Combining the contents of the six vials takes a moment as his territory control scoops up every last drop from five of them into the last. Gathered together, the bottom of the vial has enough liquid to form a layer instead of a drop. Not much, but Ally nods when she sees it. ‘That should be enough to get something. Probably not the pattern or even the recipe for it, but you might have the chance to improve the myconid’s poison. Oh, and deconstruct the vials before they can unsummon themselves. Being in your dungeon gives you more time to work with because of all the power in the air, but not that much time.’
Doyle nods and gets right to it. First, he deconstructs the five loose vials. Or rather he tries to, but as his skill touches them the vials blink out of existence. ‘Well, that didn’t work. Ally, you said they are summoned, would that stop me from deconstructing them or something?’
Ally frowns, ‘It shouldn’t? It might have to do with them being provided by an associate of gods. They might really want those vials back in one piece. There probably is some giant store room full of empty glass vials somewhere that gets pulled from.’
Doyle’s core dims as he takes a moment to think. Something at the back of his head was ringing. ‘Ally, when a used vial disappears, does it take the residue with it?’
Ally takes a moment to think about it but can’t remember. ‘I don’t know the answer to that. If I had to guess though it should. I’ve not heard of anyone complaining when people throw used vials to the side. At the very least, some of my aunts would have raised a ruckus when any of their boys would take something and toss the vials on the carpet.’
Doyle brightens up and nods, ‘I think I know what the alchemy gods get out of the vials. No one bothers to empty the vials completely. I bet when a vial goes back to wherever they go the contents get examined. Any new potions, any special recipes, all this and more should be getting analyzed by those gods. Alchemy seems like one of those things where secrets are held so tightly an alchemist wouldn’t even give even a hint to their god. Sure this wouldn’t provide the techniques used to make the potion. Let me try something.’
Doyle focuses on the last vial that has the potion left in it. With his territory control Doyle freezes the space within a meter of it. Next he puts in a dungeon rule that forbids summons from being prematurely dismissed. ‘Okay, that should do it. Ally, can you think of anything more I could do?’
Ally looks at the vial and frowns, ‘Not off the top of my head. With the space locked down and a rule in place that should do the job.’
Doyle nods and doubles down on his control. Ready, he first moves the potion to a stone capsule so it wouldn’t disappear when he tried to get the vial. Then with a flourish he activates deconstruct on the vial. However, unlike when he normally uses the skill, the vial doesn’t get absorbed instantly. It hangs there with sections fuzzing out as it tries to unsummon.
A great pressure comes down on the barrier between the void and his first floor. Doyle doesn’t give up though and keeps his skill running. The pressure ramps up but slowly, starting at the rim, the vial unravels. It takes time, but he has deconstructed the vial.
A system message comes up but before he can read it there is a loud bonk coming from outside of his first floor. Ally and Doyle both turn towards the noise as another bonk can be heard. Doyle dims as he opens up a screen to view what is going on. Just in time to see a young looking lady wearing a leather vest over a lab coat with a shocked look. The lady takes a deep breath and frowns before she tries to enter the floor again but is stopped and there is a third bonk.
The person shakes their head and sighs before knocking on the first floor’s dimension. Inside they can hear the knocking and in front of Doyle a system message pops up.
{A junior alchemist goddess would like to hold a conversation with you. Would you like to:
Use a portal to allow them in
Turn them away
Meet them in a safe neutral ground}
Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘Well I advise we go with option three. I’m going to guess they really don’t like what you did there. Just include me.’
Doyle rolls his core to the side, ‘You think? But yeah, I don’t want to let her in, but if I turn her away, the next person who comes by won’t be so junior.’
Doyle switches to normal telepathy, ‘[Me and Ally want to meet them in a safe neutral ground.]’
At first nothing happens but then outside the god nods their head and with a flash all three of them appear in a featureless white room. Ally looks around and nods, “Good, we aren’t here physically but rather as projections.”
Doyle frowns and turns his head towards her, “How can you tell?”
Though before she can answer Doyle brings his hand up to cover his mouth and Ally smiles. “Well, first of all, you’re not in the shape of a dungeon core at the moment. Here, take a look!” And she waves her hand, bringing a mirror into existence in front of him.
Doyle looks himself over and doesn’t know how to react. While he has taken on a more human form, he wouldn’t call himself human. The first big difference is that instead of skin, his body is still made of the purple crystal that his core is. Besides that, his body is very undefined, more like a manikin. The only defining features are his face, and even that is vague.
He runs his hand down his cheek, “Huh, is this a projection of who I am or is the system just projecting a good facsimile to facilitate talking to others.”
Ally laughs, “I’ll tell you when we get back to the dungeon. Right now we should probably deal with the elephant in the room, or I guess I should say cow.” And she laughs even more.
Doyle turns to the goddess and raises an eyebrow. The goddess who had looked like a well-dressed lady now looks more like a large cow with golden markings. The cow huffs and she shifts back into her human form. Not completely however as she now looks like an anthropomorphic cow in a lab coat. Though the leather vest is gone and Doyle realizes that it had looked a lot like the cow’s hide.
