by TJ Reynolds
The other change he made to his layout had to do with carving out both of the previously collapsed tunnels.
He supposed they might confuse attackers, providing them more routes to take than the one that inevitably led straight back to his core room. They would be easy to fill with traps and nasty minions. Ban extended them a bit further and had one slope up, curling away from the rest of his rooms, while the other sloped down.
Ban knew much would change when he ascended to Golden, including more upgrades to his champion, and more advanced options for traps and minions.
This line of thinking made him pause. While he had been grinding out the foundation of his upgraded dungeon, Ban had not noticed the change. Just like anyone else, the Earth Core had a Progression that allowed him to level up and ascend.
Since waking, Ban had been Amber 2, his Progression stuck at 0. After finishing the tunnels, and the slow trickle of ether that naturally accumulated, his Progression was at 4. Kai had leveled up to Amber 2!
That meant the dragonling was alive, had somehow killed the Miremog, and now they would both be able to increase in power.
Ban returned to his tasks with renewed fervor. His progress would be slower than Kai’s, unless a bunch of soldiers came and somehow died inside his dungeon, but at least he was growing. And once he returned to his champion’s body, he would be able to accumulate Progression alongside Kai.
Now that his layout was more or less as he wanted it, Ban made a thousand subtle adjustments to frustrate and slow the progress of any invaders. Like the upper rooms, he made the passages snug, carved extra bends in the hallways that connected everything, and even disrupted the floor, adding a few gaping cracks as natural obstacles.
He made one pit so deep it would kill anyone who fell into it. It was located at the bottom of the spiral staircase. Before an invader could even decide which of the three paths to take, they would need to get across the chasm.
Someone with extremely high Dexterity or Strength might be able to make the jump, but most wouldn’t, especially with all the added weight of weapons, equipment, and armor.
He indulged himself, forging a trap more exciting than this simple pit. Although he could not access an official trap menu yet, which would come with his Golden rank, he could manipulate his dungeon in any creative way he wanted to make mundane traps. Though they were not yet powered by elemental energy, they could be deadly, nonetheless.
The simplest were patches of gravel and slick stone he created before wide cracks in the floor, increasing the likelihood of an invader slipping into his pit trap.
For the chasm, Ban went a step further. Having already removed the fountain in his previous core room, Ban wanted to use the spring’s water in another way. He diverted its channel to flow out toward the Room of Paths, as he had come to call it. He forced the water to flow down the wall and spill into the chasm.
Ban made a shallow lip, so that a few inches of standing water were left on the bottom step of the stairs. It would make a casual leap, even by the most powerful warrior, highly improbable.
The waterfall also created a crashing sound that filled the chamber with noise. When he placed his minions in this area of the dungeon to protect the room, they would enjoy the luxury of having the sound of their movements camouflaged.
In addition to the waterfall of death, Ban dug out a series of trapdoors. He used the same swiveling mechanism that had worked so well on the stone doors, so that sections of floor freely rotated. Sealing the trap closed with a thin layer of stone, he ensured that anyone unlucky enough to step on one would fall through.
The first of these, Ban placed in the center of the first room upstairs. There was only a three-foot drop below the trap, but within the shallow pit the dungeon crafted quartz spikes sharp enough to pierce any armored boot.
He placed two more traps like this in the corridors off of the Room of Paths. Another he reserved for a nasty trick in his old core room. He wanted to convert the delightful space into a killing zone.
Ban started by building a small wall in the center of the room where his core once sat. After replicating the limestone chalice that held his Earth Core, he concentrated ether within until it glowed brightly—not nearly so much as his core, but if someone entered the chamber, they would see a sheltered dais emanating ethereal light.
Thinking this the core, they’d step towards the platform.
Below his clever illusion, Ban built his most deadly pitfall yet. A swiveling trapdoor, this one with two doors that buckled inward. The poor fool who made the descent would have a nasty surprise. Rather than building up spikes, Ban tunneled down to the gargen’s chambers.
