Max_51
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Chapter 133
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 03:58:22 +0000 UTCUnedited, but that's the norm. It's good to be back writing, a newly married man!
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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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With the Beastborn, Scaleborn and Mer settling in well, I decided it was high time to start work on that training area the Guild petitioned me for. Though more than half of the island was being used for farming by now, It was simple enough to pick the right spot.
On the back side of the cliff my dungeon's entrance was in, the one topped by the lighthouse and freshwater spring, there was a small valley. While most of the island was relatively flat, apart from the volcano, it wasn't like there weren't hills. The human settlers had long decided to expand westward, toward the flatter part of the island, while writing off eastward expansion as more trouble than it was worth.
All the better for my purposes.
First, I cleared most of the excess foliage. If this was to be a training area, I wouldn't make them push through it like it was the third, except for a small section were they'd have to do exactly that. Next, I cleared paths. There would be three main 'routes' through this section; the Forest, The Clearing, and the Cliffs.
The Clearing was mostly open, with some lone trees accenting the path. I added some bunnies, and some other barely-enhanced animals for 'babies first run.' For example; the bunnies were horned, but it was just a horn with no special magic. I did add one special kind of monster, though. Something I hadn't tried before, but felt I had a better idea now of how they'd work.
I decided to try my hand at slimes.
The main problem is categorization. What is a slime? Is it an enormous amoeba? A colony of bacteria or other cells? Instead of trying to build a new creature wholesale, I took something that was already half-way there. The humble Jellyfish. Semi-transparent, brainless, it was practically perfect. I quickly chose one floating around the eleventh floor and gave it a core.
First, I stretched it's membrane around to encase it fully; it didn't need any trailing tendrils, after all. Next I filled the newly empty space in it's sack-like body with a less-dense, acidic version of the same. The main point of the slime is that it's only organ is the core, and absorbs and dissolves it's victims, after all. Of course, as it had no physical means of locomotion, it needs to use mana to move.
There were two options: water magic, to 'throw' around it's own body, or gravity magic to do the same. For now, I went with water magic. Giving it gravity magic might be too much for this training zone. Maybe a future variant. Some basic instincts later, along with a quick demonstration of how to move around, and it was rolling through the grass on an ordinary island, eating and dissolving all the grass it rolled over. The grass visibly bubbled and sizzled in it's acid, and slowly disappeared. After about an hour, and having reached the size of an average car tire, the slime moved into the shade of a tree and pressed itself against a hollow in the roots.
I'd thought long and hard on how the slime would reproduce. First, I thought it split in two, each half the mass off the original. In the end that wasn't feasible, since I couldn't exactly split it's crystalline core in two without shattering the thing. But here's where my choice of base animal came in clutch; Jellyfish have a larval form, called a polyps, which anchors itself on the ground and grows, then releases dozens of juvenile jellyfish.
It was simple to make Slimes asexual, since I wasn't planning on any genetic variation anyway. So, I had the slime produce it's own egg and sperm, combine the two, then deposit the resulting egg in the dirt. It moved away after, returning to it's grazing.
I focused on the egg, feeding it mana to accelerate it's growth. The larval form grew into a dark blue spherical coral-like structure covered in small depressions. Each depression had a small light-blue orb at it's center which slowly grew larger. After another hour of accelerated growth, which would normally take days to complete, a dozen juvenile Slimes detached, and proceeded to eat their egg. The fist-sized slimes dispersed after than, exploring the island.
Satisfied, I asked some Children to collect, then transport the juveniles to the surface. A slime would only reproduce once on it's own, so I was fine with leaving the adult one down on the Eleventh to experiment with later. While they were doing that, I focused on the next area; The Forest.
The Forest was exactly that, entirely covered by trees and with plenty of bushes for monsters to hide in; Thinned enough to navigate, true, but not enough for easy traversal. As for monsters, I spread some giant spiders (lone spiders, not a colony; I'm not a savage), a giant wasp nest (of Wasps about the size of the average fist), as well as plenty of snakes (None with venom, only constrictors.) This would be the transition from easy monster-killing to a point where you actually need to watch your surroundings, defend yourself from ambush, and work on team coordination.
