When an adventurer entered the Tainted Lands, they would receive a prompt to visit Diana at the center of her domain. They would also gain a temporary buff that would make them immune to all negative effects produced by the taint. This buff would last for a couple of hours and also make corrupted beasts less likely to attack them; however, if they started a fight, that aspect of the buff would wear off.

  Naturally, the druid's domain would have something similar, but only in the case of making it so beasts didn’t attack adventurers. Either way, the adventurer would be allowed to meet with the leader of the faction without too much issue. They could, of course, not do so, but it would be much harder for them to meet up with a faction leader later on.

  Now, when an adventurer made it to Diana, they could hear her out and choose to join. If the adventurers chose not to join, they would be told to leave and given a grace period before everything in the tainted lands started attacking them like usual. And if, by chance, they were rude about refusing to work for Diana or while leaving, there would be consequences.

  If an adventurer chose to join Diana, they would be given a semi-permanent buff that did the same thing as the one they got when they first entered the territory. The buff was semi-permanent because it would wear off if Diana was defeated, at which point her faction was disbanded.

  When adventurers finally met Diana, they would find she looked rather similar to her sister. Diana was a busty elf like the new Dena. Except, now her hair was black-green instead of blond, her eyes were black orbs, and her skin paler than her sister's. More important, however, was how Dan dressed her. In Dena’s case, her leathers showed off her ample curves but kept her clothing much more proper. Meanwhile, Diana was dressed in a much more exposed fashion, wearing the equivalent of a black battle bikini.

  Dan’s choice of attire had been done with purpose because he wanted to give the corrupted faction some extra chances at recruiting adventurers. After all, he was sure guys were guys no matter the world.

  With Diana’s looks out of the way, Dan finally got to her stats.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Humanoid Statblock ??

  Rank: Mid D Rank.

  Name: Diana Liasis.

  Type: Humanoid - Corrupted Beast Elf.

  Choice: Druid of Corruption.

  Size: Medium.

  Hierarchy: Boss.

  Arcane Mana: 4000/4000.

  Arcane Mana Regen: +8 Per Minute.

  Pure Arcane Mana: 2000/2000.

  Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: +4 Per Minute.

  Innate Abilities: 11.

  Dark Vision. Beast Shapeshifter. Nature Attuned. Language of Beasts. Forest Attendant. Presences. Long Lived. Mana Storage. Touched by Corruption. Bringer of Corruption. Power of the Corrupt.

  Proficiencies: 5.

  Enchantment. Ritual. Soul. Basic Ritualist. Basic Enchanter.

  Spells: 13.

  Beam of Corruption. Touch of Corruption. Shield. Barrier. Control Elements. Root Control. Body Enhancement - General. Soul Sight. Weak Corrupt Soul. Corrupting Aura. Root Spike. Chains of Corruption. Ally of the Tainted Lands.

  Techniques: 1.

  Reborn in Corruption.

  Boss Phase 1: Full Heal. Multi-Cast - C Rank. Speed Casting - C Rank. Increased Mana Regeneration. Summon Weak Avatar of Corruption.

  Respawn Timer: Conditional.

  Respawn Cost: 149 Mana.

  Creation Cost: 299 Mana.

  ??

  Diana's stats were off the charts, and aside from Merlin, who didn’t count, the druid was the strongest creature Dan had yet to create and also one that he couldn’t send outside of his dungeon. After all, the Boss Phase feature was too strong, and a certain entity wanted Dan to struggle.

  Starting with said feature, it was actually, and technically, the Boss’s Phase 2 since her normal fight was Phase 1, but for technical purposes, it had been listed as Phase 1 because it was the first phase a creature entered after being defeated.

  Looking at the different abilities of the phase, they were rather self-explanatory. Full Heal would heal Diana back up completely. Then Multi Cast and Speed Casting would allow the druid to cast as if she were a C Ranker, letting her hold two concentration spells while casting at a faster rate. Increase Mana Regeneration didn’t need an explanation, and Weak Avatar of Corruption would do some cool stuff adventurers were sure to “love.”

