Day 1048

I finished the paintings, the rooms are still empty and I decide to spread all the plants I have in each room, most die quickly but some mutate to become affinity plants that I know.

I ask the count to collect a sample of all the affinity plants he can find.

I then notice a problem, the outer mana is transformed into affinity mana, but it stagnates in the room without movement because I cannot absorb it. I am of pure mana affinity. So I have to make sure that the mana circulates, or it will stagnate and lose its effectiveness.

I then position a large corresponding affinity gem 2 meters in diameter in the middle of each piece, I then reread each of these gems to a huge mana crystal 10 meters high and 3 meters wide in the center of the main room. . I choose to link them with a divine metal alloy and steel of different affinity for each gem.

Almost immediately current sets in, the affinity mana concentration is higher at the center of the pieces and then is absorbed by the central gem before circulating along the alloy cable and towards the mana crystal.

The mana crystal is corrupted by different sources of mana and cracks start to appear. I don't know what to do but I inject my mana to tighten it, like a lasso and prevent it from exploding. His mana density is increasing rapidly, and I am forced to leak some mana. After several days the pressure decreases and the crystal becomes very irregular with different colors in each area, it gives off a high concentration of pure mana and the current starts flowing again from the center of the room to the outside.

The garden works a bit like a dynamo, the mana is absorbed by the arrays, changed to affinity mana, then absorbed by the gems before being sent to the multicolored mana crystal, the affinity mana is changed again into pure mana before being released into the central room.

I'm getting more mana so I don't consume it in the process of creating mana. There are still few affinity plants but this should improve.

Day 1055

The ants continue to dig, they have been forced to avoid several towns in order not to attract attention. During their journey, they also discovered several veins of precious minerals, but they are too far from the city and of no use to me.

I discovered some unexpected good news this morning, the artificial cores in the library are also taking advantage of the alchemical garden and have doubled in size, their calculation capacity has also increased which speeds up the creation of new spells.

I don't have much to do, as I'm waiting for the dungeon core, to upgrade my heart, decipher knowledge, to continue demonic summons, or enough mana, to build my next floor, so I look at the city.

The city is very lively, public baths have been built as well as a municipal library, a school of magic has been built on the left side of the cliff in front of the manor but it is still small and only accommodates about ten professors. This is common in towns and mandatory in dungeon towns.

There are also three Alchemical Guilds, two Blacksmith Guilds, three Enchanting Guilds, four Adventurer Guilds, two Mage Guilds, three Craft Guilds, seven Merchant Guilds. In addition to these buildings, the upper enclosure also accommodates the various administrative buildings of the city: the financial center, the headquarters of the guard (the barracks is outside), the mining company, the town hall, and the organization of the territory.

This department does not have much to do because the territory is small and mainly occupied by a mountain, the rest, however, has been turned into a field by the peasants. His biggest job is in fact to take care of the slums because the town hall is only in charge of the city.

The slums are still at 25,000 inhabitants, thanks to the gangs the order is roughly respected, there are five gangs out of eleven which take care of the mine, two of the brothels, one of the drugs, one of the weapons and two of the slaves. They all have different powers, my minions are gradually replaced by vampires, and they control a mining gang, a brothel, a drug gang and a gun gang.

The mine gangs are in charge of large gangs of miners, they have to keep them safe from slimes and other gangs, they are also responsible for the maintenance of the mine so that it does not collapse since the guards do not never fit in. Screes are common but this decreases the gangs' earnings because part of their control zone is unusable so they are careful to keep the galleries functional.

The galleries have reached several kilometers long and I again extend the mine down and up. Earth mages don't understand the appearance of new veins, but mana leaks from the dungeon explain it all.

The slum system works quite well despite the violence, the gangs are stable and not threatened by newcomers. I make sure to eliminate all attempts to infiltrate the city and the gangs have figured out that this is a bad idea.

There is also an entertainment district in the city but it is strictly controlled by the guard to prevent overflows.

I had the idea to create a hierarchy similar to nobility among vampires because they have already reached 120 members. I name the original vampire that I personally modified to the highest rank, and I begin to retrain all of my minions.

The Earl has created a secret service department, vampires are the only members but I plan to design a new breed of assassin to complement the service.