The Cliffs took advantage of the natural cliff formation, hugging the rocks and leading out around the promontory my dungeon entrance rested in. The monsters found here would mostly be smaller versions of my Crabs, only the size of a basketball at smallest, and a tire at the largest. The Seagulls who nested in the cliffs above would also contribute, giving the trainees a flying enemy to fight, and the final boss of the training area would be; a giant seagull I decided to name Scuttle, Son of Gull. He was one of Gull's many offspring, and at a strength level I judged perfect for a final test.
There was still some adjustment to do, but with all the areas done, it was time to invite the Guild to perform their test run. I was confident they'd invite the summoned heroes to do the first run, as the least powerful members of the guild on the island, with Haythem and Bertram acting as their minders in case they got in over their heads.
I couldn't wait.
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Surface Training Area, Atlantis, Kalenic Sea
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"This looks... interesting," Tamesou Akio commented, eyeing the entrance to the so-called 'training area.' "So, the dungeon... accepted your idea and made somewhere people weaker than Gold rank can train in? Why? As a dungeon, Isn't it sort of counter-intuitive to train people who'll dive the dungeon later?"
"The Guildmistress has her own ideas as to why The Voice accepted our proposal," Haythem replied, his eyes likewise narrowed. Akio didn't blame him. It wasn't often you saw two trees intertwine themselves into an archway. Especially because it hadn't been here the day before. "Personally, I think the dungeon wants more Golds on the island, specifically Golds who're inclined to view it favorably. The dungeon has proven itself remarkably benevolent, though there are moments... The Voice said those refugees went into the dungeon of their own accord, but they disappeared overnight, so we can't exactly confirm that."
Akio actually did believe they went in on their own accord. The people they'd spoken to at Blackwater Bay, and here on Atlantis, really seemed to believe in 'The Creator' as a god and a dungeon. Which... seemed like a dichotomy, but people could believe whatever they wanted.
"It's sad we couldn't bring Elize," Sophie said, unsheathing her twin shortswords. She'd upgraded after it was made fully clear her daggers just didn't measure up. "But I suppose this is the first time it's being explored. What did the Voice say about it?" She directed her question to Bruce, who'd been reading the piece of parchment in his hands with furrowed brow.
"Three 'areas' to explore of increasing difficulty," he summarized. " 'The Clearing', for noobs, 'The Forest' once they've got some idea of what they're doing, and 'The Cliffs' for a final challenge. Soooo we do each in order?" Everyone nodded, and together they passed through the archway.
As they did, Akio felt a chill run down his back. This... "This feels like being in the dungeon, but not?"
Apart from some nods, no one else commented and they followed the path further. A minute later, they reached a crossroads. Three paths split off, each with their own living wooden archways and signs. The leftmost path had a single tree, the middle multiple trees, and the right what looked like a stylized cliff. Akio motioned to the left path, and they moved down it.
After another minute, Akio had to squint as they left the shaded forest and emerged out into a sloped clearing. At the center was a single tree, one larger than all the ones they'd already passed. From their elevated position, at the top of the hill, Akio could spot a dozen places where the long grass shifted and moved unnaturally; against the prevailing winds. The path they were on narrowed and looped around the tree, leading back to their position.
"Interesting..." Akio said, shifting his shield. "Shall we?"
They descended, following the path, and within a couple of minutes reached the first bit of rustling grass. Though it was less than ten yards from the path, and they hadn't exactly been quiet, whatever was in there hadn't moved toward them.
"Maybe it's pokémon rules?" Sophie ventured, unsurely. "We're safe on the path, and will only be attacked if we step into the grass?"
Akio shrugged and took a steadying breath. He knew this place was meant to be a safe area, for people just learning how to fight, but there was the nagging voice in his head that said it could all be a trick or a trap. He raised his shield and sword, then stood into the grass. Nothing happened. Each step brought him closer to the rustling grass, and he quickly saw just what it was.
It was... a slime.
