Prepper's Dungeon

It had all gone so smoothly. So very smoothly. Almost as if those fools had been laying a trap to counter my own traps from the very beginning. Indeed, I had more or less suspected as much at various points.

First, neither Casper nor Raymond had seemed to care about the roaches skittering about their little hideout. And that came after neither of them had noticed that I'd replaced Raymond's goon with a Saboteur.

Second, they flat out discussed all their plans right then and there. No codes. No exchange of written messages followed by the burning of the envelopes. Nothing that would suggest they were taking me seriously at all.

Third, the extra help Raymond contacted was made up of actual, literal muscle men he'd previously used to break strikes and nascent unions before they got off the ground. Glorified thugs with tiny sidepieces. No one had any experience fighting monsters. No one had any experience fighting with armor. No one had Magic nor a Core to call their own.

And to top it all off, there had been so few of them that I couldn't help but suspect something else was on the cards. That either Raymond or Carlyle had planned for me and there was a secret force somewhere in the city that I simply wasn't seeing.

Perhaps Casper had other collaborators. Other people who betrayed Carlyle and who could bring their levels and experience to bear when assaulting my Dungeon. Or perhaps Casper would come with new equipment I wasn't previously aware of. Some secret weapon like the one he used to poison James Robertson.

Or perhaps Raymond was the one to blame for that. Maybe he had discovered some compound that would remain tasteless and odorless while being extremely toxic. Even to high-level beings.

But nothing like that ended up happening.

Their so-called contingency was Pravda and Kobe. And… sure. The child loved them. But the child tended to love small and cute looking animals regardless of what they were. The girl, on the other hand, only cared about the animals insofar as they made the child more pliable.

A despicable tactic, but with the benefit of hindsight, I could respect the hustle.

So, I killed and replaced the men Raymond had sent and then I'd set things up so that they'd be ready for an ambush the second Casper realized. No easy feat considering that I couldn't put too much Magic into them for fear of Casper realizing something was up too early. The idea was that they would have all their internal organs arranged in such a way that they could hide a bio-weapon loaded with the shroom-derived sedative in their chests. With internal mechanisms that would have allowed them to open the cavity and fire the weapon within half a second.

Or explode.

Though the bombing procedure would leave the ensuing blast lacking in power, with most of the chemicals going all over the place.

But again, I'd miscalculated.

Casper didn't realize anything was wrong until the second floor and by then, I'd replaced all the usual units with ones that were at the height of level 3. Still not enough to really harm him or impede him in any meaningful way, but they were enough to slow him down and that was really all it took.

'And I managed to drain him so much!' I giggled internally. 'I'd be surprised if he managed to hold on to 10% of his total reserves of Magic! Honestly, what an idiot! To think he'd overspend himself to this degree!'

It didn't make sense for his level, leading to conclude that, despite being an experienced Delver, Casper hadn't actually fought dangerous monsters all that much. Not on the frontlines anyway.

He was too panicky. Too easy to overwhelm psychologically when all it would have taken for him to get out was to endure a continuous barrage while focusing on a single large teleport. But he lost his nerve anytime something came to bite him or whenever another one of my units tried to wriggle its way into his eyes or mouth.

Naturally, the new and improved Sky-shroom extract had played a large role as well. Ensuring that he could never truly stop and think as he might have otherwise.

Not to mention how great a part the new and improved swarms of ants, bees and spiders played. I had made them as such due to the lessons learned from my spar with Julian and the following reaction the roach-tide got off of Homer.

Turns out most humans find it hard to focus when many skittering legs are crawling all over them. Who'd have thought.

In any case, the ending result was perhaps the best-case scenario I could have possibly hoped for. Not only did I catch that little weasel Raymond with his pants down and all his plans laid out, but I managed to snag Casper at the same time. All without putting all my selves at risk.

'Though I guess that's about to change.' I thought with some disappointment.

