“Understood. We’re trying to disengage with a group of undead at the moment. We shook off the enemy outside the walls and are heading for one of the spires in the outer areas to use as a defensive position,” Erik relayed back.
“Understood.” It sounded as though Erik was having a tough fight as well with the company still under the slowing reactions spell for another two minutes.
“Rugrat, remember—focus on the dungeon core. It might be the thing controlling all of this or it might be our only hope to make a defensible position.”
“Understood. Rugrat out.”
It’s on us. They can send everyone in but there is no guarantee that they’ll be able to get this far.
Others in the remainder of the scout squad checked their ammunition. Rugrat pulled out his modified bolt action and moved forward.
“Back in!” Rugrat ordered. Those who needed to reload said so as they followed Rugrat, who was moving and visually clearing as he went. The rest of the squad fell in behind him. All of them had training on how to fight in enclosed spaces and were putting it to use as they turned corners and moved toward the spire that the castle was attached to as fast as they could
There were signs of heavy fighting in the halls. It looked as if the attackers had died in great numbers here, seemingly unable to use those numbers effectively against the defenders in the small corridors. Not only when they were alive but when they were fighting as the dead as well. Whole sections of walls had been torn apart and the roof was collapsed in places.
The medic of the squad Shi Song was going between people, administering concoctions and applying a few healing spells as he could. By his expression, things did not look good.
Rugrat didn’t have time to worry. First, win the firefight, then look to the wounded.
That was a law Erik always told him that bound all combat medics, and it was one of the hardest.
Even as they were fighting, they were thinking of the wounded and wanting to care for them, knowing that vital seconds were passing. They were soldiers first and medics second. If they didn’t secure the area then when they were working on the wounded they would be the next casualty.
They kept on advancing, the woman with the busted arm applying self aid to fix herself. She could at least cradle her rifle in the crook of her arm and work the action with her right hand.
They entered a large room that looked as if it had once been a majestic hall. It rose up over two floors with sweeping stairs on the right and the left with what once were hanging chandeliers adorning the ceiling.
Now the chandeliers were broken glass and crystals on the ground. The ceiling showed holes to the sky beyond. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed onto the floor below. Some corpses were crushed under the rubble, while others had died in combat on top of it.
The room was marked with the scars of different spells. Blades had torn through support pillars and heavy weapons had smashed into the ground, leaving craters. Broken arrows littered the floor and archer corpses perched on the second floor of the room, spears pinning some of them to the wall behind them.
There was a doorway that had been blasted open at the end of the hall, behind what looked like it once had been a formation enhanced barricade.
It’s just through there and then below. We’re right underneath the spire.
Rugrat could see a light shining down behind the door as light filtered in through the top of the broken spire in places.
The squad advanced into the room, their weapons raised. They searched for threats as they moved over the bodies and rubble that covered the room.
As if triggered by their actions, undead stirred and started to rise from the ground. Three large skeletons started to shift. The dust moved from their bodies as they grabbed their swords and other weapons.
“We protect,” one of the skeleton knights moaned somehow as it rose up from the ground.
The remaining members of the squad fired on the rising skeletons. The squad had white faces as the skeletons took damage but didn’t seem affected by it at all, even as their bones melted and the explosions pushed them back to the ground.
“First Sergeant, keep moving on. We’ll hold them here!” Dong Ju yelled.
Rugrat and Dong Ju shared a look. Rugrat gritted his teeth. They both knew that they were working on a hunch, that the dungeon core might help them overcome the undead here or it might be useless. They both knew that their squad could be sacrificed so that the rest of the company lived. Rugrat could tell the others knew it too but they didn’t stop fighting.
He knew that it was the right action to take but it tore at him something fierce. George increased in size and Rugrat jumped on him.
George rushed forward, dodging between the recently animated skeletons that lashed out, trying to catch them with their blades. George used a fire spell behind him, creating an explosion that tossed them forward through the doorway. They dragged bodies and armor out with them as George shrunk in size. They tumbled through a doorway and rolled right off the platform on the other side. The inside of the spire was hollow with stairs in it.
Rugrat was now falling down the stairs, seeing the several floors below him and a group of bodies all around a single ritual formation in the middle of the bottom of the spire.
George grabbed on to Rugrat with his claws and expanded as large as he could, stretching out his wings to stop them from falling. George saved Rugrat from crippling injuries but they weren’t able to stop all of their momentum as they hit the bottom floor and rolled.
The armors, weapons and bodies that they had hit and carried with them flew through the doorway behind them and fell several floors before raining down on the ground around George and Rugrat.
More skeletons were rising up in this bottom room. Rugrat and George were now underneath the center of the spire.
“George, fire,” Rugrat said. His voice was rough from the jumping and constant shouting. He grabbed his rifle and fired at the closest skeleton that was getting up.
Their head snapped to the side but they kept on rising. Stronger than the ones outside.
