The crystalline body of the God of Monsters sat within his tower, eyes closed as he focused. At his current level, it was beyond his power to create gods of his own at will. However, the design of his dungeons was rather necessary for his grand plan. Those who held the power to clear the strongest dungeon must be capable of killing gods, through one method or another.

Now, naturally he did not want to volunteer himself as the god that would be slain. That would be rather counterproductive of him. Instead, he learned from his Mother how to create a divine law that would allow him to set up an automatic system for him.

This divine law was quite simple. Whenever a monster reached deity status, they would enter a telepathic bond, allowing them to communicate over a vast distance. As the God of Monsters, monsters held a natural respect towards him, and many were willing to adhere to his requests simply due to that nature.

More importantly, Tower offered them a form of pseudo-immortality. By staying in his dungeon, they would be constantly studied by him, to the point where he could perfectly recreate them in the event that they die. Thus allowing him to fulfill the necessary condition for bosses to be able to respawn after a set amount of time.

Of course, this was in itself a trap. Dungeon cores had an innate feature known as Monster Trap. Any monster that entered their territory without being sufficiently more powerful than the dungeon core itself would fall under their control. As a god, more specifically the God of Monsters, this meant that there was practically no chance of even a monster deity rebelling against him after it entered his field.

Like this, he had already captured twenty different monster gods, planning to use them to help hone the power of his nethrak. Through his connection with the other dungeon cores, Tower had been kept up to date on the happenings of the other worlds, knowing how much he would need to grow in order to truly keep up with the original worlds.

Tower had created… quite the interesting setup for his dungeons. Although there were only a few individuals that were capable of challenging the four-star dungeon, it was showing great progress. Looking closer, I was even able to find a secret he left hidden in both the four and five star areas.

After each boss fight in which the boss was a deity, a portal would appear. This portal would allow individuals to travel to Earth through the special gates of the dungeons. Tower had already prepared the way for his people to join the ranks of the world, though to do so would require them to have the strength to survive.

As I was thinking about that, I noticed a small ping in the back of my mind, a message from the system. Thinking that it was likely Sarah or Kathy wanting to get in touch with me, I swiftly investigated, wanting to see who was calling. What I saw gave me a rather pleasant surprise.

Congratulations! The forces you have sent to invade the Keeper Grudge have been successful! As a result, all of Grudge’s assets have been transferred to you. For the next Standard Day, you can choose to fully refund any worlds transferred this way at no penalty.

Points: 270

Worlds: 1 - Gagarin

Congratulations, you have earned an achievement!

For defeating a blank slate Keeper and returning him to the system cycle, you have received the Mercy Killing achievement. +50 points, Sniper’s Scope perk.

Congratulations, you have earned an achievement!

For defeating your first enemy Keeper, you have earned the To the Victor achievement. +1000 points, World Shackles perk.

I let out a low whistle as I looked through the three messages that appeared, one after the other. While I wasn’t expecting to get the reward points from defeating another Keeper, it didn’t particularly matter in this case. Two hundred and seventy points was just a drop in the bucket at this level, meaning that Grudge had likely been spending his points on anything he could.

What really made me happy was the Sniper’s Scope perk, as Sarah had already explained to me what effects it would have. Honestly… I was tempted to use it immediately, and reshuffle my current opponent to avoid the danger of the galactic fleet. However, I didn’t do that.

There was already a pan in place to let me handle Silence’s invasion, even if he did decide to attack in force. If I reshuffled this late and found that my new opponent needed an entirely different strategy to face, then I would be dooming myself in the long run.

Closing my eyes, I focused, accessing the map for the new world, Gagarin. What I found did not leave me with much of a desire to retain this world. Gagarin was the epitome of a territory owned by a Monster Keeper, at least in my mind. The monsters present were like a swarm that had spread over a galaxy, forming a massive network of destruction.

On various worlds, there were giant ‘queen’ monsters stationed, their bodies little more than massive pits filled with acid that spawned new breeds of monsters. Anything that was a different species was brought to these acid pits and sacrificed by the lesser monsters, used to fuel an evolution for future generations.

I zoomed in on the planet where the final battle had taken place, seeing Jordeth, Kristoff, and Mathias standing before a large, fleshy mountain. Although the enemy Keeper had been slain, they were in no good position to retrieve. Surrounding them were six-legged monsters with bladed legs and writhing golden skin.

When I selected one of the monsters, I found that it possessed the domains of Traps and Tracking. Clearly, at least two of my people that I had sent had been sacrificed to the spawning pits, which had managed to absorb their divinity. As the world was currently paused, the three fighters were in no immediate danger, but… their bodies were twisted, showing monstrous mutations such as compound eyes or bladed arms.

