Ryan lost himself to building his second floor, working as long as he could before resting to let his mana refresh. Even with his drastic increase in capacity, as well as the influx of mana gained over time by his increased area of influence, he was expending quite a bit of it. Clearing away all of the rock may not have been the most efficient building process, because now he had to replace the rock where he wanted his walls and tunnels.
He wasn’t just dumping rock back into the expanses, though. Instead, he was creating uniform blocks, as he had seen in the book he absorbed. He lined the walls of the tunnels and rooms with these bricks, which shone with a dim light. It was eerie, giving off the feeling of a long-forgotten castle, and Ryan liked it, even if it used a lot more mana to make them.
Thanks to the book – as well as the different woods he had absorbed through weapons and materials dropped by adventurers – Ryan was able to finally create doors. He spent a lot more time working on these than he probably should have, but the devil was in the detail.
One wood Ryan had in his inventory, courtesy of a rather fancy dagger an adventurer once dropped, was a black and white ebony. He chose that wood for his door, and it created a stunning mixture of white and dark patterns. Ryan found that with some concentration and the help of mana, he was able to craft the patterns as he saw fit. The end result: bone-white doors, lightly glowing, with a dark wolf skull outline on them. The handles on these doors were skeletal hands. He was really embracing his bone theme.
When Ryan was done with the initial layout and his intricate doors, he paused to admire his work. His first room had a single exit, which led down a narrow hallway into his next room. This room had exits in all directions, leading to three different rooms. The room on the left was the correct path towards the boss.
However, Ryan wasn’t about to let adventurers just waltz towards his boss; oh, no. Especially not if they meant him harm, like that necromancer. Never again would Ryan make it so easy to reach his boss room. He was working on plans to stop that necromancer if he ever reappeared. Many plans.
The door leading to the correct path had three different keyholes locking it shut. This door was also reinforced with steel and spikes, inspired by the design of a portcullis. For good measure, Ryan reinforced the door with dark mana as well.
After the necromancer attack, Erin had mentioned that objects infused with a dungeon’s mana could become impossibly strong. Ryan’s door, now completely reinforced, would likely be impossible to destroy unless attacked by a Platinum-level adventurer or higher. Unless the adventurers had all three keys, that door wasn’t opening.
In order to get these keys, adventurers would need to explore the rest of Ryan’s dungeon. The door on the right led to a room which held the first key. This key rested atop a pillar of bones sitting in the middle of the room. Some of these bones were harmless, but Ryan was already planning on having mobs in that room, several of which would blend in with his pile. He could already imagine the surprise of the first group to enter that room.
The door opposite to the adventurers once they entered the first pillar room would be filled with mobs and another key pillar. Once adventurers defeated those mobs and grabbed their key, they would have to make a choice between another two doors leading from that room. One, directly across from the door they entered into, led down a hallway and ended in a dead end. The other, on the left-hand wall as they entered the room, led adventurers on a winding route that eventually reached the third key room.
This room wouldn’t have mobs, but was going to be a trap room, again with the key in the center atop a pile of bones. The exit from this room was actually a hidden door that led directly back to the room with the triple-locked door,. In essence, Ryan had them doing a large loop to get back to where they started.
Once they had all three keys, they would be able to open the door leading to the boss room. However, Ryan wasn’t about to hide the boss room directly behind that door. No, instead, the portcullis door opened onto a path that led to another room, which Ryan decided he would also trap. The next room after that would be a mob room, and only after that room was cleared would adventurers be able to enter the boss room.
All in all, Ryan felt this setup was much more dungeon and adventure like, and he really was excited for the first set of adventurers to dive into it. Before that could be allowed, though, Ryan had many more steps to prepare for his visitors.
First, he needed to actually set up his traps. Had he actually been working on those, instead of skeletal fight club, this part would be easy. But he hadn’t. So, while he had some really cool new mobs, he had zilch for new traps. Not to mention the fact that he would have to decide on mobs for his second floor, assign their loot, and create his new boss.
