World Seed_Expansion

by Justin Miller

  From there on, the dungeon crawl proceeded normally. In each room, there were countless small shadow bats, between one and five large bats, and sometimes a shadow slime. We also picked up three more items. One was a staff that amplified shadow magic, one was a ring that stored dark mana, and the final one was a dagger that was able to paralyze a creature by stabbing its shadow.

  After every other room, I sent out my mental call through the dark mana, curious to see if there would be anything. Maybe a vampire, given the number of bats here? That would certainly be interesting. However, before I got a response, I received a call from the ship.

  “Captain, be advised, there is a high chance that the boss monster is within your immediate vicinity. I would suggest proceeding with extreme caution.” Another warning. Most likely, even though they couldn’t tell exactly where it was, they were able to tell when we were getting close. That, or our presence and killing so many monsters somehow made it easier for them to scan. I wasn’t sure, but the next thing worried me.

  Help, somebody please help me! Is anyone out there? A young boy’s cry could be heard in my mind, and it was answered by a series of high pitched shrieks that made me put my hand over my ears to try and block out the noise.

  So, there was someone here… And this was not how I wanted to find them. Was the boss monster attacking the little boy, or was the scared little boy a boss monster...? I honestly wasn't sure which one scared me more.

  Chapter 49 - Tag, You’re It

  “There’s someone up ahead!” I called back as I hurried forwards, wanting to reach the source of the voice as soon as possible.

  “What are you talking about?” Sharon looked at me curiously, having apparently not heard it. I wonder if she hasn’t tried to talk to elemental creatures using mana yet? Either way, I know what I had heard.

  Yin and Yo simply followed along silently, and in the next room, I found the source of the noise. It was the boss room for this dungeon floor, as expected. However, aside from a swarm of shadow bats, there was also a black flame blazing against the back of the room. In the center of the room, on the floor was a thin boy with pitch black skin, and a circular halo resting vertically behind his head. His body was doubled over, using his arms to protect his head as two identical boys were kicking at him.

  “What the…” Sharon was the first to speak up here, as she was right behind me when I started running.

  Celeste, what am I looking at?

  The AI quickly responded in my head. “The boy should be a type of Shade, I think. Not sure if he’s a pure one or not until we ask him to check his status. But the other two… Their auras perfectly match his, and yet they are hostile to him. Most likely, they are--”

  Before she could finish telling me what was going on, a black spear flew at me from the side. Turning to look, I saw Yo… or what looked like Yo, but with an entirely black body. I was worried that something was controlling her, but then I saw the slime girl running up behind Yin and just entering the room.

  “Dopplegangers…” I groaned, watching as a second Yo formed, followed by two each of myself, Sharon and Yin. “I… really hope they can’t copy everything.”

  “We can work on that later.” Sharon said, taking a fighting stance. “You want to save that boy, right?” When I nodded, she smiled slightly. “Good, then all we have to do is kick some ass and grab him.”

  I nodded again, looking at my own clones. “Sounds like a plan.” Opening my mouth, I did a concentrated two hundred point laser breath on the closest John clone. However, both of my clones opened their mouths, and black bursts of energy shot out, crashing together in midair, likely fighting back my own mana breath. With my Aura Sight, I saw that what they were using was pure dark mana, so I tried going with fire next.

  Using my Fire Manipulation, I created a small fireball and flinged it at the target clone. Instead of copying me, this time the other clone jumped in front of the fireball, and erected a black wall of energy around them. Unfortunately, the fireball was harmlessly absorbed by that black wall. “I...I’m not liking our odds here.”

  I tested again with a stone spike, but again they used a shadow ball to negate it. Although these things were not able to wield all of the elements like I could, it seemed like their elemental aptitude was poured entirely into Dark Affinity.

  Sharon nodded beside me, taking a deep breath and looking towards the clone army. Her voice was forceful, and held an air of command about it as she spoke. “ Stop! ”

  The clones, which had been getting ready to charge up, momentarily froze. However, the black flame in the back of the room surged brighter, and they were soon moving again. The two Yo clones, as well as the Sharon clones all rushed in to engage in melee, while the John and Yin clones stepped back, apparently preparing to use their magic.

  “Well… I’m out of ideas!” Sharon called out, having apparently tried to use the advanced form of her Wild Voice to control the creatures.

  “Yin, telekinesis!” I looked over to the storm bird. These things were shadow constructs, and obviously not perfect ones. If they were, they’d be using other elements on us. Heaven forbid, my clones might have decided to use time against us, then we would be in trouble. My hope here was that they did not have physical brains, and thus were unable to reproduce psychic abilities. Pretty ironic since this was the psychic planet. If the Ha’vosh came down here, this boss would be useless.

  Yin nodded, her body changing in a shower of sparks to take on her human form. Surprisingly, her two clones immediately reshaped themselves into her human body as well. “Sharon, don’t use your animals. Groves are undetectable, so it can’t copy your animals until you bring them out.” She nodded her head slightly at that, while I looked towards the black flame in the back of the room.