Bringing them back at this point could potentially endanger all of my worlds. I wasn’t even sure if they would be able to be treated assuming I did bring them back. It was too much of a risk, once that I simply couldn’t afford to take.

You have chosen to fully refund the defeated world - Gagarin. Please confirm your decision.

I nodded my head, choosing to perform the full refund. While it was sad not to let those three come home as heroes, there was not a way for me to safely do so. I watched as darkness enshrouded the galaxy, everything within it returning to nothing before a new message appeared on my screen.

Your refund has been processed!

Total points refunded: 247,390

My eyes went wide as I saw that number, suddenly feeling as if I understood why some evil Keepers chose to go down the darker path. Even if it meant a full reset each time, that was a massive amount of points.

Granted, these were likely the accumulated points from every defense that he has withstood, as well as from the various civilizations that sprouted before being devoured. So while the number seemed astronomical, it was infact his total earnings over his entire Keeper career.

“I don’t… what do I even spend that on?!” I couldn’t help but call out, earning a strange look from Ryone sitting next to me on the couch.

“Dale? Is something wrong?” She asked in a worried tone, leaning over to get a better look at my face.

I cleared my throat, shaking my head. “No, it’s fine… could you check our balance real quick?” I knew this was probably a little mean, but I wanted to share the surprise with her.

Ryone hesitated, before closing her eyes and doing as I requested. There was a brief pause as her body froze, before her eyes began to slowly open. “Are we… rich now?”

Thinking about it, I shook my head. “It’s a lot of points for our level, but I wouldn’t call us rich. We could definitely afford some upgrades, though.”

Ryone nodded slowly, still trying to process that. “Yeah… we could definitely afford some things. Do you want me to draw up a shopping list?”

“Please.” I reached over to grab her waist, pulling her a bit closer. “Anything that you think we need, whether it’s systems or technologies. Though for the latter, I’d rather you prioritize technologies that you don’t think our people would be able to discover on their own any time soon. Once you have a list, let me know and I’ll call a meeting.”

Ryone gave a small smile, leaning over to rest her head on my shoulder. “I’ll get right on it. I haven’t taken the time to look at some of the more expensive systems, so this should be a good learning experience for me.”

“You good on your end?” James called out, screwing in the last panel atop a large chamber, a fair amount of grease staining his hands. Despite this, he had a wide grin on his face, as if he had returned to a familiar time.

“I believe we’ve gotten everything in here taken care of.” Thea called back, walking out of the chamber with Nora, both of whom were carrying heavy toolbelts. It was finally time to test the device that they had spent so long working on together.

“Who wants to be the guinea pig?” James asked with a small smirk, looking to the two girls. While his words sounded ominous, the two of them were well aware of his ability to see future possibilities.

“I’ll do it.” Thea volunteered, standing near the walk-in machine as Nora walked over to the console. She seemed to have absolute faith in James, waiting for the device to be prepped.

James pulled the omnitool off of his belt, pointing it at the large machine and pressing the button on it. There was an almost silent hum as he inspected its interior, adjusting a few screws and shifting wires around.

Once he was satisfied that everything was in its proper place, he nodded his head, signalling for Nora to power it up. As she did so, he tore open a hole in the space in front of him, carefully watching as numerous futures flashed before his eyes.

Thea knew what she had to do for this to work. If she resolved herself to wait for him to say it was safe, then there would not be a future in which she stepped into the machine to test it. Instead, she was waiting for Nora, fully prepared to enter the chamber the moment her sister said that the preparations were complete.

Nora, meanwhile, was focused solely on the displays before her, announcing every system as it came online and warmed up. Once it was done, she gave a quick glance towards James before nodding to Thea.

After the door closed, hissing with the sound of compressed air, James nodded his head. “Eighty-seven percent chance.” He smiled in satisfaction. “Twelve percent chance of failure with injury. One percent chance of danger.”

Despite saying this, James did not stop deploying his energy to monitor all possibilities. As the machine worked, gradually extracting and converting Thea’s energy, more and more of those possibilities were removed, narrowing down the eventual truth.

As the process went forward, James’s brow began to furrow, and he once more pulled out his omnitool, aiming it at the machine and activating it. Nora instantly became worried as the displays on her console began to flicker. “James?” She called out, but he didn’t answer.

After a few moments, James began to relax, lowering the omnitool and letting out a sigh. “Sorry, she was about to hit the twelve precent chance.”

“This is why we make omnitools!” Chel called out from nearby, watching while bouncing in anticipation. After all, once the twins were done, it would be her turn.