^^ The Great Caldera, Surface View ^^

There was a great deal of disquiet from Kenny, Akira, and Ms. Toyama at my plan to settle our Dungeon into Mount Fuji, and even more so at my plan to essentially dissolve the entire island of Japan to create one massive volcano from which we would conquer the world, but my ears and mind were shut to their arguments due to the rock-solid logic of my argument.

"I will say it once more and no more after that: If we create satellite cities, or leave even a single gap in our defenses, we will be instantly separated from one another and picked off individually! The size of our event area stretches to the entire island of Japan, thirty miles of Mainland China, and the southern tip of the Peninsula of Korea, as well as thousands of square miles of open ocean: this design gives us the perfect opportunity to funnel all our enemies down the Peninsula and into a variety of traps that will ensure very few of them ever even reach us, whilst providing everyone here with the XP, instead of just me! The Thunderkin Giants and Dwarves will have a Society they can dwell in peacefully, the Dryads will have a forest of untold size to protect, the Water Species' will have the open ocean, rivers, streams, and lakes, and we will have the Caldera, the most readily defensible place in the world! What more could you want?!? To preserve History? We're doing that with the Archive!!! To preserve a Country that doesn't exist anymore?!? We're doing that with the entire Imperial Palace!!! To preserve the Land of the Rising Sun?!? We're expanding the entire island to half the size of Texas!!! Now if there are no more reasonable arguments, there are currently what I imagine to be millions of sea monsters intent on eating man-flesh rushing towards us at this very moment, and I'd like to defeat them all before Dusk, when the Dead start to Rise!!!"

Akira and Ms. Toyama quieted, frowning at the map id designed of the new Island, but Kenny crossed his arms, stubborn as a mule. "At least agree to keep all the other buildings and shrines we come across, instead of destroying them."

"That is always the plan, Kenny. The shrines will be set off to one side so that Ms. Toyama can organize them properly later, and the buildings that remain standing will be added to the Caldera City for you to reorganize as you see fit. The Ruins will be added to the Labyrinth, and the various landmarks will be set aside for you to place within the Caldera City as well. Remember that it's meant for the Dwarves, Giants, Dryads, and Us to live together with the other people we save, and it's possible they'll have chosen new Races as well, or will eventually do so, so there is a necessary amount of Feng Shui and Space that we'll need for everything to work properly. I advise the same architectural style as the Archive, to be honest, but that's for later, so for now, I'll simply make the Rough Sketch of my Grand Caldera work."

Error: Event Area Alteration Requiring Permissions...
Answer: Area Alteration Within Empress of Thunder's Rightfully Claimed Territory...
Error: Event Area Requiring Spawn Point...
Answer: 'Peninsula Gorge' Allocated.
Calculating Response...
Amount of Event Area Conquered: 32%
Solving Error... Complete; Restructuring.

The Thunderkin Lineage Theme (Neo-Fomorian Metropolis) is the First to Conquer New Lands!!! Rewards will be Dispensed!
Land Conquered: 32%!!!
To Conquer more Land, Slay All Enemies or Ally Yourself With Them!!!
Rewards Dispensed: Normal Title 'Conqueror'.
'Conqueror' Title Effects: All Successfully Conquered Land will give Positive Stat Bonuses and Bonus Loot to Thunderkin Allies, and Sentient Enemies will Avoid your Lands!!!

The resultant Earthquake made all the others seem like the vibration of someone stomping near my feet, as the entire island shattered and dissolved and then reformed as a legitimate, Honest-to-God, Super-Volcano Big enough to put Yellowstone to shame. With 400,000 Square Kilometers of land surrounded by ocean, all walled in and blocked off atop an artificial plateau, separated from the rest of the mainland by a kilometer-wide saltwater trench full of my saltwater monsters and set up on a plateau two hundred and fifty meters above sea level, it was currently only about half the size of Texas, but it was more than big enough for now. The magma pocket of Mount Fuji was carefully vented to warm the entire caldera and then pour out into the ocean on all sides of the territory, as well as powering all of the Lava Traps that we needed in the territory, while our current position, the actual Tube that we'd made our home in, was located in the center of the man-made Super Volcano's Caldera City, (several dozen kilometers away from the actual magma pocket for safety if it ever erupted,) underneath the lake and accessible only by dozens of elevator shafts and escape tunnels that went just about everywhere in the City. There wasn't much change to our core dungeon design here, only a shifting of said location some dozens of kilometers westward to what had only moments ago been the East-China Sea, so after a few minutes of aftershocks, we were stable again and ready to rock.

