Chapter Text
They end up giving Maina Furasu what she wanted. An apartment under her alchemy lab and a storage area for alchemical ingredients above it. All of that behind a slightly prolonged corridor which allowed them to put in a spike trap.
Yes, a spike trap. If you don’t jump past the hole in the ground, you’ll land on spikes. Furasu in her new, rabbitkin body, could make that jump. Hatsume, probably, couldn’t. All of that behind a door guarded by two clay golems.
Because apparently you needed two bodyguards and a spike trap to deter Hatsume from having a talk with you about her ‘babies’ when she really wanted to have it. Truly, Hatsume was a force of nature.
Once that was done, Izuku and Tomura could finally move their attention over to expanding their Dungeon. They’ve decided to start from reviewing what they already have, level by level.
Starting from the first one.
Here, there weren’t many changes, just expansions of what was already there. They’ve put in all the temples they had in one room (alongside a room that was empty for now and waiting for its future temple).
They’ve also slightly expanded upon the herb garden (where the visitors could get themselves a few basic herbs needed for a herbal tea), and also expanded it with some free range vegetables.
They’ve even added some barracks right next to it. A bunch of very simple standard beds. They didn’t bother adding toilets or showers, as the visitors could as well go outside and do the first thing in the forest and the second thing in the river.
They wanted themselves to look inviting , but not too much. Not enough to have randoms stop by while traveling from point A to B, but just enough that those who came to challenge them (and those that were visiting them) wouldn’t be too uncomfortable.
Second level was one of their large, expansive levels that they didn’t feel like making any large changes to. It was populated by the four basic [Lesser Elementals] and some earth golems.
Sure, the plan was to keep levels 2-10 focused on the Rampant Bloom, but… the elementals were so weak that trying to put them anywhere else felt like a total waste of time and effort. Their only saving grace, in the end, were the golems.
Speaking of…
I have an idea
Accept this
… okay?
Wait, are you trying to do… oh .
Shhh.
HA! IT WORKED!
Shigaraki’s brilliant idea involved putting a pile of wood on the floor and having a [Lesser Fire Elemental] inhabit it.
This resulted in a creation of a vaguely humanoid golem made of wood, about the size of a human.
It’s on fire. However, it doesn’t seem to be running out of fuel (making Izuku wonder if it would work the same way outside of the Dungeon). Its name, according to the system, was [Lesser Flame Golem].
You think we can make any more combinations?
I have another idea.
Give me a second.
His ‘another idea’ involved creating a giant pile of paper and having the fire elemental inhabit it. And, to Izuku’s genuine surprise, it worked too!
The result was [Lesser Flame Golem [Paper]]. While their earlier creation was renamed to [Lesser Flame Golem [Wood]].
The paper golem was best described as tens of thousands of paper pages glued together into an androgynous human form… which were then set aflame. With paper burning much faster than solid wood, the flames were…
Intense.
The flames were bursting all the way to the ceiling. And since the ceiling wasn’t that high, it was bursting from there to the sides, creating a fiery wall that could move and pursue your enemy. And the paper that was making the golem’s body didn’t seem to decline in any way.
That was… actually pretty scary.
Fuck
YES
And now, Dabi was officially made obsolete
Friendship with Dabi ended, [Lesser Flame Golem [Paper]] is my best friend
What happened to the ‘let’s support my sidekicks’ policy?
Dabi is an exception
He would suspect me of being replaced by an impostor if I didn’t shittalk him constantly
And now, time to make more…
Wait.
His third creation is a golem that combines wood and paper, having a solid wooden frame/skeleton that was wrapped in a dozen layers of paper, creating a golem that was tougher than the [Paper] one but burned much more fiercely than the [Wood] one.
The system referred to it as [Lesser Flame Golem [Composite]]. Izuku was almost certain that to them, it was going to be just the ‘Lesser Flame Golem’.
Now we’re talking!
I’m not even going to try to laugh at you or anything like this.
Great job, Shigaraki!
FUCK YES
Now let’s see what else I can create to fill the first five levels!
Shigaraki turns out to be terrifyingly creative when creating truly horrible golem designs was involved. Izuku was as much impressed as he was abjectly terrified.
[Lesser Water Elemental] together with a large pool of giant spider poison created a [Lesser Poison Golem]. It was a definitely female but faceless figure that emerged from a pool of said poison.
Her body seemed unstable, poison constantly leaking down to the pool at her feet, which didn’t stop the body itself from never running out of it. Even when they used some of it as projectiles.
