head off when you stick it in its mouth." Taylor said coldly.
A wave of fury coursed through Valerie's veins at that. The fact that the Demon Lord - Demon Lady? - was right didn't assuage her whatsoever. Damien had been her party member for over four years, since she had started adventuring after leaving her Master at eighteen. He had saved her life dozens of times, just as she had saved his the same amount. Together with Cynthia and Garret, they had clawed their way up to the peak of Silver Rank, and now he would be forced to retire?!
This would not be tolerated!
"[Fury Overdrive]!" she shouted as she withdrew the emergency casting tool that she had taken from the Floor Boss' corpse. A wave of red light burst from her body and formed an aura around her in the form of raging flames. This was her ultimate trump card: [Fury Overdrive]. A skill that allowed her to cast silently and at twice the power for three minutes. As with Damien's [Berserk Sword], it was a skill of last resort because it greatly weakened her spellcasting abilities for a short time after it was used, but she was too enraged to think of the consequences right now.
Even as Taylor turned to face her in surprise, Valerie created a spear of fire and threw it at her with a snarl. The Demon Lord then flew straight up, totally avoiding the fiery projectile, and then hovered in the air. Blinking, Valerie spotted a set of almost transparent membranes buzzing behind the Demon Lord. Insect wings.
"An Arthromancer…" she breathed. Insect magic…of course, she had known that since Garret had been taken down with a breath attack made of flying insects, but this just drove it home. Insect magic was very weak at its lowest levels, but when used at the height of its power, then it could contend with almost every kind of other magic so long as its user was smart and cunning enough.
Shaking herself out of her stupor, Valerie reminded herself that she was on a strict time limit, not to mention a mental limit. When Taylor had spoken of the party being mentally and spiritually exhausted, she had glanced over at Valerie specifically, which was only fair. The human mind was only capable of casting so many spells per day, especially in quick succession. Most of her weak spells had been used up, and her strongest spell was gone as well, but that still left her with all of her mi-level spells to play with.
The next minute consisted of Valerie throwing out fiery death that would have been perfectly good at burning a certain Demon Lord to death if they could only hit her! Unfortunately, with Taylor flitting around like a giant fly, hitting her was almost as hard as getting one of those irritating things!
In the meanwhile, Taylor had been blasting at her with that insect breath attack whenever she got close enough, which forced the Fire Mage to blast them with what few of her low-level spells she had left. It was fortunate that insects in general were generally speaking extremely vulnerable to fire, although there were some insects of the fire element in monsters, the so-called 'firebug' category. Those were a pain to deal with.
'Shit, I'm running out of time!' Valerie though furiously. She only had a minute left before she became as magically weak as a kitten.
"V-Val…!"
She looked up to see Damien stagger to his feet, his greatsword clasped in his one remaining hand.
"Damien?!"
"You still…have that temporary magic enchantment spell, right?" he grunted out, pain filling his voice. "Use it and I'll cut that bitch in half! Her skill only works on non-magical weapons!"
Valerie only hesitated for a single moment before doing it. It was a spell she almost never used, mostly because Damien had had too much pride before now to let her use it on him.
As soon as the red glow surrounded his sword, the Knight charged at Taylor, who regarded him evenly as she landed.
"You won't surrender, Iron Knight?" she asked softly.
"Never!" he roared. "I would rather die first!"
"As you seek…so shall you receive." She sighed, raised her right hand and clicked her fingers.
A pit formed beneath Damien and a large head with scything mandibles and a ravening maw emerged from within, slamming its jaws down on Damien the Iron Knight and biting him in half before vanishing.
As the corpse of her friend fell to the floor in an explosion of gore and shattered metal, Valerie let out a wail of loss and grief, renewing her attack with murder in mind.
