by Dakota Krout
More fervent headshakes and a few people murmured ‘no’. “Great! Chandra, Brianna, may I speak with you in private, please?” Dale shooed the others out. “Madame, I need those stones as fast as possible. Brianna, I need to hash out the details of our agreement with you, and have us sign a Mana sealed contract. Just words between us will not be enough.”
Brianna snapped her fingers with a grin, “Drat.”
~Six~
The restructuring of the floors had taken a couple full days, moving them into the positions I wanted was Essence-intensive. Adding a very basic third floor took another day on top of that. The third floor had been interesting because I found an underground stream that was icy cold and flowing dangerously quickly. Originally, I had planned to use the water for traps, but Dani had come to me with a better idea.
“Cal, what we are looking at there is a water Essence generator! The faster it moves, the greater the amount of Essence that will be released by it as it flows! If you can constantly add a bit of dungeon soil to it as it flows downstream, animals and magical Beasts can get addicted to the Essence if they drink enough! That will draw them in from hundreds of miles away over time!” Dani bubbled as cheerfully as the stream.
“Yeah… kind of. There is a bit more to it than that. I’ve never really took the time to explain that to you, have I? There are two kinds of Essence around you, ‘loose’ Essence and ‘bound’ Essence. I started calling the Essence in the air ‘loose’ and you just kinda went with it.” She giggled.
I playfully admonished her.
“Fair enough, yup. So ‘bound’ is what you can pull directly from the element that contains the Essence you are after. That requires a lot of cultivation to refine it enough to allow into a being’s Center. You remember how it is pretty difficult to pull Essence from stone, right?” She bounced a question back to me.
She laughed, “Actually a really good lead-in. The second type — ‘loose’ Essence — is released from its ‘bound’ state by interacting with another type of element. For instance, steam Essence is not really its own type, it is intermingled air, water, and fire Essence that is tightly woven together.” She paused to let me think about her words, “Since the water here is flowing so fast, it is interacting with the rock around it and releasing lots of mud Essence. That loose Essence is what is being collected and purified by your Runes!”
“Hmm. Well, yes, I suppose…” She started, I cut her off to finish my thought.
“Interesting! I wonder what type of Essence that might produce…? Air, fire, water, and earth. Hmm. I like it though. Solid plan, Cal.” She paused a moment, “Oh! Instead of a trap that only goes off when someone sets it off, why not make steam vents that blast as soon as the pressure gets to a certain point? That would add a puzzle-like area since they would need to find the pattern that steam shoots out of the vents!”
I paused, thinking as she blushed,
“Like a labyrinth?” Dani offered a word that I hadn’t heard before.
<…A what?>
“Labyrinth. It is a big, dangerous maze. I don't know Cal, that seems like a huge undertaking. Not only do you need to decide on a pattern for the room, but you would need to connect the walls to the ceiling and floor, and make them so hard and dense that people can’t just smash their way through.” She considered it, then turned on me suspiciously.
“This isn’t… you aren’t… you are, aren’t you?”
I stated blandly.
“You are trying to turn the floor into a giant Rune, aren’t you?”
<… I had considered it…> I sheepishly muttered, somewhat upset that my master plan had been caught out so early.
“You are gonna get us killed.” She groaned. “Fine, but under no circumstances will you activate it until we both agree to do so. Deal?”
“Mm. No. Just no.” She shot down another attempt at a nickname.
*Ahem* I pseudo-coughed,
“I think I have finally settled on a design, but I reserve the right to change it at any time.” She sent an image along our mental link, so I quickly made a small version for her to examine.
She seemed happy with the result, “Yes! Also, I am thinking that we should show which ones hold special gear. The low-level, average chest should be dark stone. As they become more difficult to find or the monsters guarding them get stronger, we make the chest out of better material and put better stuff in them.”
“Perfect! I also particularly like the idea of hidden chests, make them waste a bunch of time looking around if they are greedy. More chances to kill them. Maybe we put chests in the walls that miners can find, as well as increase the danger? Maybe they hit the wall in the wrong spot, and it opens a steam vent?” She offered, already planning out where to place them. “Or maybe an acid vent? I’m imaginative too!”
“You know, do we really need them? I feel like some of your Bashers could use Beast Cores at this point…” Again, she tried to forego the Cats!
