The Station Core_A Dungeon Core Epic

by Jonathan Brooks

  “Hah! Noob mistake! Never – and I mean never – split the party. Or else something like this happens.”

  Brint’s momentary confusion was cleared up when he saw a veritable army of antlered rabbits and snakes with oversized heads seemingly come out of nowhere to attack the unprepared duo. Six of the rabbits sprinted and impacted the back of Mirve, knocking him down onto his face. Three of the rabbits had died upon impact, their horns still impaled inside the body of the caster. Mirve yelled out in pain, high-pitched screaming sounding like a little girl, and Reginald started to move in his direction with a wary eye on the remaining rabbits.

  He didn’t notice the five snakes hiding in the leaves ahead of him, who sprung to attack when he literally walked on one of them. They couldn’t reach his face, but two were able to latch onto one of his arms, two bit into his junk – which Brint thought brought a nice falsetto accompaniment to Mirve’s little-girl screaming – while the one that was stepped-on sank its fangs into Reginald’s ankle.

  As the Healer tried unsuccessfully to detach the snakes, flailing one arm in the air and the other gingerly yanking on the ones attached to his manhood, Mirve stopped his screaming and focused on his ability. Brint watched as two whirlwinds formed, one surrounding Mirve entirely and the other next to the Healer, until they were spinning so fast that the air seemed to shriek. Still prone on the ground, the Elemental Caster slowly brought his hands together like he was trying to squeeze something, straining while he tried to contain it. The twister next to Reginald shrunk in size until it was a swirling vortex of shrieking compressed air.

  Directing it with his mind, Mirve deftly maneuvered the vortex of death toward Reginald, quickly slicing through the head of each of the snakes hanging off the Healer. The compressed swirling air was moving so fast and in such a tight space that it literally cut them into pieces. When the last snake, the one attached to his ankle, was dead, Mirve dispersed the vortex of death and Reginald started healing himself with his ability. While he was doing this, the three remaining rabbits had backed up and with room to run they ran straight for the injured caster, hoping to finish him off.

  As soon as they reached the whirlwind around Mirve, they were picked up and rapidly spun around and around, with no damage except for perhaps being dizzy. That changed when the caster repeated what he had done earlier, compressing the swirling twister until it grew smaller and spun faster. The rabbits were carried along with it, until they were spinning so fast that they started to break apart – blood, fur, bone, and internal organs mixed together until it looked like small ball of red and white was rotating violently in the air. With a flick of his wrist, the ball shot off into the forest breaking apart within a dozen feet and flinging the remains of the three rabbits all over the trees.

  “FUCKING HEAL ME ALREADY!” Mirve screamed at the Healer. Reginald had fully healed himself, and while he still looked a little more worse for wear, he obliged by slowly waddled over to the prone caster. Before he could reach him, he froze as he heard something come up behind him. He turned to see a pair of frighteningly large bears, skin covered in hard scales and sharp-looking claws only a dozen feet away.

  He backed up in fear, tripping over Mirve – who was still on the ground – and eliciting a further scream of pain from the caster when he inadvertently impacted the antlers still stuck in the casters’ back. Now in too much pain to concentrate, the Elemental Caster could only writhe on the ground while their death approached with the unhurried ambling of the two bears.

  Brint watched with glee at the imminent revenge – and, truth be told – a little disgust at himself at how much he was enjoying the suffering of these two men. These two emotions warred within his mind only for a second before REVENGE slapped disgust in the face, knocking it out. As he rooted for these bears, he secretly hoped that they would suffer as much pain as Whisp must have before she died. Unfortunately, the absent Physical Augmenter made an appearance.

  Cutting off their advance, Glert had sped toward the two bears before he slowed down and whipped the massive sword off his back. He was no longer moving with insane speed, but his strength was so great now that he was able to move the near-six-foot, six-inch wide blade back and forth like it weighed no more than a wooden switch.

