Sanctus watched as the cultists entered the dungeon, almost as if they were in a trance. They continue for about ten steps before starting to look around in confusion. They started moving backwards, but as they turned to leave they were met with a charging Cassius. Now, most of the cultists were normal village folk and a charging adventurer in full plate armor was just about the most terrifying thing they had ever seen.

Terrified cultists clambered over each other in an attempt to get away from the charging adventurer, as Cassius impaled one of them on his sword. This convinced any of the cultists that hadn’t started fleeing to do so. The cultists ran in a mob, barely stopping at the pitfall as the first few fell in. It only took them another twenty minutes to make it to the first cavern. They started to spread out and calm down a little as they noticed the armored human was no longer behind them.

Taking this moment to bring some unity to the group an older wrinkled woman, that oozed mana similar to Julien but much dimmer stepped forward.

“We stand inside the sanctuary of our master, we must protect it with our lives!”

The woman’s words seemed to release a small amount of her mana that washed over the people around her. The words had an immediate effect on the cultists. No longer were the cultists terrified wrecks, they were invigorated. Cultists grabbed rocks off the floor or took knives out of their pockets. The cultists looked crazed as they waited for the adventurers.

Sanctus was not interested in waiting for the adventures and instead sent a small swarm of rats at the cultists. All hell broke loose as cultists and rats tore into each other, the bloated forms of the rats clawing and biting at the crazed cultists. During the mayhem, the adventurers finally made their entrance. Bursting through the tunnel entrance they slammed into the cultists pushing them further into the chamber.

Sanctus allowed more of its monsters into the fight. Sanctus was hoping that one of the adventurers would die in the chaos but knew it was unlikely. Instead, Sanctus basked in the sheer quantity of souls meeting their end. Waves of power washed into it.

Sidney was disgusted by the wretched dungeon that she was forced to feed. The fact that her team was allowed to purge the cult, only minor solace. With a look of disgust she raised a hand into the air. Wind suddenly picked up making her cloak billow out around her. The look of disgust turned to a sneer as she lowered her hand in a chopping motion, “repent!” Blinding light erupted out of her shining across the cavern. Javelins of light striking the filth around her. The light coming from her slowly pushed back the monsters and cultists before dimming and plunging them back into the dim darkness of the dungeon.

She looked at her team in satisfaction quickly glancing at Julien with a smug smile. He looked surprised and slightly annoyed. Cassius looked like he was about to give Sidney another lecture about showing off and purposely harassing Julien. However unfortunately for him Julien had a different idea. Julien stepped forward and spread his arms causing a dark miasma to coalesce around him. Sidney was unimpressed she knew what he was attempting and the mana cost. She internally laghed, desperately hoping he would make a fool out of himself. She watched as the miasma formed tendrils and seeped into the ground. With that Julien gave a smug grin as Sidney watched pitch black spikes that almost seemed to devour light shoot up through the ground. Sidney’s jaw dropped as the spikes impaled dungeon monsters and a few cultists who began sprouting thorny tendrils that lacerated them and anything unfortunate enough to be around them. Sidney pouted and Cassius looked exasperated while Julien began to laugh.

Sanctus watched as the adventurers drove the cultists backward. The adventurers seemed to not even take the fight seriously as they showed off and used needlessly flashy tricks and abilities. The only one not doing this was Cassius who as far as Sanctus could tell had given up on convincing his party members to take their assignment seriously. The original sixty or so cultists had dropped to twenty the numbers quickly dropped further until only the witch was left. Cassius stepped forward out of the group of adventurers and gave them a look.

“Don’t kill the witch, her death is far more valuable than the other cultists. Better to let the dungeon kill her with one of its creatures,” he said before stepping up to the witch and knocking her out with the flat of his sword before she could do anything. “Now we leave and let the dungeon clean up the mess.”

The rest of the party nodded before turning away and walking back to the passage they had come from killing any of the monsters Sanctus had told to attack them.

Sanctus gave an internal sigh before ordering a couple raccoons to drag the body to the nearest river. When they were close enough a tentacle grabbed the witch's leg and dragged her into the water. The cold water woke the witch who with a look of pure terror was dragged under the water. A few minutes of thrashing later and the water was still. A minute later and the witch was dead.

