When everything was done growing, Breck admired his work. The first thing that stood out was the lack of joints or seams. Everything was connected together and not just in a sense that they were butted up next to one another. The different materials were actually merged into one. The stone in the walls, for example, were fused with the wood of the floor at a microscopic level. Not only that, there was more than one material making up each part of the building. For example, the floors appeared to be made of wood at first glance, but examining them closely revealed grass and other plant-life weaved in. It made the floor incredibly durable while also comfortable and soft. Overall, it created an impressive and unique style.
“Sir… Those are amazing!,” Jeeves exclaimed.
“Thanks.” Breck felt woozy. He went deep into himself in search of an answer and quickly found one. Those six buildings used up almost eighty percent of his total essence pool. It looks like using specialized essence takes its toll. While reflecting on himself, he checked his rank. “I’m at basic rank four now!”
This got Jeeves’ attention, and he confirmed Breck’s claim. “Yes, Sir. It appears using your specific specialized essence is a great way to rank up.”
“That may be so, but it’s also a great way to empty my reserves. I have a lot of things left to do and little essence to do them with.” I need more essence. Breck returned to his first floor, and after much internal turmoil, absorbed his spiders and cobwebs.
He used the infusion of essence to create a staircase connecting each room on the first floor of his dungeon with a new hallway. The hallway connected to a round room that the kobolds could use as a staging area before entering the first floor as monsters. A single staircase connected the staging room to the kobold’s living quarters and for safety measures, Breck added thick stone doors that opened with a lever to each doorway. To help hide the doors, he added a thin layer of living earth essence around them. This caused them to grow into the surrounding stone and appear nearly invisible. He tested the levers and then moved on once all the doors worked.
Last, but not least, should be some supplies and food. There was still a large open area across from the long-houses where he created thirty or forty large beetles. Instead of the deadly beetles that filled his former dungeon room, he created a new pattern for them. This one didn’t have any loot or intelligence patterns attached to it, but instead he increased their size and overall meatiness.
The bugs began scurrying around the room and exploring their new home. That was before they started rolling around the floor, dying.
Breck would smack himself if he had a body to do so. I forgot about air… My fish would be dead too if I hadn’t left that tunnel to the surface open. Wait! That’s my solution.
He reabsorbed the dead beetles essence and used it to expand his water tunnel to the surface. He created a small web of tunnel throughout the room to allow air to pass through and evenly spread. He hid his small air pockets on the surface and waited for the room’s air levels to balance out. Lastly, he tested the room by creating another round of beetles. This time, when the beetles scurried around to explore their new home, they didn’t start randomly dying.
I think they’ll be happy with what I gave them. But it's still missing something… Ah ha! Breck created a large pile of lumber next to each house and asked Jeeves to review everything.
“Air levels are more than sufficient now. It should be able to sustain a population of a few thousand. The fish seem to be doing well. The houses are superb and they have enough wood to last them for some time. What about sunlight? I don’t see any forms of light inside.”
Breck shook his head. “Chieftain said his people prefer the dark. They live in dark mountain caves after all.”
“I wasn’t worried about them, Sir. I was worried about the plant life inside. They need sunlight to grow and survive.”
Another great opportunity to slap himself if he had a body. Breck got to thinking. He tried creating an orb of light essence in the center of the room to act as a mini-sun, but it quickly faded. Pumping more essence into it just caused it to grow in size before fading like before.
Hmm… If I just throw essence out, it fades. What if I combine it with something? Pulling up the patterns for light and a stone, Breck used his acid to etch the light pattern on the inside of a newly-formed rock. He created a few, and they acted as glow sticks. Since the pattern was built into the rock, and rocks could hold a larger amount of essence, the light didn’t immediately fade. That should work. He swiftly created a handful of them and scattered them around the room. Their light wasn’t blinding, and it increased the amount of ambient light essence in the room significantly. More than enough for the minimal plant life to live and grow.
“Anything else?” Breck asked.
“I can’t think of anything, Sir. It appears to just need occupants now.”
“Speak of the devil.” Breck sensed a large mass of energy entering his influence. It was Chieftain and his tribe.
“I didn’t mention the devil, Sir.”
“It’s an expression, Jeeves.” Breck took another look at the kobold tribe. Chieftain said there were many more, and he was right. Over a hundred had already entered his domain in the matter of a few seconds with seamlessly no end in sight. “Our guests have arrived, and they brought company. A lot of company.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Boneless Tribe
“Hello? Chieftain, can you hear me?” Breck called out.
Kobolds had arrived at the dungeon en masse. They were forming a large circle around its entrance, making a lot of noise and commotion.
“Yesss dungeon ssspirit. I hear you.” Chieftain called for silence around him so he could better hear Breck’s response.
“Welcome! You really do have a lot of kobolds in your tribe and they brought most of their stuff.” Breck looked around and examined some kobolds.