Being a dungeon was a lot of work.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Traps, it turned out, were a lot of fun to design. The first new trap Ryan designed was a basic one that he quickly spread throughout his second floor. It was extremely simple, and as much as Ryan hated to admit it, it had been slightly inspired by the necromancer’s attack.
After watching the necromancer create a bone spear, Ryan had decided to try the same. He found that not only could he create a bone spear, he could also set it up to be triggered quite easily. Thanks to the books he had absorbed, Ryan had learned of a simple device that he felt would act as a great trigger for these new bone spears: pressure plates.
By creating hidden pressure plates in various points on the floor, he was able to hide his bone spikes in the walls or floors. Whenever one of the plates was stepped on, it would trigger the tendril of dark mana that was attached to the spear, driving the spikes from the hiding space to likely impale the poor soul that had triggered the trap. The spikes weren’t too large, though; they were unlikely to instantly kill an adventurer but would create quite the painful wound. As much as Ryan knew he needed to grow strong, he also remembered Erin’s warning against creating too difficult a dungeon.
While those spike traps were simple, and more likely to injure than kill, the next trap Ryan created was much more potent. This one was reserved for the trap room that held the third key and would present a much larger problem for adventurers. Ryan was Silver, and the second floor needed to be dangerous for Silver adventurers.
However, heeding Erin’s warning, Ryan knew he shouldn’t just make a trap that would instantly kill. There wouldn’t be any sense of excitement in that, and Ryan really didn’t want to scare off the adventurers. He needed to grow stronger.
The trap for the room with the third key was a multi-part trap, one that would be both triggered by adventurer actions and controlled by Ryan. First, Ryan hollowed out the floor beneath his trap room, creating darkness-lined pits all throughout the floor.
Second, he lined these pits with bone spikes that could ever so slowly completely pierce the pit. He had stolen this design from a torture tool he had read about called the iron maiden. He decided to call them bone maidens.
Once he littered the floor beneath the room with bone maidens, he went to work truly creating his trap. His idea for the room was to force adventurers to choose between the key and the way out, or saving one of their friends. In his mind, he felt it was his goal, as a dungeon chosen by the Goddess of Justice, to see that adventurers were just.
In his mind, he was already playing out how the room would work. He set a small, nearly invisible tendril of dark mana directly across the path adventurers would need to take toward the key. When an adventurer hit this tendril, the door they had come from would be suddenly sealed shut with mana-infused rock. At the same time, the door leading out of the room would open.
From there, the trap got fun. The moment an adventurer pulled the key off the pillar, Ryan would drop part of the floor away from underneath another unsuspecting adventurer in the room. That adventurer would fall into one of the bone maidens.
Over the now-trapped adventurer a key-shaped hole would appear, matching the skeletal key in the room. Ryan had d
ecided to add a hint for the adventurers at this part and set up dark tendrils of mana to spell out a cryptic message: “A key for a life.”
The spikes would begin closing in on the trapped adventurer, and at the same time, the exit would begin to close. Adventurers would have to choose to save their friend or leave the room with the key. If they left their friend, the adventurer would die, giving Ryan a boost of experience, and the party would be down a member.
Even with all three keys, he wasn’t sure a group would choose to take on the rest of the dungeon. If they did, it would probably signal more experience for Ryan, but he wouldn’t mind. Those who would leave their friends didn’t deserve to conquer his dungeon.
Unknown to the adventurers, if they rescued their friend, Ryan would open the door back to the second pillar room, and when adventurers returned there, they would be greeted with more mobs, and the third key. This meant adventurers who chose to save their ally would be rewarded not only with a key, but more loot and experience. He was rather proud of his trap.
