Two days after the ambush, Phyllis was sitting at the back of the wagon. Two days helping the swarm escort Milith had allowed her to learn a bit about them. They were remarkably free about sex and highly attracted to strong mates. Not only that but they didn’t care if the partner they were courting was male or female. Which is why she had shrug off constant advances from the girls. Talking with Eris though was rather illuminating about the swarm race. Such as the fact that their females were significantly smarter and had a degree of individuality that other members of the swarm didn’t have. She had also learned that there wasn’t a male version of the swarmling they were either female or genderless. Watching them feed was an odd experience, but it was not much different from watching a vampire. Although vampires kept their prey from fighting them solely through the aphrodisiac in their venom. Swarmling females also had an aphrodisiac if a bit weaker and a paralytic. 

Eris though was also the one, that most wanted to mate with her. Which was a big part of why the girl was staying near her as much as possible.  Phyllis was doing her best to shrug off those advances. While being around Misaki, helped her build up an immunity to her pheromones. Something she had been doing deliberately, by occasionally spending time with her while not wearing her protective ring. Something she was glad about now, since the ring wasn’t of much help against swarm pheromones. As for why she wasn’t entirely sure, but she guessed that they were magically unique enough to not be recognized as something harmful. If she didn’t have the pheromone resistance skill, she doubted she would have been able to shrug off their advances. 

The pheromone resistance skill like most such skills were hard to get, but it required the recipient to be exposed to pheromones and not give in to the effects. She had used a few tricks to help get the skill. As for the advance, she knew it would be for the best to ignore them. Dungeons were known for being fanatically loyal to their mate, or in the case of lust dungeons mates. She hadn’t much time lately, but she had found reread her book on dungeons. Specifically the section she had paid the least attention to the last time she read it. Because dungeons were so fanatically loyal to their mates, they took betrayal badly and it wasn’t unheard of for them to try and kill a mate that betrayed them. 

This worry of hers existed because she knew most dungeons considered mating with another without their approval a betrayal. While she wasn’t worried about that happening, she knew it was best to keep her mate happy. Especially given the fact, that the dungeon could easily make her life hell if she angered her. Thinking about the consequences and possible repercussions of mating with Eris, while listening to Eris pester her about mating and saying something about the swarm only being as strong as its children, she finally blurted out, “Fine, I’ll do it but only if my mate Misaki agrees.”

Eris had a big smile appear on her face, but said nothing before getting on her feet and checking on Milith. Who was still in her regenerative state, and needed a change and bath. Eris stripped her down gently, while one of the sisters brought a bucket of warm water and a cloth rag. She set it down next to Milith and walked back out with the others. Eris used the rag and gently washed her body, being extra careful not to damage her body. Once Milith was clean, she dressed her back up in a change of clothes and a new diaper. The old one already being dirty.

Phyllis ignored the sponge bath and instead kept her eyes facing out. Keeping an eye out for any potential attackers. Not that she had seen any during the past two days. Still, it paid to be vigilant, especially since it would take longer to get back by wagon than it had for her to get here alone. The wagon being slower than her legs could carry her. Although she was now wondering if what she said wouldn’t cause her problems in the future. One thing about being female that she had noted was that it made her more impulsive and it was harder to deal with people pestering her. She blamed the fact that it made her more emotional than she had been as a man. Something she knew she would have to get used to, and she wasn’t looking forward to the mood swings she knew often came with pregnancy. One thing she was afraid might happen is that her new emotional problems might make her do something stupid.

Around the same time, Darious was sitting in his tent feeling frustrated. The commander he had sent on the mission to bring back Milith for him had failed. To make matters worse the cavalry commander was one of his more competent subordinates and thanks to a twist of fate he had lost over half his troops to a single girl. At least the guy had come back with some basic info on the girl. Turns out she is a level 188 arch-spellsword a highly advanced version of the magical swordsman class. Magical swordsman can be difficult opponents, at that level an arch-spellsword is almost as troublesome as an archmage. The difference is that the swordsman is better at close range combat, while the archmage does way better at range. Most archmages at that level though have trained their agility and stamina so that they can keep their distance. Fortunately, he knew how to beat a spellsword, problem was the level. Very few people actually leveled past a hundred and even fewer got close to two hundred. Most of those who did were either talented adventurers, good soldiers who made a name for themselves on the battlefield or a natural-born hero. In all cases, it required one to face numerous life and death encounters.

Now that he knew about the girl guarding his target, he was making plans to beat her. He had already sent messages to some of his friends. All high-level adventurers and members of his church. Including a level two hundred arch-paladin who was the trump card of his church. It would take a while for them to get the message, and a little while longer before they sent a response and came to him. So he already had someone going out to watch the adventurer and keep an eye on the prize. Hopefully, they won’t make things too difficult, as he was already drooling in anticipation of the rewards for his divine quest.

Back in the dungeon town, Misaki had gone back to her dungeon and was currently sitting in her dungeon library reading the ritual book. Not far from her Emily was sitting in another chair, playing with her kids. Misaki wasn’t entirely sure why Emily had followed her into the dungeon. Nor did she think bringing the kids along was an entirely good idea, but they were having a good time. Playing with both Emily and Susan the slime girl, in fact, the little girls were absolutely fascinated by the slime girl. Who had a big smile on her face and seemed just as eager to play with the girls.

