(Caution: A nearby Dungeon Core is attempting to acquire an element from nearby defenders.)
“What are you doing?” Fred asked out loud, his confusion at the message displayed in his vision in his voice.
Warning! The nearby Dungeon Core has been temporarily damaged due to rapid release of Mana in vast quantities; any mass infusion of Mana may increase this damage, up to and including full destruction.
“Uh, stop what you’re doing – you’re going to kill yourself!”
“No! I will not stop until I have my element back, you thief! Since you seem to be protected from me somehow, I’m going to just have to use my former defenders.”
He didn’t know what she meant, but looking through his Mana Sight, he could see a tenuous tendril of colorless Mana connecting the Defiled Goblinoid – who was now standing over him about to strike – and the element-less Core in his hand. Suddenly, a surge of Mana shot out of the knife-wielding defender and into the small Core, which caused the Goblinoid to disappear as if it had never been there.
Fred felt a small vibration in the Core he was holding, but nothing much else happened; he looked down and saw some colorless Mana inside it that reminded him of his Unconverted Mana – which was just strange to see outside of his own body.
“Not enough…”
Wait, what? It was only then that he saw the other tendril heading off through the wall – and into the final room where his friends were still fighting for their lives. Before he could react, a surge of Mana came flying down the connection and pumped into the Core in his hand – which started to heat up quickly.
“Yes! It’s back! Now you’re going to pay—No! That’s too much – I don’t need any mo—”
The Core started to shake violently in his hand, and he could guess what was going to happen next. Rather than get blown up again with an exploding Core in his hand, Fred threw the blistering-hot crystal away from him and lay flat on the floor; he heard a *tink* *tink* as the Dungeon Core rolled to the entrance of the Core Room and through the crevice a little bit. Fred cast his Mage’s Barrier and his Necromancer’s Shield of Darkness on himself – hoping to avoid dying again – and was about to add some more protection… but a massive explosion rocked the Core Room and the last room of the dungeon, causing Fred to temporarily black out from the shockwave.
Chapter 30
When he came to, Fred was surprised to find himself relatively intact, if trapped underneath a stone slab that fell across his back. It was propped up just enough that he wasn’t squished flat, but he couldn’t feel his lower half; a quick check through his Territorial Sight showed that his legs were still attached, but the heavy stone was slightly crushing them and cutting off circulation – which made them numb.
Fred wasn’t sure how long he was out, but when he expanded his search of his surroundings, he discovered that it wasn’t long. Looking in the last room of the dungeon where the others were fighting the Demonlord, he found his friends in various states of unconsciousness after the explosion, with no sign of the massive demon.
There was a dozen undead of different types inside the room, however; no more were incoming, though, because a portion of the stone wall had been propelled across the room in the explosion, where it had crashed into the entrance tunnel, trapping those inside but also preventing any more undead from entering. Which he was glad of, because as he looked farther, he could see the previous rooms swarming with an assortment of giant Skeletons, Wraiths, Undead Knights, and even a small Bone Dragon, which appeared to be a miniature version of the Emerald Dragon his giant Rock Beetle had gone up against – only made completely of bone.
Regardless of the happenstance of the blockage, there still remained a threat to his friends; instead of trying to free himself, he instead started to do what he could to help his friends further. Deecy appeared to be waking up first, but she was back in her Pup form and severely drained of her own Mana, which meant that she wasn’t likely to be of much help. Regnark was stirring next, but by the time he got to his feet, he would likely be overwhelmed by the undead that had recovered and were running for him.
That was ok, though, because Fred could finally do something.
He felt…incomplete, he supposed...when he didn’t have his territory up and access to his dungeon-making abilities; now that he had one back up – which filled up the entire Dark Core’s former territory and then some – he was ready to be a little more than a spell-flinging multi-Mage. He was a Dungeon Core, and it was about time he used those skills to the fullest.
