The Quizard Mountains
A Dungeon Core Epic
Station Cores – Book 2
By: Jonathan Brooks
Cover Art by: Melissa Schrank
Copyright ©2018 Jonathan Brooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The following is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Artwork Copyright ©2018 Melissa Schrank
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my wife and daughter for contributing ideas toward my creations.
Additionally, I would like to recognize my beta-readers – you’re the best!
Jake Battison
Carl Earl
Brian Flater
Richard Griffiths
Sean Hall
Grant Harrell
Aaron Wiley
Again, I need to thank Melissa Schrank for her awesome cover art!
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Part I – Dungeon Reformation
Prologue – Cordpower Corporation
Chapter 1 – Not-so-humble home
Chapter 2 – “Magic”
Chapter 3 – A big but
Chapter 4 – Combat Unit Status
Chapter 5 – Spiderwolves
Chapter 6 – A place to hang your hat
Chapter 7 – Defensive Weapons Factory
Chapter 8 – Mad scientist
Chapter 9 – Fearsome foursome
Chapter 10 – Portable happiness
Chapter 11 – Choices
Chapter 12 – The Farm
Chapter 13 – Preparation
Chapter 14 – Furry brown woodland creatures
Chapter 15 – And then there were two
Chapter 16 – Clean-up
Chapter 17 – Another proposition
Chapter 18 – Fire!
Chapter 19 – Progress
Chapter 20 – Delegation
Part II – The Attack on Quizard Mountain
Chapter 21 – The Village
Chapter 22 – Marching orders
Chapter 23 – Miner difficulties
Chapter 24 – Exploration
Chapter 25 – The hunt continues
Chapter 26 – Guesstimates
Chapter 27 – Houston, we have a problem
Chapter 28 – The depths of Quizard Mountain
Chapter 29 – Caution: Squirrelings ahead!
Chapter 30 – Cheater!
Chapter 31 – A snake in the grass
Chapter 32 – The third room
Chapter 33 – Rainbows
Chapter 34 – Little balls of fluff
Chapter 35 – A small, tiny, little problem
Chapter 36 – 10 minutes
Chapter 37 – No big deal, really
Chapter 38 – The bigger threat
Chapter 39 – It’s here
Chapter 40 – When Bearillas attack
Chapter 41 – Death and destruction
Chapter 42 – Decisions
Epilogue – Long-laid plans
Final Stats
Author’s Note
Books by Jonathan Brooks
Tables
Foreword
Thanks for choosing to read The Quizard Mountains, Book 2 of my Station Cores series!
Similar to the first in the series – The Station Core – I wanted this book to be accessible to everyone, not just hardcore stat-lovers like me. While reading, you will notice that there are footnotes scattered throughout the story. These are for those who want to dig into all the stat sheets, tables, and other informational tidbits that enhance the story – but are not necessary to enjoy it. Even if you don’t look at a single one, you are not going to miss out on the story as a whole. They are only there for people like me, who think, “the more information, the better,” is the way every book should be written. Knowing that everyone doesn’t share that same mindset, I wanted to give options to those who either don’t like stat sheets or wouldn’t miss them if they are not there.
Regardless of how you want to go about reading this book, please enjoy!
Part I – Dungeon Reformation
Prologue – Cordpower Corporation
“I know you don’t care for these uptight Cordpower fools, but I promise you, they’re paying enough that we can retire like we’ve been talking about, like, forever,” Moxwell pleaded with her, his usual rough voice softened by his use of his ability, “and besides, it can’t be any harder than when the Guild had us spend three weeks slogging through that nasty swamp, looking for the source of the rat infestation near Hewthorn,” he reasoned, shuddering involuntarily at his own reference of what was supposed to be unmentionable between them.
In the past, Rosewyn had tried – unsuccessfully – to block out memories of the horror they had witnessed in and around the border village of Hewthorn. She choked down the bile that rose in her throat at the images of giant rats feeding on massacred villagers and the trail of discarded body parts they were forced to follow for weeks through the waterlogged swamp on the frontier. They would’ve turned back at the first dismembered hand they found, but Moxwell had used his enhanced sight on the trail, identifying the footprints of captives being herded from the mostly-destroyed village.
Knowing that they couldn’t just leave potentially living Proctans to die, they resolutely hurried through the decaying trees, stagnant pools of water, and foul-smelling refuse piles from Goddess-knew-what as they followed the old signs of Proctans passing through. They were sure that it was probably too late for their fellows, but the intelligence displayed by the giant rats was something they needed to investigate anyway. Rosewyn still had mind-numbing nightmares of what they had witnessed when they finally found the source of the giant rat infestation – a massive, 30-foot-tall and 50-foot-wide Rat Queen that had somehow trapped and infused the still-living captive villagers into the sides of its decomposing body.
