Within the swamps, in its dark depths, countless monsters crawled and walked around, fighting one another, and devouring each other. However, one stood above them all, an enormous and majestic snake.
Her sharp red eyes looked into the entrance of her Domain, as she sensed the presence of Five powerful Souls imbued with golden light, they were pure and innocent compared to her dark and corrupted soul, which she abhorred of them.
"Is this your last desperate attempt at getting rid of me, Titania?"
The Snake Queen's sharp red eyes analyzed those that walked into her domain, as she quickly spoke to her many underlings.
"Move! Don't let them get here and do everything you can to kill them! After that… We'll be ready to invade the Fairy Country, as our lord orders." Said the Snake Queen, her words were orders for her underlings, the children that have hatched from the egg she continuously laid.
"GRYSHAAA!"
"SHAAA…!"
"GROAR!"
The many monstrous-looking snakes began sliding through. Some even mutated to have many legs and wings, with sharp fangs capable of tearing apart even steel. Her army of snakes numbered hundreds which she laid in mere days… and not only one, but many big ones appeared as well, commanding the others.
The Snake Queen continued looking into the entrance of her Domain, her incredible magical powers having developed enough to give her such power, as a third black eye in her forehead opened, shining brightly with a black aura, granting her Clairvoyance-like powers while within her Domain, the Dungeon that the Swamps have become.
"That fairy I prepared for them seems to have been a failure." She said. "So many years investing in that child only for her to get purified at the end! Those damn Players believe they're all powerful… However, this new world is fair. They might be immortals, but they're limited in what they can do themselves. The System is also by my side. All things are balanced after all…"
The Snake Queen saw a system message emerge before her eyes, showing up a special quest.
[Special Quest: Defend Your Territory From The Invading Players!]
[Planta and company have helped the Fairies and healed them from the Curse you inflicted upon them, and now, armed with new weapons and items, have come to slay you for good. You have, however, the chance of defeating them and reclaim the forest as your domain.]
[Clear conditions: Defeat all the Players within the Enemy Party. After defeating them, they won't be able to enter your domain anymore, and you'll be freer in what you can do within it.]
[Rewards: EXP, Player Privilege Title, Special Unique Skill, Domain Expansion, Legendary-Grade Magic Item]
The Snake Queen watched as the System prompt before her emerged. Since she had revived in this world that she had been seeing these Quests from time to time. Things such as tricking the fairies and infiltrating Florie into their domain, Cursing the fairies and slowly kill their population, invade their territory, and sabotage their golems, all of that have been Special Quests which constantly rewarded her with more power.
This was one of the reasons why the Swamps became her official Domain, and also why she was able to turn it into a Dungeon, gaining a Dungeon Master Title alongside that. She was no longer the Mid-Boss the Hero had to fight before, but she had become something greater. She had already earned many other rewards, enhancing her power further… she might be, at the end, even more terrifying than Planta could had ever guessed.
"Fufufu… This world has surely become interesting now… Now let's see if you can fight against all my challenges."
And as of now, it felt as if they all had fallen right into the palm of her nonexistent hands.
"Let's play, Players…"
.
.
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(Elayne's POV)
After saying farewell to the Fairy Queen, we decided to move onwards towards the route that was said to us. We decided to only bring half the Mushroom Brigade, as we wanted to leave the other half protecting the Queen. Our most trusted fighters were at our side, but we only brought four of them. Sporegon, our trusty swordsman, Hunter, our bowman, Magius, our magician, and Alice, the Alchemist as our secondary support aside from Acorn, both of them are holding healing potions and bombs for support from behind.
Alongside that, there was also our assortment of Summons. Although Titan had no permanent summon as his Beast Spirits were temporary, Rita and I had our permanent ones! Rita recently leveled up her Dark Beast Companion Skill and summoned a new Monster, a large black spider with red eyes the size of a dog, which seems to be able to use spiderwebs for support, she could easily trap monsters we found in our way. She ended naming her Arachne, and alongside Nightmare, her Dark Horse, she got two powerful Summons now.
We power-leveled Arachne to Level 12 while we moved to the swamps by slaying any monster we found in our way. Thanks to Sporegon's "Battle Cry" we were able to attract monsters to us even if we were strong enough they would be scared of our presence, Agro Skills are really useful!
And of course, there were also my Summons and Tamed Monsters, which were four beautiful children. Loki, Belle, Mimy, and Silver. All four of them had already reached max level after we managed to defeat all the snakes back then, and they seemed to have earned enough EXP on our way to the Swamp dungeon as well. Because they were part of our party, they were also restricted from evolving, apparently, but the EXP they earned was being stockpiled so they would earn it later.
If we complete the quest according to its clear conditions, we'll be able to multiply all of this enormous quantity of EXP we have been saving all this time, which might help us power level after we all evolve. Of course, my Summons and Tamed Monsters had grown stronger too, and their skills and stats increased a lot after hitting max level!