  Brint’s attention on the battle was interrupted by ALANNA, who derisively said, “You think he’s compensating for something?”

  “Oh my god, ALANNA, not now – I’m trying to concentrate,” he could hear the Milton say, but still with a hint of amusement in his voice.

  With wide sweeps, the over-sized weapon pushed back the bears, who were smart enough to avoid walking right into the attacks. However, despite their apparent strength and deadliness, Brint saw that they didn’t move very fast, which was further hampered when Mirve had recovered enough to use his ability again.

  No longer screaming in pain, the caster determinedly got to his knees and faced the two bears that were barely avoiding the sweeps of the giant sword. Placing his hands on the ground, he clenched his hands on the sparse handfuls of dirt underneath the undergrowth and slowly lifted them into the air. Mounds of dirt spread over the paws of the bears, temporarily rooting them in place. They immediately started to break free from the enveloping mounds, but they were too late as the sharp side of a humongous hunk of metal impacted with their heads, shearing off the tops of their skulls and taking a chunk of brain with it. The ease at which they were killed left Brint worried – if they were that powerful, then he didn’t think the Milton stood a chance against them. Of course, that was before he saw what happened next.

  “I leave you guys alone for one second,” Glert started to say while turning back to the two others. He stopped and stared for a second, before speed-jumping over the prone caster and cleaving his massive sword into the neck of the BBQ who had just finished slicing off the head of the distracted Healer. Brint was almost as shocked as the expression on the head of the now-dead Reginald – he had barely caught a glimpse of the BBQ as it silently ran into the battle-site behind the Healer and instantly sliced his head off. The whole sneak-attack took less than two seconds from start to finish, but Glert had reacted quickly as well – just not quick enough.

  “Like I said, take out the healer first. Second lesson: Pay Attention! Don’t focus so much on one thing that you ignore everything else. And this is the most important thing – watch for adds.”

  Brint still wasn’t sure what the Milton was talking about. Adds? Even if he did, he was beginning to think that the strange voice in the metal shell was a bit crazy.

  Considering the death of Reginald, he was glad, but he didn’t feel as happy as he thought he would watching one of these bastards die. He wasn’t sure if it was the abrupt nature of the death, if he wouldn’t be happy until they were all dead, or for some other reason. He couldn’t think about it long as he saw that three more BBQs had entered the battle from different directions, attacking the caster who had retrieved some healing potions from his bag now that their healer was dead. He chugged two of them, one right after another in quick succession. The healing power inside the potions caused the foreign objects embedded in his back – the antlers – to be ejected while the skin around the wounds closed until he was returned to healthy condition.

  Glert was using his speed and a small dagger to hold off the BBQs, slashing with little effect toward each one, causing them to back up instinctively to avoid damage. However, even with his speed, they were getting closer to Mirve – who had, unbeknownst to Brint, taken out a small highly-flammable stick about six inches long. In his other hand, he had a hand-held striker, an invention created some years ago for its ease at starting fires.

  “Watch out, he’s going to light that stick and use the flames to attack!”

  Unfortunately, his warning came too late for two of the giant lizards as a concentrated stream of super-hot fire blasted out from the head of the now-lit stick, catching the BBQs in the face and melting their eyes – along with the skin and scales around them. B
erserk with pain, the two injured BBQs lashed out blindly, their strikes missing Glert by a mile as he jumped on the back of the one closet to him. Shoving his dagger into a gap in the scales on the back of its neck, the BBQ dropped to the ground like a puppet that had its strings cut.

  While the second blinded BBQ continued to thrash about, the third retreated as Mirve took aim at it, missing it as it sped away. Glert put away his dagger and activated his strength-augmenting ability again, nearly decapitating the injured lizard with one blow of his massive sword.

  As Brint watched them collapse onto the ground, their power nearly spent and both staring at the corpse of their fallen comrade, he saw them pull another potion out from their bags and drink it. It was only when they seemed to perk up a bit that he realized that they came armed with Power Potions – which made sense if they came from Cordpower. They probably loaded these guys up with tons of potions, knowing that the expense was worth it if they took care of their “problem”.

