^^ Feral Dungeon Core Slimes ^^

I spent several days reworking the interior of the Realm into a series of layers, each 20 miles thick and as wide as the whole realm was. 25 layers, 22 of which people would be able to access, and the elevator in my workshop was the only thing that went to each one.

The three layers that couldn't be accessed were the ones I was using for my own specific experiments and research, (as well as the home of the Dungeon Cores,) namely the 7th, 13th, and the 19th 'Floors', while the first and last floors were for other things, but could be accessed.

The one I'd shown Galatea became the top layer, a 2.5 Mile wide chunk of the White Cliffs, Centered around a flat plateau where my observatory sat. I moved Dagon's Lair away from here, because it was much too small now, and instead placed the Meeting Hall for the Dungeon Guild, shaped like a standard forum on the second level of the observatory, as well as the actual Guild Headquarters there, on the second and third floors; the first level was the Entrance, where people would come in, eventually.

A map of the continent sat on the lowest floor, with a small pedestal and a crystal inscribed with a teleportation Sigil in the location of every Dungeon, to allow travel in and out. It was being watched at all times by a Slime with my Dragon's Sight, hiding inside the chandelier above, and its memories were then used to write a log of who came in, and even their emotional state when they did so; this would hopefully prevent anyone from being forced into the dungeon.

Around this room were only Pillars and a staircase, no walls, and a market extended from the edge to the ring of stone buildings around that, the Stores. An empty Gate sat in the only thoroughfare, a wide street between the stores and the market, where merchant carts would come through, with the permission of the Guild. Ammit and whoever I made captain of my little Guard would manage that, not me.

The 7th floor, which was closer to 250 miles wide, was a breeding zone for all sorts of prey animals, with no predators at all except Dagon; this would ensure they had a healthy fear of predators, but their numbers wouldn't decrease too much. Dragons actually only needed Magic Crystals and some minerals as food; they could eat people, but it was relatively useless, like junk food. (It made me giggle to think of people as potato chips to a dragon.)

Underneath the ground of this floor I moved my original Alchemy Chamber, and made another specifically for the prey animals. The various alchemy chambers would share resources, so long as my Health Chamber was full, and when it wasn't it received the lion's share until it was full. This Alchemy Chamber was different, even in the basics; it would receive the resources it needed via the fairies and teleportation, and create the enzymes, just like the first, but the vague similarities ended there.

Honeycombed into the walls were tens of thousands of Adamantite Glass Tubes, each ten feet wide by twenty feet long and full of amniotic fluids. Inside, there would be the animals that were currently being grown, plus the fairies who tended to them and made sure they didn't die before they were full-term. At the bottom was a lake of slime, which would receive the bodies of fallen creatures in the Tower (collected by the fairies,) and render them down into basic materials, restarting the process.

The middle floor, the 13th, the biggest floor in the Tower, was where the Dragons would be bred. I knew of several different species' of dragonkin, from around the continent; Wyverns, Drakes, Basilisks, Amphipteres, Salamanders, Dragon Turtles, and of course, True Dragons. True dragons were the rarest, most intelligent species, and they lived the longest, which made many of them the target of magical study and experimentation, as well as their ability to retain the skills, knowledge, and magical powers of anything they ate. I had one True Dragon already, Dagon, and I had his DNA ready to begin germination the moment I had a female's DNA to cross his seed with.

The 19th floor was similar in concept to the 13th, but it was 75% water, 20% rock, and 5% air, with a single mountain in the center. Inside this mountain the setup of the Alchemy Chamber was a living Slime, big enough to be incredibly acidic, which would eat the dead Dragon Turtles that this floor would breed, and more of the disks making the right enzymes. Instead of tubes on the walls, (because I know that these creatures hatched from eggs,) I made the roof of the Mountain into a caldera lake, sort of like a tide-pool, where the eggs were kept wet, as turtle Eggs did need to be, but also warm, as dragon eggs needed to be. Around this area was a fenced-in section of the ocean where no larger sea creatures lived, which the adult Dragon Turtles Ate, like Krakens for instance. With no aerial predators to eat the eggs, and an area for them to grow a little bit bigger before they roved out, they would find their way eventually to the ocean I'd made for them, full of fish and sea creatures.