"Why is only 32% of the land Conquered, do you think?" Kenny frowned at the map, 68% of which was Greyed out and inaccessible.

"My best guess is all the monsters from the other Event Areas and the Sea Monsters which we just dredged up from the Ocean when we raised up the ocean bed. Those will likely die soon, from lack of Oxygen, and the rest from the Poison we're about to dump into the ocean, though it pains me to do so." The poison released at my command, dumping into the lakes and streams, spraying from the glass trees (the sprayers on these had a range of 100 meters, and they were spread around the island in a hexagonal pattern so that every square meter of land was within range of one of them, either for various poison or herbicides, or the potent fertilizer that would help repopulate the land after it was likely all destroyed during the Courts of Spring and Winter,) and of course pouring into the ocean from the cliff faces that faced the ocean on all sides. Instantly, I was inundated with new messages, one I hadn't ever seen before.

Enemy X(14,000) Slain!!!
0 XP gained: Enemy Level Below Threshold.
Your Level is over (4,000) Levels Above these enemies, and therefore they cannot offer you XP.
XP will be Redirected and Distributed to the Paragon's Subordinates of appropriate Levels.
To Receive XP, Challenge Knights, Lords, or Legendary and Mythical Creatures.

Kenny's eyebrows rose as he apparently got the message about his own level rising, despite him not attacking anything. "Huh... 'Your Paragon has Slain an Enemy far Beneath Themselves: As their Spawn, you have been gifted the XP in their Place, as you are apparently too weak to hunt for yourself.' I'm getting tired of the sheer Cattiness we have to put up with from this GM."

"Agreed." Akira sighed, then glanced at the map as portions of it began to regain their color, a few centimeters at a time and in splotches; after about half and hour of us patiently watching, only a few spots were still greyed out, and the number had risen to 90%.

"We'll have to hunt down those Grey spots, it seems... to completely 'Conquer' our new Territory. Still, I like having the XP go to my Allies instead of just me; having a proper distribution system helps ensure everyone levels up, and that raises everyone's average Stats, which helps us all fight better."

Ms. Toyama opened her mouth to respond, but halted as we all whipped around to look at the door behind me as it swung open to admit Moira and Fatima, both breathing heavily and wide-eyed. "SYBIL, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!!"

"Okay... What's the problem, ladies?" I relaxed back down into my chair as I recovered from my initial shock, sighing at them as they rushed to the table and started yelling over each other.

"Ze Fish-"
"The Giants-"
"Normal Sized-"
"Leveling Up-"

I held up my hands to silence them, shaking my head. "I cannot understand a word coming out of you both, so we'll do this by Seniority; Moira, Speak, calmly and slowly."

The French woman slapped her palms to the table excitedly, and a video of a fish tank full of normal fish appeared on the display, instead of our map. "Ze Fish are being born normally!!!"

I blinked slowly at her, confused for a moment, then looked at the time stamp on the video, which was apparently live. I switched to French to make this conversation smoother, and answered after a thought formed properly. "You mean... that all the fish have been devolved from their megafauna versions? Or that when you clone them, they're no longer force-evolved to their Megafauna versions?"

"The latter; I bred some more Blood Minnows, like you asked, and they came out as normal fish, and then I tried to breed a Great-White Shark, but the result was a normal one, and it hasn't even Hatched yet, because the gestation has returned to about twice the normal rate; I postulate this means that the babies will not be born immediately anymore, which is very, very important; we lost eight women to childbirth this year, and slowing the Gestation Period down to only 5 Months instead of one day is significantly better."

