Half Breed Adventurer

Chapter 35 Irregulars (part two)

After discussion with my family, it was decided that we should try and get to floor eleven as quickly as possible, killing any goblin forces that got in our way. After all my baby bros could always come back here later and continue their training later, whereas what I needed was on floor eleven and the sooner I got there, the better.

The eleventh floor had certain qualities that would be of great use to the family and myself, more so than the goblin city. So we marched onwards, past the wall with token goblin rock throwers and handful of goblin raiders and hobgoblin knights.

DBG shot out a few strings of bright red blood piercing through our opponents with ease. It was barely a challenge any more. DBG had already become a level 15 Sorcerer and a level 3 Warlock. We were still working out the kinks of Warlock class, as it seemed to draw power from the entity it was linked to, which was me. Theoretically it should be also be able to connect to Nil but due to our more intimate connection, it seemed to default to me as its main patron'. I gave him [Energy Drain] through our stronger link, we were bound by arcane magic, though I was less so than him. In this case I was the contractor and he was the contractee, the terms more along my whim than his, but still bound. As for the Perk he chose [Gifted from Below] increasing the effectiveness of all abilities gained from a demonic patron' by 50% per milestone. Sadly it only counted the spells recognised by the Warlock Class, namely [Energy Drain] but it still had usefulness.

As for DBG's second milestone free Perk and Skill for Sorcerer, he chose to enhance [Blood Refinement], doubling the speed of refining the blood collected into liquid power and Life Magic to enhance providing a 10% boost to all life magics (blood, bone, body, soul and mind) .

Due to my increased levels of Blood Mage, I taught Barry and DBG [Blood Armor] and [Blood Golem]. Yes it might seem insane to teach a Blood Golem gifted from a Major God [Blood Golem] but it served a very important function...

The progress through the nobles goblins quarter was uneventful, sure there were some attacks by assorted goblins and hobgoblins but nothing worthy of a break in our stride.

It wasn't until we arrived near the goblin palace at the direct centre of the goblin city that we suffered serious opposition again.

Alpha, Beta and I took over the vanguard position, along with a dozen earth golems. Sigma was close by with his Wolves ready to strike from the shadows whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Sigma's wolves had evolved into Shadow Wolf Alphas, second stage evolutions, growing in size and intelligence, whereas before they were roughly 26- 31 inches high at their shoulders and 60 inches in length from tip to tail, they were about 45 inches in height and 90 inches in length. If they evolved again, they could become Dark Wolves, bigger, stronger and more intelligent.

The goblin's royal army which defended the central palace were even more intense than the forces that protected the `nobles quarter'. While their army was smaller, their ranks were made up of elites only, there were no goblins, only hobgoblin variants. The royal army had roughly a thousand members but each of them were dangerous, together they were a worrisome obstacle.

There were hobgoblin shamans, able to cast spells and fight, hobgoblin tamers, who commanded or rode Shadow Wolf Alphas, hobgoblin warriors armed with iron swords and hobgoblin knights rode on the very best Night Steeds.

They also had limited reinforcements from the noble quarters nearby, goblin nobles are in competition with hobgoblin royalty for resources. Everyone wants to rise up on top of a pile of corpses apparently. So they mostly only sent token support in the form of hobgoblin knights.

This was where [Hive Mind] and increased practice, spells and Perks came in use, while we couldn't win easily or quickly, we had what it took to endure...

Barry had a useful blood armour around his whole body and a blood golem adding to our numbers. Sigma had his two wolves and some basic spells to throw about. Beta added the most numbers to our side, keeping ten golems up at all times to block the spells of shamans wherever possible.

Wherever that failed, Zeta providing healing.

DBG chose to Enhance [Blood Absorption] and pick [Death Magic] for his second speciality perk, providing a 50% boost to all death magic effects which included [Energy Drain] and [Blood Absorption].

The goblin's army had both quantity and quality. Their forces equated to roughly a couple of thousand (including mounts) but they all had iron weapons (minus the horses and wolves).

DBG separated from me, splitting off to have it's own fun, it targeted the hobgoblin shamans, while Davey used [Shadow Step] to attack the hobgoblin tamers and Alpha used Beast form and [Shadow step] to tear into the hobgoblin knights. I served as a conductor of our bloody orchestra using [Hive Mind] to direct my brethren throwing out the occasional [Fireball] and [Blood Arrow].

Benny had taught himself [Bone Bullet] projecting fingernail length pieces of bone from out of his armour into hobgoblins over and over again. Even though it didn't prove immediately fatal in most cases, the most important thing it did was inflict wounds, which I could use to cast [Festering Wound] or for Barry and DBG to cast [Blood Letting] on to cause more blood to pool. All of which would add onto the blood absorbed by DBG and Barry's blood golem.

DBG made his blood harder using [Blood armour] and made a couple of much weaker versions of himself using [Blood Golem] to help thin their numbers and increase ours.

Zeta, Epsilon and Wally worked together to wreak havoc on the morale of the army. It wasn't as effective as the royal army was far more united than the nobles, so they fell back on more directly violent methods. Wally cast [Tornado] in their midst and Zeta, Epsilon and Gamma threw fire and water into the centre to cause explosive results.

While devastating to the enemies, it also had the unintentional side effect of deafening both sides with the sound of the blast.

Still it was less damaging to us than to them, since all of us had the Mind affinity and [Telepathy] along with the ability to shape-shift to recover from all sorts of injuries.

Larry just used [Flash] repeatedly to blind enemies, while Terry and Steve used [Pause] on them and Louie used [Static shock] and [lightning blast] (level 25 lightning spell) to kill Night Steed after Night Steed. Hobgoblin knights are far less dangerous without a mount to give them extra speed and height advantage.

Billy moved restlessly throughout the battlefield casting enhancements on his brothers and on himself and picking off Hobgoblin tamers that tried to attack us from the shadows. Billy chose [Punching] as his level 10 warrior Skill and [Tireless] as his second free Warrior Perk, reducing stamina costs further. He used the spells [Adrenaline Rush], [Iron Skin], [Reinforcement] and [Enhance Metabolism] along with [Punching] and [Unarmed Combat] to inflict devastating and often fatal one punch kills to hobgoblins. He gained a steady supply of both combat and class experience to his Mage, Body Mage and Warrior Classes, from all the kills, he shouldn't have any problem becoming a Rune Warrior in the future.

The battle is intense and chaotic, with hobgoblin shamans firing off random attacks, hobgoblin knights charging directly at us, hobgoblin tamers disappearing only to appear nearby, hobgoblin warriors charging in near overwhelming numbers. It didn't help that the royal forces were working together in teams, hobgoblin shamans in teams based on their affinities, hobgoblin knights in squads of ten and hobgoblin raiders/tamers in groups of twenty. It took a lot of effort to undermine their teamwork and deny them any victories.

And I was at the forefront using [Hive Mind] to connect and oversee the battle while providing tips and tricks to each of my brothers, while trying to keep a mental inventory of all their Class spells, skills and Perks, in order to create better combat strategies while using [Mana Shield] to fend off the stray attacks towards me, while keeping a few earth golems nearby and in action to fend off the goblin raiders aiming for my throat.

Larry reaches level 10 as a Light Mage and learns [Refract Light] which allows him to render himself invisible and [Hidden in Plain Sight] which increases effect of invisibility spells by 30%. He makes full use of this, casting [Refract Light] to hide then attacking enemies with either [Flash] or [Flare] to blind while someone else deals the final blow.

Eventually the army was utterly defeated, their shamans fuel for DBG's development, after the battle, he consumed and absorbed his blood golem minions, along with Barry's, in order to absorb and assimilate useful traits like [Accelerated Growth].

Sigma's wolves were unconscious again, exhausted from the long drawn out battle but were most likely going to evolve again shortly into Dark Wolves. The benefits of a human monster partnership can not be understated, especially when the human is an Alchemist. Sigma's wolves are low level chimeras, having been fused with Iron Stag bones and trained relentlessly via Sigma's telepathy and given a rich diet of horned rabbit with regular fighting against each other and lesser normal' Shadow Wolves. Even after their evolution they had kept their iron bones and since [Shadow Wolves] rely a lot more on their innate [Shadow Step] than their legs, their increased weight didn't pose much of a problem for their hunting strategy, especially since they were theoretically house pets'. Murderous, magical house pets, but still psychically linked to their master that kept them well fed. They also benefited from Sigma's monster tamer skills and perks.

Sigma had a good Class Build, Level 36 Alchemist, level 26 Monster Tamer, Level 12 Mage, with affinities for Blood, Shadow and Mind.

His Monster Tamer Skills and Perks were of particular value in the battle.

M1 Skill- Taming (4)– 10% faster taming speed per level (+10% per level) M1 Perk - Man's Best Friend - 60% boost to canine allies M2 Skill – Bonding (1) – establish an empathic link with a tamed monster, binding it your will, 10% connection rate (10% increase per level) M2 Perk – Soul connection– Improve communication with bonded creatures by 40% Skill – Training (1)– Training of special tricks and techniques proceeds with greater ease (10% per level) Perk – Sharing is caring – 20% increase in learning speed of monstrous pet

I send off an earth golem to knock out and drag along some penned Shadow Wolves from out of a nearby kennel. He could do with a larger pack of Shadow Wolves, two is just not enough. Sigma takes my gift and pulls out a special potion from out of his spatial bag, it's a blood potion infused with his blood, with the [Sweet Damnation] cranked up to the maximum to become an addictive substance.

Sigma quickly dominates and tames the two Shadow Wolves and only time will tell if they survive the chimera grafting. Iron Stags and Shadow Wolves don't share that much in common other than being quadrupeds, so there's a fairly high chance of failure. Even if they die, it's no great loss. He doesn't bond with either of them, as losing a bonded companion inflicts psychic damage on the survivors. I figured living on the tenth floor with higher background mana saturation should make the Shadow Wolves sturdier than ones from the fifth floor. If not, well, a lot of animals tend to die when you want to be a Chimera King.

