The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2)

by Jonathan Brooks

  “I appreciate you saying that. However, don’t forget that it was you who convinced me that he needed it. Speaking of which, how is it going on the…home front?” Milton responded to ALANNA’s commendation of his plan to help build Brint’s self-confidence. He hadn’t really been paying attention to their personal interactions lately, although he was sure he could pull up the recordings if he wanted to. He didn’t bother, because he knew ALANNA was probably a better judge anyhow.

  “The dumbass is still being a fucking pussy. If he doesn’t make a move soon, I’ll have to fucking do something about it myself. The sexual tension between the two of them is frustratingly clear, but the little shit hasn’t done anything.”

  Well, I thought this personality was better. At least it wasn’t directed toward me – I guess that’s an improvement?

  Chapter 20 – Delegation

  Another benefit of Brint’s hunting was the experience gains and skill gains. Not only did the hunting party level up from all the creatures they had fought and killed (at least those that survived for long periods of time), but Milton also received experience for it as well. Added to that, Milton also acquired a new skill in addition to upgrades for some of his combat-related skills.

  Congratulations!

  You have acquired the skill: Delegation (Level 1) --> (Level 3)

  By pawning some of your defensive measures and activities off on your subordinates, you have freed up time to concentrate on the more important aspects of your survival – such as resource management and specimen recombination. This skill allows you to increase your related skills in delegated tasks, as if you were doing them yourself. Unfortunately, no new skills can be acquired during Delegation. Higher levels increase the speed at which delegated skills are upgraded.

  Bonus at current skill level: 3% increase in speed at which delegated skills are upgraded.

  You have upgraded the skill: Formation Fighting (Level 4)

  Bonus at current skill level: 20% additional damage inflicted to the enemy when your units are in a formation.

  You have upgraded the skill: Combat Communication (Level 5)

  Current # of units you can communicate with simultaneously at your current skill level: 50

  You have upgraded the skill: Cooperation (Level 5)

  Bonus at current skill level: 25% increased defense for Combat Units participating in a battle beside a natural enemy

  You have upgraded the skill: Kamikaze (Level 5)

  Damage bonus at current skill level: 600%

  You have upgraded the skill: Tactical Mapping (Level 3)

  Current Bonus: See the current health of Combat Units and the health of enemy combatants, based upon relevant and updated visual information

  You have upgraded the skill: Primitive Defensive Weaponry (Level 3)

  Access at current skill level: Diagrams for all Wood, Stone, and Metal weapons in database

  Not only did he receive these upgrades to these combat skills from Brint’s fighting through the use of his new Delegation (Level 3) skill (although Milton didn’t really think of them as his subordinates – they were his friends), Whisp also helped to upgrade an important one:

  Congratulations!

  You have upgraded the skill: Advanced Engineering (Level 3)

  Cost reduction: .12 X Ingenuity/Wisdom stat %

  Current cost reduction of Defensive Weapons Factory traps: 5.6%[17]

  Although it would help quite a bit in the long-run, it didn’t help a lot now since he had very little access to large quantities of BMUs – which is what most of the traps in the Defensive Weapons Factory required. Fortunately, the next stage of his plan was almost ready to get started.

  As far as Milton went, he had upgraded one of his skills all by his lonesome. Well, it was a result of creating additional Combat Units for Brint to use, but at least he had direct control of this one.

  Congratulations!

  You have upgraded the skill: Geneticist (Level 4):

  Current Bonus: +40 Trait Points

  The current bonus from that wasn’t a lot compared to the amount he received from combining a Proctan with a creature, but it all added up.

  Speaking of adding up, he had accumulated so much experience from Brint’s hunting – as well as from the attack from the four Proctans who had died in the first room of his dungeon – that he had leveled up and was within spitting distance of the next Combat Level. He allocated the 14 points[18] he was given: 10 points went into Ingenuity/Wisdom bringing it to 50, 3 points went into Processing Speed/Agility bringing that to 50, and the extra point went into Sensor Interpretation/Perception bringing that to 32. As he had expected and hoped, raising two more of his stats to 50 had some excellent benefits.

  Congratulations!

  When you reach certain milestones in your statistics, additional bonuses can be unlocked. In this instance, when you reached 50 points in both Processing Speed/Agility and Processing Power/Intelligence, the power required for maintaining your drones and facilities is reduced by 50%.

  Congratulations!

  When you reach certain milestones in your statistics, additional bonuses can be unlocked. In this instance, when you reached 50 points in both Processing Speed/Agility and Ingenuity/Wisdom, the time required to create a Combat Unit in the Bioconversion Laboratory is reduced by 25%.

  Congratulations!

  When you reach certain milestones in your statistics, additional bonuses can be unlocked. In this instance, when you reached 50 points in Ingenuity/Wisdom and a minimum of 40 points in both Processing Power/Intelligence and Processing Speed/Agility, the requirements for ALL items available in the Defensive Weapons Factory is reduced by 5%

  Congratulations!

