“I tried to convince him to stop, to give up the life of an Adventurer and to use whatever abilities he had already learned to do something – anything – else, but he was blinded by his own incompetence. It sounds mean to say that about him, but there was no other explanation for his behavior that I can see.
“Anyway, we managed to somehow survive for three whole years before he managed to screw up one too many times. After using one of his long-range abilities – in fact, it was the same Fireblast you had used last night, Fred – on a monster that wasn’t even engaged in attacking us, he ran when it came after him. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a big deal because we had been in a fairly competent group and could’ve handled the additional monster or two at the same time, but instead of running to us – or even the exit tunnel – he ran farther into the dungeon.
“By the time I could break off and chase after him, he was already dead and burnt to a crisp from attracting the entire next room full of small Lava Salamanders. Forced to retreat, I had to leave him there while the rest of us escaped that room and the previous one, where I had left them alone to deal with the then-overwhelming number of monsters. By the time I was able to get back in there, his body had either been consumed by the dungeon or by the flames the small Salamanders emitted from their bodies.”
Fred had to interrupt, even though he didn’t want to disturb the flow of information coming from his oldest friend. “It sounds as though you were in a Fire dungeon; why would he use Fireblast? That sounds a bit counterproductive.”
Regnark chuckled at that, his eyes distant as he answered. “Like I said, he wasn’t the smartest brother in the world; he had placed almost all of his Essence into his Mind stat and a single ability: Fireblast. I had told him that it probably wouldn’t do much good going into a Fire dungeon with a single fire-based attack ability, but he thought it was strong enough to still do some damage. Admittedly, when he used it almost anywhere else, it absolutely devastated monsters quickly and efficiently; however, that same type of attack would often get him in trouble with how absolutely destructive it was. Dungeon monsters are smart enough to recognize a threat when they see it.
“Anyway, after he died, I couldn’t imagine going back to my parents and admitting to them that I had failed to protect my little brother. Instead, I threw myself back into the DAS and worked to protect those like him; there were hundreds of young men – and women – that were either in way over their heads or as incompetent as my brother was, and I aimed to save them all like I couldn’t save my brother.
“Over the years I got stronger, faster, and better able to defend both myself and those I had taken on to protect. But it still wasn’t enough; one-by-one, each and every single Adventurer I took under my wing to guide, mentor, and even lead by the hand through dungeons throughout the Craytion Kingdom ended up just the same as my brother: dead. The last one I deigned to try to save just so happened to have met her end in the Deadlands, and I haven’t been back since.
“Nor did I go back to being an Adventurer. After witnessing so many youngsters lose their lives unnecessarily, I retreated from the world by going to the one place in the Kingdom that I could find where there were no dungeons around, no Syndicate members looking to group up, and no young men or women looking to delve through dungeons: Northend. And that, of course, is where you found me, Fred – or should I say, I found you.”
That…certainly explains a lot. Fred had been wondering what could’ve caused a powerful Adventurer like Regnark turned out to be to want to live in a place like Northend, where he was just barely scraping by with the hunting and fur trade that he did up there. And it also explained why mention of the DAS in the first place had set the big man off and caused him to kick Fred out of his house. He felt bad about upsetting his friend all those months ago, but when he thought about it, he didn’t know any better at that time and probably wouldn’t have changed anything if he did.
“As for the Plains of Grass, it’s dangerous here at night, which is why most people who traverse it try to do it in one day. Although it looks hard, it’s not impossible; we’ll have to chance that we can get all the way across before dark sets in, because we don’t want to wait for what’s likely coming up behind us.”
“Why is it so dangerous?” Eisa asked from behind him. Fred had been so comfortably relaxed listening to Regnark’s story that he almost forgot she was there.
“Because there are some large, fearsome monsters that emerge from the Deadlands at night and prey on whatever they can find. For some unknown reason, they don’t attack anyone within the forest we just left or inside the Deadlands from whence they came, but anything out on the Plains is fair game.”
“Are they Dungeon monsters?” Fred asked. He thought it would be weird if they were, as he didn’t see the point in it, but then again, he had very little knowledge of Dark Dungeon Cores.
“No, I don’t believe so. I’ve heard of a few high-Rated Syndicate parties slaying one of them and their corpses didn’t disappear like a dungeon monster would, but apart from that I don’t really have a good idea or even description of what they are…other than large.
“To answer one of your other questions, it’s these same monsters that roam the Plains at night that likely prevent any dungeons from establishing themselves out here. It’s my experience that, even with some of the larger Supreme-Rated dungeons that are harder to get to and are set farther away from most, they’re at least accessible by us. Out here, there aren’t any villages, towns, or cities – and therefore no people to delve through their dungeons. At least, that’s what I’ve heard,” Regnark informed them.
That…makes sense, I guess. If there weren’t any humans around or if it was too dangerous for them to even stay near the Plains of Grass, there wouldn’t be any reason to establish a dungeon there. And unless it was in an area found around there that had high concentrations of ambient Mana nearby, they would need to have humans frequenting their dungeon to grow faster than a Rating every couple of decades – if they were lucky.