The beasts were not technically his minions, but that did not mean he could not rely on their strength, if only a little.
Ban realized that time was passing quickly, and soon, he would need to join Kai again on his adventure. He needed to place his minions and amalgamations, and do so as effectively as possible.
There were limitations, of course. Ban couldn’t stuff his dungeon full of a thousand enemies, even if he had the time to dig out the whole mountain and convert it to enough AE. What constrained the number of minions he could control was Ban’s maximum number of Minion Control Points, or MCP. Each dungeon could increase the number of minions they could summon and maintain up to a certain threshold. That limit was, of course, determined by the dungeon’s level.
At Amber 2, Ban had a pool of 100 MCP. Though this seemed like a lot, Ban had dreams of dozens upon dozens of powerful minions.
Unfortunately, the more powerful the minion, the more MCP it required. And for as long as that minion was alive, those points could not be regained. Only Ban’s most powerful creature, his champion, did not require any Control Points. But his second strongest, the Amethyst Rake, took 8 MCP to maintain.
Wanting to get the most out of his minions, Ban worked from the outside in. It was an old dungeon practice to reserve the strongest of your minions for the deeper depths, and Ban could find no reason to change this approach. If any invaders were injured or killed on the way in, then the chance of them being annihilated in the critical later fights increased.
In the first chamber, the one he had used to store Kai’s food, Ban placed four Monstrous Rats, and an Amethyst Viper. He hoped that the viper would draw the attackers’ attention and that the rats might dart in and distract them.
A single bite from the viper, especially if they had no antidote, could prove fatal. The Viper had a cost of 3, but the rats were only 1 point apiece. In his first room, Ban had only used 7 MCP.
In the second room, Ban opted for an entirely different approach. On the ground, he summoned three Viscous Fire Slimes, tough creatures that were resistant to physical damage, and could only be killed quickly with Ice elemental damage, a sub school of Water.
He figured that while invaders were busy attacking the slimes, his Ether Bats might cut them down with sonic blasts. They also had claws but were nowhere near as powerful as Ban’s champion. He summoned a few more of these.
In total, his second room, the one that used to hold their fledgling library and the trusty wooden table, had cost him another 12 MCP.
The stairwell leading down to the Room of Paths he left empty. Nothing like inaction to build suspense, Ban thought. But at the bottom of the stairs, he stationed three more Ether Bats. It was his hope that the beasts might simply startle someone into falling into his waterfall pit.
It fell fifty feet, tapering down until the water bubbled into an underground stream that ran through the stone.
No one would survive such a fall.
The corridors were next, and he wanted to try something special for these.
Along each tunnel, Ban carved out an ambush site for a Small Chitterling to jump out, and at the very end, he set a pair of Amethyst Vipers. The latter cost 3 MCP each and the Chitterlings 5. Though he’d used up a considerable amount of his pool, 22 points in the two corridors combined, he felt it a worthwhile investment. Ka
i was growing stronger, but Ban would not have liked his odds facing the two resilient creatures in the tight spaces of the corridors.
In the old core chamber, what Ban was now calling the Kill Room, he employed a bit more diversity. 5 Monstrous Rats were set to burst forth as soon as the trapdoor was sprung, along with 3 Greater Slugs.
When invaders engaged the creatures, Ban placed 2 Sludge Hounds to pop out from hidden alcoves on either side of the false core. Finally, while chaos reigned supreme, his foes would be assaulted by five more Ether Bats.
His menagerie of mayhem brought the room’s total cost to 20 control points.
Only a single room now remained, separating Ban’s core from potential ruin: the training hall. He kept the dummies up, the weapons on the walls, even the pool of icy water. He wanted the place to look, by all accounts, quite inconspicuous.
To obscure his minions, Ban pulled up thick stone columns, making the inside of the room a veritable maze. He conjured three of the deadly Amethyst Rakes. The huge reptilian rats streaked through the room, seeming to delight in its many hiding places.