A Real, Genuine, Sky-Blue Slime. It had a spherical core floating around inside it as it slowly rolled through the grass, and wasn't larger than a basketball, but whatever he'd expected, it wasn't that.
"It's a slime!" He called out, incredulously. "Come look at this!"
The party surrounded the little guy, Bruce and Sophie sharing his Incredulity, while Bertram and Haythem looked intrigued, but unalarmed. They didn't know what this was. How could they? Monsters were meant to be enhanced animals, and though this dungeon had obviously gotten very good at designing monsters, how was a slime even possible!?
"Soo, how do we kill it?" Bertram asked, glancing at the teens. "You three seem to have some idea of what this is."
"It's a slime, an amorphous monster common where we're from." Sophie explained, carefully. "We didn't think there were any here. They should be easy enough to kill. Akio?"
Akio took his cue, and slashed down with his sword, slicing the blue blob in two. It sagged, it's inside spilling out with a honey-like consistency. The core was easy enough to grab from the sticky liquid. Said liquid hissed audibly on his glove, and he quickly wiped it on the grass. Right. Acidic.
"And how are these dangerous?" Haythem asked, sounding unamused.
"At this size it seems easy, right?" Bruce commented, still watching the guts spill out. "Imagine one ten times that size. It slowly rolls over everything in it's way, and absorbs them. Once inside, you slowly dissolve in it's acid until all that's left are bones. It's membrane is too thick to cut like this ones, and crushing weapons do nothing. Magic might affect them weirdly. They're not dangerous for the aware, but they like to cling to the ceilings of caves and drop on you, deadly to the unexpecting."
Bertram and Haythem looked at the dead slime with a little more respect in their eyes. "But at this size they're not dangerous?" Haythem continued.
All three teens shook their heads. "Good enough for me. Alright, lets continue. There are meant to be a few monsters in each area, and we need to find them all.
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...
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The Heroes reacted with appropriate wariness to my abomination of nature. Goooood, goood. They're right to be worried, of course. I'd have a dozen variations whipped up and shipped around the dungeon within a week. The rest of their trip through the training area went as expected, and though they had some trouble with Scuttle, Son of Gull, they still killed him fairly easily. All as expected.
This area was far too weak for them, after all.
It was only after they were finished that it's intended users would arrive.
Guildmistress Losat was quick to put out the news after the training area proved appropriate; Silvers were once again allowed on the island, but must complete a training course before they'd be allowed to delve the dungeon. They were originally banned due to the influx of Gold and Platinum guilders, which would have caused an overpopulation problem, and high casualty rates.
Now, with the port more developed than ever, more berths, more inns, more taverns, more farms and higher crop yields, Atlantis was actually exporting a decent amount of food, along with other finished goods made from stuff they'd harvested from the dungeon. I know, for a fact, someone commissioned a full set of armor made of crab shell. No one on the island actually bought it, so it got shipped off to the mainland. I'm sure someone will want it.
But either way, things settled into a comfortable routine over the next two weeks.
The Teen Heroes managed to reach the third before Haythem and Bertram decided to rejoin Isid and Paetor's parties for deep delves. The healer-princess, who might not be a princess, but could be, started in the training area with a party of barely-adults who were fresh to the island. A half-dozen such parties had reached the island, and explored the training area (Really needed a better name for that place). None had managed to finish it out, yet, but it was inevitable someone would.
I'd continued to refine and expand Olympus; adding a few odd island on the ocean as well as in the sky. I was reaching the limit of what I could do without adding monsters, though I still didn't know what to add. I wanted to keep the haunting silence of a dead city, but wasn't sure what kind of monster would add to the vibe. I couldn't even contemplate a boss until I'd chosen the monsters, either.
So I was left with a choice. Go even higher into the sky and add a third part to the Eleventh, or finally make a start on the Twelfth Floor. Right now it was just a hollowed out cavern from all the rock I'd been excavating to use on the Eleventh, but with expansion enchantments... I could go big. I could go real big. If the Eleventh was about the size of Poland.... It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to make something the size of Europe as a whole, right? Something that'd take weeks to months to cross, with multiple biomes to cross; mountains, deserts, plains, forests, tundra... combining every survival trick the guilder's had learned so far into the ultimate test.
