The Land: Predators

by Aleron Kong

  There were completely new tiles on the screen: Point Allocation, Resource Allocation, Loot Allocation, and Dungeon Defenses. He didn’t really feel like diving too deep into the first three yet, not with the fourth offering answers to questions that had been bugging him for almost a week. When the hill that contained the Dungeon had appeared outside of the village, it had also come with three strange patches of land. The Chaos energy that had created the Dungeon had changed these three swaths from grassland into barriers that blocked any approach to the hill except from the north.

  Richter focused on the defenses one at a time. Consuming Sands obviously referred to the patch of midnight-blue desert that protected the western approach to the hill. Looking at the words closely, a prompt appeared.

  Consuming Sands are indigenous to the moon of Aquiel. They are a living organism that, though not self-aware, is always hungry. The intense pressure exerted by the sands allows for rapid production of gems and combustible liquids from the remains of organic creatures. These two treasures draw even the knowledgeable into the crushing embrace of the Consuming Sands. Creatures killed by the sands will be made accessible to the Dungeon as respawnable monsters. +10% to Gem Spawning. +10% to Flammable Liquid production.

  Richter blinked, reading it twice. Was that blue patch of sand really a rapid way to make oil? And what was that part about making gemstones? The overtone was clear. The sands were predators of some type, but it also appeared they could be a cash cow for the village. If he could figure out how to use them safely.

  The next defense was Siren Rock. It had to pertain to the mini-mountain range of clear crystal that protected the southern border of the hill. Richter focused on the words and another notification appeared.

  Siren Rock is the scourge of seafarers in the northern Raquig Ocean. These floating crystals show only a small part of themselves above the water while hiding massive and sharp protrusions beneath the surface. They can call and mesmerize the unsuspecting to guide their boats onto the hull-staving protrusions. The rocks do not feed in a conventional manner, but instead are strengthened by the escaping life force of dying creatures. Sea predators often swim around Siren Rocks to feed on the sailors of sinking ships, but the rocks themselves can directly feed on the emotional energy of any creature that touches them. Such beings die as their very will to live is sapped away. Creatures killed by the Siren Rock will be made accessible to the Dungeon as respawnable monsters. -10% Perception of all Adventurers while in the Dungeon.

  Well, that was all kinda weird. He had vampire rocks in his backyard. Vampiric mermaid rocks, Richter corrected himself. And he definitely didn’t like the decreased Perception part. That meant any traps would be that much harder to find. He knew the Dungeon had to be strong to protect itself, but still… this just seemed like a bad thing.

  Shaking his head, he realized that, bad or not, there was nothing he could do about it. He checked the third entry, Esur Vines. The writhing, thorn-covered vines covered the eastern approach to the hill.

  Esur Vines are a predatory plant from the Great Equatorial Wilds. They feed on the blood and carcasses of animals foolish enough to get within reach of their brutal tendrils. Known as “The Savage Grace,” the only blessing its victims are granted is a swift death. Creatures killed by the Esur Vines will be made accessible to the Dungeon as respawnable monsters. +10% Plant Growth and Plant Potency in the Dungeon.

  The vines sounded like a bad way to go. Their trait finally seemed like a boon, however. Perhaps the Dungeon could be an herb factory for the village. Even with Isabella’s garden and the greenhouse attached to the Dragon’s Cauldron, Tabia always needed more raw materials. Richter would just have to wait and see how it worked out.

  What was clear, however, was that three sides of the Dungeon were bordered with deadly creatures that could not be resisted or bargained with. Yeah, his decision to not let the kids play outside the walls had definitely been a good one. The last defense, the snake’s head cave mouth, just showed the Doubt debuff that Richter already knew about. It also had the word “Current” next to it. That made him wonder if there were other enchantments it could cast instead. For the moment though, he had a more important question on his mind.

  “Can you make it so that the Dungeon defenses don’t hurt any of the villagers?”

  “You have the same capabilities that I do,” Roswan replied. “You are the Dungeon Master, correct?” he asked, like the answer was obvious. Which, of course, it was.