And yes, she (it?) could also move the pool on the ground as their body was moving as well. Izuku genuinely couldn’t tell if the humanoid body was it’s real body, or if it was the pool on the ground.
Another insane idea that Shigaraki managed to make into reality was their first model of metal golem. Not a straight up metal golem, for the record. They’ve tried that, and [Lesser Earth Elemental] clearly failed to animate it.
Instead, they made a [Lesser Wooden Golem [Composite]].
It was a skeleton made of [Oakwood II] animated by a lesser earth elemental, coated in an outer shell of [Low Quality Iron II], which resembled an armor more than flesh. Its movements were stiff, as the elemental had problems with moving the metal parts, and the whole thing was really slow, but also incredibly resilient to blows.
Shigaraki also made its hands be composed entirely of metal, shaped like blades from an elbow down. This meant that once they would get close to someone, they could actually cause a lot of damage.
On a side note, it made them discover another obvious balance patch in the system. They could put higher level materials on the topmost floors for as long as they did so while intending to create a golem out of it.
If they intended to use it for that but ended up not using it (for example due to the other one ordering the elemental to take over only part of the prepared pile), the material ended up quickly disappearing.
They still had to use some of the weakest materials available to them in order to not go through the limits of the level. But they didn’t have to limit themselves to level I ones, who were uniformly pretty trashy.
The more I see it, the more messy this system looks, at least when the golems are involved.
Yeah, they really stand out, don’t they?
It’s basically spicier physical manifestation
Why is the system so particular about them?!
The only possible reason for that, at least to me, is balancing.
They’ve elected to call this particular type of golem the ‘knight golem’, simply because calling it a wooden golem was a bit… weird. It was really hard to tell that it was made from wood, at least until you cracked them open.
The final of Shigaraki’s insane creations was the [Lesser Air Golem]. Yes, an Air Golem . How did such a creature work? Well, it was defined not by air itself but by what said air controlled.
Shigaraki dropped a lot of [Linen II] cloth and had the elemental take it over. The result of it resembled a scarecrow made from long, ragged-looking linen sheets wrapped together into a body resembling a somewhat legless humanoid, floating in the air.
When ordered to attack someone or something, the golem attacked by attempting to use their oddly flexible and extendable rags (preferably from their sleeves) to lash or grab and immobilize their enemies.
They elected to call those the ‘Scarecrow Golems’.
Should we rename the others too to fit the theme?
Thus far, it seems that the system is recognizing our designs, as I’m seeing ‘Lesser Scarecrow Golems’ and ‘Lesser Knight Golems’ in the Bestiary.
Hmm? Oh, sure.
Let’s rename the flame golems into the… how does Torch Golems sound?
I’m fine with that.
The poison ones?
Venom Golem.
And I’m looking forward to being able to make Acid Golems… and, maybe some sort of Explosive Golem?
That’s… definitely something that I would like to see.
Not fight though.
Ha, I’ll take that as a compliment!
In total, aside from the plain old (and, frankly, rather weak) Lesser Earth Golem, the notably stronger Lesser Stone Golem and without counting the two weaker designs of the Lesser Flame Golem, they now had four new golems, each of them looking like Serious Business™.
And then, there was the most important discovery.
They could, to a degree, customize the power level of their golems. Not only by altering the type and amount of materials used to create them, but also by subconsciously designing the golems in question.
Yes. It turns out that the elementals formed into golems depending on the Dungeon Master’s will. When Midoriya took to it and briefly imagined any of the golems looking different, they were born differently.
This offered so many options that it made their non-existent heads hurt.
Izuku was also fine with leaving Shigaraki’s designs as the primary ones. They were actually pretty decent, all things considered.
Oh maaan
We can easily fill levels two to five with the golems and elementals, steadily improving their quality
Pog
I think that this is the reason why the beastkin gave us elementals.
Those are probably commonly used by Dungeon Lords as cannon fodder on the higher floors.
Easy to obtain, easy to produce, almost endlessly adaptable.
Makes sense, yeah, yeah.
Want to see what I can make with the lesser stone elementals?
…
Tempting.
You know, I think that it can be a perfect final boss of the Fifth Level.
Oooh .
That’s a cool idea.
Alright then! Let’s start fixing the highest levels
***
The first thing that they do is look at the Second Level. It was already filled largely with elementals, and there wasn’t a lot to change there. Having a fairly easy entry level felt like a good idea to begin with.
