The Station Core_A Dungeon Core Epic

by Jonathan Brooks

  Everyone in the Core Room was silent for a couple of moments after they heard the splashing far below. It was a bit anti-climactic, but when you needed to do a job, sometimes it doesn’t matter how simple the solution is – as long as it works, who cares if it isn’t flashy?

  “See, I told you I would take care of—”

  Suspended in the middle of the hole, and softly floating upwards on a rotating disk of air, the two battered-looking Proctans were floating on their backs, alive and for the most part whole. Each of them sported some nasty cuts that were still bleeding and Mirve appeared to be missing his left foot – most likely it had been sheared off by some super-sharp falling debris. The two disks of air softly deposited them on the Core Room side of the tunnel, where they both lay there with moans of pain.

  Milton missed an opportunity to attack as he was shocked at the cockroach-like ability of these two to survive everything he threw at them. Before he could even consider sending some of the badgers he kept as guards near his core, Glert had fished out of his bag what appeared to be his last remaining health potion and downed it in one gulp, and within moments his wounds had been magically healed.

  Mirve started digging into his bag as well, just as he started to scream as the shock of his foots’ amputation wore off. Glert walked over and finished searching the caster’s bag as well, muttering obscenities as he cut his fingers multiple times on broken glass vials. In the end, Milton saw him extract a singular intact vial – a Power Potion. Through his screams of pain, Mirve watched Glert find it and immediately put his hands out in a “gimme” motion, pleading with the Augmenter to give him the potion.

  With disgust etched all over his face, Glert told the still-bleeding caster, “You’re of no use to me now. Giving this to you would be a waste – and I’m anything but wasteful. But I can be merciful.” He had a grim smile on his face as he withdrew his dagger from the sheath on his belt and bent toward the now-silent Mirve. Milton could see some stray wisps of wind try to blow the Augmenter back, but the Elemental Caster must have been tapped out because the last thing he heard before he turned his attention away was a hoarse, “Waitwaitwaitwait NOOOOOO—”.

  ALANNA summed up the whole situation with a very pertinent, “Holy FUCK!”

  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 – 2/3 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.

  Chapter 40 – See! I told you…

  Milton returned his attention back to the invaders – invader – and witnessed Glert bent over and wiping the blood off his dagger on the already-bloodstained robes of his latest victim. Raising himself back up, he continued down the tunnel without even a backward glance at his erstwhile companion. The next 50 feet were built in a curve, so that by the time the Augmenter could see the Core Room he was practically on top of it.

  Brint was sitting along a ledge near the back of the room, but he was still visible enough that recognition was almost instant.

  “I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!”, they both shouted at each other simultaneously. ALANNA snickered, and Milton would have thought it was funny if it wasn’t for the fact that if the murdering Augmenter managed to kill Brint he was probably next. Removing the giant sword from his back, Glert started running toward the room with the blade pointing behind him, as if he was preparing to swing it forward.

  Brint’s face was contorted in a rictus of hate as he jumped down from the ledge he had been sitting on, splashing through the water as he strove toward the object of his hatred. The three badgers that he had as guards were already alert, but now their control had been taken over by the near-insane mentality of his Proctan friend. It should have been impossible considering the amount of power he had to expend to control them all but being in close proximity to the source of the power helped immensely. Milton was about to wrestle back control of them, but he was interrupted by trying to time his next move properly.

  His drones activated his gate trap precisely on time, where the encroaching hostile Proctan was in no position to avoid the multi-ton block of stone that came crashing down. At least, that’s what he thought before some uncanny sense alerted Glert to the danger approaching from above, causing him to drop his heavy sword behind him as he activated his speed augmentation and raced ahead of the stone that crashed down, clipping his foot and making him stumble forward to land with a splash in Milton’s filter water.

  Seeing him now without his main weapon, Brint and his Clawed Badger guards arrived at the entrance before he could recover from his near-death experience. Only his augmented speed allowed him to avoid all but a small scratch on his leg from the lead badger, but even the graze of one of their claws was enough to cause his leather armor to part and blood to leak out of some shallow wounds.

  Hoping to take advantage somehow (which to Milton seemed insane since he had no weapon), Brint launched himself at the back of the stumbling Physical Augmenter. He wrapped his hands around Glert’s neck, perhaps hoping to choke him to death, but the Augmenter wasn’t fazed in the least. Switching tactics, he instead beefed up his strength using his ability, bent over, and launched Brint across the room, impacting a wall and landing with a splash next to one of the drones that had cut one of the gate trap ropes.

