Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 58 [The Cave Dweller Queen]

Clang! Clang! The continuous sounds of digging echoed between the towering pillars of the underground dome.

Driven by the demon craftsmen, the cave dwellers wielded their shovel-like, hard claws to dig a sturdy and concealed dark chamber beneath the foundation of the inner ring.

These were a group of thin, withered, pale creatures, only about half a person's height, barely reaching Samael's waist.

A large, oval head sits atop a stick insect-like, withered body that wriggles around like a bean sprout. Six crab-like limbs with hard, broad claws are perfect for digging through mud and rock—and for chopping flesh and bone.

Its large, oval head bears a blank, clumsy expression. A large, serrated mouth occupies two-thirds of its head. Years of cave-dwelling have caused its eyes to severely degenerate, leaving only tiny dots the size of beans. Between the eyes are two narrow, vertical slits that pulsate as its large head turns—these are the cave dweller's nostrils.

They make a sticky, gurgling sound in their throats, their claws dig rapidly while spraying out highly viscous saliva. The saliva dries and hardens quickly, eventually forming a solid shell, instantly building a large and sturdy nest chamber.

The Cave Queen is as big as two or three Cave Dwellers combined, with two extra pairs of hard limbs supporting her bulky body, and her huge abdomen is filled with bulging insect eggs.

But it looked unwell, lying weakly with one or two limbs occasionally scratching at it, like a dying twitch or struggle.

The Cave Queen's carapace bore large patches of signs of explosion and corrosion. A short, barbed bronze harpoon was embedded in its carapace, and one of its limbs had been severed.

The wounds and cuts were covered with a thick layer of hardened, gelatinous saliva, wrapped tightly, and swollen horribly like bulging sacs. It was clearly secreted and applied by other cave dwellers to treat the queen.

"Put her in the nest chamber first—she's scared, and the caveman's secretions will make her feel more at ease," Gwyneth, who had experience caring for magical beasts, instructed.

Under the direction of the demon craftsmen, the cave dwellers carried the queen and the eggs of the swarm and carefully placed them in the center of the nest chamber, which had just been reinforced with gelatinous saliva.

“This…this is too strange. A caveman’s saliva should accelerate her healing, so why does she still look so weak?” Gwyneth frowned. “Toxins? Or some kind of infection?”

She cautiously extended a slender dagger, pointing the tip toward the wound on the cave queen's back where a barbed harpoon of dark bronze was stuck, and slowly cut open the sac of secretions covering the wound.

Gwyneth gasped softly the moment the capsule was cut open.

A putrid stench permeated the air, as if some kind of toxin had infected its body. The wound around the bronze harpoon was severely infected, covered in a dense patch of black mold, loose and porous in texture, resembling livor mortis on a dead corpse—a truly gruesome sight.

The debris fell from the mold, breaking into rustling, scattered pieces.

"What exactly did that swamp ghost knight do to the cave queen?" Talia turned to look at Samael.

Samael shook his head. What Prange was good at seemed more dangerous and more secretive than the bronze harpoon gun and acid bomb.

"Let me take a look." He jumped into the nest chamber.

Gwyneth and the other gardeners stepped aside to give Samael a better view.

The scanner is now enabled.

[Animal-type artificial organism, low-intelligence X-23 type]

Using primitive annelids and ant-like arthropods as templates, a psionic Arklay cycle process was implemented, incorporating artificial life stabilization locks, life cycle control and colony architecture design, and gene function memory templates. Evolutionary and mutation paths were locked, and a stable population was generated through iterative breeding.

[Suitable for harsh, lightless underground environments. Strong, low-intelligence slaves capable of understanding relatively complex commands and possessing simple, primitive language abilities. Depending on the breeding methods and environment, subspecies adapted to different working conditions can be developed.]

In extremely harsh environments, the eggs of these individuals can enter a dormant state.

[Pheromone reading in progress...]