It was this scene that Cynthia came upon when she charged back in. She looked at the rapidly cooling corpse of Damien, the unconscious form of Garret and the furious assault that Valerie was performing and decided to help. She reached out across the spiritual connection that she had to her patron goddess, the Lady Lumina, and tried to manifest one of Her Messengers to face the demon.
…
Nothing happened. She tried again and it still didn't work. It didn't make any sense! [Divine Manifestation] was a skill that she had worked for years to learn and master! And yet it felt as if there was some sort of impenetrable wall or barrier between her and the lady Lumina!
'No…not a wall…a dam!' she realised. 'I can still access all of my other abilities, albeit with great difficulty, but summoning one of Lady Lumina's Messengers or even manifesting a portion of Her Divine Will is impossible. Accursed Demon!'
"And then there was one." Taylor said after a meaty 'thunk' resounded throughout the room. Valerie was out cold at her feet, utterly defeated.
"What have you done with my connection to the Lady Lumina?!" Cynthia hissed as she brandished her weapon.
"Your connection is untouched." The Demon Lord looked amused. "It is simply that, as what happens when you muffle sound with a pillow, so too are your entreaties to your goddess while within the Dungeon, with only your ability to call forth a portion of your goddess or one of her subordinates completely silenced. In this Dungeon, there is only one being that reigns supreme here, and that is me."
"I will smite you in my Lady's name and avenge Damien!" the Priestess growled.
"With your friends unconscious or dead, your final trump card neutralised and facing a Demon Lord?" Taylor said with heavy scepticism. "There's determination and then there's suicide. Just so you know, what you're doing is definitely the latter."
"Faith in My Lady demands I do all that I can in Her Name." Cynthia declared as she charged her mace with [Blessing of Light], a basic skill of the Clergy of Lumina that imbued the weapon to be the bane of demons, dealing extra damage per hit.
"I see. Then may you be gifted with the embrace of your goddess in the afterlife." The Demon Lord said sorrowfully and readied her weapons.
In the next minutes after that, Priestess Cynthia of the Lady Lumina fought the Demon Lord of the Swarm in and to hand combat, fulfilling her duty to her patron goddess in full. When she fell, her throat slashed open, it was with the contented smile of one who had performed her duty to the best of her abilities.
With Taylor
Looking down at the dead bodies of Damien and Cynthia, I oddly enough didn't feel very much in the way of disgust at my actions. I did feel sorry that they had forced me to kill them, however.
I braced myself and then absorbed all of the foreign materials in my Lair and Dungeon, not including the unconscious bodies of Garret and Valerie.
You have absorbed [Damien the Iron Knight]! You earn 50 Mana!
You have absorbed [Cynthia, the Hammer of Demons]! You earn 50 Mana!
You have absorbed [Uncommon Steel Plate Mail Armour Set]! You earn 40 DP! Item has been unlocked in the store for purchase!
You have absorbed the [Staff of Crystallised Fire]! You earn 60 DP! [Mage Staff] has been unlocked in the store for purchase! [Fire Essence] has been unlocked for Dungeon and monster use!
Error, cannot absorb [Cane of the Widowmaker]! Items originating from within the dungeon cannot be absorbed!
You have absorbed [Common Steel Greatsword]! You earn 20 DP! Item unlocked in the store for purchase!
You have absorbed [Mace of Lumina]! You earn 60 DP! Options unlocked that require a sapient and/or sentient monster to view!
You have absorbed [Common Steel Throwing Dagger]! You earn 10 DP! Item unlocked in the store for purchase!
You have absorbed [Priestess Vestments of Lumina]! You earn 20 DP! Items unlocked that requires the Demon Lord to control a humanoid monster to view.
You have absorbed [Book of Lumina]! You earn 100 DP! Options unlocked that require a sapient and/or sentient monster to view!
You have absorbed miscellaneous other items! You earn 10 DP! A lot of options unlocked!
Achievement earned! [That was Disarming]! You gain 10 DP!
Achievement earned! [Half of What He Used To Be]! You gain 10 DP!
