Chapter 56

Chapter 56

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The Dungeon, Medea Island, Kalenic Sea

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I turned away from the ceremony on the sixth floor, quite satisfied. It seemed that spirits within a golem gain a greater bond to whatever material it is made of. The Mithril golem's transformation was fascinating. Specifically, the transition from fire spirit to a metal-fire hybrid.

The mana in the sprite's core had been pure fire, while the mana throughout the rest of its body was a mix of fire and metal. When it entered the 'cocoon' phase of the transformation, it sucked all the mana from the body into its core. There, the pure sprite absorbed the metal mana, and its transformation integrated the mana into its being. This one I'll call... a Molten Golem.

The evolution of the magma golem was particularly interesting. You'd think the fire and earth mana would merge and turn it into a metal spirit, but instead, they enhanced each other. I decided to call it a Volcanic Golem now.

With the Potentium golems, the metal's enhancement effect on their mana gave them an incredible boost. Unlike the other golems, the fire mana overwhelmed the metal mana of the body.

A quick check confirmed the Air Spirit would be getting some 'Peers' soon, as would the Earth Spirit on the seventh. Something to look forward to.

Back on the Tenth, I looked over the sheep with a metaphorical hand on my metaphorical chin. I could do quite a lot with them, but I didn't want to do too much. I intended for the sheep to be livestock, shepherded by the Minotaurs.

The first thing to do was clean up their bodies. I started by making their hooves and legs sturdier and hopefully less prone to injury. I strengthened their bones and skin and gave them some enhanced senses. I set a limit on how long their wool could grow to prevent some health problems down the line.

I also made them omnivorous and gave them nice sharp teeth. Like the rabbits, they'd much prefer grasses, but if push came to shove, no one would expect a sheep to tear flesh from bone. Next, it was time for the fun part.

I split the herd into two groups.

To one, I granted fluffy, luxuriously soft wool. The colors of their wool varied greatly, a rainbow of color. Since it was all natural pigmentation, there would be no damage from harsh dyes. Breeding-wise, the colors could mix, enhance or wash out. All equally likely outcomes.

The second group received a quite literal 'steel wool.' It was ductile but still quite solid and hard to damage. It was fireproof and could be easily woven into chainmail. I gave them more enhanced skeletons and muscles to help carry the weight. While most of these sheep would remain of the 'steel wool' variety, I gave special attention to three. One received a golden fleece, one bore a mithril fleece, and the final sheep sported a moonsilver fleece.

Of course, I can't just make these sheep grow metal fleeces. No, they were now Geovores. Their fleeces would only grow when they were fed iron and charcoal. The more exotically-fleeced sheep needed their specific metals to grow theirs.

With that, I left the Minotaurs to get familiar with their flock and moved on.

I needed a break from the Tenth. I needed to step back and observe it for a while before I made any more changes. In the meantime... I've been putting it off for a while now, and I think it's time.

The ocean calls.

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The City Wall, Port Medea, Medea Island

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Jerrad Losat walked straight-backed, with his hands held behind him, along the recently-completed town wall. It stood eighteen feet tall, with crenellations to hide behind and murder holes to fire crossbow bolts and magic through. The black stone sparkled pleasingly, and some hired mages had fused it into a single large piece.

He was alone today since Isid was spending time with their niece. Harald was with Felin, helping him with the book on the first five floors of the dungeon. Given the dungeon's proclivity to change its floors, Jerrad was sure such a book would be quickly out-of-date. Who knows, though. He certainly had no idea.

Duncan was somewhere. Probably in a tavern, attempting to get into someone's pants.

Jerrad passed a couple of guards stationed on the wall above the eastern gate. He nodded, and they nodded back before returning to their watch.

Jerrad let his gaze follow the path as it left the gate. Where the cliffs above the dungeon had once been covered in jungle, now it was mostly bare. There was a squat lighthouse and a small observation area at the cliff's edge. Jerrad also knew there was a decent-sized spring up there, which flowed down into a river that ran right past the eastern wall he stood upon.

He stopped as he reached the end of the wall, which butted out into the ocean for more than a dozen yards.

He stood there for a time, looking out towards the horizon. The noise of crashing waves and shrieking seabirds was ever-present. A deep breath of the salty sea air didn't relax him, but it was calming.

