The realm Azotreh was standing in trembled. The glassy floor above the shifting mass of rainbow light started showing cracking reflections. Not being true glass, or anything of the sort, it wouldn't actually crack, but it looked like it would.
[System Administrator-]
[Powerless…]
[Gained Skill: Internal Prana Manipulation (Apprentice-1)]
[You have reached the maximum number of skills your aspects can hold. Exceeding this limit will have dire consequences.]
[Gained Skill: Internal Backbone Manipulation (Apprentice-1)]
[You have sustained damage.]
[Gained Skill: Internal Intuition Manipulation (Apprentice-1)]
[You have sustained damage.]
[Gained Skill: Internal Empathy Manipulation (Apprentice-1)]
[You have sustained damage.]
[Gained Skill: Internal Willpower Manipulation (Apprentice-1)]
[You have sustained damage.]
Azotreh ran across the glassy surface of their void, the darkness high above seeming to tremble. Despite not truly holding physical mass, they still had to move through the space at a sprint to reach the golden horizon.
They burst through the gate between that realm and their soul. The purple realm high above swirled with malicious joy, and the shapes within seemed eager to engage.
Pain shot through their body.
[Your Outer Body Layer has been attacked by Greater Astral Ram]
[You have partially resisted damage.]
[The Tri-Layer Border has isolated your Aspects of Existence.]
[The Astral Infection has been isolated from its source.]
Nicholas and Errazorrus suddenly appeared in the soul realm's central point. The twisting mass of purple and golden stars above vanished, replaced with simple absence. Not black, but nothing.
Along with the duo was an ephemeral entity that seemed both present and absent. Its edges faded into the background, and its shape was unknowable.
"May the eyes see clear…" the entity spoke before vanishing.
[The Sibling has clarified your status.]
[Revealed Abilities: Bulwark of the Weak (I), Hero's Might (1)]
[Revealed Attunements: Hero (0.01%), Dragon (0.01%), Slime (0.01%)]
[Revealed Title: Hero]
The four of them felt the ground still trembling, the soul around them isolated from wherever it was last.
"SHI-"
The cold awareness, still nameless, watched as Azotreh's body once more exploded into a massive pool. It raised a wall between the new treasury and the main rooms. Wouldn't want the thick semi-fluid to seep into the cave system below.
[As an autonomous construct, the isolation of Azotreh Nightshade's Aspect Realms has not affected you.]
It didn't have a mouth, or a throat, or lungs. But it wished it could let out a long sigh of irritation. Of course. Just after they had gotten back to work, things had gone sideways again.
The core knew that, due to its current presence, at the very least, it could continue training. First, it finally decided to start with the dungeon advancements it had put off.
[You have three perk selections.]
It had forty-one thousand DP to spend, so it had no need to grab more of those. They only had one dragon-type monster, so the draconic specialization was honestly hopeless. The same went for the various specializations that were as specific. Puma specialization, bat specialization, orc specialization. They just weren't useful except to strengthen one kind of monster.
The broader ones, like cat or insect, were still on the table until they saw the most obvious specialization.
[Arthropod Specialization I: Arthropod monsters are 20% less expensive to conjure, have 10% more potens, deal 30% more damage, drop 1 additional item per kill, and have a higher chance to become Titled Monsters.]
The option alone basically made the others useless. The ants were the only monsters in the dungeon they had in large enough numbers to make the raiding parties. While the champions wouldn't benefit other than the queens and champion soldiers, that didn't matter too much. They were getting stronger just by being beyond the borders of the dungeon.
It decided to ensure it was the correct option before picking it.
The only other option it could consider was picking up DX Gain Boost III, which would boost their DX gains by 30%. They could also max out Inferior Mutation Specialization and bring it to X for two choices, but they only had three total and a way to push that one. There was also the option to boost their nodes through Node Efficiency or Node Regeneration, but they didn't matter as much. Not yet, at least.