  In his efforts to remove the other Proctan from his back, the badgers had been able to close on Glert and attack. However, since they were no longer being directly controlled by Brint, they were blind and only able to sense where he was through the sounds of splashing. Barely moving away in time, Glert stumbled backwards and fully fell into the water for the first time. Climbing back to his feet, he finally got the chance to pull out his dagger and paused as he tasted some of the water that had gotten into his mouth.

  “Holy shit! This whole room is full of Power! I feel invincible now!” He flexed his muscles as if he was trying to show off at a body-building competition, laughing hysterically all the while. And that was the moment Milton shot him with his self-defensive cold laser.

  Without the natural defense of a body covered in scales, hard skin, or ablative armor, the cold laser did what it was supposed to do – cover the intended victim in a block of ice. Milton took over the control of his badgers, using his Combat Communication skill to direct all three of them at once. They moved in to attack and slice up the frozen Proctansicle but were momentarily pushed back as something unexpected happened.

  Using his outrageous speed, the Physical Augmenter moved so fast while encased in the ice that it had practically vibrated, violently shaking until it reached the critical point where it had no choice but to be expelled outward with extreme force. Shards of ice flew out in all directions, many of them pinging harmlessly against his outer shell but a couple impacted his Clawed Badgers, causing two of them minor damage. Unluckily, the third took a large shard to one of its eyes, embedding itself so far up the eye socket that it pierced its brain, instantly killing it.

  Milton sent his other two badgers back in to attack, hoping that they would be able to get to the Augmenter before he was prepared to defend himself. That hope was in vain, however, as Glert recovered quickly and used his speed augmentation to run circles around the slow badgers, stabbing them multiple times within a matter of a couple of seconds. When they lay dead at his feet, he turned back to Brint, intending to finish the job he came here for.

  Ever since Glert had survived his fail-safe trap, Milton had been hard at work. Knowing that he didn’t have a lot of time, but now with a plethora of Processing Power/Intelligence to control qu
ite a few units due to battle losses incurred earlier, he started production of the cheapest, quickest, and – in his opinion – deadliest Combat Unit that he could think of.

  With his back end pointing away from the entrance, he was therefore able to assemble a small army, pooping out units every half-second while they hid behind his massive bulk. Brint, in his rage and focus on Glert the whole time, hadn’t seen what Milton had been doing – but ALANNA had. She genuinely smiled at him, knowing that what he was doing was the hardest thing that he had ever done, but knowing he did it not only to save himself, but to save a friend.

  At almost 200-strong, a veritable swarm of Blood-thirsty Squirrels flowed around both sides of his shell, making very little noise as they swam toward the distracted Augmenter. Glert was taking his time, walking slowly toward Brint while the one-time farmer was slowly getting to his feet after being thrown against the wall. He was unaware of any danger until he felt something touch the back of his lower leg, where it attached itself and started to climb up his back. He reached back with his free hand, snatched the squirrel by its neck, and brought it out in front of him so he could see it.

  “What the hell is—OW!” The squirrel, not liking being picked up, had turned its head and bit down on Glert’s hand, drawing a small amount of blood with its surprisingly sharp teeth. The Augmenter quickly used his super-strength to squeeze the small animal, breaking its neck and practically decapitating it. He threw it away to the side and took one more step toward Brint – but he didn’t get any farther. The momentarily distraction and sacrifice of the initial squirrel was enough time for the legion of furry agents of death to reach him.

  While most climbed up both of his legs – front and back – about a dozen dove down under the water and started chewing through the tough leather of his boots, using their nearly razor-sharp teeth to slice it into pieces. Using his enhanced speed this time, Glert immediately started pulling each squirrel off his upper body and flung them away, where – if it wasn’t damaged too much – it immediately swam back to attack again. Within seconds, the Augmenter was covered in Milton’s furry army, until a few were able to make it to his face where they were able to get a quick bite in before being snatched and thrown away.

  Milton hadn’t stopped creating them either – for every squirrel that was crushed or thrown savagely against a wall, two more were on their way. It was only when he realized that he was in trouble that he tried to run away from them, but by that time the squirrel divers had reached his feet, where they quickly started biting and ripping apart tendons and his Achilles. He apparently was so distracted by the other, closer squirrels that the pain didn’t reach his brain before he took his first step.

  Falling to his knees, no longer able to support himself with his feet being shredded, he was now even closer to the circling squirrel army. They took full advantage of this fact, latching onto his shirt and with a single bound were at his throat and face. Covered in small bite marks and dripping blood into the water, Glert’s face became enraged.

  Somehow using both of his abilities at the same time, his hands were a blur as they snatched a squirrel head and crushed it, dropping it before grabbing another. He was making progress as a steady stream of corpses started filling up the area around him, and Milton was starting to worry that his army wouldn’t be enough. That was until his squirrel divers had switched tactics and begun attacking the one place any man would protect above all else – even his face.