The secret for why this was important, was that I was filling some of these eggs and the subsequent Turtles with Elemental energy, watching how it effected them, both short and long-term; if it began to have adverse effects, I would cease the test, but until then, I wanted to see what would happen.

The bottom floor, the 25th, was what I was calling The Graveyard. Here, the souls of the Hunters who entered the dungeons would be able to pay me a gold piece to bind their Soul to a Crystal, and when or if they died in their chosen dungeon floor, they'd be spared the afterlife, instead returning to the Graveyard.

Here, in 'graves', I would have the same Adamantite Glass pods, and a sample of their DNA would be grown to maturity inside in about a week. Downside was: their Mana would be gone, so they'd need to meditate and regain magic before doing any spells again, and the force-growth would cause severe growing pains, so physical stamina would be decreased for several days afterwards.

If they were revived into new bodies, then their old ones would be mine to do with as I pleased, (basically code for being thrown into the pools of slime for raw materials,) but even if they didn't, once they died inside my dungeon, the only way for them to leave was to be carried out by their comrades. Their belongings would be repaired and added to Dagon's hoard, as he lorded over the Seventh Floor inside his mountaintop cave of legendary proportions.

The best part of this dungeon, I thought, was that you couldn't steal anything inside, and expect it to live; You steal a rabbit? It dies, because the air and food inside of it is all fake, and then a six-foot tall fairy made of Adamantite appears to take it back and kick your ass. You steal a fish from the ocean levels? They die as soon as they leave, because the water and oxygen within their bodies are both also fake, and then a fairy shows up and kicks your ass. You try to steal a dragon egg? You get teleported into my Prison, and a fully grown True Dragon with magical powers appears, and then eats you. Then you would wake up in the graveyard, stripped of your possessions, and your memories of the past week as well. I would leave the memory of trying to touch the egg, and then the jaws of the beast, but nothing else from the past week or so.

(Of course, they'd be able to eat the animals, that was a necessary part of the dungeon, with how big it was; you couldn't expect people to bring along several weeks' worth of rations.)

Next was the design stage; the new dungeons wouldn't have thirty years to dig their own caverns and tunnels, so they'd need a template to work with and customize for the chosen inhabitants of that dungeon. (Also Known As: Victoria wastes 7 weeks playing 3D Minecraft Creative Mode instead of the AI she specifically that designed for this job.)

On every floor I found hidden little places, places you'd have to actually look for, and used my absolute control of the interior of this Realm to change these spots, creating a tunnel. It started off rough, like a natural tunnel, but curved out of sight, into the rest of the Canyon or mountain or whatever it was being carved out of. Once you rounded this corner, however, you'd exit a natural tunnel and find worked stone. Flat, smooth stone floors, walls at a crisp 90 degree angle, all carved from the natural rock of wherever the dungeon was placed. This first room would have a simple message inside, painted on the walls in various languages, and it would speak it aloud in common upon entering, using my voice.

'Welcome, Challenger! You have found a Dungeon! The Dungeon Guild wishes you the Best of luck!'

From that room onwards, the interiors of each dungeon would shift wildly, and I spent another seven weeks going through and just having fun on each one; one of them was simply a 1000ft tall corkscrew in the ground that was full of puzzles that triggered traps to fill the hall with water, washing them back down to the bottom to start over again. Another was a Tower that started at the crest of a mountain and descended down, ending in a magma pocket; the tower was in fact blockading the mouth of a Volcano. The heat was sent through the dungeon by big brass pipes in the walls, giving it a steampunk quality I enjoyed, and also powering the traps so that they weren't magically identifiable; I couldn't rely on magic too much, or it'd be too easy to beat the dungeons, after all.