"Huh... alright, so we still have the Megafauna versions, we simply cannot breed them quite so swiftly as before; that's fine. Breed the Non-Magical versions of the fish and animals and release them on the surface, starting with the Prey Animals; that way the Predators don't destroy the food chain you're making before it's fully established. As for the Megafauna, we'll do those last, in the same way. Kenny, we'll have to send some Scouts to collect the bodies of the monsters who get killed; I don't think they're going to dissolve quite like before, and I don't want to leave anything rotting for the Court of Rot to turn into a Zombie. Ms. Toyama, I need you to have a few Clerics on standby to purify the bodies before we eat any of it. Is that everything, Moira?"

As she nodded an affirmative, Fatima casually shoved her to the side and assumed the same position as the Frenchwoman. "Good! The Dryads and Dwarves and Giants Leveled Up a few minutes ago!!!"

Kenny perked up, his eyes sparkling intently. "You mean they're not NPC's anymore?!?"

I smiled at his enthusiasm, nodding seriously. "It would appear to me that the Court of Beasts no longer claims dominion over them, or this Event... what about the Myconids?"

"No levels, as far as I can tell; they're still considered Monsters."

"Then destroy them and their breeding grounds before the Court of Rot decides to take them over, we don't want any of that trouble." I gave the order which set fire to their entire breeding grounds, turning everything there to ash in seconds.

"That reminds me: where are all the Bodies from the cemeteries and such you just claimed?" Ms. Toyama raised one perfectly crisp eyebrow at me across the holographic map of the dungeon that had once again reappeared at my command.

"They're in a single Graveyard, currently. It's only accessible by way of a drawbridge, don't worry." I pulled up the blueprints, which showed a truly gargantuan mausoleum on an island in the middle of a lake, with thirty floors full of iron coffins. Every coffin had a motion-activated flame trap, so if they even twitched come Dusk tonight, they'd be cremated in moments, just like the Myconids I'd just flambéed. The water around the Island was capable of turning into Sulfuric Acid in less than a minute, so even if they managed to get out, any attempt at crossing the lake would melt even their bones to nothing but sludge.

She nodded slowly. "This is... an acceptable alternative to a mass grave full of pitch, which is what I'd imagined you'd do. Each grave is still marked, yes?"

"Yes, every grave is marked as it was originally. Jorvik is going to be going through the files he has to find names for the unnamed ones, but it'll be slow going, with all the rest of his work having priority."

"Understandable, and appreciated." She bowed her head politely, sitting back down beside Akira.

"Mm... anything else, Fatima?"

"No, that's all... I guess mine wasn't as exciting as hers, huh?"

"Not at all; Kenny seems quite ecstatic with your news, and I for one am deeply relieved that I can stop waiting for my friends to murder me in my sleep. Also, having all my Allies Level Up means that they'll all get stronger and more efficient at killing threats the longer they live, further increasing our ability to protect ourselves from outside threats, and thus we are one step closer to a functioning Society as a whole. Have there been any new Artisan's Halls opened that we can Trade with?"

"Not that I know of? I can check, if you like?" Kenny opened the Trading Menu on the table, and instantly stood up as a message sounded and showed up in front of us all.

Attention: Due To The Presence of a Mountain King's Hall, (Highest-Ranked Artisan's Hall), all Surviving Competitors will now have Access to the Artisan's Store.
Extra Fees will be required when buying in a location outside of the Mountain King's Hall.
Extra Fee will be Attributed 'Delivery Fee', and will not be awarded to either Buyer or Seller.

Almost instantly, there was a new entry on the list of products available, then another, and another; they were basic, low-grade materials, but they were proof of at least one other Trader on the Network. Kenny instantly bought and sold several things, writing a series of notes and selling those as well as an ingenious method of communication he seemed to think up on the fly, and grinned up at me with glassy eyes; he was holding back tears of relief, and hope: who else might have survived, after all? "Other people survived!!!"