While he couldn’t create actual dungeon rooms, he could still carve out what he wanted through the dirt and stone – it just wouldn’t be counted as an actual dungeon. So, just like he had done back in Gatecross shortly after Regnark had arrived, he dug a trench in front of the approaching undead group. There were five high-level Shambling Skeletons, four Butchering Ghouls (which looked to be a “healthier and faster” form of Zombie, if such a thing could exist), and three Bone Wights (which were taller, emaciated-looking Zombies) heading towards his friends – which weren’t looking where they were going as the floor ended in front of them.
He made the trench much deeper than the one in Gatecross – the undead fell down nearly 40 feet before they hit the bottom. It didn’t do much more than hurt them a little, but that wasn’t the point; they were now trapped below without a way to get up to hurt his friends. With that taken care of for the moment, he turned back to his own predicament – but then something caught his attention.
Hidden in the shadows of the room near the entrance, a figure stood up from where Fred had seen some others that had fallen and disappeared quickly thereafter, but he had overlooked one that hadn’t. When he looked closer at it, he realized that it had been seriously hurt, but not killed; if it hadn’t been undead, it surely would’ve perished from being slammed with thousands of pounds of solid rock.
Lich King (Level 6)
Vitality: 945/13000
Attack: 300, Shadow Bolt, Soul Steal
Defense: 250, (+90% Dark defense, -85% Light defense)
The Lich King walked instead of ran towards the downed Adventurers, either taking its time or its movements hampered by its injuries. Either way, when it approached the large trench where its fellow undead had fallen, Fred was expecting it to plummet straight down – but it kept walking, floating above the hole in the flooring. When he thought back, he realized that it wasn’t walking at all – it was floating slowly, but inexorably, toward his friends.
A loud *crack* echoed through the dungeon, originating in the final room. Fred looked above the slowly recovering Adventurers and saw that the dungeon was just about to collapse. Since the dungeon’s owner had lost her territory and had destroyed herself, the mana keeping everything intact was fading away. Fred could tell that the top of the giant final room was at least 200 feet underneath the ground; if everything fell in on top of everyone, there would be very little chance that any of them would survive.
Of course, none of them would survive if the Lich King got to them first. The 7-foot-tall skeleton/zombie defender was wreathed in shadows that enveloped it in a type of inflated robe, leaving only its face really visible to the naked eye. A black metal crown adorned with what appeared to be severed fingers sat on top of its head, and it held a long staff of what appeared to be from the Deadlands trees aboveground, though it had been blackened for some sort of purpose.
Regnark stood up just in time to get a Shadow Bolt to his chest, which knocked him onto his back with a shout. The attack would’ve alerted the others, but they were either still unconscious or were too hurt and too far away to be of much help; Fred, on the other hand, thought he could do something about it.
Briefly checking his Core Status, he noticed a lot of changes that were going to have to wait for him to look at, especially when he was trying to save his friends; the most important thing, though, was what his current Mana was looking like.
Fire Mana: 2/139
Water Mana: 2/
138
Nature Mana: 82/138
Earth Mana: 1/82
Dark Mana: 100/100
Unconverted Mana: 52985
The only thing he had at his disposal was some Nature Mana and a full complement of his new Dark Mana; he had given Deecy and Eisa his other element types for the previous battle, so that they would go into it as capable as they could be. The problem with his current Mana types was that, while he could make quite a few defenders and defenses, he didn’t have anything large or powerful enough to hold off or kill the Lich King. He had received some blueprints from the Dark Core during the extraction process, but a quick look at them showed that they were for a Defiled Goblinoid and something called a Plague Rat – which didn’t seem powerful enough, even if he were to make them a higher level. He also received two defenses, but as they were Dark-based, they would be practically useless against an undead.
