I could feel the dungeon system sweeping through the various halls, unlike the last two times where only one person was present, this time my halls were full of potential candidates. Be it the Queen, the goblins, the slime or the ghouls, the system seemed to be scanning everyone with qualifications to claim my dubious throne. Honestly, I just hoped the thing didn't try and nominate the Breeder. I think I'd try to end myself out of humiliation... impossible as it was suppose to be I'd give it the best try I could if that dangerous tentacle slime was deemed the "best" choice.
Waiting with baited breath I wondered who the system would find to replace Shadowhand, I'd known the elf briefly and while outer views of my direction differed, I had to admit compared to Fadewind I'd not felt so... complete. That's not to say the Chicken Lord set the bar very high mind you, I think being a slime dungeon might be an improvement on being full of undead cluckers, still Shadowhand had sort of used my halls for my ultimate purpose, without his ambitions I'd never have stumbled on the cave goblins and started my current journey.
Scanning the halls myself I was getting nervous, the system seemed to be taking its sweet time finding a new dungeon master. Were my halls that devoid of leadership where the system would have me pick from the proverbial bottom of the barrel? What would I do if it was one of the goblins in the breeding hall? What a short reign that would be! Come on system, you have to have some idea by...
{ Dungeon Master candidates found. Sixty two possible choices exist. Display candidate information? }
Sigh, bottom of the barrel it is. Okay me, system, whatever, remove any candidates from the slime, cave goblin and ghoul selections.
{ Removing undesired candidates. Thirty nine candidates discarded. Display remaining Twenty three potentials? }
Wow over half was from the scum of the barrels arse. Okay. Remove any candidates currently pregnant or targeted for breeding by any of the factions using the Mother of Monsters, the Breeder or its second and third generation spawn.
{ Removing undesired candidates. Five candidates remain. Display candidates? }
Not yet, remove any snake goblin candidates.
{ Checking. Two candidates remain. Display choices? }
Wow, two remaining? I figured I eliminated everyone but queen, who else is in here that qualifies? Hrm. Just to be on the safe side, remove the Breeder from all candidates selections.
{ Checking. Breeder was disqualified in first round. Two candidates remain, display candidates? }
Whew. Okay I get to live!!! *Cough* Okay who are our lucky pair?
[
Name: Vampiric Bone Naga
Level: Twelve
Habitat: Shadowheart Dungeon
Diet: Blood, Negative Energy
Special Abilities: Negative Energy Bite, Vampiric infection, Darkness Spells
]
[
Name: Vampiric Water Snake
Title: The Queen
Level: Eleven
Habitat: Shadowheart Dungeon
Diet: Blood, Dungeon Energy
Special Abilities: Ghoul Bite, Level fifteen Toxic Bite
Special Condition: Evolving
]
Bone naga? Wait... Lemme check that corridor again... the skeleton of her buddy, its gone! How do I misplace a twenty foot undead snake?! Dammit where did it go?
{ Candidate Vampiric Bone Naga to be given dungeon master package? }
No! Well, not yet, I just want to find him first. He's still inside me, but I can't find him. System, you detected him as a candidate, please locate the first candidate for inspection.
{ Candidate one is currently in the core chamber. }
WHAT?!
Let's see, okay there's the queen, my skull, Shadowhand's desk and chests... but where is that Naga? Well what is a Naga? Offhand I suppose I'm looking for a giant undead snake but even dipping under the water I don't see anything. Where are you??? Dammit. My core isn't that big, its hard to displace a twenty foot long snake skeleton thing in a room this size. Could he make himself invisible? No, it would be listed in hus inspection. Where the hell did you go...?
I swept the room back and forth, from my vantage point I could see all points of the room... well almost... but no he couldn't be there could he? Panning my view upwards from my usual near top down view I finally found candidate number one. Coiled like a wheel on the ceiling the skeletal head looked down at me and Queen. Ghostly fires flickered in its hollow eye sockets, its jaws hung open in a silent hiss as if waiting for something. How did something that big get up there?
Well that's a question for a later date. Present dungeon master package to candidate two.
{ Dungeon Master Queen has been selected, initializing. Presenting package. Installing. Warning: Evolution package interfering with bestowment package. Evolution is tapping into dungeon energy to fuel its installation. Evolution goal reached. Evolving. }
What the hell? I watched as the snake wrapped around my crystal skull core fell limply into the water around the pedestal. The snakes body was wriggling like millions of tiny bugs writhed under her scales, her body arched as her mass exploded outwards. Rather than being a gory mess I watched as she grew from being a couple of feet long and thin as a sword to being almost eight feet in length and contorted in ways no serpent should be shaped.
A glow erupted from her scales as her body expanded and changed under the watchful eyes of both me and her competition. I wondered if that sly Naga was going to strike when she finished her evolution or was it waiting to rob the package we were trying to present her? I didn't trust it so kept my panning view on both, studying the undead Naga while we both watched Queen slowly rise through the water. What crested the surface was no longer a snake but rather what appeared to be a human woman, her hands clutched awkwardly at the desk as she pushed herself upright, stretching her bare torso as she examined her slender arms.
