Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.435 Temporary Leadership

[Brian POV] just because there have been POV changes in the last chapters

With the fight between Cailie and Amilie over, it was time to deal with the aftermath. Starting with Amilie and healing her. 

No, she didn’t die, but if we didn’t heal her like yesterday, she would. Lucky for me, Gift Card is OP and I love it.

I then installed Skill Drain on Amilie, permanently making her unable to use any of her skills. She’ll still have her regular stats, but as long as Skill Drain is installed into her, all of her skills will be crossed out and she won’t be able to use them.

Luckily Skill Drain will never integrate into the person, so it can always be removed by Mystical Space Typhoon or any similar card. Or you can remove it with Erasure Magic.

So if Amilie does somehow turn a new leaf, we can remove the Skill Drain and she will get her skills back. But I wouldn’t hold onto that hope.

… But at the same time, I think at least a part of her insanity was caused by the corrupted synchroes she did with the water sprite, so it isn’t impossible for her to get better.

Not that I think she’ll ever be what I’d consider good. What she did to Cailie is already proof enough that she was not fit to be a leader in the first place.

But let’s not theorize about the future and get back to the present.

“Brian. Can you hack the core so that someone else can be the dungeon master?” Cailie asked.

“Yeah, I should be able to do that. And if I can’t, we can force Amilie into giving up her position.”

“Thanks. … who should be the new master?” 

“It has to be you, Lady Cailie.” One of the merfolk warriors, Larkos, said. “You defeated Lady Amilie in a sacred duel, so you are to take her position.”

“... I know, but I can’t. I don’t live here, and I don’t want to move back.”

“B-But my Lady! We need a leader!” Larkos cried out.

“... I know, but it cannot be me.” Cailie said. “I haven’t been a part of this clan since I was banished. Twice. So I cannot be the leader.” 

“Don’t argue about it now.” I said to the two. I even thought about Cailie’s new title, which does indicate that she is back, but she clearly doesn’t want to, so I’ll just. “I can take over temporarily.” I told them. “We can figure out who the next leader will be later.”

I quickly got to work on the core, well heart, with Lady Janina by my side. I think she was just wanting to make sure I wouldn’t do anything unkind to the heart.

While that was going on, Cailie was speaking with the merfolk warriors, probably about reuniting the clan, and Alice was keeping an eye on Amilie, but since Amilie is completely out of mana, she isn’t moving much.

After a bit of work, I got the core to the state where it only needed approval from the current master for the access to be granted to me. And as long as we get her hand on the panel, it will count, because hacking dungeon cores allows me to pick how approval is given. It doesn’t have to be verbal. 

So we just dragged the passed out Amilie to the core, placed her hand on the scanner, and now I had full access to the dungeon, no hacking required.

I then quickly took stock of the dungeon. This place was decently large, about two thirds the size of HomeBase. But the floors were laid out strangely.

The core room for one wasn’t at the bottom of the dungeon, but instead at the top. So if the ‘first floor’ or the floor that you can enter from the outside is floor 0, the core room is floor 1. You have direct access to the core room from the entrance floor.

And then the rest of the dungeon is just underground like a regular dungeon. 

I guess it makes sense from a management perspective, as the merfolk can just have easy access to the core, but from a security standpoint, it is terrible.

I then quickly took stock of the dungeon’s resources, and I realized just how different this dungeon was from anything normal. Well, first off, this dungeon was extremely low on both mana and miasma. And yes, despite not being a Chaos God Dungeon, this dungeon used both mana and miasma meters, instead of the Generation points most dungeons use.

I think Amilie was running this place to the ground to keep the little that she had of the clan on her side or something. Or maybe she used the mana and miasma to somehow boost the power of the spirit that had blessed her, thus resulting in the spirit getting corrupted and turning into a sprite.

There were also alarmingly few monsters in the dungeon, for a dungeon as large as this. I mean, this place is quite big, but it has fewer monsters than TinaWood does. … in the mornings. TinaWood does get cleared on a daily basis, so it isn’t exactly the same. 

The low number of monsters is most likely because of the lack of mana and miasma, so it isn’t that abnormal, but still.

But back to the earlier point. This dungeon is definitely different from a regular dungeon. A regular dungeon is like a golem, a living, but also non-living structure that can be controlled with the dungeon pedestal and the dungeon core. This place wasn’t that.

This entire dungeon was alive. Being inside of it is basically the same as being inside a living being. So calling the dungeon the dragon’s body is way more accurate than I ever assumed.

And because the dungeon was alive, literally, I got extremely worried about the lack of resources. I don’t want this place dying.

But before I figured out what I could do about that, I used the core to release the few merfolk that were held prisoner inside the dungeon. There was the older male in this room and six others on floor 0.

I soon found out that the person held on this floor was Cailie’s dad. And no, I didn’t interrupt their little reunion. But I did order the merfolk warriors to go down a floor to confirm that the people who were imprisoned there were fine. 

And yes, they did take orders from me. I’m technically the current leader of this clan.

We then showed Amilie’s still passed out body into the same cell where her father was just in, and locked the door. Keep her there until we figure out what we’ll actually do to her.