One dungeon was just full of slimes I had created, not the dungeon variety, hiding inside puddles and ponds in one leaky natural-looking dungeon. They weren't acidic, but they did have quite a bite, and they would suck the blood right out of you if you let them touch you. I gave them a swarm-instinct, and left their weakness, their cores, without much defenses except dodging. It wouldn't do to make them too powerful.

Another fun thing I did was that I placed a quickly-grown clone of Dagon about the size of a large horse in a cave on the 24th floor, (the same size Dagon had been when I'd first found him.) his growth took two weeks, even at the highest-increased speed I could manage, but it was worth it. A dragon, with an advanced AI I'd given him to make sure he followed the rules, was wandering my lowest floor, his own domain. There were no Dungeons on that floor; it was the Dragon's floor. He was still growing far faster than any dragon normally would, and would be as big as a Legendary Dragon in just a few short decades.

Of course, he wasn't meant to be a combatant, regardless of his incredible strength; I gave him all of the commonly-known magical knowledge I had, (stuff I hadn't made myself or learned from Medea,) and he was to give out Rune-Marks to people who solved riddles or completed some trial of his, granting them increased speed, agility, strength, or even Visual Acuity or Dynamic Vision.

He was given the name Puk, as in the German household spirit that finds stolen items and returns them to the owner of the house, and he was the one summoned to my prison to kill those who stole creatures from the dungeon.

The 12th and 14th floors were both water floors, made of massive archipelagos, but the 12th was somewhat-shallow water; the Dungeons on these floors were hidden in plain sight, as fully-sized dragon turtles wandered around, their solid shells full of tunnels and rooms; the monsters inside cleaned and ate the barnacles and grime off of the turtle, and received a home in return; it was a symbiotic relationship, and one made even better by the fact that the turtles with Dungeons in them were made of Hard Light, and thus reeealy hard to kill. They were mostly there to scare the bajeesus out of people, but they would defend themselves if attacked directly. On the 14th floor, however, the water was much deeper, and these turtles regularly dunked down into the water for a minute every hour, which meant you could drown if you weren't careful.

Especially tricky were the fact that some of the islands on the 12th floor had traps to throw you down a long, winding slide, down to the 14th, and drop you out of the sky, into the water. The surface tension was constantly broken, so you probably wouldn't die on impact, but it'd definitely hurt like a bitch, and you'd be stranded in the middle of the ocean, forced to swim towards one of the islands that were a few hundred feet away from your landing site.

Once the design was ironed out, and I had wasted too much time already, I began to collect the Dungeons.

—

There were currently 144 dungeons on the Continent, according to the last Map that Hames had made and sent out to the Guilds; two of which I had destroyed, so 142 in total. Most were small, fledgling dungeons that didn't have much to offer besides magic stones the size of a fingernail, (no one other than our Clan knew about Medea's method of condensing the monsters, so they gathered the little crystals inside each slime only,) so they were left alone. I started with them, because I figured that Ammit would be able to subdue and/or reason with them easier.

With the power of the Core I'd made behind him, I was mostly correct. They were as I expected, unfortunately; rabid, angry little things that had to overcome with sheer force of will, but they obeyed, and they were taken from their burrows, a teleportation Sigil left in their places.

Each of these was given a smaller form than Ammit, to make sure people knew they were about as likely to bite you as do anything else; I liked the pink slime, though, so I kept the theme, and made small four-legged creatures with tails and little horn nubs, and that one, central eye made up of their Core.

The crystals taken from them were placed into their new home, and currently inactive; I'd decided that when the Intelligent Dungeons formed their little Guild, they'd give out specific orders to the dungeons, but that each one would be operated independently by an AI like Dagon, Bound to the Guild, and thus to Me. This would ensure that they'd follow orders, (such as 'don't eat the bodies of adventurers,' and other similar commands from the Code that would be ingrained in them directly during their creation, the Laws of the Dungeon,) while also making sure they wouldn't go crazy, and if they did, I could simply turn them off.

I placed the weakest dungeons on floor two, as I realized that they could be told to build whatever monsters I needed them to; making each floor a different Biome of dungeon monster would be easy, something I'd handle once I knew how many of each size dungeon I had.