It was also large. They’ve expanded it significantly in fact. It was already pretty big to begin with - they have expanded it greatly in the past. Now, they’ve made it much, much bigger than that.
By Izuku’s own calculation, it was now a maze roughly in shape of a cube, with three sublevels one above another. Its size? About three cubic kilometers. With an insane amount of [Elemental Overflows] scattered throughout it.
Most of it was, frankly, optional. There was a clear route from the entrance to the exit, with two [Node Rooms] at the end of Sublevel One and Sublevel Two, left to produce some additional mana and to let the challengers rest.
It was inhabited primarily by the four basic [Lesser Elementals], there were exceptions to that however. Both [Node Rooms] were guarded by four [Lesser Earth Golems] that needed to be defeated to rest there.
There was also the [Floor Guardian] at the end. It was a pair composed of a relatively weak [Lesser Knight Golem] and [Lesser Scarecrow Golem]. Which should still be a decent test of strength for any complete newbies seeking to head deeper.
We should definitely obtain [Laws] as quickly as possible.
For teleports?
For teleports.
Yeah, I get what you mean
gods, by the time we go through the upper levels of the Dungeon, leaving it will take you hours
On the other hand, any invader will take hours to reach us, giving us plenty of time to figure out countermeasures.
The next thing they’re facing is the Third Level. The current version of the Third Level had the level be full of the world's nastiest hornets. Since they were planning to relegate the Rampant Bloom forces into the levels 6-10, they needed to make some changes here.
Are we modifying the whole level, or create a new one and put it up there?
That’s a good question.
I think that we should leave it as is and push it deeper for a moment. You know, to not waste the already produced honey. It’s valuable.
Ah, good point
Fine then, let’s create a new level.
And they do so. Creating a completely new Third Level, pushing everything beneath it one level deeper. They were going to take advantage of that to make their servants stronger some time later.
It takes them more than a day, but they make it resemble Second Level in terms of shape. The details are, of course, very different, but the general shape (three sublevels, large cube in general, nodes in the sublevel passages) is the same.
They populate the bulk of the level with [Lesser Earth Golems]. They weren’t particularly fast or strong, but there was definitely an improvement over the [Lesser Elementals]. They were also much more exhausting to take down, which was particularly important.
Because each and every [Node Room] on the level was guarded by the exact repetition of the Second Level bosses, the [Lesser Scarecrow Golem] and [Lesser Knight Golem].
We should put some treasures there, I think.
Hmm…
Alright, why not.
Tin Ore and some strategically placed, but otherwise pretty shitty plants?
Sure.
Plants like mint, sage and other fully conventional plants, right?
Ye.
For the [Floor Guardians] they’ve settled up on the combination of two somewhat stronger [Lesser Scarecrow Golems] and their first [Lesser Torch Golem]. The plan for every fight? Get the [Scarecrow Golems] to immobilize the enemy so that the [Torch Golem] can get close and grab them in their fiery embrace.
Mean. But definitely defeatable.
***
Took them two more days in total to gather up the necessary mana for another expansion. Because yes. They intend to immediately add another level, allowing their servant to focus on their own things. On reading books. On figuring out alchemy. On training.
When asked about it, they said that in their opinion, their servants deserved a holiday. When asked how they are supposed to have a holiday without him by Ochako and Himiko, Izuku agreed to spend most of that time with them.
Himiko asked him cheerfully if he’s up for some mischief. He said that yes, if it was a mischief done together with her. All of this led to a lot of very confused people not knowing why or how Izuku was supposedly in two places at the same time.
Extremely hilarious.
The real problem was with the kids. They were… well, they definitely weren’t happy about being de facto kidnapped. They didn’t try to throw a riot, but were definitely rather hostile to everyone. A few of their servants tried to approach them to try to de-escalate it, but… it didn't work.
After that, they added a new level.
Cube of similar size, with three sublevels?
I don’t see a problem with that.
We should consider making the Fifth Level smaller, but more packed with heavier enemies, to signify that it’s the end of the Dungeon’s first ‘segment’.
Sure, I like that.
Should Izuku feel concerned by how… agreeable they were towards each other for once? It’s extremely confusing to him. Should he be angry over that? Should he be concerned? Should he ask Ochako about her opinion on that development?
They stick to the standard design for the levels of the first segment. The harvestable resources on the level? Copper ore, and more of the relatively ‘conventional’ herbs that they placed on the Third Level.