But back to worrying about this dungeon. I used my linked magic stone to pull some mana from HomeBase and put it all into the dungeon core, aka. the dragon’s heart. It definitely helped, as mana fuels most of the dungeon’s operations, except for the monster spawning and generating items. Some of the other operations also need miasma, but the amount they need is basically nothing, so even with the dangerously low miasma levels, the dungeon will live for now.

Not like I have a way of transferring miasma over large distances in the first place. Sure I can beam some down from HomeBase, but I have to have HomeBase over whatever I’m trying to beam miasma into, and since HomeBase is still hovering close to Alewatch, that isn’t an option.

After I optimized the dungeon for the resources it had, and the merfolk that were in cells ready to talk, the clan, what was left of it, gathered for a meeting.

The meeting took place in the temple that also held the entrance to the dungeon. Taking part was almost every remaining adult member of the clan, myself and Cailie. 

Lady Janina and Alice were with the rest of the clan. Lady Janina handed some food, which I gave her, to them, while Alice was playing with the few children that remained. Alice even swapped into her mermaid looking swimsuit and the locals seemed to like it.

But back to the meeting. It was mostly about who would take the leader position now. 

Most of the clan wanted Cailie to step up to the position, as she did defeat Amilie, but Cailie refused again, giving the same explanation of this not being her home.

From there it then went to who would be the next good leader.

The easy choice was giving control back to the previous leader, who wasn’t Cailie’s dad. It was actually one of the people held in the lower prisons. He did agree, but he said he couldn’t be a leader for all that long because of his age, and that the clan would need a younger leader.

But because no one was up to par, other than Cailie and even though she technically wasn’t by their own rules, it was a no can do situation.

Cailie then came up with the idea of taking someone to HomeBase and training them up to be the next leader. And because Cailie was kind of the leader, while also not being the leader, the clan agreed to her suggestion and allowed Cailie to pick anyone she wanted.

Her initial pick was Larkos, one of the merfolk warriors that first ‘greeted’ us when we arrived, and the only one of them to treat Cailie well, but Cailie then added that she’d visit the banished members, welcome them back to the clan, and then she’d make her final choice.

Again, because she was kind of the leader, no one opposed her. … and I don’t really like that. This ‘the strongest will rule’ just doesn’t sit well with me.

I mean yeah there is the sacred duel, which does seem to be a way to get a bad leader out of the leader position, but it doesn’t really work if someone like Amilie is using the dungeon to power level.

After the meeting, before our group headed for the banished part of the clan, I returned to the dungeon core with the old merfolk man who would take on the position of dungeon master for now. 

And after the transfer, he had some words for me.

“On behalf of the Nixie clan, I thank you. We may have all died were it not for you.”

I thought about giving a half-assed ‘no problem’ to that, but I know this means a lot, so I just let him talk.

“It is also because of you that our dear Cailie was able to grow into the beautiful mermaid she is now, so thank you for that as well. So I want to give you something.” He said, as he used the dungeon core to open a door to a secret room in one of the walls of the room.

I did notice there were a few rooms like that, but I never opened them, nor did I look at what is inside, as it really isn’t my business.

But the old merfolk wanted me to follow him in so I did just that.

Inside, I found a site that could be considered grim. In short, the room was a sort of graveyard. It held merfolk of different ages and evolutions, held in crystals that you can make with Holy Magic or with this dungeon's core apparently. 

Yes, the same type of crystal that is used to hold extremely valuable weapons, such as the First Saint’s staff that I saw in the church in the Hero’s country.

“These are the previous masters of the dungeon.” The old man explained. “The ones we could bury. They are taken here and made a part of our great protector.”

I simply nodded, as I listened to the story.

“For us, it is a sacred honor to hold the position of the dungeon master, as it means being chosen by the two dragons. One who gave his life for us, and one who gave his brother’s heart for us. And now, you, despite not being a merfolk, have held that honor.”

“I apologize. I didn’t realize it was…”

“No. I am not saying this to reprimand you. In fact, I am thanking you.” The old man said. “... I made a mistake. I can admit it now. I never realized the type of person Amilie was. I saw her skills in leadership and magic. She even was given a blessing by a greater water spirit. But I never looked past the surface level. 

I chose her as the successor because of her good qualities, thinking that she’d lead us to a brighter tomorrow, but … you know how it ended. I couldn’t ever even show her this room, as I was ashamed of her. I failed, and I couldn't do anything about it.

But you. Not only did you save Cailie, for no reward for yourself, but you also came to us when we needed you, and despite taking over our dungeon, you immediately gave it back when a proper master was decided on.

Had you not acted, we may have lost the blessings we held, and because of that, I wish to give you this.”

As he said that, a stone slab raised out of the ground, making a new resting place like the ones that held all the previous masters of this dungeon. 

“If you wish it to be so, when you die, this may be your final resting place. From now on, you are, and will forever be, a member of the Nixie clan.” He finished.

And as he did, a System notification popped up on my screen.

… Well, not only did I gain a potential place for my final rest, which I think I’ll have to refuse because I’ll rather be buried in the depths of HomeBase, but I also got a new race. 

And I guess I’m also a member of this clan now. Which is cool, but completely unnecessary.