Still, there was nothing for it. As well as things had gone, Casper was still level 5 and his Core was still only one stage lower than the one I and the child shared. I should have learned from my encounter with the brute. I should be grateful that I managed to drain him of both Magic and stamina to this extent. I doubted anyone else could have managed as well as I did.

I lifted our great body off of the pool. Taking care to use two of my hands to cradle James Robertson's limp head as we rose from the nutrient-rich soup.

I could feel his eyes rolling awkwardly through our connected nerves and I could feel his own Core starting to fight against the Child's own and his granddaughter's.

'This is not the way.' I told myself once more. 'This little trick will only last me a few minutes. This is not the way my creation gave that peacock and his hens additional Cores.'

My hearts swelled with greed. All five of them beating in unison, though James's own organ was still sickly and reliant on the other four.

'Still, I must say I am pleased with these results too.'

I was just about to sink my fingers into his portion of our body once more, when I heard the distinct thuds a human body made as it bounced on solid bedrock after falling down from a great height.

I looked up, then straight ahead, as Casper finally joined us.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I could have spoken to him then, but that would have been a sign of hubris. The kind of folly the old, stupid, proud me would have indulged in.

Instead, I opened up by lifting the limb containing the Bio-shotgun and fired a salvo made up of compressed, jagged shards of bone. All of which were coated in several fun toxins.

They hit him before he was even aware I was standing here and I heard him scream with all the force he could muster as one of my attacks finally broke through skin, muscle and bone alike. The enhanced fragments ripping him open as shrapnel would a normal human.

"GAAAH!!" He gasped. Stopping his sudden screams to gasp and suck in a breath of fresh air.

I was on him before he could exhale. Kicking with James' portion of our body and enjoying the feedback of Casper's remaining ribs shattering underneath the hooved foot.

Casper's semi-living carcass struck the far wall hard. Bouncing off it and landing back onto the floor three meters away. I rushed in and kicked him again. Just as he was starting to raise his arms in defense of his head. My hooved foot breaking his right arm and leaving him with a generous concussion.

When he bounced off the wall, I readied another one of my limbs. Two hands holding a mighty bone battleaxe that cut down with all the force my giant muscles could muster.

The swing parted his left leg from his body, but it had been so ferocious that the blade sank deep into the foundation of the Dungeon and no amount of force could pull it out.

Not satisfied, I lashed out with two lacerating tentacles that came at him from both right and left while I was trying to pull out the weapon and then followed up the vicious whip-strikes with yet another kick, followed by an overhead slam as he bounced off the ceiling.

Blood went everywhere. Both from his stump and from between his broken teeth. His lungs heaving out a steady flow of red-tinted spittle as he tried to suck in one more breath.

I was about to hit him again, when he finally seemed to react. Grabbing that thing off of one of my arms and teleporting away with it.

Not far, but far enough away that all my follow-up attacks missed him by a generous margin.

Then he threw a concentrated blast in my general direction, which I dodged just in time. So that the only parts he destroyed were spares I could re-grow in between blinks.

"What…?" He coughed out another congealed globule of black blood.

"What the fuck Cecil? How?"

I laughed. The sound coming out of all three of my heads. Even James' own.

Casper's eyes went wide as saucers and he stared into our new body in mute horror. His eyes not even tracking the numbers and letters on the Analyzer.

"You didn't have to do that, traitor." We told him bluntly. "We would have shared the changes with you freely. We know them off the top of our heads after all."

We laughed as one. As I.

"Elsie and her family can blend together minds so that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins, so why not do that very same thing with flesh as well? It was my answer to the issue of only having once Core. Though I do admit my creation's solution is far more reliable, looking at how Ryuji and his hens didn't dissolve into puddles of fleshy acid within minutes."

I stepped closer to him. Enlarging my form and thickening my muscles, nerves and bones even further. While also growing more and more toothed tentacles to use as whips.

"Though my way give me access to flesh that is…" I pointed to James' head. "Far, far stronger. I swear, level 7 really is something else."

Then my eyes met his again.

"Go ahead Casper. Read."

He did so. As if following the orders of a superior.

[New skill unlocked! [???] has been added to the status.]

