Dan the Man - turned - Eldritch God - turned - Dungeon Core

Dungeon Day 29 - Continues

The closest to their targets was Team 3. The fight began as Eagle dove down and slashed one of the snakes, which started to bleed thick green blood. Surprisingly, the attack almost cut the snake in half, and the snake was incapacitated.

As Eagle finished her first fly-by, which also helped indicate to the rest of her team where the enemies were, she returned to the sky. The fight was already in their favor, and Dan assumed the impatient bird wanted to let her team have some fun.

Her team had the bear up front with the gorilla slightly behind it and to its right while the two baboons flanked on the left. After spotting the snakes, the bear halted and reared up before smacking the ground, activating its entomb ability and summoning slabs of stone on either side of a snake. However, before the slabs crushed the snake, a slight green glow encased it, and it rushed out of the way of the slabs, flying like a missile straight at the bear.

The gorilla, probably getting impatient, quickly rushed past the bear, running at another of the snakes, which also glowed and sped through the air, shooting straight at the gorilla.

Both snakes arrived at the same time. The one aimed at the bear hit the beast right on its chest and managed to push the bear onto its back before trying to wrap around its head. Meanwhile, the one going after the gorilla did not have the same luck. Instead, the gorilla dodged to the side, letting the snake pass by for a fraction of a second before reaching out and grabbing it by its tail.

Next up were the baboons, who were a tad faster than their two bigger companions and arrived at a third snake's location. Apparently, the snake's ability could only be used at medium range. So, instead, it tried to lash out with its fangs, which dripped a green liquid while swinging its tail about. Sadly, for the snake, the baboons were faster and outnumbered it. So, the snake soon found itself the victim of a stomp-smack game as the apes stomped and smacked it while dodging its strikes.

Seeing only the doe and stag, the fourth snake activated its ability, rushing to strike at the doe. Sadly for it, midway to its target, a form came from the sky and smacked downwards as the team's eagle interrupted its strike. Then, once the snake had landed, still befuddled by the strike, another predator appeared from the shadows. The jaguar simply approached it, quickly slicing the snake into small pieces.

The gorilla was essentially smashing the snake about like a whip, and the thing was quickly turned into a bloody green pulp. As for the other snake trying to choke the bear, the bear just rapidly ripped the thing apart with its claws, smearing itself with green blood.

After seeing those snakes get handled, Dan looked over to the baboons. The two apes were still playing stomp with the barely alive snake. However, it looked like their target had managed to get one of them, as one seemed more sluggish than the other. Thankfully, the problem was quickly fixed as the doe walked up to the baboon and activated her Cleansing Touch, which was soon followed by the Healing Touch.

All in all, the fight had been a one-sided massacre and had landed Dan a whole 150 mana which was freaking sweet.

Another great thing was that Dan now had some new monsters he could make, which brought him to the whole monster creation system. The entire thing was rather versatile, and he could do anything, but it had some limitations. First was that he couldn't evolve a snake into a dragon. Well, not unless he had a dragon already on his list, but at that point, he would just make a dragon. This also applied to things like drakes or wyverns. He couldn’t just make something he didn’t have. There were other issues with it, but they varied too much from situation to situation.

Following the evolution issue was the problem with innate abilities and monster types. Basically, if he took a creature too far from its base body by adding a little too many things like limbs, abilities, and affinities, it could change the monster. This could then remove, add, and replace certain innate abilities. Additionally, it would change the type of monster it was.

Essentially, if he took one of the new grass snakes and gave it legs, wings, and a bunch of random crap that didn't make sense, it would change and become a Monstrosity. For reference, the snakes were considered Beast-Wood Elementals. On the other hand, if he gave the beast too many fire-related skills and affinities, then it would change to a Beast-Fire Elemental. This would then morph the snake and give it a new look.

Another important change related to types was that some things were straight-up not allowed. He hadn't run into it yet, but he had the knowledge. This rule was related to a soul. A soul made to be a fey could not be switched to a devil, demon, or elemental. Same thing for a water soul changing into a fire soul. It just wasn’t going to happen. He could technically give fey fire abilities, but not any innate powers found with a devil. The same applies to elementals, as he could give a water elemental the ability to produce steam or an earth elemental the ability to make an earth tornado but not just a tornado. All in all, the entire thing was very sensitive to certain things.

Finally, he could not create a monster with a higher rank than his own. Dan understood this for obvious reasons.

