POV: random cultist bishop

The night is cold as moved through the dark forest. Every so often I would hear a crack which sent chills down my spine. I wore a cloak which concealed my body and my face was concealed my hood as well as a shrouding spell. After half an hour of walking, I finally found it. A tree far larger than all of the others, its wood was a jet black. Many others were crowding around the tree. I knocked on the trunk 9 times. Then, the section of the trunk that I was knocking began to shift and stir until the wood formed the top half of an imp-like creature. Red light filled its eye sockets and its mouth, its nails were long like needles.

The imp-like abomination began to speak "Hello there, I assume you want to enter, please prove your identity," its voice was sinister and raspy, definitely not human

I silently held out my wrist and watched as one of the monsters long nails sank into my wrist. I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from reacting outwardly to the pain. Then the imp shifted its head and stared directly at me.

"You may enter," it said

I nodded. I watched as my body began to glow a bright red before I suddenly burst into a flurry of red sparks. I found myself in a crowded room lit only by torchlight and a single corridor. I walked along the pitch-black corridor until I finally emerged

I entered the large circular room lit by at least 2 dozen small orange floating flames lazily floating above our head. I stood near the front of the stage. At the centre of the stage was a stone stand and on top of that stand was a black chalice filled with fire. More cultists were pouring into the room. Eventually, people stopped entering and the doors slammed shut. After a few minutes of complete silence an archbishop enters the stage, he wore a fancy black robe and a golden skull permanently attached to his face.

The archbishop began to speak "greetings devoted followers of his demonic majesty. I bare news of a new dungeon. This in itself great news although it is not usually worthy of a gathering this great. However, this dungeon shows intelligence greater than most dungeons in existence. In the name of the demon lord Aravost, we must claim this dungeon and utilise its power to further our goals and the goals of our great lord. All of you bishops have been called here for a reason, 5 of you will be tasked with procuring this dungeon by any means necessary, the bishop who is successful will be promoted to archbishop!"

Everyone gasped at this, there hadn't been a new archbishop in decades.

"anyway," the archbishop continued "the five that have been chosen are Alistair Karkol, Charles Ludvich, Mira Lustro, vector Roselheim and Carlov Strell. Will these five individuals please stand,"

5 cloaked figures stood on strode onto the stage. Each of these figures exuded an aura of menace far greater than anything I've ever felt before

"now, will all five participants please gather around the unholy chalice," the archbishop's voice was much more solemn now than before.

"I call upon you great demon lord insert within these five mortals your infernal wrath and form them into the perfect enforcers of your great will. In the name of demon lord Aravost, we shall conquer all in our wake!"

As the archbishop finished his prayer, the flames grew and became more violent, the colour change from bright orange to a deep crimson. Then, without warning, 5 long flaming spikes shot out of the blaze and struck the 5 bishops in the heart, the fire dissipated as the five individuals writhed and screamed in agony, after a few minutes they all fell to the ground, silence.

The archbishop began to speak once again "It will take their bodies a couple of weeks to adjust so until then we shall wait with bated breath for our champions to arise,"

We all cheered at the news, I couldn't help but imagine the riches that this new dungeon would bestow upon us once we have taken hold of it.

Then there was a burst of white light and a cloaked figure appeared floating above us.

"hello there, I am the traveller and I'm here to kill you all," the stranger said calmly as if he was talking about what he did on a lazy Sunday

The everyone in the room was stunned. The arrogance of this man to come in here like nothing and then have the ability to just casually say he's going to kill us.

"I can see your not convinced so I'll skip the talk and go straight to the death," the traveller said

As he finished his sentence his hands morphed into a tangle of thorned vines. He began to strike us all down indiscriminately. The archbishop did a quick chant before being whisked away along with the 5 bishops by the darkness. The thorny vines were tearing everyone limb from limb. Blasts of red energy were launched at the thorn wielder but they did little damage to him. Out of nowhere a thorny vine struck me in the chest. I keeled over coughing up blood as I fell to the ground, blood poured from my mouth and chest as the cold embrace of death whisked me away.

Pov: Von the dungeon

I continued working on my river with great enthusiasm. I filled it with many different types of fish which I had my ents collect as well as a few more eels for good measure. I watched as one of the eels devoured one of the fish. That reminds me, I will have to create a spell to replicate breeding season otherwise all my fish will die. I went to work creating two separate spells. One will cool the water down at certain times of the year and one will heat the water up at a certain time of the year. One had an ice element core and one had a fire element core, they cost me 10 mana each to build so I'll have to wait to activate them. I entered my core and fell asleep once again.