If they work out, maybe he'll experiment on some floor 10 Night Steeds, previous attempts to graft Shadow Wolf or Iron Stag traits on them have failed spectacularly. He could do with a high grade mount as a companion, a normal Night Steed is far too generic for our needs.

Regardless, Zeta and Beta took care of healing the wounded and Delta worked on upgrading one of the noble's living quarters for a secondary fall back position. Alpha and Davey cleared it out first, easily dispatching the goblin lady and her `ladies in waiting'. What used to be counted as a goblin queen had been renamed into a goblin lady as a result of their improved living standards, whereas before they lived in a tribal society, now they lived in a mimicry of a feudal system. The goblin lady had worn an oversized dress and iron jewellery as a form of genteel imitation, she wasn't even obese, giving birth less regularly but to higher grade goblins and hobgoblins. Progress of a sort I suppose, if only I cared about goblins at all, maybe I would be impressed but they were just a way to fuel my growth.

Once the place was upgraded, we made ourselves comfortable, repairing and upgrade weapons, cleaning off blood, recovering mana, stamina and health with a short [Meditation] and [Energy Drain] session. DBG returned to my veins, causing my cock to rise up again, turns out DBG likes to keep blood high throughout my entire body.

I went to have a chat with Billy, Benny and Barry and join in their `spell practice'. They were all naked from the waist down, with Billy in the middle getting fucked by Benny while Barry bent over on all fours and took a pounding. Benny kept using [Iron Skin] on himself and the other two to provide tempering to himself. Repeated use of the spell helped to improve the duration of the spell and it's effect. Benny worked on enhancing Billy's bones while ramming him from behind, using [Mana Inscription] to phase through Billy's skin and flesh to engraves runes on his bones. Different runes for different bones. His knuckle bones were works of art, visible only with [Arcane Sight] active. Each knuckle bone had a different rune engraved upon it, improving the damage, though to be technically accurate the runes ranged upwards from the bottom of the phalanx bone up to the knuckle bone.

The runes were for earth, fire, frost and sound, three of which were to inflict elemental damage with the sound runes dampening the noise of his fist, so he could punch things quietly. Fire would burn, frost would slow and earth provided a dramatic increase in hardness.

Ignoring my tendency to overthink things, I rammed my cock in Barry's mouth, he was being lazy anyway, he wasn't even pretending to practice spell craft. I sent him a mental nudge and he promptly bled everywhere, which quickly pooled into armour that coated his body, leaving only a few gaps to see, smell, suck and be sodomised with.

In order not to be a hypocrite, I did the same, allowing DBG out of my veins so that he could cast [Blood Armor]. DBG took some liberties, coating my entire body in blood, including covering my cock in my blood and filling my colon with hardened blood, he was very thorough. While DBG didn't have a gender, the fact that he was filling up my ass with blood that pressed against my prostate with every thrust, left me with the impression of maleness. The only places he didn't cover in blood was my face, or at least he left some gaps for my ears, eyes, nostrils and mouth.

I practised using [Liquid Mana] converting my mana pool into liquid mana to feed DBG, it served to boost my Alchemy and Mage Class class experience at the same time. I pulled Billy into a kiss, over Barry as we continued thrusting our cocks into him from either end, doing the defiled steeple (a sexual position).

Billy kissed me back, placing his hand on my cheek and casting [Iron Skin] and [Enhance Metabolism] on me as he rammed Barry harder. It didn't take Billy long to cum, pumping his load into Barry, followed shortly by Benny cumming and pumping his load into Billy's clenching hole. I took over from my baby bro, turning Barry onto his back and sliding my hard cock into his wet hole, while kissing him. After some hard fucking, I came in my brother's butt.

Meanwhile Davey was getting fucked by Alpha again, Beta was being double teamed by Louie and Larry. My other brothers were similarly naked and fucking.

After a twenty minute fuck break, we got back to work.

We bypassed the palace, I knew there was a hobgoblin queen with Oni bodyguards that might be worth some decent experience but I didn't really want to upset the status quo that much. Despite all the deaths we'd caused, the numbers would be replaced in a day or two and the level of skill would probably be replicated in a week or two. The numbers of females doubled daily so even the massacre through the `slums' would be replaced easily by the cast offs from the noble quarters.

The second round of killing nobles, those located beyond the palace proceeded quickly and efficiently, everyone was used to fighting alongside each other, levels had gone up, AP had been assigned to relevant stats, mostly intelligence and wisdom, spell and skill masterys improved through intensive practise. Most importantly we had already thinned down a lot of their numbers and had gained valuable expertise in combining our spells and skills into efficient progress.

Sigma's wolves had evolved themselves up to Dark Wolves, allowing them to learn [Path of Darkness] a higher end version of [Shadow Step] allowing for caster to generate their own darkness and travel through it into more distant shadows or darkness. It worked best at night or within dark confined spaces. The Dark Wolves had doubled in size and were tearing into night steeds for sustenance. They were almost the same size as the Night Steeds now.

Sigma's latest tamed wolves stayed at his side to protect him from goblin raiders. Sigma also threw out various spells from time to time but with less enthusiasm than others.

After a short but intense fight the way was cleared towards the exit of floor ten and we finally made it to floor 11. Before leaving I offered the deaths to Nil and he gave me a `booby prize' for my efforts, [Shield of Souls], allowing me to use the souls of the dead as protection against spiritual attacks. "Welcome to floor 11, imps are on the loose and if you're unlucky you may even run into a hellhound" This time the golem giving the introduction of the floor was iron, rather than stone.

The eleventh floor varied from the previous floors as it no longer looked like a cave but a noble's basement, dark but with torches, walls thick and solid and straight while the rooms were of uniform size. The first room was barely enough to hold us all, so various golems had to be pulped or dismissed, the corridors narrow with only enough room for one person to travel at a time.

Despite all the inconveniences we proceeded, with an earth golem taking the lead position and me directly behind it making use of DBG as bodyguard/blood armour. I didn't think the imps would pose much of a threat and their blood/essence would be of great value to DBG and me in our evolution.

There was an invisible (without Arcane Sight) mana barrier blocking off the corridor from the safe room, preventing the imps from attacking those entering the floor.

As the golem entered the chaotic imp filled room, it was bombarded by low level spells, mostly [Fireball] and [Energy Drain] with a couple of Envy demons trying to [Possess] it. I used [Death's Embrace] to eat the ethereal envy demons and consume their souls, the seconds they occupied it, they turned my golem against the other imps, smashing a few angry Wrath Imps and Lust imps alike. DBG slipped past me and into the middle of the moderately sized room to shoot out blood strings that drained the blood, life, mana and souls out of every imp there.

None of the imps survived the ruthless and bloodthirsty attacks, and I finished consuming the souls of the envy demons. What was left were dead and drained imps scattered about everywhere on the floor, the envy demons fading into nothingness as their souls were drained completely.

I looked over the fallen imps with a mild distaste, they looked so underwhelming and yet, all of them have magic and were natural spell casters from 'birth'. The imps ranged in colour and size from one to two feet tall, a lot of them had small wings and tails, the most common type were varying shades of red, that of Wrath and Lust, wrath demons having the colour old blood, a darkish red and Lust being the colour of fresh blood, a bright red. Their faces are those of chubby babies, but with sharp teeth, claws and tails.

Wrath and Lust are said to be the most common as they are the most common of all sins... It is said whenever a mortal has an impure thought an imp is created on the lower planes and when an immortal act is performed a lesser demon is spawned upon one of the 9 planes of the nearby hellscape.

Envy demons boast a sickly green light and intangible, with a taste of barely contained jealousy and envy, still their souls, limited as they may be, enrich my own with a particular desire for stronger flesh. Envy Demons tend to have Mind and Soul magic, and they spawn as ethereal balls of spiritual essence. They gain power by overriding the mind of the weak willed luring them into their deaths, then hijacking their corpses. They're best known for possession, their innate abilities are [Illusion] and [Possession]. At higher levels they can [Possess] the living, overwriting their minds entirely. Historically they're known for showing up as will o wisps and leading adventurers astray into danger and death.

I looked through the dead imps but none are those of the Sloth demons I desire. Sloth demons have ice or time magic and they gain power over time when stationary or when causing others to remain stationary. They feed off potential energy, the ultimate proponents of entropy, ironically enough. Their innate ability is [Freeze] or [Pause] depending on their pedigree. As such they don't tend to move about much and are relatively rare throughout the Frozen Wastes that they usually reside within. I see no demons with a deep blue (ice) or silver coloring (time) on which to make use of sadly enough.

Grindor's books on the enemies of the Lumos church which included demons, provided me with an overview of the different types of demons in the lower planes and their various special abilities. There's also devils, but they tend to be rarer, thankfully, as they're the more orderly cousins of demons. Each of the primal descended demons are spawned from cardinal sins and develop certain magical traits and behaviour.

The Wrath demons have fire related magics and gain power from bathing in the blood of their enemies. Their innate ability is [Blood Bath] allowing them to gain a portion of their enemies strength when drinking their enemies blood or submerged in it. This makes them very aggressive and they usually gain [Fireball] fairly early on so they have an advantage over a lot of the other types of imps in direct combat, they tend to be pretty shortsighted and stupid though, or at least that's what I've read.

As for Lust demons, they have a mixed bag of skills, their most iconic is attraction, illusion and energy draining, they change forms depending on those they seduce. They have the most amount of innate abilities but the weakest combat strength starting out. [Charm], [Energy Drain] and faster full body [Shapeshifting], providing little advantage if they can't find a suitable partner to leech off of.

There's some imps of the other three sins, Greed, Gluttony and Pride.