With a sigh, the goddess shakes her head. “Well, a little early for someone like me to show up here. Though seeing as you are an awakened dungeon would explain it. Anyway, I’m here to bargain with you over not messing with my association’s vials. We are willing to give you a selection of potions in exchange for not absorbing them.”
Ally with an angry glare is about to go off on the goddess but Doyle holds his hand up and stops her. Then he turns his hand towards himself and stares at it for a second before speaking up. “Huh, hands are really way too convenient for gesturing with. That aside, let me take care of this. Before I make any deal, I will run it by you, but I have to stand on my own feet.”
Ally rolls her eyes, “You aren’t prepared for dealing with a goddess.”
Doyle laughs, “I would be worried if I was dealing with some ancient being.”
The cow goddess crosses her arms and pouts, “What do you mean by that?”
Doyle shakes his head, “I’m not the best judge of age, but you aren’t an elder god and not just because you are a junior goddess. Though mainly I’m going by how shocked you were outside my dungeon. You looked genuinely surprised that it was a dungeon you got sent out here for.”
The cow goddess pauses and then sighs, “I told them I wouldn’t be good at this. But still, do you want that deal?”
Doyle laughs, “No.”
She tilts her head to the side, “Okay? Any particular reason why so I can do a better job next time. Oh, and what would make you be willing to take the deal? The other gods and goddess don’t exactly want me to come back without the agreement. It isn’t cheap to whip up those vials so we can send them all over the universe.”
Doyle rubs the bridge of his nose, “Well, first of all I caught the fact you just offered potions without being specific. That could mean anything from a large quantity of godly mixtures or more likely it could also mean three variants of a potion that makes sour food taste sweet.”
“Besides that, you revealed much too much info, especially with that last bit. Now I know the fact that you have to make the deal and that me not eating the vials is a very important subject. You even admitted that it wasn’t cheap to make the vials, which seeing as you belong to an association of gods, says something despite how many such vials there must be out there.”
His cutting critique caused the most pitiful display of puppy dog eyes to be turned on him. It doesn’t bother Doyle, but still he holds up his hands, “Now I didn’t say I was going to rip you off. I can understand how valuable the vials are by what little I saw of a system message when you showed up.”
She sighs, “But that means I won’t be able to afford whatever you want for your promise!”
Ally can’t help herself at this point, “Doyle, give the girl some slack! She has been put in a very hard spot by this.”
Doyle snaps his fingers, “That reminds me, we don’t actually know what you would like to be called! What would you like us to refer to you by?”
The cow goddess sniffs, “Why not just ask for my name?”
Doyle shrugs, “I’m new to this whole deity thing and didn’t know if it would be rude. Plus, sometimes a person’s name isn’t what they want to be associated with.”
She rubs her eyes and slumps against the room’s wall. “Names aren’t too important to deities. When a person prays to us, all that matters is that they are thinking of use. Anyway, you guys can call me Moota. That’s what all the other gods and goddesses call me. My actual name is a little hard for anyone who isn’t a cow to pronounce.”
Doyle nods, “Fair enough, so did you used to be a cow or some form of animalistic humanoid.”
Moota looks up and shrugs, “I was a golden alchemy cow that was worshiped by everyone on my planet. After a while this raised me up to where I am now.”
Doyle frowns, “With all the gods vying for worship, I figured it would be hard for something like that to happen.”
Moota laughs, “Not every planet gets bombarded with dreams from the heavens. My planet was much worse than the one you are attached to. Even from the void, I could sense that there were already some minor herbs growing on your world. Over a thousand years after the system had integrated my planet, there still wasn’t enough world energy in the air to form dungeons or grow herbs.”
“The fact I was born there in the first place is a miracle in and of itself. A golden alchemy cow can turn even normal herbs into potions through our milk. Even the weakest healing potion was a godsend to the natives of my planet, and so they worshiped me. Sure, a god or two had gotten a following in passing, but my potions were real when the other gods didn’t do a thing for the world. Within a few years, everyone on the planet worshiped me. If it wasn’t for how weak my planet was that would have been enough to rocket me to being a full god. But, well, here I am.”
Thanks for the chapter.
Ooh. Time for a cow to become a patron god of the little village. Moo.
Or be added to the dungeon using g that thing from before, several chapter ago, give her a little shrine, with a cow statue that releases very small amounts to of her milk during rites of worship. Or something, that would be cool, though.
Thanks for the chapter
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I don’t want to let him, but if I turn him away
The person is a goddess, so these should be her not him.
Dang it, I thought I had caught them all. When first writing this section I hadn't decided on who the deity would be and apperently I didn't catch a few of the "he"s sprinkled around.
@Akhier Still hadn't fixed it yet. It confused me a bit there.
@Number13th I apparently missed some of them and now [fingers crossed] it is completely fixed
Thanks for the chapter. And I caught up. Woe is me.