Population size: Small

[Individual Differentiation: Oviparous Individuals]

[Status: Poisoned, infected, parasitized, estimated death within ten days.]

Parasitized? Samael was taken aback.

"Can I pull out the harpoon?" he asked, looking at Gwyneth and the other gardeners. "Won't the creature be frightened or bleed too much?"

“We will use our psionic powers to soothe you, so please don’t worry,” Gwyneth said. “However, the harpoon has barbs on its head, so we’ll have to cut the wound a little more to remove it properly.”

"clear."

Samael activated the black copper printer, reached out and crafted a slender dagger, carefully cut open the thick, tough skin covered in rotten black mold, and used the tip of the dagger to pry open the skin around the wound.

The Cave Queen grunted softly, wriggling as it tried to escape. The gardeners swarmed forward, using the other cave dwellers to hold it still. Gwyneth cradled its massive head in her arms, soothing it and calming it down.

Beneath the necrotic skin lay pale flesh, from which the barbs of the bronze harpoon pierced, clinging firmly between the muscle and the carapace.

A slender black shadow slowly swam and twisted in the flesh and blood, standing out conspicuously against the pale flesh.

This is... Samael did not immediately pull out the bronze harpoon, but instead extended his short knife and slowly sliced ​​open another layer of flesh.

As the cave queen trembled, a piece of rotten, blackened, tanned leather-like material was exposed and slowly wriggled.

Samael grabbed the thing, pulled it slightly, and slowly tore out a long, rotten-looking piece of flesh from the pale flesh.

It was a monstrous, tanned creature, stitched together from clusters of rotten, black muscle strips, the joints gleaming with a metallic sheen, its overall shape resembling a tapeworm. Its head had a drill-like horn and seven or eight short, segmented limbs, which it clawed wildly in the air.

The scanner is now enabled.

【Psionic Construct (Main Material: Organic Matter)】

[Constructed artificial life form, manufactured using recycled biomass, retaining the original biological structure, with a probability of generating a small amount of biological posture materials. Inexpensive. Capable of performing simple tasks.]

[Not generated naturally.]

[Methods of activation include, but are not limited to: resonance signals from psychic copper, and modifications using psionic implants.]

[Target Source: Artificial Products]

[Manufactured using a loop permeator to splice together biological materials and then treating them with grommet.]

【Condition: Good】

Structural integrity: 93%

[Stamina: 97%]

[Can record biological pose images. Total number of recording bits: 10]

[Biological postures recorded: Sampling puncture, enzyme pretreatment, Nightmare dash (2/10, not yet complete)]

【@refresh@】

[Bio-attitude detection: Sampling puncture]

Using hard, sharp limbs, it pierces and digs into the surface of organisms to collect biological samples for further analysis. It is commonly used in biological weapons and as a precursor detector for organic structures.

[Can be used in any biological form.]

The database has been updated.

[Burn to the "Artificial Life Science - Biological Posture Materials" content library]

[The device is usable.] [@Refresh@]

[Bio-attitude detection: Enzyme pretreatment]

[Slowly stirring in a nutrient-rich organic matrix breaks down the hard structure until the organic matter is liquefied, creating a suitable substrate environment for microbial growth and facilitating subsequent inoculation. This is used to accelerate fermentation and as a pretreatment for enzymes.]

The database has been updated.

[Burn to the "Artificial Life Science - Biological Posture Materials" content library]

[The device is usable.]

Necromancers used to parasitize, infect, and continuously cause decay and destruction?
The moment the rotten, black, tapeworm-like undead was pulled out, a large spurt of foul-smelling, fermented fleshy slurry gushed out from the ripped opening. The bulging sac on the Cave Queen's back instantly deflated, returning her to her normal shape in a flash.

The gardeners frowned, covered their noses, and instinctively backed away. They only slowly approached again after the black, putrid sap had mostly drained away, using old bandages and scraps of cloth to clean away the remaining fermented sap from the wound.

boo.

