Chapter 776: Ascending
The girls turned toward her.
"Two problems, one answer. If the Claimant has anything that can crack abyssal rock or drain magma, we need walls and hazards stronger than what our current tier offers us. And if its swarm outclasses our defenders individually, which is almost certain given those creatures are upgraded versions of monsters that were already dangerous, we need a higher ceiling on what we can field."
Her fingertips brushed the projection. "Mid-tier raises the level cap on our creatures. It unlocks Lava Turrets, which we currently cannot purchase. It restores Creation Mode access, which means Master regains editing rights on terrain that has already been laid down." She gestured at the Verdant Expanse, three kilometers of soft green between the corridor and the cathedral. "That open meadow becomes editable. Right now we cannot touch it. After ascension, we can shape it into whatever the defense needs."
Aria was quick to agree. "Yes, we must upgrade! And make use of every single resource available to us. Kai, we are not alone. Don’t forget that."
Her thumb moved along the pulse at his wrist where her hand had rested for some time now.
"Mother is at the perimeter."
"Mother?" Luna grumbled. "She went from ’future mother in law’ to ’mother in law’ and now she’s just ’mother’?"
The Storm Valkyrie was ignored as Aria continued, "The Eclipse veterans are with her. The Association is holding the outer ring. If the system permits them inside the dungeon during the duel, if they can fight beside us, the math changes. Mother on the cathedral steps is better than monster or turret we can buy. We do not have to solve this with DMP alone."
Kaiden had said nothing through his girls’ lengthy discussion, taking in all their opinions.
His thumb traced the rim of the armrest, eyes moving from the magma section to the corridor to the open meadow and back. Every problem raised shared the same shape underneath.
His current dungeon was built to murder humans, jealous thieves who wanted this dungeon for themselves.
The Claimant was not human, and would require a completely different strategy.
Alice was a warm weight in his lap, her hands still gripping his shirt, her cheek against his sternum, listening as quietly as he was. He let his palm settle on the back of her head.
"Alright."
His eyes lifted to the system window.
"Let’s start with the ascension."
He pulled up the Creatures menu.
[Creatures — Common Tab]
[Direwolf — Lvl 12, 1 DMP each]
[Goblin Raider — Lvl 9, 1 DMP each]
[Bone Serpent — Lvl 18, 2 DMP each]
[Venomfly — Lvl 6, 3 for 1 DMP]
[Slime — Lvl 1, 10 for 1 DMP]
...
The same low-cap garbage he had passed over during inheritance. He swiped to the Abyssal tab.
[Creatures — Abyssal Tab]
[Abyssal Salamawyrm — Lvl 1-99, 1-500 DMP]
[Abyssal Nightclaw — Lvl 1-99, 1-200 DMP]
[Abyssal Maulfiend — Lvl 1-99, 1-400 DMP]
His scroll stopped on the third entry. He tapped it.
A figure rendered above the menu. Bipedal, broad through the shoulders, plated in fused obsidian that ran in heavy slabs across its chest and arms. Two horns curving back from a sloped skull. In its right hand, a maul of welded basalt and bone, the head as wide as Kaiden’s torso.
The system attached a brief description: heavy ground combatant, exceptional durability, slow movement, devastating impact.
Good fuel to reach ascension, Kaiden thought.
The requirements to reach higher tier were vague at best, the dungeon itself had to become strong enough to evolve.
He believed that a bunch of shock troops such as this were a good starting point.
Kaiden adjusted the slider to 99, the cost per unit ticked up to 400. He set the quantity to one and tapped purchase.
[Purchase confirmed. 1 Abyssal Maulfiend, Lvl 99. -400 DMP.]
A new presence registered at the back of Kaiden’s awareness. He shifted the 3D map and a fresh red dot bloomed in one of the corridor’s wider ambush chambers.
Kaiden tapped purchase again.
[Purchase confirmed. 1 Abyssal Maulfiend, Lvl 99. -400 DMP.]
A second dot bloomed two chambers down.
He kept tapping. By the fifth Maulfiend, a soft chime cut through the cathedral.
[Ascension Achieved.]
[Dungeon #A23-6679 — Low Tier. Rank 1 ➝ Rank 2.]
Calypso whistled. "That was fast, Darling."
"Apparently the dungeon was already close to rank up."