“As for what the Deadlands are, they’re what they sound like: dead. By some strange occurrence no one really understands, everything there is dead…and yet not. There are trees that grow and monsters that roam around, but they appear as if they are not…quite…alive. If you’ve ever met a Necromancer, you would probably understand what I’m talking about.”
Eisa snorted in a little chuckle behind his back at Regnark’s statement; the big man somehow heard and looked at her in confusion.
Fred answered for her, since she didn’t seem like she was going to explain – and it wasn’t something she needed to hide, especially given that she wasn’t one anymore. “Before Eisa became…what she is now…she had been a Necro-healer, though all of that progress had been wiped away after the whole process. So, I think we have a fairly good idea of what we might be up against.”
Regnark looked funnily at Eisa for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve met some interesting people over the years, but you two certainly have them beat. Sorry, I should’ve said you three – as it seems you’re all a bit…unique.”
From the tone of his voice, it didn’t sound as if he was meaning that in a derogatory manner and Fred had to agree with him – but that included Regnark himself. An Adventurer that didn’t want to delve through dungeons, a Dire Wolf that could change its shape and produce elemental defenses, a recently deceased woman who could create monsters out of thin air, and him – a Dungeon Core/Human hybrid like the world had never seen before; they certainly did make an interesting and unique bunch.
Not to mention, they were riding giant Crystal Scorpions like it was nothing.
With the talk over with, each of them sunk into their own thoughts as they sped through the grass; looking around, Fred couldn’t see anything alive moving around except for some birds flying high overhead. Since there wasn’t really anywhere for them to land (no nearby trees) they were only flying either to the east or to the west, not north or sout
h; they also stayed high up above, as if just being too close to the Plains of Grass was dangerous.
The hours passed by without anything to relieve the monotony, and the sun started to fall in the sky. After eating a midday meal of some water, bread, and relatively tasteless meat that Fred was able to use his Conjure Object Adapted Adventurer ability to produce (he still hadn’t perfected flavor quite yet, which was probably a side effect of eating the tasteless mana-formed orbs his mother used to feed him when he was growing up), Eisa somehow fell asleep, her steady, relaxed breathing against his back as she laid her head sideways on him; to the front of him, Deecy had fallen asleep as well, curled up in her Pup form in his lap. Fortunately, the Crystal Scorpions were following their last instructions, which meant that they kept moving even if Eisa wasn’t aware of it. If anything happened that needed her attention, he would wake her up; luckily, if there was anything out there that was going to cause them a problem, they would likely see it from a far way off.
Looking at Regnark, he saw that the big man was still awake and staring straight ahead, though from the glimpse of his eyes they looked a little glazed-over. As for Fred, he was quite alert despite only getting a couple of hours of sleep that morning; considering that his body had only fully recovered from essentially getting blown up by the Earth Core less than a day ago, he was feeling pretty good. And, he had to admit, he kind of liked the feel of Eisa pressed up against his back for some reason and he smiled as he looked down at the loosely wrapped arms around his waist.
However, Fred’s mood started to sour a little when he saw that even with the high speed of the Scorpions they were riding, they weren’t going to make it to the Deadlands before dark. A few hours after night descended on the Plains would probably get them there, but that wouldn’t help if they were killed by whatever roamed the grassy area after the sun went down.
As much as it might be the smart thing to press on and hope they weren’t caught and killed, they were going to have to stop for the night. Fortunately, they had an advantage that most people didn’t when they traveled across the innocuous-looking grassy plain.
They had a Dungeon Core.
Chapter 12
Just as the sun started to touch the distant horizon, Fred woke up Eisa and told her to stop the Crystal Scorpions. She blinked sleepily but did as he asked, but Regnark wasn’t having any of it.
“What are you doing?! We need to get to the Deadlands as soon as we can; what part of large, fearsome monsters did you not understand?” he practically yelled at Fred.
“Quiet down, I understood you fine. The problem, though, is that it’s going to take a lot longer than we thought to get to the Deadlands. I need to start preparing if we’re going to survive the night,” Fred calmly replied, getting off the back of the Scorpion and stretching his legs out. He helped Eisa down by grabbing her by the waist and lifting her down, and she thanked him for his help.
“Prepare for what? From what I’ve heard, there’s no preparing against these things. Only some of the highest-Rated groups of DAS members have endured a night out here – and not all of them actually survived an encounter with whatever they are. It’s suicide to—”
“Don’t worry, we’re not staying out here – we’re staying under there,” Fred said, pointing to the ground in front of him.
“What? I know I saw you remove some dirt, but a trench isn’t going to—”
Fred ignored him and had already begun reaching out around him and found sources of the four elements he needed, though Fire was a bit difficult. There was an extremely small bug about fifteen feet underground that had a tiny spark of Fire in its makeup; it looked like some sort of beetle, but he couldn’t tell much more than that. Regardless of what it was, it was enough for him to connect to it for Fire, the grass for Nature, the moisture in that same grass for Water, and the dirt underneath his feet for Earth. In a snap, he established his territory and felt it expand, encompassing more than he thought possible.
