When Jana returned to the city, she found that the dwarves she had brought from the ancestral home had finally begun to properly integrate themselves within society. Some were pursuing the path of cultivation that had been lost to them for so long, while others were sharing the secrets of stormforged weapons that this region had yet to discover.

Still others could be seen lined up next to the Fairy Gate with packed bags, preparing to depart for other worlds. Jana herself was tempted to visit some of these other worlds, but ultimately restrained herself. Now that she had ascended to the Lord realm, she had other needs to tend to.

It was still too early for her to go beyond the sky yet, as she had not cultivated to the point where she wouldn’t need to breathe anymore. Instead, what she wanted to do was to explore the world where she lived. During her brief visit to Spica, she had learned the enormity of the world, and wanted to truly explore what secrets lay within the land she called home.

As such, she only remained within the city long enough to share the secrets of advancement before leaving once again. This time, she directly left the ursa home continent and began to wander the open ocean without any guide.

“Big sis Tsuba!” Dana called out within the Sky Citadel, looking around the various rooms. Tsubaki hardly ever went against her normal schedule, so Dana couldn’t quite figure out what she was up to.

Through the bond that they had reestablished, she could feel that Tsubaki was close, but it was as if her presence was coming from the entire citadel itself. “Did you lose track of time cleaning again?” She called out, before making her way towards Tsubaki’s room.

For most people, it would be normal to look in their bedrooms first if they were searching. For Tsubaki, however, she spent so little time in her room that Dana rarely had to look there. When she opened the door and entered the room, however, Dana let out a light gasp.

Sure enough, Tsubaki was indeed in her room, laying in her bed. She wore her virtual reality headset, clearly logged into Vision Expanse. But that wasn’t what surprised Dana. What surprised her was that the wire connected to the headset, and even the computer that were plugged into, were actually glowing. Not only that, the internet cord plugged into the computer, extending into the wall had the same glow.

So that’s why her presence was all over the place. Dana muttered inwardly, before shaking her head. As the Goddess of Light, Tsubaki had a deep connection with all things light-based. A connection which included fiber-optic wires.

Dana simply walked over to the computer, sitting down in the chair. What surprised her initially was that the screen which should have displayed her character within Vision Expanse was simply showing the loading screen of the game.

“Tsubaki?” She asked out loud, at the same time typing the name into the keyboard as if communicating with her in the game. Almost immediately, Tsubaki appeared within the screen, looking around in a daze. However, the screen still appeared to be loading, showing that she was not truly within the game.

“This is very unusual.” She muttered, her voice reaching Dana through the computer’s speakers.

Dana blinked in confusion, typing on the keyboard again. “Can you read this?”

“No, but I can hear you, Dana.” Tsubaki said, rather bluntly. “Where am I? I should have logged into Vision Expanse by now.”

Dana sat back, confused before a moment of realization struck her. “Sis, I think you got lost on the way. Right now, you’re in your computer.” Out of curiosity, she grabbed the mouse, bringing it over towards Tsubaki.

The kitsune goddess’s head turned to face the approaching cursor, her eyes widening. She let out a low hiss, firing a beam of light at the cursor. The moment it hit, Dana clicked the mouse by reflex, seeming to ‘catch’ the beam, which startled both of them.

“Okay, I think I’m going to get out of the computer now.” Tsubaki nodded resolutely. From her perspective, she saw a massive hand hovering in the sky, holding the beam of light which she had just fired at it.

Immediately, the computer lost its ethereal glow, as did the wires and headset. Tsubaki’s figure disappeared from the screen, and she abruptly sat up on her bed. Still, Dana sat at the computer, holding the mouse button down as the cursor held onto the beam of light. “Well, what am I supposed to do with this!?”

Within the Tower of Perfection, roaring explosions could be heard echoing about. Monsters were created one after another, then modified following the methods that they had received from Petra. Each time, they would modify the process ever so slightly, whether it was the type of monster they were attempting to perfect or the method that they used to do so.

This started with the most simple of monsters, slimes, similar to how Jonas Bayrun had begun his experiments. Only after they had perfected the creation of ‘slimes of origin’ did they move on to more complex lifeforms.

Thankfully the Tower dungeon was not alone in this endeavor. At the moment, roughly half of the total dungeon cores were practicing the new art that had been given to them by their Mother. The core of their focus was on the third part of the technique, ‘A Single Heart’.

