Dungeon Robotics 10-9 (Patreon)

Good Morning!

Chapter 9

Regan

My consciousness returned as the core meeting ended. The conference had taken long enough that a few minutes had passed in real time. That was an achievement. I sent my mind over the vastness that my aura now encompassed. If I wanted mountains, I could go to the mountains, if I wanted to see the ocean, there were half a dozen places that I could go to. It was both amazing and a bit dizzying at the same time.

I turned my attention to the north and looked for Dar. She and her crew of goblins were out scouting the north until Tzulxuc had been detained. They said they didn’t mind staying out for a longer mission and had reassigned them to maintain contact with Orina. There was a point where I seriously considered using force to bring her to the table like I had with Tzulxuc and Kenia. It was a good that it wouldn’t come to that.

I tapped into their communications systems and zeroed in on Dar’s mech. It was still one of the most advanced compared to the other goblins and was even getting close to my own creations. It was a mixture of biological and technological advancements. I shook my head as I tended to get sidetracked when I observed the masterful creation.

“Dar.”

“Boss! So glad to hear from you!” she replied instantly.

“Orina has reached out to us and we’ve come to an understanding. I need you to head to her dungeon and retrieve some information she said she would provide us with. While you’re out there, I want you to set up some measurement equipment to track the tides and ocean’s flow. If you have the resources, try to cover a two-hundred-kilometer length.” If Orina’s data was accurate it might give us a bigger clue as to when the enemy would actually arrive. The further back the data, the easier it would be to establish a pattern.

“That should be doable. I can have the data to you by tonight. We’ll work through the night to have the sensors placed as soon as possible.”

“I hate to work you like that, but this is important. I’ll make sure to reward you when your crew returns to the dungeon.”

“It is no problem, Boss!” Dar replied and I chuckled.

“I wouldn’t be a very good boss if I didn’t reward my subordinates,” I sent back. The goblins were particularly gunho about things like loyalty and serving me without much in return. I usually had to shove it down their throats to get them to accept anything.

“Very well. We’ll get it done, Boss! ASAP!”

“Good. I’m cutting the line now.”

With that done, I moved on to the next thing on my very long to-do list. If I was a mortal, I doubted that I would live to see it completed. As a dungeon core… well, it was touch and go. I made my way over to the moon core when I heard something coming from the dungeon. Strangely, I found it was coming from the transponder network. Only a few on my children had access to that, so I took a moment to listen to make sure everything was alright.

“Twice father of Machines. Killer of his father and humans.” :Add more:

The message was repeating through my network. Something about it echoed to long gone memories of Earth. Was this someone tapping into my memories? I didn’t have time for mental attacks nor the games that these types tended to play.

I ground my teeth and flashed over to my Beneath city. The floor cracked as I didn’t control the teleport accurately and slammed into the ground. I grabbed the transponder that floated near my core and crushed it. From there, I moved to the edge of my city and placed a new one that was covered in magical firewalls. The message continued, but I still felt a little better knowing there was another layer of defense between the source.

Moving back to my core room, I carefully checked everything over. Almost an hour later, I was finally satisfied that my core appeared unharmed and that there was no evidence of tampering. Even that magic that protected it was unchanged. That meant my memories weren’t the source of the strangeness I felt from the repeating message.

I called for Z2 and Puppet. They appeared quickly having been in the city. “You called, father?” she asked as soon as they formed fully.

“Yes. There is something calling to me over the transponder network. It strikes me as… familiar.”

“The Seal,” Z2 said instantly. I waved for her to continue. “The Seal reminded me a lot of Earth. Maybe they were like us?”

I tapped my chin in thought. That was as good a reason as the next. I had seen the images of the Seal and I had to agree. There was definitely an Earthly feel to it. Even if this world’s overall architecture had been mixed in. I’d rather not deal with something else that could cause trouble, but if it really was something from Earth that knew about me, then it was best to deal with it sooner rather than later.