Greed demons have earth related magics and gain power from the accumulation of metal, the shinier the better. Their innate ability is [Accretion] allowing them to gain durability over time and with various earthen materials accruing over them, stone and iron being the most common. The ones on the ground were brown, having accumulated some stone to provide them with protection from the Wrath imps and their [Fireball]s and fists but their covering of stone makes them slow and don't hold up against DBG's powerful blood attacks, which can pierce metal with ease, let alone stone. At later stages, Greed demons can end up looking like metal golems, which is supposedly how early alchemists and mages came up with the idea to form protectors of stone and steel.

Gluttony demons have a very limited type of body magic, allowing them to gain power through overfeeding. Typically they appear bloated but their innate ability is [Bile] allowing them to melt organic materials quickly with stomach acid, that they're prone to spit out when attacked as a counter attack. The couple on the floor are obese specimens, as wide as they are tall and kind of roundish, and of a pale pinkish colour.

Pride demons have a tendency to gain either Body or Mind Magic, allowing them to use their enhanced body to kill lesser demons or their superior minds to dominate lesser demons. Innate ability is either [Reinforcement] or [Mind control], in very rare cases both. The only one in the room, is a purple specimen, a ruler type, who was surrounded by dark red Wrath imps.

I don't have much time to examine them in peace as another wave of imps have sensed our presence on their floor and rushes towards us, a bunch of Wrath imps leading the charge. DBG easily exterminates them, while I consume the ethereal envy demons with [Death's Embrace].

We proceed through a couple more rooms before arriving at the 'heart' of the problem, the floor's Hell Gate, it's a literal portal to hell, maintained via dungeon magic and my blood. It's a blueish portal that opens to the fractured realm of Pandemonium, there's a non stop procession of imps coming through the small portal and immediately fighting with each other for dominance and control.

Upon arrival in the larger room in the center of the floor, DBG clears the area of the baby demons and a couple of Hell Hounds arrive through the Hell Gate in quick succession. DBG kills one, while Theta throws a sedative at the other and Sigma picks it up for it's potential as a new test subject/pet. The hell hounds are waist high and are mostly black, with red markings on it's body, particularly around it's paws and mouth. Thanks to [Telepathy] and [Hive Mind] we have little trouble reacting to a strange threat with immediate and effective group response. That and it's probably just a hellhound cub as it only has one head, the older they get, the more heads they gain and the more dangerous they become as they gain height, weight and intelligence all at the same time, along with a lot more teeth and special attacks.

DBG reaches level 20 as a Sorcerer and level 10 as a Warlock. Having reached the second milestone as a Warlock he gets a to benefit from a gifted ability from his demonic patron. He' chooses to learn [Devil's Pact] as the spell he gains from me, allowing him to bind minions via blood magic. His perk choice is [Demon's Pet] increases the ease of gaining new demonic magic and traits (increased risk of demonification) and effect of demonic talents' by 50% (per milestone).

DBG promptly uses [Devil's Pact] to bind a particularly aggressive and large Wrath Imp that comes through the Hell Gate. The Imp has [Fireball] as a spell and the innate Trait of [Blood Bath] a suitable pet for a DBG.

The blood given by DBG to the imp as part of the [Devil's Pact] makes it stronger, faster and smarter. It gained a few traits from DBG's blood too, increased magical potential due to all the goblin shaman blood he's consumed and purified, along with goblin's inherent ability [Accelerated Growth] and my ability [Vampire's Regeneration].

We stay in front of the Hell Gate as DBG helps to power level his new pet/minion. I name it Bugger, admittedly not a great name, but I don't really feel like putting in that much effort to come up with a suitable name as it's only an imp.

Bugger spawn-camps in front of the hell gate, killing anything that comes out with a fireball or a fist and bathing in the unlucky victim's blood, steadily growing bigger and bigger with every kill. The strategy hits a snag when Bugger tries it on a hell hound as it's highly fire resistant and it's hide is quite tough. DBG helps it out by piercing the inconvenient beast through the heart in an effort to absorb it's inherent trait (fire resistance) for itself.

After several minutes of spawn-camping, Bugger the imp, has morphed from an imp, to a greater imp to a lesser Demon of Wrath. Essentially it meant that instead of it's original 2 foot form it had grown to four feet, it's wings had shrunk and it's tail had thickened as did the rest of it's body. It's control over fire magic had improved, allowing it to display [Flame Cloak] where it simply covered itself in flames.

We move on as getting Bugger stronger is nice but not the main goal, he can kill his way through the normal imps and bathe in their blood while moving while I reap their souls as we proceed to the Dungeon Core. We progressed through through the floor, and leisurely slaughtered our way through the imps of various colours and sizes. I used [Death's Embrace] to devour the green spirits to empower my soul or add to my [Shield of Souls] depending on my whim. My brothers had very little to do but practice their own spell crafts as we travelled. The only thing the imps had going for them was numbers and a basic grasp of spell craft, neither of which was that impressive after dealing with an entire city worth of goblins.

We finally get to the Dungeon Core at last. We are greeted by Dungeon Paul's golem avatar which is also made of iron and squishing imps that try and get past it to the core.

The best thing about floor 11 is that by getting here, we've set a new teleport point, so that if we wanted to, we can skip ahead to the eleventh floor whenever we desire. Also the time differential is 8 times faster than the outside world, so that every 8 minutes that pass here is 1 minute outside. This gives me time to enact some of my more crazier schemes.

After leaving a trail of dead and drained imps behind us, we could proceed with the next step of the plan.

Fifth Step – Physical enhancement.

I lie down on the ground, hand against the dungeon core and I let my brothers flay me alive as I use [Astral Projection] to escape the pain. Why? Simple, I need to be as strong as possible to deal with two potentially hostile Kings. Benny enchants my bones, [Energy Draining] the others to power the mana inscription of basic runes upon my bones. When he used it on Billy, he didn't need to flay him, however what I want is a lot more involved than that simple improvement. Benny works his way up and down my body, inscribing the runes for Renewal, Durability and Sound Reduction on my exposed bones. On my hands he inscribes fire, frost, sound and stone runes on the phalanxes of both hands.

Billy pumped me full of temporary buffs, solely to increase the spell mastery, they provided only minor benefits. I'd have to practice [Reinforcement] at a later point.

Dungeon Paul provided Omicron with various small amounts of carbon, manganese, silicon, chromium, vanadium and minuscule amounts of phosphorous and sulfur to make vanadium steel alloy.

I returned to my body to use [Replication] to help increase the amounts for the procedure, as my brothers continued to slash at me with goblin daggers to keep my bones visible as my body sought to use [Rapid Regeneration] to repair itself.

This was a variation of a fictional procedure done on a man codenamed after an animal, they coated his bones in a nigh indestructible metal in order to make a living weapon with rapid healing and metal bones.

Benny moved on from inscribing enchantments, to casting [Bone Strengthen] over and over again on every bone. The effects of his bone strengthening would provide permanent if minor improvements to the hardness of my bones. There are a lot of bones in my body.

Omicron meanwhile starts work on mixing together the molten metals with the help of Gamma and Delta that provide molten rock for a larger crucible.

After some time and numerous [Replication]s on my end, my bones are covered in vanadium steel. I used [Fusion] to integrate the vanadium steel into my bones so that they're functional, DBG pierces small holes into the bones so that the bone marrow can function normally. There are small gaps in coverage as a result, but my bones are far sturdier and tougher than they were before.

Then it's back to another round of enchantments, with runes for fire, frost, stone and sound dampening enchantments placed on the bottom of my feet. On my knees, elbows and knuckles those runes are reapplied. They should provided increase damage if I need to fight unarmed.

Then my flesh is allowed to seal up temporarily and I'm turned over so the process can repeat. It's an unpleasant procedure, as I'm not allowed to vacate my body for long before I'm called upon to [Replicate] more rare materials. On the upside, my skill/spell mastery improves for it, so it's a little less expensive the more I use it.

Finally it's over and I practice walking, my effective agility plummets and my pace is glacial, I'm three to four times heavier than normal. I compensate by using blood magic.

I have DBG walk for me and somehow I learn [Bloody Treadmill] which churns blood under my feet in order to move me without me having to walk at all.

It may be lazy and require a steady output of mana but I do like the idea of never having to go for long walks again. I even tested it on walls for a laugh and DBG adjusted things at the last minute so that I had blood spikes churning into and over the compacted earth walls. It was kind of enjoyable to hang upside down like a Doom Bat and watch my brothers look up at me. The only downside was that I would probably have to live with a permanently erect cock thanks to DBG. I end up with a new blood spell [Blood Sole] which allows me to traverse over any flat surface, through the power of blood magic.

Sixth step – homunculi batch number four

Next up, was the final step of my plan, which was the creation of another batch of brothers.

Our blood was spilled, our mana pooled and our minds and magic worked in combination to create ten new siblings.

Ten new brothers, one for each of the new Classes I wanted to explore.

A Soul Mage A Prostitute. A Thief A Swordsman A Archer A Knight A Druid A Tailor A Jeweller A Ranger

They were each given pieces of soul, except this time, I only gave 3% of my soul to each, 2% were given by the first and second generation of humonculi and 1% given by the latest batch.

The one that I wanted to improve on immediately was Stewie, the Soul Mage, potentially my first necromancer dependent on how things turned out. I pumped him full of essence and he chose Mage as his main class and I used [Brainwashing] to provide him with [Telepathic] instruction and conditioning, he chose [Meditation] and [Mana efficiency] as his free Skill and Perk. I have him learn a bunch of spells, namely [Soul splitting] to allow him to unlock Soul Mage as a class option, then I power level him using the imps as a source of experience.

The hell gate produces an endless stream of imps, with a slight chance of hell hounds passing through. Hell hounds aren't cardinal demons, they're more natural denizens of one of the lower planes, the Burning Plains.

