CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dungeon Building
A group of wasps were attempting to crack the shell of a turtver. Its hard exterior was green with a brown grid running throughout. The creature had a large, scaled paddle tail coated in iron, and aside from its tail, the turtver had drawn its limbs inside itself for protection. A particularly large wasp, about the size of a softball, kamikazed into the creature's tail. It exploded with a wet squish, with purple venom mixing in with the wasps blood as it ran down the unaffected shell.
“How am I supposed to kill this thing? Its shell is impenetrable and its life aura is too large for me to form a rock above it,” Breck complained. He had been trying to kill the turtver for over half an hour. All of his attempts were proving fruitless.
“Hmm. This is a tough situation, Sir, but I believe it's good practice. I know you will find a way,” Jeeves answered reassuringly.
Breck scoffed and sent another few wasps at the creature. They all splattered ineffectively against its hard exterior. He did his best to reabsorb as much of the essence as he could when his creatures died. I’m never going to kill it while it's in that shell. I have to lure it out somehow. Stopping the assault he created a lush patch of grass and herbs around it. He used some additional earth essence to mature the plants and some air essence to waft their scent in the creature’s direction. Then he called off all the wasps except one that rested on the back of the turtver’s shell. Now we play the waiting game. “Jeeves, can you monitor the situation? When you see the creature try to eat, please let me know.”
“Yes, Sir. But what will you be doing?”
Breck moved his focus closer to his Dungeon Core. Over the past few weeks, he had absorbed several new creatures and expanded his area of influence. He ate several bugs, a few frobbits, the spider he originally saw, a good amount of fish, and he even took down a few deercoon, a mixture of raccoon and deer. The deercoon were slightly smaller deer only with the markings and colors of a raccoon. They also had fingered hands instead of the hoofs normally found on deer. Each one was in the high beginner ranks and awarded Breck enough essence to not only boost himself to beginner nine but expand his influence well over a hundred feet while maintaining a large pool of essence in reserve. “I’m going to start building the dungeon we talked about. I should have enough essence to build a couple of rooms at least.”
“Are you sure that is wise?” Jeeves sounded worried. Breck sent a mental question mark in response. “If you build the dungeon, you will be announcing yourself to the world. Surely someone is going to hear the commotion and find us in our swamp. I just want to make sure you're prepared for the next phase.”
“We’re making great progress, Jeeves, but we’re never going to hit the transcended ranks if we keep playing it safe. It’s time for us to create a dungeon and lure in some bigger prey.” Breck was firm in his decision. Although absorbing essence allowed him to taste all sorts of great things, he missed being human. And even though he didn’t have a lot of family back home, he missed Earth and his life there. It wasn’t the greatest life, but it was mine.
“Very well, Sir. Please let me know if you need any assistance.”
Breck nodded. “Just let me know when that darn creature leaves its shell.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Breck looked around. He was in the middle of a large swamp, which was great for him because, aside from life, he was attuned to water and earth essence. The copious amounts of water, mud and fog make it a great place for him and his affinities. Over the past week, he spent his nights absorbing and recreating the mud and water in the surrounding area so that most of the swamp was comprised of his own essence. This allowed him to more easily manipulate and create things around him.
Dungeons, dungeons, dungeons. What makes up a good dungeon? I definitely want an entrance, a couple rooms and a couple of different monsters. Breck began lifting the surrounding mud to form a large circular room, with his core against one edge. The mud was dripping, and the ceiling was drooping. He quickly passed earth essence into the room’s walls and spread it evenly throughout. The mud hardened and solidified. To test its strength, he created his signature creature, a large wasp, and allowed it to pick up speed by flying around the room. When it was traveling near its max speed, he crashed it into the wall with a splat. He reabsorbed the essence and carnage of the wasp in order to assess the wall’s damage. To his delight, it was unharmed, without a single trace of damage.
