“And you just made a mistake,” I said. “There’s a reason this was locked.”
With the riddle solved, the door swung open, and now we could hear the Seeker party further up the tunnel. Luckily, it seemed they were trying their luck with the bullhead riddle door.
“I better close it and set a new riddle,” I said. “We need them locked in. The reason I called you here is that I thought you could bring some people from the caves. A dozen or so, all armed. If we can take the Seekers as prisoners, or some of them at least, you can find out more about them. Their numbers, their plans.”
First-Leaf ignored me, stepping beyond the riddle door and into the tunnel. He raised his staff, and now the base glowed a pond-water green.
He suddenly smashed it down on the ground. There was a flash of light, and a green mist spread out, snaking north through the tunnel.
Galatee gagged. Shadow retreated a few steps, holding her nose. I was glad I had muted my senses.
First-Leaf left the tunnel and closed the door. “It should only take a minute for them to die.”
Galatee seemed to recover herself. “First-Leaf, Core Beno was right to bring us here. What have you done? We have never caught a Seeker alive.”
I heard a muffled scream from beyond the riddle door. Several voices all shouting out. The First-Leaf had released some kind of toxin spell, I realized. In such a cramped, locked space, it would be deadly.
Someone really needed to take that damn staff off him.
“There,” said First-Leaf. “The matter is settled. Seven less Seekers to prey upon us.”
“The information we gained would have been more valuable than seven deaths.”
“You presume to question me, Second-Leaf?”
Both gnomes locked eyes now. I could see the conflict within Galatee. She was a strong gnome, firm of purpose and full of resolve. Yet, she nodded at the First-Leaf now.
“Good. Core Beno, your progress is much slower than I anticipated. I will expect better when I return.”
The First-Leaf left us now. Warrane, who had stayed back against the wall and kept quiet, watched him leave. When the rap-tat-tap of his staff got quieter, Warrane approached me.
“The First-Leaf has lost his mind!”
Galatee shot him a stern glance. “A Fifth talks such a way about a First?”
“This leaf is sorry, Galatee.”
“He should be. He is right, but he should be. He needs to learn when to swallow his words.”
She said this with a trace of affection. I knew then that Galatee respected her elder but feared him, and that she liked Warrane. I wondered what this place would be like if the First-Leaf was gone. He was like a heavy stone keeping them submerged in a pool of water.
I had so many questions now, and it was hard to know where to begin. I started with the most obvious.
“Was Core Jahn attacked too?” I asked.
“Your friend was not attacked.”
“And has he…tell me he hasn’t absorbed all of his essence?”
“Absorbed? I won’t pretend to know how a dungeon core works,” said Galatee, “But I can tell you this. He has grown a spread of vines on his wall. The books I read before purchasing you told me that this is essence, no?”
Ah, that was good to hear. Jahn had learned from his mistake, at least.
“Is there a way for Jahn and I to get messages to each other?” I asked. “We may need to coordinate with each other if the Seekers choose to attack on both fronts.”
“Our kobold miners use a system of crystals to send messages between each tunnel. I will see if there are any spare.”
“Thank you, Galatee.”
“That is not all, Core Beno.” She said this with a hint of a smile on her usually stern face.
“Oh?”
“I have a surprise for you.”
CHAPTER 13
Galatee walked away from us, heading back to the core room. Shadow, holding me, followed her, and once we arrived she helped me onto my pedestal point. There, floating above the rest of them, I felt a little more at ease.
The Second-Leaf carried on walking, and soon I couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore.
“A surprise,” I said. “I wonder what it is.”
Warrane shrugged. Shadow resumed her drawing on the mud in the corner.
Before long I heard Galatee coming back. There was more than one set of footsteps. There were two sets. Maybe three.
And an unusual squelching noise.
“This way,” Galatee said.
I was curious now. No, not curious. Wildly intrigued. It had been a while since someone had gotten me a surprise. I held it in, though. It isn’t very core-like to show too much excitement.
“Dark Lord!” cried a voice.
And then…then I forgot any notion of stupid core decorum.
“Tomlin!” I shouted.
I couldn’t believe it. Two kobolds burst into the room, followed by a spider-troll-leech monstrosity, whose leech legs made a slurping sound as he walked.
It was Tomlin, Wylie, and Gary. As I stared at them, questions formed and then died in my mind. I was so happy to see them.
Tomlin had been my first ever kobold. He was a loyal kobold who shirked manual labor whenever he could, and who loved to study.
Wylie was my second kobold. Not as studious a Tomlin by a long shot, but he’d happily dig through five thousand miles of mud if I asked him too.
Gary, meanwhile, was no kobold. Truth be told, there was no name for Gary’s race because I had created it. Using the Melding room in my old dungeon, I had combined a spider, leech, and rock-troll to create this magnificent creature. A monstrous meld of species, with the body if a gigantic spider, skin of a rock troll, and eight slurping leeches for legs, complete with the teeth every good leech should have.
He was the kind of monster that invaded your dreams. The sort of nemesis that bards sang about in ballads of the seven hells. A darkness of the soul, corruption of everything dear in the world of Xynnar.