With his trap room established, and his spike traps spread throughout his dungeon, Ryan took a pause to catch his breath. He was nearing the completion of his dungeon and knew his next step should be his mobs. But that step was also going to be the most exciting, yet draining process, so he decided he should finish any and all other aspects of his dungeon before moving on to mobs and loot.
As he looked around at his stone-brick walls, he found they were rather boring compared to his wonderfully artistic and intimidating doors. That just wouldn’t do, and he really did feel he needed to try and offer a little more light in the dungeon other than the faint white glow everything he influenced projected.
Ryan sifted through all the items he had collected so far, racking his brain for any way to improve visibility. After what felt like an eternity, and perhaps one or two skuirrel fights to help him think, an idea finally came to him.
Everything Ryan created glowed with a faint, white light. He knew that, and it did provide an eerie level of light. However, if Ryan’s idea worked, he would be able to fill his second level with an even more ominous effect.
In his first room, Ryan turned his attention to the ceiling, preparing to give his idea a go. He hollowed out a large portion of the roof and filled the empty expanse with a massive human skull, looking down onto the room.
Then, in the empty eye sockets, he grew two massive rubies, which he secured tightly with a web of dark mana. No stealing my gems. The brilliant red gems enhanced the white light provided by Ryan’s glow, refracting it and bathing the room in an eerie, blood-red glow. Oh, yes.
Ryan quickly proceeded to create a massive skull in every room, looking down on the adventurers as if watching them. It would give the feeling that they were being watched, which they were. With the rubies grown, each and every room took on the eerie, ominous glow. Ryan figured his fear factor must have increased by at least ten thanks to the latest idea.
Next, my hallways.
He decided to leave these in the soft white glow, not wanting to overplay the red. Instead, he took a more artistic approach, using his newfound ability to craft weapons from bones. He lined his hallways with crisscrossed bone swords and shields.
He also decided to construct Steve-sized skeletons – with both arms – to stand silently along the hallways. Ryan had no intention of animating these skeletons, but felt they added to the overall feel. As a precaution against necromancer attacks, he made sure the skeletons were secured firmly to the ground. The last thing he needed was a necromancer animating his decorations.
With his rooms cast in an eerie red glow, and his hallways properly decorated, Ryan knew the time was coming for his final step. Nearly buzzing with excitement, Ryan closed his eyes and began browsing his skeleton collection. It was time to decide on his boss and mobs.
Chapter Forty-Eight
“Boss, boss, boss, boss, boss.”
Ryan repeated the word over and over, flipping through the collection of skeletons he had acquired. He had human skeletons of all shapes and sizes, with water, fire, wind, and earth affinities. He also had his various skrat and skuirrel evolutions, but none of those seemed boss-worthy. Also, he really wanted to try out some of the new mob types he had unlocked.
During his excavation, Ryan had completed two new skeleton types: a snake skeleton and an owl skeleton. Both constituted small beasts, though, and so didn’t immediately pull at Ryan’s attention for boss mob. He did have plans for those snake mobs, though.
What did scream “boss material” were his wolf and deer skeletons. Both constituted medium beasts, but frustratingly, both were incomplete.
“Ugh.” Ryan let out a cry of frustration. Why hadn’t he continued searching for skeletons? He had wasted so much time at his Bronze levels. Never again.
“Everything all right, hun?” Erin’s sleepy mumble, after what Ryan figured had been days of silence, made him nearly jump out of his core.
“Oh, sorry, Rin. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
He really hadn’t, and he was upset he had. He had wanted to surprise her with a completed second floor. But now that she was awake, maybe she could help him.
The fairy yawned as she sat up to stretch. Ryan couldn’t help but admire her as her feathery wings spread out behind her. She was beautiful.
What’s the matter?” she asked.
“I wanted to create my boss from a medium beast, since it’s my new mob type. But both my wolf and deer skeletons are incomplete.”
“Have you tried combining them?”