It was a pleasure to watch them enjoy their new home, so he chose not to command them to remain still as he had done with all the others.
After watching the simple beings frolic for a time, he placed his final defender. With equal parts anticipation and joy, Ban summoned his boss minion.
A dungeon’s boss required more ether, material, and MCP than any other minion. It was also more powerful. He could have only one. At Viridian ascension, he would be able to form a second. Until then, he would enjoy this one as much as possible.
His boss could not leave his dungeon, and he could not inhabit its body, like he could with his champion. It was more or less an apex minion though, an asset Ban wouldn’t neglect to use.
While playing in his amalgamations menu, Ban had spliced a Stone Lizard with a Sludge Hound, and found the results most impressive. It had a thickly muscled body, but was incomparably fast.
Neither of the progenitor beasts were very large, not when compared to a human warrior at least, but when he had mixed the two together, the result had nearly doubled in size. The Stone Houndzard was five feet long, head to tail, and must have weighed upwards of one hundred pounds. When he made it a boss, however, the beast grew yet again. It was nearly large enough to ride like a horse!
Costing a whopping 15 MCP, Ban’s Stone Houndzard filled the dungeon with pride. His final line of defense was formidable, to say the least, and depleted his remaining pool of MCP completely.
When Ban finished, he zoomed back and observed the restless scamper of his minions as they prowled through his dungeon. It certainly did not feel the same as when Kai was with him. But the feeling of nakedness and solitary vulnerability that had frightened him so much was gone.
Sighing in contentment, Ban thought to reorder his core chamber, making it nice enough again to house a dragon. He had yet to check on Kai, though, so he prodded at his champion’s mind. To his great relief, he found his gargat champion had regained consciousness and was once more habitable.
Without delay, Ban fled his dungeon and entered the world of flesh, blood, and bone.
29
Morning After and the Quest to Come
Rhona
It was the sensation of Honor breathing in her face that woke Rhona at last. A spear of sunlight fell through a gap in the eaves and into her eyes. She turned her head too sharply and the pang of a deeply rooted headache rung her skull like a church bell.
“Oh! Sweet Andag, have mercy,” she mumbled, then looked around. She was surrounded by mostly clean straw and every inscrutable odor that horses made filled her nose. “At least it was you, Honor. I know you wouldn’t dare take advantage of a disgraced lady.”
Her horse snuffled in her ear, nibbling at the mess of hair that escaped her braid. Rhona batted him away and sat up. The pressure in her head redoubled, and she had to fight to hold on to the contents of her stomach. Vomiting on herself wouldn’t improve the situation in the slightest.
Then she noticed the amber eye that peeked in through the stall’s door, and she snapped, “This isn’t a show! Move on!”
The stable boy scurried off, leaving Rhona alone long enough to stagger to her feet and compose herself. Her fresh clothes and much of the work of the previous day’s bath was wasted. Rhona stunk of horse dung and a touch of piss to boot. Serves me right, drinking with a baker and making a spectacle of myself in an unknown town. She snorted. Could have been worse, she supposed.
She remembered her encounter with Roarke and she felt ill. Not only had she humiliated the man for little cause, other than her pride, she’d chosen entirely the wrong person to embarrass. Something about the glint of darkness in his eyes told Rhona exactly the type of man he was.
“But he called me a tease!” she complained. Honor nuzzled her, wanting breakfast most likely. “Okay, my friend. I’ll see that you’re taken care of.”
Rhona recalled her various revelations of the night before, her time with Winford, confirming her path forward. He’d called her a Champion of Anvar! Isn’t that something? To think, little Rhona could be the champion for the entire blighted continent!
Then, of course, there were the moments she’d spent staring up at the stars, feeling her heart shedding some of its pain in exchange for purpose and beauty. The herbalist had given her those tiny seeds, and now everything felt shifted.
The half-gnome had somehow seen into Rhona’s heart and felt the broken bits there. And now much that had been awry in her heart had mended. Less of the hate and boundless hurt lurked there now. It had been replaced by resolve and focus.
