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 loved to delegate.
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. You might recall that when I hit level 3, as well as unlocking the loot crafting category, I 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.
Are you excited?
Maybe you aren’t. You’re not a core, after all. You’re still enjoying your first life, and I hope you’re making the most of it. Go hug your dog or something for me.
Even if you don’t get why I was so excited, just humor me and you’ll see.
CHAPTER 22
“Let’s see what I can create,” I said aloud. 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.
Though I guess that to some of you, I am the villain in this story.
At any rate, I don’t have hands, and my cackle sounds like a rat caught in a trap.
Now, 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, my friends, is where the melding room is 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? I hear you ask. 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 hopped through my dungeon while I poured over 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 it 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, no? Especially the leech.
My thinking 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.
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 in town. 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, was 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 big 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 lea
der. “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 forgo the fee, 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, you know. Same thirst for violence, different motivations.
“That’s me,” I said. “Round here, they call me the Dark Lord.”
“Your gem 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 your cowardly friend Tomlin will have to clean up.”
“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.
After that, I began to feel excitement churn inside me. There really was only one thing left to do now, wasn’t there?
CHAPTER 25
It was with a feeling of tremendous excitement that I hopped around my dungeon, checking everything. I felt like I was in a house, preparing for the king to visit or something.
I checked all my traps, my puzzles, my monsters. I made sure the doors all locked and unlocked as they should. I even tested the riddle doors to make sure they had memorized their riddles. They were sleeping, and I had to wake the grouchy buggers up. Yep, everything was working.
Even so, this didn’t feel right. I didn’t have enough of anything. Enough traps, enough monsters.
To quell my nerves, I spent some essence creating four more fire beetles, as well as a bogbadug and a stone dwarf troll. I assigned these creatures to be warriors. This pushed me up to my monster limit of 11, but it made me feel a little more confident.
I then hopped around and rechecked everything again, and again.
I was putting it off, I knew. I was approaching the moment that is every dungeon core’s destiny to face, and I had always looked forward to it. Now that it was here, I felt a little worried. I began to think of all the things that might go wrong, all the little ways a party of heroes could outwit me.
Finally, I realized that I was acting like Tomlin, and I knew that I would have told Tomlin to get a hold of himself.
So, I got a hold of myself, and I hopped to the most northern room in my dungeon, where not so long ago I had placed the beartraps, pitfalls, and the trick looping tunnel.
This was it. The place where my dungeon would open to the heroic public. Time to craft an entrance to the dungeon, and from there, a signpost would be created above.
Tomlin, Wylie, and the fire beetles were with me now. I guessed they could sense the tension in me, because they stayed on the far side of the room, quiet and watchful. I was glad to h
ave them there.
“I suppose you should dig out a slope to the surface, Wylie,” I said.
“Wylie dig! Tomlin too?”
“Yes, Tomlin will dig, too. Penance for being so rude to Gary.”
My friend folded his arms. “Tomlin was surprised, is all. He has already introduced self to Gary.”
I felt like I had been a little harsh on him lately, but I was only trying to make him braver. Managing creatures really was a balancing act.
“Thank you, Tomlin. You still need to dig. This is a momentous occasion, and it only feels right that we all take part. I will even use my core arms to dig some of the slope.”
“Dark Lord dig?” said Wylie.
“Yes, Dark Lord dig,” I replied. “I dug the very first tunnel in this place, I’ll have you know.”
My kobolds walked toward the assigned wall. Just as they reached it, something occurred to me.
“Hold on!” I said. “Our dungeon needs a name, does it not?”
“Name!” shouted Wylie.
“Let’s see. I already had a few ideas, but they didn’t grab me. There was just something missing…ah. I know what we should do.”
My kobold friends looked at me now, patient in their kobold way, and I was surprised to realize how much affection I felt towards them.
“We will each choose a word for our dungeon name, my friends. Because this is our dungeon, not just mine. It feels right that we’ll all name it. Yes?”
“Agree!” said Wylie.
“Tomlin thanks you. This feels like his home.”
I smiled at that. “Good. Our two eldest and most high-leveled fire beetles can name it, too. Beetles? Get over here!”
The level 4 warrior fire beetles scuttled into the room.
“Okay,” I said. “I will give the first part of the name. Then Wylie, Tomlin, and the two beetles. Ready?”
“Ready!”
“Tomlin ready.”
“Here we go then. I now name this dungeon…The Whistling….”
“Gary!” said Wylie.
“Caverns,” said Tomlin.
“Fight!” “Kill,” said the beetles.
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