The first time I upgraded the forest section and World Tree dungeon core, there wasn't much of a difference in appearance, other than the territory for the forest growing more. Since this was a basic upgrade, it was completed instantly, but subsequent upgrades would require more time.
After which, I used a spare spirit diamond to upgrade the World Tree dungeon core further so that it would now be on the same upgrade level as my Ancient Aquatic Artifact dungeon core. This was about a week later. Everything seemed to be going fine, so I was quite happy with the result. Now I would need to look for higher quality spirit stones or similar objects to upgrade my dual core dungeon further.
"Why does it sound like I'm talking about my computer instead of a dungeon?" I muttered under my breath. Don't worry, I had no intention of obtaining a triple core or quadruple core dungeon. This was meant more for my summoned spirit beasts. Unless I went to the desert to capture spirit beasts living there, I wouldn't need a dungeon core to create a desert section. I wasn't a fan of the heat and sand, anyway.
The second upgrade took a week, and once it was done, I returned to my dungeon with the fairy sisters in tow to check what new stuff had been added, and also to supervise the renovation of my dungeon that I had instructed over the week.
One thing I did like was the creation of a freshwater river in my forest. As it turned out, by making use of my Construction Crabs and Little Anglers, I was able to dig out a furrow in the soil and fill it with water. Though the source was the sea, when it flowed into my forest through the channel, it was filtered and distilled through a combination of natural processes and the spirit arrays that Sylvie and Silvia set up. For some reason, we even had a micro climate within the forest section, where it occasionally rained and such.
"Looking great so far!" Silvia beamed as she placed her hands on her hips, surveying the forest proudly.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Sylvie asked. I shook my head thoughtfully.
"No, I think we did whatever we could. It looks like a safe haven for all of us, doesn't it? I hope it reminds you of Spectral Forest."
"It does, except for the pumpkin patches." Sylvie giggled as she stared at the bright orange fruits. "Why do you have that?"
"Because pumpkins are delicious!" Silvia exclaimed. She turned to me. "I heard that you came up with the idea of iced pumpkin coffee!"
"Yeah, I got the idea from the Beautiful Country across the Pacific Ocean. They had a certain fast-food chain selling iced pumpkin coffee during the winter, and since I had a surplus of pumpkins, I might as well set up a café selling pumpkin pies and iced pumpkin coffee. Myria is helping me with that."
"I know that one! Myria brought us to visit the other day. You're going with an all-year-round Halloween theme!"
"Yeah." I nodded. "Normally, Halloween takes place on October 31st every year, but Hua Xia doesn't celebrate it like in the Beautiful Country, so I thought it could serve as our specialty here without stepping on the toes of purists from the Beautiful Country."
In case people were wondering why we called it the Beautiful Country, let's just say that was literally how it was written in Chinese.
"All right, let's go back." After looking at the streams and rivers that were flowing through the blossoming forest and feeling a sense of satisfaction, I decided to return home. But before the fairy sisters and I could teleport back to Xia Hai, Long Wang suddenly rushed over.
"My lord! A moment, if you will."
"What's the matter?"
I stopped when my butler called out to me. He paused to catch his breath, and then straightened up with a grim expression.
"The Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins that you posted as sentries and scouts have stumbled upon…forces from other dungeons."
"Oh?"
I didn't have to wait long. The two squads of Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins, split into their respective species, floated across the forest to report to me. Even though they had two separate encounters, they had run into the same kind of enemy.
"Lizard, maybe dragon types? About five meters long, with brownish green scales?"
"They sound like they are Flood Dragons," Long Wang said thoughtfully. "Our scouts report that they have a dungeon not far from here, ruled over by the Flood Dragon King."
Why did that sound so familiar? Was I in the middle of a Dungeon Odyssey?
I listened to the Phantom Stumps, and then the Ghost Pumpkins before nodding. They were moaning and chirping, almost like…well, ghost type spirit beasts, and a normal human wouldn't understand them. But I wasn't a regular person. I was a summoner.
"Hmm, I see. So you retreated after running into them, as per orders. Well done, guys I'm glad you listened to me and avoided conflict."
"Yes, but the bad news is that it will only be a matter of time before the Flood Dragons discover our dungeon. When that happens, then war will be inevitable." Long Wang frowned. "You have upgraded the dungeon well, and we have spirit arrays for both defense and offense, not to mention the Mystic ranked spirit beasts you have gathered for your dungeon and the ten siege towers, but the Flood Dragons are powerful. The least of their warriors are Yellow Ranked, minimum, and they have plenty of Mystic ranked monsters within their ranks. The Flood Dragon King himself is Earth ranked."
"That's not good." I gulped.
"The only advantage we might have is that the Flood Dragons are not true dragons. They are descended from dragons and have dragon blood. The Flood Dragon King himself is powerful because he has the purest bloodline, but he hasn't stepped into the realm of being a true dragon. Not like me." Long Wang smirked at that. Then he turned solemn once more. "However, that doesn't mean we can afford to underestimate him or his army."
"You're speaking as though they already found us," Silvia grumbled.
"It's only a matter of time," Long Wang countered. "Best to be prepared. I'm afraid our defenses are barely sufficient to repel an invasion from the Flood Dragons. In fact, they might not be enough."
"I'll see if I can find anything to upgrade the dungeon cores further. That might help."