Ok, I have the walls worked out. It's time to expand! Breck absorbed a large circle from the wall farthest from him to create a hallway, but he stopped when he got a birds eye view of his creation. “Hey, Jeeves. My room looks like a giant rock bubble. I think it's a bit… obvious. Any suggestions?”
Jeeves reviewed the room Breck had created from several angles and came to the same assessment. “It appears out of the ordinary. I also don’t think your earlier test of wall integrity was very effective. I fear stronger enemies could break in on you, especially knowing where the last room would be located.”
“That's great, but what am I supposed to do about it?”
“I am unsure. You may need to move us to a mountainside or fill in all the surrounding area with rock,” Jeeves suggested.
Breck created a bit of rock around his room and was quickly overwhelmed with the amount of essence it was taking. “Yeah. I think that option is out. I could only create one or two rooms if I did that and I don’t think I would have anything left over for creating monsters or loot.” An idea hit him. If he couldn’t build up, why not try building down? He refilled the hole he made in his room and began sinking it, tugging downward as hard as he could. Since the water and earth beneath him was already part of his essence, the task didn’t take much effort and his room was quickly sinking lower and lower into the swampland. Breck opened his mind to the surface and found several areas that now needed repair. He planted new grass, created small ponds, and flattened the disturbed ground.
“Marvelous, Sir! This not only protects us from easy invasion but it allows natural wildlife to still wander into your area of influence above. You never cease to amaze me.” Jeeves was jubilant and unable to contain his admiration.
“Thanks, Jeeves. It makes seeing the area above me a little harder but I figure that will clear up once I open up a pathway to this chamber.” Breck reopened his room and created a hallway out. Not wanting a straight path to himself, he created some bends and turns before crafting another room. When all was said and done, he had two medium-sized rooms, a large chamber housing his core, and an entry room. The last thing he did was create a stone staircase leading down to the first room. He was right in his previous assumptions. Once he created a clear path to the surface, his vision of the surrounding area became much more clear.
“May I make a few suggestions?” Breck nodded at Jeeves’s mental prodding. “I believe you need to create a nicer entrance than the one you have. A random staircase in the middle of a swamp doesn’t exactly scream ‘fear inducing dungeon’.”
Breck reviewed his surface. Jeeves was right. His staircase looked rather sad and unbecoming. Pulling mud from the ground, he shaped a small room above the start of the staircase. Great. Now I have a big square box. Adventurers beware. What if I… He pulled the pattern for a wasp up in his mind. Discarding most of it and leaving just the stinger, he crafted large versions of them on the top and bottom of the entrance. When they were done forming, they looked like large fangs and the opening to the staircase now appeared to be a mouth. He shifted the rock around the entrance to better smooth and shape it like a head. “This is actually kinda fun.” He laughed as he continued but quickly ran out of patterns to manipulate. When he was finished, he reviewed his work with Jeeves. “Not bad, right? I mean. It's not perfect, but it looks like a scary monster head… kinda…”
“You do many things right, Sir, but art may not be one of them.” Jeeves hesitantly added.
“Hey! You try to shape a head using only mud, wasp stingers,
and a little creativity. I don’t think I did half bad,” Breck defended.
Jeeves took another look at the structure and decided not to add anything to the conversation. The structure appeared to be a head, and the stingers resembled fangs but it was just off. It could easily be mistaken as a pair of rocks with thorns or an oddly shaped boulder. He changed the subject instead of commenting further. “I see the fangs have venom in them.” Breck mentally nodded. “If an adventurer gets a scratch from that, you could get an easy kill. Have you thought about adding other traps inside? Maybe a false floor or something?”
“That's not a bad idea. Let me try a few things.” Breck spent the next few hours doing his best creating traps. He would have kept going for a few more hours, but Jeeves kept screaming in his mind. “What, Jeeves? I’m working.”
“Sir, I apologize but the turtver is moving toward the herbs you created.”
