Then we waited.
While we waited for critters to take the bait, drawn by the lovely smell of essence, I regaled them all with the Soul Bard story that I had finally completed in my head. I have great mental recall for this kind of thing, so I hadn’t needed to get the kobolds to write it down for me. Which was good, because we didn’t have a quill or paper.
I had just finished fascinating them with my literary skills (it was only a short story) when we heard sounds coming from the wall.
“Here we go, clanmates,” I said. “Get ready. Prepare for bogbadugs, but hope for rats and mice.”
The beetles snapped to attention now, streaks of fire roaring over their shells. Wylie stood ready, pickaxe in hand, that unmovable grin on his face. I felt a little anxious, but it wasn’t through fear. I just had a lot invested in my dungeon by now.
In the end, I shouldn’t have been worried.
We didn’t see any bogbadugs, nor anything else as large as that. Instead, a few waves of rats, mice, and voles scurried into the chamber, drawn by the essence. My creatures battled them, making light work of the vermin that came through five or six-strong at a time.
It took a few hours, since every subsequent level is more difficult to attain, but soon I saw a message that made my imaginary mouth beam a big, wide smile.
You have leveled up to 3!
- Total essence increased to 200
- Crafting categories unlocked: Loot, Rooms
- Existing categories expanded
- Dungeon capacity increased: 9 rooms, 12 traps, 6 puzzles, 11 monsters
Your fire beetles are now lvl4 [Warriors]
Ohhhh yeah! The feeling of leveling up was delicious, but even more so were the improvements it gave me.
I am an essence fiend by nature. Seriously, I can’t get enough of the stuff. Boosting my total essence points to 200 fed into my addiction and opened up a lot more options.
I guessed that, thanks to my leveling and my earlier bud splitting, I was ahead of some of the other cores. Especially Jahn. Man, I liked him because he was always the class joker, but I doubted his dungeon was flourishing. Still, I hoped he was okay.
Just as important as the essence increase and how my beetles had toughened up, was unlocking two new crafting categories and expanding the others.
Time to get going!
First, I went to my loot room. There was my trick chest in the center of it with my lovely beartrap inside, as well as the real chest pushed up against the wall. Time to fill it.
I checked my new loot category.
Loot
Bag of Gold Coins [Cost: 50]
Slightly fancy sword [Cost: 50]
Semi-rare Gem [Cost: 75]
Generic Magic Spell Book [Cost: 100]
Now, loot is a funny thing in a dungeon. Common sense would say that a hero doesn’t know what kind of loot is in a dungeon until he fights his way to the chest. So, how does me putting loot in a chest then attract heroes?
Once you open up your dungeon, a little signpost gets created on the surface, near the entrance. This sign has mana woven into it, and the mana takes into account all your monsters, traps, puzzles, and loot, and it calculates a difficulty rating.
The higher the difficulty…yep! The more chance heroes will try to conquer it.
I had already been given my ‘reward’ by Overseer Bolton that meant a higher standard of hero might now come, and I needed to balance things. I wanted to increase my chance of heroes coming here, but I didn’t want ones who would tear me a new bumhole.
So, after considering it, I crafted a Generic Magic Spell Book and a Slightly Fancy Sword.
I figured that this would appeal to both mages and warriors, which would mean a well-balanced hero party would see worth in coming down here to face their gruesome deaths.
Requirement Satisfied!
Requirement: Loot
Requirements Satisfied: 3
This left me with just two things to do: Creating a boss monster, and then finally, finally, making an entrance to my lair of death and torture. Lovely.
So, after letting my essence replenish in my now gloriously flourishing core room, I instructed Tomlin to carve out a new dungeon room right next to the larder.
Tomlin subsequently entrusted Wylie to do the digging, but hey, I had come to accept how lazy he was. The kobold just loved to delegate, which probably made him a great supervisor.
Soon, I had a new tunnel that opened up from the worm larder, ran ten feet, then opened up into a room 8 x 8 feet.
