Harvest Dungeon 22 Chapter 22 - Champions

I stared at Zephirah in surprise for several moments before I was able to comprehend what she had said, and what it actually meant. I remembered from the expansion screen each extra tile on the surface cost four silver coins. An additional twenty seven tiles would be worth more than a gold coin.

"Of course I don't recommend we take all the territory we can. We might need to use some of that energy to exchange with those old dungeons for minions that will work in our dungeon." Zephirah added.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well we will need something that can resist the cold, those mice might have fur coats but they won't be able to handle extreme cold." Zephirah pointed out.

"Neither will I." I reminded her.

Zephirah frowned. "Is the big powerful Rune Lord scared of a little bit of cold?" Zephirah asked me mockingly.

"You aren't talking about a little bit of cold." I retorted.

Zephirah hesisted for a moment. "True." She admitted then smiled, "But you should have a spell that could help with the cold, right?" she asked.

I considered it for a moment. "There are a few spells, the best would be a charm that absorbs the ambient mana to continue working." I told her.

"Similar to the one Vanessa has?" Zephirah asked.

I nodded as I glanced over at the dark haired beauty. She had moved to sit on the edge of the smaller bed and seemed a bit distracted. I wasn't sure if it was an accident or not, but her shirt had been pulled tight and down showing off more of her cleavage than it had before. I turned my gaze away quickly, but not fast enough that Zephirah didn't catch my interest.

"Why? What does it matter?" I asked the smirking sprite.
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"Zephirah rolled her eyes. "Did you forget that I can recreate objects with sufficient energy? I said it just a moment ago." Zephirah teased.

I glared at the little sprite. "Alright fine, I get it. If I can draw up the charm you can recreate it, probably on whatever minions or guardians we decide to use." I grumbled.

Zephirah cheered. "HE GOT IT!"

I rolled my eyes but let her have her moment.

"You know you are smarter than the company ever gave you credit for." Zephirah added.

I glared at the little sprite again but she just shrugged it off. "What? In this case it is true."

I looked over to Vanessa who was refusing to meet my gaze. However, her hands were on her shirt pulling it down a bit farther so I got an even better view of her a.s.sets. If she meant to distract me, it was working. Realizing that, I had to wonder if I was underestimating the Succubus Heart charm she had on her doppleganger, or my own pent up frustrations. Either way it didn't seem like the time or place, especially not when her family's safety was on the line.

My mind stopped as I scowled with that thought. Then several things clicked in my mind. I shook my head to clear it, I could consider the ramifications of those thoughts later.

"What about the third floor?" I asked.

"You have a heat resistance charm too right?" Zephirah asked.

I nodded. "Sure, but we don't have the seeds for the red gra.s.s, I never bought it." I reminded her. "The company also removed it from the list of available seeds."

"I can handle that." Vanessa commented. "If we explain that we want to try opposing the heat and cold effects of the two gra.s.ses, they will make it available again. Probably get a wider selection of clothes too."

I wasn't sure how the two went together, or why it was important, but I didn't bother with it.

"Alright, so what do you want to buy?" I asked Zephirah.

Zephirah flew up to my face and kissed the tip of my nose. "This is so much easier when your partner is smart." she said cheerfully. While it sounded like a compliment, I couldn't help feeling patronized.

"I was thinking to increase our territory to sixteen tiles. Add the third level with another one to two spatial conversion. With the rest of the energy I felt it would be best to invest in a dungeon upgrade." she told me.

I sighed then walked over to sit on the edge of the large bed. "And what are dungeon upgrades?" I asked trying to hold onto my patience. "I get the feeling it has nothing to do with anything you have told me up to this point."

"Close, but wrong." Zephirah replied smugly then stopped and tilted her head. "Well, no I haven't actually said anything about it, but Vanessa has. Though she was discussing improving my ability to convert ambient mana into energy."

"Stop." I said holding up my hand. "What is the difference?" I asked.

"Difference in what?" Xephirah asked.

"Ambient mana and energy, because up to now I thought they were interchangeable." I replied.

"Of course they aren't. Weren't you listening when Vanessa explained it earlier." Zephirah said exasperated. "And here I was thinking you were smart!"

I shook my head. "A lot has happened since then, and our bond has made a few things obsolete." I pointed out.

"Not obsolete, just different." Zephirah retorted but it seemed half a.s.sed to me. "Fine, ambient mana is mana from various elements generated by our location. The cold the blue gra.s.s puts off, is actually ice mana. Lots of other plants, animals, and geography emits mana without realizing it." Zephirah told me.

"It would be odd if a lake realized it emitted water mana." Lilian commented reminding all of us she was still present.

I had forgotten about the little fairy. A glance at her showed that she still seemed a bit distracted, but she had to have been paying at least a little bit of attention to our conversation.

Zephirah ignored the fairy as she continued. "I filter that hodgepodge of mana into pure energy, or neutral mana. Which is the same kind of mana that charge the currency."

"So you want to improve your conversion rate?" I asked.

"No, that is one kind of dungeon upgrade. I want to add a new unit type." she told me.

"Huh?" I grunted confused. "But we aren't even using minions yet." I replied.

"True, and we will correct that soon, but with our new friend joining us, I realized turning him into a guardian would be wasting his talents." she explained.

"And the differences are?" I asked.

"Freedom, freewill." Zephirah replied. "Plus growth potential."

"English." I told her.

"Minions and Guardians are servants. One more powerful than the other, but servants nonetheless. The stats of both are limited by the level of the dungeon. Honestly they are positions best used by creatures or golems created by the dungeon. For the cases like ours, the moment we a.s.sign him to being a minion or guardian, his stats and growth will be limited to what is available for our level." she told me.