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I gazed through the ocean, watching the undulating schools of fish as they swam around the island. In the time since I'd made the ocean floor my 'Zeroth Floor,' even more life had filled the area.

The coral reef had exploded with life and diversity and expanded physically. It covered roughly double the area it once had, but held roughly the same density of life. The sandy plains around it were likewise filled with life. In one section, great ribbons of kelp and seaweed snaked up from the ocean floor.

Another section, still bare, was patrolled by groups of sharks as they leisurely hunted the abundant food source around them.

Further afield, pods of various cetaceans roamed. They were mostly various species of Dolphin, but a large pod of humpback whales stood out. At least, they resembled the humpback. These particular specimens were migrating south to warmer waters. Instead, it seemed they'd decided the ocean around my island was warm and plankton-rich enough to have their breeding season here.

None of them were mine yet. My mana had remained settled within the sand. However, the crabs and other bottom-dwelling creatures had been assimilated already. Which wasn't surprising. They lived and hunted amongst a blanket of my mana, so it was inevitable.

If I wanted to do more, to claim more, I would need a lot more mana.

I spun off a half-dozen tendrils of mana and directed them out through some of the many undersea entrances to my dungeon. Rather than forcing the mana into any specific monsters, I had it diffuse into the water at roughly equal points around the island.

This would slowly raise the mana content of the ocean nearby, and I could feel the sea becoming part of me. Like an ink stain, I spread throughout the water. My mana encountered unaligned water mana and made it mine. It was like what I had experienced with atmospheric mana before my main stream had even started. Underwater, the mana was much, much denser.

In a fascinating display of the square-cubed law, the more of the ocean that became me, the faster I spread. Until...

I reached a limit.

About five miles out from the island, I lost hold of my mana. It was a fuzzy border, only yards wide, but as my mana passed through, I lost control of it. I wasn't sure if it was still 'my' mana, but there was an easy way to test it.

I directed one of my newly claimed fish out of the border and watched, fascinated, as I lost control of it. The fish, suddenly in control of itself, swam back into the field to get back to its school. Upon its re-entry, I found that my influence had been stripped completely, and it once again possessed 'unaligned' mana.

I re-claimed it and let it swim back to its school.

So I did have a hard border, then? Interesting. I eyed the mana current that brushed against the edge of that border, a stream peeling off before it dipped back out again.

While this bears investigating and experimentation, I turned back to the fish. With my 'claiming' of the ocean around the island, all the creatures within that five-mile radius were mine.

I now had control of dozens of fish species, including sharks, dolphins, and whales.

I mostly left them alone to do their own things since I didn't want to spook the humans too badly. What I did want was a way to defend my island a bit more overtly.

There are dozens of sea monsters in earth myth; the Leviathan, Kraken, and Sea Serpent are among the most memorable. I want to bring one of each to life to defend my island in the case of invasion.

I'll begin with... the Kraken, I think. In fact, I think I'll have it pull double-duty here.

I located a random octopus and led it to the tunnel that the mana current used to enter my dungeon. I quickly widened the tunnel, turning it into a large cave. At the back of the cave sat the vent the mana current entered through. Now within its new den, I gave the octopus a monster core and began enlarging it.

As it grew, I had it develop another sixteen smaller tentacles in a ring around its body, set above the central eight. I also gave it four larger tentacles inside the main eight. Its skin was significantly hardened, and its muscles improved in elasticity and raw power. I made its now enlarged beak serrated, the edges more than sharp and strong enough to cut through wood.

Now, the body of octopi, as a rule, consists entirely of its head and tentacles. It has no 'body' besides that. Its head contains no skull; it had a mere sack to hold its brain. My Kraken would have no such weakness. I made its brain case subtly scaled and well-reinforced, inside and on the surface.

By the time I was satisfied with the monster, I had a carrack-sized Kraken.

In terms of instincts, I made it sedentary. It would much prefer to stay within its den and wait for prey to swim past than actively hunt anything. In times of need, I would direct it to attack and destroy ships around the island.

Next... A Sea Serpent. Now, what creature would work as a base...

Ah! Yes, a sea snake would work just fine.

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Max Porteous, 2022