DD5 ~ Chapter 2!

An unexpected explosion knocked one of the Mages off his feet, and he slipped over the edge of the pit on the seventh floor. His screams were cut off quickly as the gravity distorted and compacted his body. The Boss-style infernal spider elemental at the bottom finished him off just as his ruined body slammed into the floor.

“No! Aaron crashed into the floor!” The remaining party of Mages were hard-pressed, pushing up the sloping ramps toward a hopeful escape. “If they could take him down, the rest of us don't stand a chance!”

“Don’t invite misfortune, you fool!” Of the three surviving members of this expedition, this was the most powerful Mage. His control over pheromones and various biological skills had made moving through the higher floors laughable. He had been stymied for a small while when fighting Golems, as they were artificial constructs, but had believed that he would have more success on the lower level. He had been dead wrong, and now his team was paying the price.

<Well, that was a wasted effort.> Perhaps I needed to refine that elemental, or perhaps this was just an area of growth that was going to end here for that combination. The elemental that had knocked the Mage off the edge was planned as a type of combustion or explosion Mob, but it turned itself into a self-sacrificing trap instead. < Actually… I think those are going to become a little more prevalent.>

Why hadn’t I considered that before? I was going to turn this entire section into the single most deadly portion of the entire dungeon! I had already done all the heavy lifting involved in setting up the overcharged gravity Inscriptions! My mind wandered, and by the time I went back to watching the entertainment, the Mages were limping through the portal to lick their wounds. It was for the best – I needed time to implement my changes! 

The simplest trap made the wall push outward, and if the target was caught by it they would be shoved into open air to begin their deadly descent through the gravity field. When this trap was triggered, there would be sequential movement of the walls that would need to be accounted for until the area was clear once more. I was sure that I’d lose more than a few elementals to the trap as well, but I wasn’t too worried about that. The smart ones would succeed, and this would improve the overall qualities of the feral Mobs. 

Next, I made small cubbies in the shifting sections that would house an elemental like the combustion version. People that had thought they were safe from the moving walls would be in for a happy little surprise if they were unable to put down the Mob before it could ignite itself. These traps together would take down the overconfident and the unlucky. The gravity and Boss at the base would do the rest. I then speckled in a few traps that had the opposite effect. When these were triggered, the floor would be pulled into the wall and a short slide would send the victim off into open air. 

<What next…?> I muttered to myself as I looked over the changed area. <I can’t leave here and have the only improvement be a glorified pitfall trap…>

Was there a new Mob I could create for the area? I glanced at the rampaging war still ongoing at the top of the pit and decided against artificially selecting the best creatures. The entire theme of this floor was ‘survival of the fittest’, and I didn’t want that to change. Wind traps and various other things came to mind, but the powerful people that should be coming onto this floor wouldn’t be affected by a light gust of wind, and even the vanishing floor was honestly a stretch. Mages tended to be able to fly, and I was relying on surprise more than artifice to send them to their death. So, the question became: how to artifice their doom? I didn’t have the answer yet, but this question demanded research! I left the room to its own devices and cackled as my attention flowed into my testing area.

The answer to my issues moving forward had to be found in Runes. Mana could create effects that I simply couldn’t replicate with mechanisms or biological creatures. True, my Elementals were Mana-formed creatures, but as of yet they were simple concentrations of pseudo-sentient energy. I started laying out Runes, trying to determine my path forward on this project. Should I work on improving the quantity and quality of the monsters, or the room and the traps that it contained? Eventually I would do both, of course, but sometimes making that first decision would change the outcome of the second. 

What would benefit me the most? Really… what would be the most fun for me to see in action? When I put it like that, I knew exactly what I wanted. I liked traps, but they didn’t have the same visceral appeal to me that seeing a creature of my own design did. One of my greatest pleasures was watching Manny the Manticore do battle with a group of Mages. They almost never went in to fight him again, so it was always an impressive show to see both sides going all out. I made my choice: I would find a way to empower my elementals!

