World Seed

Author's Corner: Calling all potential song-writers! I'm looking for some help planning a song for later in the arc, and I want to get a headstart on it. If anyone wants to send me a PM on the forum, I would be glad for the help. To avoid spoilers, will only go over the details in PM! Naturally, whoever makes the chosen song will be credited with it in the chapter it appears! [/hr]

It was a short while after our first ‘panty thief demon’ encounter, that I thought of asking a question to Celeste. “What is it?” The Deus Ex looked at me curiously, while Yin and Sharon were pummeling another group of yellow-skinned demons.“What do dungeon monsters eat? I mean, the ones at Alkrax obviously weren’t able to get out and hunt animals or find plants. Do they feed on the dungeon mana or something?” This had been bothering me since… well, ever since we made these dungeons. And, upon hearing my question, Celeste made an awkward face.“Well… not exactly. I mean, plant dungeons usually do, unless they have a way to get sunlight. Otherwise… they… eat each other. Dungeon monsters are typically born feral. The only bright side is that the dungeon ‘reclaims’ the dead bodies. Sometimes, they will turn into new gear for the other dungeon monsters, but usually they just turn into more monsters. Once dungeon monsters start getting intelligent, they learn how to send members out to hunt and bring back food. Sometimes, the monsters will even gather together and kill the dungeon boss if they are starving.”“Ah…” I suddenly lost any appetite that I might have had before. Basically… they were born cannibals. Shivers ran down my spine, and I no longer felt sorry for the creatures being killed by the angry girls.We quickly made our way through to the floor boss, which.. Was a rather interesting creature. Somehow, there was a giant golden minotaur, in a large throne room, surrounded by mountains of gold and silver coins. In his hand, he held a large, silver axe that was easily as big as he was. Finally, in the corner of the room was a set of golden scales, atop which were cages. That part… gave me a bad feeling.Seeing us enter the room, the minotaur demon waves his hand dramatically, speaking in a language we couldn’t understand. I’m sure this was some monologue about how we had made it to its throne room, and would now relinquish all that we owned to it, blah blah blah. Celeste, would you mind?Celeste’s arm cannon fully expanded, growing to its maximum size as she nodded her head. We didn’t have any information on this boss, since Nathan’s group never made it this far, but we were about to find out just how strong its defenses were. As I finished that thought, Celeste fired a thick beam of light straight at the minotaur.For a moment, nothing happened. However… soon, there was a laugh ringing throughout the room, and the sound of coins raining down from the ceiling. The boss monster had not only been entirely unaffected by the attack, but it had even seemed to absorb it to create more treasures… This is definitely a cheat, right?“Celeste, you said before that thing can shoot metal, right?” I asked, glancing around to the mountains of treasure. The Deus Ex seemed to pick up on my thought, because she nodded her head.“I’ll need a minute in order to gather enough for a big shot, though. Until then, it’s up to you to test its weaknesses.” After she spoke, Celeste jumped back to the back of the room, and deployed two turrets, while crouching down to the floor.“Sharon, Yin, let’s see what makes it bleed. Yo… keep it busy.” After saying that, I stretched out my mana, and used the Wind Manipulation ability to send a pair of thick wind blades at the minotaur, while Sharon followed it up with a water blast, and Yin sent a lightning bolt. Yo, meanwhile, shifted into her newest shape, the three-headed cerberus, and unleashed a balefire breath attack.More coins rang down from the ceiling, as three out of the four attacks seemed to cause no damage at all. However, Yo’s breath attack caused it to roar, striking the base of its axe against the ground. Yo was surrounded by a thick glow of golden light, before she vanished. Looking around, she reappeared almost immediately inside one of the cages on the golden scales.Slowly, the mountains of coins around us began shrinking down, the coins instead appearing in the second cage. With each coin that fell, Yo let out a brief whimper of pain. She tried to slip through the gaps of the cage, but ran into an invisible wall, making escape impossible. “Daddy… help…” She let out a scared voice as the coins continued piling up.“John, quick! Her soul is fading!” Celeste called out from the back. Meanwhile, the minotaur seemed to stand just a bit taller.“Sharon, all or nothing.” I turned to rush towards the scales, sending out my psychic energy this time. To my surprise, it proved able to penetrate the barrier around the cage, and I was able to form a portal. Thanks to my practice recently, Yo was able to slip through the portal without me passing out, which I considered a brilliant success. Although I still had a fairly decent headache, and probably couldn’t do that a second time. “Daddy… thanks…” The slime girl smiled as she appeared next to me, her body unstable and only half-formed. Something about it… I felt myself becoming more and more angry. If the scales had kept going, Yo might have had a true death. She would have been lost just like that, and I almost hadn’t been able to stop it.That’s not going to happen a second time. I heard a dozen different roars from behind me, no doubt from Sharon summoning a small horde of beasts to fight. However, my focus was on the scales. The boss wasn’t likely to have another soul-draining item around, and this one had to go. The question was how to break it. Focusing, I activated my Aura Sight, and removed my limiter to use Spatial Comprehension and analyze the item.Altering through my viewing methods a few times, I found that it did not have any particular defenses, so I went with the old fallback. Smash it until there’s nothing left. Raising my hand, I called to the coins around me with my Metal Manipulation, causing them to fly into the air and join together above me. Sure, I could have used the metal from my grove to do this, but it was easier and more satisfying to do it this way.Next, I channeled my Fire Manipulation through the growing ball of coins, slowly melting them down to form into a single ball of precious metals. From there, I removed the heat to solidify it. By now, half of my mana was gone, but I had a ball of silver and gold at least ten meters thick. And I knew what to do with it.“John! Watch out!” I barely had time to process Yin’s shout before a large force crashed into my side, sending me flying into the wall of the room.