  Moving back to the top of her sheet, her high level of mana was not just because of Mana Storage but due to her other innate abilities. Though one specifically. However, first, Dan started with Touched by Corruption, which was the original corrupted ability and what had changed her choice to what it was. It also was what gave her the rest of the innate abilities and what held many of the passives that made it so she wasn’t debuffed by the corruption.

  Bringer of Corruption let Diana passively corrupt the area around her while empowering her when on corrupted lands. Finally, the last one was very important. Power of the Corrupt was the reason Diana had such a big mana pool and was the representation of the power the entity that had corrupted gave her. So, in a way, Diana was technically a warlock, but Dan wouldn’t get into the whole mess of what were warlocks and what were clerics.

  Anyway, Diana's proficiencies were the same as Dena's since she would have use for them. Diana would be using a ritual on the gigantic legendary shard to control it. Meanwhile, she also needed soul magic because that was how she could corrupt things further, and among other things that might become relevant later on. As for the enchantments, well, that was going to be how she activated the shards so other members of her faction could use them.

  Looking at her spells, the only one that stood out was the ally one since that was a system-empowered buff that she would give out to those adventurers who joined her. Originally, Dan had been tempted to give the adventurers the buff via automatic system shenanigans, but he figured it would be cool to have Diana do it.

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  The last thing Dan looked at was Diana’s technique, which would be another fun surprise for adventurers to experience. So, feeling like the boss of the faction was done, Dan knew it was time to make her minions.

  All the minions for the corrupted faction were going to be modified and corrupted versions of the wood and nature beasts from the Druid’s Domain. This meant that most beasts would have a direct opposite, at least in the fact that there was a corrupt and non-corrupt version, not that they would actually counter each other in any meaningful way. One of the exceptions was the doe, who wouldn’t have a corrupt version since that didn’t make any sense and would break the balance of power between the two factions.

  With that basic rule established, Dan looked for his first monster to turn to the dark side. The monster was a bear with bark skin similar to the boars but with small grass growing out of it, making it look like it had a coat of green fur. The bear was called a Nature Beam Bear because of its special ability to unleash a beam of green energy from its mouth. This beam could either provide a healing effect or switch over to a kinetic version that would blast the hell out of something.

  After finding his target, Dan quickly got its stat sheet and began to make some changes until it looked like this.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Monster Statblock ??

  Rank: Mid D Rank.

  Name: Corrupt Beam Bear.

  Type: Tainted Beast-Elemental (Nature).

  Size: Large.

  Hierarchy: Minion.

  Mind: Intelligent.

  Arcane Mana: 250/250.

  Arcane Mana Regen: +8 Per Minute.

  Pure Arcane Mana: 125/125.

  Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: +4 Per Minute.

  Abilities: 5.

  Corruption Affinity. Body Enhancement - Strength. Corruption Smash. Absorb Corruption. Spread Weak Corruptive Aura.

  Innate Abilities: 7.

  Touched by Corruption. Tainted Force Beam. Corrupted Bark Skin. Strength. Night Vision. Keen Smell. Mental Resistance.

  Respawn Timer: 2 Hours.

  Respawn Cost: 34 Mana.

  Creation Cost: 68 Mana.

  ??

  After the changes, the newly spawned bear was much uglier, and instead of grass, it had a bunch of small, gnarly roots poking from its bark skin. Its eyes no longer glowed green and now were a deep black, but more importantly, its abilities were corrupted, and Dan had made it stronger.

  Inspecting the sheet, the first thing to look at was the Touched by Corruption ability, which, much like Diana, was the cause of the corruption of the bear and gave it a bunch of passive abilities to resist the corruption. It was one of those abilities that Dan was actually able to throw at a monster, and as expected, it changed them because their entire ancestry was changed as if he had tinkered with its DNA.