There was a lot to look at. Over five-hundred kobolds made up Chieftain’s tribe. Among them were a few men pulling a cart full of crates, several families with small children holding straw dolls and wooden swords, and there were various fighters scattered throughout. The fighters mostly had swords and wore leather armor, but there were some with bows and quivers strung on their backs. Surprising Breck was the handful of elder kobolds wearing patched-together robes, each of them clutching a gnarled staff. While they all varied in appearance and equipment, they had one thing in common: their belongings were all poor quality and ill-fitting.
I’ll have to add that to the list of things to take care of. “Also, I thought I told you to call me Breck.”
Chieftain got on his knees and groveled. “Sssorry great Breck. Pleassse forgive. If need punisssh sssomeone, punisssh me. No hurt tribe.”
What!? Does this guy think I’m going to kill his entire tribe or something for calling me by the wrong name? “Stand up, Chieftain. You're the leader of your people, show some dignity.” Chieftain remained groveling. “Seriously, stand up. I’m not going to hurt you or your tribe. We have a contract, remember?”
Chieftain slowly stood. “Yesss. We live here now. Numbersss ok?”
Breck had to think that one out for a moment. Chieftain wasn’t exactly a poet. “Yes. This many kobolds is fine. Do you want to see your new home?”
“We not home now? We build houssse here. You protect.”
“No, no, no. I’ve already built you a place to live, safely inside my dungeon. Come on down and I’ll open the passageways for you. Just head down the stairs and through the first door on your left. It will lead to another staircase that will take you to your home.”
Chieftain looked around and shouted for his people to gather their things and follow him. He did as instructed, with some additional help and instructions added as the tribe walked, but he eventually made his way down into the second floor. The kobolds started filing into the large, mainly open space, and, as soon as they did, they all openly wept.
“Chieftain! What’s wrong? Is everything ok
?” Breck was growing concerned. Every kobold was breaking down into tears and falling to their knees. Did he do something wrong? Were the homes not to their liking? Did he not create enough food?
Through choked-up breaths, unable to concentrate on speaking through their mental link, Chieftain spoke aloud. “Breck. Thisss isss… Thisss isss bessst home. Better than home tribe live before. We are yoursss to command.”
“I’m glad you like it. I wanted to make sure you were all comfortable.”
Chieftain choked out his next words. “No. Thisss too nice. We want be dungeon tribe. All, listen. We pledge now!”
Chieftain bowed his head, his entire tribe following his lead. When he spoke next, his entire tribe spoke with him. They uttered an oath Breck didn’t recognize, but a part of him, deep inside, tingled with familiarity. It somehow felt right and primal. “We, the Mountain Tribe, renounce our name. If you will have usss, we will join your tribe and pledge to ssserve only your interessstsss, do what you command and we will defend you until our last breath.”
“Well that was unexpected, Sir,” muttered Jeeves.
Breck responded, but his response was heard not only by Chieftain but by all the kobolds present. The words spilled from his mental lips without him forming them. He just knew he wanted to accept their offer and his mind took over the rest, as if reciting something ancient and true.
“As master of this domain, I accept your pledge. I shall honor it and shelter you under my banner. As I rise in strength, so shall you. Welcome to the Boneless Tribe!”
Breck’s core illuminated a mixture of white and green. It somewhat resembled a mint cream color. The light started off dim but rapidly brightened. The light was warm and burning Breck’s mind. The kobolds fell to the ground, their bodies glowing the same color as Breck’s core.
“Sir! What is this!? What’s happening? I’m… feeling weak… pain…” Jeeves’s golem collapsed, the fire in its eyes vanishing. Luckily, his consciousness returned to Breck’s core where he felt his entire being burning alongside his master.
The kobolds weren’t much better off. They too seemed to be experiencing a high level of pain. They were rolling around the ground, screaming out in agony as new scales grew out of their flesh. Thousands upon thousands of tiny thuds rang out as their old scales fell to the ground, their new replacements matching Breck’s illumination color.
Most of the kobolds had passed out from the sheer pain of the ordeal, but Chieftain and a select other few held on frailly. Their bones began jutting out of their bodies slowly. They weren’t piercing their skin, and there wasn’t any blood. Their bones simply slid out of them.
A massive root system appeared under the large mass of kobolds. The roots were glowing so bright, they could be seen through the solid rock ground. The roots connected and wrapped around each individual kobold, creating cocoons made of pure energy.
As their bones left them, they were broken down, and their essence absorbed to fuel their transformation. A mixture of materials (rock, wood and clay to name a few) were patched together from within to replace their lost skeletal structure. They were then strengthened by hardened calcium deposits created to run throughout. The new pseudo-bone material had a drastic effect on the kobold’s strength. Each of them instantly received an additional rank from the changes in their pattern. Living earth essence was now being listed as the primary required resource in the pattern’s creation.
The kobolds weren’t the only ones changing. Breck was undergoing his own change. His core was warping and bending at odd angles. Its color was almost completely flooded with mint cream of living essence. Roots reached out from his center and extended into the surrounding ground. The roots came together to form the trunk of, what appeared to be, a banyan tree.
