By the time I was done, it was starting to look more and more like a dungeon. I checked my stats now, happy with what we’d done so far.
Rooms:
Core Room
Essence Growing Room
Melding Room
Loot Room
After so much hard work, Wylie had gone from a level 6 miner to level 9, while my three new kobolds had earned levels 2,3 and 3. One of them must have slacked a little more than the others, but I guessed that Warrane was still learning how to lead, and how to keep his workforce motivated. It’s hard-working out when to chew someone’s bumhole, and when to blow smoke up it.
Wait, let me rephrase that.
Actually, forget it. Lots to do, not much time.
As well as adhering to my dungeon blueprint, those lovely little kobolds had done something else.
While carving their way into the bowels of the caves, they had come across mineral and metal deposits from time to time. This built up the beginnings of a stockpile for me.
Material Inventory
Iron x12
Copper x6
Coal x10
Silver x2
It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
Ah. I hear a question from you. Or did I? Sometimes, it’s hard to work out what I actually hear, and what I imagine. Being a core can be lonely sometimes so even if you aren’t reading this and you are just a figment of my imagination, I’d like to thank you for your company.
Either way, real or not, the question was this; what can a dungeon core do with metals?
That was a good question, and one that I will answer shortly. Suffice to say, there are lots of delightful things he can do. And I mean delightful as in, they will help me murder dungeon intruders. Not delightful in the way most people mean it. Language can be a funny thing.
Anyway, I had an empty room in the east part of my dungeon, just beyond the essence growing and the melding rooms.
I crafted pedestal points in all of my chambers, and I used this to hop into the empty room now. I floated there for a second, alone. Dim sounds reached me; Warren giving the kobolds their orders, Wylie enthusiastically agreeing with them. Rhythmic dinks as their pickaxes carved into stone and dirt.
There was a quieter sound, too. Were I not a core, and if this wasn’t my dungeon, I wouldn’t have been attuned enough to hear it. But I listened, and there it was; Tomlin, in the essence growing room nearby, singing softly to himself. “Tomlin is great, he knows to cultivate. Tomlins essence grows the best, really thick and full of life.”
Well, if that was how he boosted his spirits, then all power to him.
In my empty room, I was eager to get started on something new. I pulled up my list of rooms now, which showed the various kind of chambers I could create in my dungeon.
There was one new, brilliant entry.
Crafting List
Rooms
Essence growing room [Cost 80]
Specialised insect and fungi larder [Cost 100]
Melding room [Cost 120]
*New* Alchemy Room [Cost 300]
Now we were talking! Sometimes, being a dungeon core is all about the little things. You know, like being able to create a room that allows you to alter the inherent properties of items, minerals, and metals, magically transforming them into a state that would have been impossible were it not for magic. Simple joys.
I spent 300 essence points to assign this as an alchemy room. It began to change in front of me; first, the stone walls gained a rather decorative swishy effect. That’s not the greatest way to describe it, but that was what it looked like. Thin streams of multi-colored light moving along the walls in waves.
In the center of the room, two spheres appeared. These were illuminated, and they looked like runes. You know, like the tattoos young heroes always get because they think it’s cool? And then, when a real rune-reader translates them, they always mean something stupid like I’m a massive, massive idiot.
One floor sphere was dark red, the other sky blue. I recalled the brief class I’d taken on alchemy rooms. Their working was simple, but from that simplicity, you could create something amazing.
Before I could get started, I heard footsteps behind me.
“Tomlin has massaged vines in the first essence room to maximum potential. They will grow faster and thicker now. He has planted them in new essence room.”
“Ah, yeah. Thanks, Tomlin. I can already feel my essence regenerating faster. You did an amazing job! And you’ve become a level 7 cultivator already. Great work.”
“Tomlin thanks Dark Lord for his praise. What is Dark Lord doing?”
“This is an alchemy chamber. See the spheres? They’re the heart of dungeon alchemy. If I place something on the red sphere, it will deconstruct it. It’ll strip it away to its most basic, valuable elements. The blue sphere, on the other hand, can transform one object into another.”
“Dark Lord can create anything now?”
“Not anything. Only the most basic things, I am afraid. I’ll need a resident alchemist to make full use of this.”
“Tomlin doesn’t understand deconstruct.”
“Let me show you.”
I already had an idea for my first use of the deconstructing sphere.
Create leech.
Two seconds later, 15 essence points poorer, I had a leech. A slimy, slug-like specimen but with teeth on the underside of its gooey body.
“Tomlin, could you place the leech on the red sphere please?”
“Tomlin would rather not.”
“Would Tomlin rather see how long he could survive on the surface, clanless and with only his annoying songs for company?”
Tomlin pinched the leech between his thumb and index and middle fingers, while turning his head as far away from it as he could. You’d have thought it was some kind of disgusting creature instead of the beautiful, blood-swollen thing it was.
“That’s right, just there.”
The leech was in the center of the sphere now.
Deconstruct.
A stream of crimson light whooshed over the sphere. There was a burning aroma in the air, something like the fumes that mana lights gave off.
