The group spread out over the Forest of Beasts, with NSLICE-00P also deploying the drones and all units capable of sustained flight. They then activated their sensors, sweeping across large swathes of the forest all at once. Fortunately, dungeons were fairly simple to locate, even at a distance. They created a gap in the sensors as well as giving off a unique mana signature NSLICE-00P had long since learned to identify. She linked to the other units through the network and parsed through their sensor scans, quickly locating any dungeon in range of a unit or drone. As a result, it did not take long for her to develop a map of the local dungeons, with estimates of their strength based off the mana signatures in question.

She then compared these estimates with dungeons already encountered, and created a travel plan based on the current levels of her subordinates. With the plan in place, she ordered all units to converge on her position, and then they headed towards the closest low level dungeon.

Ateia and Taog glanced at each other and smiled.

“Back to dungeon diving in the Forest of Beasts, huh?”

Ateia chuckled.

“Well, at least this time we know what we’re doing.”

Agedia glanced at the two of them.

“What do you mean by that?”

Taog went ahead and explained their first mission to the forest. Agedia stared at them.

“That…ok, I’m sorry Ateia, but I’m just going to say it bluntly. That was maybe the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”

Ateia flushed and averted her gaze. Agedia sighed and shook her head while chuckling.

“Well…Aedinia had some ideas like that too. Guess it runs in the family.”

The group made their way to the first dungeon and NSLICE-00P deployed her monsters. This was a young dungeon, and even Ateia and Taog were over-leveled for it, so NSLICE-00P took the opportunity to level her weakest subordinates.

As well as some brand new ones.

A small, tree-like being in the shape of a humanoid stood, only with metal armor interlaced in its bark and wires wrapping through its branches.

Blue and a red slimes bounced around, with antenna extending from the metal polyhedrons around their cores.

Wires and computer components were inlaid on the inside of a bronze Living Armor, robotic eyes glowing from within its helmet.

A fire elemental floated in the air, a living flame in a vaguely humanoid shape. A metal breastplate covered its torso, somehow held in the air by the flames, and a metal helmet covered half of its head.

A water elemental appeared like a wave frozen in the air. Metal devices could be seen floating within its body, appearing on the surface before sinking back into the depths.

An Earth-Eater Worm wriggled on the ground. It was a large creature nearly three feet in diameter. It had tough, stone-like plates for its hide, though metal panels could be seen in the gaps between the plates, and metallic arms extended and retracted from all over its body.

And finally…

An otter-like humanoid, similar in form to a young Dobhar, stood on his hind legs. He was small, only coming up to NSLICE-00P’s waist. He had golden and silver fur visible from the gaps in his metallic armor. He had a metal helmet covering half his face, with a transparent window revealing a glowing, golden jewel at the center of his forehead.

NSLICE-00P did not know what capabilities the Heralds of the New Dawn might possess, so she aimed to expand her own capabilities as widely as possible. And a simple way she could do that was to summon as many different monster types as possible to increase the flexibility of her own forces. Up to and including a Sacred Otterkin, which the bump in her mana from the new world allowed her to summon.

And, of course, she had upgraded them all in the Cyborg Processing Center. It turned out that Colleöne’s record and mana based upgrade process had few, if any, limitations. The invertebrate Earth-Eater Worm, the plant-like Sylvan with no conventional nervous system, even inorganic monsters like the Living Armor and non-solid monsters like the elementals could be integrated successfully. As long as they had mana, and were sufficiently animate, the Cyborg Processing Center could upgrade them.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Of course, the cost to do so increased for the more exotic types…but it was based on the records NSLICE-00P already had. The water and fire slimes were fairly cheap since she had already upgraded Melion, the Earth-Eater Worm took into account some of her lessons from Lilussees, and the Living Armor cost only a single extra point due to her drone-golems. The sylvan ended up being cheap thanks to the cyber-plants Ateia had been growing in the new world. The elementals were the worst of it.

And immediately after upgrading each type of monster, cyber versions appeared in her monster summoning list under the Cyborg affinity. So, the cost when upgrading monsters was not solely for that single individual, but to permanently unlock cyber-variants of said monster. NSLICE-00P would be able to boost the numbers of any units that proved effective here as needed.