There would be little to no water, except for perhaps an inland sea/lake not much larger than the Eleventh...
Yes. It's all coming together...
But before i get started with all that, the reunited CHI raid group has once again reached the Ninth, this time with all their party members awake. Time to see how they fare in the desert.
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Comments
Anthony Felscher
I don't remember, do you know where?
Pierre laplant
It's mentioned in previous chapters that slimes already existed
Brudog2
Just a random thought The mana suns have been growing massive mana crystals for a while now so I’ve been thinking with him considering a new floor I’ve always wanted a Trent or dryad but I don’t think they would be strong enough so I was thinking they could be like the children of that floor and you could do something like a world tree in the center and use the use mana crystals that have been growing for a while now as the core of the would tree as he hasn’t found a way for his plants to be conscious the core for the mana suns could be like a catalyst that he’s been missing. Just a thought tho so your choice….. (still really want a huge forest)
Кто-то Зачем тебе нужен?
Sometimes it just happens, not a first time
Michael M
Anyone know why we haven't gotten a chapter in 2 weeks?
Zack Walker
People born there could live their entire lives without ever knowing that they're in a miniature world. They could believe the world is flat and be right!
Zack Walker
Congratulations 🎉 You have done as all dungeon isekai should and introduced the abomination that is a slime to an unsuspecting world. I'm imagining some drama that leads to them making it off the island and becoming the worst kind of invasive species. An excellent source of drama if you want to spice things up. 😈
Michael M
He put them in the pyramids and covered them up a few chapters ago
Kara Nina
Congratulations to the wedding!
Aaron Banta
To the Author: Did the dungeon ever destroy the undead? I know Kata must have explained about gods necromancy and crusades... However I didn't see where you had him dispose of them..
Aaron Banta
It occurred to me.... If the twelfth is going to be that large, with potentially massive forests of high quality trees, treants, etc... I really want to see him build a world tree...
Aaron Banta
I love the thought of massive levels. The concept of a level the size of Europe is absolutely ridiculous. The thought how people would react if they ever reach a level of vast forests tended by tenants, rivers, lakes, mountains with rock elementals, and actual vast ecosystems excites me. Tbh I think that the creator probably qualifies as a god at this point and if he builds another level the size of Europe I would say he definitely would qualify.
Mr,Snowy
I couldn't stop thinking about the slimes with gravity mana and all the space above the 11th floor's atmosphere when I remembered the D&D monster "Blob of Annihilation" (Titanic-sized slimes that usually live in space, born from the corpses of gods) as the 11th boss, being like some sort of alien invasion or space battle. (Sorry if I misspelled something. English is not my native language.)
John Vistica
Just binge-read this story. Love the story arcs. Great intro for the kids and the dungeon with the Earth pop culture references. Can't wait for more. Just occurred to me that a more non-destructive way to take out invading ships is to use the water sprites to dump large quantities of water from overhead to flood the ships. They may sink, but can be retrieved later. Since the sprites aren't limited to the 5 mile radius (trench source for filling floor 11), they can hit anywhere. Or maybe create a portal below the ships to create a whirlpool to suck in the ships where guilders wouldn't be able to fight back. Also, monsters should be able to operate outside the 5 mile radius if they were linked/tethered to a Child. Stuff to think about when prepping for the coming Crusade against the island. The Templars would certainly try to take advantage of the 5 mile limit. Can The Creator extend their reach by keeping an active portal open to outside the 5 mile limit? Maybe this is what was hinted about with the Holy City dungeon crystal when referencing the global surveillance network. How are they doing it?
Devin Durham
Maybe getting a water sprite to inhabit an air attuned body getting something like a mist or fog spirit could add a nice spooky factor to the dead city. Give some Mashadar vibes. Ooh and cloud elementals could totally help regulate weather patterns on a floor the size of the 12th!