This wasn’t to be any ordinary room, though. When I hit level three, as well as unlocking the loot crafting category, I had also unlocked rooms.
Opening it now, I only saw a few options, but that was okay.
Rooms
Essence growing room [Cost 80]
Specialized insect and fungi larder [Cost 100]
Melding room [Cost 120]
The essence growing room was something I’d need to look at, because it would give me a place to dedicate to growing more essence vines, thus increasing my regeneration rate.
In a similar vein, a specialized insect and fungi larder was infused by mana so that little grubs and stuff would replicate faster, thus helping me feed my clanmates once my population expanded.
For now, I was more interested in the melding room. No, not just interested; absolutely fascinated.
Out of all the classes I had taken in the academy, this was the one that had excited me the most. I remembered sitting there as Overseer Clifftop talked us through it. Core Jahn, of course, spent the whole time joking, but I tuned him out, entranced by Clifftop’s teachings.
Back then, it had seemed like it would take forever until I got to try it out for myself, but here I was. My very own melding room. My chance to create a boss monster for myself.
I was very, very excited.
CHAPTER 22
Okay, let’s see what I can create.
I was alone in the melding room, but talking helped keep my growing excitement in check, and I had to keep a clear head for this.
First, I checked my monster crafting list and saw that it had expanded.
Monsters
Spider [Cost 15]
Leech [Cost 15]
Fire beetle [Cost 20]
Kobold [Cost 35]
*New* Angry Elemental Jelly Cube [Cost 75]
*New* Sinister Owl [Cost 120]
*New* Stone Dwarf Troll [Cost 180]
*New* Bogbadug [Cost 200]
If I was an evil villain, and if I had hands, I’d have been rubbing them together now. Maybe I’d allow myself a cackle or two.
Then again, there’s no if about it. I suppose that to most reasonable people, I really am a villain. At any rate, I don’t have hands, and my cackle sounds like a rat caught in a trap.
Onto more exciting things.
Boss monster construction is a delicate business. By their definition, boss monsters are the toughest creatures in a dungeon, and as such, heroes expect them to provide a challenge. They also must have a weakness. Just one of those pesky dungeon rules, I’m afraid.
The trick was balancing your monster so it could destroy stupid heroes, while still being a fair fight.
How did a core find balance when creating his monster? This was where the melding room was so important.
In a melding room, you can create three separate creatures, and the melding room will combine them into one. It will mix their appearances, strengths, and weaknesses, creating a monstrosity that any right-minded person would flee from. Heroes aren’t right-minded, obviously.
There was a problem, though. Melding is a precarious process, and one that I have no control over. I can only decide which of the three creatures got mixed together.
Say I combined Tomlin with a fire beetle. I would never do it, of course, because Tomlin is my best friend down here, but pretend I did.
I might get Tomlin’s intelligence mixed with the fire beetle’s utter fearlessness and fire damage.
Or, I might get Tomlin’s yellow-bellied soul mixed with a beetle’s stupidity.
I had to be careful. Measure the risks, and only meld my boss monster when I was sure I had chosen the right creatures.
Why not just experiment with it? Just create a boss monster, and then scrap it if it’s a stupid coward?
A good question, with an annoying answer.
Once you create a boss monster, it cannot be replaced until it is killed by a hero. So, I needed to think this through.
I pondered it for hours. I pedestal-hopped through my dungeon while I thought about all the options.
I gave myself a break by locking myself in my core room and meditating amongst the glow of the essence vines. Soon, I heard a pounding at the door. Tomlin reminded me that I owed him some study time, so I obliged him.
By the next morning, if it even was morning, I was ready. Knowing how prone I am to doubt my decisions if I think too much, I hopped straight into the melding room.
Without pause, I spent my essence on three creatures. I had to wait for my essence to regenerate in-between creations, but soon I had all three of them ready.
