Simple enough – expand and grow her dungeon. While at the same time, keeping each section intact.
The problem with that, of course, was that if she kept the first section the same, and then the second section, the Dungeon Force and Control Limit she currently possessed would be consumed with keeping those running. Unless, naturally, visits by Raiders were slow and she had a lot of time to restock and change things around, but that would be the opposite of what Tacca wanted; she had enjoyed having groups running through her dungeon almost constantly, and she wouldn’t want to have to adapt the methods that other Cores needed to use, with having to wait half a day or so before the next group could enter.
That was the main reason that when Cores increased their CI Levels, they typically eliminated the weaker parts of their dungeons so that they could create something more difficult, losing those Raiders at the bottom rung of their careers but gaining stronger visitors at the same time. It was also the reason why Tacca was so popular, at least according to her instruction at DAPS, because entry-Level dungeons didn’t stay that way for long. They increased in difficulty quickly, as it was much easier to get stronger within the first 5 years of their existence, and Dungeon Assistants were taught to encourage change to make dungeons more appealing and challenging.
It made sense, most of the time, but Tacca was really hoping to keep everything running, so that she had many Raiders running through her rooms at the same time. With the unique way she created the exits, as well as the two separate entrances she had planned, it was possible to have more than 1 group in her dungeon at a time – a feat that was near impossible for most older Dungeon Cores she had learned about.
So…what do I do?
Whether it was her still trying to adjust to being in the world again, or she ended up damaging her mind when her Level increased so much, but Tacca was having difficulty planning ahead – something that she’d always been great at. She didn’t think it was permanent, thankfully, but for now she was just a bit overwhelmed.
Fortunately, she had an Assistant that was there to help for exactly this reason.
Chapter 6
The solution had been a simple one, and Tacca hadn’t even seen it. Fortunately, Shale had considered it a bit, his mind working on a different wavelength than the Dungeon Core entirely. Simply put, the answer lay in the Special Characteristic menu, which she had basically all but ignored once she had paid back the Points to get rid of her negative Characteristics. They had served their purpose, getting her access to all of the Variants for her creatures, but for some reason purchasing more Special Characteristics[1] hadn’t occurred to her.
From her increase in Level, she had already acquired an extra 175 SCPs – 25 per Level – for a total of 225 SCPs. Now at Level 20, this was the last opportunity she would get to acquire more SCPs at a rate of 12 CIPs to 1. It was certainly more expensive compared to the old 4 to 1 ratio she enjoyed all the way through CI Level 10, but if she waited until she was Level 21, the rate would go up to 36 to 1. In addition, the next time she went through another Level increase, she would end up having to wait for another year for her countdown to end, similar to how her Dungeon Assistant status was right now. At least until Level 41, when the countdown would increase to 5 years.
For a total of 14,100 of her CIPs, she could convert them into 1,175 SCPs; added to her previous total of 225, she could have 1,400 Points to spend on Characteristics. If she didn’t convert them, then she could increase her Dungeon Force maximum by another 1,000, her regeneration by another 20 per minute, and add another 900 to her Control Limit – with a handful of Points left over. It was a hard decision, and one that would affect the rest of her life as a Dungeon Core, because if she messed up it could have dire consequences.
Fortunately, she wasn’t one to take the easy route. Looking at my original choices for Special Characteristics just emphasizes that point.
Crossing her non-existent fingers in her mind, Tacca converted nearly all of her remaining CIPs and brought her total up to 1,400 SCPs. Before she had committed to this endeavor, she had already perused her options and knew exactly what she was going to purchase.
For exactly half of her available Points, she acquired Decreased Dungeon Force cost for all creatures and traps: 40%. As soon as she confirmed her purchase, she felt an immediate shaking in her Core, as if something large had smacked it like a bell with the flat of its fleshy hand. When she stopped reverberating, she was thankful that she didn’t feel that any cracks had formed as a result of acquiring the Characteristic. Instead, Tacca’s Core felt…freer, somehow.
Getting rid of her negative characteristics had been like snapping the chains weighing down her development, making her feel lighter as a result. Being “freer” felt like additional possibilities suddenly opened up for her; it was as if she had previously been hindered by such excessive Dungeon Force costs in her creatures and traps, and with a decrease in that cost, she could do so much more.
“Are you alright, Tacca? You seemed a bit strange there for a moment?”
Yes, I’m fine – that was just unexpected. It was true, she did feel quite good. Almost like she was on the right track.
With the remaining 700 of her SCPs, Tacca used them on another Characteristic that cost quite a bit: Decreased Control Limit for all creatures: 60%. This was the second of the two limitations that had been concerning her with her future expansion plans. With the new Characteristic, she now felt even more free to do what she wanted. It wasn’t a complete elimination of costs and limitations, but she was absolutely convinced her new acquisitions were going to be the best of any of her purchases.