"That will be our only chance." Long Wang nodded. "In terms of combat ability, your spirit beasts are no match for the Flood Dragons at all. We are totally outmatched by the Flood Dragon army, and will be crushed in direct combat. The only things that levels the playing field are the spirit arrays and siege towers of your dungeon, my lord. But even those might not be able to stop the Earth ranked Flood Dragon King and his elite troops."
He paused and sighed. "We don't have enough information about the enemy. I only know the Flood Dragon by reputation because…he's a descendant of dragons, but I do not possess knowledge of the disposition of their troops or their numbers. Nonetheless, we can assume that having been a dungeon master who has ruled over a dungeon for at least many years, he would have thousands of Flood Dragons under his command."
"We only have less than five hundred here!" Sylvie gasped, horrified. "There's no way we can fight against so many!"
"Well, we can. With the spirit arrays and defensive siege towers." I sighed. "But yeah, even with those, we'll be overwhelmed eventually. And we haven't even taken into account the elite warriors under the Flood Dragon King's command, or the Flood Dragon King himself."
"I will be honest," Long Wang admitted. "I do not know what abilities the Flood Dragon King has, or what elite warriors he might have. I have been sealed away for millennia, and have lost touch with much of the outside world. I am sure that the current Flood Dragon King is not the same one I know of. He might have been replaced by his descendant, or he might have developed new abilities. The only thing I can be sure of is that he is not Heaven ranked, or I would have sensed him immediately the moment I was unsealed."
I recalled how he fought against the Whale Lord when he was first released to this world. Yeah, it made sense that something as powerful as a Heaven ranked existence would alert all other Heaven ranked beings to his presence when he emerged.
Then suddenly, we stiffened when we sensed something. There was a huge crack and tremors rocked the dungeon. I immediately sprang into action, rushing toward the gate because that was the place where I sensed the emanations of qi and violence from.
"Jun Wen!" Sylvie called out, keeping up with me. She and her sister spread their wings and flew on either side of me. Long Wang also ran, staying close to my rear. The four of us skidded to a stop when we reached the gate, only to be greeted by a grisly sight.
My Guardian Golems were hunched over, their fists smeared with blood. Surrounding them were my Colossal Crabs, their pincers buried into the rock. When I approached, I saw why.
My sentry spirit beasts had caught and slaughtered a bunch of lizard-like spirit beasts. They fitted the descriptions of my Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins scouts, resembling giant lizards with green-brownish scales. From what I could see of their remains, they were roughly humanoid, walking on two legs for some reason, and wielding weapons. A few of them were wearing leather armor as well, bearing some equipment.
They appeared to be sentient, at the very least.
The Guardian Golems reared back and silently returned to their positions, while my Colossal Crabs scuttled over to croak and give me a report. I listened and nodded.
"Excellent work, you guys. So you ensured that there are no survivors?"
"No one escaped, my lord," a Colossal Crab replied in a series of croaks. He didn't speak human words, but that was how I roughly translated his emissions.
"Thank you."
"Nonetheless, the fact that the Flood Dragon scouts have finally located our dungeon bodes ill," Long Wang said somberly. "I knew this day will come. The Flood Dragons will realize that at least one of their scout parties is missing, and they will continue to send search parties to locate them. They will find us eventually before launching a full-scale invasion."
"How long do we have?" I asked. Long Wang shook his head.
"I do not know. As I said, I have no knowledge of the enemy's troops disposition or strength. And besides, scouting parties go missing all the time. The Celestial Labyrinth is a dangerous place, and almost all the spirit beasts here are apex predators who hunt each other. Even the Flood Dragons wouldn't be able to avoid casualties when exploring this place and searching for territory or other dungeons. Blood Leopards and other terrifying spirit beasts dwell in these depths."
"…did you say Blood Leopard?" I asked incredulously. "Dude, you do know we're going to get into trouble for plagiarizing Dungeon Odyssey if you keep this up, right?"
Long Wang cleared his throat. "Did I say Blood Leopard? I mean Shadow Panthers."
That was better, but we still weren't in the clear yet.
"I will send more Ghost Pumpkin and Phantom Stump scouts out, and work on gathering intelligence on my end, but you had best be prepared for the worst, my lord."
"Understood." I sighed. "I don't suppose we'll conveniently have a dark elf visit our bar and provide us information on the Flood Dragons?"
Long Wang, Sylvie and Silvia all stared at me. I shrugged. "What?"
"Weren't you the one worried about plagiarism, my lord?"
"Besides, elves live up there in the Floating Continent," Sylvie added, much to my surprise. "You won't find a dark elf or high elf here in the Celestial Labyrinth."
"Oh, elves actually exist?"
"Of course they do!" Sylvie frowned. "They are all over the Floating Continent…oh, never mind. I think it's difficult for human cultivators to visit the Floating Continent at the moment. it's drifting in place over the World Tree. To get there, you'll have to scale Yggdrasil and pass through several barriers. It's a dangerous journey."
"That said, instead of dark elves, I believe we might be able to get information from other beings who lurk in the Celestial Labyrinth," Long Wang said with a dark smile. "I might have been sealed away for over two thousand years, but I think I can make use of several of my ancient contacts and get one of them to visit us. If you're fine with it, my lord."
"Oh, I'm definitely fine with it, Long Wang. I'll leave it to you then." Glancing at the pulped Flood Dragons, I grimaced. "If we're going to end up fighting these guys in the near future, then we'll need all the information and help that we can get."