I frowned. "So if we got a super powered being to agree to give us their allegiance, their power would be limited to some arbitrary limit set by our level?" I asked trying to make sure I understood.

Zephirah nodded, "Yep, and to make it worse, the energy it would take to suppress them becomes a part of our energy expense." She told me.

I frowned, then why would anyone do it?

"Hence the champion positions. It still binds him to our dungeon, but the limitations on them is much smaller, and in the case that they are stronger than those looser limitations, we won't limit their power, but we will have to pay an energy price to allow the exception." Zephirah explained.

I nodded, "It's a balancer." I stated. "So powerful individuals can't follow a dungeon master into the trial without having to pay a cost."

Zephirah shook her head, "Yes, but no. It does work that way, just not for that reason. This trial is not meant to be fair. Learn that now. A dungeon core isn't limitless. Each minion, guardian, and champion who has allegiance to us is bound to our core. Maintaining the bond costs energy. Low level cores can not handle the energy it takes to bind a truly powerful being. With your scenario, the powerful families or individuals would supply a great deal of energy to increase the level of the core until it could handle the bond with the powerful being. Hence my desire to use the company as an additional source of energy."

I frowned but nodded, I thought I understood, but the idea that we might already have a rival who has already artificially boosted their power bothered me.

"Any other reason for the position?" I asked.

"There are some additional perks for them and us. They can gain some access to the core functions. Limited of course. We could a.s.sign them a floor and an energy budget and let them do whatever they want." she replied.

I nodded, it didn't sound bad, but I wondered why she wanted to give the cobra that kind of freedom, even if we didn't give him that much access. I still remembered the look of pure unadulterated hate it gave me shortly before pledging its allegiance to me.

'Don't worry about that. The penalty of breaking allegiance is very harsh.' Zephirah told me mentally. 'Very very very harsh.'

I nodded feeling a bit better. Though a little caution never hurt.

"Alright, that does seem like it will be useful." I admitted.

"Great, let's do that first then." Zephirah said then vanished.

"Where did she go?" Vanessa asked.

I shrugged, "No idea." I replied then stood up and concentrated on my own energy and pulled it out so I could draw some runes.

"What are you doing?" the cobra asked from its...o...b..

"Setting up my cold resistance spell, then I should make the Arctic Blanket Charm for Zephirah to copy when she returns." I replied.

"You aren't using the same charm?" the cobra asked.

I shook my head. "No, those kinds of charms are like a tattoo. While not large I don't want it on me, plus anyone who knows a bit about runic would be able to tell what it did after seeing it. Since it will be on me, I can use a more complicated spell with better efficiency." I explained.

"What about me?" Vanessa asked.

I considered that for a moment. "I could use a better spell on you if you want, but you might feel the drain on your energy reserves." I told her.

"That is fine." she told me with a smile then grabbed the bottom of her shirt. "Do I need to take my clothes off?" she asked with a mischievous smile.

"No, but let me do mine first." I told her after swallowing a mouth full of drool.

Vanessa looked disappointed but didn't say anything.

I started on the spell I wanted and carefully drew out the runes in a spherical pattern. It took a little while to get it right, and I had to make several adjustments before I was sure it was right, but my skill at drawing the runes was improving. When I was satisfied I activated the spell. It flashed a bright blue then formed a dark blue orb where the runes had been. The orb expanded till it was larger than I was and flowed over me. Once it had centered itself over me the sphere collapsed onto me forming a second skin that faded from sight.

"Wow, it was so pretty." Vanessa stated.

I smiled at her then got started on a spell for her.

"It doesn't look the same as yours." Vanessa commented when I was half way through making the spell, then again as her spell was larger than the one I used on myself it would be more surprising if she hadn't noticed.

"It isn't." I agreed."

"Why not?" Vanessa asked me suspiciously.

"Mine is designed for me to adjust it as needed. You aren't any good at using runic, so I have to make the spell regulate itself." I told her.

"Oh." Vanessa said seeming convinced by my explanation.

"And I added a little something to help restrain some of your influence on me." I admitted.

"Is it going to make me invisible?" she asked slyly.

I snorted then laughed. "No nothing like that." I replied.

Vanessa didn't question me again before I finished then activated the spell. While it wasn't the same as mine, the activation looked similar. For a moment, Vanessa looked like a smurf then the resemblance disappeared as the energy faded from sight.

"Alright, we are all set!" Zephirah said appearing out of thin air with Lilian at her side. Both carried a small golden sphere an inch in diameter.

I wasn't sure if I should feel bad that I hadn't noticed Lilian was gone, or panicked. A single comment from her could have ruined everything.

I shrugged it off quickly as to not appear suspicious. "Two?" I asked guessing that the golden orbs had something to do with becoming a champion.

"One for our new friend, and the other is for Vanessa." Zephirah explained.

"Will they notice?" I asked.

"Nope, champions are what they tried to copy into the orb when they tried to make her into an a.s.sistant. They failed, but that is beside the point. Plus they shouldn't be looking for it since they shouldn't have realized that we are bonded now." Zephirah replied.

That was a big if. "Your choice." I told Vanessa.

I felt a spike of fear from Zephirah but ignored it for now as I waited for Vanessa's reply.

Vanessa hesitated for a moment then nodded and reached out for an orb. Lilian placed hers into Vanessa's outstretched hand. The orb seemed to flow into her skin giving it a golden glow that flowed up her skin for a moment then vanished.

I could feel a wave of relief from Zephirah but she flew off before I could comment. She didn't give the cobra an option like I did Vanessa, instead she just dropped it on his...o...b..which made the whole thing glow golden for a moment.

"Good, now that that is settled, let's get dungeoning." Zephirah told us.

"Is that even a word?" I asked.

"Shut up!" she retorted.