I started working with an elemental Core in my testing lab, and over the course of a few hours started to lose my enthusiasm. This was tough. I could shift around the composition of the Core, I could alter the Mana type and amount, but this really only had the effect of creating a new type of elemental. I wasn’t trying to make a specific elemental though: I wanted something that could improve all of them. I did have an interesting result from my experimentation when I made a top-tier elemental. It was half as big as even the smallest other elemental, and it acted far differently than any other to this point.

It was a ‘Love’ elemental.

Again, not what I was going for, but I released it into the pit to see what happened. The… yeah, the result was not as I expected. When the gold-tinged pink blob came into sensory range of the other elementals, it acted like a massively overcharged taunt Rune. Everything near it charged and started brutally attacking… each other. The tiny blob rolled toward the edge of the pit, and I watched with fascination as the elementals destroyed themselves trying to get at it. The little love-bubble hopped into open air above the pit and ignored the increased gravity easily. It floated down, down, down… and was snatched out of the air by Imbrem Aureum.

The celestial water Elemental pulled the tiny love Core into itself and started expanding. Its golden droplets took on a pink tinge, and the B-rank four Mob started to shrink, compressing and enhancing. When it finished absorbing the tiny love bubble, Imbrem Aureum had only reached B-rank six, but it’s tier of Mana had increased significantly. As it moved, the spinning droplets that formed its body sliced through the corrupted stone floors with ease. It flowed down the ramp, finally making its move against the current floor boss: Aranea.

<Alright… not what I was going for, but I can take a few minutes to see how this plays out.> As the two got closer, I thought about Dani. <Dani! Big awesome fight coming up! Get over here quick!>

She arrived just in time to see the two unbelievably powerful titans of Mana exchanging their first blows. They were entirely opposing Mana types, Aranea being mostly infernal fire, while Imbrem Aureum was celestial water and now something… more. The spider-style elemental wasted no time in attempting to shatter the Core of Imbrem Aureum, but it’s bladed legs were knocked off course and sliced into by the spinning droplets. It started flowing up the mangled leg, but Aranea simply sliced off the leg and rolled away. A dense concentration of black fire appeared in a small orb near Aranea’s Core, and it turned that orb into a beam.

Imbrem Aureum dodged, and all the droplets that were caught by the beam fell to the floor and evaporated. The black bar of power continued uninhibited through the rock of the dungeon, melting the stone less like fire and more like potent acid. It tore out into open air and out of my vision range. <Yup, I think it’s time to add some more Inscriptions around myself and Mr. Tree here.>

“You think?” Dani muttered, enraptured by the ability of semi-sentient Mana to control itself.

Imbrem Aureum made a move, directing it’s constantly shifting motion into a directed stream. The elemental swam through the air like lightning, piercing the exterior of the ‘spider’ and plucking out its Core. I watched in fascination as the Aranea’s body dissipated into motes of black energy and was reabsorbed by my influence.

<That was exciting.>

“I don’t think it’s over!” Dani excitedly drew my attention back to the glowing water, which had started to twitch and shake erratically. I looked closer, expecting to see the black-and-red Core being dissolved and eaten. Instead, I saw a pink light wrapping around both Cores. Then a tiny pink Core became visible, and the two larger Cores began orbiting it.

The fiery body of Aranea grew around the three Cores, and soon a smaller version of the original Boss stood on the floor with golden water swarming around it. Dani was as stunned as I was but managed to find her voice first. “Did they just combine into a super Elemental, or am I dreaming?”

<Oh, that was neat.> I inspected the creature, and found that it was sitting right on the upper edge of B-rank nine. <New floor Boss, Aranea Imbrem.>

“Spider shower?” Dani scoffed at my naming convention.

<And now I have a new trap idea as well!>

“Now that is pure evil.” Dani laughed along with me. I hoped she realized I was serious; I was already making a spider-loaded trap.