Bone Dungeon (Elemental Dungeon #1) - A Dungeon Core LitRPG

by Jonathan Smidt

  “That… actually hurt a little.” The necromancer’s eyes flared from behind his dark mask. “Just for that, I shall kill you slowly.”

  He laughed as his arms and legs stretched, making a sick cracking sound as they did so. They detached from his body with a tearing of flesh, and they floated like waiting arrows above.

  Blake was certain he wouldn’t be able to block all of those limbs when the necromancer attacked. He may have Gold Seven levels of mana, but he was still limited to a knight’s abilities, and his shield was just a wall, not an encompassing protective aura like that of a paladin. Viktor could simply attack from around it.

  “Head for Buttercup’s room,” Blake whispered, reabsorbing his shield.

  Karan threw open the door behind him, and they turned and ran, Viktor’s laughter following them.

  “Blake.” Emily’s cry came just as he caught a glimpse of a bone blade flashing past his shoulder.

  The world around Blake seemed to slow. He didn’t have the mana for another shield. He didn’t have the energy to sprint to Emily’s protection.

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Ryan knew none of his Silver-ranked mobs would be strong enough to stop Viktor, not even Buttercup. But a Gold-tier boss mob might just be strong enough. Especially if Blake and his team did their part.

  “Well, I guess this situation is going to dictate what boss I summon.” Ryan had been hoping to experiment between his two choices, but given the current situation, he knew what he had to do.

  He had one mob planned for boss transformation, and he knew it would do the task.

  “Let’s make a boss.”

  “Ryan, I’m glad you seem confident and all, but Blake’s team is struggling.” Erin shook with fear, and her eyes were filled with concern as she watched Blake’s team fighting against the necromancer. Even the five of them didn’t seem to stand a chance against Viktor, but they were doing what Ryan had asked, and he was certain he could finish in time.

  Ryan found the mob he was looking for, and quickly summoned it. It was the water affinity skeletal mage that had won his skeletal mage fight club battle.

  Without another thought, Ryan summoned his level triangle, and slammed his mana into the skeleton. He watched as the numbers quickly dropped from 1150, until it froze at 950. By that time, the skeletal mage was completely encased in darkness. Now, he just needed to wait for it to hatch.

  But even as he waited, he saw Viktor’s darkness become armor, and tendrils of darkness launch countless bone fragments into Jack and Matt.

  “Hurry up, egg.” Ryan’s sense of calm wavered for a moment, but as he checked on his boss mob, he saw the egg was cracking.

  “Yes!” He let out a cheer, and for a second Erin seemed to forget her fear as she looked eagerly into his crystal.

  More cracks, and then the new boss mob was born. Normally, his skeletal mages simply had glowing hands, depicting what type of mana they could use. This new boss mob had so much more.

  Despite the danger, Ryan spared a half-second to admire his new creation. Its entire form was covered in what appeared to be a robe of blue mana, with a second layer of ice armor beneath it. As it took a step forward, ice spread from its feet, covering the ground in a light frost.

  “Now for the final step.” Ryan absorbed the boss mob, gaining the pattern from it, and grinned. The pattern for it appeared clearly in his mind, but whereas before he had to choose bones with specific affinities, this new boss let him choose the affinity he wanted it to have before he summoned it. And he had enough points to summon four of them.

  Oh, yes.

  He glanced at the room where Blake and his team were fighting Viktor, and his sense of urgency returned.

  Oh, no.

  Karan was reaching for the door, and if they entered the boss room before he was finished, he wouldn’t be able to summon his mobs.

  Even as she turned the knob, Ryan quickly summoned four of his new skeletal mage bosses, one of each affinity. He placed them in the back of the room, hiding them in the shadows. They animated just in time.

  Ryan watched as the adventurers fled into the room, and panic filled him. The moment Blake dropped his mana shield and turned to follow the group, Viktor launched an attack towards Emily. There was nothing Ryan could do for them.