“Query: Are all new units prepared for the dungeon termination routine?”

The Sacred Otterkin slapped his tail against the ground as all the other monsters made various noises.

“Ready to hunt down your foes, My Queen!”

Estrith had an extremely complicated look on her face at that.

“…he is a monster summoned by a dungeon, but he looks and acts like a Dobhar…that’s…”

But NSLICE-00P did not wait for Estrith’s quandaries.

“Acknowledged. Command: All units, begin dungeon termination operation.”

Inside the dungeon was a bright forest, with white trees that seemed to reflect the light. It was apparently a Light Affinity dungeon, judging by the Will O'Wisps launching Light Bolts at her monsters.

The Earth-Eater Worm roared as a glowing bird unleashed a bright flash, and dove underground. Most of the creatures were not touching the ground, so its natural vibration-sensing couldn’t locate the targets, and its optical sensors had been blinded by the flash. It appeared the cyborg upgrade process could and did adjust components based on the subject in question, so the worm which tended to stay underground didn’t have the strongest visual sensors in the first place.

But that was fine.

The Earth-Eater Worm linked to other monsters. The slimes, elementals, Living Armor, and Sylvan didn’t rely solely on sight either, and had senses more effective at locating airborne targets. So the Earth-Eater Worm tunneled around and breached the surface right under the glowing bird. The bird evaded but a metal harpoon shot from the worm’s jaws and struck the bird, pulling it to its death before the worm dove back underground.

The Fire Elemental stood in a stalemate against a group of Will O’Wisps. Its fire and their light had little impact on each other, and the Fire Elemental’s naturally attributed mana could not be used for any non-Fire spells.

But that was fine.

The Fire Elemental’s connection to the NSLICE network and bonded AI gave it more flexibility than others of its kind. While an elemental alone only knew to burn an enemy, this one's AI communicated with its allies. Together, they realized the elemental could easily absorb the Light bolts flying around, so the elemental spread its fire to protect the others.

Meanwhile, the Sacred Otterkin pounced through the air, over the Fire Elemental, chopping on the wisps. And while normally physical attacks would only rarely affect the creatures of pure Light Mana, the Sacred Otterkin’s fangs glowed with golden and silver light. The Holy mana tore through the creatures with ease, one fading with each bite from the Sacred Otterkin’s jaws.

The Sacred Otterkin was about to fall into a pitfall hidden underneath the floating Wisps, but he boosted to the side with his repulsors, the Earth-Eater Worm having easily identified all ground-based traps. The wisps tried to bombard him with Light bolts as he flew in the air, but the Sylvan extended a hand and caught the bolts, the Nature creature easily absorbing the Light mana.

Agedia blinked at the sight before her.

“These are supposed to be level 1 monsters she just summoned, right? How are they working this well together?”

Ateia tapped the cyborg part of her head.

“We’re all linked together and communicating via these things. They can all see each other at all times. Seero is coordinating them too, as well as sharing some skills and tactics from her other monsters.”

Agedia’s eyes widened slightly and she nodded.

“So…it’s more like shiny girl’s whole army is fighting with them?”

Ateia nodded.

“Something like that.”

The journey took longer than Ateia and Taog expected. Since NSLICE-00P was aiming for subordinate upgrades, she didn’t take the fastest route through the dungeon, instead aiming for a sweep of all the monsters she could detect. Still, this dungeon was young and had barely any floors to it, so it was not long before they arrived at the end. NSLICE-00p and the others stepped into the core room, where a large glowing bird was waiting.

“Warning Query: Would the hostile dungeon master like to surrender? This unit will allow the dungeon master to retain ownership of their dungeon as a subordinate core if so. Otherwise, this unit will engage termination protocols.”

The bird tilted its head.

“Wait, subordinate core? You’re a dungeon master?!”

“Affirmative.”

The bird paused for a second before nodding.

“Oh, that’s not so bad then. I accept.”

Surrender accepted! Lumino has become your subordinate! Subordinate core acquired!

Would you like to absorb the Shining Forest dungeon core, or manage it as a sub-core?