It was so horrendous that they didn’t stop to think, they just unleashed everything they had at the Queen. After an intense battle when her “children” came to defend their mother, the death of the massive rat also killed the villagers stuck in her flesh. There was nothing they could do – except completely decimate the rat population within ten miles in their frustration.
“I thought we agreed never to mention that again, Mox,” she admonished him, for which he didn’t look particularly apologetic, “but let’s see what they have for us first. If they are paying so much, I want to know why.”
Mox opened the unnecessarily large wooden doors to the enormous Cordpower Headquarters building, letting her go through first with an unexaggerated bow – just like a good husband should, she thought with a smile. They had only been officially married for two months, but they had been together since they were teenagers. After too many years of denying their feelings – as well as not wanting to get attached to someone who might die at any moment – they had convinced the Guardian Guild to place them on Inactive Duty while they “took care of business”, as Moxwell liked to say. Rosewyn would rather describe it as celebrating their eternal love through a beautiful ceremony befitting a princess – but to each their own. That was what she loved about
her long-time protector and meat-shield, he was better at the “business” side of their dangerous profession, while she was happy to stay home and research new and interesting ways to use her abilities.
“We’re here to see Gavin – he’s got a job for us,” Moxwell brusquely told the man who approached them as soon as they walked through the door. He had his hair perfectly combed and slicked back, all his clothes without a single wrinkle or stain on them, no visible marks or scars on his skin, and a haughty sneer upon his face – which always seemed to annoy her husband. He told her one time that it was because he couldn’t respect a man who looked as if he had never worked hard a single day of his life.
The man’s expression suddenly changed to one of apology and fear, as he stuttered out, “I-If it isn’t too much hardship, please have a seat in one of our ultra-comfortable chairs and I will get you some refreshments. I will send up to the board to see if they are ready for you,” after which he practically flew towards what Rosewyn thought was the kitchen. He returned within moments with a tray laden with a pitcher of water and glasses, as well as some sweet rolls that appeared to be fresh out of the oven. It was only when he got closer that she noticed that he also had two vials of liquid on the tray – which she immediately recognized as Power Potions.
The man noticed her scrutiny and hastily assured her, “Only the best for our important guests, a complimentary Power Potion on the house. I also passed on your arrival to the board, who will be ready for you momentarily. Is there anything else I can get you?”
She noticed his nervousness around them and to stop his torture she dismissed him with thanks. Moxwell wasn’t even paying attention as he gobbled up handfuls of the sweet rolls, oblivious to the heat and steam emanating from them as he stuffed his face. With small applications of his ability, he was able to ignore all but the hottest temperatures with a minimal of effort.
Once the man had left, she activated a small amount of her own ability – applying her knowledge of how sound traveled through the air – to manipulate a small, unobtrusive tunnel of hardened air. She used her master manipulation of the element to attach one end of it to the crack underneath the grand doorway that she assumed led to the room where she would be meeting Gavin “momentarily”. The other end led to a space just between Rosewyn and Moxwell, opening wide and amplifying the sound being funneled with encouragement from her power. It was just loud enough that they could hear what was being said on the other side of the door, but anyone else in the room would be unable to. While she wasn’t one to normally eavesdrop, this mystery job was too important to go in blindly.
She was frustrated at first when she encountered another layer of hardened air that blocked the doorway, hampering her efforts to listen in. They must have an air-affinity Elemental Caster sound-proofing the room in there – at least I know they aren’t complete idiots. Although it would have prevented nearly every other person she knew of from hearing what was said within the confines of the room, she had an advantage over everyone else.
While there were multiple cases of Elemental Casters having an extra affinity with two elements – with two rare cases where someone had three – she was unique. She was the only one in their entire history – which, to be fair, was only about a century since their abilities had been discovered – to have affinities with all four major elements. In addition, although she hadn’t told anyone but her husband, she was discovering that she was able to manipulate previously-unknown elements.
She was partially named after the famous Roselynn, who was the second person ever to discover an ability. No one dared to name their children after the revered founding Guardian Guild members, as it was considered a form of disrespect. That didn’t prevent parents from naming their children a plethora of similar names, and Rosewyn’s mother was no exception. After her daughter exhibited her abilities when she hit puberty, she congratulated herself for choosing such an auspicious name. But even her mother wasn’t aware of how special she really was.