Creature created: Stone Dwarf Troll
Creature created: Leech
Creature created: Spider
Peculiar choices, to be sure. Especially the leech.
My thinking behind it was this:
I wanted my monster to be tough against melee and minor spell damage, since I was hopeful that the heroes coming into my dungeon wouldn’t be too advanced a level, despite Bolton’s reward.
A troll’s stone skin would repel blades, and it would have increased resistance against the basic mage spells like fire, ice, and arcane.
Throwing a spider into the mix would give my creature more agility, and perhaps would let it crawl over the walls and ceiling, making it harder to hit.
While the leech, though it was a tiny creature, had a useful effect; if a leech latched onto a hero and damaged him, it would convert the damage into health for itself.
Now, with my creatures made, doubt crept in.
This could all go so, so wrong.
I might end up with a leech-sized troll that spun webs from its rump. Or a troll-sized leech that merely had the numerous eyes of a spider. Or a spider that was made of stone, that clung uselessly onto the dungeon walls using its leech suckers.
This damn melding room!
I knew I had to just get on with it. So, I prepared myself. Steeled my mind. Then I gave the order.
Meld boss monster.
CHAPTER 23
“I’m telling you, there’s a dungeon near town,” said Bill.
He was in the Leaky Gutter tavern. The place was usually quiet, with only the regulars like Farmer Yorke and his wife, and old man Teeple drinking there.
Today, there were a few more patrons, and one table of people had especially interested him. There, sitting around a table in the furthest corner of the room, were a barbarian, rogue, mage, and bard.
Heroes!
Bill knew what he had to do, but he needed a few drinks to work himself up to it. After three pints of beer and a throat-burning whiskey, he’d finally approached them. They’d paid him no attention at first, until he cleared his throat and said, “Are you guys looking for a dungeon?”
Then they’d listened.
He explained what he’d discovered underground near town, and he told them about the things he’d heard behind the mud wall. He watched their faces as he explained, and he saw doubt in their eyes.
It was their leader, the barbarian with a big, thick beard and muscles so huge his leather chest piece was almost popping off, who spoke first.
“If there was a dungeon around here, we’d know about it. Dungeons have signposts, kid. We have a dungeon rune that warns us when one is nearby. You’re mistaken.”
“I promise you, I’m not. I can prove it.”
The bard nudged his leader and spoke in a lyrical voice. “I say to thee, twixt me and he…kid might be telling the truth. Might be a dungeon that hasn’t opened yet.”
The barbarian drank a full pint of beer in two gulps, burped, then slammed his tankard on the table. “Well,” he said. “I always said we’re a democracy. We were heading off to the Golden Peaks, but maybe we can stick around a day or two and see if this dungeon opens. What do you think?”
The rogue gave a sinister grin. Bill didn’t trust him at all. “A new dungeon,” he said. “Easy loot. New cores are stupid.”
“Easy loot is crappy loot,” said the bard.
“A new dungeon would take us an hour, tops, and it’d be good pocket money. Since we’re already here, why not try it? Besides, the barmaid here keeps catching my eye.”
The barbarian sighed. “You and your barmaids. Fine, I suppose we’re all agreed. Since you brought this to us, kid, you get a finder’s fee.”
Bill grinned. He’d heard about that tradition. “I’ll forego my fee.”
“What?”
“One condition. You let my brother and I come along. We get a share of the loot, and you consider accepting us into your party of heroes.”
“You’ve got plums, I’ll grant you that. But no, that’s not”-
The rogue nudged the barbarian now. He whispered, but Bill heard what he said.
“The kid and his brother will probably die down there,” he said. “Let him waive his fee and then die in the dungeon. Saves us money.”
The barbarian nodded, and he stuck a big, muscled hand out to Bill. “Kid, you have a deal.”
CHAPTER 24
“Holy demons of the underworld, you are ugly. I mean that in the greatest possible way. It’s a compliment.”