Anyways, moving back to looking at his teams, Dan found Kinetics team approaching their targets. And seeing Kinetic start his lightning charge ability as he ran, Dan felt bad for one of the boars. The ability let the cheetah charge up a lighting ramming attack by spending mana while running. The ability also increased his speed, and the cat was a yellow blur dashing through the forest and heading toward the lead boar.

The lead boar spotted the blur that was Kinetic charging ahead and began speeding towards it in order to meet the cheetah, who was glowing slightly blue as his lightning fur was armed with electricity. Kinetic, who had noticed the boar coming at him, poured more mana into his charge, causing his glow to increase. The boar, unworried, still smashed through the forest as its tusk and thick outer skin smashed through vine spike brushes and pushed aside a few trees while also ramming through fallen tree trunks.

Dan watched as the boar and cheetah approached. The gap closing faster and faster until finally, they were feet apart and, with a bright blue flash, collided.

The flash only lasted for a second or two and was followed by the discharge of electricity and a cloud of dust, leaves, and splinters before Kinetic ran out of the cloud utterly unharmed without even losing most of his original speed. Looking at the collision spot, Dan only saw a clear spot where plants had been completely fried, leaving behind an explosion hole around half the size of the boar.

The boar was gone.

There wasn't any flesh or blood left behind. It had just been deleted, and everything was fried to ash.

Dan was smiling—poor boar.

As Dan just watched the dirt hole admiring the cheetah's first use of the ability, he was interrupted by the rest of the beasts finally getting within fighting distance. Surprising Dan, the rest of the boars seemed unperturbed by the lead boar's death. However, they were scared of Kinetic and let the cheetah run by them without attempting to intercept.

The boars had seen the approaching beasts and were making their way to them. In response, the beasts stopped in their march and waited for the boars to approach. The bear was reared up at the front, and the gorilla was next to him, looking at the approaching boars. His two beasts just stood there while the eagle approached the rest of the boars, unleashing weak versions of the Wind Slash ability. Meanwhile, the jaguar climbed a nearby tree while the doe stood a few feet behind her stag, which in turn was a few feet behind the gorilla and bear.

His beasts just stood there, and Dan was wondering what they were doing when he finally noticed the baboons and the two pointy sticks they had. The apes were evolving, and they were now using tools. Dan swore he expected one of them to say, “Apes together strong,” but he was thankful it didn’t happen, at least not yet. What did happen was the gorilla yeeting the two baboons at the incoming boars.

With a non-existent mouth wide open, Dan watched as the baboons landed on a boar and simultaneously slammed the makeshift spears into the boar's neck. Naturally, this caused the boar to stumble, and the baboons hopped off as the boar came to a stop. The other four boars didn’t flinch as they just charged the last distance to the rest of his beasts.

One boar went for the bear, the other went for the gorilla, and the last two looked to go around and target the stag and doe.

The bear, still on its rear, was going to do what Dan was already expecting as it began its Earth Slam move to meet the boars charge head-on. Likewise, the gorilla was looking to meet his boar head-on but with a different strategy. The two boars struck at the same, and the bear easily slammed his boar, crushing the beast's head into the ground. Meanwhile, the gorilla tapped into his Earth Control ability and spent mana, causing the earth to support him as he took the boar head-on by holding its tusks. Using the ground to help absorb the impact, the gorilla pulled a wrestling move as it flexed its natural strength and lifted the boar up into the air before slamming it behind him.

As this happened, the other two boars were still charging at the doe and stag.

One of the boar's charge came to an early end as the jaguar that was on the tree pounced, targeting its neck and bringing the boar down as the giant pig lost its balance. This was followed by the jaguar's claws glowing as it used its metal slash and almost beheaded the pig. The other boar, who was still charging at the stag ran right into a wall of earth as the stag used its Earth Wall ability. Unsurprisingly, the wall barely stopped the hog, but it was enough for an earthen spike to strike the boar's underbelly, pinning the thing in place.

Back to the semi-suplexed boar, it quickly died as the bear, and the gorilla bashed it to death. Then, the fight ended as the jaguar finished off the pinned boar, who was still trying to reach the stag.

The fight had been absolutely fantastic! Dan needed to make some upgrades to his beasts. He was planning to give the gorillas George’s smash move and maybe one weapon or another. However, he was definitely going to give the baboons proper weapons except made of metal, not just wood. Finally, he needed to give the eagles more mana or something like Kinetic's charge attack. The birds just didn’t have enough mana to be super useful with their Wind Slashes, and their smaller sizes didn’t give them much combat capabilities against large foes.

After noting all that down with his nice dungeon abilities, Dan switched to George and the wolves.

Something told him that this fight was going to be even better.