  “What about me, daddy?” Yo called out happily, and I looked over to see that she was currently being impaled by one of her own clones, and being punched by one of Sharon’s.

  “Uhm… see if you can eat them?” I really didn’t know what else to say about that. If these things hit her core, she’d be in trouble, but she seemed to be protecting it well.

  “Mmm… Alright!” She turned to look towards her own clone. “You look yummy~!” Suddenly, Yo’s body seemed to explode outwards, wrapping her clone as it struggled to get free. I had to admit, this was unnerving to watch, but her clone was gradually dissolved inside of herself. Meanwhile, the other Sharon clone reached Yin, and the other Yo clone reached Sharon.

  Yin, having gotten into her human form to use telekinesis, held out her hands and focused as the barehanded shadow elf charged her. I could see her furrowing her brows in frustration while the clone’s body seemed to slow down. I had to quickly raise a wall of stone between them and my own clones as balls of shadow were thrown at her to try to prevent her from doing the next part. The next part being to rip the clone in half, literally. The Sharon Clone had her upper body completely ripped off of her lower one, both halves falling to the ground while Yin also collapsed from overusing her psychic power.

  I rushed over to the human-form bird, and gave her a psychic stress relief pill. “Take that. You did a good job there.” I smiled to her, and she nodded back with a relieved expression.

  It seemed that as long as she was in her human form, her clones were rendered essentially useless in the fight. Although they shot black lightning bolts at my earth wall from their hands, the magic was not strong enough to penetrate. Yin’s only real offensive power in this form is telekinesis, after all.

  Soon, however, my wall was smashed down by a series of thick black spheres that my own clones had shot out. One of the balls smashed against me, throwing me back into the wall.

  Quit hitting yourself.

  -30 HP

  I groaned at the message, looking as my clones had switched targets to the girls. I gripped the wall in frustration, and pulled myself off of it just as I remembered an old ability I haven’t played with in a while. Hopefully, they have no way to copy this, and e
ven if they do there’s no way to stop what I want to do with their abilities.

  Closing my eyes for a second, I adjusted my aura to give myself the special ability of the cliff tigers. The special ability that let me swim within the rocks as if they were water. Gradually, my body fell down beneath the floor, and a three dimensional map opened up in my mind, courtesy of Celeste.

  As I ‘swam’ through the floor of the cave, towards that black flame, the AI sent me an update. “The girls just called in, your clones vanished after you went into the floor. However, the one Yin finished off is starting to pull itself back together, and the two from the Shade have started to join the fight.”

  I nodded my head slightly at that, trying to increase my speed. Right now, I was just holding my breath, waiting until I was where I needed to be. Then, after swimming up the wall behind the black flame, I poked my head out from the ceiling. “Peekaboo, ass.” I grinned, my head sticking out as I used over half of my mana to create a stone wall that blocked off the flame from the rest of the room. “I’ve been needing to do this for decades.” I chuckled, and took a deep breath before sinking back into the wall.

  This next part… I don’t regret doing in the slightest. My grove had over a hundred years of human waste in it that I had not had the chance to properly dispose of. And now, I had the perfect target. So, I filled up the little room I made for the black flame with as much of that waste as would fit, before moving back to the rest of the group with a much happier expression.

  “Daddy… the other me didn’t taste very good.” Yo said with a pout when she saw me rising up from the floor.

  “I’m sorry, Yo.” I walked over and pat her on the head, which made her smile. Looking around the room, there did not seem to be any enemies left. When I closed off the black flame, it appeared to have cancelled its ability to copy us. Wonder if that is going to kill it, eventually.

  “So… what did you do?” Sharon looked at me suspiciously, and then the wall I had made.

  “...Let’s just say that you really don’t want to go see.” I smiled to her, and Yin just tilted her head confused.

  “Fight… over?” She asked cautiously, still holding her head in one hand.

  “Yeah, looks like it. Try not to shift into your bird form until your headache goes away. Don’t know if there would be any side effects.” She simply nodded her head at that, while I turned towards the shivering shadow boy in the center of the room.

  Surprisingly, throughout all of this, the black bats in the ceiling had not attacked. In fact, when I got out from taking the world’s largest dump on the boss, they had vanished. I was starting to think that the ones in this room might have been creations of that black flame, and it was the only real opponent.

  You’re safe now. I sent to the boy with my dark mana. His head looked up at me, still shaking slightly. He took a moment to look around, before his eyes rested on me again.

  Did… did you make them go away..?

  I nodded my head, and saw as he relaxed slightly. Can you tell me your name, or how you got here? What happened to you?

  I… name? What is that? Where am I? I appeared below, and have been walking… everyone ignored me… until those two… why did they want to hurt me? I saw his eyes watering with an inky black substance.