“Delighted to make your acquaintance again, dear core,” he said.
“Gary, the delight is all mine. Get over here! Tomlin, Wylie, you too.”
I could hardly contain happiness at seeing my old friends. “Galatee…how did you do this?”
I noticed that she was grinning too, now. See? I knew there was heart behind that stern gnome face!
“When I purchased you and Jahn, I discovered that the Academy was selling some of their creatures. An overseer, a rather polite balding chap, explained that the King has reduced the academy's budget, and they have to make up the shortfall somewhere. I believe they have begun selling some of their creatures to hero guilds. They required these three creatures to complete a task and promised to send them to us when they were finished. And here they are.”
The academy was selling monsters to hero guilds?
This should have come as a surprise. After all, the purpose of the Dungeon Core Academy was to create and train cores who could kill heroes.
So, why would they purposefully sell creatures to hero guilds? Why would the guilds buy them?
The second question was easy to answer. Heroes would buy these creatures and use them to train their recruits. It was a way to level up their fighters without risking them in a dungeon.
The first question…well, you have to remember that this whole dungeon business is a balancing act. There is an entire strata of Xynnar’s economy based on dungeons and heroes, and one cannot exist without the other.
See, the academy doesn’t hate heroes. Neither do cores, really. We delight in murdering them, sure. That’s our nature. But we don’t hold a deep hatred for them. After all, if there were no heroes to raid dungeons, then there would be no need to create dungeon cores, would there?
Our entire existence relied on heroes being willing to loot dungeons. That meant that the academy’s continuation relied on that too. So, they would have no qualms selling creatures to a heroes’ guild if it meant they could ear
n money, while ensuring there was a healthy population of heroes to make a dungeon’s existence worthwhile. The whole thing was a big circle you could get lost in if you tried to work out its details.
What it meant was that I had my clanmates back. I was beyond glad that Tomlin, Wylie, and Gary hadn’t been sold off to become training fodder for some fuzz-faced hero to practice one.
“Thank you, Galatee,” I said. “This is a better surprise than I could have hoped for.”
“I am glad, Core Beno, because the gold I used on purchasing them was set aside for buying new carts and pickaxes for the kobold miners, but I believed that a better use would be investing in your chances of success. Now that you have seen the Seekers, I hope you understand their anger. Their ruthlessness. Their utter determination.”
“And their inability to speak kobold,” I said.
Galatee smiled. “I have to go. I hope you can work quicker now; the First-Leaf is incredibly hard to please. We gave up trying to buy him suitable presents for his birthday many decades ago.”
Galatee left. As Warrane and Shadow made their introductions to our newest arrivals, a few messages appeared in front of me.
Monsters added to dungeon:
Tomlin [Kobold Lieutenant Lvl 3]
Wylie [Kobold Miner Lvl 6]
Gary [Boss monster Lvl1]
Things were really beginning to take shape. I now had three kobolds and a boss monster. Tomlin was a lieutenant, but unlike Shadow, this rank didn’t mean much.
See, Tomlin had done all of my dungeon digging in the early days, but he hated it. He had a much more academic brain.
When I created Wylie, who loved digging, I had to appease Tomlin. I named him my dungeon lieutenant, and gave him authority over Wylie. This made him happy, and despite their difference in rank, the two became great friends.
The rank of lieutenant, however, didn’t actually give Tomlin any boosts, since it was one I just made up for him.
Pleased with boosting my monster roster, I dismissed the message and allowed the next one to appear.
You have killed [8] heroes!
A party of 8 heroes have died in your dungeon.
Ah, the goblins had finally died. Shame about their slaves, but I hadn’t asked any of them to come here.
But wait.
Heroes? I hear you ask. The goblins were far from being heroes.
I would agree, but the academy's definition of a hero prevails over everything. A hero is ‘One who is not a core or monster, and finds their way into the core’s dungeon by their own means, for their own motives.’
See? The goblins and their human ferrets were heroes, alright, and not all heroes are heroic.
The goblins and humans must have died from First-Leaf’s toxin now. They did it quietly, bless them. That was very considerate.
This meant that something wondrous had happened.
You have leveled up to 6!
- Total essence increased to 450
- Existing crafting categories expanded
- Dungeon capacity increased: 16 rooms, 20 traps, 10 puzzles, 18 monsters, 2 boss monsters
- Shadow [Scout] is upgraded to lvl 6!
I felt the increased essence weigh heavily inside me as my total leaped from 380 to 450. To liken it to a human feeling, it would be like a barbarian’s muscles growing after weeks of swinging his sword. Only, the effect for me was instantaneous. This was why it felt so good to slaughter heroes. Despite the fact it was the First-Leaf’s toxin that finally killed them, they perished in my dungeon, which meant I earned the rewards.
I was excited to use my essence and to see how much my crafting list had expanded. It was always thrilling to find out what new and diabolical things I could place in my dungeon.
I turned my attention away from my level ups and back to my now rather-crowded core room. Tomlin, Wylie, and Shadow were chatting to each other in kobold speech. Warrane was leaning against a wall, clearly uneasy while Gary stood next to him.
