NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6 - Expansion Part 2
Dungeon Day 4
As soon as the respawn timer was done, Dan brought back Hawk, who seemed just fine.
“Hawk, you okay there?” Dan asked the eagle telepathically.
“Yes, master!” She replied as if nothing happened.
“You sure? You did die, after all.”
“Is that not part of our purpose?” Hawk responded once again.
The response was a bit of a shock to Dan; it was true, but he still didn’t think it would play out so well.
“You’re right, Hawk. I wasn’t expecting you to take it so well.”
Hawk, in turn, just gave him a bird shrug and hopped to the rest of her companions. While the monsters talked, Dan wondered how the rest would react to death. He did not believe they would all take it so calmly, or maybe they would. After all, Hawk had a point they were all pre-programmed to die.
The monsters mainly asked Hawk how she felt and if it had been scary. Naturally, there were differences in how they went about that, with Fir trying to examine the eagle in every way imaginable. Ingot just gave the eagle a welcome back hug of sorts while Xinos just nodded at her in admiration. George was the odd one out as he was essentially the only underling and wasn’t sure how to interact with his superiors well. Something Dan planned to fix. He had 60 mana, which was enough for one of the other mini-bosses that he was planning.
Dan wasn’t sure which one to go for. There was going to be the cheetah, hawk, and another elk. The elk was out as it was going to be too expensive. However, between the cheetah and hawk, he wasn’t sure. Another aerial scout could be nice, but Dan really liked cheetahs. Ultimately, he felt bad for Hawk and decided to give her a companion.
Hawks were considered tiny beasts, and Dan was fine with leaving them as such. After all, the hawk would be more of a speedy scout than anything else, and Dan imagined a small size would be best. He was going to give the hawk two wind base abilities, one body enhancement, and a quality-of-life improvement, but other than that, it was going to just be the Intelligence and Sapience to round it all up.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Eagle the Hawk.
Type: Beast.
Size: Tiny.
Hierarchy: Mini-Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 50/50.
Arcane Mana Regen: +2 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 4.
Wind Affinity. Wind Control. Body Enhancement - Speed. Night Vision.
Innate Abilities: 5.
Keen Vision. Flight. Speed. Mental Resistance. Regeneration.
Respawn Timer: 2 Hours (4 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 21 Mana (42 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 42 Mana.
🔷
Eagle the hawk was tiny, with light gray feathers slightly tinged with light green. She came into existence and dropped for a millisecond before her mind kicked in, and she kicked up a mini storm around her and quickly zoomed through the cave and between the bosses.
“Hey, Boss! How is it going!? How are you feeling!?” Eagle squealed in a high-pitched child-like voice as she zoomed about. However, before Dan could answer, she squawked again.
“I am doing great! I am doing more than great. In fact! I am amazing! Look at me go! Look at me go!”
Oh great, I have a hyperactive child in my care. Dan couldn’t help but judge and eventually responded.
“I am doing fine, Eagle. It's great to have you on board.”
From there on, Dan let his monsters hang out for a little longer before telling them to head out in search of more creatures for him. Of course, Fir stayed behind, and he told Xinos to stay close to the base until he had more mana to play with. Dan wanted to go ahead and get his mana back to full so he could finish up the last mini-bosses and properly start building up his army.
Having nothing better to do, Dan began watching his different bosses work. Ingot was roaming the forest, waiting to find something good to bring back. Hawk flew up high as she chatted with Eagle while the small hawk zoomed around her boss. Xinos was roaming the nearby forest, still far enough from telepathic range but not too far, where he couldn’t make it back to the cave in case something happened.
Surprisingly, it was Xinos who got a target first, as the jaguar was stalking a large two-headed snake around his own size. Seeing the snake surprised Dan a bit as they hadn’t spotted any strong beasts like that near their cave due to his bosses hunting them all. Heck, they even struggled to find weak prey. However, it seemed this snake was looking to inspect the forest and maybe try and take down whatever had been causing it to clear out. Sadly, for it, it was about to meet its end.
Dan felt the jaguar tense up as he enhanced his body with metal, causing his claws and teeth to turn into grey-looking iron that matched his dark grey fur. Then, in between blinks, Xinos sprung, aiming to slash at the snakes' heads.
Surprising Dan and Xinos, the snakes reacted just in time, the jaguar's claws leaving a small slash on one of the heads. Turning to meet the jaguar, the two heads hissed before one spat something, which Xinos dodged as the acid or poison splashed against the ground, causing it to sizzle a bit.
Dan felt his jaguar's mana drain almost entirely, and moments later, Xinos jumped forward, the snake dodging again. However, this time, the jaguar did a typical cat thing and twisted his body mid-air, turning to face the snakes and unleashing his Metal Slash ability as two waves of energy flew from his paws. One struck a snake head, cutting it off, while the remaining head barely dodged the other.