Breck perked up at that. Moving the wasp around, he stung the creature in an exposed joint. The turtver instantly receded into its shell again but it was too late. Within moments, it went limp, and he absorbed its essence. Mmm I will never get sick of this. The feeling of absorbing something new, fresh and tasty. Any who, back to business. “Thanks, Jeeves. That was just the snack I needed. Let me show you what I’ve done so far.” Breck took him on a virtual tour of the dungeon.
The rooms had nothing in them, other than some rubble and plants that he added for aesthetics. When he got to the hallways, he pointed out the several traps in each one. There were some false floors that lead to poisoned spikes, some had stones on the floor that would release swarms of wasps if they were stepped on, and in one hallway there was some spider silk that, when broken, poured venom down from a compartment in the ceiling.
“Now I just need to add some monsters and loot.” Breck started brainstorming. He looked at the available patterns in his mind and there weren’t many without bones. For the first room he took the pattern of a beetle and edited it. He added some additional strength to their teeth by coating them in a thin layer of iron, reinforced their legs with added corruption, and increased their size to be similar to that of a large puppy. After creating a few of the new monsters, he inspected them and found out they were ranked at beginner five. He created several more throughout the room and moved on.
When he got to the next two rooms, he already knew what he wanted. He created several spiders and ranked them up to match the beetles, deciding to make them the size of medium dogs. To help camouflage them, and to make up for some embarrassment caused by his first artistic attempt, he created several cobwebs in both chambers and the hallway connecting them. Let’s see Jeeves argue with that.
Breck finally reached the last large chamber and was slightly stumped. “I’m not sure what kind of boss or loot to create.” He mentally sighed, knowing he was about to ask for advice again, which was always a chore with Jeeves. “Do you have any suggestions?”
“Well. If you don’t change it too much and just increase its size, you could probably get a wasp to the size of a small tree. It would take a lot of essence though. Do you know what you’ll be doing for loot?”
“I thought I would make a chest and possibly throw in some iron or try my hand at making a sword. I ended up putting some iron in the pattern for the beetles and with my slight affinity for earth, it doesn’t take a lot of essence to create. I’m going to line the stinger of the boss wasp with iron to help reinforce it.” Breck started creating his boss monster. Using the wasp pattern as his base, he reinforced its stinger but didn’t stop there. He sharpened the monster’s six legs into points and tipped them with iron. Not wanting to stop, he filled small pockets in its legs with venom. The boss’s pattern was already at beginner five before enlarging it so he removed venom from four of the six legs. This reduced the pattern to beginner three.
Breck was staring at his new pattern in awe. Now to enlarge it and set my creation free. He pumped energy into the pattern and placed it in the world. He continued to flow essence into it until it hit beginner rank nine. His mind was spinning and woozy at the use of so much essence at once. “WOAH!” Breck did his best to steady himself.
“Are you all right, Sir?” Jeeves questioned.
“I’m fine. Let’s look at my boss!” The creature was intimidating. It had to be at least twelve or fifteen feet in length with venom dripping from its stinger and top legs. It took flight and created a visible gust of wind underneath that blew dust throughout the room. Extremely happy with himself, he named his creation. “Sting! Let’s see someone mess with him.”
“Excellent. What’s next, Sir?”
Breck felt an invasion at the border of his area of influence far away from his dungeon. “What’s next you ask? Next we see how he can fight.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Adventurers
“Jeeves, Jeeves, they’re almost here!” Breck was downright giddy with excitement. This was his first real test of strength. Did I create enough traps? Will the monsters be ok? What if they find my core!? A million different thoughts were coursing through his head. He was so distracted that he didn’t even notice that the Humans had reached his entrance until Jeeves’s continuous shouting brought his focus back to the situation at hand.
“Hmm…” A scruffy-looking man wearing mismatched light armor scratched his stubble covered chin.