  “Why did the last BBQ retreat? They were tired and almost out of power.”

  “That whole thing was really just for recon – although I’m happy to see that tactical distractions work just as well here as…well, somewhere else. I also wanted to see how my Combat Units would work if I just gave them instructions instead of directly controlling them in battle against smarter opponents. I’ve been fighting and killing rather stupid single-minded creatures out here for a while and I needed to see how rusty I was. I really need to get my PVP game back…anyway, thanks for the warning – I was wondering what he was doing with that stick.”

  Again, he didn’t understand half of what the Milton had said, but he took it as another indication that he wasn’t really in his right mind and ignored it. “So, what now? Are you going to send more of your…uh…combat thingy’s in?”

  “Nope. Now it’s time to see how they like my dungeon.”

  Chapter 39 – Underwhelming traps

  Milton had heard what was said before the battle, and he knew that Brint had heard it as well. He now had no qualms about killing the men, whereas before he had been hesitant because he wasn’t sure why they were here. With his moral quandary settled, Milton knew he would do anything to protect himself and his friends.

  Congratulations! Your Combat Units have defeated Proctan Male, Designation: Healer, Name: Reginald! You gain 5000 experience!

  Continue to defeat your enemies to level up!

  Current Combat Level: 12

  Experience: 95260/133500

  You have upgraded the skill: Cooperation (Level 4)

  Bonus at current skill level: 20% increased defense for Combat Units participating in a battle beside a natural enemy

  Congratulations!

  You have upgraded the skill: Formation Fighting (Level 3)

  Bonus at current skill level: 15% additional damage inflicted to the enemy when your units are in a formation.

  Congratulations!

  You have upgraded the skill: Combat Communication (Level 3)

  Current # of units you can communicate with simultaneously at your current skill level: 7

  Congratulations!

  You have unlocked an achievement:

  First Blood

  Defeat your first sentient lifeform.

  Bonus – +2 to Insight/Luck and Processing Speed/Agility

  New Short-term Goal: Emergency Measures - Update

  Your territory has been invaded by three unknown Proctans. Defend yourself by any means necessary to ensure your survival.

  - Determine what these strangers want – To kill Brint, discover source of Power Potion – Complete!

  - Kill or otherwise disable the Proctans if they are determined to be a threat – 1/3 killed

  - Stop them from reaching your Core

  Difficulty of Goal: Hard (Updated)

  Timeframe: Soon (Updated)

  Rewards: +5 to Insight/Luck and a 5% increase to defense of all Combat Units.

  “Now we can see how they handle my traps – this should be good.”

  He ignored the confused and skeptical look on Brint’s – and, for some reason, ALANNA’s – faces and turned his attention to the first section of the tunnel, which held his pit trap. It was always good for at least one death when he was attacked by groups of creatures, and he expected that it would live up to its reputation once again. He smiled inwardly as Glert took the lead about a dozen steps in front of the Elemental Caster. The floor started to tilt, and Milton started laughing inwardly as the startled Augmenter slid down the declining platform.

  His laughter died without even having had a chance of being vocalized, when he watched Glert activate his strength ability and perform some sort of super-jump. With a quick squat of his legs, the Physical Augmenter pushed against the dropping floor with such strength that he was launched forward and slightly upward. He just barely cleared the pit and landed safely on the other side, rolling with his momentum.

  The force of the jump had dropped the floor so fast and powerfully that instead of rebounding upwards, the front two-thirds of the platform broke off, dropping into the pit and destroying most of the stone spikes.

  “Ok, I wasn’t expecting that.”

  Mirve was still on the other side of the pit, but since the floor on either side had a foot of safe space – which he had left so that his Combat Units would have an easier time departing the dungeon – he simply walked across the pathway. He did progress carefully, testing each step to ensure that it wouldn’t collapse underneath him.

