As Seero continued on through the dungeon, she noticed the dungeon’s sheer size was slowing her down. Even if she could identify the shortest path through a given floor with 97.1% predicted accuracy and even if she took no time terminating the monsters and traps, she still had to spend some time traveling through each floor. And if that floor was a labyrinth maze type, like the current one, then she would have to reduce her speed even further due to the constant sharp turns. There was a limit to how fast she could travel through such an area.

It was starting to feel…inefficient.

So Seero began applying the Blink protocol, vanishing and reappearing several times and reaching the exit of the current floor in a fraction of the time.

Previously, Seero had reserved Blink for short-range tactical evasions. She determined that in the open field the Dash spell shape was more efficient, as it could be activated more quickly and moved her a greater distance for the mana spent. In situations where Dash wasn’t as efficient, such a labyrinth with lots of twisting turns and no clear line of sight, Blink was considered too dangerous. She noted in first attempts that Blink disoriented her sensors and it took her a moment to recalculate her current position, an effect that could only be countered within range of her Dungeon Field Generator. Her Dungeon Field Generator was also the only way to fully scout an area with acceptable confidence, and so she considered it too risky to Blink anywhere outside of its range. If, for example, her mana-sensors and radar provided inaccurate readings due to anomalies or hostile activity, and she Blinked in front of a hostile unexpectedly, that hostile would then have an unacceptable time window to act before she was fully confident in her response.

But now, with her new Divination protocol she was significantly more confident in the thoroughness of her long-range scans. The extra data also helped her to preemptively reorient her sensors and location variables. Creating entrances to the Primary Home Base also assisted her, as she had more and more experiences with magical relocations. As such, she was now confident she could respond effectively if a hostile should launch an attack immediately following a Blink, and so she permitted herself to Blink outside of her Dungeon Field range.

Her travel speed sped up considerably, as she could now pass an entire floor in seconds.

And, of course, she did not stop there. With each cast of the spell, she evaluated and iterated on the Blink spell, attempting improvements whenever she felt confident in doing so. She found that wrapping a layer of Holy mana around the spell circle—like when Ateia helped non-CELIU allies cast spells—provided an extra layer of protection that attempted to shut down the magic circle if a modification would cause it to misfire or explode. That allowed her to iterate more quickly and aggressively.

And so, her Blink range and speed grew with each subsequent cast, as she sped through the remaining dungeon…

Seero had advanced deep within the dungeon when she detected an anomaly. Her Divination protocol provided her a visual, by which she determined that the undead were fighting each other up ahead. A smaller group of elite undead were assaulting the horde streaming towards the dungeon entrance. Skeletons and zombies wearing armor and giving off powerful mana signatures cut down their unarmored kin, while a lightly armored woman was surrounded by floating pools of blood that solidified into spikes and blades. She appeared as a lithe human with black hair, but had abnormally pale skin, and deep red eyes. She was also casting spells that seemed to take control of some of the undead horde, which subsequently turned on their fellows. And a second undead dragon crashed down on the horde from above, tearing into it with claw and fang.

The undead horde, for its part, largely ignored the group. Only the undead that were directly attacked moved to respond.

That is, until Seero vaporized them.

The horde did not seem to ignore her, so she terminated it. However, she did not attack the smaller group. Records from 01R’s group indicated that they had also encountered monsters turning on one another before, and had managed to cooperate with the non-hostile party. So Seero instead flew forward to meet the group, though she kept her magic circles at the ready.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The woman turned as Seero approached, and made a bright smile, revealing sharp fangs. She waved to the rest of the elite undead, who relaxed and lowered their weapons. She then started to wave her entire arm.

“Hi there! You must be the one who reduced my hubby to gibberish! Are you here to kill us?”

“Uncertain Response: This unit’s current objective is the purification of this dungeon. This unit will avoid termination of the dungeon and non-hostile forces if possible due to the dungeon’s strategic value. If third party forces do not oppose this mission and do not display hostility towards this unit, then this unit has no reason to terminate them. Please indicate any relevant affiliations.”