It doesn't take long to power level Stewie to level 10 with all the imps available to kill, allowing him to pick his second Mage spell and Perk and a second Class. For his free Mage Skill and Perk he chose [Mana manipulation] and [Magical Proficiency]. He chose Soul mage as his subclass obviously and picks [Soul Strengthen] as spell, which allows you to convert mana into soul power. As for his perk he chose [Soul Survivor] which increased soul magic by 50%. I have him ensoul a basic earth golem and use it as a permanent protector. The earth golem chose Golem as his Class, skill [Harden] which increased durability by 10% per level and the Perk [Increased durability] which provided a 40% boost to golem's base durability. I have him [Energy Drain] a envy demon to acquire it's Soul affinity, which wasn't hard as the ethereal Envy demons tried to steal possession of his golems prior to ensoulment.

The soul affinity gained from the envy demons was a little unusual as they existed primarily as spiritual essence, so unlike the flesh bound affinities I picked up through sex and violence, Stewie's soul affinity resided in his soul, allowing him an extra slot for an affinity to make use of, within his body.

The others busied themselves inducting the newest brothers in the traditional manner, a family orgy and telepathic induction/indoctrination. The latest batch of brothers would assist my brothers and allow for them to grow stronger too. I think I may have created a homunculi ponzi scheme.

After everyone is all fucked out, Zeta and Beta hose down the mess and Dungeon Paul provides the `new borns' with fresh clothes.

My brothers take my new brothers/sons/grandsons? on an imp harvesting excursion through the eleventh floor for some combat practice. Straight in the deep end, they'll either sink or swim.

Then I bond with the Dungeon Core directly, splitting my soul some more in order to create a new soul anchor just in case of my death. Then we use the Dungeon core to teleport back to the fifth floor and make new rearrangements. We'd need more beds for all the new family members. Perhaps we should set a base on the tenth floor.

I float the idea to Dungeon Paul and he accepts it, the third and fourth generation are moved down to the goblin city and they set up a home in the upgraded building on the tenth floor noble quarters. If necessary they can be teleported to the fifth or first floor as they desire. The noble quarters also have kennels and stables to make use of for housing new pets, among other things.

This way they'll never have to worry about getting combat experience and they'll be deep within the dungeon if trouble finds me.

We had one last one [Psychic Union] sharing a host of information and spell craft with each other before separating.

Final step – Confrontation

I left the dungeon with two of my brothers, Alpha and Beta on either side of me, with DBG inside and outside of me, Beta dressed again in blue robes and wyvern trousers and Beta wearing loose string drawn pants. I wore DBG like a suit of armour, but because he had drunk so much of mine and my brothers blood, he had become quite a sex pest.

Technically I was naked without DBG, (not counting my ever present spatial bag), DBG was split in three connected pieces, the outer layer was the suit of armor layer, magically enhanced and hardened blood armor, enchanted by several of my brothers for maximum durability and with a host of other minor effects. The inner layer rested upon my skin, with some blood needles piercing into me connecting to the DBG in my veins.

The inner layer was part form fitting body suit and infernal sex pest, warm liquid blood roamed and groped every inch of my body, some more than others. My cock, ass and chest received special attention, my cock was continually manhandled by the mobile blood, so that it felt that I was getting sucked and stroked at the same time. My ass was filled with a hardened [Blood Spike] serving as a butt plug but alive and slowly expanding and contracting and moving back and forth as [bloody treadmill] kept me moving. As for my chest, blood flowed around and over my nipples, keeping them perpetually hard and needy. That wasn't the only thing DBG was doing to my chest, he made small scalpels and engraved my chest with various runes as practice. [Bleeding Edge] steadily improved as he carved my flesh over and over again with different runes.

The wounds didn't remain for long as [Vampiric Regeneration] tended to erase the bloody wounds and the scars after several minutes. Due to the last and internal layer of DBG, which flowed within my heart and throughout my veins. DBG feeding off the blood within me to maintain itself and keep operating in a relatively `passive' state, making the most of [Blood Fountain] to continually feed off my blood.

I had my tail and wings out. Bugger had been left behind as he wouldn't be strong enough to be of any use if a battle broke out.

We were abruptly stopped by one of the Irregulars and an Elf who had camped outside the dungeon entrance apparently waiting for me.

A quick glance at the Irregular and an [Identify] confirmed what I already knew from looking at him and reading about history.

Lidan Race – Demon Classes – Level 60 Warrior – ?? Berserker - ?? Mage – Fire Mage Title: Legendary Flaming Berserker Title: Demon Lord of Wrath

He towered over me at 7 feet tall bulging with muscles, dressed somewhat similar to Badrick, except where Badrick wore a cheap loin cloth, Lidan wore a loin cloth, made from hell hound pelt. He was red all over like Bugger with large curved horns sticking out of his forehead but where Bugger's wings had shrunk, Lidan's wings were huge, each wing as big as his body. They looked more like the wings of a dragon, than those of a demon, wings, red and black, like my armour's external colour scheme. His tail swished back and forth, restlessly, causing a repeated `whoosh' sound with each sweep of the tail.

I glanced at the elf, he hadn't been with Braern's entourage before. A quick [Identify] and I found out more than I wanted to know.

Alwyn Race: Elf Class - Level 60 warrior, ?? Swordman- ?? Mage – Water Mage Title – Legendary Flowing Bladesmaster Title – First Prince of Lithtas

He was tall, around 6'6 with the generic, Elven pointed ears, pale skin and a slender build. His sabre interested me more than he did, heavily enchanted with various runes related to water and with a crystallised mana core at it's base. "You've made us wait for a while little demon" Lidan said arms crossed over his broad chest, drawing my eyes to his chiseled abs, that looked like they belonged on a statue, rather than a living breathing person and the hellhound loincloth that barely hid his large swinging dick. The pelt covered his actual dick from sight but depending on how he stood and moved, the pelt tended to bunch up in certain places, defining the bulge in indecent detail, even if it was still technically covered up.

DBG had me on the edge, hard and horny and a little light headed from the constant blood loss. My hard cock was hidden well by the fact that the chest plate or cuirass was the thickest part of my entire armour. Partly because all the important organs reside in the torso but mostly it's to hide my hard throbbing cock, pressed upwards between hard abs, flowing blood and hard blood armour.

As DBG was connected to me through my blood, mind and soul, he fed off my pleasure and pain. The fact that being horny makes your blood pressure high probably has something to do with his continual and excessive stimulation.

I grit my teeth as I alternated between casting [Reinforcement], [Iron Skin], [Adrenaline rush], [Enhance Metabolism], [Bone Strengthen] and [Soul Strengthen] over and over again. Thanks to my brothers I knew a lot more spells, our collective knowledge would drive Archmages to cry tears of frustration. While I knew a lot of spells now, I lacked the specific Perks to take full advantage of them. That said, I could still benefit from some of the spells, Billy's in particular was of great use to helping maintain DBG. DBG also was casting multiple spells in alternation, using me as a test subject, some weren't of great use to it directly, but it could also cast many of the same spells as my brothers. Billy's were of particular use, DBG was semi parasitic, so to maintain a healthy host, improving the spell masterys of body magic was of great benefit for the both of us.

While I'm processing one line of thought and action and stifling the desire to moan, groan or otherwise cry out in pain or pleasure, I shift my focus onto responding. My sense of time has kind of failed what with being in varying differing time zones, one after another and mind magic allowing for [Parallel Thoughts] and simultaneously casting and even multicasting.

My thoughts are everywhere and nowhere, pain, pleasure, spellcasting, lust and fear circling around and around."Didn't expect you to be waiting for me" "You were so quick to run off into the dungeon, the kings wanted to ensure that when you came out that you'd be safely escorted to have an audience with them" "You cannot speak of my father, the king so casually" Alwyn said angrily. "Sure I can, he's not my king, nor is William, I only have one king and he doesn't care about my manners" "You're not in your accursed kingdom, you should mind your manners, before someone makes you"

I just watched the two of them bicker with mild amusement and annoyance, I really wanted Lidan to fuck me, a full blooded demon would be new and he's big enough to really fuck me up. Furtado craved a good pounding, DBG was making me nuts and the anxiety wasn't helping, some rough fucking might clear my head. I was treating my litany of spell casting as a calming mantra to keep my brain from overloading from panic but it was only half working.

Both of them just ignored Alpha and Beta, then again they were acting as my silent body guards, so it's not that surprising, also I'm nominally the Lord of Nibolg and they're my retinue, so it's not that odd they'd focus their attention on me and ignore them. "You're going to make me little man" Lidan taunted. "I'm over an aeon old and I will not be talked down to by a cursed fiend"

Lidan chuckled,"Is that supposed to impress me knife ears" "Leviathan's Lament will teach you your place, you "

I cleared my throat loudly breaking off Alwyn's reply before things got any worse, while I didn't really care if they killed each other, them doing so might start another demon war, and since the demons had their own kingdom named Gralon, on the mortal realm, I don't want them burning Nilbog down because these two wanted to engage in some dick measuring contest. "So about that escort" I asked shamelessly, deliberately ignoring Alwyn's anger and Lidan's deliberate needling. I had a feeling Lidan was causing trouble because I had shown up, perhaps he enjoyed having an audience or maybe he was trying to make some kind of point to me. Who knows? Well I could find out, by slipping into his mind but I learned my lesson after Sandra, never again.

Alywn grimaced, throwing a glower at Lidan before schooling his expression into a calm and elegant smile,"I'll lead the way" "You do that, I'll keep my eyes on him so he doesn't wander off" Lidan said as Alwyn strode forwards and upwards to the Elven Palace that his father built on my land, on top of the mountain.

I followed him along with Alpha on my right and Beta on my left and DBG all over me.

Lidan followed a step behind me, I glanced behind me, a bit worried about Lidan's predatory gaze on my back."Can I help you" "You seem a lot stronger than you were the last time I saw you an hour or so ago, you smell better and you're keeping your wings and tail out, you're an incubi right" Lidan asked with a disturbing kind of desire in his voice. I was getting the worrying sense that he wanted to eat me, an unpleasant thing to be on the wrong end of. "Uh yes" "Excellent I think we could be very good friend" he said, pressing himself close to me from behind. My blood armour prevented me from feeling his skin on mine...