Just like that, all but 50 of her CIPs were used up, purchasing increases in Dungeon Force, DF regeneration, Control Limit, and converting into new Special Characteristics. Using 28,300 Points that quickly was a rush, and she felt better about her future – and the future of her dungeon. When the heady feeling of gaining so much in such a small space of time finally faded, Tacca got to work.
Within seconds of starting to fill her new section up with creatures, she noticed the difference in costs. For instance, her Werewolf Warrior in her Boss Room, which previously cost 900 DF and had a Control Limit requirement of 95 (which was a little less than a tenth of her total Control Limit), now only cost 540 DF and had a requirement of 38 CL. Her entire first section now required a measly 76 of her Control Limit to operate creature-wise, and her second section – once she finished filling it – only required 413. She now had a little over 700 CL to spend, which would go a long way towards a new section once she decided to work on it.
What her new acquisitions had the most impact upon, as far as she was concerned, were her traps. For her Trap Specializations, her Enchanting and Life traps, they cost 40% less than the previous discounted cost; unfortunately, the 60% reduction didn’t stack with the 40% to make them 100% less – otherwise known as free. Still, when each reduction was taken one after another, it amounted to a total of 76%! Better yet, the automatic replacement of them was 75% off of that cost, which equated to a measly 6% of its original cost before reductions.
The only thing that the new Characteristics didn’t affect were the Rewards she placed inside of each creature, but with the reduction of their Dungeon Force costs, it didn’t matter all that much. Most of the time, the additional DF spent on Rewards was relatively negligible, other than for some of the Enchantment Scrolls – and most of those were reserved for hard-to-acquire treasure chests or as Rewards for defeating her Werewolf Boss.
Overall, she was extremely happy with how things had turned out, and she was glad she had listened to Shale about how to use her Core Improvement Points. With the second section completely done, with traps placed, creatures ready, Rewards placed (as well as a few hidden treasure chests full of goodies), and Rotating Stone Bridges set up correctly, Tacca opened up the rest of the tunnel leading to the surface. Once she was open for business again, she spent some time etching some stylized skulls outside of each entrance –
1 for the original section, and 2 for the new section.
It was actually Shale’s idea on how to indicate which one was which. At first, she wanted to put a literal inscription detailing that the easier dungeon was for Raider Levels 1 – 5 and the newer dungeon was for Raider Levels 6 – 20, but that just seemed like too blatant of a communication.
“I know you already used this method to talk to those you Bonded with,” he had said disapprovingly, “but for the rest of the world, I would recommend not advertising exactly how ‘intelligent’ you are.” He gave it some consideration, before offering a solution. “Why don’t you use some sort of picture like the exits to indicate the difficulty. Like…maybe a skull? The more skulls, the more chance of death, perhaps?”
So that was how it came about. After that, there really wasn’t much that Tacca could do, especially when there weren’t any Raiders coming to visit her. As she idly spent some time and her constantly regenerating Dungeon Force carving out even more of the massive mountain where she made her home – in anticipation of designing a new section – Shale spent more and more time working with Malachite and the Head Instructor from DAPS. Mostly, he used his free time to scout out what was happening around the continent, which was growing more worrisome as time went on.
By the time her two Bonded Hill Dwarves arrived, Tacca had learned a lot from Shale regarding the state of affairs – and about the blue-skinned, 6-armed invaders and their systematic destruction of Dungeon Cores up north. Which was why she had sent them away with her messages, because as much as she wanted them to delve through her dungeon again, bringing other Raiders, it would be extremely selfish of her if she didn’t do whatever was in her power to help everyone.
As she was essentially the only real point of contact the Fairies and Dungeon Cores had with the mortal races, now that the Conclave of Sages had been wiped out (that took a little bit of explanation from Malachite when Shale asked about it), it was the least she could do. She wanted to do more, to strike back at those killing her kind – both her current and former forms – but there really wasn’t anything she could do. Unless they came back, which she fervently hoped they wouldn’t, they were essentially out of reach.
Two days after Sterge and Gwenda left, a few important things happened. The first, which she was slightly trepidatious about, was that Tacca improved her Core to CI Level 21. A month after she had woken up from her last improvement, she had accumulated just enough CIPs to advance to the next Level from the addition of more creatures and Rewards, as well as the replacement of about half of her traps in her defensive room for a little bit stronger ones. Now that traps cost less, as well as having an increased Dungeon Force maximum, she could place traps that used to cost a base of 4,000 DF for 1,000 DF, which still seemed to be near her limit of 25% of her maximum.
Not only that, but she also added a few other traps inside of her defensive room along the ceiling and walls. While she didn’t have a specialization in them, the Poison-type traps she had reaching down from the ceiling interspersed within the room would expel a strong hallucinogenic poison in a large area, blanketing everything within the 10-foot width quite easily. It wouldn’t really do any damage to any interlopers, nor was it particularly strong because it wasn’t her specialization, but her hope was that the constant attack would whittle down those pesky, glowing shields the invaders possessed so that her other traps could do their work.