A brief thought about his Nature defenses came up with the same uselessness; even if he had enough Mana to create an Ensnaring Vine that hung down from the ceiling, it wouldn’t do much against the powerful undead – the same with his Small Thorn Trap. The Poisonous Bomb he had received from one of the stolen Cores back in Gatecross was likely to be equally ineffective – from what he had heard, undead were immune to poison or diseases. He really didn’t have anything that would be effective, though he could just throw a small horde of weak defenders against it…
The Lich King finally floated over the large trench Fred had created, when a large portion of the stone ceiling fell down just behind it, plummeting into the deep pit and crushing the undead struggling to find some way up. As they quickly dissipated and left behind some globs of Dark Mana, Fred looked around the room and thought he had a plan. As soon as he had something in mind, it was almost as if his thoughts sped up so fast that the world around him froze again – almost like it did when he held a Dungeon Core. Well, not quite; he could observe everything moving super slow, but it was better than nothing. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he was thankful because it gave him a chance to consider his options.
Eisa’s Crystal Scorpions had perished either before or during the explosion – he wasn’t exactly sure when; regardless, the Earth Mana left behind by them was drifting lazily down to the floor, just waiting to be used. Along with the available Dark Mana left behind by the destroyed undead in the pit, Fred mentally gathered it all up to create something…original. He momentarily thought about trying to make some sort of Crystal Scorpion, but he realized that even if he were to combine two different elements into it, he still didn’t think he could make one bigger than a Level 9 – it was expensive Mana-wise to bring them even that high, even considering he was using two different elements.
No, what he needed was something that he could boost up in Level cheaply, similar to the Rock Beetle he had sicced against the Emerald Dragon. He didn’t have enough Mana available to make something that powerful, but he was sure he could come up with something. He temporarily thought about beefing up some sort of Nature defender, but he realized that it wouldn’t survive long against the Lich King – it was still too powerful. No, what he needed was one of his Dark defenders, which would be able to survive a lot longer because of its innate protection against Dark-based attacks.
There was a Defiled Goblinoid which had a base cost of 15 Dark Mana and the Plague Rats, which had a base cost of 5; since he could likely boost the level of the Rats much more than the Goblinoid, he prepared the blueprint and started to fill it up with Mana…but stopped before he could finish. Looking back at his options, he realized he had neglected the list of defenders he had acquired aboveground in the Deadlands. He looked it over a couple of times and almost went back to the Rats…when he saw it.
Skeletal Squirrel (Level 1 Base Cost: 1 Dark Mana)
Perfect. He set up the blueprint of the tiny, 8-inch-tall Skeletal Squirrel and started pumping equal amounts of Dark and Earth Mana into it from what had been free-floating in the room. When all that was gone, he saw that he had managed to pump 250 of each type inside the creation, and he watched as the wire-frame blueprint got bigger and bigger. By the time it was as big as it was going to be, the 8-inch Squirrel had transformed into a 13-foot-tall monstrosity.
Bones of the Earth Squirrel (Level 125)
Vitality: 2500/2500
Attack: 250, Claw Scratch
Defense: 310, (+45% Dark and Earth defense, -43% Air and Light defense)
The Bones of the Earth Squirrel wasn’t precisely what he wanted; the additional Earth Mana had reduced its bonuses and weaknesses, but it also strengthened its natural defense somehow. As soon as he confirmed in his mind his final decision, time sped back up to normal, and the Lich King approached Regnark, just as Fred’s blueprint of his new defender finished filling up with Mana. The big man stood up and swung his sword – which he had somehow kept a grip on despite being flung backwards – slicing right into the floating royal undead’s left side. The Lich was hit hard enough that it was knocked to the right of Regnark, but it only managed to do a paltry 5 points of damage.
The undead reached its hands out to grab the big man as he swung his sword again, barely brushing its fingertips against his lower arm – when it was tackled from the side by a stone projectile. Fred’s Squirrel looked quite different than its progenitor; its skeleton – if it was indeed still there – was completely covered in hard stone, giving it the appearance of a squirrel-shaped Stone Golem – but much more agile and deadly. It was kind of strange being able to see all the way through its rock-covered bones, but he had to admit that the cute little skeletal animal was now a behemoth of death and destruction.