The tree started small, but it continued to grow and grow. It swiftly hit the ceiling and absorbed the essence caging it in. The bark and vines all had a red tint, but the leaves matched the color of Breck’s core. When the tree finished growing, it was over twenty feet tall and encapsulated Breck’s entire boss room. It forced Sting to flee in fear of being crushed.
When the tree stopped growing, the cocoons hatched. Breck was the first to regain his wits, so he took stock of his situation.
Ok. Head’s killing me, but I’m alive. He checked internally first. Virtually no essence but I’m basic rank… eight now! What the hell happened!? It was at that moment that Breck located the tree. “Jeeves, wake up. There’s a giant tree growing through my dungeon.”
“What, Sir? What happened?” Jeeves replied in a groggy tone. “What is a giant tree doing in your boss room? And why are you tangled in its roots?”
“I was just asking you that. I have no idea what’s going on or what happened. Last thing I remember, I was accepting the kobolds into our tribe or something. Wait! The kobolds.”
Chieftain was the first to burst through his essence cocoon and boy, did he change. For starters, his scales now matched Breck’s core in color and any trace of damaged or missing scales was gone. He looked to be in peak physical condition. But that wasn’t the most glaring change. Chieftain grew several feet in height. He now stood six feet tall and had the beginnings of wings protruding from his back.
As the rest of the kobolds hatched, Breck noticed that they all had gone through a similar transformation but to a lesser extent. Most of the civilian kobolds were still around three and a half feet tall, but the warriors were closer to four and a half feet.
They all shared one thing in common, at least. They were all now naked. Their clothing and equipment did not transform with them and instead, were lying around them on the ground, their clothing being mainly ripped to shreds. Breck absorbed all of it, thinking it was useless to them now anyway and desperately in need of some essence.
“Chieftain, are you ok?” Breck questioned hesitantly.
The kobold clan leader stood and admired his new body. He flexed several times, enjoying the free muscle growth before he responded in a much deeper voice. “Yesss. We have been bonded to your dungeon. We are part of you now.” He knelt in honor of his master. “We live to ssserve your excellence.”
“Hey Chieftain. I’m not saying I’m freaked out by the whole transformation thing, but you sound different. More… intelligent than before?” Breck did his best not to sound like a jackass when he implied the creature seemed dumb before.
“Whatever thisss transssformation wasss it ssseemsss to have transssformed my mind asss well. I have alssso reached basssic rank zero.”
Breck inspected him and confirmed it for himself. “That’s fantastic, Chieftain!”
“Chieftain… That is a title, not a name. You may call me Kezdet if it pleasssesss my massster.”
“Ok, Kezdet. When I inspected you I noticed large portions of your pattern changed drastically. I don’t seem to have the whole design in my pattern library image.” Breck hesitated. “I know this may sound like an odd request but can one of you… sacrifice yourself to me so I can absorb you and learn more?”
Kezdet stood and looked around. The remaining kobolds were still reviewing themselves and the changes they had undergone. He pointed to a group of five warriors and yelled at them. “Our massster requiresss a sssacrafice. One of you mussst die for him.”
Breck immediately felt like an ass and went to retract his request. I’ll just absorb the first one that dies to an adventuring party. Before he could speak again, however, all five kobolds stepped forward. In unison, they all agreed to be sacrificed. They didn’t all say the same thing word for word, but it was all along the same lines. They would do anything for their master, the great dungeon of Breck. My life is his, if he wants it. Anything to help the master. All renditions of the same thing. There goes any fear I had they would try to kill me in my sleep. That would be hard anyway, seeing that I don’t sleep. It looks like I now have a cult.
Kezdet stepped forward, placed one hand on a warrior's shoulder and then plunged the other through his chest without saying a word. His n
ewly enhanced claws proved more than up to the task of skewering his comrade. Breck absorbed the body and gore before it ever hit the ground, going as far as to absorb the blood on Kezdet’s arm.
Upon reviewing, it was clear that the pattern name had changed. They were no longer kobolds but boneless tribe kobolds. The pattern’s flooded with living essence and requires a ton to create. It also looks like they start at beginner six. That could be a problem for the first floor.
“What did you dissscover, massster?” Kezdet patiently asked.
“Well Kezdet. It appears you are all boneless tribe kobolds now. It must have something to do with our pledges to each other,” Breck surmised.
“Legendsss sssay when a lord takesss on a tribe of monssstersss, they will adapt to bessst ssserve him or her.”
“You didn’t think to mention that when we made our contract? That seems like a good piece of information to have,” Breck scolded in a sarcastic tone.
“A contract isss not the sssame as taking a tribe in asss your own people. I did not know thisss would happen. It wasss only a legend after all. No one hasss ever taken a tribe of monssstersss in before. At leassst not that I am aware of.”
“Really? No one? Why not? I mean, it seems beneficial to everyone.”
Kezdet frowned. “The other racesss look down on monssstersss. We are nothing more than prey or nuisssancesss to them. This is why we live in hiding and sssteal to sssimply sssurvive. I have heard of sssome human lordsss luring monssstersss into the open with promisssesss of peace to only ssslay entire tribesss, but never have I heard of a lord accepting one.”
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