Achievement earned! [Survived First Invasion]! You gain 20 DP!
Achievement earned! [Meh, We Can Take Her]! You gain 20 DP!
Achievement earned! [Going for the Throat]! You gain 10 SP!
I felt my head spin as the information washed over me, to the point that my head ached. Urgh…and I was feeling…bloated. As if I'd gorged myself on food.
…
Oh. I had.
You have sufficient Mana to create a new Floor of your Dungeon!
Do you wish to do so?
Y|N
I hit the 'Y' key quickly. I did not want to get Mana Poisoning, thank you very much. There was such a thing as too much of a good thing, and this was exactly that kind of situation. The rumbling as a new level of depth was dug out by the system started, and I saw that it would take thirty minutes to complete my Second Floor.
Glancing at the unconscious forms of Valerie and Garret, I tried to do something I'd never tried before…used my imagination to envisage a new type of room rather than an item.
Room Type: [Prison Room] has been conceived! Blueprint has been added to stock.
Prison Room: An area of the Dungeon that is almost entirely self-supporting. It is designed to hold captured invaders prisoner whilst keeping them alive. The unique feature of this room is that without the permission of the Demon Lord, anyone held in this room cannot leave it. Additionally, the presence of prisoners adds +5 to the Daily Mana Intake per prisoner. Costs 20 DP to create.
Now, I knew that a lot of people would call me an idiot for not killing these two while I had the chance, but…I honestly could say that I had almost no desire to kill them. Damien had reminded me of Armsmaster/Defiant too much with his desire for power and prestige, while Cynthia had reminded me too much of fanatics back on Earth Bet, like diehard Nazis from the Empire 88, or members of Haven, the Christian Cape Organisation, or the Endbringer-worshiping Fallen or some of the Case-53's that had stormed Cauldron.
Valerie and Garret though, didn't disturb me. They were, from what I had seen, fairly good people, who fought and cared for those they were close to. I could just hope that they would eventually forgive me for killing their friends, or at least learn to put it to one side.
Starting forwards, I stumbled again, making me scowl. What the hell?! I hadn't stumbled even once because of my body during the entire fight, and now I was clumsy again? This was starting to become irritating.
I quickly built a corridor off to one side of the Lair and built the Prison room before moving its first 'guests' in. The next thing I did was open its upgrade options menu.
Prison Room Upgrades
- Have food and water automatically spawned for the prisoners three times a day – 10 DP
- Harden prison walls, floors and ceiling to prevent prisoners from digging out (or trying to at least) – 10 DP
- Add basic beds and other furniture – 5 DP
- Add a Privy that automatically cleanses itself once used – 10 DP
- Add an 'observer's area' where you can interact with the prisoners without risking them committing suicide by attacking you – 10 DP
- Prevent any form of suicide, including mutual death, on the part of the prisoners – 10 DP
Buying all of them, I watched as the surfaces of the entire room became as hard as granite, as basic beds with straw mattresses and ordinary duvets appeared, as a pair of chairs and a table appeared, as a wooden door with the word 'Privy' on it appeared on one side of the room and as the room expanded a bit, with a transparent barrier appearing two-thirds of the way into the room.
With a wave of one hand, the barrier lowered and I dragged Garret and Valerie in, dumping each on a bed to slumber for a while longer.
"I am sorry about this." I said softly. "I just don't want to die again…not so soon after I started to live again."
Stepping back, I raised the barrier again and left the room. As I walked, I pressed the button that respawned all of my monsters and reset the Spider Puzzle room. Thanks to it being a Spider floor, I didn't have to pay for it, which was a bonus.
Several things about what the four had said during their invasion troubled me. Not the least was of fifty adventurers invading a dungeon at the same time. No matter how dangerous I made my Spiders, that kind of number was impossible to fight against.
I sat on my throne and decided to review the rooms I had available. If I didn't have one that fit the problem, I'd make one. Thankfully, I found a room that fit the bill nicely.