  When you reach certain milestones in your statistics, additional bonuses can be unlocked. In this instance, when you reached 50 points in Processing Speed/Agility, Processing Power/Intelligence, Ingenuity/Wisdom, and Communication/Charisma, you can now use non-biological components inside your Combat Units and biological components inside your defensive traps. Using this feature will change the costs to reflect the quantity of alternative components used.

  He’d have to experiment to find what that last one was all about, but he was excited about all the rest! The one that got him the most excited was the reduction in power his drones and facilities used – he was getting very close to the limit of what he could realistically maintain at his current power levels. It meant that he could create more facilities like the Bioconversion Laboratory, providing him with another source of his larger Units! Then he could build more drones to help with construction and mining…

  When he thought of his current lack of a proper mine, his hopes died as he realized he couldn’t afford any of that. Added to that headache was the fact that he didn’t have enough BMUs to even expand his farm. He was getting a little bit from the ongoing construction still being finished up; even so, his stockpile of Basic Metal was sitting at just over 2,000 units. They would be done soon with the mile-long cavern, so unless he wanted to excavate another cavern that wouldn’t serve any purpose, he was out of options.

  He began looking at the various ongoing projects and facilities around the dungeon. It was like looking at past due bills that arrived in the mail: 50,000 BMUs to improve his Ore Refinery by 5%; hundreds of thousands of BMUs to fully equip the Farm with enough light to grow enough grass to maintain a healthy-sized breeding stock of his modified Picows; thousands of BMUs to create, set, and maintain higher-tech traps throughout the dungeon; and of course, the Power Generators needed to power them. There was so much he wanted to do, but he was limited by his resources.

  They had done a great job utilizing what resources they did have in equipping the dungeon with traps and designing the rooms so that they were able to function with very little need of additional BMUs. His stockpile was so low, however, that he didn’t even replace the Wire Grid at the entrance because he wouldn’t have enough in reserve if he needed some extra Combat Units – they needed BMUs
too. Not as much, of course, but enough that he didn’t want the lack of them to hinder the replenishment of his dungeon-defending Units if the need arose.

  And maintaining those Units inside the dungeon was also putting a strain on his Bio Mass resources. Although he had stockpiled quite a bit from Brints’ activities outside, he was receiving less and less because his hunting squad was consuming a good portion for their own needs. Even if the hunting stopped right now, between his reserve and his Farm he could maintain everything inside the dungeon without problem for at least a week, possibly a little more.

  With his eye on his diminishing resources and the realization that the last part of the dungeon was being finished up, he called for Brint to wrap up his day of hunting and head back to the dungeon early.

  It was about time he took care of his metal resource problem.

  Part II – The Attack on Quizard Mountain

  Chapter 21 – The Village

  “I tell you, I’m getting too old for all this travel,” Moxwell grumbled as he kicked a rock with a little too much force, which caused it to punch a hole in a nearby wooden fence. Fortunately, it lost momentum from the impact and didn’t reach the house behind the barrier. “Huh, that fence must have been rotted or something…,” he reasoned.

  Rosewyn quickly glanced at the newly-built fence and determined that it was as sturdy as every other fence around the village they were just now entering. Despite his grumpiness, she knew what he meant – her feet hurt, and she just wanted to be done with this job so that she could go home and relax, maybe conduct a little research when she felt rested enough. Fortunately, this was the last stop they were making today.

  And if everything here appeared like she hoped it would, they might be done with this job sooner than they anticipated.

  It had all started almost a week ago when they received the job from the board members of Cordpower – Gavin, their head, in particular – and they got to work immediately. They spent quite a bit of time in Grestwinch where they investigated the disappearance of a merchant by the name of Renviert. From their own contacts (they trusted very little of the information provided by Cordpower), they discovered that he was in the business of selling so-called “black market” items, most of which were relatively harmless.

  Because of concerns about public safety, certain merchandise was forbidden – in the hands of ignorant people they could be dangerous. Rosewyn herself had purchased some of these items in the past from similar contacts for her own experiments, though she had never heard of this Renviert character before. However, through speaking with some of the Guild members stationed inside the Capital, she found out all she needed.

  Renviert had been the one discretely selling the abnormally strong Power Potions that caused Cordpower to get their – as Moxwell was fond of saying – panties in a bunch. When he was abducted off the street by what a few eyewitnesses said were three shady-looking individuals, the entire underground community that bought and sold black-market merchandise was rocked to the core. They recovered – dealing business as usual soon after – but they were paranoid from then on after, looking over their shoulder in worry that they’d be next. She also learned that demand was extremely high for the few remaining potions that were still currently unused.

  Rosewyn personally talked to a high-ranking member of the Guardian Guild who had partaken of the potion. He wasn’t shy about sharing his knowledge of it; he was proud of it, in fact.

  “It was the best feeling in the world. When I bought it, I thought I may have been throwing away my hard-earned money – and believe me, it was a lot – but I was wrong. It was worth everything I spent and more.

