The Two Week Curse

by Michael Chatfield

  “The sixth floor is the Water domain and one of the deepest. This floor has a radius of one kilometer and is thirty meters tall. The lower domains or levels have the diameter of ten kilometers and are three hundred meters tall, except for the Water domain that is three kilometers from surface to its depths.

  “When the boy opened the teleportation arrays and allowed other creatures into the different domains, they turned from a peaceful ecosystem into a war zone. There are many unbonded creatures that roam around wildly that are no longer connected to this dungeon.

  “Their actions have inflicted massive damage on the different formations and arrays. I have been unable to repair or care for them as I neither have the knowledge nor the ability. My combat functions were locked by my previous master as he wanted me to focus on finding a new dungeon master. There are massive Mana gathering relays that connect the different floors. These were meant to draw power in, to grow the Mana seed that is downstairs. The power flow is just not enough to do so. The relays have been broken off and disconnected and there isn’t much ambient Mana in this domain. I have needed to supply it with Mana stones. I have enough to run the dungeon for another five centuries—well, I did until some people decided to bring nearly two hundred people and their crap with them,” Egbert grumbled.

  “How much power do we have left?” Erik asked.

  “Enough for five months on standby,” Egbert said.

  “If we wanted to teleport everyone out of here, with our power usage, how much power would it take?”

  “About thirty Mana stones. After four months, there would not be enough power left to teleport everyone out.”

  “Is there a way to repair the relays and increase the amount of power we gain?” Rugrat asked.

  “Look at the brains on this one, right? Like, I’m only made of bones and I can figure that one out.” Egbert’s blue flame orbs rolled in his eyes.

  “No need to be a dick about it,” Rugrat complained.

  Egbert looked at his femurs, while raising his hands. “Low blow, dude,” Egbert said.

  Just what I needed, another friggin’ comedian. Erik somehow felt that the old dungeon master was laughing at his pitiful expression.

  Chapter: A new place a new problem

  ==========

  Quest: Restoring Beast Mountains Dungeon Part 1

  ==========

  Congratulations! You have taken control of the Beast Mountains Dungeon. Its condition isn’t the best and it will require work to repair. I hope you brought a hammer! Or crafters.

  ==========

  Requirements:

  Repair the main Mana Gathering formation

  Repair the secondary Mana Gathering formations (0/10)

  Repair the Metal Beast controlling formations (0/3)

  Repair the containment formation

  Repair containment formation sub-arrays (0/12)

  Activate KnghTNG mining machines (0/4)

  ==========

  Rewards:

  Up to 200 ore per day

  100 Mana per day

  1,200,000 EXP

  ==========

  The screen appeared in front of Erik and Rugrat.

  “What’s a KnghTNG?” Erik asked.

  “A KnghTNG breaks down rocks and pulls them out of the ground. The gnomes’ naming conventions were a bit different.”

  Rugrat and Erik looked to him with clear questions.

  “Okay, so they named things based on the sounds that they made most of the time.”

  “So what’s a Vzztpssht?” Rugrat followed up.

  “There are a couple different types, but they’re basically Mana-powered items that can do the work of people. They were used for jobs that no one else wanted to do, primarily,” Egbert said awkwardly.

  “A genius race that named a robot Vzztpssht,” Rugrat muttered.

  Egbert looked as if he were trying to find some thread of hope to grab onto. “Yes,” he finally said, deflating as much as a skeleton could.

  “What is the power used for?” Erik asked.

  “A part is used to keep the different formations running, as well as the Vzztpsshts that maintain them. I have needed to activate more formations upon the arrival of more people, so that the city’s air isn’t toxic. More power is needed to use the smithy and Alchemy workshop.”

  “Okay, so what are our options for getting more energy?” Erik asked.

  “The first is to repair the formations in the metal domain. First, we need to reconnect the formation there to the one we control here. With that active and if the formation in the metal domain isn’t too broken, we’ll be able to gather some more Mana. Then go system by system, repairing them. I would not suggest this method. I would instead suggest we go with the second and third option. We fuel the dungeon with Mana stones and gather Mana cornerstones, or you take the core of another dungeon.”

  “How do we take the core of another dungeon and what is a Mana stone or cornerstone?” Erik asked.

  “Now you are dungeon masters, if you are to beat a dungeon and make it to the end of the dungeon, you can control it—take it over for your own, or you can destroy it. You take the resources of the dungeon and its core. Mana stones are stones formed from Mana. They have different grades but they are useful for people looking to increase their Mana Gathering system, or any Mana-based system. They’re the primary currency in the higher realms. A Mana cornerstone is the seed of a Mana mine. If given enough time, they will increase the ambient Mana in an area and produce Mana stones. These are more long-term power solutions. Given enough time, then the entire dungeon can run off these, but they’re incredibly expensive and rare.”

  Erik was filled with even more questions.

  “Okay, first, do you have any information on the formations, like pictures or documents?” Rugrat asked.

  “Certainly. I have all information resources contained in here as well as other valuable supplies.” Egbert pulled one of his finger bones out; the rest of his finger didn’t collapse as he held it out.

