Azaria 18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18: Level Up!

Azaria

After I left Lance, I stuck my tongue out at her on the other side of the wall. She thought I was just a ditzy dungeon core, but I knew more than she thought I did. I knew for one, that she was having a hard time controlling whatever power it was that she used. She would be calm one moment then her fingers would dig furrows in the ground. 

Floating through the dungeon, there wasn’t much to do at the moment. I could create some dolls, I had plenty of souls to work with. While my Aether took a hit from raising my mansion to the surface, I still had more than what Starburst said was normal. I waved my hand in front of me forming my status. 

Azaria Paris

Age:18

Level:1

Race: Dungeon

Type: Doll 

Sub-type: Goddess’s Chosen

Aether: 6,578/105

Floors: 2/1

Skills: Creation

Deconstruction

Summon (7/102)

Teleport Matrix (1/1) 

Enchanter’s Melody

Achievements:

God Killer – Killed a God, albeit a weak one.

Undefeated – Remain undefeated. Enhances abilities (1.15*x) X being the number of attempts on the dungeon. X=2

The Surface – When a dungeon reaches the surface the world opens up to them. Aether hourly gain (+1)

I looked at the addition to my status and knew without having to ask that it would be useful. Right now, I could only gain Aether from killing things. This proved there were other ways. This was probably due to my unnaturally high luck that I vaguely remember Starburst mentioning when he was changing me.

I was wondering how to pass the time for the rest of the day, when I felt and heard the front doors to my mansion explode inward from being struck by something. My connection with the mansion dimmed and I was pulled into what I was starting to call my instrument room. My vision moved to the front of the mansion where a group of people stood behind a man dressed in red leather. 

Flames were leaking from his hand, so I was able to assume that he threw a fireball or something similar at my doors. Something inside me clicked and I mentally put him on my make sure to kill for sure list. The first person to make the list.

I wasn’t compelled to play the violin this time and realized I could choose. I decided to go with the piano to keep anyone watching on their toes. I started playing but the notes didn’t travel. The sound stayed in the room until the first person from the party stepped into my dungeon. That’s when it started to echo through the mansion and I could tell even outside a good ways.