Beta and Alpha both tensed up, ready for the word to attack, I shook my head no, I had to see where this played out, if he killed me, he killed me, I'd simply respawn within the dungeon. It wouldn't be ideal, because I'd go from a contracted employee to a slave with no real rights but I'd still be alive. I don't want my brothers to die for me, I made them so they could live better lives than me after all. "Never hurts to have another friend"

Which he immediately proved otherwise by lifting up my two tonne? form and biting my neck, through the blood armour equivalent of a gorget and drinking my blood. He pulled off briefly to say,"Fuck you're tasty, I'm going to fucking devour you"

It was like meeting Furtado in the flesh, the next second I was thrown onto the ground and DBG must have approved because he opened up to Lidan, drawing us closer together, the blood spike in my ass disappearing deeper into me and was replaced with Lidan's 14 inch burning cock. It reminded me a little of Nil's blessing and of Alpha's beast form fucking combined. Either way it filled me up good and proper. I moaned in satifaction from being so full and so warm.

DBG covered us both in flowing blood, that hardened and squeezed and caressed and submerged us. DBG filled up Lidan's ass, which was surprisingly receptive to being filled and fucked. "FUCK" I groaned as his huge hard cock slammed into me, he was far stronger than Alpha in his beast form. "Yeah Take it ALL" Lidan growled as he went to town, slamming into me with bone rattling force. DBG was doing a number on us both but it was also draining the vitality of Lidan and feeding it to me, so I had a slight advantage. I was lost in pleasure, pain and blood. "GODS DAMN IT! Could you two keep it in your pants for two FUCKING minutes?" Alwyn screamed at us.

Technically we were still `decent', DBG's blood armour covering us both from head to toe, with only a few vital areas exposed (eyes, ears, nose and mouth). Even if it was plainly obvious that I was being pinned down onto the ground by a hulking Wrath Demon Lord and thoroughly and brutally being fucked, no one could see any inappropriate parts. "SHUT UP, I'll be done in a minute" Lidan yelled back at the furious elf, picking up speed, his whole body burst into fire and his fucking got rougher, more violent, more furious, more intense.

My efforts on body enhancements proved vital to resisting serious damage to my back and insides. My fire resistance improved steadily as DBG continued to feed me Lidan's blood essence and my high constitution struggled to counter the burning fire.

It's a good thing I have experience being burned from within. Thanks Nil. "FUCK. FUCK.. FUCK, FUCK ME" I yelled out, getting deliriously close to my own orgasm.

Lidan complied gleefully, speeding up his thrusting into my ass until he groaned in bliss and clutched painfully on my arms and chest. My bones creaked under the extreme pressure before breaking. A rush of unprecedented warmth and life flowed into me.

Lidan rolled off me"Fuck I needed that" He said, lying on his back, calm and relaxed after fucking a load into me.

I lay face down on the dirt, bloody and delirious, having shot my own load as my bones broke. I'm so fucked up.

Luckily all the enchantments prove their worth as they feed off my mana to repair my bones and the metal over them. The Renewal rune while providing no immediate increase in martial prowess, proves its merit in restoring what was broken to it's former glory.

Lidan's strength is terrifying.

Alwyn was not amused."Animals are better than you two" "Fuck" I groaned out, DBG still busy reforming and resolidifying the armour, among a dozen other things it was doing at the same time.

I was just recovering my breath and performing what had become a mental chant, cycling through various `buffing' spells over and over again as I recovered physically and mentally from that brief but brutalising butt banging session. "Good, you're still alive, I was a little worried you wouldn't be able to survive till the end" "Then maybe you should have tried being a bit gentler than" I retorted.

Lidan got to his feet and crouched over me, his half hard cock dangled in front of my face. His loin cloth had fallen off sometime during the fucking unnoticed.

I reached out and grabbed his cock and put it in my mouth, sucking on it, sliding my hands around to grip onto his meaty ass. I had mostly recovered, a little tired and bruised but good for another round. "Mmm I was right, a proto can take a dicking and survive. I hate when they die mid way through, so frustrating. I can't decide what's better to fuck your ass or your mouth. Fuck yeah, you're going to share my tent and I'm going to give it to you all night long. Would you like that" "Mm" I moaned around a mouthful of cock, DBG had replaced the blood spike in my ass and had started fucking me some more, mimicking Lidan's pace, while stroking me and carving on my flesh, new runes, all over my body. "I can't believe you two, don't you have any decency" Alwyn complained from the side.

Lidan ignored him."You know what, I want to fuck your ass some more" He promptly pulled out of my mouth and moved around to lie on top of my prone body and shoved his thick hard cock back in my ass."Your mouth is good but your ass is more fun to pound" "Fuc" I moaned as he bottomed out within me, his cock digging in deep and oh so warm. DBG retreated inwards, leaving me completely naked sprawled on the dirt, cock grinding against the hard stone. DBG saturated my flesh with highly concentrated magical blood, improving oxygenation to muscles and heart and skin and bones and everything. He was even in my brain, making my thoughts run faster, he resonated with my Mind, body and Soul. "Rare for your kind, to live so long and get so strong, I'm going to make you mine" Lidan whispered into my ears, steadily moving his cock back and forth casually as if we had all the time in the world.

Alwyn watched on in impotent fury.

Alpha and Beta moved closer."Think we should help" Alpha lowered his trousers kicking them off and away. He moved behind Lidan, stroking his hard cock. "Not bad but you got to be stronger than that if you want to mount me"

Alpha growled as he transformed, shifting into beast mode to pounce on Lidan, Lidan smacks him with a seemingly casual slap, but which sent Alpha sprawling, chest caved in. A serious blow to a normal assassin but Beast Mode comes with enhanced regeneration and constitution. Alpha gasped out,"you win that round. Fuck"

Beta had already made use of Lidan's distraction to plug my mouth with his hard cock. "Your friends smell a lot like you but also not, how strange" Lidan said, still casually fucking me, with a calm steady pace. He eyed up Beta whose cock was lodged firmly down my throat, then at Alpha's ribs settling back into the correct place. "Mmm" I moaned, spreading my legs to get better leverage and locking my ankles with his, didn't quite line up right since he was so tall but it was enough to help give me a bit more room to move and some much needed leverage.

I backed up my ass, meeting his thrusts with my own movements grinding my cock over stone some more. "Let's see what you taste like little mage" Lidan said before nipping Beta's neck with his sharp teeth and licking the resulting blood. "Rud" Beta responded, still thrusting his cock in my mouth as he pushed Lidan off him with a high powered [Water Blast]. "Not a bad flavor, taste kind of alike, what are you" "Brothers" Alpha said, appearing from out of the shadows using [Dark Path] to appear instantaneously behind Lidan and shoving his 14 inch beast cock into Lidan's unprotected ass. "Fuck. You win that one, but can you survive it" Lidan said as he exploded with flames coating his entire body, burning both Alpha and me. I reached behind Lidan to touch Alpha's bare thigh and cast [Reinforcement], [Iron Skin], [Adrenaline Rush], [Enhanced Metabolism] and [Bone Strengthen] on Alpha over and over again. Alpha tended towards skills that made him a better magical assassin, rather than a more powerful warrior, aiming for fast kills, rather than long lived battles.

Beta cast [Frozen Armour] on Lidan slowing his movements. Lidan had impressive power but his defences weren't that high, most likely due to his selection as a berserker. A berserker who didn't get injured, didn't benefit from all the damage x power perks of the Berserker class. Still he wasn't weak enough that [Frozen Armour] slowed him down for more than a second. Still it was enough time to provide Alpha time to recover from his wounds and gain useful combat and Class experience. Experience gains for warriors is a lower bar than for Alchemists, as Warrior is a basic Class... That and Alpha had survived an attack from a level 60 Flaming Berserker. I wasn't sure exactly what his Legendary Perk or Skill would be but I had a suspicion that it would be deadly and fiery. Maybe [Blood and Fire]? A perk that provided more damage, the more blood had been spilled on either side. I had read about the exploits of the Legendary Irregulars before but I hadn't expected to meet them or be in such a weird situation with one. Their Legendary Perks and Skills were international secrets, with only rumours and songs about their exploits providing hints.

Lidan's fire intensified again, bathing us all in steam, Alpha got the worst of it as his affinities were for shadow and mind.

I had DBG redirect some fire affinity via a blood tether and insisting he add fire affinity to his repertoire using [Telepathy] "STOP IT! We're going to be late" Alwyn whined. "How can we be late, they didn't know how long he'd be in the dungeon and it's not easy to explore a dungeon for one person" Lidan replied, having calmed down somewhat during the interruption, casually thrusting in and out of my hole while Alpha remained stationary behind him, letting Lidan do all the work of pleasing his thick cock. "BECAUSE I sent a [Whisper] when he exited"

Lidan sighed,"Why did you do a silly thing like that" "It's my DUTY to fulfil my King's request. Some of us have pride in our work" Alwyn replied, for a dour, yelly elf guy, he's kind of cute when he's cranky, that and the significant bulge in his trousers might mean that I might have some luck removing the metaphorical stick up his ass and replacing it with something hard and warm and oh so good...

Speaking of his trousers, he's very nicely dressed in green doublet and tight form fitting trousers, with what looks like magical thread from Soul Spiders and enchanted with numerous runes. I passed along the image of Alwyn via [Soul Resonance] to Omicron, Omega and Taylor the tailor. Well Taylor will be a tailor after we get Deva or one of the girls at the brothel to teach him to sew. Omicron was given the image of Leviathan's Lament, Alwyn's fancy sabre and Taylor so he had something to work towards and Omega because he is the family's record keeper. "Sorry boys, look like we'll have to pick up this game later" Lidan `nudging' off and away from him with a casual movement, Alpha got thrown back, landing on his bare butt on the dirt. Then he pulled out, leaving my ass feeling temporarily empty, DBG filled me back up with a hardened blood spike and reformed the layers of blood armour over me, making me look presentable again. "Your ass is mine" Alpha stated with complete confidence, standing tall, having quickly recovered from the impact, [Enduring] is a wonderful trait, allowing for rapid improvements in certain attributes. It worked better for Alpha than a lot of my other brothers, due to how the Warrior Class places a higher priority on physical stats. Not that [Enduring] didn't work for my other brothers, it just took more effort and time to get the same results. "You're welcome to try but maybe you'll be the one with my cock up your ass"

Alpha just shrugged and smiled,"I look forward to our rematch"

One violent encounter with Lidan was worth more experience than hours of fighting off waves of goblins on the tenth floor for Alpha.