  From there, the only other big change in its innate abilities was the beam attack, which now both actively attempted to corrupt someone struck by it while also hurting like hell. As to its new abilities, Corruption Smash was just a force multiplier that released a wave of taint, amplifying the nearby corruption. Then Weak Corruptive Aura made the bear a bit special since it was one of the monsters that could actively spread corruption. Finally, Absorb Corruption synergized with the bear's other two abilities by letting it absorb corruption to empower and heal itself.

  All in all, the bear was one of the stronger corrupt beasts, and with it done, Dan moved on.

  The next beast that Dan got was called the Wood Fang Tiger. It was similar to the Wood Blade Wolves in that its skin was sleeker and looked like smooth bark. Except where the wolves had their brownish dark coats, the tiger had a lighter color with dark wood knots as stripes.

  Anyways, after getting corrupted, the tiger’s stats looked like this.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Monster Statblock ??

  Rank: Mid D Rank.

  Name: Dark Tiger.

  Type: Corrupt Beast-Elemental (Wood).

  Size: Medium.

  Hierarchy: Minion.

  Mind: Intelligent.

  Arcane Mana: 250/250.

  Arcane Mana Regen: +8 Per Minute.

  Pure Arcane Mana: 125/125.

  Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: +4 Per Minute.

  Abilities: 7.

  Soul Affinity. Corruption Affinity. Body Enhancement - Strength and Agility. Enhanced Corruption. Weak Corruptive Soul Strike.

  Innate Abilities: 8.

  Touched by Corruption. Tainted Bite. One with Corruption. Mark of Corruption. Keen Sight. Keen Smell. Stealth. Mental Resistance.

  Respawn Timer: 2 Hours.

  Respawn Cost: 37 Mana.

  Creation Cost: 75 Mana.

  ??

  Remaking the tiger, Dan left its looks as they were, except for the new dark eyes and the slight dark aura it emitted. As for the ability department, Dan looked to increase its assassination capabilities. After all, the tiger had already been good in a forest, and its old abilities now let it do what it did best, but in the corrupted lands.

  Before, Tainted Bite was just a reinforced magical bite; now, it also helped spread taint into the target. Then One with Corruption had been One with the Forest, which had let the tiger move incredibly well in a forest, enhancing its stealth even further. Mark of Corruption had been Mark of the Forest and had let the tiger place a mark on a target to allow for perfect tracking. And now, it also increased the damage Tainted Bite did.

  Of course, Dan had taken this further by giving it Enhanced Corruption which would synergize with Tainted Bite and Weak Corruptive Soul Strike. Essentially, Dan wanted the tiger to bite at least once but to ensure that one bite did plenty of damage.

  Next up on the chopping block was one beast he had recently upgraded.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Monster Statblock ??

  Rank: Mid D Rank.

  Name: Dark Blade Wolf.

  Type: Corrupted Beast-Elemental (Wood).

  Size: Medium.

  Hierarchy: Minion.

  Mind: Intelligent.

  Arcane Mana: 250/250.

  Arcane Mana Regen: +8 Per Minute.

  Pure Arcane Mana: 125/125.

  Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: +4 Per Minute.

  Abilities: 6.

  Corruption Affinity. Evocation Affinity. Body Enhancement - Agility. Empower Corruptive Blade. Weak Tainting Aura. Tainting Bite.

  Innate Abilities: 7.

  Touched by Corruption. Keen Hearing. Keen Smell. Night Vision. Stealth. Corruptive Blade. Mental Resistance.

  Respawn Timer: 2 Hours.

  Respawn Cost: 36 Mana.

  Creation Cost: 73 Mana.

  ??

  This version of the Wood Blade Wolf was much stronger with its new Weak Tainting Aura that gave those around the wolf a debuff, making them more susceptible to its corrupted attacks. However, other than that, the wolf was basically an exact replica. Even its looks stayed mostly the same; the only real change were its dark eyes and slightly dark wooden skin.

  The reason Dan had given the new version a slight advantage was that, once again, he felt like adventurers would favor Dena more since she was the good faction in this situation. So, Dan wanted to give the corrupted faction some extra oomph. And if anything, he could always update the dungeon after the first reset. After all, nothing was set in stone.