Samael reached out and pulled out the barbed harpoon gun, examining it closely.

The center of the harpoon gun's nozzle is hollow, containing a small tube just large enough to hold a parasitic venomous creature.

While this was ineffective against ghost knights made entirely of ghost bronze, any undead creature containing flesh and blood that was hit by a harpoon would have this small parasite burrow into its body, constantly digging and destroying the wound, crushing and repeatedly stirring the flesh and blood until it turned into a rotten pulp, which would then become infected and suppurate due to the bacteria that proliferated, accelerating the rate of decay.

This not only unknowingly consumes the corpses of other ghost riders, but it is also a cruel and disgusting way of killing, especially against living beings.

He felt a chill, a chill he had never felt before when facing Ansba and Rahado.

Prange devoted all his whims and creative mind to torture, killing, and destruction, even in a disgusting and repulsive way. No wonder Rahador and Ansba seemed unwilling to have any contact with Prange.

Samael cut open another secretion sac at the site of the Cave Queen's severed limb. Fortunately, there was no other parasitic undead inside, only a slight trace of toxins.

The gardeners identified the symptoms of poisoning, sifting through the plants Samael had found in the swamp, and quickly, based on their experience, located the corresponding antidote.

Samael, gripping the head of the harpoon made of tanned corpse muscle and wielding the parasitic undead made of tanned corpse muscle and tanned copper, slowly climbed back to the top of the nest chamber.

The moment he stepped onto the steps, a bucket of clean water was poured over his head.

Talia retrieved the barrel, grabbed a stiff-bristled brush made of thatch fiber, and vigorously scrubbed his breastplate and helmet.

“Uh…” Samael tried to speak, but Talia poked his helmet with a brush.

“You’re covered in black pus!” Talia exclaimed in despair, pulling the brush from his helmet. “I have to rest on this cold, hard shoulder armor; I can’t sleep soundly without it… How am I supposed to rest like this!”

"You should probably stop associating with your fellow human beings from now on—what kind of people are they?!"

"A liar who talks a lot of nonsense, a square-headed siege engine that can't communicate, and now there's a stinky mud monster who likes to play in mud and rotten flesh!"

"Hmm...it's alright, actually." Samael shrugged, carrying the parasitic undead, letting Talia brush his armor with a stiff brush, while occasionally flipping through the descriptions of the items in the UI.

“I have an idea that might be able to… temporarily control them.” His gaze swept over the [Holy Iron] entry in the UI, then slowly swept over the [Witch Gold] entry description.

“We haven’t found any iron or gold mines yet, have we?” he asked in a low voice.

“No.” Talia angrily scrubbed Samael’s armor. “However, some rusty water flowed from the east during the excavation, so there might be iron ore near Lake Rahador in the east. But there’s still no trace of gold.”

“It’s alright…” Samael shook his helmet. “I have an idea…maybe we can defeat Rahador head-on. But Ansba and Prange don’t have any suitable countermeasures yet.”

Talia brought over another bucket of water and poured it over Samael from head to toe, washing away the last bit of fermented pus.

Samael shook off the water droplets on his body, producing a series of loud, clanging metallic sounds.

He raised his head and looked up at the shimmering fungi and flora and fauna on the high underground dome.

The number of bioluminescent creatures on the dome is not yet large enough, and the brightness is not enough to illuminate the entire underground world; it is roughly equivalent to the faint starlight on a cloudy night.

To compensate for the lack of lighting, lantern-shaped grass balls are hung everywhere in the tall underground garden woodland below, like some kind of street lamp that blends into the environment.

These tall trees are not insect-path trees, but a type of tall fungal wood, which the demons call "tower mushrooms." Their fruiting bodies are rich in cellulose and lignin, with a texture almost indistinguishable from hard wood, and they produce a large amount of edible helmet-shaped fleshy material and spore balls for cultivation.