When I woke up I made a decision, it was time to expand my dungeon. I willed the room to increase in size, it felt like my entire body was being pressed against the walls of the room, I could feel my mana slowly ebbing away as the room's walls expanded. After what felt like ours of laser focus, the room refused to increase in size anymore. I stopped pushing and let my body relax.

I woke up and let my consciousness engulf the entire room.

This floor has reached the maximum floor size

Maximum mana capacity increased to 40

Well, the increase in my mana pool is nice but the fact that I can't expand this floor anymore is annoying. In the end, the room had doubled in size and my forest now looked like an island amongst the stone floor. I quickly filled the rest of the space with soil and adjusted the river so it stretched the entire way. Now it was time to go and plant more trees, yay.

Just like before, I went through the long and arduous process of planting trees then sleeping over and over again. I could feel my will to live drain away. Unlike last time, I took me about 2 and a half weeks to finish planting all the trees. The moment the last tree was planted I let out a sigh of relief before returning to my crystal to rest.

When I woke up, I quickly compressed my consciousness into my spectral form. I then adjusted the script on the spells in the river and finally activated the two breeding spells. The feeling of the large quantity of mana leaving me took me by surprise. It took 24 mana to activate both spells. I was walking through my forest when I saw a woodpecker puncturing the deer's windpipe. The deer dropped dead on the ground and the woodpecker ate a small amount of the deer and then just flew off into the tree. I absorbed the deer's corpse and then focused on the woodpecker to reveal its data

name: N/A species: generic woodpecker level: 1 possible evolutions: greater woodpecker, bloodpecker (special evolution)

I disregarded the first option and focused on the second option

species name: bloodpecker mana cost: 7 requirements: Requires the woodpecker to have killed at least a dozen larger animals description: After being forced to kill and feast on bigger prey, the woodpecker develops a thirst for blood and becomes a bloodpecker

I accepted the evolution and my mana poured into the bird. The bloodpecker was much larger as well as having a longer beak and the red crest on its head was much bigger as well. I quickly went around all the woodpeckers and evolved them into their bloodthirsty counterparts, taking a nap halfway through to replenish my mana pool. For the next few days, I began setting up some earth spike traps for the entrance, I decided to make these spell multiple uses which meant that the spell would restore itself once it had carried out its main action, which in this instance is the earth spike. I had these spells dotted along the corridor that lead the players into my forest room. Once I had activated the last of the spells I began to walk away when I heard an ear-piercing scream coming from behind me. I turned around to see three cloaked men being skewered by my earth spikes. it took mere seconds for them to die, their blood covering the floor. I absorbed the corpses to see what I would get

Humans have been discovered, you may now create humans

Black cloaks have been discovered, you may now create black cloaks

Iron daggers have been discovered, you may now create iron daggers

Black leather boots have been discovered, you may now create black leather boots

There were a few other minor things that he discovered but the fact that he could create humans intrigued him, would they be completely loyal, would they have their own personality, would they have free will. He had many questions about this. I decided that for now, I should ignore this option for a while as it wouldn't fit in with my theme anyway. Anyway, it's about time that I turned my attention back on my ents. I created 6 new ents which cost me 30 mana then had all my ents gather in front of my core. With the exception of Grix, I had 10 ents in total. Since I had missed out on gaining the other evolutions when I evolved Grix into an ent champion I decided to train up my other ents so I can evolve them too. My training regiment consisted of running, jumping, punching trees and killing animals. Once I had given the order, I turned my attention to Grix. the first thing I did was create a basic stone sword for him, I tried to make it as sharp as I could with my limited expertise. I ordered him to slash and stab at one of the nearby trees so I could get some rest.

Once I was rested I began work on his sword. The first spell I placed on the sword enhanced its durability, the second spell I placed on it enhanced its sharpness. Once I had activated the two spells I ordered Grix to chop down the nearest tree in as few swings as possible. With the combination of Grix's brutish strength and the spell placed on the blade, the tree was felled in 6 powerful swings. I absorbed the tree and then marvelled at my handiwork. Then I had another idea, although this one would require a fair bit of testing first. I took a quick nap, created another ent and then got to work.