Beta pulled out of my mouth, retrieving his bag, robe and trousers and quickly getting dressed. He had plenty of practice at dressing in a hurry after a `fuck break'. Alpha took his sweet time putting on his loose fitting trousers, deliberately bending over in front of Lidan to bait him.

As for me I simply rose up from my position on a tide of blood."We should probably get going then, don't want to keep the Kings waiting" Before Alwyn could whine any more, I shouted out"LAST ONE UP IS A COX-COM" and raced off on [Blood Tide], the blood equivalent of [Wave Strider]. "You Scoundrel" Lidan shouted, spreading his wings and chasing after me.

Alpha and Beta were quick to follow suit. Alpha using [Dark Path] learned from Sigma's Dark Wolves and Beta simply used [Wave Strider] having to supply his own water via [Manifest Water].

Alwyn was the last to regain his bearings and follow Beta's example to create a flow of water to use to race up the mountain."You're all ridiculous" And yet he still put his all in to shoot past Beta and Alpha.

Lidan rushed into the stone palace, followed by me a few seconds later, then Alwyn followed by Beta and several moments later Alpha, having exhausted both his mana and stamina pools. Alpha couldn't maintain beast form and run and use [Dark Path] all at the same time uphill. Alpha was more of a short burst damage dealer than anything. [Dark Path] was a higher version of shadow magic than [Shadow Step] and required a lot more mana, most of which he had already blown by regenerating and refining his body after his violent run in with Lidan.

Still we arrived in the room to deafening silence, one of the Irregulars was the first to comment.

A quick [Identify] revealed his identity and his Classes.

StormGrip Race: Leonid Class: Level 65 Druid - ?? Warrior –?? Mage –??Priest Title: Legendary Spiritual Shaman Title: Chieftain of the Golden Plains tribe "Why are you naked" StormGrip asked "Uh um" Lidan replied, desperately trying to cover his cock, he had become all shy in the company of the two kings and the Elven delegation.

I sent a quick telepathic message to DBG who promptly shot out some blood that quickly covered his crotch with an improvised cod piece, made of blood armour, which hardened, the blood spread to cover up his backside, more of it sliding into his ass and hardening up. He glared at me as he squirmed, trying to ignore the blood moving up and down over his cock and back and forth in his ass. "I'll go fetch your clothing for you" I said, glancing at Lidan with amusement. Blood poured from my chest into a small golem shaped like an imp, complete with wings and tail. I used [Mana Crystallisation] to give it a power source, allowing it to survive for roughly an hour before needing to be re assimilated. I didn't have the time to bother enchanting all the runes necessary for creating a longer lasting golem. All that time with Dungeon Paul's golem avatar wasn't wasted, my proficiency at golem crafting is leagues above what it was. The blood imp, flew off to go collect Lidan's loin cloth, I continued with a smile as I looked at the Elven Delegation that consisted of Braern and his Shadow walker."I'm sorry for Lidan's lack of attire, him and my bodyguard got into something of a dispute and things got out of hand"

Technically not a lie but very misleading, I let them draw their own conclusions.

The King had the Irregulars as a royal retinue, while Elven King Braern had his son and the Shadow Walker. It'd be hard to guess who'd be the winner of a fight if the two factions fought.

There's six members of the Irregulars, all of them different races, all of them Legends, a demon, dwarf, leonid, elf, lizardmen and a dragon. Lidan is the demon, StormGrip the Leonid.

StormGrip was a muscular looking demihuman, with golden fur all over his body his face looked like that of a lion but his body was humanoid in shape, with a tail and sharp black nails. He wore only brown shorts that clung to his muscular thighs and showed a decent bulge at the crotch, his biceps were prominent, though his abs were hidden by a layer of fur.

Taranath Elf – Level 55 Bard – ??Sorcerer -??Warrior - ?? Mage Title: Third prince of the Tatsu Kingdom Title: Legendary Master of Songs, Stories and Sorcery

Another elf, tall, pale and slender, 6 foot tall, slim and toned, dressed in a mix of green and brown fabrics, with a sword strapped to his waist and a lute slung over his shoulder.

Zazu Lizardman – level 51 Warrior – level 50 Priest – ??Mage – ?? water Mage Title: Chieftain of the Marais tribe Title: Legendary Swamp God (Marais) Avatar

A lizardman, armed with a magic sword, 6 and a half feet tall, with brown scales and a tail, he's 'dressed' with a green scarf and a brown loin cloth, however it doesn't actually cover his crotch, though where a cock would be on a normal humanoid was nothing visible, which was interesting, I knew that Lizardmen reproduced sexually and had penises of a sort, specifically a hemipenis, I was curious what that would be like, slamming into me, either end.

Larongar Dragon – Level 70 Mage – ??Fire Mage- ??Water Mage- ?? Mind Mage Title – Junior sect master of the Order of Scales Title – Legendary Archmage

Displaying an appearance similar to a draconid, this polymorphed dragon, is not that dissimilar to Zazu the lizardmen, not that I would be so stupid as to say that aloud, or even think it, for longer than a second. Except this dragon is purple, eight foot tall, has huge wings similar to that of Lidan and is wearing Admantine plate armour. Where other mages would buckle under it's weight, the dragon appears to have no problem casually standing about in such heavy armour. Not surprising, dragons are well known for their magic power and strength. They also rule over an entire continent by themselves, with lesser reptilian species and some fae races beneath them.

Dwarf – Level 55 Blacksmith – ??Mage – ??Earth Mage - ??Enchanter Title: Lord of the Iron Clan Title: Legendary Master of Metal

The dwarf is the shortest of the group at four feet, but that is counterbalanced by how wide the dwarf is, not that he's fat exactly, just broad and muscular, with a large blacksmith hammer over his shoulder. He wears enchanted chain mail and around his waist are many spatial pouches, he's adorned with enchanted jewellery, an amulet, two rings on either hand and a couple of bracelets.

Immortal and some would say Invincible King William said"It doesn't matter much, what I've come to discuss is your cooperation with the kingdom in pursuing peace and prosperity"

Which was enough to stop me from thinking too much on the Irregulars and what [Identify] told me about them. King Braern and King William both had thrones, within a palace built on my territory and I didn't even have a chair to sit on. Thankfully a Mage is never without recourse as long as he has mana and sufficient skill and intellect. DBG provided me with a throne of my own, a bloody one, I didn't feel like being talked down to in my own territory. I may not be able to win a fight against any of these people but that wouldn't mean I'd meekly submit without fighting back in my own way. I tapped my fingers on the arm rest of my blood throne and asked"What exactly did you have in mind"

King William just looked at me for a moment before he said,"you've changed quite a bit in the hour you've been gone. You're almost a Legend, but everyone here is at least a Legend except for you and your retinue, so I'd be careful about being so brash" "This is my territory and I'll act as I see fit" "Ah the joys of youth, such arrogance. I think it's time you're taught a lesson about the heights of heaven"

I rolled my eyes at the King's smugness and the wuxia reference."And how exactly will you do that? Are you going to fight me" "I'm a King, I don't need to fight you, any one of my men is more than a match for you and yours" "Well then what do I get when I win" "The ability to continue talking I imagine"

He gestured and Zazu the Lizardman strode forth dressed in his nonsensical loin cloth, brandishing his bastard sword, which looked like it was a magic sword."I'll teach you your place" "This isn't a good idea" Lidan said, trying to deescalate the situation oddly enough, placing his hand on my shoulder.

I knew it was a bad idea to provoke the king but I was frustrated at the sense of helplessness and powerlessness that reminded me of the bandit cave again. I refused to cower, just because I'm not strong enough, I'd rather die than submit again. The rest of them looked on with mild curiosity. I didn't even bother getting up, sending DBG to fight in my place, an Alchemist should never fight directly if it can be avoided. "You can't think a mere blood golem is enough to defeat m" Zazu said dismissively as DBG moved towards it.

I wore only a normal [Blood armour] over my skin, lacking all the benefits of DBG's version, it chafed around the cock but it was nice to get a break from the constant cutting into my flesh. My defences had dropped drastically without DBG but I had faith that I wouldn't be so vulnerable for long. That and I had my brothers to provide me with additional protection if necessary."I wouldn't take it so lightly if I were you"

Zazu lashed out with his sword, slicing into the torso of DBG, pouring his mana into the sword and into DBG, freezing it solid."I am not impressed" "Give it a second" I replied unconcerned.

DBG burst out of the confinement, blood literally boiling with the fire magic it's refined from sapping Lidan among others. "Hmmph, cheap trick" Zazu replied, before using [Manifest Water] to cover himself the nearby area in water, that he used to bombard DBG with various water magics, namely [Water Whip] and [Ice Spike]s. Neither of which had much impact on DBG who either evaded the attacks or simply let them pass through him.

Beta provided protection against the stray attacks, forming a circular [Ice wall] around us, Alwyn and Lidan ended up within our ice fort. The ice wall was transparent so we could continue watching the show in safety.

DBG retaliated by shooting out [Vampiric Tethers], strings of blood that shot into a victim and drained the target of life energy, mana and blood. Only a couple of them hit Zazu, as he used [Wave Strider] to dodge the first initial volley but failed to dodge a couple of the faster tethers that followed a split second later.

Not to be outdone, Zazu created a [Blizzard] cutting the vampiric tethers and peppering DBG with hundreds of ice spikes.