She asked it so innocently, as if it was a simple matter. The fact Ryan hadn’t thought of that himself left him feeling extremely ashamed. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Uh, I… hadn’t thought of that,” he mumbled, continuing to silently berate himself. After all the innovation he had been doing, how had he not thought of something so simple?
“So, since it was my idea, do I get to name the boss?” Erin asked mischievously.
Crap.
“I… I guess so, hun,” Ryan mumbled.
He could already tell this was not going to end well. However, his excitement at creating a new boss mob quickly overcame his apprehension of letting the fairy name it. It couldn’t be worse than Steve, could it?
“Hooray!” Erin cried, twirling in the air. A flood of happiness rushed across their bond, and that was worth whatever terrible name she came up with. As long as it wasn’t as bad as Steve.
“All right, so how do we do this combination trick?” Ryan asked.
Erin shrugged, making her wings shake, as she shot him a sly smile.
“Magic?” She winked.
Ugh, he walked right into that one.
“Thanks for the brilliant suggestion,” he muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” she asked.
“You’re so pretty.”
Ryan reverted to his normal go-to distraction phrase and turned his attention back to the wolf and deer skeletons. As he focused on the two with the intention of combining them, knowledge flooded him. He suddenly knew what to do.
“Rin, watch this.”
Ryan turned his attention to his first-floor boss room, which currently stood empty, and was still connected to his core room. The image of the room projected in his diamond core, allowing Erin to watch.
“This is Steve’s room,” she said, confused.
So perceptive.
“Well, you don’t get to see the second floor until I’m done with it,” Ryan teased.
“Fiiiine.” She let out a long sigh, but settled in. Her emotions showed she was just as excited as Ryan was.
He summoned his incomplete wolf and deer skeletons in Steve’s room, and quickly animated them. The incomplete mobs stumbled and clattered about less than gracefully. It was a bit underwhelming. At ten points apiece, these two mobs were nearly equal to Steve’s cost.
“So, first I summon the mobs to be combined.” Ryan figured he would explain the process for Erin,
who was watching intently. “Then I push my mana into both of them, preparing them to combine.”
He acted as he spoke, and dark mana swirled around the skeletons, enveloping each in a black egg-like shape – just like when he had created Steve.
“Next, I imagine the two mobs combining.”
As he pictured the two coming together, the two dark eggs drifted towards each other. Upon contact, the dark mass grew outwards, creating a single, large black egg.
“Ohhhhh.” Erin was clinging to his surface, and Ryan grinned internally. She had come so far since the fairy who had been repulsed by his becoming a dark dungeon. They had both grown.
“Now, let’s see what hatches,” Ryan said.
Silence filled the dungeon as they sat and stared at the dark egg. Ryan could feel mana swirling within, but until the combination was complete, not even he knew what would emerge.
“I want to go look. Have you fixed the tunnels?” Erin asked after a long moment.
She was met with silence as Ryan realized he had yet to fix the zigzagging pattern that was the path from the core room to Steve’s room.
“Um…“
He silently made a note to make the path from his core room to his second boss room a lot simpler, for his own sake. An irritated Erin led to an unpleasant situation for Ryan.
“I hate you,” Erin muttered before taking off and flying through the tunnel system.
“Love you too, hun,” Ryan called, turning his attention back to the dark mass. He silently prayed to the Goddess that it didn’t finish before Erin reached Steve’s room. Otherwise he would be in even more trouble.
Thankfully, in the minutes it took Erin to fly into Steve’s room, the egg hadn’t hatched. However, silver lines had begun to form on its surface.
“Any moment now,” he said, even as a large crack formed in the egg.
Erin squealed with joy, and flew over the dark receptacle, trying to peek inside. More light erupted as larger cracks appeared, and suddenly the dark egg erupted outwards, causing Erin to cry out as dark mana flew past her. It couldn’t harm her, but it startled her enough that she fell to the ground.
Bone Dungeon (Elemental Dungeon #1) - A Dungeon Core LitRPG Page 20