  Rugrat pulled his head back into his neck trying to get away without moving, revealing a few unflattering chins. “That ain’t natural.”

  Erik took the finger bone; even he shivered a bit as he looked inside the ring.

  It was filled with books and scrolls. It wasn’t a simple storage device, either: it had sixteen square meters of room, putting it in as a Lesser Earth grade storage item, worth three hundred gold.

  There were some potions and other organic goods kept inside as well.

  “The main Mana Gathering formation looks like this.” Egbert moved his hands through the light in the center of the room. A massive formation appeared. Multiple shapes were linked together. The hologram became layered; not only were there shapes within shapes, but they were up to twelve layers deep within that.

  “Do you know what needs to be repaired?” Erik asked, seeing Rugrat’s lost look as he tried to find something familiar in the image.

  “This section needs to be fixed to link our floor to the Mana Gathering relay there.” Egbert circled a section and expanded it.

  To Erik, it looked like a pile of coding. He had no idea what it was trying to tell him.

  “Will the robots be able to fix it?” Erik asked, seeing that Rugrat was still clearly in over his head.

  “They can perform maintenance but they don’t have the ability to repair the formation,” Egbert said.

  “Looks like we’re going to need to get a dungeon core.” Erik sighed.

  “Yeah, that shit is way too complicated.” Rugrat shook his head. “Leave me with my weapon formations—those massive area arrays are a nightmare.”

  “There are a lot of different dungeons,” Egbert said.

  “A skeleton!” Blaze’s voice came from the stairs as he looked at Rugrat and Erik talking to Egbert.

  Erik realized that Blaze was pale as he shivered slightly, holding up his sword.

  “Blaze, t
his is Egbert. You can lower your sword; he’s controlled by Erik and me,” Rugrat said, reassuring Blaze.

  “It’s a skeleton, a creation of dark magic and necromancy!”

  “Hey! You tell your mom and dad that!” Egbert said indignantly.

  A weird expression appeared on Erik’s face.

  “You insulting my parents, demon-born!” Blaze yelled, his color coming back.

  “You insulting mine, you pipsqueak ting user!”

  “Ting?” Erik had to ask.

  “That thing.” Egbert pointed at the sword.

  “Gnome naming conventions?” Rugrat and Erik looked at each other.

  Blaze looked thoroughly confused at Erik and Rugrat’s relaxed manner.

  “What’s going on, Blaze?” Erik asked.

  “We’ve found another building on the level. It looks to be some kind of stables. We haven’t sent people to investigate. There are also piles of materials stacked with some weird machines around them. They look like the one that is in the smithy. The villagers are moving to the central area.” Blaze lowered his sword even as he looked sideways at Egbert, who bit his teeth together loudly.

  “Egbert, stop growling at the guests,” Rugrat said.

  “Wasn’t growling,” Egbert complained under his breath.

  Does he even breathe? Erik disregarded this and cleared his throat.

  “Good work, Blaze. We’ll be down in a minute,” Erik said.

  “Sir.” Blaze cast another look at Egbert, who was making a fist, rotating his hand around the other.

  His pinky finger flipped up. “Oh sorry, I didn’t know that would happen!” Egbert said, sounding pure as virgin snow.

  Blaze looked to Erik and Rugrat, clearly confused as well.

  “I think he meant the middle finger,” Rugrat said.

  Erik nodded while Blaze’s confusion increased.

  “So, dungeons and their cores?” Erik asked.

  Blaze walked away, opening his mouth and closing it as the others talked. He simply shook his head and walked downstairs, talking about the devil’s creatures and their curses.

  “There are three kinds of dungeons. Free or random dungeons that aren’t controlled by anyone and have been randomly created or formed. Then there are controlled dungeons; these have been created by something or someone, meaning that they usually have their own dungeon master. Then there are special dungeons; these dungeons can be controlled, but they cannot be destroyed. Only a dungeon master can destroy or take over a dungeon.”

  “So we need to destroy a dungeon, take its core, and then that should increase the amount of power that we get?” Erik asked.

  “Doesn’t sound too hard,” Rugrat said.

  “There are only a few dungeons in the First Realm. Most are in the higher realms. With them having more ambient Mana, it is easier to support their Mana needs. I can give you a skill through the Ten Realms that will allow you to sense dungeons.” Egbert waved his hand; a golden spell formation appeared above his hand and he passed over two parchments.

  ==========

  Skill: Dungeon Sense

  ==========

  You can sense dungeons within a 5km radius. As you increase the level of your dungeon, your dungeon sense’s power will increase.

  Can be cast once per day.

  ==========

  Cooldown: 1 day

  ==========

  “Is there anything else we can use to increase the Mana we have?” Rugrat asked.

  “Anything that contains power, really. If you cast spells, not all of the Mana is used—most spells are pretty wasteful—the Mana Gathering formation will naturally collect this Mana and bring it back to the Mana seed. If one just pours their Mana out while in the Mana Gathering formation, again, this will increase the flow of Mana. Monster cores, people or creatures dying.” Egbert shrugged.