The other dungeons were worked through one at a time, offering me no real challenge; I was cheating really, with this spell and the Adamantite to destabilize the enemies, but I wasn't here to challenge the dungeons, simply Relocate them. After only 7 days of hard work, I had removed every single dungeon in the continent, but the number of Intelligent Dungeons had still only risen to 5. Of them, Ammit was the eldest, so his position as the Leader was relatively undisputed.

And of course, people began to notice the dungeons were gone; they were a major source of income and the only source of magic crystals for the entire continent, after all. The kind of thing you'd keep tabs on, apparently.

—

I glanced up from my book at the man in front of me, and took in his appearance; the green cloth and Brass symbol of a City Guard, a stoic expression on a surprisingly young face, perhaps 18, severely scarred knuckles gained from the handling of a blade for a long time, and a pair of curious gauntlets hanging from his belt all popped out at me first, but my Dragon's Sight saw a spark of arcane in his hands and feet. Physical Enhancement Runes of some sort... they were rather common amongst warriors. His seemed to be for speed, which was amusing, given his large physique; he had chosen to be faster than he looked, which meant he was either confident in his strength already, or his skill with the well-used longsword on his hip stemmed from swift, precise strikes and dodging. Done examining him, I returned my gaze to my book of various Physics Formulae, waiting for him to speak.

"Lady Lunier, May I have a word?" He asked politely, earning quite a few points; well-spoken, moderately learned, polite, patient, and calm... good traits in a Guard. And a man.

"You may." I answered, closing the book and setting it in my lap, giving him my full attention.

"The Collective Council of Chiefs would like a word with you about the recent Dungeon Disappearances, and has respectfully requested your presence. I am to escort you to the Forum." He stated simply, waiting for my response.

"Is that correct? They request, but I am to comply, meaning it is an order. How does one Respectfully Order?" I wondered aloud, watching him for his reaction.

"I believe one does so by sending a polite messenger, Lady Lunier." He didn't smile, and his tone didn't change, but he seemed to be amused, somehow.

"Indeed, I agree... are you interested in a Job, Sir? I have need of someone like you. Stoic, Young, Calm, Collected, Respectful, and apparently immune to my irritating nature. Quite a rare combination, I assure you." I chuckled softly.

A small quirk tugged at his lip, but fell away instantly. "I must insist we forestall any further conversation until I have delivered you to the Forum, Lady Lunier."

"Very well, then... your name, Sir?" I settled my book in my bag and sent it away, then my sword as well.

He relaxed visibly as the sword was removed from the reach of my hands, and bowed his head. "I am called Hector Vormer, Lady Lunier, of the Silver Sands."

"The same as Swordmaster Silas Vormer?" I asked curiously.

"The very same, yes." He glowed with pride for a moment, though it was gone just as quickly.

"I see... those enchantments on your feet and hands aren't for show, then. Good to know..." I smiled as he frowned a little, confused by how I'd seen the Runes on the inside of his palms and backs of his ankles, then straightened his facial features as soon as he'd made the mistake.

"This way, Lady Lunier." He extended an arm, intending to escort me, it would seem.

I giggled softly, and took the arm, seeing no harm in it. "Well thank you, Sir Hector, it has been quite some time since I have been properly escorted..."

"That is quite a shame, Lady Lunier." He commented immediately; a response he'd been drilled with for dealing with ladies in his charge, no doubt. After a moment for my feet to match his, he began walking at a steady, measured pace towards the front gates of the college, and thus the Forum.

"Were you raised in the company of the Swordmaster? Or were you raised here in the Capital? If it's not rude of me to ask?" I wondered, as we walked.

"I... am not Allowed to converse casually with you, Lady Lunier, I apologize. Perhaps another time." He frowned, visibly saddened by his inability to answer my question, but it was gone in a moment.

"Perhaps another time, then." I agreed, and glanced at the four Arch-Hunters who stepped into place around us as we exited the college. "Oh? That's more like it..." I smirked, and offered no further comment as I was lead towards the Forum, the Marble Columns and raised voices of the Collective's Birthplace.