Rhona could put up with a headache, if that was the only cost, and even that, she suspected, was due in part to the ale. She only hoped the young man, Roarke, wouldn’t hurt someone else in her stead.
She strode back to the inn, and as she ducked inside, Miss Colmer squawked at her, shaking a finger. “You have the best of my hospitality available, but then I hear you get drunk, make a spectacle, and pass out in the stables? I’m only glad you didn’t start a fight or shiv anyone’s husband or wife.”
Rhona shrugged, unwilling to apologize for most of her actions. But at last she found something deserving of her remorse. “I’m sorry for wasting the bed. I missed Honor is all. He’s a fine horse and I was overcome with loneliness. And no,” she grinned ruefully, “I didn’t undress for anyone.”
Miss Colmer scrubbed the bar, the flitting irritation on her features dispelling somewhat. “Fine. I’m just not used to meeting lovely girls with such … interesting manners.”
“That’s what a few years in the army will do. Next time I come through town, if I am so fortunate, I’ll make sure to pay double and sleep in the luxury of one of your beds.”
Accepting Rhona’s explanations, the matron held out a hand to the kitchen. “Breakfast then? It’s late, but I still have boiled eggs and hash.”
“Sounds lovely,” Rhona said, savoring the word that held so much more irony than it had before. She sat at the table she’d shared with Winford the night before and rubbed her temples while she waited.
A few minutes later, Miss Colmer brought her the platter of food herself. Setting it down along with a mug, she said in a low voice, “Watered ale. Just a bit of poison in the morning will ease you back into the day. Works every time.”
Some preferred foul concoctions of herbs or vegetable juices, but those who’d had too much to drink too often, knew this trick well enough. Rhona smiled, and took the mug first, downing half of it in a go. As she fell to eating, the fuzz and grime of her night eased somewhat. And then to her satisfaction, Winford walked in.
The man sat down across from her and waved at Miss Colmer. “I’ll take exactly what this one is having!” he shouted a bit too loud. Each of them grabbed their heads and suffered the same disappointment.
They didn’t speak but ate together, slowly and methodically. When the meal was finished, and they’d each dow
ned their watered ale, Miss Colmer brought out a rare treat: coffee.
“A bit of milk?” Winford asked, but Miss Colmer waved a finger at him.
“Not a chance,” she sniffed. “Take it hot and black or leave my establishment at once.”
Rhona nodded approvingly. “Spoken like a captain of the guard. It’s good for ya, Winford. Something about hair on your chest, but I’m sure you’ve already achieved that much.”
“I have, and now that we have a moment, I wanted to speak with you about last night.”
“Wife let you have it for getting soggy with a young wench?” Rhona teased.
“Ha! Unlikely. She was just pissed I spent too much coin. No, I wanted to tell you about that boy, Roarke. He’s a man in his own right now, but not the brightest nor the most honorable—not by a long shot. I think you should be leaving soon.”
“I’m not worried about my safety, Winford. I’m sorry to have caused any trouble, but I could finish him and a half dozen others just like him.”
Winford stared at Rhona until her smile fell away. “That’s exactly what I’m worried about.” He shook his head. “Pride is a prickly thing, and you’ve given that one’s a drubbing. Please, just leave soon, if you can; don’t make more of this than it has to be.”
“Of course, Winford. I’m heading out straight after this meal. Nice town, but I have a long way to go yet.”
The baker smiled then, his easy nature returning in a flash. “And you’ll be taking this with you. Might make your travels a bit kinder, for a few days at least,” he said, setting a parcel of waxed paper on the table.
Rhona didn’t have to look inside to know, from the heavenly smell pouring off it, that he’d brought her bread. “Thank you, Winford. I haven’t had a night like that in years. Honestly, you’re a fine drinking partner.”
“The same to you. I’ll be going now, though, if you don’t mind. The missus will be offended if she knows I’ve given away some of the morning’s bread.” He grinned. “And to a vagabond as well!”