When the light dispersed, the leech was gone. In its place was a red pile of dust.
Item Deconstructed: Leech [Unassigned Lvl1]
Results: Vampiric dust [20% purity]
“You see, Tomlin?” I said, feeling pleased. “Leeches can drain the blood from things and use it to nourish themselves. Deconstructed to their essence, you see this. Vampiric dust.”
“What will Dark Lord do with it?”
“That’s a good question.”
One thing I puzzled over was that the vampiric dust only had 20% purity. I guessed this would dictate its effectiveness, but what decided how pure it was?
When I thought about it, only a couple of things stuck out. One, the leech was a newly made creature. It hadn’t leveled up from battle yet, and it was too simple-minded to level up through doing dungeon work.
Two, I wasn’t an alchemist.
Maybe, when using the deconstructor sphere on creatures, the higher the monster the better the purity of its essence. Added to that, a better-ranked, specialized alchemist would use the sphere better than I had.
Still, I had the beginnings of something.
“Tomlin, can you grab some iron from the deposit inventory, please?”
Tomlin trundled off, grumbling that this was no work for a cultivator, and before long he was back with five pieces of iron.
“Thank you. We need those to go onto the blue sphere.”
Tomlin placed the iron pieces on the outer edge of the sphere. Then, grumbling to himself, he picked them up and placed them again, this time in the center. Then he spent a few seconds making sure they were dead-center, and not just near it. I wondered if being a cultivator was giving him a perfectionist streak.
“Okay, great. Finally, please could you put the vampiric dust on the iron?”
He did that, and then I gave a mental command.
Create Vampiric Darts.
The whoosh of light was blue this time, and once it dispersed I saw that I was now the proud owner of 50 vampiric poisoned darts.
Vampiric Poisoned Darts
Iron darts loaded with vampiric dust. When they hit a target, they will restore health to a chosen recipient.
Lovely!
“Thanks for your help, Tomlin. You can get back to making up songs about how great you are now.”
I had to wait for my essence to regenerate before I could act on the next step in my defensive plan. While I did that, I asked Warrane and his mining crew to dig out a new room, this one near the surface door.
“A room? Right beside the surface door?” said Warrane. “This leaf wonders if that is wise.”
“Not right next to it. I still want a twenty-feet long tunnel leading from the surface door to my new room. I take it the tunnel near the door is laced with traps?”
“Tavia believed it was the best place; it would mean that Seekers are besieged by traps when they enter.”
“It would have been my first thought, too.”
“Tavia is very clever. Cleverer than this leaf.”
“I want to meet this elusive Tavia.”
“She will be back soon, Core Beno. The First-Leaf sent her out to scavenge. All leaves must do this sometimes.”
“You like her, don’t you Warrane?”
“This leaf has digging to do.”
I laughed. “Fine. Let me know when the room is ready.”
By happy coincidence, the room was finished just as my essence replenished. It hadn’t taken long. Not only were Wylie and his crew excellent miners, especially under Warrane’s supervision, but Tomlin had really done a great job cultivating essence vines.
After crafting a pedestal point in the room nearest the surface door, way, way north in the dungeon, I hopped there.
This was a thirty-foot square excavation, with only two tunnels in it. One was the tunnel leading from the surface door. The other went deeper into the dungeon. I planned that this room would serve as the first test for the Seekers.
“Puzzle time,” I said aloud, to nobody, since I was completely alone.
Puzzles
Floor Tile Patterns [Cost 250]
Riddle Doors [Cost 110]
Trick Levers [Cost 125]
Transmutation Station [Cost 500]
I still had no idea what a transmutation station was. I’d earned the ability to craft it when I reached level 5, but I still didn’t have enough damn essence.
Forgetting that for the time being, I spent 250 essence on a floor tile puzzle. It spread out on the ground, a 20 x 20 set of different colored floor tiles that covered the room.
Next, I pulled up my trap list.
Beartrap [Cost 50]
Pitfall [Cost 100]
Pressure Switch [Cost 50]
Poisoned darts [Cost 250]
Here was the fun part. I had 200 essence left, so I crafted four separate pressure switches, and I commanded these to go under 4 of the floor tiles.
Next, I set a vampiric dart trap. Here was where having an alchemy chamber came in handy; at 250 essence points, crafting a poisoned dart trap was expensive. Right now I could only make one at once, and I’d have to wait for my essence to recharge. Meanwhile, I wouldn’t be able to make anything else.
Since I had made my darts using the alchemy chamber, it had become a lot more economically viable to have more of them, and all it had cost me was 15 essence for a leech, and 5 pieces of metal that Wylie had mined for me.
I sensed I was only scratching the surface of what the alchemy chamber could really do, but it was a start.
Now, I set the vampiric iron darts in the walls and linked them to the pressure switches using essence.
Done! One floor tile puzzle laced with vampiric darts. When the seekers reached this room, they would have to solve the puzzle and step on the correct tiles, or they would get an arse full of leech-powered iron spikes.
But that wasn’t all. What kind of dungeon core would I be if I left it there?