  Then, to his surprise, Blake threw his left arm out. His hand and shield detached, perfectly intercepting Viktor’s attack. The save was impressive, but judging by the look on everyone’s faces, Ryan figured Blake hadn’t shared his skeletal hand with the group.

  “Can I lend you and your team a hand?” Ryan asked. Somehow, joking calmed him.

  “I hate your jokes,” Blake whispered as he and the others moved further into the boss room.

  “Ah, but I had this great joke about a necromancer that walked into a boss room...”

  Even as he spoke, he fully expected to see the necromancer burst into the final chamber. But it appeared Viktor was hesitant to enter knowing that Ryan’s full roster would be held within.

  Ever since his ascension to Gold, and his meeting with who he assumed was the God of Death, a new calm had filled Ryan. This was his dungeon, and he had been granted the power to protect it, and the one he loved.

  Viktor was in for a world of hurt.

  “You should run to the back of the room. Now,” Ryan ordered Blake and his team, and the knight and the other adventurers quickly did as he instructed.

  Jack let out an unmanly screech as four forms stepped away from the wall, moving towards the center of the room.

  Ryan’s bosses were ready to fight.

  Only then did Viktor enter the chamber, his torso and bone-bladed limbs floating at odd angles.

  “Come, now, are you afraid of the dark?” Viktor’s chuckle filled the room, his eyes searching for Blake and his team. Buttercup’s room was the largest in the dungeon, and the darkest, meaning Viktor couldn’t see halfway across, much less to the back of it, where Blake’s team lay in wait.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you—“ Viktor faltered as four glowing forms came into his view, the mages’ lights pooling on the stone around them in an ethereal glow.

  “Wha—“ was all the necromancer got out before the four mages launched their elemental attacks.

  “Yes!” Ryan and Erin exclaimed in unison as the attacks landed. Dust billowed as the dark form flared with light, followed by a deafening roar.

  “Not so tough now, are you?” Ryan shouted, triumphant.

  Then Viktor spoke.

  “Always so full of surprises.” Viktor’s voice echoed in the room, and as the dust cleared from the skeletal mages’ attack, Ryan and Erin both gasped.

  The necromancer was missing his right arm, and if Ryan had to guess from the fragments still floating there, he had used its flesh and bones to create a shield to absorb the elemental attack.

  “I’m going to make you pay for this, dungeon,” he roared, and the fragments whistled forward.

  “I don’t think so,” Ryan growled.

  With practiced ease, gained from countless skuirrel targets, Ryan dropped stalactites in a plummeting barrage. Rock met bone in a series of earthy explosions, leaving Ryan’s mages unharmed.

  “Very well, dungeon,” the necromancer hissed.

  Viktor’s legs swirled and twisted, morphing into twin bone lances poised above him.

  “I’ll replace these limbs with those of the adventurers you are protecting,” Viktor cackled.

  And with that, the lances shot forward.

  Ryan ordered the mages to scatter, even as he summoned a wall to block the lances. He didn’t have the time or mana to strengthen it, so although he slowed the lances a little, one still found its mark. Ryan’s earth skeletal mage took a glancing blow, and its arm was ripped away and pinned to the wall behind.

  “Return fire,” Erin screamed.

  As if they had heard her, the skeletal mages launched attacks of their own in retaliation. The boss room was suddenly filled with flashes of
light and explosions, spell after spell streaking towards Viktor.

  But the necromancer only laughed, his levitating body darting back and forth with impossible speed. Those spells he couldn’t avoid were absorbed by his bone shields.

  How is he so strong?

  “We need him to stay still,” Ryan groaned, his confidence sinking.

  The mage bosses had the power to blast apart the necromancer, he was certain of it. But if they couldn’t land their attacks, it was pointless.

  Ryan had an idea. He just needed Blake’s help.

  “Blake?”

  The adventurer was standing in the corner with his dark shield barrier up, protecting his group from stray spells and debris.

  “Tell me,” Blake instantly replied.

  “Think you could use that hand of yours to hold Viktor in place for a few seconds?”