It made its choices.
[Perks: Arthropod Specialization I, DX Gain Boost III, and DX Gain Boost IV have been acquired.]
If it had it, it would spend it. That was its motto at least.
The cold consciousness had begun as a purely cold mind. It acted on raw instinct and followed commands to the best of its capability. But almost seven months inside of Azotreh Nightshade had allowed it to develop into a more conscious lifeform. Into something with its own desires and wants. The champions hadn't moved past the stage of attempting to serve their creator, but they would eventually branch out. Just as it had.
It had one other choice to make now, however. When Azotreh had reached dungeon level 10 in the Black Dragon faction, they had gotten a second choice. The cold consciousness's hard-wired understanding told it that that was the normal limit on a dungeon faction. But the Infinite System had allowed their dungeon to push beyond that limit.
It opened up the list and found it far expanded compared to before. Dozens of draconic, slime, ooze, and some others. The black ant dungeon faction, or the gold tiger dungeon faction. It couldn't comprehend how such specific factions could exist. Even just a black dragon felt narrow. But simultaneously, it knew that such factions must exist, for they were listed.
[Your Faction Patron has offered an objective: Select the Darkness Elemental Dungeon Faction.]
[Reward: Black Dragon Attunement Stone (0.01% Attunement contained)]
That caught its interest. The patron of its dungeon had not communicated directly with it, despite the promise that the entity would do so.
It checked over the list, and sure enough, darkness elemental was listed near a few others like it. Dark ant, dark puma, dark orc. Even a true darkness dragon faction. But the idea of allowing themselves to attune to the concept of black dragons was a good idea.
[Your Patron: Queen of Gluttony has offered you an objective: Select the Gluttony Elemental Dungeon Faction.]
[Reward: Gluttony Attunement Stone (0.01% Attunement contained.)]
That made the choice harder. How could it select between the two objectives?
It was drawn towards the idea of Azotreh getting an attunement to the concept of the black dragon. It knew that Errazorrus had a theory about a set of abilities related to the black dragon. What an ability set was, it had no idea. But the attunement should make those abilities stronger.
On the other hand, the most powerful thing about their dungeon as of currently was its ability to devour through the Dungeon Devouring ability. To take the blueprints of animals and monsters and add them to the dungeon. Or even to take records from items and spells. The ability had also specifically mentioned that it could steal other things from organisms. Conceptions, techniques, abilities, resources, and many more things were on offer.
That final idea was what brought it to its conclusion. Gluttony was the better option. Even if Azotreh would be slightly weaker, the dungeon was the first priority. If the gluttony attunement made their devouring ability stronger, then there was nothing to lose.
[You have chosen a second faction: Gluttony Elemental.]
[You have gained the blueprint for an Inferior Gluttony Elemental.]
[New Trap: Gluttonous Teeth.]
[New Node: Gluttonous Brimstone.]
[You have completed a task. 1x Gluttony Attunement Stone has been added to your inventory.]
[Your dungeon patron hopes you will make a wiser choice in the future.]
[The Queen of Gluttony is enthused by your choice.]
[The Gluttony Elemental Dungeon God has given you its ruby blessing]
[Blessing of the Gluttony Elemental Dungeon God (R): Monsters considered to have an aspect of gluttony will gain 5% additional potens and be 20% easier to advance into a Titled Monster.]
[DX Gains will be automatically set to 90/10 until your Gluttony Elemental Dungeon Faction has reached: Level 11.]
It was a lot of new gains, but it regretted none of them. The mistress of gluttony, whoever that was, seemed to truly favor Azotreh.
{You have received a Task from the Lord of Greed: Reach level 100 in your Inventory and Basic Looting abilities.}
It pushed that away. More tasks. It was pretty sure this number of tasks was strangely high.
Alabast received a new message just as he was getting ready to let the party know about his plans to head back.