With her death something in Sanctus’s octapuss clicked.

Congratulations! Your fire corrupt octopus has the potential to rank up please confirm evolution Warden of the drowned.

Sanctus looked at the message and instinctively knew that the system had selected the strongest evolution out of those available. If Sanctus really wanted to it could pick a different evolution, but Sanctus did not intend to do so. Sanctus quickly confirmed the message and watched as the flesh of its first creature rippled and stretched. It grew to an impressive three meters long. Webbed membranes grew and connected the octopus’s arms. Its color shifted to a pale gray and long chains with glowing tips grew out of its mantle. As its transformation neared its end the creature's flesh began wriggling again. The reason was made clear as human like faces in expressions of despair or agony pressed up on the inside of the creature's skin. It looked like there were people on the inside trapped, forever having terrified expressions. When the transformation was completed another sister message flickered into Sanctus’s vision.

Evolution successful Species Warden of the drowned Classification Cephalopod Habitat Aquatic Stats Str 31 Dex 42 Con 42 Int 23 Wis 27 Luck 9 Description This living nightmare was the first monster born into the Abyssal Sanctum. The creature spent the beginning of its life hunting small fish and crabs that made their way into the dungeon. When the demon Markus became the floor general this creature was infused with part of his influence giving it an affinity for fire. With its new size it began hunting larger prey. This is when it developed the tendency to drown its victims. This trait is shown strongly in its evolution, a creature that uses the enemies it drowns as weapons and minions.

Sanctus looked over the information mentally noting that disruption was more acutely life’s story, but other than that everything was more or less what Sanctus had expected after seeing the creature. Sanctus felt a flutter of pride before turning its attention to the souls it had obtained. At almost the same time Markus entered the core room and began to talk,“My lord, since you have started creating your second floor and you recently acquired a surplus of souls I would encourage you to create a champion for this floor.”

Sanctus gave a mental nod and Markus pushed a thread of mana toward Sanctus. Sanctus grabbed the thread and began weaving it through the souls then Sanctus began to mold mana creating forms they looked like humans with a few differences some had an extra arm, others had extra eyes still more had fangs or claws. Sanctus made each one unique, slightly different, less human this continued until Sanctus made it to the witches soul. It was brighter than the others so Sanctus built the body with more care than the others. Sanctus began by creating the abdomen and legs of a spider allowing Markus’s mana to help paint golden runes on the carapace. From where the head of the spider should be sprouted the torso of a woman with chitin acting as armor. An arm far larger than it should have been, began to form on her left side ending in a six fingered clawed hand. For the right side Sanctus created two limbs one was a slender feminine arm with a delicate looking hand. While the other was a hooked mantis looking claw that sprouted from her upper back. Sanctus made a head with for eyes one normal sized eye on the left and three smaller on the right. The mouth was that of a woman and the hair was long and silver.

With all the bodies done Sanctus started the second step Sanctus left the spider monster naked and without a weapon because frankly her chitinous armor and natural weapons were more than enough. However for the others Sanctus wove robes of black silk embroidered with runes made from the burning silk of Sanctus’s spiders. Each robe had to be made separate so that it would fit its intended owner. After the robes Sanctus created knives and sickles for the creatures to use as weapons. Finally all that was left was to weave the souls into the bodies.

The corrupted cult has become the champion of the first floor.

With that message the creatures neald. Sanctus’s instincts screamed that it was not done and Sanctus agreed. Mana began cascading out of Sanctus pushing the stone around the room molding it and making the room expand. Pillars began rising out of the ground in two parallel lines that ran from the entrance to exit of the now elongated rectangular room. Pedestals came up connecting to the walls behind the pillars. Status of odd limbs and organs resting atop them.

Sanctus made the exit a set of stone doors with golden patterns etched into their surfaces. Sanctus then changed the floor to be bones. Skulls spines and other bones knit neatly together to create relatively even flooring. Sanctus also made a portcullis that could be raised or lower with a lever at the back of the room. Finally Sanctus created a spiral left turning staircase behind the doors to connect the room to the beginning of Sanctus second floor. This was mainly to force anyone who got there to kill the cult or risk going down stairs that would be easier for those coming from the top to fight on. With that final touch Sanctus felt like part of it had just snapped into place and it was time to truly get to work on the second floor.