  “I… I can try.” The knight’s voice was not filled with confidence.

  That was not encouraging, but to his credit, Blake switched his shield to his right hand.

  “Happy to lend a hand,” the knight growled.

  Ryan nearly cheered. If the situation wasn’t so dire, he probably would have rained loot down on the knight for that pun. However, they had a final boss to fight first before anyone could relax.

  “You cannot defeat me, dungeon.” Viktor continued his taunts, and Ryan could tell the necromancer knew it was only a matter of time before the four skeletal mages were defeated. The bosses were already worse for wear, injuries and mana depletion taking their toll. The four only had enough mana for one last big attack. Apparently, the downside of these powerful bosses was that the moment they ran out of mana, they were essentially no better than regular skeletal mobs.

  “I’m ready,” Blake said.

  “Here goes nothing,” Ryan whispered.

  Now!

  The mages each lifted a skeletal hand, the bones glowing with mana. Viktor shook his head with a dark smile.

  “That’s not going to—“

  A skeletal hand whipped across his mouth, the fingers grasping his head.

  “No!”

  That single muffled word was all Viktor managed before the mages unleashed the last of their mana in a single combined attack, beams of multicolored light roaring across the room.

  Held in place, the necromancer screamed as the maelstrom of elemental energy crackled through his dark armor.

  Then:

  BOOM.

  Viktor

  Even as the explosion tore his body asunder, he could feel his mana leaving him, life slowly fading. His detached head cracked against the wall, and he watched as the remains of a dozen dungeon cores scattered across the floor.

  Life still clung to his blinking, shattered skull, enough to mourn the loss of the cores. The loss of his power. Acquired over a century, defeating dungeon after dungeon. By harnessing dungeon cores and channeling his energies into them, he had gained powers greater than even a Platinum adventurer could have.

  In doing so, the gods had stopped him from ever levelling again, a curse for perverting the cores that held the souls of dungeons. Now, the consequences had finally caught up to him.

  Viktor closed his eyes, and for the first time, he felt dread. Was this what everyone who had stood before him felt? Was this how it felt to stare death in the eyes?

  He silently cursed the Exalted One as the knight approached his head, the boy’s sword glowing with the strange gray mana. Viktor smiled up at him even as the sword descended, even as the cold dark of the void called to him.

  A single, final thought gave him solace in his loss. An excuse. A reason for his failure. This dungeon and adventurer had been chosen.

  Chosen by the God of Death.

  Epilogue

  It was a week after their battle with Viktor. Following the fight, Ryan had absorbed the necromancer, and with him, many new and wonderful items – not to mention the shattered diamonds. He had questioned Erin about these stones, and the sight of them had been met with revulsion from the fairy.

  According to her, they had once been dungeon cores. They could be used, like other gems, to improve an adventurer’s mana capabilities. The difference was, anyone using one was able to store vast amounts of power in the gems as well, just as the dungeon cores once had. Erin told him it was taboo to ever do that, and doing so would cut an individual off from the gods who created the dungeons. That explained why Viktor was so strong at Gold One, and why he had not grown in level since they had first encountered him.

  Blake and his team had teleported out of Ryan’s dungeon to check on the town, where Viktor had somehow summoned a Diamond-level lich boss mob. Blake informed Ryan that the skeletal army and lich were gone. It seemed defeating Viktor had stopped the attack on the town.

  After Blake passed on the message that everything had calmed down, Ryan absorbed his four new boss mobs, making a mental note to name them at a later time. He was exhausted from the fight. Now that it was over, the physical, emotional, and mental drain hit him. Ryan decided he was going to take a break before he started his Gold expansion, and slowly closed the mouth of his dungeon.

  Only now, one week later, Blake had arrived outside his dungeon mouth, and seemed to be looking for a way in.

  “Blake?” Ryan asked aloud. Erin, slumbering on top of Ryan’s warm core, stirred.

  “My ethereal prince,” she whispered, still half asleep. Because she looked so cute in that moment, Ryan decided he would let that comment slide… this time.