Dennis Hornsby
Happy marriage!!! Also, I know that with each of his floors. He's gone bigger and bigger with the spectacle, but I think something unique should be done for the twelfth. Maybe something smaller, more cerebral and less fighting. He could make a whole game show about all the previous floors where the party has to answer trivia about everything that has occurred in the floors above, to prove their worth in getting to the next floor. So maybe like a floor 11.5
Кто-то Зачем тебе нужен?
Congratulation with your marriage! Fun idea, turn Olympus into Greco-Roman silent hill. As monster use people that refuse to obey the gods and stayed in their homes in skies but as their number dwindled, their rage and despair at gods increases pushing them to thing they never considered before. They built golems and automatons to replace dwindling workforce, and augmented themselves with prosthetics to increase their decreasing lifespan. Head scientist searched via science, methods to kill gods or to make new generation of their people while head priestess went another route with forbidden magic to find the same. In the end, Olympus was shrouded in clouds and fog, as gods no longer wanted to see this abominable place. In fog, corpses of once proud people animated by their inventions silently stalking streets with their trusted automatons protecting this dead place. In the depth of this island, research centers is crawled by abomination of flesh and machinery with walking weopens of war, while in head church, something much worse slumber
Foot Toe
Foot!
Noah Stroik
One congratulations on getting married. And two if you do go back and edit this then instead of “They're not dangerous for the aware, but they like to cling to the ceilings of caves and drop on you, deadly to the unexpecting.” I would change that to They're not dangerous for the aware, but deadly to the unexpecting, they like to cling to the ceilings of caves and drop on you. Over all a small nit pick it’s a good chapter.
The furry in your walls in your walls
Congratulations on getting married dude! I can't wait to see what he does with the monsters of Olympus. Maybe sleeping earth golems disguised as and taking the role of statues? And I can't WAIT to see what he does with the 12th. I wonder if removing Europe's worth of air from the atmosphere, even if it's just a mile high, would have an effect on the world at large?
Tacrad
My concern is what's going to happen to the atmosphere of the rest of the planet. For the sake of maths let's say the 11th is a perfect rectangular prism. At roughly the size of Poland that's 558.6km on the x and y axis. I think I remember it being 11km on the z axis. That's about 3,432,000³km of air. Now we're talking something the size of Europe. That'll be another 112,000,000³km of air.
Marrowtooth Rattel
Congratulations on your marriage! TYFTC!
jord
Could make it so the 12th has a enchantment that makes water flow uphill, water evaporates down for large fogscapes and the whole world is topsy-turvy
jord
Needs a twist though, like the city is still "alive" with the statues still going through the motions. And then they start to notice the adventurers and things go full horror movie
jord
Not gonna lie that sounds awesome
jord
We have mana streams coming in from the air and ocean, do you think we'd get something from lava flow? I can see a whole thing with coming about because constricting a dungeons mana flow may very well be a known tactic against very powerful dungeons. It would be so cool because while our boy is big, he also ISN'T as big as his mana stream would imply due to the orbiting mana rings. If they have an equation or rule of thumb that tells them how much mana MINIMUM it needs to keep from becoming dormant, then they would be way off. And they would have no idea why.
Forint
The amount of mana and materials required would be something to overcome.
jord
Congratulations on your marriage, if the 12th is the size of Europe that could mean entire countries of New monsters and monsters of a scale and size that is unprecedented. Could also have something like geopolitics going on. So much potential I can hardly wait.
el trucko
Glad to see you back, I would have been sad to see this story dropped.
Dragon of the North
That's a great idea and sounds very creepy, love it. StrangerDanger51, you should totally take a look at the Metro series, especially the second one, the shadow people from that are very creepy.
LarrytheEmu
Maybe there could be non lethal competition, on Olympus, like the Olympic games. Where the Children and adventurers can compete once a year/month. The bosses could drop or give out tickets, that noncombatants could use to travel there to watch. This would give more people the opportunity to see the dungeon and the Children in a peace full setting.
Shira_Ori
Congratulations on your marriage!
Кто-то Зачем тебе нужен?