It wasn’t necessarily because he had increased or improved his Cores, but because he wasn’t restrained by nearby Core territories. Inside the area of Gatecross, his territory bumped right up against the Nature Cores surrounding the town, but out in the Plains of Grass, it wasn’t restrained by anything. There was nothing around him for what felt like miles, he was all alone in the middle of nowhere…
And – he realized a little late – he had probably just painted a big giant bullseye on their location. If the Dungeon Cores were anything like him, they could see his territory even from a distance – possibly farther than he himself could see. His territory was quite unique, and if the Earth defenders were indeed following them, his territory had likely just lit up the sky with a big “Find me right here” sign.
It was too late to do anything about it, though, as he gathered the necessary Mana to create his dungeon entrance. He briefly thought about quickly recreating his “saved” dungeon that he was using back in Gatecross, but he didn’t want to spend his Unconverted Mana unnecessarily – and he didn’t think they’d need all those rooms. Instead, he took out 80 of his colorless mana and started to design three rooms underground, connecting them with basic tunnels. It wasn’t pretty or necessarily uniform, but it would do what he needed. Along with those rooms came the upthrust of rock signifying the dungeon entrance – which was fortunately situated away from Fred this time, unlike the first time he had created it.
A low rumble preceded the appearance of the entrance and Regnark stepped back in surprise, his tirade about what they were doing being suicide cutting off abruptly. When everything settled, Fred beckoned to the others to join him inside. The big man looked cautious, but when he saw Fred, Eisa, and Deecy enter into the rocky entrance heading underground, he slowly brought up the rear without protest.
“What I made here is pretty basic, but I’m hoping it is enough to protect us for the night. If what Regnark says is true about this monster being really large, then it shouldn’t be able to get in here; however, just in case there is something else that can get in here, I’m planning on setting up some defenses and adding my own defenders here,” Fred told the others once they were in the first room.
Unlike his saved dungeon from Gatecross, the first room was a bit larger; instead of a custom-built room that was 10 feet long on each side, he used three of the quick “Pre-built” 20X20X20-foot rooms that cost 20 Mana and added a short tunnel in between them, which consumed his initial 80 Mana. An additional 12 Unconverted Mana was used for the upkeep of the construction, but it was well worth the price to ensure that it didn’t collapse around them.
Other than the size difference, though, the rooms were completely empty and essentially just large cubes. He still had a little bit of time to add some defenses – and he wanted some help from Deecy and Eisa as well – so that they were as prepared for the night as it was possible to get. Of course, he needed the humans out of there so that he could start modifying the dungeon—
He noticed that Eisa wasn’t providing him any Unconverted Mana like she used to; he wasn’t sure why that was, but he suspected it was because she wasn’t fully “human” now – just like Deecy and himself. Her “Shard” status probably meant that she wouldn’t prevent him from changing anything inside his dungeon while she was inside, which was good, but that didn’t apply to Regnark.
When he looked at the large fur-clad man, he saw that there was a lot of the small little Unconverted Mana orbs drifting out from him and being absorbed by Fred’s dungeon walls. It was more than he’d ever seen a single person give out, and he realized it was probably because Regnark was a much higher Rating compared to anyone who’d been in his dungeon before. That must be how the more powerful Cores increase their already-high Rating; if all humans gave out the same amount of mana, there would be no reason for them to want higher-Rated Adventurers to delve through their dungeons – other than possibly longevity. Regardless of the reason why, the fact that Regnark was giving out so much more than made up for the fact that Eisa
wasn’t.
“Did you just…create all of this? Like, while we were standing up there, aboveground?” Regnark asked, looking around in surprise touched with a little bit of wonder. “You really are a Dungeon Core, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely, my friend. Again, I’m sorry I had to deceive you when we first met, but I was new to the world of humans and wasn’t sure how anyone would react to my actual nature. And, yes, I did just make this with my Mana just now, though to add any more to it, I’m going to need to have you wait outside,” Fred said apologetically.
Regnark narrowed his eyes as he looked at Fred. “Is…there some secret Dungeon Core process that I’m not allowed to see?”
“No, nothing like that; I just can’t change the dungeon around when there are human ‘invaders’ inside. It’s a failsafe that you probably appreciated – but didn’t necessarily know about – in your delving days as an Adventurer; can you imagine if the dungeons started moving rooms around or adding traps or monsters while you were inside?” Fred asked, as a way of clarification. “There are rules that even I can’t get around, even if there are a lot that I can. It hopefully won’t take long, and then you can come back down, and we can hide – hopefully protected – for the night.”
The big man’s expression softened from one of suspicion at Fred’s explanation. “Ok, I guess Eisa and I can wait outside until you’re finished.” Regnark started to walk back up the entrance and Eisa went to join him.
“Eisa, you can stay if you want. In fact, I’ll probably need your help—” Fred quickly stopped her with a hand on her arm.
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 10