  “Monster cores?” Erik tossed Egbert a Lesser Mortal monster core.

  “Really? Monster core and you give me this bauble? I’d need about fifty of these to have enough power for one more day,” Egbert said.

  “Should give us a few more weeks,” Rugrat said.

  “How much power does it take to teleport five people back to the Beast Mountains Range?” Erik asked.

  “One Mana stone, though you can just take the emergency exits,” Egbert said.

  “If we had the people killing in the Beast Mountains Range, they could increase their strength, get more resources, go to the border villages, and sell off the goods we have, then feed the monster cores to the dungeon?” Erik thought aloud, looking to Rugrat.

  “Doesn’t sound like a horrible plan to me. Though, if we really want to solve this problem, we’re going to need to head to the Second Realm as soon as possible to get another dungeon core to stabilize this one,” Rugrat said.

  “I’m interested in what might be waiting for us in the Second Realm.” Erik couldn’t deny the allure.

  Chapter: Returning to the Beast Mountains

  ==========

  Quest: Restore Power

  ==========

  The Beast Mountains Dungeon is under threat. To a dungeon, Mana is its lifeblood. You must find a way to increase the Mana produced in the Dungeon or a new way to produce Mana.

  ==========

  Requirements:

  [Use adventurers to increase your power]

  OR

  [Repair the main Mana Gathering formation]

  [Repair the secondary Mana Gathering formations (0/10)]

  OR

  [Capture a common Mortal Dungeon core, or equivalent dungeon cores, to fuse with main dungeon core]

  OR

  [Use 50 Mana stones to recover the dungeon core]

  OR

  [Use Greater Earth grade Monster Core]

  ==========

  Rewards:

  Dungeon core recovers partially [1/12]

  Mana per day generated increases based on repairs (can use more than one method)

  Experience (based on results and time)

  ==========

  Erik closed the screen and looked at Rugrat, who was scanning through the different manuals Egbert had given them. “Anything?” Erik asked.

  Rugrat rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh. “From what I can tell, the gnomes who made this place were at least masters of formations. They might have been bordering on Expert. I simply don’t know that much about formations. I’ve been looking into weapon enhancements with arrays, not massive ground-based formations like these. It’ll take time before I’m able to get to that stage, or we’ll need to find someone who’s capable of repairing them.”

  “Looks like it’s about time to head to the Second Realm,” Erik said.

  The room seemed to chill a bit as Rugrat’s face turned cold.

  “I haven’t forgotten about Chonglu City,” Erik said. His voice was calm but his blood boiled thinking about the attack. It was the closest city to them with a Ten Realms totem.

  There was a noise on the stairs. Rugrat put away the reading materials he had been looking over as Erik rose to greet them.

  Elise, Jasper, Taran, Glosil, and Blaze all walked into the dungeon Village Hall.

  Blaze had warned them about Egbert, but they were still all stunned by his appearance.

  “Oh, hey there, boys and girl,” Egbert said, daintily waving his fingers on one hand as he crossed his knees and held a hand in front of his face as if he were blushing.

  They all shivered and paused their steps.

  “Little bit of flattery and they’re all, ‘It’s a skeleton,’” Egbert said to Erik.

  “Stop scaring them,” Erik said.

  Egbert seemed dejected but moved off to the side.

  “Please, sit down. We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Erik said.

  Everyone moved to the seats and the table that Egbert had pulled out from one of his storage fingers. He had removed it from the room to be more efficient. Now it sat i
n the middle of the room with the six levels of the dungeon floating above it.

  “This is Egbert, our resident guide to the Beast Mountains Dungeon. He’s oath-sworn to obey all of Rugrat and my commands. He’s a bit…quirky but we’ll get used to him.”

  Egbert seemed pretty happy to be called quirky as he perked up at the side of the room.

  “First of all, we have a power issue. We’ve got four months of power left in the dungeon. Rugrat has been looking at the plans and it won’t be a simple thing to fix the dungeon and increase our power.”

  “Also, the creatures on the lower levels can be up to level twenty, at least what I’ve seen,” Egbert added.

  “So, we don’t want to be going down there and we need to get more power somehow,” Erik continued. “We’ve got a lot of options but ultimately, we need to have groups head to the Second Realm to try to get what we need. At the same time, we want to build up the dungeon here so that we have a base and a place to rest. First, we need to care for our own needs: food, water, housing, and infirmary.”

  “Umm, I might have forgotten something,” Egbert said.

  ==========

  You have taken over the Beast Mountains Dungeon

  ==========

  Construction ability unlocked

  Blueprint store unlocked

  Resource interface unlocked

  =========

  ==========

  Resources

  ==========

  Food: 6,350 Units

  Stone: 54,000 Units

  Wood: 215 Units

  Mana: 235

  Gold: 91

  ==========

  ==========

  Upkeep costs:

  161 Units of Food per week

  4 Gold per week

  1 Mana per day

  ==========

  ==========

  You have gained control of:

  Dungeon Core

  Manor

  Beast Stables

  Smithy