“Gear up. We’re going to inves…” I started to say when the message changed.

“Death to the father.” Before I could even think about what that meant, bright red beams of light sliced through the wall at the entrance to the Beneath. The stone wall exploded violently, sending boulders and debris flying well into the floor. I turned my vision over to the attack and found a dozen of the zombies that Puppet’s group encountered a few days ago.

I fully understood why they were considered the most dangerous thing in the Beneath. Even compared to the high races, the mana signature they were giving off was massive. However, unlike the mortals that sort of just exuded mana continuously. The zombies would emit mana then pull it back in. They only time they truly lost mana was when they attacked and even then, they were pulling in mana to make up for the loss.

Activating the defenses of the floor with a mental signal, weapon platforms rose from the ground or descended from the ceiling. A hellfire of energy and solid rounds sailed into the dozen zombies that were walking into the dungeon. The energy bent around them while the physical rounds also were deflected by a sort of barrier. Rather then being rebounded, it looked like the kinetic energy was being absorbed.

“Just great! Like I don’t have enough to deal with!” I shouted before leaping into the air. I don’t know who was responsible for this, but I was going to give them a piece of my mind when I found them!

During my short flight over, the entrance was thoroughly destroyed while the zombies remained unharmed. I came to a stop just above the destruction and waved my hand for my defense weapons to cease firing.

“Return or I will be forced to deal with you to the full of my ability. That includes whoever is commanding you,” I called out. The zombies looked at me and without the debris of the weapons fire, I realized that they appeared to have cybernetics. That was the only word that fit the devices that were embedded in their bodies. I knew Puppet had suspected, but his memories weren’t as complete as mine.

“High Energy Mana source detected! Eliminate the threat!” the zombies replied mechanically. Only a brief drop in mana around me was the only warning I had before a dozen red beams lanced through the air at me. Anyone else would have been doomed, but I was quite familiar with laser and easily deflected the attack with a quickly formed mirror from particles. The beams lanced back and were still bent around the zombies.

I held out my hand and my staff appeared with a flash of light. I dropped down to the ground and slowly stalked forward. If long range wasn’t going to work, then we’ll have to make this violently physical. I reshaped the end of the staff into a spearhead. The closest zombie reacted first. Some sort of warning went out before the protrusion that fired the laser at me began to emit mana and a blade of light formed.

I coated my staff turned spear with specially charged particles then swung at the zombie as soon as I was close enough. It responded in kind, bringing its energy blade around to block the attack. So, they weren’t solely attack based. They knew how to protect themselves. That was a major improvement over most of the undead I’d fought so far.

Idle thought aside, I continued with my swing, and the spearhead sliced cleanly through the arm of the zombie. The energy blade of the zombie momentarily disrupted as my spear hit it. The physical barrier failed to appear. It must be primed to things moving over a certain speed. In this medieval world that was usually a good idea since anything that moved too slow usually wouldn’t be a threat. Too bad for the zombie that I had my choice of metals and the ability to make it sharp enough to cut atoms if I desired.

The arm went flying and the other zombies redoubled their efforts to gun me down. Too bad for them, their beams were bending around me like my had been to them. “No physical weapons. Go long term solution. No need to worry about ammo,” I commented as I pulled the severed arm into my grasp.

Looking it over, I realized that I had seen something exactly like it only a few minutes ago. The living metal that Dar used for her mech. It was a bit different from the living metal that I composed as it required unholy mana to manufacture. It lost its unholy quality after a few days, but it was still something I’d rather avoid using considering the type of face I was trying to keep with the locals.

The living metal had pieces of flesh mixed in. The energy from the metal was keeping it, well, not alive, but active. That allowed the cells of the flesh to produce an almost legit mana supply much like a mortal. If this was just the arm, I couldn’t imagine the organs and the brain. If I had to guess, this was someone’s attempt to try and achieve a form of immortality. The question then was whom?