I didn't think, Author meant it in literals sense because he mentioned forest and other places with water would be placed, so that meant that things like river, small lakes, and groundwater for wells would exist, while large bodies of water like ocean, seas and large lakes is next to non existent
Dale
There would be little to no water, except for perhaps an inland sea/lake not much larger than the Eleventh... And that is where they stop delving. there is a reason why people avoid deserts and considering that water storage is a cast iron bitch along with other issues like in IRL they will stop and avoid going any farther.
Кто-то Зачем тебе нужен?
If you add statue themed monsters to Olympus, then for the boss add giant mech that moves autonomously with corpse of head scientist inside, guarding gravity technology, or head priestess that turned into cyborg but was long dead and moves by her prosthetics that does last command of its owner
MoonlitShade
I was thinking ghosts / shades would be a great fit for a silent city. Maybe both! Statues and ghosts, like a spooky dead ancient city.
MoonlitShade
WERE BACK Tyftc
Viria
YES ! Weeping angels would be awesome. All the statues of the city are weeping angels. Please author-san
Owen Barry
I feel like some kind of statue monster/golem would be a cool addition to the dead city. Something like weeping angles or scp-173 that were left behind by the original inhabitants to protect the city. TYFTC
Joseph Guillory
Oh oh oh shadows in the day and at night you get "ghosts" or illusions that look like people you could sorta make out vague details like clothing and major facial features but the kicker is all the do is play out snippets of ordinary life in the city before it died, playing into that whole dead civilization aspect. So you get a woman that walks down a street and occasionally interacts with things or speaks to people who aren't there and if the adventures interact with it it sorta fizzles like a bad TV signal and just starts the loop over.
JAndy
it's intended users -> its intended users "its" instead of "it's" because it's also "his" and "my", not "hi's" and "m'y" and because "it's" is already "it is" (or sometimes "it has", like in "it's become bothersome").
Moonspike
Statues, it,s called Olympus, so statues all throught the city would fit right in.
Prophet of Truth
And congratulations on your marriage. May you find happiness together for many years to come.
Prophet of Truth
Thank you for the chapter wordsmith.
Michael M
Great new chapter can't wait for the next one and to see them finally take on the desert. Been so long since anyone actually made it this deep. And congratulations again on getting married
Tech Priest
For monsters in a dead city, perhaps shadows in the shapes of people? I'm thinking specifically like the uhhh carbon shadows of Hiroshima/nagasakI. Maybe weeping angels? Another monster that fits a silent city scape and adds to the horror?
Gabriel Waldorff
So... Make the up is down pirates of the Caribbean worlds end gimmick the way to get to the 12th floor? Popping up on the inland sea? At some point the dungeon will be so big that lower floor denizens will think the outside world is a myth. And the adventurers will be people on life long journeys to get stronger. Taking a literal decade or more to return or settle down and not return at all.
Shiloh Gallaher
Awwww i was hopping for a bottomless pit level
Adamantplank
Tftc
ReadingButlur
How about true golems not the spirt controlled one but actual magic tech it would make sense for the place everything rots away and is cleaned but the machines of old remain taking care of a place with nothing alive in it
Sad Potato
Yaaay you are back! Congrats on getting married. Also, woooooo!!!!! Poland mentioned!!!!! (Sorry i had to, thems the rules)
Auralia
Congrats on your marriage! Word of advice though! “Don’t go drinking away your sorrows of no longer being able to drink, your wife might get mad!” -My husband
Jason Smith
I am so, incredibly glad that you did. I like how you expanded upon how slimes are deceptively dangerous, not that threatening in an open area when small like what we see in most games and anime but in caves where they can drop on you or when they get big and you can't break their membranes, and even if you do you just get sprayed by a high power jet of acid to the face? I'd like to see an anime where slimes are shown in a manner similar to goblins in Goblin Hunter, weak, yet still fucking terrifying and constantly underestimated
Stranger Danger
I mean i had to at some point. They're a staple!
Jason Smith
Thanks for the chapter! Slimes!!!