  The fact that Roswan was right irritated Richter to no end. Huffing slightly in annoyance, he accessed each defense one at a time, this time with the intention in mind of making the defenses’ targets selective. There was actually an amazing amount of functionality. He could make the defenses ignore individual people or whole races. Richter stopped and thought about it, realizing that the defenses might be a good for the village in general. He gave immunity to all of his villagers, the kindir that belonged to Verget Kunig and the sprites loyal to him and Hisako. Anyone else would have to take their chances.

  While all of that had been interesting, it still didn’t answer the question of why Roswan had made a damned chicken coop! “So, I don’t get it, man. Are these chickens deadly somehow? Do they spit fire? Have poisonous claws? What?”

  Roswan pinned him with a glare that was half-confused and half-offended, “These are chickens, son. They are the blessed vehicle that the banished gods gave us to create one of the two greatest substances known to elf or beast!” He didn’t say anything else, just letting his stare do the talking.

  “You mean eggs, don’t you?”

  “Eggs!” Roswan interjected before Richter had even finished talking.

  Richter wanted to rip that mustache off! Instead, he tried logic, “But this is a Dungeon, man. Don’t think I didn’t notice that those Dungeon Points were missing. You used them to make this Room! If you’re going to use Dungeon Points, shouldn’t they be used to make things like scary monsters? Or better yet, treasure? Randy and Hisako are up my ass telling me that I need to make the Dungeon strong ASAP! And you give me a Room that only makes… breakfast. I hope you can turn these chickens into magical attack chickens or something!”

  The caterpillar sitting on top of the elf’s lips began to vibrate in a way that meant Roswan was extremely irritated. Not just his normal, pathologically ever-present level of irritated either. “What is wrong with you, son? Who in the hell would take something innocent and delicious like a chicken or an egg, or a…,” the Engineer stopped, at a loss for words.

  “Bunny?” Richter supplied.

  “Or a bunny,” Roswan said, nodding and gesturing with his hands like it was the perfect example. “And make it dangerous? I do not plan to fear my food, Lord Richter. When I eat, it is the food that fears me!” The elf’s eyes were spitting fire and his normally taciturn face was so severe Richter wondered if the Mist Village was about to have its first Dungeon Keeper-Dungeon Master battle royale!

  Thinking about it for a bit, Richter finally decided to chalk the Room up as a business expense. If it kept Roswan happy and got him to work hard, it was probably worth the points that had been spent. At the very least, it would mean more eggs for everyone else at breakfast. He decided to simply say, “Nice Room.”

  “Grrmmm,” the elf replied after a few moments. Then, looking around at his pride-and-joy again, he added in a mollified tone, “It does some other things too. You should be able to see it on the Dungeon screen.” The elf was clearly in love with his creation, because soon he was smiling his mustached smile again as he looked at the nests.

  Richter started to access the information window again, but then sighed heavily as Roswan stepped through the room, grabbing eggs here and there. It wouldn’t have been that bad, but the song the Engineer was singing to himself was just weird. “First you take the chicken to the killing stump…”

  Willing his mind to fight off the creep attack he’d just suffered, the chaos seed accessed the window for the Egg Genesis Cham
ber, an absolutely insane name for a chicken coop in his opinion.

  Egg Genesis Chamber (Level 1)

  Provides a safe place for a specific Dungeon Creature: Chickens, to roost and lay eggs. Provides easy egress for chickens to enter other parts of the Dungeon.

  Chicken Capacity: 50

  Chicken Respawn Rate: 5/day

  Egg Production: 3/chicken/day

  This Room will provide an easy source of food for Dungeon monsters. +10% speed to monster generation in the Dungeon.

  This is a SAFE zone. Aggressive monsters and Dungeon debuffs cannot affect anyone inside of this Room. Traps cannot be placed in this Room. Current Access: Unrestricted.