The man was one of four people who had shown up. Breck guessed he was a swordsman, based on the sword hilt at his waist and his lean figure. Next to the swordsman was a robed man carrying a staff that looked to be nothing more than a long stick. The third member of their group was a man carrying only a large shield and didn’t appear to have a weapon of any kind. The final member of the group surprised Breck. She was a thin, short, Asian woman who couldn’t have been older than thirteen or fourteen. She had a large backpack, but it was slung over her chest with the opening below her neck.
“What is it,Paul? Could it really be a dungeon?” the shield bearing man asked.
The scruffy man took a peek inside but saw nothing but darkness. Breck had added no sources of light. “I… I think so.” The man, who Breck now knew to be Paul, responded to the shield bearer and then turned to face the young woman. “Thao, hand me a torch.” Thao grabbed an unlit torch from the side of her pack and gestured it toward Paul. Using a pair of rocks to create a spark, Paul lit the torch and took it from her. With his torch hand outstretched, he peered into the opening again. “It looks like a staircase going down. This has to be a dungeon.”
“Impossible!” The robe wearer stepped forward until his feet were flush with the dungeon entrance. He slammed his staff into the ground and Breck could feel ripples of essence emanating from the point of impact.
That feels funny, Breck thought as he watched the waves of magical energy penetrate his depths.
The mage’s eyes went wide. “It is a dungeon! But there aren’t any dungeons this far into the swamplands, at least not any discovered ones.” He turned to face the rest of his party. “This could be an immense opportunity! If we truly are the first ones to discover this dungeon, we could explore it, chart its chambers, claim its treasure and then sell the information to one of the guilds. The adventurer's guild pays at least ten gold for the discovery of any new dungeon and they would double, if not triple, that if we could bring them a map of it.” Everyone’s eyes now went wide, with the notable exception of Thao, who looked worried.
“What’s happening, Sir?” Jeeves asked.
“They’re debating whether to enter the dungeon. The leader, his name is Paul, is arguing that it could be dangerous. Their mage is pretty persistent, however, and I think they’re going to come inside.” Breck brought his attention back to the party.
“Thank you for the update, Sir.”
Wait… Jeeves can see everything I see, can’t he? “Hey Jeeves. Why did you ask me for an update, can’t you just watch the adventurers?“
Jeeves sent the image of a man shaking his head. “No, Sir. The protective life a
ura each of them has is too strong. I’m unable to view the area around them. I can only see up to the first room. I can’t even see the staircase leading to it. Since everything in the area is essentially you, it appears you are immune to this effect.”
“We’ll have to find a way around that, eventually. I think having you observe things could be really beneficial. For now, I’ll mentally replay everything for you once it's over. We can review them like coaches would with their game day footage. Two minds are better than one and all that.” Jeeves was about to thank Breck but was interrupted. “Shh! They’re coming inside!”
The man with the shield was taking the point position and started down the stairs. Paul was close behind, sword in one hand, and the torch raised in the other. Thao was next, with the mage taking up the rear. Breck frowned when none of them touched the fanged entrance. They didn’t fall for that one.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they hesitated. The room was dark and damp, and they could hear something clattering around inside. “Pay attention everyone. We have monsters ahead.” Paul handed his torch to Thao and grabbed another from the side of her pack. Using the lit torch to ignite the second, Paul tossed it into the dark room.
The torch landed about six feet into the room and cascaded light outward. They could see the shadowy figures of five beetles shambling about. It was now Breck’s time to shine. He commanded the beetles to flee into the darkness around the room. When the adventurers entered, he commanded the beetles to swarm them.
“Are those… bugs?” Paul questioned.
“HA!” The shield bearer laughed. “A couple of bugs don’t scare me. Watch this.” He charged into the room, shield held high. Breck sent a single beetle against him. It ran at a sprint toward the adventurer, but he was ready. He thrust his shield forward and knocked the beetle onto its back. Lifting his shield with both hands, he slammed its pointed end down onto the underbelly of the monster and ended its life. It was over quickly, and the man was smiling. Panting, he said, “see, that wasn’t so bad.”
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