  With the first trap a dud, Milton was starting to have doubts that his other traps would be effective, especially now that the two invaders were sure to be looking for them. Unfortunately, his doubts were confirmed as they approached the slicing blade trap. Since it wasn’t a surprise, they had plenty of time to consider how to disable the blades, effectively rendering the trap useless.

  The solution was simple when you had access to magic – raise a column of stone into the path of the blades to slow them down. When Mirve had done this, it also had the added effect of breaking a few of the strong, yet thin blades upon impact with the column. He didn’t even have to work hard at finding stone – the walls and floors provided more than enough material to work with. The only thing that encouraged Milton was that after he had raised the column, the caster seemed tired and needed to swallow another Power Potion to recover afterwards.

  His wooden stake trap actually fared worse, since the sheet across the tunnel was obvious if you were looking for something out of the ordinary. The solution again was simple – Glert threw an empty Power Potion vial at the sheet with enough force that it triggered the trap, forcing the stakes through the holes in the wall and crisscrossing the corridor with a wooden barricade. After ensuring that there were no more surprises in store for them, the Augmenter whipped out his sword and destroyed the stakes with powerful blows, turning Miltons’ previously very-effective trap into kindling.

  He had created multiple copies of each trap throughout the rest of his dungeon, which worked well against persistent hostile creatures but only seemed to annoy the two Proctans. They used the same methods of destroying his traps whenever they came across them, with the only change being the pit trap. Mirve started following close behind Glert, periodically using his ability to search the ground a short distance ahead, locating where there was a void in the dirt below. They then preceded to walk around the trap, bypassing any danger. The constant use of power, however, meant that both men had to periodically use another Power Potion to refill their abilities – the consumption of which was starting to make them look a little haggard.

  Brint was looking more and more like he was having some sort of mental breakdown as he continued to watch two of men who had killed his friend easily defeat or bypass his traps. One minute he appeared anxious and fidgety, while the next he had his fists clenched so tightly in anger that he worried that he would accidentally harm himself.

  “Don’t worry, Brint – I’m not done yet. Watch this.”
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  When they had traveled about 90% of the way through the tunnels, Milton decided that it was time to use his last-ditch defensive trap that he had prepared years ago for just this reason. Well, not this exact reason, but this certainly does qualify. Mirve hesitated when he used his ability on the stretch of hallway containing his trap.

  “Hold up – I’m sensing a large void underneath us. It’s different from those damn pits, too,” Mirve said, while grabbing onto Glert’s arm to prevent him from walking any further.

  “How far does it extend?”

  “I’m not sure – at least 30 feet, which is the extent of my sensing ability. As you know, my Air affinity is much stronger than my Earth. I’m not sure what this is, so it’s your call.”

  Milton, ALANNA, and Brint all anxiously watched as Glert stopped to think for almost a full minute, before stating, “We’ve come this far – I say we chance it. I’m not going back to the company without some answers, and this place is so unusual that I believe we could sell the information about this place to the Guardian Guild for a nice payday. But I also don’t want to die – so keep your damn ability working, and we’ll both be fine.”

  Glert began walking slowly across the floor, practically shuffling his feet and cautiously tapping the stone ahead of him with his foot. When they were nearly halfway across the 40-foot stretch of tunnel that contained the trap, Glert started to relax a bit when nothing happened, until Mirve startled him by saying, “I think it ends—”

  He didn’t get to finish what he was about to say because at that moment Milton had his sacrificial drone stationed below remove the keystone holding the bridge aloft. Immediately it began to collapse upon itself from the middle, pulling down the two startled intruders into a giant hole leading to the underground river. They were enveloped in the falling debris, pieces of the hallway crashing together on the way down and demolishing anything caught in between them – including his now-destroyed drone. Milton could faintly hear the clacking of the tunnel pieces colliding as they ricocheted against each other, followed by multiple splashes as all the dirt and stone chunks impacted the water.