“Gary?” I said. I used my inner core voice now, which allowed me to talk to my created monsters from across the dungeon. “Could you meet me in the northernmost room, please?”
Soon enough, I heard a squelching sound. Eight squelching sounds, in fact, one after another, getting closer and closer until there he was – spider-leech Gary, with his gooey, teeth-lined legs, his hulking frame made of stone, and his bulging half-dozen eyes.
“Ah, Core Beno! I had expected you would be too busy to talk to little old me today.”
“I have a job for you, Gary.”
“Good, Good. You must have finished the loot room. This isn’t it, is it?”
“No. I’ve decided on a different job for you in this dungeon. See, common dungeon sense dictates that you save the toughest surprises for last. You know, hit the heroes when they’re weakest.”
“A sensible tactic. Warfare at its finest, if I may say so. I do so enjoy tearing a man limb from limb just when he sees victory in his grasp.”
“This dungeon is a little different, and I need to plan my defenses differently. I’m going to station you here, Gary.”
He looked around now, his several eyes wide and unblinking. It was a disconcerting sight, let me tell you. And I was the one who had created him. He truly had a face even his creator couldn’t love, the poor guy.
“Here?” he said. His voice sounded wounded. “In the very first room of the dungeon?”
I understood why he sounded so down about it. I tried to think of it from his point of view.
Have you ever done that? Tried to see things from the point of view of a giant stone spider with leeches for legs? It gives you an entirely new outlook on life.
Thinking along those lines, I guessed this would feel like a demotion for Gary. He had been created as a boss monster, as a centerpiece of a dungeon. The final, monstrous creature who the heroes had to face. And now, well now he was at the front of the dungeon.
“So I am to be the maître-d of the dungeon?” he said. “Standing at the front of the house. Welcoming the heroes. Hello, sir. Can I take your coat? Can I show you to your first puzzle? Would you like a kobold appetizer to sharpen your sword on?”
“I’d prefer it if you tore them apart instead of making them comfortable.”
“I must say, Core Beno, I am really quite perturbed. And I am sorry to use such harsh language with you.”
“Gary, I’m sorry about this. Really, I am. But dungeons evolve, and the threats to them evolve. My defenses have to evolve along with it. I’m going to have to demote you.”
“I…I won’t be a boss monster anymore?”
“I’m sorry, Gary.”
I felt like such a jerk. I had brought Gary into my first dungeon, after all. I had created him in the melding room by combining a spider, leech, and stone-troll. He hadn’t asked to come here. It wasn’t as if I had heard a knocking on my door, and found this spider monstrosity standing there with a sign that read ‘boss monster for hire.’
It had to be done, though. The stakes were much higher in this dungeon, and my opponents were tougher. I’d need a boss monster to match.
One of the fundamental laws of a dungeon was that there could only be one monster at a time. There was nothing I could do to change that; if I made a new one, then the unseen spirits that governed dungeon rules would just melt Gary into ooze.
I couldn’t let that happen.
The only other way was to demote him. It’d mean he’d lose boss monster status, and he’d lose a lot of his attack and defense powers along with it, but it was my only choice.
Demote monster: Gary
Gary grew a little smaller. Only by a foot, but enough to lose some of his intimidating look. His skin was still made from stone, but patches look blacker now, like a normal spider skin.
Note: Do spiders have skin? Question to ask Breedmaster Hul
le if I ever see him.
He hung his head now. I swear to you, I saw a tear form on one of his spider eyes.
When I looked at that, I felt it like a kick in the stomach from a giant troll. This was part of leadership, I knew. The academy had always taught us cores to be cold. After all, it was part of coredom that we’d watch our creatures get hurt and killed.
I was becoming too attached to them. That was what Overseer Bolton would tell me.
I didn’t want to lose that part of me completely, because I believed that fostering a bond with my creatures made us stronger as a whole. But I needed to toughen up just a little.
“That’ll be all for now, Gary. I’ll need you to guard this room and battle any seekers who enter. If you want to eat them, you can, but save any weapons and loot.”
“Eat them?” said Gary, shocked. “Why would I do such a horrible thing?”
“Okay, don’t get like that! Some boss monsters like to eat their kills, that’s all.”
“That’s repulsive, Core Beno. So uncultured. I like to think I have more class about me and not only that, but more of a soul. No, I won’t eat them. I will simply murder them.”
“Good. The tiles on the floor are trapped, and stepping on them shoots vampiric darts. I have linked the vampiric effect to you, so any hero damage from the darts will heal you.”
After explaining that I left him, hopping to another pedestal point and feeling like the jerkiest dungeon core ever made.
CHAPTER 16
Chief Reginal paced around the strategy room. Well, he called it pacing, but it was more of a fast limp, really. A recent dungeon raid meant that he’d never pace properly again.
And he called it a room, but a keen observer would see that it was actually a tent. In fact, there were no real buildings at all in the settlement of the Eternals clan.
As tents went it was a big one, large enough for a replica model of the tunnels to take up half of it. They had set it up on a table on the far side of the tent, where the surprise dust storms would be able to get to it and knock over all the little wooden figurines that represented traps.
Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series) Page 25