In addition to the Poison-based traps on the ceiling, the walls of the room were now dotted with Projectile traps. There were quite a few options when it came to the type of projectile, as well as placement, count, size, and speed – it all really depended on what you wanted the trap to accomplish. In this instance, as she wasn’t expecting many – or any at all, perhaps – of the projectiles to actually reach the bodies of the monstrous invaders, she chose to go for quantity over quality. Whenever one of the traps were triggered, the activation area of which extended across the entire width of the room at what she figured was approximately waist-height on one of them, 50 small barbed darts 3 inches long would erupt at high velocity from small holes in the wall, peppering the victim. Again, they weren’t designed to kill, but to wear down defenses over anything else.
Of course, when she was done, she realized that there was a flaw in her defenses. If those people invaded her inner sanctum again and braved her defensive traps, they could potentially activate one trap, wait for the effects to disperse and for their own defenses to recover, and then keep going. It would be much slower than she had seen those 6-armed people advance before, but if they understood how it worked, they could certainly survive through every trap in the room within a half-hour or so. It was a sobering thought, and one in which she (nor Shale) couldn’t figure out the solution to, but she resolved to work on it in the future.
Because for now, she had improved her CI Level! Tacca had an additional 5400 CIPs to use on anything she wanted, but she held off on using them right away. She wouldn’t be getting any more Points for over a year, because at CI Level 21 through 40 the countdown extended to that time period. Therefore, she wanted to save it for the moment, only using it when she decided what direction she wanted to take next. That, and there was something else that happened that was even more exciting.
Shale had finally hit one year of Bonding with her! Of course, it was technically more than a year, but because of her times “away”, the countdown had frozen in place for nearly a half a year. Still, it was something to celebrate!
Dungeon Assistant Information
Assistant Name:
Shale IronSchist
Assistant Rank:
Expert
Assistant Stage:
5/5
Experience:
8623/27800
Experience Pending/Countdown:
0 in 50 years
Fairy Mana (FM):
2000/2000
Fairy Mana Regeneration:
80 per minute
Abilities:
Core Bond
Instant
50 FM
Translocation
Instant
70 FM
Forceful Repulse
Instant
400 FM
Mass Ejection
Instant
2000 FM
Energy Transmutation
Instant Transfer
0 FM
Hibernate
Sustainable
1 FM per minute
Electrified Pacification
Sustainable
250 FM per minute
Healing Aura
Sustainable
20 FM per minute
Creature Boost
Sustainable
40 FM per minute
Perception Link
Sustainable
5 FM per minute
Invisibility
Sustainable
3 FM per minute
Projectile Shield
Sustainable
500 FM per minute
Repellant Shield
Sustainable
2 FM per minute
After accumulating nearly 60,000 Experience, Shale not only blasted through all of the Novice Stages, but he also shot through the entire Adept Rank. He was now an Expert Stage 5, which meant that he had nearly become Master Rank in a single year. That was unheard of and she would’ve considered it an impossibility, even with the best dungeon build and perfect conditions; with all that had happened to Tacca, however, it wasn’t surprising. As for her own Assistant Ranking, she still had about 3 months to go before her own year was up, and it would also end up being a significant increase when that time came.
“These…are…amazing!” Shale exclaimed in wonder after recovering from his increase in his Rank. Fortunately for him, he didn’t suffer like she had when she had improved her Core, but when it happened he appeared as if he had been shocked and his body spasmed for a few seconds as it adjusted to the changes. There didn’t seem to be any lingering effects, however
.
What do you mean?
Tacca could see his Dungeon Assistant Information Sheet, and recognized a few of the Abilities that he had, such as Electrified Pacification and Healing Aura. The rest, however, were new.
“Well, the Projectile Shield ability is a sustainable shield that can protect me from any projectile as long as it’s active. It’s expensive at 500 Fairy Mana per minute, but I think that is well worth the cost.
“Then there’s something called Creature Boost, which allows me to connect with one of your creatures to provide a boost to its physical abilities, effectively doubling its deadliness. The only problem is that I have to be in the same room as the creature, and I can only Boost one creature at a time.
“Forceful Repulse is an instant ability, which sends out a shockwave of magical force that can push everything away from my location. It is powerful enough that I think I can actually hurt someone if they slam into a wall or something – or perhaps into a trap?
“Then there’s Mass Ejection, which is something I’ve never heard of before,” he continued excitedly. Tacca had to agree – she hadn’t heard of it, either. “It requires all of my Fairy Mana, but it basically opens up a portal inside of one of your rooms and ejects everything living it touches out of your dungeon, just outside of the entrance above. This, unfortunately, also includes any of your creatures in the room, as well as any Environmental Objects such as your plants and trees.”
That certainly is powerful! The ability would’ve been extremely helpful when those merchant Raiders with the powerfully enchanted armor had attacked, for instance. Against those blue-skinned invaders, though, it would’ve been useless because Shale had been unable to use any of his abilities.
The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Page 6