In a few minutes, Ceras was standing in an empty cavern on the lowest level, close by his room, that was long enough to practices magical range attacks. The cavern had been created by some rock trolls earlier in the day as Hidden-Caverns guested that Ceras would need to practices magic. Ceras could still see the stone cutting marks on the floor that as it was not important to fully make all the walls, floor, and ceilings smooth. Some gremlins were working at the far end of the cave, building several wooden targets for the magical target practices.
"Before we start destroying a target let see if you can cast a spell," said Ceras in a curious tone of voice to the air," I'm going to start with a simple fire touch spell."
Ceras put his hand on the side of the cave wall and slow accessed the spell in his mind and cast it allowing the magical energies of heat to flow to his hand and start to heat up the rock he was touching. Moving his hand back, the rock was glowing a dull red and had a slightly glassy look to it as a wisp of grey smoke was emitted. There was silence from the usually talkative Hidden-Caverns, Ceras repeated the process again another section of the rocky wall, but this time he did it slower.
"I'm trying, but when I do exactly what you are doing there seems to be no flow of magical energy." said an annoyed Hidden-Caverns.
"I'll repeat it for several different spells and see if that make a difference," said Ceras in an easy tone of voice.
The next hour was full of Ceras going through all his different spells, he knew, as slow as he could try, to show the increasingly impatient dungeon how to perform magic. Each time Hidden-Caverns tried; he came across the same effect of lack of apparent magical energy flow.
After a round of talking the problem over with a despondent dungeon, Ceras sat down on the stone floor for a few minutes rest as he thought about what the roadblock could be to Hidden-Caverns using magic. He then remembered about the storage of magical energy, he had just been studying and started to wonder where Hidden-Caverns would store magical energy, as he had no physical body. Looking through his old purse, that he has some money and other items in, he pulled out the blood monster core he had saved from different battles. Holding them up to the magical light he had made, he examined the crystal structure and wondered if this could hold the solution to the problem.
Placing the cores on the floor, he said to the now quiet Hidden-Caverns, "Absorb the core whole into yourself and then let try again as I think that I've got an idea what the problem is."
Rather than the normal white light appearing when the cave absorbs anything, this time the rock around the cores seemed to melt into a grey liquid as the cores sunk.
"Done it," said Hidden-Caverns in an expectant voice.
"Ok," said Ceras excitedly, "try and cast a simple spell like a light."
The cavern went silent for a few second as Ceras sat expectably, waiting to see if anything happened, then suddenly in the air at the far end of the cave appeared a second magical light.
"You didn't do that," shouted Hidden-Caverns with excitement in his voice. Ceras only shook his head, "wow, I did it."
In about a minute, another light appeared halfway down the cave, followed by a few more in the next few minutes.
"I've got a new stat," shouted Hidden-Caverns ecstatically as Ceras saw the information in front of him.
Dungeon Name:
Hidden-Caverns
Major
Energy per hour
Gold
Extent
MP
Number
314
100
9
13
Major
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Number
55
20
25
"It's very low at the moment," said a curious Ceras in a surprised tone of voice, "but I guess as you absorb more monster core, it will increase."
"That should be no problem as the dungeon is being attacked frequently by a monster. I should soon be up to a high MP in a short time," said a happy sounding dungeon, "hey I've just managed to clean up the goblins lair with a cleaning spell, this magic ability is great. Now, where's Rinaldo, he normal stinks as much as the average goblin, got him too. Goodbye, bad smells."
Ceras smiled again and said, "I see you're or maybe hear you later, I've got spells to learn," as he walked back to his apartment to continue reading about magical theory.
Ceras had just opened his magical theory book and was sitting at his large wooden table starting to read about monster cores and the magical energy associated with them, when his door opened with a loud crash, only to see Rinaldo standing in the doorway with an annoyed look on his face.
"Have you been casting the cleaning spell on me again," he said as he now clean face was frowning, "you know how I like to have the manly odor that comes with battle grim."
"Well, it wasn't me this time!" said Ceras in a defensive tone of voices as he looked back at his magical book trying to hid his slight smile.
"Most of being Symania again as she keeps using some healing magic to clean me," said Rinaldo with a thoughtful voice.
Ceras shock his head as continued to look down at his book and said with a sigh, "Wrong again; it was the dungeon as it now can-do magic."
Rinaldo looked horrified as he put his face into his hands and groaned.
"Well that great as I'll never smell right again," he said in a dejected voice, "any way we've all have a meeting as Hidden-Caverns has a quest for us. So, you need to follow me as my sister has summed you."
Celas got up from his table and replaced the precious magical book he had been reading back in the bookshelves and follow Rinaldo to a room that the adventures were referring to as the planning room. As the two entered the large light room, Ceras saw that everybody was there already chatting away sitting at a large dark wooden table in the center of the room. On the wall charts and maps of the dungeon proposed new level were handing up, with written notes on them indicating feature in the design. Ceras had been told repeatedly by Hidden-Caverns how the others were helping in the design of the dungeon, while all Ceras did was studying magical.