  “First, I drained myself completely, which, I’m sure you know yourself, is hard to do when you’re as advanced as we are. Of course, I’m nowhere near your power level,” he looked a little nervous as he said that, as if he suddenly realized who he was talking to, “but it still took nearly an hour of work to get to that point.

  “When I drank the potion, I was expecting to feel recharged like I’ve experienced with normal potions before. However – and this is the best part,” his eyes lit up as he stared off in space, like he was reimagining it himself, “it was like a bolt of lightning shot through my body! Not only did my pool completely fill up, it was like the potion had temporarily widened it. I felt as though I could do anything! It was intoxicating, that feeling of power…,” his focus came back to rest on her face, where he stammered, “b-but of course you know that, you know, b-being who you are and everything.”

  Sometimes it was annoying how everyone could see how powerful she was; sometimes she wished she was just some normal Inventor or something, someone who wouldn’t scare others just by existing. However, in this instance, it came in handy as she got the information she needed from the boastful Physical Augmenter. She forgot his name already – it wasn’t important, and she didn’t like the way he drained his power just so that he could drink the potion. In her opinion, everyone’s ability had a purpose, and to squander that purpose was a crime.

  While she was there, she overheard someone mention the name of an Inventor that Renviert was good friends with, along with a few members of the Guild. This “Whisp” had created a couple of things that they were still using to that day, but one of the guild members had broken something that she had made and needed to get it repaired. None of the other Inventors around could figure it out without taking it apart first, so he was hoping to go right to the source. When he said that he tried contacting her the other day and she didn’t respond, Rosewyn put two and two together and got: “we have a location”.

  So, after almost four days of travel, along with the three days they spent searching for more clues in the Capital, they were a week into the job and hadn’t found any real leads other than the one to this backwoods village on the border. It was a small village, no more than 100-200 people, but in Rosewyns’ eyes that both made it easier and harder. It was easier because there were less people that they had to interrogate (although they tended not to think of this as an interrogation) and harder because a tight-knit community like this was adept at hiding secrets.

  She told Mox to talk to the Mayor and find them a place to stay for the night because it was starting to get dark already. He readily agreed – he appeared just as eager as her to get off his feet – and wandered off toward the largest building in the village.

  Rosewyn wanted to get the investigation started as soon as possible because she had no idea how long it would take to get the information they needed. She headed off in the opposite direction, planning to start with the most likely source of gossip almost every village, town, and city had – the Guardian Guild Outpost.

  It turned out that her fears of slogging through contradictory stories, hidden truths, and personal interviews were entirely unfounded. The two present Guild representatives knew most of the story (or at least their version of it), which was later easily backed-up by talking to randomly-selected village citizens.

  It turned out that the village had a bit of a troublemaker that went by the name of Brint, a unique individual who had absolutely no ability. Rosewyn had never heard of anyone without an ability before so this piqued her interest immediately. Apparently, the Guild had been assigned with posting a watcher to make sure he didn’t get “involved” with anyone who might produce offspring, thereby propagating the non-ability trait. Rosewyn could understand this fear, but she could think of multiple ways to ensure he didn’t get any girls pregnant and believed that the Guild unnecessarily spent resources on something that could have been handled another way. It wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t heard about this until now – Mox and her hadn’t been seriously involved in inter-guild activities in a long time. They were more likely to be out fighting against the ever-present threat of dangerous beasts across the Kingdom’s borders.

  Anyway, this Brint worked as basic manual labor in the fields surrounding the village, where he helped to produce enough food to fulfill the requiremen
ts even a small community needed. He apparently did a good job of it, with very few complaints about his work – but that was where the goodwill of the residents ended.

  They all knew he was “useless” (another term Rosewyn disagreed with) and was forbidden from having a relationship with any girls anywhere. So, with his continued “friendship” with their important resident Inventor – Whisp – they snubbed him and generally thought poorly of him, blaming him for misfortunes even if there was no possible way he could have had a hand in them. When he ran into the forest one day chasing after a rogue Picow who had escaped during a Spiderwolf attack, no one cared overly much that he didn’t return right away. Well, no one except for Whisp.

  From the information she gathered, when he finally returned the next day, he acted differently. He even had the audacity to been seen entering Whisp’s house where they were inappropriately alone for quite a while. Additionally, he was fired after his “job abandonment” and because he lost the Picow he was chasing; despite that fact, he was somehow able to continue living there for months without a job. Most thought he was getting handouts from Whisp, while others thought he had somehow stolen enough money from someone/somewhere to maintain his way of life.

  The events of almost three weeks ago was the only major hiccup in her investigation. The current Guild reps that were stationed in the village were not the same as the ones who were present during the night when Whisp disappeared. Immediately after that night, they were reassigned to different locations and not even the current reps knew where they went. The fact that they were transferred so quickly led Rosewyn to believe that there was some sort of cover-up happening there, which didn’t bode well for the reputation of the Guild.