This technique was something that Aurivy had designed in order to allow multiple cores to focus on a single dungeon. By turning their own will into a thread, they then sent those threads across their telepathic bond, congealing them within the Tower of Perfection. Like this, the processing ability of Tower increased exponentially.

With every creature that they successfully perfected, they moved a step closer to their own forms. More complex structures, focused more intently on mana, even shifting to crystalline creatures. All of these were happening on the various floors of the dungeons at once.

From the outside, people had begun to gather, staring at the rumbling tower. Some stared in awe, thinking that a challenger had finally appeared that was capable of braving the dangers that the dungeon offered. Was this masterless dungeon finally going to be conquered?

Soon, the experiments were coming closer to fruition. Only a hundred monsters were appearing at a time, their energies forcibly altered to follow the patterns that had been tested and proven to work. Less and less failures rocked the dungeon with violent blasts until finally, the dungeon began creating facsimile cores in their own image.

Although these cores were not truly alive and capable of functioning as their own dungeons, they possessed the same types of energy. This was because their energy was being supplemented by the dungeon which created them.

Out of the one hundred cores, only ten failed the process of perfection. Seeing this, the dungeon known as Tower was immensely pleased, and issued an announcement to all dungeons. We will immediately begin the plan. Everyone, I ask for your assistance here.

The reason why only half of the dungeons had been working on the process until now was that the others had to deal with either invaders in their dungeon, or handling requests for their master. Now that the plan was ready, however, they temporarily put everything on hold. This was the culmination of their plans, the realization of the efforts which Mother herself had taken note.

More and more threads of will began to pour into Tower as they began the process of perfecting his core. Those that had participated until now took the leading role, whereas the others supported by making sure that there wasn’t any improper energy leakage.

Outside the dungeon, the onlookers noticed that things had quieted down. Some of them shook their heads, preparing to return to the cities that they came from. It was clear that whatever ‘challenger’ had appeared in the dungeon had failed.

Yet, after roughly ten minutes of silence, just as people were conjuring the portals to leave, cracks began to appear along the outer wall of the tower. A deep rumble could be heard as stones crashed into the ground.

Holy light shot up into the sky, illuminating the area for only a brief moment. Those nearby could feel the thick divine energy that had condensed at that time, and opened their eyes wide in astonishment.

There was one last trick to the art which Aurivy had given the dungeons, one which she withheld from them on purpose. It was not merely their will that they were giving to Tower. Rather, it was their very being. Their divine spark was carried along with the threads of will, pooling within Tower.

Thanks to this, they were able to complete the ascension process in a single attempt by borrowing the divinity of nearly a hundred thousand dungeon cores. However, this was not a normal ascension that they were performing, nor were they becoming a subordinate god.

A Unity god was one divine entity made up of multiple wills, each contributing their own divinity. When Tower ascended, every dungeon merged into one being, and then quickly split apart. Despite every dungeon now being a part of Tower, they were still independent wills capable of returning to their own body.

Now, in a way, every dungeon had ascended at once. However, while Tower had fully transformed into a god, other dungeons only shared in his power. As such, they could only be considered demigods at most, unable to progress on their own.

“Storm, you there?” Petra asked in confusion, looking down to her AC unit. A few minutes ago, the two had been chatting when Storm said that he had to take care of something. Afterwards, he went silent.

At first, Petra hadn’t been worried, but then she felt a small fluctuation over her link with Storm. She couldn’t tell what it was, but something had changed about the dungeon core.

I’m back, Petra. It’s voice returned shortly after her call. I’m sorry for worrying you.

“What happened to you?” It was understandable why she would be curious. In fact, it wasn’t just her, but every dungeon master had felt that same shift. Some had even lost connection with their dungeons entirely.

There’s no harm in telling you now. Storm spoke in a relieved tone, as if finally able to get a weight off of its proverbial chest. We, the dungeons, have been working all of this time with a single purpose. We wish to become gods, to be closer to the Mother who created us. Thanks to you, we have finally succeeded.

Petra blinked as she processed that information, a hazy look appearing in her eyes. “Does that mean you’re going to leave now?”

Storm hesitated for a few long moments, and those moments felt like an eternity to Petra. Due to her innate power and unusual origins, there had been few friends she had managed to keep as long as she had known Storm. Petra truly considered the dungeon to be a friend at this point, and wished to stay with him longer. It may have been some selfish wish, but Petra wanted to know more than just the other shadows of Thelsa Whitefallow.

No, I’ll stay. Storm’s tone became more gentle. We still have more adventures to go on, don’t we?