Now that the dungeon could do magic Ceras hoped that he would leave him alone to get on with studying magic as if the other were enthusiastic about the design of the new level why did he have to help out. Especially with the fact that Rhef seemed to have taken charge of the design process, and Ceras wanted to avoid being bossed around by anybody.
"I hear that Hidden-Caverns has leaned how to do magic," said Rhef in an excited voice to Ceras, "that really going to increase the scope of our dungeon design is capable of now.
"What I really call you here is that we need to go on a quest for some new creature to help with the construction of the new levels.”
Quest Title
Sample of a Rock Worm
Description
To construct the new level Hidden-Caverns wants you to provide a sample of a rock worm so he can make them for excavation.
Level
8
XP per team member
5
Reward
Ok so I do have money, but you're getting food and lodging for free.
As Ceras looked at the quest information something popped up in his vision, he said, “It seems to be a high-level quest for something so simple as collecting a sample of a rock worm, so why is so high?”
“Well, the rock worms are not as small as you might envisage,” Rhef smiled at the other as she explained, “Hidden-Caverns told me that some of the larger specimens can be up to fifty-meter-long and have a mouth that is built to grind rocks to dust that about two meters in diameter. Their outer skin is normal about a foot thick. This is why we’ll be taking along some orc warriors to help at least get a sample of part of its body.”
Ceras tried to image a worm that large but looking around the room, he thought that it would be too big even to fit in this large room.
“So why do we nee
d this rock worm?” said Rinaldo to his twin sister.
“The new level we are making for the dungeon is going to take a lot of excavation work, and with the kobolds and troll it will just be too slow, so we need a sample of a body of the rock worm so Hidden-Caverns can make hundreds of them to do the tunneling quickly,” said Rhef.
For the next half an hour before, everybody went to collect their gear for the trip, the time was spent on planning or as Rinaldo said: “Rhef telling them what to do as they all listened.”
Ceras was just opening his door back into his apartment when the sight that greeted him stopped him dead in his tacks with surprise and horror. In each of the chairs around the large wooden table was a goblin standing, looking down on to a book. Beside each of the standing goblins were two gremlins turning the pages of the book, in front of the goblin, giving the goblin a brief time to look at each page of the magical spell books. Ceras noted that some of the goblins were even wearing glasses as they looked intently at the book that the gremlins were leaf through for them. There were other gremlins that were carrying books back and forth to the bookshelf that Ceras kept his magical book safe. Just before Ceras could draw his breath into shout at Hidden-Caverns, the dungeon made a sound of clearing its throat.
“I’m not letting the goblins touch the book so don’t worry about them being damaged,” said Hidden-Caverns in a defensive voice as if he was a child that had been caught playing truant.
“But what are you doing with all my book?” said Ceras as he continued to watch in amazement.
“We’ll now that I can perform magic,” said the now eustatic sounding dungeon, “we’re going to become study buddies. It seems that the only magic that I can do is spell that you have learned, so I’m learning as much as I can about magic so that I can give you a proper education and thus increase my own magical power. So, the first step is for me to read all your books, and the easiest way to do this is with some of my creatures. Don’t worry; there were very careful.”
The dungeon seemed to say, that all of that in one breath, as he seemed to be over excited with the prospect of magic. Hearing this, Ceras sat down on the couch as he watched the gremlins carefully handle the books and the goblins never touching them, which he was grateful for had seen them put their fingers in unmentionable places.
“Not a bad idea when you think about it,” Ceras finally said admitting that the idea had merits as if Hidden-Cavern could read all the information in a short time and teach Ceras it would speed up his learning.
When Ceras got ready for the quest, he kept an eye on the readers until he walked out the door with his pack hoping that nothing happened to the magic books while he was away from the dungeon.
Chapter 9 Rock Worms
The was sun just picking its top above the mountains, giving its light flooding in the valley a dramatic quality as all the trees shadows were reaching into the distance with golden shafts of light falling between them. Ceras looked at the dark brown trunks of the trees and compared it to the light green almost golden yellow leaves on the outside of each tree that the golden rays of light were hitting seeming to set it on fire. Within each shaft of light, between the trees, he could see the dust particle moving around the small insects that were flying in the steam of golden rays with wings that went from bright glistering white too dark as they moved. The ground was full of light brown twigs and branches that are sometimes intersecting the path they were following, under the direction of Rhef using her ranger abilities.
Rinaldo was walking at the back of the group as he was chatting to one of the orc warriors that was going to help, the young adventure's, with the capture of the rock worm for the dungeon. Ceras smiled as looked back because it looked like Rinaldo was doing all the talking while the warrior just grunted every now and then as if in agreement with some point the young barbarian was making.