The real issue lies in the regular enemies on the level. They had some interesting options to pick from, but…
Shigaraki, your ideas?
Hmph
Stronger [Lesser Earth Golems]?
I think it’s not enough of an increase in difficulty.
Do you have a better idea?
Stronger [Lesser Earth Golems]... and some strategically placed [Lesser Scarecrow Golems] to make them more of a threat?
You know what? I dig that
They’ve settled up on putting in about five [Lesser Earth Golems] per one [Lesser Scarecrow Golems]. This should make groups of golems prowling this level be an actual problem to the invaders. [Scarecrow Golems] were agile and could fly - they could attack and hopefully immobilize their enemies, allowing the [Lesser Earth Golems] to maul you to death.
The deeper you went, the stronger the golems you encountered. Even of the same type. Those [Lesser Earth Golems] were significantly denser than the ones on the Third Level, which made them somewhat more resistant but also let them hit harder.
For the minibosses, they’ve decided to stick to the prior theme of putting the copy of the last [Floor Guardian] fight as the miniboss fight. So, a trio of two [Lesser Scarecrow Golems] and one [Lesser Torch Golem].
I just noticed something.
Hmmm?
Top baseline level of this level is 1.6. Lampades have an ETL of 1.5
Huh.
So what?
What about moving them here?
We could put in a [Burial Chamber] lair, move them there, add a [Shrine of the Exarch of Passage] (because why not and it definitely fits the theme), and leave them as a sort of bonus encounter. While allowing them to also shelter the adventurers if they are chased into their domain, for as long as they act nice towards them.
Oh! Hey, that’s a pretty cool idea!
It’ll also stop Aeonia from having to walk through them each time she enters or leaves the Dungeon.
Should help lessen the amount of arguments, that’s for sure.
The lampades were absolutely overjoyed to no longer have to be surrounded by (technical) undead. And no longer having to see Aeonia. They saw no problems with moving to the Fourth Level, and acting as an optional, bonus encounter.
They’ve ended up spending a while furnishing it up to their highest standards, creating a small facility they’ve elected to dub ‘The Temple of Mors’. The lampades even got their own showers, just in case they ever felt like taking a shower.
It seemed quite optional for them.
For the [Floor Guardian] they elect to go a bit… original. No longer were there going to be any [Lesser Scarecrow Golems] acting as part of the boss fight. No. Instead, they were going to force their enemies to fight a duo of [Lesser Knight Golems] supported from the backline by a duo of [Lesser Venom Golems].
The idea was to have the former two act as a moving wall, while allowing the [Venom Golems] to fire their poisonous projectiles as their enemies from behind them. After all, poison definitely couldn’t injure their fellow golems, right?
Finally, they get ready to move over to the Fifth Floor. For this… they want to make something special. Something to cap the first segment of the Dungeon, something to ensure that whoever would get past it would earn it .
Two somewhat smaller sublevels, making the whole level resemble a cube, the size of two cubic kilometers. Only one miniboss fight and a node room. Only two sublevels. But… while smaller, it was significantly denser .
The regular enemies on this level? All four ‘special’ types of golems. Torch, Venom, Knight and Scarecrow. In notable numbers, that only got worse on the Second Sublevel. The miniboss? The same as the [Floor Guardian] fight of the Fourth Level (they decided to not be too sadistic about it).
The final boss? [Lesser Stone Golem] pushed to the absolute maximum power level that they could give it here. Alongside it, two [Lesser Scarecrow Golems] to try to immobilize enemies so that the [Lesser Stone Golem] could then promptly squash them to death.
If they decide that it’s too easy, they’ll add some platforms on both sides of the large boss room and add a few [Lesser Venom Golems] that will attack the invaders from the elevated ground.
The treasures were much better. Copper and Tin, and they considered adding the somewhat outdated smelter of the beastkin (once they would deliver that as they promised a while ago), and the same herbs as the level above, but now they’ve added some of the slightly more valuable plants with alchemical applications that they’ve got from the Hamadryad’s grove.
They also intended to consider adding a chest with some money as a bit of a ‘congratulations, you made it!’ prize for whoever beat the boss fight. Maybe even add a lesser version of that to the [Temple of Mors] on the Fourth Level? However, that was for the future them to consider.
Because by now, thanks to the immense amounts of mana provided to them by their mana power plant, they’ve managed to rapidly expand themselves, adding five levels in short succession. And unlocking [Laws]. Much sooner than they should have - Luna was probably fucking with them again.