As DBG was a blood golem with no core, and a fluid form fuelled by liquid mana and blood, the only real way to defeat it was to disperse it's blood, defeat the summoner or wait till the mana ran out. None of those would be as easy as it sounded, I was behind an ice wall, DBG had a lot of blood and if he waited for mana to run out he'd be waiting a while.

So he chose to double down and try and inflict maximum damage on the summon and myself at the same time. He channelled the power of his Lesser God into himself, allowing him greater control over water and a boost in mana and strength. He sent a barrage of water magics at DBG, intensifying the [Blizzard] so that all the frozen fury focused on overwhelming DBG's boiling blood with coldness and frozen blades, presumably hoping to render it immobile and shatter it during a moment of weakness.

DBG countered this strategy by staying mobile, circling around Zazu and firing off [Vampiric Tethers] that combined [Vampiric Regeneration], [Energy drain] & [Blood Absorption] into one super spell. It was simple but every time one of the [Vampiric Tether]'s connected Zazu would weaken and DBG would strengthen, especially since it was devouring a bit of divine power through Zazu's connection to Marais.

The difference between a gift from a Major God compared to one given by one of the thousands of lesser Gods with smaller dominions is significant.

{Would you like to surrender?} I asked casually using [Telepathy], the noise of the barrage of ice spikes on the ice wall somewhat deafening. All the unsuccessful attacks landed on Beta's [Ice Wall].

The blood imp returned along with his prize of Lidan's loin cloth and he was accompanied by Bugger who had followed him up the mountain. Demons aren't good at following instructions, it had sensed it's master fighting against another and wanted to help or to bathe in the enemy's blood, which in demon is roughly the same thing.

The [Blizzard] abruptly ceased as did DBG's counterattacks. Just as the battlefield started to clear, Lidan melted his way past through the [Ice Wall] and collected his hellhound pelt loin cloth. He picked up Bugger like an adult would pick up a stray unsupervised small child, checking to make sure it hadn't been injured or gotten into mischief, depending on the inherent cynicism of the adult in question."And where did you come from little one"

DBG melted through the other side of the [Ice Wall] and used [Broadcast] to say"He's mine" "How odd, you're like a little treasure box, I look forward to you joining the Order" Lidan said, looking at me with naked desire. "What Order" I asked

King William cleared his throat loudly interrupting our conversation. DBG took that moment to remove the blood armour covering Lidan's cock while also retrieving it's erstwhile minion. Lidan responded by quickly covering himself with the loincloth which did little to hide his massive cock, DBG's attention leaving it hard and in need of a good draining."Well that was unexpected, blood golems aren't usually so vigorous" "Yeah Nil gave it to me as a gift for slaughtering several thousand assorted goblins, hobgoblins, night steeds and shadow wolves" "You're claiming the God of Death as your patron" "Indeed" DBG returned to me, reinforcing the [Blood Armour] over me, covering my skin and diving back into my veins to reoccupy and feed off my blood again. I could taste the power of a second god within me, I could tell it'd provide me with a boost to my water magic and increase of personal strength. I didn't need it, I passed it off to as an inverse [Vampiric Tether] gifting Beta with god blood to make him more powerful.

DBG had become stronger as a result of the match against Zazu, Level 26 Sorcerer, Level 20 Warlock and Level 1 Mage. As per tradition, he chose [Meditation] as skill allowing for increased mana regeneration while stationary and [Mana efficiency] as Perk which provides a ten percent bonus to all spells and magical abilities, allowing for it to cost less to activate/use (per milestone). As for Sorcerer Skill enhancement and Speciality Perk, he chose to enhance [Blood Armour] improving it's defences against magical and physical attacks and the Perk was [Fire Magic] allowing it to counter two potential weaknesses. The risk of being frozen and the risk of being evaporated. This way it could counter frost with high temperature flames, or simply thaw itself faster if it was frozen and it could counter fire with more powerful fire..

I leaned back on my throne of blood satisfied, the battle had also provided me with Class experience to all four of my Classes. Alchemist because it's technically my creation as it's made of my mana and blood, Magical Assassin because it doesn't take damage in the conventional sense, Mage because it's magical and Blood Mage because it's fuelled by my blood and blood magic. Hmm potential Legendary pathway is opening up to me. Still needs more experimentation and fine tuning, if I could get a Priest subclass, I might even be able to upgrade to an Avatar of Death, that'd be fun. "Well it appears you're qualified for the position I had in mind for you" "Which was" "A probationary member of the Irregulars, helping to solve certain problems throughout the world, making use of your unusual pedigree to bridge the gap between humans and demons" "Is this a request or a royal order" "I would never try and force someone into service, that would only breed hatred and resentment and considering the delicate nature of the work, only volunteers are desired. So would you like to join the team" "What would I be obliged to do exactly" "Well first you would receive supervised training in the Capitol's dungeon by one of the Irregulars-" "I would be happy to help my young friend learn everything he needs to know about slaying monsters" Lidan interrupted, placing his hand on my shoulder possessively. "I'd imagine you'd have things in common at least, so I wouldn't oppose it. I also hear that you're an Alchemist and there is no better place to obtain rare and powerful ingredients than in the Capitol's dungeon which has a hundred floors"

I thought about it, it was a tempting offer, which made me more wary, not less, things that were too good to be true, often were."You haven't answered my question as to what my duties would be as an Irregular would be" "I'm building it up to it young man, the Irregulars visit some of the most dangerous places in order to solve problems, this can vary in severity from low tier monster waves, to undead hordes, to rampaging dragons to settling skirmishes between provinces, kingdoms and nations as ambassadors. Think you'd be interested in the position" "I have a couple of conditions, I want to bring my brothers along to assist me and while I'm gone, I'll be leaving one of my brothers in charge of Nilbog in my place" "That is fine, you can take them to the capital, however their inclusion in the Irregulars like yourself is dependent on their results and their efforts. Did you have anything else you wish to say to me" "Yes, I thought you might like to know that there's two Champions from your world in the town, they might be able to provide you with news from your homeworld" "Wait? What" "Yeah Michael and Paul, Michael should be in the Mage tower working on being a Dimensional Mage and Paul, well it's complicated but one of his avatars should probably in the Adventurer's Guild fucking about but it'd probably be better to visit him in the dungeon, since he is the dungeon. Actually you're probably better off talking to one of the golems in the entrance rooms, they'll be more sober at this time of the day" "Why are you so indifferent when delivering such news" "I've known them for months now and I'm bound by one of them, which is one of the reasons I left in such a hurry in order to sort myself out" "Why did you think I'd want to speak to them" "I read your autobiography" "Oh, I thought I had those books burned a long time ago" "A few of them survived and I read one" "Do you still have it" "No, I don't know where it is now" Technically true, I didn't know the exact position in George's library the book was in at that moment. When dealing with royalty it's best not to lie, as they often have truth seeking Skills and Perks available. Misleading statements which are truthful but dishonest in spirit, are harder to detect. "I guess I should go leave for a bit and check in on things at the dungeon. Lidan you keep them company while I'm gone" He left along with all the Irregulars except for Lidan.

Immortal King William left in a hurry, leaving me with my two brothers, Lidan and the three elves.

King Braern had been waiting quietly the entire time, while the Shadow walker remained quiet, I don't think I've heard him say a word since he first showed up in town 2 months ago. King Braern let out a long sigh,"I had originally wanted to have you marry my daughter so my grandson wasn't a bastard but considering your nature and the company you keep, I doubt that will satisfy my people. So instead, I plan to leave this palace here and have it serve as an Elven Embassy, while my daughter is in exile, with her bastard demon spawn"

Alwyn was sombre. "I don't have a problem with that" I said, I didn't have any particular feelings for Dagara other than some lingering awkwardness about that night that Dungeon Paul used us both for his own amusement. "I'm going to say goodbye to my town, I'll back in an hour."

King Braern just gave a weary nod and I left in a hurry before I could get involved in more conflict about my bastard spawn with an elf princess. I left the now designated Elven embassy with my three escorts and DBG and Bugger who came along for the ride. I went to the Adventurer's Guild to book one of the `exclusive' rooms. It was located under the ground level and was meant for staff employees and for emergency evacuation purposes, so it was particularly sturdy, reinforced by Deva and several other mages to resist all sorts of damage. It came in handy for surviving a monster wave or fucking around.

As soon as the door closed Alpha challenged Lidan. "Rematch?"

"Naked wrestling, loser takes it up the ass." Lidan responded, ditching his hellhound pelt loin cloth, revealing a hardening cock.

"Challenge accepted" Alpha responded, dropping his trousers and transforming into Beast Mode, displaying an enlarged and engorged cock.

They slammed into each other, hard cocks and harder bodies crashing into each other as their fingers intertwined in a primal battle for dominance.

DBG pulled out and off of me and I gestured to Beta who promptly disrobed and undressed and sat on my lap facing away from me to watch the two naked males 'wrestle'.

Alpha was outmatched and overpowered, abruptly and was pinned to the ground, his tight ass penetrated by Lidan's hard cock, as expected. Alpha let out a growl as Lidan rammed his flaming fuck stick all the way inside Alpha's virgin hole.

As for Beta and I, we had no need for a pretense or a pretext, I was already balls deep in brother Beta's bare butt, rubbing my hands all over his slim body and stroking his very hard cock, enjoying the show. I hadn't seen Alpha fucked before, he was always the fucker.

As for DBG and Bugger they were busy playing in the corner launching fire balls at each other with Bugger splashing through DBG to bathe in his mana enriched blood and DBG draining Bugger of blood. You know the usual fun and games, totally normal and every day occurrence.

Lidan and I fucked our partners hard but thoroughly, making full use of our free time to enjoy ourselves properly. Both Beta and Alpha moaned like horny sluts as we fucked them and stroke their cocks.

Lidan admittedly was rougher on Alpha than I was on Beta but sooner than expected, all four of us were groaning and cumming.