In the last days, they had walking in the foothills of the mountains, the orcs had helped out with weapons training with all the adventures, seeming happy to display them prowess. Ceras was amazed at the practicality of orc battle methods. It was certainly a very dirty form of fighting as it seemed to be a no holds bar method that used anything to attack the opposition with. He was especially wary of their head as if you got to close the best that you could hope for would be to be bitten by the large protruding tusks, while the worst that normally happened was to receive a headbutt to the face, that would require you to asking Symania to heal you immediately if you were conscious.
The orcs had been impressed by Rinaldo wild style of fighting and taken him under their wing's happy to take his enthusiasm and focus it into a battle berserk style that they seem to venerate.
The orcs were carrying several monsters' bodies on the long spear pole, that would be food for them tonight. The first-night Rhef had suggested to the chief orc, that they may want to cook the meat on a fire the adventures were setting up. This had only resulted in a blank look from him, as he shook his head muttering about humans ruining good food by burning it with fire. That night the adventures had eaten as far away from the orcs with a small fire while trying not to hear the tearing and crunching of bones from the orcs camp, but for everybody, the trip had been enjoyable as the large number had added some safety to the long hike through the foothills of the mountains.
"We'll be stopping in this shallow for the night," said Rhef from the front of the column of adventure, "as were close enough to the area that Hidden-Caverns said the rock worms are active in."
The five adventures started to collect firewood for cooking an evening meal that would be a stew cooked in a cast iron pot that Ceras had in his bag of holdings, after an hour of simmering over a small fire. The advantages of Ceras bag of holding became more apparent for traveling more and more on this trip as it was simple for them to put all their equipment into it for him to carry. Because of his strength, the weight did not affect his ability to move quickly, even in battle.
The orc leader came over to Rinaldo and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"You come and fight now," he said with a toothy grin as his lower tusk poked out of his lower lip, "I want to see if you can beat one of us like last night or if you just lucky."
Smiling at the compliment, Rinaldo collected his mace and ran off with toward the Orc camp. As Symania was just starting to prepare the food and was going to be busy for a while, Cerar jumped up.
"I'll do the healing this time Symania," he said as the girl nodded her head in thanks, for a night off from having to constantly heal Rinaldo or one of the orcs that got injured.
As Ceras walked over the slight rise between the two camps, he could already hear the smash of wooden practices weapons on shield and armor. In the center of the orc camp was a large orc fighting in full leather armor against the armored Rinaldo who was in a crouching position trying to fend off a wooden staff hits from the attaching orc.
When Rinaldo received a staff hit on a small round shield in on hand, Ceras saw him blur as if his eyes were not sure where Rinaldo was standing. The next time he reappeared, he was standing behind the orc and was sweeping his mace down, knocking the orc's legs out from under him. As the orc hit the ground, the crowd of fellow warriors cheered and started to move forward take a turn to fight the barbarian.
Ceras smile to see the use of Rinaldo skill that he had gained when he had gained a journeymen level. Rinaldo description to the rest of the adventures, of how it worked, was that time seeming to slow down, for himself for a few seconds.
The next orc was now attacking the adventure with his head down as he rushed forward with a roar, Ceras stood up ready to cast a healing spell on either one of the combatants as a head butt normally ended, with Rinaldo on the ground in a great deal of pain. However, this time at the last moment, Rinaldo blurred as the orc head passed through the image of his body. He then reappeared behind the orc and kicked his backside, causing him to fall over on his faces. The rest of the orcs laughed as Rinaldo went to pick the orc up with soil all over his
body.
As the day finally started to darken with the sun fully dipped behind the mountains in the distance, Ceras had to use his healing spell more and more as the injuries started to mount up. This normal happen as the orcs got more earnest in the fights against Rinaldo and each other. Once it was fully dark, stopping the practices, everybody retreated back to eat and sleep for the evening talking, turn for watching for monsters that seemed to enjoy attacking at night.
--
The adventures were all looking at a near perfectly circular hole in the rocky mountainside, with loose stone all around the exit of the hole with bewilderment. Ceras gathered his cloak around him as the cold wind from the snow on top of the mountains above, cooled the air. Standing in the bleak landscape with its rocks and cropped grass running up the side of the mounting. Looking back at the circular, he looked into the dark tunnel that seemed to go horizontal into the earth. Symania produced a light and sent it into the two-meter diameter hole. The still bewildered adventures all watched it as it lit up the inner surface of the tunnel, to Ceras it seemed that the stone had been eaten away as he saw cut marks on the tunnel sides. When the light disappeared around a corner, Symanis released the spell with a frown.
"I hope the plan is not to go into that," said Grikius with a look of dread on his screwed-up face," as whatever made that could still be in there."
"No, we're going to try and entices it out," said Rhef as she walked over to Ceras and asked for the bag of copper ore from his bag holding handing at his sides.
After some organization on Rhef part, the bag of copper ore was suspended in the middle of the air using Ceras's immobilization spell while the rest of the ore was placed in the circular hole. Most of the orcs were placed around the hole with large spears on the end of the thick pole with Rinaldo and some of the orcs with axes ready to chop into the worm to get a sample of flesh when it appeared.
Dungeon Master Page 8