I couldn’t blame him, of course. I would guess that when I was a human, if a spider-leech creature tried to make small talk, I’d have been looking for either the nearest sword or the nearest exit.
“Tell me,” said Gary to Warrane. “What passes for culture down here? I would love to read some of your books if you could procure them for me. It will help pass the time while in the loot room. It can be a rather long wait between heroes, you see.”
“This leaf…he will find them for you. Yes.”
Over in the corner, Wylie was quizzing Shadow. “Shadow is scout?”
“Yes, little one, I am.”
“She like to dig?”
“Not really.”
“Oh. She like to mine?”
“Not so much, I’m afraid.”
“Excavate?” said Wylie, hopefully.
Shadow smiled. “Perhaps if you show me, I might start to like it.”
Tomlin, though standing close to them, was acting strange. A little aloof. I’m not a great reader of emotions - being a core saw to that - but I got the feeling he was trying to act cool. Was it because of Shadow?
“Tomlin,” I said. “You need to tell me what you’ve been up to. It feels like it’s been months!”
“Tomlin was in charge of new whelps in academy breeding grounds.”
“Ah. Did you like it?”
“Tomlin liked it better than digging, but there was little time for study.”
“I’m glad to have you back, my friend.”
“He is glad to be back.”
I decided to let them all talk for a little while longer. The truth was, I liked the noise. I liked the sound of talking and joking and laughing in my dungeon. They don’t always have to be gloomy places, you know.
CHAPTER 14
I knew now that the Seekers could strike at any time, and they might not wait to regroup before doing so. Although I had a few more allies, I needed to be more prepared.
There was a smart way of doing that, and a stupid way. Overseer Bolton always used to say, ‘Give me six hours to fell a tree, and I will spend four of them sharpening the axe.’ No idea where he got that from, though. There’s no way the guy had even picked up an axe in any of his first, second, or third lives.
“My friends,” I said. “It is time to work. Tomlin, do you know anything about our new surroundings?”
“Gnome lady told Tomlin about the Seekers.”
“Good. I have been thinking… I know that you enjoy being the lieutenant and supervising Wylie’s work, but it might not be the best use of your skills.”
“Tomlin is a good boss. He isn’t scared of hard work. He helps Wylie.”
“Lie!” said Wylie.
“I’m sure that’s true,” I said, “But I have a much more important task. I recently earned the ability to bestow roles on any kobolds in my dungeon. Not just useless made-up ones…not that being a lieutenant is useless…but ones that will actually give you more skills.”
“Tomlin is interested.”
“Great, follow me,” I said.
In less than a second, I hopped from the pedestal point in my core room to my essence room.
Then I realized that saying, ‘follow me’ and then teleporting to another room didn’t help Tomlin much.
“Over here,” I shouted, trying my best to get my stupid-sounding core voice to carry through the tunnels.
Tomlin soon met me in the essence room. My purple vines had spread over a quarter of one of the walls, while the red moss was uncultivated and untouched, save the small patch I’d taken away earlier.
“I don’t know how much I ever explained to you about my essence, Tomlin.”
“Dark Lord told him the essence is how he builds the things in his dungeon. Without it, he is pathetic and powerless, like a little worm.”
“Exactly, well put. So you can imagine the importance of this place. See, the essence vines replenish my power. The healthier they are, the more they spread, the quicker by powers return after I use them.”
“Tomlin understands.”
“Then do you know what I want you to do?”
“He thinks so. Tomlin is to protect the essence room.”
“So close, yet so far. That’s almost what I need, except you aren’t much of a fighter. No, Tomlin, I would like to give you the rank of cultivator. Your job will be to help my essence grow. To maintain the existence vines, and to plant them on the walls of new rooms. I’ll even have Wylie excavate a special cultivation room.”
“Tomlin will get his own area of the dungeon?”
“Yep.”
“He will be the boss of it?”
“Subject to my ability to overrule absolutely everything you do, if that’s what I choose. Then yes. You’d be the boss.”
He smiled now. Though a cheerful, friendly kobold, Tomlin rarely smiled wide, and it was nice to see him do it now.
Assign role: Cultivator.
Tomlin [Kobold] is now a [Cultivator!]
Due to your kobold proficiency, he begins at level 5.
“Tomlin feels different!”
“Interesting. How, exactly?”
He tapped his claws on his chin. “He sees where the vines are strong, and where they need more space. He can feel which are best to clip and plant elsewhere.”
“I think you’re going to enjoy this,” I said.
“Tomlin would like books. He would learn more about essence and the way it grows.”
“Those kinds of books are held in the academy library. Sorry, bud. Even if I could persuade Galatee to send someone there, we couldn’t pay for any books.”
“Essence vines are a plant, Tomlin surmises. Other books may hold their secrets.”
“A book on regular horticulture? Maybe! I’ll ask Warrane.”
“Tomlin thanks the Dark Lord.”
“The Dark Lord is a kind core with a generous soul,” I said.
After both keeping my best kobold friend happy and hopefully securing the growth of my essence vines, it was time to think about the dungeon.
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