He pulled up the Creatures menu first. The sliders on every Abyssal entry remained capped at 99. Common Creatures still showed their fixed levels. No Lava Turret had unlocked under Defenses.
A window pulsed at the bottom of his interface, one he had not noticed.
He tapped it.
[New Option Unlocked: Champions.]
[Champions are sworn heroes of the Dungeon Master, elevated above standard subjects. Champions hold formal authority in dungeon management and are recognized as the Master’s chosen combatants in Dungeon Master Duels.]
[Champion Slots: 0 / 5.]
[Slot ceiling may increase with rank ups.]
Kaiden read the description twice, then looked up.
Six girls stood within reach of the dais.
Five slots.
The pout hit Alice’s face the instant she finished reading the line, eyes already full of the whining that was about to come. She did not have to do the math out loud. Her grip on his shirt tightened in protest before the protest itself had even fully formed.
"Kai."
Nyx’s voice cut clean through the moment, before any of the others had drawn breath.
"I’ll wait for the next rank. Pick the others first."
Alice’s pout froze in place, the hissy fit she was about to throw regarding him choosing his women over his little sister - a terrible betrayal of the highest order - didn’t materialize.
Kaiden held his awesome space babe’s eyes for a long moment.
"Thank you."
She smiled softly. "Of course, Kai."
He turned back to the interface and tapped through the appointment process.
[Champion appointed: Aria — Manifestation of Moon.]
[Champion appointed: Bastet — Manifestation of Dominion.]
[Champion appointed: Luna — Manifestation of Storm.]
[Champion appointed: Calypso — Manifestation of Carnage.]
[Champion appointed: Alice Ashborn — The Light That Destroys.]
[Champion Slots: 5 / 5. All current slots assigned.]
A faint shimmer ran along each of the named girls. Not visible to the eye, but Kaiden felt it through the throne, a thread tying each of them to the dungeon at a depth that had not existed a second ago.
Then it was done.
Kaiden returned to the menus.
He dropped fifteen more Maulfiends across the corridor and the Verdant boundary in batched purchases, six thousand DMP gone in a single sustained tap-stream. He layered another dozen Nightclaws into the corridor airspace, rotating them across the ambush chambers as overwatch. Twenty-four hundred more. Three additional Salamawyrms went into Melty’s network at Lvl 99, and somewhere in the magma below, his oldest pet would already be greeting her new sisters with delighted wriggling.
He had spent almost ten thousand when the cathedral chimed again.
[Ascension Achieved.]
[Dungeon #A23-6679 — Low Tier. Rank 2 ➝ Rank 3.]
Kaiden lifted his hand to call up the new menus.
But the communication artifact pulsed first.
He pulled it. Vespera’s signature glowed across the rune.
"Mother."
"Kaiden." Her voice came clear and unhurried through the link. "There is someone I would like to introduce you to. Please come to the front if you have the time to spare."
The line closed.
Kaiden returned his attention to the dungeon interface. Among the icons that had bloomed at Rank 3, one carried the simple shape of a circular lens. A scrying view. The dungeon offering its Master eyes on his own gates from the comfort of the throne.
He selected it.
Beyond the gate, the perimeter Vespera had organized hummed with activity.
Vespera stood at the gate itself, composed as ever.
Beside her stood another woman.
Tall and lean, the build of an athlete. A red suit jacket cut close to her body, sharply tailored from collar to cuff to hem, the red of arterial blood. Beneath the open jacket, a black turtleneck rose to her throat, snug and uninterrupted. Black tactical trousers. Black boots polished to a shine. No visible weapon, which was itself a statement.
Her hair was a long, deep red, swept back and tied in a low knot at the nape of her neck. Her skin was pale enough that the contrast made the hair burn, and her eyes were the color of molten orange, of the heart of a furnace, glowing faintly even in daylight.
She stood beside Vespera at perfect ease, one hip set slightly forward, hands tucked into her jacket pockets like she had nothing in particular to worry about despite the location she was standing at.
Nyx made a strong, yelping sound. It was so unlike Nyx that every other head in the cathedral turned toward her at once.
Her hands had flown to her mouth.
"Oh my god!" Her voice came out half a register higher than anyone present had ever heard it.
"That’s Scarlet!" she breathed. "The Flame Monarch! Why is she here?"