  I don’t know… but I want you to do me a favor, okay? Think the word ‘status’ with your mind, and tell me what it says. I did my best reassuring smile, while Sharon walked over closer to me, looking down at the boy.

  Status…

  “How are you talking to him?” She asked as she watched us. “I can’t hear anything…”

  “You have to attune your mana to the Dark Affinity, and send out your thoughts with mana. It’s a trick I learned the first time I was on Hydra.” I answered as I waited for the shadow boy to finish.

  Name… Kismet. Race… Shadowborn… Titles… Dungeon Lord… Fame… zero… Level one two four…

  Sharon apparently worked out how to listen in on the conversation, because her mouth was suddenly hanging open. “Wait, what?”

  I was shocked at that as well, though more by the title. Though, after having him say it again, it seemed like it was all correct. What was really shocking to me, even more than his level, was that his stats were all at ten. When he got to his points remaining, apparently he had over six hundred points waiting to be spent.

  Celeste, explanation? I sent to the AI in my head, not letting that bit leak out with my mana.

  “Well… a Dungeon Lord is a rare title given to a sapient monster that spawns as a final dungeon boss. They don’t actually have any control over the dungeon itself, and lose the title when they leave. Basically, this little guy was supposed to be the final boss of the dungeon.”

  Then why are his stats so abysmal?

  “Probably because he is a sapient, they weren’t automatically allocated for him. So, he had to make the choice to do it himself. Since he hasn’t, he is almost no different than a level one character, aside from his innate skills. As for the Shadowborn… They are a sapient race, so I have some information on them. Like the slimes, they began as monsters, but unlike Shades they are not fully shadow elementals. They are born with a physical form, sort of halfway in between human and Shade.”

  I nodded my head, then spoke to the boy again. Do you want to come with us?

  He smiled wide when I offered that, nodding his head. Yes… yes… can I? I don’t like this place…

  Okay, but I’m going to do something to let you talk like we do, alright? That way you’ll be able to speak with everyone. After getting a nod of acceptance, I closed my eyes and used Share Language to teach him the elven language. It cost a small amount of experience, but that was vastly overshadowed by the message that came next.

  You have killed the Shadowflame Mimic.

  You have leveled up.

  Most unconventional way to kill a dungeon boss ever….

  “I… Hi… I’m… Kismet.” The boy spoke in a soft voice after the language transfer had been completed. Sharon, being the lover of all things small and adorable, immediately bent down and picked him up in a tight hug.

  “Nice to meet you, Kismet.” She said with a large smile. “We’re going to take you to meet a bunch of new friends!”

  Chapter 50 - Bob’s Boss

  Now that we had killed the shadowflame mimic, we took Kismet up out of the dungeon. There was no benefit to keeping him here, and we needed to get him out. Though, I was a bit concerned about how to deal with a superpowered child. Even Yo can get out of hand some time, but she sees me as a father figure, so I can keep her in line. How am I supposed to do that with Kismet?

  Sharon, as if seeing my conflicted emotions, smiles to me. “Let me take care of him. He’ll probably be more comfortable if I get him used to interacting with people in my grove, and I can set up a darkness area for him if he needs it.” She said as she gave Kismet a piggyback ride. “I’ll let him slowly power up and spend his stat points as he gets used to his ability.”

  I nodded my head, agreeing that it was the best plan at the time. Until he can control his power, he is a possible danger to the crew, whether he wants to be or not. If he is contained in a grove, then that danger is minimized. Even an elemental should only have a limited ability to resist a druid inside their grove. “Okay… just be careful.”

  She gave me a quick nod, and we soon made it out of the dungeon. “Will do, Captain! Now, why don’t you go check on the Ha’vosh? I’ll take care of things here.”

  “Okay…” I looked to Yin. “Want to come with me this time? Might not be much fun, and hopefully we won’t get into any fights, but would be glad for the company.”

  Yin looked at me in surprise, but quickly nodded her head. “Sure, John.” She smiled, reaching out and taking my hand. Thankfully, she was still in her human form, so this became easier. Closing my eyes, I used my Earth Manipulation to close up the tunnel to the dungeon. The last thing we need is either the dungeon monsters running wild acros
s the planet or the mist walkers going into the dungeon to level up.

  “Celeste, send me and Yin back to the Ha’vosh. Time to speak to Bob again.” While I waited for Celeste to process that request, I began thinking about the fight that we had just been through. That shadowflame mimic boss is ridiculously powerful by normal standards. Without using psychics, or tricks that block line of sight, it is basically impossible to defeat it. After all, who can say they would be able to take on two people with the same power as themselves at once?

  From Celeste’s information, floor bosses are supposed to represent the type of creature that lives on the floor below. However, Kismet said that he had wandered around unimpeded until he met that boss. That means that the second floor can’t be filled with more mimics. Was it a rare variant or something? I’d have to do more research into the dungeons once I got back to Hydra.