George breathed flames in an attempt to coat the room but the skeletons only seemed more pissed off. One attacked with a spear, the attack drilling a hole in the wall that sounded like an explosion.
Rugrat grit his teeth again. There was no way he could win this in a stand-up fight. The majority of the skeletons were piled around a fancy skeleton wearing a crown, with his hand on the dungeon core. The core was fitted into a pedestal in the middle of a formation that connected to the spire.
The man with the crown, who must have been the emperor, slowly started to move and looked up at Rugrat, his undead eyes a mixture of browns and black. He opened his mouth and let out a scream that reached into Rugrat’s very bones. The shout caused the skeletons around him to move faster.
Rugrat didn’t have any more time to wait as skeletons were still chasing him from the higher levels. One of them fell from above and smashed into the floor, breaking into individual bones that quickly started to reassemble.
Rugrat cast his most powerful explosive shot on the round within his gun, pouring his power into it before firing on the emperor.
The resulting close range explosion made Rugrat immediately go deaf as he felt the heat bleed off the explosion while the Emperor flew backward, slamming through lines of rising skeletons and into a wall. He started to get back up, looking more pissed off than wounded, the only damage mark being his crown was now askew. He stared at Rugrat who was already rushing forward.
A blade appeared to Rugrat’s side, swinging for his hips.
Rugrat leapt, his heart in his mouth as he landed near the dungeon core.
He felt his legs being cut off as he let out a cry in the air. A Mana blade appeared in his hand as he fell towards the core. He dug the Mana blade into the stone pillar and reached out with his other hand to touch the dungeon core.
==========
You have come into contact with a dungeon core
. With your title: Dungeon Master, new options are revealed.
==========
Do you wish to:
Take command of the Dungeon
Remodel Dungeon
Destroy the Dungeon
==========
The emperor let out a yell and launched a metal spear.
“Command!” Rugrat yelled.
Everything seemed to freeze as the undead stopped their movements with sudden jerks.
Rugrat looked around a few times, the tension in his body not getting any weaker as he looked at them all
“George, legs!” Rugrat said, feeling all of the pain of his missing legs.
George grabbed Rugrat’s dismembered legs in his mouth. Gingerly he took them and put them next to Rugrat.
Rugrat pulled out a repeater, holding it ready as he used one hand to force his stump together with his severed leg. He let out a scream between his teeth before he poured healing potion liquid over the two different stubs and held them together the best he could. The two halves merged back together and started repairing themselves as he looked around at the skeletons, making sure that they hadn’t moved.
He grabbed his other leg and then repeated the process.
There were tears running down his face as he noticed that there was a call on his sound transmission device.
“Rugrat, did you get it? The skeletons just stopped fighting here,” Erik asked.
“I think I did,” Rugrat responded, still looking at the skeletons that had been attacking and trying to kill him moments ago. He was not really sure whether he had control of them.
==========
Event Cleared!
==========
Vuzgal has come under your command, staking your claim on this once lost land, returning stability to the region.
==========
Rewards:
2,000,000 per participant for clearing the city
==========
==========
You have taken over control of a Capital.
==========
Do you wish to:
Take command of the City?
Take City as a vassal for another?
==========
==========
Quest: City Lord
==========
You have the land but not the people. To become a true city lord, one must have both.
==========
Requirements:
Have a population of at least 100
==========
Rewards:
Gain Access to City Interface
+10,000 EXP
==========
“Did you just get a bunch of notifications?” Rugrat asked.
“Got the event cleared one. Why?”
==========
Population verified
==========
==========
Title: City Lord
==========
You have taken over the Capital Vuzgal and filled it with a population greater than 100 people.
==========
Rewards:
You gain access to the Capital Interface
==========
“Yeah. Yeah, I think I got it,” Rugrat said, breathing heavily in both relief and agony.
“You good?” Erik asked.
Rugrat looked at his legs and then leaned back against the pillar, looking up at the top of the broken spire. His breathing was restricted by his body armor and he was also covered in grime and sweat.
His mind started to wander, flashing back to those broken bodies of Sabine and Strosic. He swallowed and looked to the undead, focusing his mind somewhere else.
“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine.” Rugrat said as he used simple organic scan on his legs. They were quickly being repaired. He’d need to take some time to fully recover before he could even move.
“What’s your situation?” Rugrat asked Erik.
“Some wounded, some pretty bad. Currently checking on them. See what you can learn about the city and the dungeon core. I’m going to check on our forces here and then move to meet up with you and your section at the spire.”
“Understood.”
“West out.”
Rugrat called up the city interface. “Well, this is crap. I can only build things, impose taxes and appoint leaders. There isn’t even a map function like the dungeon. I can’t alter the area either. I guess it makes sense as it’s a city, not a construct built with a dungeon core at its center,” Rugrat started to talk his thoughts aloud. Rugrat tried to cover over his pain and refocus his mind.
George looked around, guarding his master incase anything else tried to attack him.