  The first indication that his squirrels had hit pay dirt was when the Augmenter screamed in a high-pitched startled yelp, followed by a frantic yanking of squirrels from of his crotch, where he then flung them away with crushed skulls. Milton kept the attack on his family jewels going, causing Glert to have to defend it with one hand while attempting to protect his face with the other. This insistence to protect his manhood was his downfall as he was swarmed in two places, until finally his head was so covered in fur he looked like some sort of demented werewolf.

  Blood now ran freely from his face and neck, and even when he attempted to salvage the situation by abandoning his nether regions it was too late. One lucky bite had fully opened the artery in his neck, which he couldn’t reach to stop the blood from gushing out in mass quantities. A last-ditch effort on his part consisted of smashing the squirrels – and consequently, his face – with devastating blows, causing more harm to himself than he probably intended. As the blows started coming slower and with less strength, Milton watched as the Physical Augmenter finally fell forward, his dying body creating a great splash and flinging random squirrels off into the water.

  He wanted to make sure he didn’t make the mistake of both villains and heroes in the movies he used to watch – always triple-check to ensure your opponent is dead. He doubted Glert could feign his own death – especially with the amount of blood now floating around the pool – but it never hurts to make sure. After another minute of his squirrel army tearing up the remains of the Physical Augmenter, he called them off.

  “See! I told you they were Blood-thirsty Squirrels.”

  Chapter 41 – Mutations

  Congratulations! Your Combat Units have defeated Proctan Male, Designation: Physical Augmenter, Name: Glert! You gain 10000 experience!

  Continue to defeat your enemies to level up!

  Current Combat Level: 12

  Experience: 105260/133500

  Congratulations!

  You have upgraded the skill: Survivor (Level 3)

  Bonus at current skill level: 15% increase in defense of Combat Units

  New Short-term Goal: Emergency Measures – Complete!

  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 – 3/3 killed Complete!

  - Stop them from reaching your Core – Complete!

  Difficulty of Goal: Hard

  Timeframe: Soon

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

  Bonus Reward: For using an unconventional swarm tactic using primarily non-combat-oriented Combat Units, your rewards are doubled: +5 -> +10 Insight/Luck and 5% -> 10% increase to defense

  Additional Bonus: For surviving your first Sentient Lifeform incursion, you receive 20,000 experience

  Milton was pleased at being able to take out the invaders, and yet disgusted at himself for how out-of-practice he was fighting against smarter, more powerful opponents. Looking back at the battle, he realized that instead of succeeding with the use of superior tactics, he had gotten lucky more than anything else. It was only the last part of the fight that he improvised, using a basic Zerg[36] tactic more than anything. The last century of fighting simple – and even some not-so-simple – creatures had dulled the edge he used to employ against difficult foes.

  When he had first arrived on this planet, the difficulty in staying alive from day to day had pushed him to employ his Combat Units in unusual, but effective, ways. Even the traps that he had designed were a result of scrambling to find a way to defend himself from stronger, more numerous creatures. But lately, with his increased level, new facilities, and what he thought were unstoppable killing machines in his BBQs – everything had been too easy. Well, not easy – but he wasn’t pushing himself to create new and unique traps, Combat Units, or even expanding his dungeon. In the end, he had grown complacent.

  Even with the discovery that people were on this planet, he failed to consider that they had something he had little defense against – magic. Milton vowed that he would do all he could to learn more about magic in this world – and how to defend against it. He had years and years of experience to draw from the videogames he had played, but he needed to know the rules and how it worked here. Even ignoring the fact that he had somehow inadvertently caused the magical ability to
appear in the Proctans, the mere presence of people with unusual powers should have made him investigate it further than he had.

  But, rather than beat himself up about it any more than he already had, he turned his attention back to Brint. His Proctan friend had busted a couple of ribs with the impact against the stone and Milton had immediately sent him to heal up in the Bioconversion Laboratory. He had to have his drones make a temporary tunnel to the side of the corridor that had collapsed into the underground river, but they were so adept at the job that they were done in less than 20 minutes. Once he was done, they all met again in the Core Room to discuss what they would do next.

  “If I’m reading the situation correctly, we have a limited amount of time before this Cordpower Company sends someone – or even a group – to check up on their missing team. If they send someone even a little more powerful than these three, I don’t think we would survive as we are right now. Suggestions?”

  “Let’s take the fight to them. The death of these three was just the start – I won’t be happy until all of them are dead. I won’t let them get away with what they did,” Brint spluttered, the anger in his voice not in the least lessened by all of the recent deaths.

  Milton was worried that Brints’ desire for revenge would eventually wholly consume him, until he couldn’t think clearly or rationally. Just look at the last time that happened – he led those three right to my door. The next time I may not be so lucky.