"So they did... Go handle that, Kenny, and have the Artisans get to work; those people likely don't have access to the same Legendary Materials as we do, so we can offer them weapons and equipment and tools at prices they can easily afford; money has no real value to a society that isn't based upon Capitalism, after all." As he rushed out, I sighed and rubbed my face tiredly. "Anything else from anyone? I need to rest before nightfall... we're going to have to be Nocturnal for a while now, to combat this new Court."

Moira grimaced, running a hand through her hair with an irritated huff. "I do not change my Sleeping Habits lightly, Sybil... but I will do so for you."

Everyone present laughed at her despondent, defeated tone, and it was a lovely break to the tension of the long day.

—

The Seelie Have Always Been Weak: Surviving Their Pathetic Attempt On Your Lives Is Not An Achievement That We of The Unseelie Respect or Acknowledge.
As The Sun Dies, The Dead Rise, and With Them Comes The Court of Rot, and Your First True Test of Fortitude and Strength.
Struggle, Fight, and Die.

NEW MISSION DISCOVERED: SURVIVE THE RISE OF THE GREY COURT OF ROT.
DETAILS: SURVIVE 100 WAVES OF ENEMIES.

WAVES ARE CONSIDERED COMPLETE ONLY WHEN THE DESIGNATED NUMBER OF ENEMIES ARE DESTROYED.

WAVE ENEMIES WILL PROPAGATE AS THEY KILL COMPETITORS.

PROPAGATED ENEMIES DO NOT INCREASE THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ENEMIES REQUIRED TO BE SLAIN IN ORDER TO CLEAR THE WAVE.

NON-WAVE ENEMIES WILL NOW BE AWAKENED; NON-WAVE ENEMIES COUNT FOR EXTRA EXP!

TRY TO MAKE YOUR STRUGGLE AMUSING, IF NOT LENGTHY.

FIRST WAVE OF ENEMIES BEGINS IN: 10:00... 9:59... 9:58...

Enemy X(252,622) Slain!!!
0 XP gained: Enemy Level Below Threshold.
Your Level is over (4,000) Levels Above these enemies, and therefore they cannot offer you XP.
XP will be Redirected and Distributed to the Paragon's Subordinates of appropriate Levels.
To Receive XP, Challenge Knights, Lords, or Legendary and Mythical Creatures.

Competitor 'Sybil' has set a new Record for the largest number of Enemies slain with a single attack, gaining the Temporary Legendary Title 'Throne of Bones'. If this Record is stolen, so to will this Title and its rewards be stolen.

Legendary Title Effect 'Throne of Bones': You not only Invite Challenge, You are a Beacon of Killing Intent; You Cannot Benefit from Stealth Effects, and while within 1,000 Kilometers of You, Enemies with Intelligences less than half of yours will only attack You, unless attacked by another. They will Mindlessly pursue You, totally heedless of deaths in their ranks or dwindling numbers, dedicated to toppling You from Your Throne of Bones. This Effect is not Blocked by being in a Dungeon. (Record: 252,622 Enemies with One Attack.) (Previous Record: 56,992 Enemies.)
(Previous Record Holder: 'Sybil'.)

The Courts of Rot and Ice Don't Stand A Chance At All, Do They? I Chose Well, I Think. Continue To Exceed Expectations, and One Day You And I Shall Meet, Face To Face.

"I take it you're Titania, or the Grey Empress?"

Titania is a Moronic Character in a Play written by a young African Slave Girl whose work was consistently stolen by an idiotic man who called himself 'Shakespeare' because of the 'rudeness' of his plays and his own lack of the required imagination to come up with anything better. My name is beyond your mortal ken, but you may address me as the Grey Empress, yes.

"Cool. Why do you want me to kill your husband?"

... Why did you and your children leave Germany?

My eyes narrowed slowly, and my grip on the railing in front of me tightened with an audible groan in the metal. "I see..."

Do your Best, Empress of Thunder. My Children shall be free of the Grey Emperor and his Insanity, even if I have to destroy the entire Grey Court to manage it.