  “What’s going on, Blake?” Ryan sent through the crystal, and the knight paused just before his entrance.

  “Mind letting me in?” Blake held up a cloth bag, offering Ryan a grin. “I’ve got a present for you.”

  A present!

  Ryan lifted the wolf’s jaw just enough that Blake could crawl through.

  “Seriously?” Blake grumbled as he dropped down on his hands and knees. The moment he entered, Ryan closed the dungeon back up.

  “So, what did you bring me, buddy?” Ryan eyed the bag greedily. Swiftly, he began making cards for his new skeletal mages. Generosity begot generosity, after all.

  “Well, I’ve got two things, and a favor to ask, actually.” Blake sat against a stalagmite, placing the bag in front of him.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll get the new boss mob cards,” Ryan chuckled.

  “That’s not what—“ Blake stopped and licked his lips. “I mean, yeah, that sounds like a fair trade.”

  “Deal.”

  Ryan summoned the four new cards for Blake, dropping them into the knight’s lap. He loved watching Blake’s reaction to them. But he suspected he would love what Blake had in the bag even more.

  “So, what’d you bring me?”

  Blake pulled out a leather journal and placed the four new cards inside. A wicked grin crossed his face.

  “Jack’s going to be so jealous,” he said.

  “You’re like a drug addict,” Ryan said, not unkindly. “Now, about those presents…”

  “Ah, right. So, first.” He pulled a strange crown from the bag. The crown appeared to be made of human bones and was lined with opals. Ryan could already sense its power.

  “Marcus wants you to dispose of this – it seems only a powerful dark being is capable of doing so. It’s the item Viktor used to attack the town. The lich it summoned nearly killed Marcus, Rasha, and Sasha before the necromancer fell.”

  So that’s where the twins went.

  Ryan had wondered why he hadn’t seen either of the twins over the past week. Just how powerful was this item?

  “Sure, I’ll take it.”

  Blake set the crown on the ground. A moment later, the knight drew in his aura, allowing Ryan to absorb the crown. Before Viktor had arrived, the pair had learned that if Blake condensed his aura internally, Ryan had the ability to apply his influence in the area near the knight – allowing him to absorb items and summon mobs in particular. Normally, adventurers’ auras prevented these two actions, though curious
ly, Ryan could still summon loot when auras were present. Ryan figured it was just part of the magical rules of being a dungeon.

  “Oh, wow,” Ryan whispered through his bond with Erin. “This is a legendary item.”

  He quickly scanned over the crown, taking note of its magical properties. No wonder it had caused the town so much trouble. How had Viktor got hold of an item like the Crown of Sorrows?

  Ryan now had two legendary items in his possession, but even without Erin’s warning, he knew he should never replicate them. Or at least, not until he was much, much stronger.

  “So, what’s the other item?” Ryan turned his attention back to Blake.

  The knight pulled his shield off his back and set it down on the ground. Ryan hadn’t noticed before, but this was a brand-new shield. It glowed with its own light, and on the front, emblazoned across it in gold, was an engraved set of scales, equally balanced. One side of the scales had an opal inset above it, while the other had an onyx.

  “This is a paladin’s shield,” Blake said, tracing a finger over its surface. “But I can’t use it yet. According to the Guildmaster, I need the help of a dungeon if I’m ever to ascend.”

  Blake paused, as if hesitant to go further.

  “I’m listening,” Ryan said.

  Blake cleared his throat and continued.

  “You see, paladins are a form of elemental knight. They present a shield emblazoned with the Goddess of Justice’s insignia to her God-tier celestial dungeon. The dungeon then absorbs the shield and resummons it, imparting its own mana into the item.”

  Ryan was beginning to understand.

  “At that time, the knight must push their experience and mana into the shield within the dungeon, which allows them to ascend to Gold. In doing so, the knight and the dungeon become linked and the knight ascends to become an elemental knight, unlocking the skills associated with that affinity.”

  “So, you want me to absorb the shield, and then remake it for you?”

  Seems simple enough.