As for the ritual book, it covered more than the ritual. There was even a handwritten biography of the man it was designed to summon. Her magical senses allowed her to note that it was added after the book was made. While the biography was interesting it was too short to tell her much about the man. Only enough to tell her what to keep an eye out for when negotiating with the man. Another interesting thing about the book is that she could tell it was written in a language she didn’t know, but she could read it thanks to some rather interesting spell formations that were embedded into the book. Ones that she had been able to decipher without too much difficulty. These were superior to the ones she already knew for translating text and unlike the old ones easier to reverse. She already had a few ideas for magically scrambled text, in the dungeon that she wanted to add to the next group of floors. The ritual was also very interesting and involved complicated runes. It required a ritual chamber that had been specially built to a specific set of specifications. The chamber had to be a perfect half-sphere. The half-sphere had to be built out of pure manastone encasing complex formations of gold and silver. The inside of the chamber is to be carved with some rather complex spell formations. A complex three-dimensional spell formation is to be formed and centered floating in the middle of the half sphere. More spell formations are to be carved on the outside of the sphere. Opposite the entrance, an arch made of enchanted manastone is to be erected and carved with some of the most complex spell formations the book had described. As she understood the ritual the floating spell shape was a mana well that actually produced the mana that fueled the chamber. The ritual didn’t require much mana from those who conducted the ritual, but they were needed to direct the flow of magic. This ritual chamber was clearly some sort of gateway and it seems the ritual was used to direct it towards pulling the target, in this case, Milith’s grandfather across space, and realms to the location of the chamber. One thing she found interesting was that in multiple places, the book warned against wearing clothing in the chamber. Saying that clothes if they weren’t perfectly aligned to the wearer’s mana could interrupt the mana flow of the chamber, which can be deadly and that the danger was especially high if they were enchanted. The ritual itself is also interesting.

The odd part of the ritual and all the magic here is the odd occurrence of pairs throughout. The ritual required five pairs of subordinate mages and two head mages to be conducted. Asking Emily about it revealed just how odd having two head mages in a ritual spell was. Since she had never even heard of such a thing, furthermore she thought the idea to be dangerous. The ritual required the participants to channel massive amounts of mana and direct it to perform the summoning. As she was reading, a notification popped up in her view.

“Damn, those are powerful, but expensive. Don’t think I will be able to build either any time soon,” said Misaki to herself.

“What is expensive?” asked Emily.

“I was reading the ritual book and learned a couple of new constructs from it. They are quite powerful buildings, but the cost is insanely high,” said Misaki.

“Can you show me?” asked Emily. Misaki didn’t know how to and Emily had to teach her how to share a notification. Once she did, Emily stared at the notifications in shock for a couple of seconds. It didn’t take a genius to see how that mana well could make a dungeon very powerful, in a very short period of time. Good thing the wells were so expensive and had a limit. Otherwise, they would be overpowered and could make a dungeon into a god-like entity.

“You weren’t kidding that these are powerful, but why did you learn them from the book?” asked Emily.

“These constructions are required for the ritual to summon this person. I don’t yet understand the ritual, but I am beginning to understand what it entails,” said Misaki.

“Well most rituals are rather complex, so don’t feel bad about not understanding the underlying principles,” replied Emily.

“I’m a dungeon, understanding magical laws and principles comes naturally. I see a fireball spell for example and I instantly understand it,” said Misaki while forming a fireball in her hand to demonstrate. The ball of flame was a perfect blue indicating a master-level understanding of the spell, before she dissipated the spell, and continued, “This, however, goes far beyond, simple magical laws and is making assumptions about space and time that are so far beyond anything I have ever read or heard that they might as well be gibberish. In fact, this is the most complex spell I have ever seen, with more than a thousand layers, and using principles I barely understand it at all. In fact, if I’m reading this right the spell channels more energy in a minute than the sun produces in a year,” said  Misaki.

“That sounds like it draws more energy than the summon hero spell. Why would it require so much energy for a simple summoning spell?” asked Emily realizing that Misaki was talking about a large amount of energy, but not comprehending exactly how much energy that actually entails. Misaki snapped her fingers and a book titled Summon Hero floated to the table.

“I read up on that spell, to compare it with this one. That spell isn’t all that different to the one I use to summon monsters. It uses an application of soul theory, to reach across realms for a suitable soul, and then constructs a physical body for the soul. The spell can bring a suitable soul to the user regardless of distance for the same cost. This spell though doesn’t even touch soul theory and instead bridges two locations and pulls the desired person across space-time and realms to the user’s location. This includes the physical body, and pulling mass through requires significantly more energy than calling a soul that further increases with distance. In fact, this spell seems to have variants depending on distance, and I am focusing on the most involved version since I have no idea where the target is in relation to us,” said Misaki.

“So not a simple summoning spell then,” commented Emily, who didn’t fully comprehend the implications of the spell yet.

“No it is not, in fact, the magical principles this spell covers are outright dangerous. The book is laced with warnings about mana interruptions and spell control. The spell is laced with safeguards to prevent the worst possible dangers, but a mistake can still cause problems. As I understand it these safeguards are part of the spell formations that are to be built into the ritual chamber. So the worst that could happen is that you blow up a city, which is far less damage than what could happen if you forgot the safeguards. Fortunately, the book contains a practice ritual that will help those participating to learn the required spell control,” said Misaki.

“That sounds interesting, let me check on my daughters real quick and then we can continue this,” said Emily. Who quickly turned to check on her girls, only to find that while she was talking about ritual spells with Misaki that they had wandered off, along with the slime girl.