Entrance Hall: A room that adventurers can gather and rest in before delving into your Dungeon. The Demon Lord can set a maximum party number, as well as how many parties can delve the Dungeon at any one time. Free to emplace, does not count against the First Floor Room Limit.
Unless my predecessor hadn't known about this room, I really cannot understand why he was taken down in the way he was. Either that or he had figured that he could handle any invaders regardless of their numbers and had allowed as many people to enter as was possible to get the maximum possible Mana as quickly as was possible.
Not so me. I quickly placed the room and set the maximum party size to six and only allowing one party at a time to enter. I hadn't placed this room originally because I'd gotten caught up in building my monsters, and then I'd clean forgotten about it afterwards. Shame on me, but gimme a break; I'd been too busy recovering from the memories of my descent into insanity and throwing myself into micromanaging my monsters had been the easiest way to take my mind off of it.
Half an hour later, a cheery 'ding' sound reverberated throughout the entire Dungeon.
[Congratulations!]
You have just added a second floor to your Dungeon!
Your Available Mana Limit is increased by 50!
Please select the type of terrain that this new floor will be made up of:
- Volcanic Cavern
- Abandoned Mine
- Seaside Cave
This was interesting. I could see why I'd gotten those options. The volcanic cavers probably came from the fire essence I'd absorbed, plus the staff I'd taken from Valerie, while I knew, from browsing the various items I'd absorbed from the four adventurers, that one of them had been a vial of salt water. Quite why they had salt water on them was beyond me, but who was I to question the sort of items that adventurers on Pangea lugged about with them?
The mine was obviously a standard upgrade to the basic cave that I had on the previous floor and it was the one I was leaning towards the most, to be honest. A gradual progression would make this place more interesting to design, and it wasn't as if I'd have anything else to do, would I?
Choosing the Abandoned Mine terrain skin (which was basically what it was, really), I was then presented with another screen.
Monster Selection
As you have a second floor, you must make a choice between three options:
1) Choose a different monster in the same category (Arthropods).
2) Choose a separate category of monsters, and then select a monster from that category.
Choosing the first option is what most Demon lords choose and look what happened to them.
I could see where it was coming from, but it could be just a little bit nicer when it talked about my predecessors. I chose the second option, as overspecialisation meant death in this world. There were a lot of categories: Beasts, Aqueous, Infernal, Holy, Constructs, Demi-Human, Undead, Elemental, Magical Beast, Avian…the list went on.
I immediately ruled out Undead. No way did I want to deal with corpses, aside from those I absorbed. Besides, it would make the second floor vulnerable to both fire and holy magic users.
After hemming and hawing for a while, I chose Demi-Human. I remembered that there were quite a few demi-human races in fantasy novels, so this wouldn't limit my choices by much. A minute later, a screen popped up with three choices on it.
Second Floor Monster Choices:
- Ratmen
- Night Goblins
- Kobolds
I immediately rules out ratmen. I didn't mind bugs, but I did not like rats. Anthropomorphic, humanoid rats…just no. Kobolds, if I remembered correctly, were either doglike or reptilian humanoids. A quick check showed me that it was the latter on this world and as the last Demon Lord had apparently specialised in lizard-like monsters, I would bet that there would be plenty of veterans who knew how to deal with them, which really left me only one choice.
As I pressed the button to select the Night Goblins, I bared my teeth. Time to get cracking.
OK, so…what have we learned today? Number 1; never trust SeerKing when he says he's going to end something on a big cliffie. Number 2, never, ever count out the Queen of Escalation, especially when she's the next best thing to immune to mundane weaponry.
If I were writing a proper fic, the next chapter would be an interlude in Stevensport and in a few other places, with the next proper chapter alternating between Taylor checking her clothes out, building up her dungeon and talking to her captives. Again, no more than one guest review per person please.