Crushing the arm in my grip, I absorbed it completely. If the zombie got ahold of it, there was more than a small chance it would be able to reattach the thing. Speaking of, the disarmed zombie was glaring at me while his buddies surrounded me. I grinned and spun my spear, taking one of the many stances I’d picked from adventurers diving my dungeon.

I soon learned that the zombies were capable of working together. Two would strike at me, forcing me to respond and the others would strike at my back. If my body wasn’t what it was, then I might have been in trouble. That said, I could only absorb so much foreign controlled mana before it started to affect my body. Decapitating the zombies did not cease their actions.

“Damn Wi-Fi,” I growled as I shoved my hand through the chest of the nearest zombie. The others attacked, but this time I created my own barrier. I tore out its heart, but that still didn’t stop the motion of the zombie. I narrowed my eyes then started to increase the heat in my hands by hundreds of degrees a second. It was soon as hot as a sun.

While pieces of the zombie clearly started to melt, other parts were resisting the heat. I ground my teeth in annoyance. If there were many more of these things, they might be as big a threat as the demons. Worse since they could not only ignore most of the mana I was throwing at them, but absorb it as well.

Stabbing my spear into the ground, I reached up and ripped the left arm off the zombie. I used a localized gravity spell to condense it to a small ball. It looked like much like the demons, the higher elements affected these things as well. Absorbing the arm, I pulled my other hand free and used a larger gravity spell to crush the body completely. Once I felt its ‘life’ cease I absorbed it completely. To say I was fascinated by the magic that made the creature work would be an understatement. They were almost as complicated as the Viventum that I had created.

Dusting my hands off, I absorbed the heat and turned back to the other zombies. They had stopped attacking the barrier and seemed to be accessing the situation. Their red eyes turned blue then then dashed off toward the ruined entrance quickly breaking the sound barrier. I started after them, but once they were out of my aura, they used my own transponder network to teleport away.

I slid to a stop and mental deactivated the network in this part of the Beneath. For them to be able to use the network so easily, they would have to understand Earth technology. That just added to my suspicion that their master or creator had been from Earth. Z2 popped into my head. Was it another of my children?

The sound of running pulled my attention from the entrance. Z2 appeared from the nearby field as if my thoughts had summoned her. Puppet and the others soon joined her. Black wings signaled Anubis and Julie’s arrival as well.

“How would dare attack my master!?” Julie demanded as soon as she landed in front of me.

“I don’t know, but its looking like they know me from way back,” I replied with a tight smile. “Since they fled, they were likely testing me.”

Still, they had announced they had detected a high-level mana source. While that could and was likely me, it might be dangerous to leave the sun spirits in the dungeon. Even with the transponder network cut off, they might have other way of moving around. To be on the safe side, I teleported the spirits to Louella. She was still barely in the newly established cores’ area of influence. If I could, I would evacute the high race population as well, but they weren’t safe anywhere else at the moment.

“Puppet,” I called and he moved over doing his ninja bow. It’d been a while since he had done that.

“This is my fault. I should have placed the transponder further from the enemy’s camp.”

“Nonsense. I doubt the placement matter. This was a directed attack. They most likely felt me come to the Beneath just like everyone else when I moved my dungeon down here.”

“Still…”

“Drop it,” I said lightly smacking him on the head. “Now. If someone smacks us on the right cheek, a nicer person might turn the other cheek for them, but I’m not nice when it comes to people threatening things that I have promised to protect. We’re going to pay the Seal a visit.”

“But father! The dwarves have only intensified their claim of the area in the last few weeks. Even with us, its hard to get close without a fight breaking out,” Z2 said quickly.

“We’ll figure out what their deal is while we’re out! Probably just too much terra mana for their own good,” I retorted cracking my knuckles. Why couldn’t these people just get along? I seriously didn’t have time to deal with this. However, it was too dangerous to leave it to someone else. Their mastery of energy and mana was on par with that of a dungeon core. I’d rather not send anyone to their deaths. I sighed and starting thinking about who to bring with me this time.

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