  Richter paid special attention to the last line in the prompt, “Current Access: Unrestricted.” Focusing, he found he could make it so that only he and Roswan could enter through the energy field at the front of the room. He actually tried to make it so that access was restricted to him alone, but apparently, as Dungeon Keeper, the elf had the run of the place. That gave him a moment’s pause, not quite comfortable about not having complete control over something as powerful as the Dungeon, but he let it go a moment later. Relying on others had never been easy for him, but he was also smart enough to understand that it was necessary.

  He decided to change the access to “Restricted,” and made sure that everyone he gave Dungeon access to would also be able to enter the Room. As stupid as the name was, it was a safe zone. If his people were hard-pressed fighting the Dungeon’s monsters and couldn’t make it to the exit, being able to enter this Room might just save their lives. He didn’t plan on letting just anyone access it though. If someone made their way into the Dungeon by some other means, say Adventurers from the Labyrinth, they were on their own.

  “I see now that there are real benefits to this Room,” Richter admitted begrudgingly. “And it’s actually a great idea to have a Safe point off the main chamber so our people can hide if they get overwhelmed.” He was starting to understand how much power his title of Dungeon Master entailed. Effectively, he’d just made a battleground where his people could be safe, but enemies couldn’t.

  Roswan responded with a self-satisfied, “Grrrmmm,” at seeing Richter’s grudging admiration. There was a ‘no shit, Sherlock’ component of that ‘grmm’ as well, in the chaos seed’s opinion, but Richter figured maybe he deserved it for judging without knowing all the facts.

  “This could also be very helpful in ensuring the village has enough to eat,” the chaos seed said, thinking about it. “Could we take these chickens out of the Dungeon and breed them with those in the village?”

  Roswan rubbed his neck as he thought about it, “Grmm. I am no expert yet, but I am already getting feelings about what will and will not work. It is almost as though I am learning the Dungeon like it is a part of me. I know, for instance, that the creatures created by the Dungeon are sustained by its magic. If you take them out of here, they will die. The carcasses are just meat though, so animals killed here should be able to be eaten without any issue.”

  Richter nodded. He already knew that. Except for a bad case of gas, eating all those koran tuskers had gone off without a hitch. He did have a thought though, “What about creatures that are born in the Dungeon? Like baby monsters born in a Lair?”

  The elf’s mustached danced back and forth as he chewed on the idea, “If you catch them young enough it might work. If they stay in the Dungeon for several days, however, they will magically grow and mature. Then, there will be no difference between them and Dungeon-spawned monsters.”

  Even with that caveat, this was good news. It could really help the village’s tight food situation. Adding five chickens a day to the larder, not to mention a hundred and fifty eggs, would go far. He’d have to assign someone the task of grabbing the five chickens every day, but he had already noted a transport Node in the Room when he came in, so whoever he sent wouldn’t even have to go through the main chamber and risk attacks. Richter also decided he would give the order to collect any newborn chicks that were seen. If they could grow normally along with the chickens out in the village, poultry population growth could be exponential! He stopped a moment, thinking that he would never in his life have predicted he’d be getting excited about chickens getting it on… but he was!

  “Alright, man,” Richter said with a smile. “You did good.”

  Roswan response was just to look back with his normally stoic expression, but Richter was pretty sure he saw a happy twinkle in the mustached elf’s eye.

  “Now,” Richter continued, clapping his hands and rubbing them together, “what else can you do for me?”

  CHAPTER 84 – Day 145 – Kuborn 35, 0 AoC

  The two men talked for another half an hour. Roswan described what else he had discovered about the Dungeon since being its Keeper. First, they talked about the tiles that had been added to the interface. That had occurred automatically, the Dungeon’s response to Roswan’s Specialty. More functionality might be possible in the future, but the options already added gave a great deal more control over the barrow’s growth.

  The Point Allocation tile dealt with what areas the Dungeon was growing in each day. It described where the one hundred and sixty-eight Dungeon Points that were generated each day would be invested. Those points could be funneled into any number of endeavors like Monster Creation, Lair Formation, Loot Generation, Resource Generation, Leveling, Dungeon Growth, Dungeon Point Reserve and more. Dungeon Point Reserve was apparently like a piggy bank of points that Roswan could use at his discretion. That was how he had been able to make his new Room.