Despite the brief touch against his lower arm, Regnark started screaming; it was a deep-soul-rending scream, as if his life was being sucked out of him. Fred looked and saw a conduit similar to the one the Dark Core had used to absorb mana from its defenders connecting the Lich and the big man, despite the fact that the former was rolling across the ground as it was tackled by a giant squirrel. I guess that’s what its Soul Steal ability is all about.
Regnark’s Vitality was draining at a rapid pace, while the Vitality of the Lich started to rise – though the two weren’t decreasing and increasing at an equal rate. His friend’s life was being drained away from him faster than the other was being healed, but the problem was that Regnark didn’t have much more to give. Everyone had been hurt from the explosion, and despite having more defense than the others, he had somehow taken more than his fair share; either that, or he had been severely hurt even before that.
Regnark McConald
Vitality: 268/4000
Stamina: 405/3800
Power: 40/60
“Eisa! Wake up and heal Regnark!” Fred practically shouted through his Mana Communication skill, hoping that his voice would wake her unconscious form up. Miraculously, she started to stir – though it probably helped that Deecy was licking her face at the same time; her eyes fluttered open and she groaned as she picked herself up off the floor – before looking around in shock.
“Eisa! Hurry – Regnark’s dying!” That finally got her attention, as she got to her feet and stumbled from exhaustion. He saw her try to extend her aura towards the big man…but it failed – she, just as Deecy, had spent all of her Mana during the previous battle to give Fred enough time to do what he needed to do. Fred checked her Power and saw that it was practically empty as well; she must have seen that too, but she used what she had to cast one Heal Minor Wounds spell after another, prolonging his life a little while she still had Power.
“Deecy! Try to wake up Metlin and the others!” he Communicated to the Dire Wolf, hoping that the others would return to consciousness in time.
Meanwhile, Fred’s Squirrel and the Lich King were trading blows back and forth, though neither of them was doing much damage to each other. The undead didn’t seem as powerful in a straight-up melee situation, and the few Shadow Bolts that it shot out at his defender did very little due to its higher defense and
reduction to Dark attacks. The most that his more-agile Squirrel could do was keep the Lich’s Vitality steady, negating any of the extra it was receiving from using Soul Steal on Regnark.
Therefore, Fred wanted to change that. Using his Nature Mana and the excess Dark Mana left over from the slain undead in the trench, he started creating as many Large Wasps and Defiled Goblinoids as he could and sent them toward the fighting pair. At most, they were able to do a point of damage to the Lich King before it backhanded or cast a Shadow Bolt at them – which killed them instantly; it wasn’t a lot, but it was starting to add up.
*Craaaack*
Fred looked up and saw the ceiling in the last room on the verge of collapse. Thinking quickly, he pulled out hundreds and then thousands of Unconverted Mana and sent it upwards into the dirt and stone in between the dungeon and the ground above. While he couldn’t necessarily remake the dungeon with his Mana, he could definitely use it to dig a pit; so that’s what he did, though his pit was 150 feet wide and 200 feet deep – and leading all the way up to the surface.
For good measure, he did the same in a large chute leading up from the Core Room where he was still trapped; the last thing he needed was for the rest of the ceiling to collapse on him. With that done, he turned his attention back to the fight for Regnark’s life.
Deecy had managed to wake up Trenk and Lasgo, who were groggily picking themselves up off the ground; as for Metlin and the others, they were a bit less responsive. Pollianne was the next to wake, though she groaned mightily as she tried to pick herself up – and then screamed as she fell back down, clutching at her left leg where it had been sliced deeply by something. Probably shrapnel from the explosion, Fred thought. The high-pitched scream, however, had the effect of waking up the last two, who apparently hadn’t been disturbed by Regnark’s continued screaming – especially since Eisa had run out of Power and couldn’t heal him anymore.
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 25