“I know…“ Dani sighed heavily, “You are right. You've told me all this before… just do it, let’s get it over with.”
That was all the permission I required, and I set about creating a new Cat right away. Pulling the pattern of its aura from memory, I energized it with the subtle combinations of Essence it needed in order to produce flesh, veins, nerves, tendons, bones… and after a few minutes,
fur. Standing six inches tall, a white coated Dungeon Kitten stood on shaking legs before us.
*Mew!*
Dani screamed, breaking my concentration, “AHHH! I love it! Hi, kitty! You. Are. So. Fluffy!” She zoomed around it so fast that it couldn’t keep its eyes on her. It tried to bat at her a few times, but after a moment flopped to the floor and curled up. It was only thirty seconds old, so I felt it was acceptable that he was a bit tired.
“Cal, this has to be the third-floor Boss. We’ll evolve the others first, let me play with the kitty!” She begged. “I name you Snowball, and all who face you shall feel your wrath!” She told the kitten seriously. It tiredly purred back at her.
I inspected these new kittens and decided to try something slightly different than my norm. First order of business was to move them into another room, since, well… let’s just say I didn’t want to hear about it for days if they, um… exploded.
These Cats should be strong enough to accept multiple types of Essence, well… I was going to find out if they were anyway. I added one part water, one part air, and three parts pure Essence. The kitten tensed at first, trying to escape the intrusive injection of power, but as it started to grow it relaxed and lay down. Instead of pulling Essence from my own Core, I redirected the dense Essence in my room into the Cat. Mainly just to see if I could. It worked, which made me very happy since this did not deplete my Chi spiral like creating things always had before. This also had the added benefit of not depleting my store of corruption as well.
The Cat stopped growing, having reached D-rank two. It was sixty-five pounds and four-and-a-half feet long from nose to its haunches, ignoring the tail. Waiting for a disaster, I watched as it stood and stretched, testing out its body. It suddenly shimmered, becoming almost insubstantial and leaping into the air. It floated along, slowly descending to the ground thirty-six feet away. That was a leap from a standstill! If it were running, how far could it go? I decided to call it a Cloud Cat, after its mixed Essences. I let it walk around, quickly spawning some rabbits for it to hunt. Not Bashers of course, I didn’t want to start bad habits. It hunted them by pouncing and silently gliding toward them, lashing out from above with quick, efficient strikes. I grinned; silent but deadly.
Next I tried fire and earth. I wanted a Magma Cat! I’d call it a Lava Cat, but we are underground. Therefore, magma! I directed the combination of Essence in, but soon after, the Cat started hissing and burst into flame. Within moments it was ash. I was glad Dani was otherwise occupied, that was originally the combination I wanted to try on Snowball… I digress. Maybe I just needed to alter what I added a bit? I directed fire and earth Essence into my next attempt, earth outweighing fire by a factor of two to one. The Cat’s body seemed to accept this combination, and it began growing. At its full size, it was two hundred and ninety pounds, five feet long from nose to haunch.
I looked closely at it, not seeing what advancements might have been made until it decided to stretch. Its claws appeared to be solid steel, and gouged huge chunks of stone out of the ground with casual ease. It yawned, showing that its teeth had also gained this enhancement. It spotted a rabbit bounding across the ground, and got ready to pounce. It launched itself like its spine was a coiled spring, shooting across the distance in a blink of the eye. That concept struck me, and so I named it a Coiled Cat. I was very pleased by the outcome of this experiment.
Now that I had realized that varying the ratio of Essence could produce different effects even with the same elements, I felt more prepared to create more. The next, um, successful creation I made was a combination of water and earth, with water just a tiny bit more prevalent than earth. The one before, I had used… just way too much water. I glanced at the puddle of ooze and fur off to the side and shuddered. This one grew to full size, then started losing all its fur. It glared into the darkness around it. Totally hairless, the Cat certainly looked harrowing.
I sent a rabbit near it, and the Cat *hissed* and swiped at it. Six inches before touching its victim, the rabbit’s fur and skin split as if the claws were deeply embedded, eviscerating the small animal with contemptuous ease.