And it really was. The creature standing before me was so ugly it would have shattered every mirror in the Hall of Reflection in the King’s palace.
It was a spider as tall as a man’s waist, with skin made from stone. It had eight legs sprouting out from its sides, as any spider should, except these weren’t ordinary legs.
They were leeches. Squirming, bulbous leeches that looked like they’d let out a gush of foul liquid if you popped them. They had suckers all the way down them, and these suckers had teeth! I’m not joking, they had little yellow teeth like dagger blades.
I was so, so happy with it. Ugly? No, I’d have to revise that. This thing was beautiful in its ugliness. It was magnificent.
A rather nice guy, too.
“Ah, blessed days,” it said, smiling at me. “I have blinked, and in that blink, life has stirred in my soul. This is my home, hmm? Delightful. Little core, you are my master, I take it?”
I was a little taken aback by its intelligence, actually. Most boss monsters were bloodthirsty brutes, which made them a great counterpart to the barbarian heroes that always found their way into dungeons. Boss monsters and hero barbarians weren’t so different, really. Same thirst for violence, different motivations.
“That’s me,” I said. “Round here, they call me the Dark Lord.”
“Your gem-like surface is dazzling, I have to say.”
“Heh. I like you already.”
“May I have a name, oh Dark One?”
“Sure! I kinda have a system for naming things. I didn’t plan it, it sort of developed. See, I named my first kobold, and then I let him name the next kobold I created. So, I guess I should let Wylie name you. It’ll make his day. Wylie? Get over to the melding room, please.”
Soon enough I heard the two sets of footsteps coming toward me, and then my kobolds arrived. Tomlin took one step into the melding room and then leaped backward so fast that he fell on his arse. His eyes widened, and he scampered back a little.
“Gods of doom, Tomlin! This is your new clanmate, he won’t hurt you. Get up.”
“Tomlin…uh…has mining to do, Dark Lord.”
“Oh? You’ve suddenly developed a desire to mine again?”
“Tunnels…uh…need attention.”
“Fine. Get out, you coward,” I said.
Wylie had no such trace of fear. He walked ahead, and he stuck his clawed hand out toward the monstrosity before him.
The spider thing – I hadn’t decided on what its species name was, if it even had one – lifted a leechy leg.
“You’re a lovely little creature,” he said. “Much obliged to meet you.”
“Wylie happy to meet!”
It was a great sight. I loved seeing my clanmates get along with each other, and I felt like this stone-leech-spider-troll-thing would fit in excellently.
“Wylie,” I said. “I’d like you to give our new clanmate a name. Now, please bear in mind that he is the boss monster of our dungeon. He needs a name that fits him.”
“Yes.”
“Something that inspires terror in his enemies. Something grand.”
“Yes.”
“Something that makes heroes shake in their boots, and possibly even wet themselves. Which, of course, your cowardly friend Tomlin will have to clean up if he doesn’t grow a spine soon.”
“Okay, dark lord!”
“Ready?”
“Yes!”
“Then, my friend, give our new clanmate his name of pure horror.”
Wylie patted the spider’s stone skin, and he looked deep into his eyes. All twelve of them.
“Wylie name you…Gary.”
I couldn’t believe it. “Gary??”
“Gary was Wylie’s breedmate. Best breedmate.”
I sighed. “Fine. Gary, you are our new behemoth of destruction. I assume that you know what a boss monster does?”
“Of course, my dark lord chum. Sit in the loot room and deliver death and pain to heroes.”
“Great! We’ll get along just fine. If you could make your way over to the loot room, I’d appreciate it. Just follow the tunnel down there.”
“I say,” said Gary. “A rug or two wouldn’t go amiss in here, Dark One. Brighten the place up.”
Gary scuttled out of the melding room and along the tunnel, his leech legs making a slurping sound as they stuck and unstuck against the ground. Soon I heard a shriek, and I guessed he had surprised Tomlin.
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