Chapter 56: Making Bank(1)
Talk - " "
Think + abilities/passives names - [ ]
System - ( )
Author thought - [[ ]]
Action - * *
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"Take care of this and don't drop it, here... just keep it inside this basket." Giving Kali a little wooden basket with some soft green grass inside. Alex placed the sickening red pulsing egg inside the basket and gave Kali head pats.
"Nnn" was all that came out of Kali's mouth, she smiled but that was it, she wasn't much of a talker. Alex didn't mind, she was doing a lot better than before, so there was progress. But one thing he wishes to change about Kali is that damn metal collar wrapped around her neck.
He tried using the decay effect of his dark element, but it did nothing to the collar. He even had both of his floor bosses to help him break the collar but other than some minor blemishes from where their hands were at. Nothing changed, but his greatest hope of breaking the collar was his Death Angel.
Sadly after it tried to take on a full-on unstable blast of fire absolutely packed with massive amounts of mana, with its head exoskeleton open, its entire head blew up. So at least it died immediately and saved him. But Alex did get something out of that moment. Which was the rest of the headless Death Angel. He could make some sort of armor with Death Angel exoskeleton but he has no clue on what the fuck to start with.
So he is going to wait for a professional or maybe give the carcass to Trebor so he can have someone make something out of it.
Oh well, that's for later. He even still has the bodies of his other summons, but he is missing one, the drone. But it probably got fully destroyed so he doesn't worry about it. He was kinda surprised however that the system didn't use the bodies of his summons in the creation of his new body.
But he was glad the system didn't use his summoned bodies, they might have a future purpose, like his Death Angel. Hell, with the dead Tall-Neck sitting in his [inventory], he might be able to use its armor for himself too.
Anyway, after giving Kali the Terragnath egg, Alex went down to his second floor, pulled up his [Dungeon Creation] tab, and went to the [Floors]
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[Floors]
Floor 1 - Treacherous Bogland Template
Floor 2 - Frozen Tundra Template
Floor 3 - Ready for Construction
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Tapping on Floor 3, he was met with a simple confirmation screen, and without hesitation, he tapped 'yes'. After that, he opened up a portal that led to the 3rd floor entrance.
Aside from an opening with stone stairs descending into the darkness, which he wasn't bothered by, there wasn't much to the entrance. He began his descent, the faint echo of his footsteps filling the silent passageway. After a solid minute of walking down, he abruptly stopped—only to find himself face-to-face with a stone wall.
Alex let out a sigh, watching his SP steadily decrease by 1,500 SP as the stone wall before him began to dissolve, revealing a perfectly formed 10-by-5-yard room. The ceiling was just high enough for him to stand comfortably, leaving him with a modest but functional space. He scanned the room, noting its smooth stone surface, Alex lay down in the center, feeling the cold floor against his back. The quiet, enclosed space felt oddly peaceful.
He'd recently discovered that SP could be used to alter anything within his dungeon. If he wanted fully grown trees to fill the third floor, it would cost a few hundred SP. Adding something as simple as rabbits hopping around would set him back 18 SP each. For a complete day-and-night cycle, he'd need to invest several hundred thousand SP. The possibilities were vast, and with enough SP, he could customize the dungeon into practically anything he could think of,
While he could use SP to alter nearly anything within his dungeon, there were specific limitations on what could be modified within the system floor templates. To fully unleash his creativity, he would need to design and build his own floors from scratch. For now, Alex was satisfied with the minor adjustments he could make to the templates, though he already had a few ideas in mind for enhancing the first and second floors.
Thankfully he also discovered a [Sell] option in his [Shop], something that was in his system the whole time, but never noticed. And with a whole lot of shit in his [Inventory], he had some extra SP to spend. To be more exact, he had an extra 23,439 SP ready to spend.
So with his [Inventory] almost emptied out, he decided that the rest of the physical work was going to be done by him. Before he did any of that, it was time to switch the element for his body.
With a deep breath, his gnome hat on an antler, and the Loop of Meditation on his finger. He let his earth element slowly revolve and spread through and out of him.
Alex did this process for 8 hours. It god damn took 8 hours to change his body from a plant… to dirt.
His once-green body, previously covered with plants, had now taken on a deep, earthy brown hue. His skin was composed of dense, compacted dirt, while plates of rugged, stone-like armor wrapped around him like a natural exoskeleton.
Alex swung a solid punch at the stonewall in front of him, watching as small cracks appeared along his hardened fist. Simultaneously, fragments of stone crumbled from the wall, falling to the ground in a shower of dust and debris.
He had hit it with enough force to break off pieces of the wall, a clear sign of his newfound power and the durability of his stone-like form. Though his fist bore a few fine cracks, he felt a surge of satisfaction.
Despite the lingering ache in his fist, Alex bent down to pick up a few of the fallen stone fragments. Placing them near the cracks in his armor, he channeled his earth element into his hand.
Slowly, he felt the fragments meld into his stone armor, merging seamlessly and filling in the damaged spots. The cracks faded, and his fist felt sturdy once more. It was a resourceful form of self-repair.
He didn't even need to use [Healing Grace] on himself, so that was cool. But he wouldn't need to heal himself again, as by infusing his earth element into the stone. He could slowly change the hard stone into something softer, with some time and mana, it was easy to dig through the stone with his hands.
Although he could attempt to manipulate the stone directly, Alex found that he could only shift small amounts at a time, making the process rather slow. Instead, he decided to combine both methods because he could.
As he softened the surrounding stone, he used his claws to dig into it, breaking off chunks and pulling them closer. With focused intent, he then manipulated the stone, guiding it toward his fist to create a more compact and heavier armor.
Any piece of stone he could get his grubby hands on was immediately absorbed into his stone armor. Of course, there was a certain limit on how much he could compact his armor.
After digging for two days, with only brief breaks to rest or check on Kali and the egg, Alex finally decided to stop digging as there was enough room for the Queen Terragnath to start forming her own colony. The entire third floor would be just for her and her brood.
Alex was also now encased in three solid inches of compacted stone, his entire body was shielded by a dense, tough layer of stone. However, the armor came with an unexpected drawback: the sheer weight. With about 3 tons pressing down on him, Alex found his movements sluggish and cumbersome. Standing upright was no longer an option; if he wanted to move at all, he had to remain on all fours. He couldn't even climb things either.
But to be honest, Alex does not regret it, he could even place his armor into his [Inventory] if he had to but he would be left naked as his actual body was just mostly compacted dirt. He felt more comfortable wearing the stone armor.
Plus, it also helped him become physically stronger as he always had the armor on. The grind never stops.
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Thanks for reading
Comment on any mistakes or changes I should do
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