  Apparently, creating the Egg Genesis Chamber hadn’t taken nearly as many DPs as Richter had thought. As soon as he had assigned Roswan as Dungeon Keeper, the Engineer had immediately gone to the Forge and requisitioned pickaxes. The elf had then used his new ability to summon mist workers and had put them to work digging into the wall of the central chamber. He had tried to use other mist workers from the village, but the Dungeon monsters had immediately torn them apart. Only Roswan’s own summoned creatures shared his immunity to attack.

  Though the elf’s small mana pool and low Wisdom had severely limited how quickly he could summon mist workers, over time he had been able to conjure more than a dozen. The tireless creatures had been able to hack through a large amount of rock in a relatively short amount of time. The 70% boost to the village’s Productivity hadn’t hurt either.

  The constructs had worked all night. Once they had excavated enough rock to form the room, the Dungeon Keeper had only needed to use two DPs to smooth it out. He’d already “appropriated” a chicken from the village’s livestock and thrown it down the Well of Offering. Richter had to stifle a sudden chortle at the mental image of a living chicken falling down that interdimensional abyss. BaGAWK! He shook his head, reflecting that there might actually be something wrong with him, and turned his attention back to Roswan.

  After the room had been sanded out, Roswan used about a fifty DPs to turn it into an actual Room. Because the excavation had already been done, and because the chickens were simple, noncombat creatures, it hadn’t cost very much. Roswan told him that the largest expenditure had actually been to make it a safe zone. Again, that cost could have been much higher, but since the Room didn’t have much square footage, it didn’t break the bank.

  After Roswan had explained how the Room had been created, he explained the other facets of the Point Allocation tile. Each day, the Dungeon would decide what portion of its available points would go into each category. Roswan apparently had some minor influence over this but could only affect the Dungeon’s will in small ways. To Richter, it sounded almost like the elf was pruning a Bonsai tree. He couldn’t dictate how the Dungeon would grow, but with care and through small changes, he could shape it so that it became a reflection of both his will and its own nature.

  Roswan said that he had the ability to reallocate up to 10% of the total DPs from other areas without penalty. He could do more than that, but th
ere would be a net loss. Specifically, it would cost five DPs to allocate one to another area. The Dungeon Keeper also revealed that he had Talents that could either increase his reallocation allowance or decrease the penalty, but he hadn’t decided what to spend his Talent Points on yet.

  Apparently, most of the DPs so far had gone to leveling. Roswan told him there appeared to be a cap of 50% limiting how many Dungeon Points could go into any one area of investment. Again, he was fairly sure this could be increased through his Profession. Right now, half of the Dungeon’s DPs were invested in increasing its level. That mean the resources it generated and the loot it produced were less than they could have been if more points were allocated to those areas.

  Richter realized that this wasn’t overly surprising though, seeing as how the Dungeon’s Primary Motivation was to connect with the Labyrinth. That could only occur once it reached level ten. Checking, he saw that the experience required to reach level two was ten thousand points. It immediately occurred to him that there might be a correlation between the leveling system the Dungeon adhered to and his own. It had cost him a thousand XP to move from level one to level two. Perhaps the Dungeon just needed ten times as much.

  Richter couldn’t be sure because he could only see what was required to get to the next level.

  Dungeon Experience: 3,281/10,000

  One thing that Roswan was sure about was that each Dungeon Point could be traded for ten Experience Points. If Richter was right about the ratio though, even if the Dungeon could somehow allocate 100% of its DPs to leveling, it would still take more than two hundred and sixty days to connect to the Labyrinth. The Dungeon Keeper told him that was another reason why Dungeons needed to feed. They could channel 100% of the energy they gained from kills to any area they wished. That was when Roswan pointed out that if Richter unlocked another of the village’s Powers, then the Dungeon Points generated each day would gain another 100% boost.