The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2)

by Jonathan Brooks

  He didn’t want to foul the potent Power-water in there and racked his brain trying to think of another water source nearby. When he couldn’t think of anything, he added it to the list of things Whisp needed to design to make it more comfortable down here – bathrooms. Not only did they need somewhere they could…go…they needed somewhere to wash up, even if it meant hauling water from somewhere else to fill the baths like they did back in the village. He knew that the capital city and even some towns used something an Inventor had designed called “plumbing” to move water around, but it wasn’t in extensive use yet and he had never seen it in person.

  As the drones arrived with his new clothes he resolved to investigate the bathing problem later as he was starting to get cold. He quickly figured out the clothing and put it on, noticing that fit extremely well and was comfortable to boot. No more scratchy shirts for me – I’m living the high life now!

  Soon after he was dressed, the food came on some simple lightweight stone trays. He instructed the two drones carrying them to follow along as he made his way towards the new Workshop. He started running as he heard Whisp in trouble. It almost sounded as if she was having trouble breathing and crying at the same time.

  As he rushed through the entrance he slowed as he saw a sensor orb floating above her head that was speaking to her in a low voice. It cut off as soon as he walked into the room and for a moment Brint was angry at The Milton for doing something to his love. That soon faded as he realized Whisp was smiling as tears ran down her face.

  “As I was telling Whisp here, I took the liberty of making some improvements to your Workshop while you were sleeping. I had some extra time after I finished my experiments and wanted to see what you had accomplished. I’m impressed to say the least.

  “I took a gamble and figured you needed some tables and desks in here in which you could work, as well as some drafting tools I remember from my Intro to Drafting class I took back in High Sc—er, back in my old world. They are some engineering tools that might help you out in designing some new rooms to defend this place, this dungeon.

  “I wasn’t sure what else you needed, so I also placed in here something that was really expensive to produce but I think it will be worth it in the long-run. I may need to move it later in the case of an emergency but for now you can have access to it. I was just explaining it your friend here when you came in.”

  Brint looked around the room to see what he was talking about and thought he saw it in the corner. It was a 4-foot tall box and had two metal doorways covering the front and back parts of it. The doorways were smaller than the sides, allowing for something only about 2-and-a-half feet tall to enter and exit it. Based on how he knew the one on The Milton worked, he figured he was looking at a miniature one.

  “Is that a Molecular Converter? Like the one on your Station Core? That’s awesome – I didn’t know that you could make something like that!” He ran over and looked at it closer and as soon as he did he could “feel” it in his mind like everything else nearby that he could control. It was a little different from the one in The Milton’s body and he couldn’t imagine creating anything too large inside it. Nevertheless, it was a Molecular Converter.

  He looked at Whisp with a big smile on his face only to see a look of confusion on hers. “Yeah, that’s neat – but that’s not what I’m talking about,” she said as she lifted her hands, “this is why I’m so happy.”

  A small metallic box – large enough that it would cover her small hand if she laid it flat but would be dwarfed in his own – was held in her hands as she looked on it with reverence. He felt a tiny pang of jealousy over the stupid box that he wished was himself for a moment. I wish she would look at me that way.

  His envious feelings toward the box disappeared as she revealed what it was, and he had to admit he would be looking at it like that if he was her too, “It’s a power source! It’s inexhaustible and can power anything I can think of, and even things I haven’t thought up yet. The only thing is that it must be within 20 feet of it. And get this – it transmits the power without any wires or hookups! I’ve always dreamed of something like this, but even the prototype steam engines I’d been working on can’t compete with this! I have so much inventing to do!”

  “I appreciate your enthusiasm and I’m glad that it will be of some use to you. However, I need your priority to be designing some rooms to help defend against intruders. And help me figure out some traps that won’t be immediately bypassed by semi-competent invaders – my last ones didn’t fare so well.