Anyways, so far this is a pretty good story even among the dungeon core genre of stories. Keep up the good work and do not overdraft yourself. 
Being good isn't enough. I actually have to continue writing the story which seems to be a chronic problem with the dungeon core genre. Luckily I seem to have passed the point of no return were an honestly shocking number of them bail out so things should continue on just fine.
Huh. Didn't think that his first interaction with a god would be this way. Though I have to say what's with Ally's attitude here? She first glare then suddenly becomes sympathetic with her. Mood swings???
Also considering how fast she came after him deconstructing the vial. Is his location within the void so easy to know or track? I thought the 'Void' is a place where time and space didn't exist(?). Given that I would assume that getting his location or tracking it would be hard. Moreover, now that someone knows his specific location someone could just show up there outside him then directly attack him. That would suck. Should have opted I think to communicate without meeting face to face. Though given he is in a Void I would presume he isn't actually stuck in a very precise location but is technically constantly moving.
P.S. How will Doyle even know from what pantheon does the vial that the delvers used to if he wants to deconstruct more and he already made a deal with one association to not use theirs?
Ally dislikes gods in general but is open to liking specific gods on a personal level. As for finding Doyle? Basically impossible unless there is something to pin down the location. The vials aren't inherently able to act as a beacon, however when they get destroyed the destruction allows them to be located for a short while after. Kind of like a flare being sent up.
@Akhier Great explanation. Thanks for replying.
Thanks for the chapter
Maybe an agreement for the possibility of making his monsters abled to be Alchemists connected to the alchemists gods? More principally the kobolds, since they are the only ones who have hands now...
I mean, if his monsters could remake and create new potions(maybe make two potions, one to give to the Alchemists gods and the other to get the blueprint to the dungeon itself) along with them being in a dungeon, which could slowly adapt his monsters into potion makers along with rarer and rarer plants each time the dungeon gets better, being able to create more and more potions, maybe even unlocking potions different from most...
Cause, even if something ends badly and the potion is failed or it blows up, the dungeon could still get the blueprint of the potion and slowly create herbal plants to make better potions? It would be a win-win on the simple fact that the dungeon can command his kobolds, if he ever get a small alchemist bonus skill set for his dungeon... But I don't know if that's possible...
Heck, he can make some goats to only eat a single magic/or not herbs to see if their milk get different properties... and then try to use the milk into potions and experiment a lot, after all, living species can create incredible potions, but a dungeon, which is ageless, almost immortal as long as it isn't targeted by core enthusiasts, with monsters who can be changed to age slower or be smarter than before by the more floors they have...
If you think about it, the choices are endless... (and right now, the planet/universe is locked to no elder god can travel here yet, right? Because it's a 'new universe' added to the grid, getting protection from the stronger gods, only the weaker gods who can't affect the world is let on, like Moona being unable to force herself into the dungeon, she was only able to enter that universe because that?)
Holy bags, I just pulled a theory while writing the comment, changing most of the direction I was going XD
There is no limit on gods. In fact, in various places there will already be new religions popping up. The biggest thing that prevents it from becoming too much of a mess is that no one really cares all that much about the universe Doyle is in and they definitely don't even consider newly integrated worlds. There just isn't much of anything besides a few more followers in a place like that. And while getting more followers is always a nice thing, those that are on Doyle's planet would end up using more of the gods power than they would provide as they will be more active in fighting. There isn't some holy city for most of the followers to settle down in and peacefully believe in their god.
The gods currently invested in the planet are either ones that are willing to gamble or so big they don't care about the losses. The ones that are gambling are small time gods who will either make or break themselves over a few fringe worlds. Those who are really big on the other hand aren't really paying attention to the world and rather it will be some being under their control dealing with it in the hopes of advancing in the gods hierarchy if the gamble pays off.
@Akhier Oh so, the Alchemists gods, they use newbies gods to not affect themselves? Like Moona is using her own powers?
@P_F12 The alchemist gods are a special case and would fall under a pantheon scheme instead of an individual god. In areas controlled by them they gain not only the worship of those praying specifically to them, but also those giving generic praise related to whatever their pantheon is based around (so in this case, alchemy). In universe this explains why so many pre-system religions are pantheon based. Even the "one god" religions can from a certain perspective be seen as a pantheon if you take each major divide as a separate god. However I am going to avoid even touching that mess if I can help it.
Pantheons need a certain number of gods to count depending on how powerful the gods are (though no matter how powerful a god is they can't stand alone and need at least two other gods to balance it out).
Though I will note that even with that there still aren't many gods or pantheons on the planet. Moona only showed up because Doyle messed with the alchemist vials. The planet just does not have anything gods are too interested in at the moment. Yes, there are new things beginning to develop such as special herbs. However, the chances that even the most devout worshiper would be sacrificing such things at this point are close to zero. If Moona was more friendly with the other alchemy gods they would probably put forward a little effort to spread their religion to the planet. As it is though, no one really knows the planet is there in the first place. All the religions that are spreading on the planet at the moment come from being introduced to them in the tutorial.