I was about to dip beneath to further my inspection when the system interrupted me.
{ Evolution complete. Dungeon energy deducted five hundred points. Vampiric Water Snake evolved into Dungeon Lamia. Presenting Dungeon Master package. Accepted. Installing. Complete. Dungeon Master Queen prepared, present energy package? }
Alright give her the thousand and warn her about the Naga.
{ Presenting energy package. Dungeon Energy reduced by one thousand points. Advising dungeon master Queen of potential threat. }
"Mm, thank you for the warning, but he is not a threat. He is my bodyguard." The woman spoke looking up, her hand reached out towards the Naga which stretched its skull down letting her caress the bare bones. "A body guard that is no longer needed."
What I saw next made my jaw drop, well if I had a jaw. Like a claw her slender fingers dug into the eye sockets of the Naga and pulled that undead snake down to face level, her pale pink lips parted as she breathed in, her lips hovering next to the fang filled maw of the monstrous undead snake. Its body jerked, trying to escape her grip but despite her frail looking limbs she held easily to its skull. The flicking fires in its eyes wavered and dimmed, suddenly slipping from those dark empty sockets, dipping back into the skull and down into its maw. Those trembling fires swept out between its jaws and slipped into the small mouth of the woman who released the skull and stroked her throat as she swallowed the flames and slowly locked her lips.
As if time had unfrozen, the skeletal body of the Naga dropped from the ceiling raining down around the Queen who was guiding the flames from her throat down into her chest behind her breasts, finally pushing it down into her belly. Rubbing her mid rift with a soft moan of pleasure. Just what the fuck did I just see? Did she EAT the naga's soul or something??? Holy shit.
Patting her belly she moved towards my core, the shallower water revealed she had no legs but beneath her waist was a thick snake tail which she coiled around my pedestal. She pressed against the back of my skull core, her full breats parting as they deformed around either side of my "head".
"Thank you for the warning and the name though dungeon. Queen, so very suitable. I will keep it." Her body lazed against my core, much as she had in her original snake body. Her arms crossed over the top of the skull laying her cheek atop them and hummed to herself. I could see her through the dungeon connection studying my halls, reviewing her memories and the information my halls provided her. "My, but you are a mischievous one aren't you dungeon? Making monsters and unleashing them willy nilly. Shame on you. I simply won't tolerate such insubordination now that I'm in charge. Understood?"
"Even better, let's do this..." I wasn't sure what she was doing until the system chimed in.
{ Dungeon Master Queen has invoked dungeon maintenance mode. Transferring eight thousand energy to the dungeon master. Dungeon tutorial has been turned on. }
NOOOOOOO... Not that shitty tutorial again!
"I knew you were holding back. Considering the state of the halls I figured you wouldn't hand over most of your supply. Now without any energy those disgusting breeders can die off." Humming to herself Queen waved her fingers like a silent conductor, directing a silent, unseen orchestra. My dungeon halls shifted as she refunded much of what Shadowhand had built, while also patching my own rather rebellious additions. The fighting factions were rather awestruck as their battlefields converged bunching up cave goblins, slime, ghouls and snake goblins. When she was finished my core chamber looked more like an opulent reception area complete with a throne upon which she draped herself. My core happened to serve as an arm rest as she looked down on the motley crew of monsters.
"From this day forward dungeon Shadowheart, the halls in which you have been living, fucking, shitting and over all existing, is no more. A time of great change is upon us as your true queen has arrived to lead you wayward savages out of the darkness. The dungeon has been tamed. The breeders will die out. You cave goblins are my slaves. You will work for me until you die. You cross breed goblins will serve as my fodder. Before my people come you will serve as the slave soldiers of our army. You may ask yourselves where I, a veritable newcomer to your ecosystem, get the gall to command all if you..." Tapping my skull with her finger she laughed, "My authority comes from the dungeon itself. It serves me now and will no longer run itself like a wild beast. It is mine and by extention thus, so are you."
I wanted to fight this, the entertaining chaos was being grabbed by the balls and squeezed. The ghouls and slimes were compliant, the cave goblins grumbled but when a ghoul ripped one of their heads off, they fell into line. The only others that didn't share queen's dream were the snake goblins, the serpent gobbis had their weapons ready, preparing to break out of this dangerous encirclement. Queen watched them as if they were mere puppets dancing for the amusement if their owner.
Her fingers idly stroked my skull and giggled softly as stone cages erupted around the troublesome goblins. "I do not suggest resisting. While I do require you as soldiers for the moment, my designs are not so inflexible that I cannot cut you out of them. Within these regions I am Queen, question my authority at your peril." With speech made the other races were pushed out of the temple like core once more leaving me to be cradled to her bosom like some waif of a child, the steady beat of her monstrous heart filled my senses.
I felt a new kind of torpor settling upon my consciousness, the vision of the lamia snuggling my core dimming as the last sight to appear within my gaze was the creep of the Breeder that finally found my core and Queen's soft call, "Good right on time."