Then we swapped partners, Lidan pulled out of Alpha's gaping asshole while I pulled out of Beta's butt. I turned Alpha around and rode his cock while Lidan pounded Beta's butt, a little more gently than he had Alpha but not by much. Beta responded by repeatedly casting [Frost Armour] and [Mend Minor Wounds]. After another round of orgasms, I convinced the others to fulfill my whim and triple team me.

I had Lidan lie on his back, with his wings out and I sat on his stiff cock, enjoying the satisfaction of his oversized fuck stick filling me up inside but I was still horny... Alpha quickly satisfied my desire for more cock by squeezing his enlarged human/wolf cock deep into my ass. IT HURT SO GOOD... I Screamed.

Beta shoved his hard cock into my mouth, gagging me from making more noise than a stifled moan and the three of them showed me no mercy as requested and hammered away at my insides until the world went dark and I lost all sense of self. I woke up sometime later sore and tired but a quick inhabitation by DBG helped repair all the internal and external damage from the brutal fuck down.

Having more than satisfied my carnal urges for the moment, I perform a goodbye tour, saying goodbye to various friends and acquaintances and advising them of the general situation.

My goodbyes are bittersweet and brief, as I wasted too much time fucking around with my escorts. I do introduce Lidan to Melville, Jim and my aspiring knights, all of them bound to me by blood and [Devil's Pact]. Lidan was particularly interested in visiting the brothel again, the next time he was in town.

I had a quick look over the city of Nilbog and think about what it is and how much it's grown from the one floor goblin dungeon it used to be. Nilbog has a population roughly of eight thousand and growing slowly but surely.

Nilbog has a low crime rate thanks to Adrian and his efforts, any thief he finds he ends up recruiting for the scouts, dungeon raiding teams, City Guard or as a member of the espionage division.

The dungeon's open door policy is popular and the ease of the first five levels allows for a steady stream of Adventurers as does the spatial and temporal adjustments and improvements.

The low tax rate attracts merchant as does the steady export of iron and weapons and potions. Nilbog is known for it's `boost potion', the diluted version of the goblin potion that I ended up passing out to a few people as a prize and soon became a stable of the dungeon town. We also have several apothecaries for providing healing and stamina potions, most of them former students of mine.

Nessa has imported more of her `girls' from Essex and elsewhere so they can benefit from the more liberal policies that Nilbog offers.

I grow restless thinking about Nilbog and the amount of boring and annoying meetings that I had to sit through to make it a success, I decide to just accept this situation for the time being and work on a more satisfying solution later, I had an idea on how to progress to a Legend and the Capitol's dungeon, would be ideal as I wouldn't have to worry about the dungeon's mana supply at all. I sent through various messages via [Soul Resonance] to my brothers about various things I wanted them to attend to in my absence.

One of the most important is the message sent to Delta to create a temple to Nil somewhere with lots of foot traffic. The other was to Omega to handle the duties of running the city and managing all of the various requests and administration duties. Omega is particularly suited for the role as it involves lots of tedious reading of reports and authorising or denying requests. My remaining brothers would provide him with all the protection required. As for the fourth generation brothers they'd be scattered throughout the city once they've shape-shifted into a sufficient different form as to evade attention in order to pursue their various Classes. Stewie would be the only to remain in the dungeon out of the fourth generation to help with continued experiments on the ensouling of various golems.

Upon return to the Elven Embassy King William is there with the Irregulars, Michael and one of Dungeon Paul's avatars.

Upon our arrival, King William twists the hourglass on his ring and a man dressed in silver robes appears out of a shimmering blue portal and asks wearily"Where to"

He looks around late 30's with unkempt hair and dark shadows under his eyes. He'd be more attractive if he didn't look so tired and dead inside.

A quick [Identify] provides me with more information.

Damian Human – Level 55 Mage- Level 52 Spatial Mage – Level 51 Time Mage – Level 50 Enchanter Title: Legendary Dimension Mage Title: Royal Carriage "Transportation to the capitol and I'd like to set up a teleportation hub here too later" "Yes my leige" "You wouldn't happen to be a Dimension Mage" I asked "I am" "Space and Time affinities" "Yes, I am the Royal Carriage" "I should buy you a drink when you have a moment" "I wish, I'm not allowed to drink, there is too much work to be done" "I have a couple of brothers that would love to be of help to you, they're already Space and Time Mages, they're just missing one ingredient and they'll be set to become powerful Dimension Mages. All I need is a drop of your blood to help them and in effect help you too, help get rid of your load" I said subtly working in a bit of the power from [Demonic Whispers] into my voice to make the suggestion more appealing, with an undertone of 'I'll suck your dick if you give me what I want'.

He looked to the king, desperately and the king shrugged and said,"It's your blood" "I can live with a drop less blood if I can get some time off to sleep and drink" He said, biting his finger and dripping a couple of drops of blood into my outstretched hand.

DBG absorbed the blood, acquiring space and time affinity, not that it's in the position to make full use of it, but now it serves as a blood bank while I wait for my brothers to arrive. I sent them a message using [Soul Resonance]."They'll arrive in a couple of minutes" "I'm also aiming to become a Dimension Mage and I'm a champion from Earth" Michael said to the guy. "Do you have time or space affinity" He asked. "No" "Then I don't fancy your chances much" "Then why did you give him your blood" "It's just some blood, it's not like he's asking for something hard"

I'm tempted to enact [Devil's Pact] on the man but conscripting the King's Dimension Mage would get me into seriously hot water. There's other ways to get him to work for me, ways more entertaining for the both of us.

A couple minutes later, Steve and Terry show up looking like identical twins and I gift them space and time affinity, making it a lot cheaper for them to cast time and space spells. "My brothers both have the Space, Time and Mind affinity now, so if you open your mind a little and think of how you open a dimensional gate between here and there, they should be assist you immediately.

He looks for permission from the king again and the king replies to the wordless request,"I can always use more talented Dimensional Mages, it's your mind though" "I don't care, it's worth a try, this seems far faster than training a replacement"

He opens his mind up and they learn [Dimensional Gate] a way to traverse time and space and travel leagues away in just a moment. Neither of them have the mana pool to do it alone but with three of them working in union, the spell becomes more than manageable, it becomes simple. They use their mana to widen the portal that Damien made, making it larger and more stable.

Steve and Terry transmit the method to myself through [Soul Resonance] and I pass it along to Omega and DBG in a similar fashion. Now all they need is more levels, more mana and the Enchanter Class so they can create permanent Dimension Gates.

The Hell Gate on floor eleven only continues to exists due to the high mana of a dungeon and the relative proximity to the Burning Plains. Hence why our world suffers from infrequent but repeated invasions by demonic hordes. To maintain a `normal' Dimensional Gate requires a constant supply of mana crystals, a formation of specific runes and powerful guardians to ensure it's not used inappropriately.

The dimensional portal the three of them open is big enough to take three of us across as once, instead of the one person it usually allows through at a time.

This is a marked improvement.

I walked through the dungeon portal with my brothers and another stage of my journey begins.

//// Author's Note: I wanted this to be a short chapter but reality is cruel and the muse does as she desires and I'm too lazy to fight the words that flow out in seemingly endless torrents, so I just ended up splitting the chapter in halves. Draft 2 of the chapter took me three days... A record, usually it takes a few hours and I work up from there, draft after draft. The homunculi brothers really upped the complexity of all the interactions and battle, what with the increasing amounts of skills/spells and perks to keep track of.

This is the end of the narrative for book 1, next chapter will be an appendix with an overview of the major characters and most of the humonculi brothers (except for most of the fourth generation of humonculi as they're generally worthless at this stage except for Stewie, who'll one day kill his mother and rule the world, maybe. Lol. Family guy reference)

After that, I don't know, I have some ideas about the next step in Lucius's journey but I have a couple of books that I should finish writing first, namely Vainglorious and Isekai Avenger before I start book 2 of this.

////

Random bit of lore, that doesn't fit within the narrative smoothly at this second...

During periods of planar instability, the divisions between worlds and realms become thinner, allowing for increased ease of incursion by extraplanar forces. Warlocks and necromancers really flourish during this time period. When the separation is weakest, there's usually an invasion by demonic forces of a mortal world as their numbers are nigh infinite and they're always looking for the opportunity to engage in slaughter and conquest.

Planar disturbances can often be detected by mortal by the increased appearance of the restless dead, where due to the increased permeability between realms, the dead who have grievances are more likely to rise as undead. This typically results in magical plagues, zombie armies, liches and various calamities building up to a full out demon/mortal war.

In response to this threat Gods will choose Champions from other worlds to seed throughout a world, the method varies depending on the god and the suspected timeline.

Typically this will come in three forms. Soul transmigration, a disincarnated soul from another world will be implanted into a fresh vessel (aka a fetus/baby). Soul implantation, similar to the first except soul will be implanted into a suitable adult vessel that has experienced a traumatic brain injury, (bludgeoning is common in mugging victims). Teleportation of an otherworldly individual into the world (done rarely as the amount of mana needed to teleport a body between realms is far higher than simply transplanting a soul), that and the average earthling is likely to be unfit and unsuited for combat immediately.

While the gods don't prefer the third type due to the mana required, mortals wanting to improve their chances of surviving may use a summoning ritual borrowing the help of gods to locate a group of scholarly individuals to effect a mass summoning. They typically prefer adolescents as they're easy to convince into risking their lives for adventure and showing off their knowledge at any opportunity. Teenagers are chock full of hormones that make them more vulnerable to manipulation. This process of summoning 30 people to help in a crisis has a low effectiveness rating, where usually one out of thirty is of any real use and the others just serve as cannon fodder or support staff.

Champions or isekai heroes are more likely to rush out and try and kill goblins, zombies and dracoliches than any other, because they all think they're going to a MC and fuck a princess and inherit a kingdom and have a harem. Or at least the men do, the women tend to be a bit more considered and linger in the background learning how to be useful supporters. Typically via education, medicine or support magics as they tend to have improved magical capabilties after travelling through dimensions.

//

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