“Welcome,” I said to myself as I fell into the music. 

~~~

This party was much more skilled than the last two that had dived. For one, they didn’t let any of the traps bother them. They had a guy that appeared to be more armor than person who walked through the traps tripping them with nonchalance. I found it slightly annoying to watch. It reminded me when my parents took me to the park once, and another kid wrecked my sandcastle I was building.

The music reflected my displeasure as it was agitated with sharp cords. The party steamrolled their way to the first boss room, which happened to be Stella again. Of course, they knew the trick thanks to the guy that managed to make it out of the dungeon last time. The party of five walked into the boss room and didn’t even give Stella time to prepare before they rushed across the room.

The penguins, unsupported, where just dolls to them and exploded into stuffing as swords and spell slaughtered them. In less than ten seconds, they reached Stella and managed to slice her in half with a single swipe of the sword. Her scream not only echoed through the dungeon, but through my soul. 

“Stella!” I cried without meaning to. Not that anyone could hear me. I was alone in this prison. Alone to watch as my creations are cut down for money or whatever was motivating these people. My anger found its way into the music, but I forced myself to focus on the party. 

“I think we’ve pissed it off,” one of the men said as he pulled a stone from Stella’s body.

“Probably. Compared to the trash that’s came in here so far. It doesn’t know how to deal with us,” a woman said then gave a nasty laugh. 

“Enough! We’re not getting paid to talk. We need to be the first to finish this thing and claim the diver rights to it!” The heavily armored man said slamming his fist into the wall for emphasis.  

“Yes. Yes. We know. Calm you metal tits,” a different woman said tapping her hand against the large man’s chest. 

The party left Stella’s room after looking for something. When they didn’t find anything they grew even more disruptive and began making their way back down the hall. I thought about what they could have been looking for then remembered the games I used to play. After you completed a zone, you usually got a reward. I would have to add that after they leave, as I couldn’t affect that floor of the dungeon while they were inside. 

The party stopped at the entrance and debated going up the stairs. After a few curse words back and forth, they decided to try the right wing first before heading up the second floor of the mansion field. Again, the traps failed to even bother them.

I wasn’t sure how she knew, but Lucy was aware that Stella had fallen already. I could almost see the anger rolling off of her. The two had been acting like sisters since I created them so it was only reasonable. She had pulled all her nutcrackers to her room and was reinforcing them individually.

The party didn’t rush as soon as they came into the room which ended up being their boom. “Looks like another of the controller dolls. Fred. If you will,” the armored man said with a nod to a man in white. 

“Protect my sheep from chains,” said the man in white as a yellow light covered the party. 

“Die you peasants!” Lucy shouted while the light was covering the party. A group of nutcrackers stepped to the side revealing two cannons of all things. With a boom, two balls of iron sailed across the room both impacting the armored man. His body collided heavily with the doors that had already sealed behind them. 

“Fuck this place!” shouted the nasty woman before bolts of lightning danced around her hands. She flung her hands forward and the lightning flashed across the room and struck the cannon. The nutcrackers working them paid no heed to their burning hands as they reloaded the cannons. 

With the opening salvo done and the party’s main tank down for the count, the rest of the nutcrackers moved in. This was a party I didn’t plan to let escape. Not after how they treated Stella. The party managed to take out seven of the thirty nutcrackers before they were overwhelmed. Lucy didn’t even have to fire her cannons again. They faded to shadows after a few seconds. 

I finished the music piece I was playing then moved over to Lucy. “Where did the cannons come from?” I asked. I hadn’t seen her make them for one. 

“I don’t know. I grew so angry at them for killing Stella that I just… knew. I can use the skill once every two hours. It creates two cannons with three shots each.” 

I nodded, I guess there were ways other than killing to get stronger for dungeon monsters. I was about to ask her another question when the five dead bodies were absorbed into the Aether of my dungeon. Power unlike the two parties before rippled through my ethereal body as it almost caused me pain. 

It lasted for a good couple minutes before I managed to talk a deep breath, and nothing hurt anymore. I went ahead and pulled up my status. I knew whatever had just happened to me would be displayed on there. 

Azaria Paris

Age:18

Level: 2

Race: Dungeon

Type: Doll 

Sub-type: Goddess’s Chosen

Aether: 7,679/210

Floors: 2/2

Skills: Creation

Deconstruction

Summon (7/112)

Teleport Matrix (1/1) 

Enchanter’s Melody

Random Skill (awaiting use)

Achievements:

God Killer – Killed a God, albeit a weak one.

Undefeated – Remain undefeated. Enhances abilities (1.15*x) X being the number of attempts on the dungeon. X=3

The Surface – When a dungeon reaches the surface the world opens up to them. Aether hourly gain (+1)

Looking over the screen, I saw that quite a few things had changed. The biggest was that I went up in level. My natural Aether store had doubled, though I was still ‘stuffed’ from the Aether I had when I’d awoken so that really didn’t do much for me. My Undefeated went up another tick. 

“Random skill?” Not sure what that meant, I moved over to Starburst. “Hey. Hey.”

Starburst yawned then turned to look at me. “What?” 

“I leveled up. I got a random skill. What exactly does that mean?”

“Use it and you’ll gain a skill. You get one every level. Ah, congratulations,” Starburst said adding the congratulations almost as an afterthought. 

“Is it… Is it safe?” I asked playing with my hands. 

“Safe? Sure, why wouldn’t it be?” he asked looking at me with a raised eyebrow. Which was impressive given he was a horse. 

“Let me rephrase that. Is it safe for me?” I asked again. I did seem to break whatever system that governed me worked on. 

Starburst’s eyes shot fully open. “Let’s wait until nightfall! We can’t afford for you to turn us into a flying dungeon the very next day!”

“I can make my dungeon fly!?”