She used one of these previously-unknown elements now, sensing and latching onto the shadow underneath the doorway. She fed some of her power toward it, deepening the darkness it was composed of and extended it forward at a slow pace. Because its basic structure was on a different...plane? I’m not really sure yet…it was able to pierce through the air bubble protecting the room as if it wasn’t even there. With its nature being the absence of light, the shadow didn’t have any physical substance or weight to it which meant that the hardened air didn’t even register it was there – but she was able to expand it so that the bubble remained unbroken and instead flowed around the absence of space. She quickly extended her air tube through this opening and was rewarded when she heard voices.
“…and so, with the nonappearance of any more of this mystery potion that caused an unfortunate drop in our sales, as well as complaints of our own quality in comparison, we are still projecting a sizable profit by the end of the year. It isn’t as big as it would have been had this ‘competitor’ not shown up, but we are recovering quickly and even working on improving our own formula based on a sample of this unknown potion we were able to acquire. Our Inventors on staff have yet to decipher the exact method used to produce it, but I’m hopeful that with our resources they will discover it soon.
“Now on to our next topic, which I know is near and dear to all of you here, myself included – will this mystery ‘Power Potion’ reappear and cut into our profits again?” For the first time they could hear some reaction from those he was talking to, as they mumbled to each other at his question, “Well, as you know, we dispatched our in-house ‘fixers’ to investigate and take care of the problem at the source. While they apparently succeeded in cutting off the flow of product, they haven’t surfaced yet to claim their reward. And if you remember, it was a sizable reward, too – enough that there would be no reason to delay on reporting back. With them as a no-show after two weeks, we’ve determined that there could be only two reasons why they wouldn’t report in.
“The first is the most likely: they are dead, succeeding only enough to stop current shipments of product and consequently warning our ‘competitors’ of our knowledge of their existence. This probably sent them into hiding, relocating their manufacturing facilities and only surfacing again when they have a more-secure distribution network.
“The second reason could be that they have been compromised, defecting to a new employer who may have offered them more for their services. I find this highly unlikely, since we pay very well, and our bonuses are nothing to scoff at. However, we need to take this possibility into consideration – if they have defected, they have intimate knowledge of our company and our practices, not to mention…other…plans that we have. Again, while this scenario is unlikely, we may need to react to this information and set some things in motion before we planned.
“Anyway, that brings me to what we can do to remedy this situation. I’ve brought in some outside help,” Rosewyn imagined him holding up his hands in a placating gesture, as shouts of dissent echoed throughout the room, “wait, hold on, just listen. I brought in some outside help of the highest caliber. And the highest price tag, but I think the expense is worth it to ensure our continued monopoly and, of course, our profits. I’m sure you’ve heard of them, if only by reputation, and if they can’t get the job done – no one can. From the way I see it, hiring them can’t hurt us in the least, because if they fail…well, then we don’t have to pay them,” the smile on the speaker’s face was apparent even if she couldn’t see him.
The sound of glass breaking shattered her own concentration, causing her manipulation of the air and shadows to fall apart. Rosewyn was surprised at how much power that had taken, but when she thought about it she realized that she wasn’t as proficient at controlling the dark shadowy element compared to the other four natural elements. Now she was glad that they had provided a Power Potion free of charge, because she felt unusually drained after that power exercise. It didn’t fill her up completely �
� nor even halfway, but that wasn’t surprising because it had been a long time since one of the potions were able to do that – but it did manage to banish her power fatigue.
She looked over at the source of the noise to see Mox picking out shards of glass that had embedded themselves in his hand when he reacted to what the speaker had said. Sometimes when he was angry he activated some of his abilities without thinking, which was fortunately very rare – otherwise they’d be replacing furniture and other objects constantly. He was actually a very sweet, non-violent person at heart – except when it came to the creatures that invaded their kingdom. His father had been killed by a Spiderwolf when he was young, so he continued to mete out punishment for that “crime” on everything he came across out on the frontier.
As he picked out the last shard, she watched in amusement as the man who had brought them the refreshments in the first place hurried over with a concerned expression on his face, only to see Moxwells’ wounds close quickly on their own. Many people knew Mox was born with the ability to Augment any part of his body – he could become faster, stronger, tougher, and could even see and hear better than anyone alive. However, he didn’t make it known that he could also heal himself – although at great expense. Whereas most Healers used their power pool to heal in addition to small parts of their flesh, Moxwell used only his flesh to heal himself.
For small wounds such as this, it wasn’t a big deal since his huge, muscled frame had extra to spare. For larger wounds, his healing would require a significant portion of his musculature, leading him to visibly lose muscle mass in other areas of his body – without his choice, unfortunately. She smiled inwardly as she remembered a leg wound that took most of the muscle from his left butt cheek, which made sitting down comfortably extremely awkward for him. Fortunately, his regenerative abilities replaced the lost muscle within a couple of days – once he had eaten enough.
The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2) Page 1