Day 1056

I start to create the new race of assassins, I take a black panther as a model. This should be easier than with bats as I improved my efficiency and humans are closer to felines than bats.

I start by straightening her up on her hind legs, then I lengthen her limbs, I increase her size and slightly reduce her build. I remove his hair and replace his leather with human skin. I give him a powerful affinity of darkness and wind, and I increase his intelligence.

She keeps her head, hands, arms, and tail for now, she can now hide in shadows and create windblades, she also has assassination and camouflage skills.

Day 1059

They are not finished but I create fifteen that I leave to the Secret Service to train and absorb experience and mana.

I noticed a strange group entered my dungeon, they are not part of any guild and do not seem to want to harm me, they are just reaping the rewards. What is strange is their soul and their behavior, they do not talk to each other, always make the same gestures, moreover their soul seems to have been manipulated, it is not whole, it has no form nor personality, she also lacks most of her memories, but she retains most of her skills.

I want to check my theory and send an orc minion to kill one, they are D rank so with surprise it is okay and the minion completes his mission before leaving. The other members immediately go on high alert but when nothing happens after five minutes, they simply pick up the items the teammates were holding and exit the dungeon without a word.

I ask a black panther to follow them. I was able to harvest the soul and all the modifications are voluntary, it is a remarkable work slightly superior to mine, I only started working on souls two years ago but I am a dungeon so the responsible must be a genius. I can only think of necromancy, and I'm excited at the prospect. As I let the soul escape, I notice a soul mark! She is poorly made and much weaker than the demonic one but it is a mark of soul, it seems to be a very powerful necromancer.

I want to offer him to work with me, as an artificial nucleus if he refuses or as a colleague if he accepts.

Day 1060

The panther returned from her mission, she followed the team of adventurers to a dilapidated house in the slums but they disappeared. I give the secret service the first mission to invite the necromancer to the dungeon.

I don't know if he will accept, but he will at least be curious . There is however one problem, I have no body, and I can only communicate with my minions or his watches.

The easiest way would be to create a golem that I control. So I get to work, I have to develop a new flexible magic metal alloy. I'm doing this by trial and error since I don't care about wasting small amounts of metals. Whenever I experiment on something that takes a lot of mana, I delay creating a new stage, but I'd rather invent and discover than bury myself deeper and deeper.

Day 1063

Panthers and vampires haven't made any progress in their investigations, necromancers are always very careful because they are used to being hunted down. It is rare that they are in contact with people, it is strange that they came to my dungeon, he maybe lives in the mountains and lacks funding for this research.

I ask the ants to patrol quietly around, I also check in the sewers and the city just in case.

I discovered a promising alloy, by mixing silver, obsidian chrome and orichalcum, I obtained something flexible and extremely solid. The alloy is dark silvery, matt with rare barely golden reflections, I refine it several times to obtain a sufficient quantity, and rather than making it move by magic, I create thousands of pieces that fit together perfectly for forming fluid joints. I also give it a human outward appearance although it is metallic.

Finally, I design a complex concentrated mana core with divine metal capillary veins that feed the entire body.

I don't put a soul but I can control it with mana signals. I'm also building a thrifty version of his golems, as my avatar is horribly expensive, with mithril veins, less Orichalcum and Obsidian, and adding Affinity Steel to the alloy. The performances are lower but remain acceptable, I integrate gardening tools and plant handling.

I then place ten of his golems in each exterior room of the Alchemical Garden and 100 in the central room. They are also soulless and controlled by new man-made cores that I create in the multicolored mana crystal.

I familiarize myself with my avatar and add several tools to its limbs, like pliers, scalpels, screwdrivers, alchemical flames, enchanting tools, plasma lasers for engraving, mana capacitors, cores soul, lesser affinity gems and arrays, thrusters, additional mechanical arms, testing, experimentation and observation equipment, I also add watertight compartments.

from the outside my avatar still looks like a bald, genderless, 1.80 meter human, but inside a battery of instruments and options allow me to perform a multitude of actions.

Day 1065

The ants found traces of the necromancer in the mountain and circled all the ground around the cave in a bowl shape, to prevent it from escaping, the necromancer does not seem to have noticed. I sent the count alone to parley.