[New skill unlocked! [???] has been added to the status.]

[Error – Skill [Assimilate] has mutated ??? – New functions expanded. New skill unlocked! [Biological Melding] has been added to the status.]

[Vitality: 147.2 -> ?? (?? days) - (Monster hunting - estimated ?? specimens killed directly. Monster hunting - estimated 321, 948 specimens killed indirectly. Absorbing additional processed Magic via a Skill. Absorbing additional processed Magic via - ?? – Error – Please contact manufacturer. Continuous self-experimentation. Experimentation with skills – Error – Please contact manufacturer.)]

[Endurance: 147 -> ?? (?? Days) - (Monster hunting - estimated ?? specimens killed directly. Monster hunting - estimated 321, 948 specimens killed indirectly. Absorbing additional processed Magic via a Skill. Absorbing additional processed Magic via - ?? – Error – Please contact manufacturer. Continuous self-experimentation. Experimentation with skills – Error – Please contact manufacturer.)]

[Potency: 120.1 -> ?? (?? Days) - (Monster hunting - estimated ?? specimens killed directly. Monster hunting - estimated 321, 948 specimens killed indirectly. Absorbing additional processed Magic via a Skill. Absorbing additional processed Magic via - ?? – Error – Please contact manufacturer. Continuous self-experimentation. Experimentation with skills – Error – Please contact manufacturer.)]

[Precision: 127.2 -> ?? (?? Days) - (Monster hunting - estimated ?? specimens killed directly. Monster hunting - estimated 321, 948 specimens killed indirectly. Absorbing additional processed Magic via a Skill. Absorbing additional processed Magic via - ?? – Error – Please contact manufacturer. Continuous self-experimentation. Experimentation with skills – Error – Please contact manufacturer.)]

[Fortitude: 145 -> ?? (?? Days) - (Monster hunting - estimated ?? specimens killed directly. Monster hunting - estimated 321, 948 specimens killed indirectly. Absorbing additional processed Magic via a Skill. Absorbing additional processed Magic via - ?? – Error – Please contact manufacturer. Continuous self-experimentation. Experimentation with skills – Error – Please contact manufacturer.)]

His jaw, or what was left of it, hung open.

"Oh yes Casper." I purred through all my mouths. "Oh yes indeed. I've been drinking deep from the Core itself to keep your pal James alive. It hasn't been easy. Nor painless."

We chuckled.

"Honestly, what did you put into his food for him to end up like this? I've been working on him for what feels like an eternity and I can't make heads or tails of it. It's like…radiation. His cells just keep exploding from within as if the DNA itself was melting into nothingness, but at the same time, it isn't that. Because the DNA seems fine. The RNA seems fine too. And all the little parts of his cells. It isn't some kind of cancer either because I don't detect any tumors or mutations. One moment the cells are healthy and I just finished regrowing part of his liver and the next, his bone marrow on the other side of his body starts disintegrating. It makes a man wonder. What did you do?"

He looked up at me from his kneeling position. Then his eyes focused on James' head poking out of the bulk. On the way his eyes tracked his own.

"Oh, don't worry Casper. James is quite asleep." I told him truthfully. "Our nerves are connected and I'm controlling the eyes. That's all."

He was about to say something, when the tentacle I had burrowing beneath the earth rose up to skewer him from behind.

Casper looked down at the barbed hook. Bloodshot eyes going even wider than before. Then those eyes turned to look back on me.

"Oh, come now Casper. Don't give me that look. Not after killing my father."

He wheezed in surprise.

"I didn't! I never!"

"Charles Robertson." I corrected.

He looked startled again.

"Remember." I pointed to two of my heads. "No difference in where on ends and the other begins. We are one. In everything. At least until the Skill is cancelled."

Another tentacle rose up to skewer him as two more were launched directly from my body. Even as bio-guns formed and fired. Even as I rushed to stomp on his skull.

And just like that… it was over.

And I began the process of changing and repairing the Dungeon in preparation for my eventual exit.