The woman’s smile grew. She turned her head down to the floor and shouted.

“See! I told you! She’s here to help! You worry too much!”

Seero did not hear any response but she did log some shifts in the surrounding dungeon mana. The woman frowned, crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks.

“Yes, I know what purification means! But she specifically said no terminating! What? What does terminating mean specifically? That’s…um…look! She could totally kill us all if she wants to and she’s not! You’re not going to overcome those levels of Holy mana no matter how much more prep time you get, so reanimate your spine and take us there already!”

She then heaved a dramatic sigh, shaking her head. She walked over to Seero and reached out her hand.

“Sorry, he’s a bit paranoid. Mind if I touch you? I’m trying to get him to Transfer you to the core, but I don’t want him to do anything silly like send you to a trap. If we’re touching, then he won’t be able to send you somewhere without me.”

Seero’s robotic eye flickered. Instead of answering the question, she reached out and grabbed the woman’s arm instead. She had the Equalizer charged up and ready to channel directly into the woman’s body if she detected any anomalies. The woman grinned at her.

“Ah, aggressive and quiet, huh? Can’t say I hate it, you two would probably get along if you don’t try to kill each other. Well, hang on then!”

Shortly after, Seero detected the dungeon mana wrapping around them, in a similar manner to the forced relocation that once sent her to the Realms of Mana. But Seero also recognized this one as the same as her own Transfer skill and also affecting the woman she was holding, so she allowed it to affect her.

A moment later she found herself in a large room, surrounded by armored undead knights with their blades pointed towards her, while two undead dragons had purple flames gathered in their mouths.

The woman next to her rolled her eyes.

“Fabian! Get over here, and put all this away! This is no way to treat a guest!”

Seero heard a voice echo from the walls. Her audio sensors couldn’t determine its source.

“You’re an idiot, Lavinia! A hero on a purification mission is NOT a guest!”

However, her mana sensors and Dungeon Field Generator could, and negotiations appeared to be breaking down. She was close to engaging termination protocols, but since this dungeon had strategic value to the Empire, preserving its dungeon master was listed as an optional objective, and she predicted with 78.40% certainty that the voice in question belonged to the master. As such, she aimed to avoid terminating affiliated forces if at all possible.

Seero identified a hidden room next to this one. She let go of Lavinia and then activated Blink. She appeared in the hidden room, the core room apparently, right next to a human male with the same pale skin and red eyes as Lavinia. Seero immediately surrounded him with magic circles.

“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 man grabbed and pulled his hair.

“See Lavinia! I told you! Now she’s going to…wait, surrender?”

“Affirmative.”

He tilted his head.

“And you’ll…let me keep ownership of my dungeon? How exactly? Aren’t you going to purify us?”

“Clarification: This unit will purify the corrupted mana infiltration causing the dungeon to malfunction. The affected core will subsequently be connected to this unit’s network to defend against further intrusions.”

The man narrowed his eyes at her, then glanced at the magic circles around him. He sighed and slumped his shoulders.

“...it’s too late now, I can't do anything to stop you at this point. Just…just do whatever you want.”

“Surrender acknowledged, please standby for dungeon integration.”

Seero stepped over to the core and placed her hand on it, quickly running through her purification and integration protocol. Only once it was complete did she drop the magic circles surrounding the dungeon master.

He was staring at her and blinking repeatedly.

“Huh? The core…has stopped summoning monsters? The Holy mana…didn’t kill me? You aren’t…going to kill me?”

“Negative. Clarification: This dungeon has been subordinated, all affiliate units are now this unit’s subordinates and no longer subject to termination protocols.”

The man tilted his head, looking confused. A moment later, Lavinia kicked the door open.

“See Fabian! I told you so! You got to stop being so paranoid!”

Fabian just sighed and held his head.

“She’s never going to forget this, is she?”