I can see through some of my most important minions, this skill consumes a lot of mana on creation and I only integrated it into a select few.

The arrival of the count is by no means discreet since he arrives surrounded by all his guards, leaves them 500 meters from the entrance and then continues alone. I wondered if he would get to the top, with his height, his weight, his dresses and the steep slope of the mountain, it took an hour and a half to get there.

A single man was waiting for him at the entrance to the cave, but we could make out several shadows behind him and a rather short corridor which divided into several doors. The cave reminded me of the one I was using, the mountains of this world are undoubtedly full of crazy centenarians immersed in their experiences.

The Earl caught his breath outside before entering and greeting the man. The man didn't look nervous but slightly surprised to recognize the count.

necromancer POV change

Today I was doing my experiments as usual. I recently settled in a mountain range right next to a new dungeon town. I selected this place for its slum, it is as big as the city , who is the one who manages this city !! It is for me an excellent source of consumable materials.

One of my servants suddenly interrupted me to warn me of the arrival of a group of guards. I wonder how I could have been discovered so quickly, the lord of the city may not be so useless after all.

I finish quickly and set up my usual defenses, I should be able to get rid of the invaders but I will be forced to flee afterwards.

Looking through the magic mirror outside the cave I see a big and small man trying to climb the mountain, the scene was completely unrealistic, a perfectly still guard group and a pile of gold and enchanted robes that sweats and growls for an hour and a half to come and see a necromancer.

He is actually the lord of the city, I recognize him, he catches his breath outside then enters my cave without any fear in his eyes, moreover they shine strangely and I feel observed, it is a weird feeling to me.

The still sweaty man greets me.

“Why is the lord of the city here,” I ask him.

“I have been looking for you for a week and I would like to invite you to my city”.

I don't understand what he's telling me, the lord of a town personally invites an A-rank necromancer to his town.

“And why would you need the help of a necromancer, we're pretty frowned upon” It doesn't make sense, this guy is crazy!

“It's not for me, my master noticed you when your servants entered the dungeon, he wants to invite you for common research”

His master? He has a master, the situation is more and more strange, and he has been able to notice my minions, his master may be dangerous, he must be at least A level, maybe more.

“Your master? Why would I want to meet him, I can't trust him. ”

The lord of the city then takes something out of his robes, I immediately recognize it as a soul crystal, the lord hands it to me and I start to examine it absent-mindedly, I am one of the greatest specialists in the field of souls.

"Look, my teacher is researching the same subject as you, he wants to pool your strengths to go faster"

Wait, this soul, it's way too powerful, and this soul mark, it's exceptional, perfect, I've never seen nothing like it. It's amazing, this man is a genius!

“..... impossible is… ..”

“It is a demonic soul that my master asked me to give you to convince you of his good faith”

What?? A demonic soul, how did he get that, he went to the continent of demons? It's incredibly dangerous for humans. His master probably exceeds rank A, it's dangerous but I want to try, using all means I could always escape.

"I am willing to accept if you tell me who your master is"

“My master is the keep of this city”

Sorry?? It's a joke, the situation becomes completely absurd, the dungeons are completely personalityless, they have no desires other than mana, why would he care about souls. Unless it isn't always a dungeon, maybe someone succeeded there or everyone else failed, maybe ...

“.....”

“Watch” the lord pulls out a dagger and sticks it in his chest, he's definitely mad, but what I see makes me forget the scene, a mana heart, no, a monster heart.

“This heart, it's not human” it's a monster heart, what he says is probably true, that would explain the growth of the dungeon, “you are a monster”

The lord takes out a potion and the drink, the wound heals almost instantly, I did not know that the alchemists had made so much progress.

"Alright, let me get ready, I will go to the dungeon tonight"

“Thank you, my master will welcome you”

The lord disappears and I prepare myself with any defenses I can find, including Soul Transfer.

At nightfall I sneak into the dungeon, the guards are unable to see me, a man is waiting for me inside, he bows and asks me to follow him, he directs me towards a passage and then a few minutes of walk in a metal corridor I arrive in front of a dungeon heart, it is the central room.

There is a metallic golem in front, the man bows then leaves, the golem is amazing, I know it is metal but it behaves like it is flesh yet I cannot detect any flow of mana. Metal is unknown to me, strange.