[Message from the Black Dragon Dungeon God: "Look after Azotreh Nightshade. They are currently undergoing an ordeal."]
It wasn't common that a divine entity would directly use the system to message a mortal. Clearly, the dungeon god was rather fond of this specific little dungeon. Alabast wasn't sure why, but who was he to go against the will of a divine?
He stood up from his resting position and sighed. He headed over to the current head of the Tracker's Guild sent on this expedition. He had been here for two months, and his teams had made just as little progress in tracking the twelve targets as the adventurers, dungeoneers, and hunters.
He saluted the ruby ranker and said, "Sir, I need two trackers to hunt down a specific target. I have a general location, but need to refine it."
The tracker turned and looked Alabast up and down, "You're one of the good ones. Following orders from…" The man checked the small badge on Alabast's robe, "Dungeoneer. I thought you'd be a regular adventurer. Don't get a lot of fire mages out of the dungeoneers."
"I have a high proficiency with mental magics, letting me communicate with the stable nexi. I don't mean to brag, but half of Nyanhur's permanent dungeons are thanks to my efforts."
"Nyanhur, huh. Seat of the Crimbrews, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"I don't think I've maxxed the resistance on their healing potions yet…" He trailed off before returning his gaze to Alabast, "Can you set me up with a supplier?"
Alabast snapped a salute and gestured to Mason, "You'll have to speak with him. Young master of the Crimbrew House. Mason Crimbrew."
"A noble's scion out here?"
"The ancestor Crimbrew thinks the kids should have some experience in the field."
The man nodded approvingly, "Life's full of danger. Can't shelter those kids forever lest a gold rank monster show up."
Alabast returned his gaze to the site still under construction. Doctor had done a lot of work to repair it and retain most of the experiments. Only the slime chamber, the KO chambers, and the AZ chambers had no detained organisms. Alabast had heard around camp that Azotreh was the only surviving member of the AZ experiments. Alabast didn't want to think about what kind of horrors were done to them.
He was brought back to focus by the tracker snapping his fingers in front of Alabast's face, "What's got you so glum?"
"Are we on the right side?" The question slipped out before he could stop it. He knew that organizations under the Adventurer's Guild and Tower Collective weren't truly under the thumb of the capital, but there was always a chance of a zealot getting the position. Like Jack Crimbrew in Nyanhur. But the man before him just looked at him with a softening expression.
"There is no right side, kid. If we hadn't, the daemons would have. You should read the record of the oni war. Enslaved ten thousand of the creatures and somehow got past the dragons in the southwest. Brutal fights."
Alabast shuddered. Ten thousand was too many. Far too many. He thought back to the sea of green he'd seen marching to Mudwood. The capital had been trying to fight back the orc invasion, but every time they got one of their ruby rankers in… they didn't survive long.
"I'll get two of the trackers to accompany your team. Are all of you zinc-rank?"
"Yes."
"Good. I'll send one of the ruby rankers with you. Let you all mess with the party interface. Since y'all are lower rank, it shouldn't affect her too badly."
Alabast nodded gratefully at him and then had another thought, "We're going after AZ-087. Should we take some hunters and other adventurers with us?"
The tracker's eyes widened for a moment before barely nodding. The movement was imperceptible to lower-ranked eyes.
"I'll send a dozen trackers, and get the hunters to send as many teams for 'em. Last hunter team to encounter that one was obliterated despite being higher rank."
"They were adventurers, and it was divine wrath that killed 'em. One of the nuns was sent after us to find out the details."
"I'm still not taking that kind of chance. You understand."
Alabast nodded. He wouldn't risk another party going missing without retrieving the target.
"Three hours, then you're out." The tracker told Alabast before turning to his associates.
Alabast didn't like the idea of bringing the hunters right to Azotreh, but knew there wasn't another way to pass through the forest without losing his own life. Whatever was happening in nightshade, it had wiped out several teams of priests and adventurers alike.