The snake hissed with pain, realized it wasn’t going to win this fight, and attempted to flee. This was a mistake, as Xinos just pounced and bit the snake's neck, almost killing it, before remembering he had to bring it back to the cave.
Rushing back to the cave, Xinos made it right before the snake expired, and Dan got a sweet 80 mana, bringing his total to 94.
Having expended most of his mana in the fight, Xinos stayed at the cave to regenerate his mana instead of heading back out.
Dungeon Day 6
The following two days went by relatively fast as Dan began to get a slow but constant flow of mana from several slayed beasts. They were the same things he had been getting but with some new additions like wolves, sharks, moose, other eagles, and bird-like things. Heck, some of his monsters even teamed up against another scorpion, and that time around managed to get back to the cave without injury thanks to Fir joining in and healing or cleansing as needed. All in all, Dan got a great haul of mana that he quickly put to use to create his two remaining mini-bosses.
Dan first created Fur, the male elk who would act as a guard for Fir.
Fur was given earth-related abilities and was the first to have proper magic like abjuration as an affinity, and not just a specific magical affinity. Of course, Fur also got Sapience and Intelligence, but unlike Dan’s other mini-bosses, he would also get something Dan had not yet given to anyone: Control. It was an ability that would allow Dan to take control of his creature and would, along with Share Sense, let Dan fight instead of Fur. His main reason for giving Fur that ability was the fact that the elk was going to protect Fir. Dan trusted that his monster would do a good job, but in case things got hairy, Dan wanted to have an in, as Fir would be very important in his expansion. All right, maybe he was putting too much importance on the healing elk since he didn’t know what he would walk into inside the shattered zone or how things would play out, but he would rather be safe than sorry.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Fur the Elk.
Type: Beast.
Size: Large.
Hierarchy: Mini-Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 100/100
Arcane Mana Regen: +2 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 6.
Earth Affinity. Abjuration Affinity. Mana Storage. Tremor Sense. Earth Spike. Earth Wall.
Innate Abilities: 4.
Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense. Control.
Respawn Timer: 2 Hours (4 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 63 Mana (126 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 126 Mana.
🔷
The male elk was rather large, but definitely not larger than Ingot. His fur was brown with tinges of light blue. His massive antlers were clearly made of the usual bone-looking material, but the tips were made of some grey-looking stone.
Like his female counterpart, Fur spoke with a noble voice and a tone similar to a knight's. The elk also bowed like Fir, bending one leg, but unlike Fir, Fur's head lowered so far that his massive antlers touched the cave's stone floor.
“My Lord, how may I serve?”
“Hey, Fur, you are to guard that lovely lady over there,” Dan said out loud while commanding Fur to look at Fir, who had been in the cave.
“If she dies, it better have been after you perish, understood?”
Dan didn’t need to worry since as soon Fur looked at Fir, he could feel the elk instantly fall in love with her, and he knew Fur would be damned before he let anything happen to her. Fur, however, still sent a mental confirmation to Dan before slowly approaching Fir and giving her a bow.
As Dan watched the couple leave his small core room, he began wondering just how much the World Crystal was tampering with the souls it was making. Not that Dan was going to complain, as it was better this way.
Next up was going to be the cheetah, and seeing as Dan had plenty of mana, he was going to give it some further upgrades purely for his own enjoyment. In truth, he would probably give Eagle the Hawk another upgrade later on, and maybe George, though he wasn’t sure, the gorilla felt decently balanced.
The cheetah would have Earth Affinity to help him move over land faster. It would also have some Lightning Affinity because Dan couldn’t have a speedster without lightning. Then, just some basic enhancements plus Share Sense because Dan wanted to experience the speed firsthand. Dan knew that it was odd for something to have both Earth and Lightning affinity, so he thought about changing it to metal, but he decided to see how it would turn out first.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Kinetic the Cheetah.
Type: Beast.
Size: Medium.
Hierarchy: Mini-Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 50/50.
Arcane Mana Regen: +2 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 8.
Earth Affinity. Earth Control. Body Enhancement - Agility and Speed. Night Vision. Lightning Affinity. Lightning Charge. Lightning Enhancement.
Innate Abilities: 6.
Keen Sight. Keen Smell. Stealth. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 2 Hours (4 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 41 Mana (81 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 81 Mana.
🔷
Kinetic was a normal-looking cheetah, which surprised Dan, as he was expecting some brown coloration due to the Earth's Affinity. However, something Dan did notice immediately was the small currents of lightning running through the cheetah's fur as small blue arcs sparked on and off. The cheetah also had striking blue eyes, and unlike Eagle the Hawk, Kinetic did not immediately run off. Instead, he sat down and spoke, sounding rather young and having a bit of a chill yet excitable personality like a stereotypical surfer dude.
“Hey, boss bro! How is it going!?”
Dan, smiling to himself, just greeted his new favorite monster.
“What's up, Kinetic!? Glad to have you!”