I wanted more! I kept going, failing over and over until I finally found another viable combination. I poured infernal and water Essence into this cat, happily watching it grow. Its body took on a mangy look, the fur falling off it in clumps; its coloration shifted to black speckled with unhealthy-looking white, and when it meowed it was more of a yowl. The other Cats still seemed to have no issue with its appearance, and accepted it quickly. I made a rabbit for it to hunt, but it ignored it in favor of a nap. Guess I would need to see it in combat to see what it could do. Based on how it looked, I named it a Wither Cat.
Dani had been trying to catch my attention for a few minutes, I finally focused on her. “Look Cal! Snowball is dancing!” Dani was hovering just out of the kitten’s reach, and it was on its hind legs slightly jumping as it tried to swat her. I burst out laughing, the mental shift from creating deadly monsters to watching a kitty dance was just too much for me.
Dani smiled but refused, “No, he needs to be a big strong Boss Mob.” Then she sank toward the kitten and continued, “Yes you do! Who’s gonna be a big kitty? You are!”
<…Right then.> I focused on the Cat, and started pushing in fire and air Essence. I had barely begun when it started to hiss and shake.
Dani’s voice was dangerously calm, “Cal? Did you… test this combination yet?”
<…> I was frantically adjusting the levels of Essence.
“Do not kill my kitten.” She hissed venomously.
I thought as quickly as possible, and struck on an idea. I already knew that I could combine more than two types of Essence, so I quickly added one more. Water Essence flowed into the mix, balancing the other two as the Cat settled down, breathing heavily. The Essence flowed into it, though I was careful to leave it a rank below me so I could still fully control it. At D-rank four, the Cat was as large as its progenitor, and twice as fluffy. Its size was deceptive, it weighed only two hundred and ten pounds, though it was eight feet long. The tail brought his total length up to fourteen feet.
It started exploring the room, luminous white fur bouncing as it explored its new body. Dani watched it to see if it would display any abilities, but it seemed content to frolic around the room. After a few minutes of watching it in admiration, Dani asked, “What type of Essence does it have?”
I answered uneasily. Try to calm down, Cal, it survived, Dani won’t shatter me.
“Really? Open up a steam vent in here, let’s see what happens.” She directed me. I quickly obeyed, glad she had seemingly forgotten that I nearly made the Cat pop. In moments, a steam vent allowed a dense fog to roll across the ground, the superheated vapor settling on every surface. Snowball looked at the steam, head cocked to the side as it took in this new phenomenon. It reached its paw into the fog as if it were playing with a new toy. Where the fog landed against Snowball, he blended perfectly and vanished, his hair moving in the same patterns as the vapor. A perfect camouflage! I could not tell where he was without
looking for the disturbance in the air and Essence around him.
Snowball stepped directly into the steam, and within seconds, only its three eyes were visible. Even then I could only see them because I knew where to look. He went to the vent and stood directly in the hottest part of the steam. After a moment of staring, he started licking it like a salt block. I made a few rabbits in the room, and Snowball eyed them hungrily. Running across the room, Snowball had no need to attempt to remain stealthy. His charge made no noise or disturbance as long as the Cat stayed in the steam. He pounced on a rabbit, and where his claws penetrated… the flesh cooked.
Snowball hissed at the dying rabbit, releasing a narrow stream of superheated vapor. The rabbit cooked, instantly dead as its flesh boiled and popped. Snowball ate the tender corpse, blood marring his white coat only until he reentered the fog, at which point the red stains either vanished or were bleached into invisibility.
I mentioned to Dani.
“Ha! I wonder why.” She chortled. “Come on, let’s go work on my plant room, I want to see if we can whip up some kind of catnip.”
While she fussed over her flower arrangements and herb placement, I slowly built walls in the third floor and populated it with Cats and advanced Bashers, sprinkling traps and treasure chests throughout the gigantic labyrinth. We were deep enough that I had as much horizontal room as I wanted, allowing me to make the floor a half square mile.
My Boss area was at the direct center of the maze. I had sunk my Runed area and the Silverwood tree downward slowly, then formed a clear layer of quartz over it that would magnify the view from above. Adventurers looking in from above would not be able to tell that the tree and I were lower in the Dungeon until someone made the trip. Also, this way the people in the area above would be able to see two Boss fights without fear of dying themselves, and the tree would still get sun and moon light.