The fungal tree has only been planted for a short time. Although it has begun to extend its branches in all directions like a normal tree, it has not yet started to produce helmet-shaped fleshy substances and spore balls.

Architects like Yachi are working in the distant fungal woodland. The cave dwellers have dug out a huge small lake, while the root spheres, through root tunnels and water channels, have purified some of the groundwater from the southern swamp and introduced it here, gradually pouring it in through trickles.

The pool was already more than half full, and the fat, clawed fish that Samael had caught from the swamp had just been put in, swimming slowly in the water.

Not far away, temporary workshops stood in rows, with small huts built of melted stone rising from the ground with the help of cave dwellers.

In the woodworking workshop, tree trunks of fungal wood were scattered haphazardly. Three or four demon craftsmen were using the trunks to make tables, chairs, barrels, cups, plates, and other household items. Tree monkeys were pulling saws back and forth with a creaking sound, while rotten root balls, carrying wooden nails and hammers, ran back and forth among the craftsmen.

The makeshift warehouse was piled with enchanted materials collected from the Insect Path Labyrinth. A woodworking furnace nearby was smoldering the enchanted materials to create enchanted charcoal that could be easily ignited with psionic flames.

The cave dwellers, capable of withstanding high temperatures, stood guard before the furnace, their bodies blackened and covered in ash. With their shovel-like claws, they scooped up handfuls of enchanted charcoal and piled it into the nearby charcoal heap.

Several cave dwellers were guarding the furnace of the molten stone, adding stone and filling it with enchanted charcoal.

Semi-plant creatures like the Rotten Root Ball and the Tree Ghost Monkey are intolerant of high temperatures and fear fire, so the forging work had to be done by the demon artisans themselves. Now that the cave dwellers have joined the dungeon, the forging furnaces can finally be tended by low-intelligence monsters, freeing up the artisans to do more complex tasks.

In the core area of ​​the underground city, seven or eight Molten Stone Huts have also sprung up, connected directly to the well of the Rot Root Orb purification channel, simple washrooms, a kitchen where demon food is stored, and temporary bedrooms for the demons to live in. The buildings are arranged in an orderly and staggered manner.

After nearly a month of construction, the initial structure of the dungeon's dome has been completed. Thanks to the tireless work of the demon craftsmen and the powerful labor force provided by the demon beast slaves, the underground world is now teeming with life and thriving, almost resembling a newly built small town.

The dark dome shimmered with the faint glow of fungi, artificial stars cultivated by human hands, firmly growing in the man-made underground starry sky.

Samael gazed quietly at the buildings bathed in the faint light of the fungus, vaguely recalling the joy he once felt watching the buildings rise from the ground in a game.

Building is ultimately more fun than destroying... he thought.

The undead civil war is imminent. To protect what lies before us, we must brace ourselves and prepare for battle.

[Powerful joint suction is now activated]

His armor clanged and clattered as he strode toward the surface outside the insect maze.

His grave stands on the ground, as do the graves of all the Ghost Riders.

He returned to the surface from the tunnel entrance. The sky was already shrouded in darkness, and haze and fog filled every inch of the air.

Beneath the thunderous clouds over the gray, mossy fields of the north, the booming sound of war drums, piercing like thunder, resounded.

From the hollow mist of the eastern misty lake, a clear, tinkling bell sound drifted, elusive and like a ghost.

Amidst the silt and swollen tree trunks of the southern marshland, the dry, low roar of a cello echoed, like the panting of a dying animal.

Clang! Clang! Samael forged a small military drum, lifted it by the hilt of his sword, and struck it hard. The bright, penetrating drumbeats resonated in the bronze chamber, carrying a powerful metallic quality, clashing with the knightly instruments in the other three adjacent areas.

The resounding military drums, the booming war drums, the ethereal bells, the dry cello, the clanging of chains of spoils, the violent vibrations of the grim brute guitar, and the nervous scratching of the grim brute limbs—all these constituted the knights' symphony of souls.

(End of this chapter)