“Looks like I took control over the city, not just the dungeon core,” Rugrat continued.
Rugrat then checked the dungeon core interface. With his knowledge of formations and dungeon cores, he was able to piece together just what it was doing.
“Dong Ju, sitrep,” Rugrat said into his communication device.
“This is Corporal Valvo. The sergeant…” Valvo took a shaky breath, recovering and putting on his soldier voice, attempting to push his emotions to the side. “He didn’t make it, First Sergeant.”
Rugrat cleared his throat and nodded to himself, taking in a sharp breath. “Understood. Tend to the wounded. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Yes, First Sergeant,” Valvo said, just as he would’ve in training, separating himself from the loss of his sergeant to take command and help the rest of his squad.
“Rugrat out.”
George was looking over at him with a worried expression, trying to support him with his presence.
Rugrat tested out his recently stitched together legs. They were mostly healed, and the bones were fully fused together, allowing him to stand up on his own.
Rugrat pulled out formation plates—first, Mana gathering formation plates. They were simple but the Mana in the air was so dense that the Mana that gathered was a visible mist already, with a few drops condensing and dropping onto the Mana gathering formation plate. Rugrat put down defensive formations that could use the power in the gathering plate around the dungeon core.
Rugrat looked around, his eyes falling on the emperor’s storage ring. He grabbed it and looked at the other storage rings on the dead.
He just waved his hand, sucking up the undead corpses into a ring and then slumped over George who had made himself smaller in size so Rugrat didn’t need to jump up on to him.
George made sure to be careful, climbing up the stairs that lined the sides of the spire back towards where they have left the rest of the squad.
Rugrat braced himself for what he might see as they entered the hallway into the main chamber.
They passed the still smoking doorway they had just burst through to see the four members of the squad that were still standing. One was watching for threats, the other three using healing spells and concoctions on their brothers and sisters.
There were two bodies off to the side, covered in a blanket.
Rugrat looked at the bloody mark on the floor and then a wall, with a thick trail leading to the blankets.
Rugrat got off of George. “Come help!” Rugrat said. George took the watcher’s position.
They had IVs of Stamina and Health potions already lined in the different members of the squad.
The medic had sewn them together in places where bits had been blown off. There were two people who were unconscious but recovering; the others were in a battle between healing and Stamina loss.
They had to tread a fine line to heal them enough to stay alive and repair damage but not to over-exhaust the patient’s body or else they might die, despite the healing.
One more person was stabilized and left to the side to recover. Rugrat and the medic worked on the last person. The others made sure to check that the other three were stable, answering Rugrat’s questions and checking their Stamina IVs.
Rugrat and the medic stabilized the last patient as they checked on the other three�
��.
George let out a low yowl in warning.
The remaining squad memebers looked up to see the rest of the company filing in. They looked like the scouts felt. Everyone was covered in grime, their eyes looking for threats. There were no smiles of greeting as they fanned out and started to build fighting positions as Glosil organized them.
Erik and the company medics moved up, Rugrat and the squad medic relaying to them what had happened.
The company medics took over as Rugrat went over to the two corpses that had been put to the side. Rugrat took out a stretcher and laid down Sabina from his ring and put a blanket over her as well. He stood up, making eye contact with First Sergeant Han for Dragon Platoon and then to the scout squad.
Han had a grim look on his face as he nodded, looking over at the three bodies to the side. Rugrat saw his eyes shake as he came up.
Han cleared his throat, getting the attention of the scouts. “You did good, let’s get you cleaned up.” The medic made to talk but Han held up a hand.
“The company medics have them now. You did good,” he said.
The medic lowered his head as Four Section were moved off to the side, away from the injured and the dead.
Glosil shifted the platoons and companies around, checking the new defenses so they were ready for anything.
Erik talked to the medics some more before turning to Rugrat and indicating a place off to the side. Roska and Niemm joined them as well. They sat down on some rubble and a broken pillar.
Rugrat gave them the blow-by-blow of what had happened since they left the rest of the company outside of Vuzgal.
***
“It looks like the dungeon core wasn’t being used as a dungeon core but rather the central command node for a massive formation. It looks like the Mana barriers of the capital failed, then the emperor used a dungeon core at the center of the barrier’s formation, allowing him to take the core over easily. He might have used the dungeon core’s ability to manipulate the area under its control. He turned it all into a massive spell formation. Things must have been going badly. He didn’t actually cast a spell; he just gave the dungeon core an order and it carried it out. Problem was, he gave the wrong damn command. He ordered the dungeon core to turn the people into undead and fight on. So it turned everyone undead, including him, and had them fight. No matter the side, humans and the other creatures fought one another. They were powered by the dungeon core so they couldn’t leave its area of effect and became monsters of the dungeon. If anything was to leave its domain then they’d collapse. He probably meant to raise the dead and turn the battle on the attackers but…” Rugrat left the rest unsaid.
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 17