  “I do have…some…that were made available when I built my Defensive Weapons Factory, but they are expensive in terms of metal content, which I don’t have enough of since I built the Power Generator for you. Brint, you can access the menu for it so that you can check them out; however, I’m locking you out of creating them until I have a larger reserve. And try not to spend more than a couple units of metal if you can help it – anything larger than a small knife is off-limits. I’m hoping to change that in the future, but for now supplies are tight.

  “Whisp, if you can, look into creating traps with this new stone I see you using – it’s extraordinary! How did you find this?”

  “That was all Brint – you can thank him for it! I still want to experiment on it…as far as I can tell, it is virtually shatterproof even in thin wafers and is very, very heavy and durable. I needed something that would resist any…experiments of my own I wanted to play with in here and it appears to be the perfect material for it. The best part of it is – I’ve never seen or heard of it before!” she responded, which caused Brint to blush at the mention of his part of the discovery.

  “I haven’t either – why is not having seen or hearing of it before a good thing?”

  Brint was wondering the same thing. He would have thought that knowing more about it would be helpful.

  “That’s right, I forgot that you’re not originally from here. Elemental Casters who manipulate earth – even if it’s not their particular affinity – learn how to do it by physically handling each type of mineral, stone, gem, metal, and dirt they can get their hands on. During their training this is usually easily accomplished by attending the Elemental Caster School in the capital and visiting the storeroom where they keep samples of everything anyone has ever found on Proctus. I’ve heard that it’s really boring as they have to exert their ability on each sample – which can take weeks if not months until they finish every single one. Oh, and school may be a misnomer, as it is really just a big house that new Casters can hang out while they finish training with their mentors.

  “Anyway, they’ve never seen this before, let alone handled it. That means that they can’t change it, move it, or manipulate it in any way. Even if they eventually learn about it, the ability to use it in any meaningful way is normally determined by weight – the heavier, the harder to manipulate. Which means…”

  “…that if we use this to line every single room and hallway, they can’t go around destroying everything in sight with their ability. That will help immensely – seeing that even Mirve who didn’t have an affinity in earth was able to use it to disable some of my traps. And it means that even if they can sense where my Station Core is while they are in the dungeon, they can’t just dig their way through to me. I love it! Let’s do it.”

  Whisp looked a little hesitant as she explained, “The only thing is…it’s expensive. Brint says it has a 5,000 to 1 ratio to create a brick of it from dirt. However, each brick can be sliced much thinner as it won’t affect its strength and density. Even with that,” she ducked her head as if ashamed, “we may have used a bit of your reserve to finish this room.”

  There was silence for a moment as whatever The Milton did to check his reserves was done.

  “Uh…I’d say so. That’s ok – if it’s dirt you need, I’m your guy. Or whatever I am. I may need to steal back half of your drones to do it, but dirt is not something that I’m going to run out of anytime soon. Like I said, let’s do i
t.

  “If there’s anything else you need for your room and trap designs, don’t hesitate to have Brint make it from the Molecular Converter set up in your Workshop. Once you figure out the first room, go ahead and send your drones to start building it. Just make sure you keep the air free-flowing throughout the dungeon, even during construction; the build-up of radi—uh, power from the Core Room can be detrimental to both me and you if it collects for long. Otherwise, you have free-reign to do what you need to do, within reason, of course. When the rooms are complete, I’ll help set up the traps with your input and include…some defenders.

  “If you need larger quantities of metal, check with me first – but try out this new stone first, it could end up being even better in some instances.”

  With that, the sensor orb floated back up to the ceiling, becoming just another light for them to see by. Brint thought that it was a little unnerving to have so many ways for The Milton to watch them as he stared up at the lights that were emitting bright but soft glow. He shrugged as he thought further, oh well, it’s not like he’s got nothing better to do than to watch us work.

  His thoughts were interrupted as Whisp excitedly called for him to start creating things she needed for her blueprints from the Molecular Converter.

  Speaking of that, back to work.

  Chapter 11 – Choices

  Milton stayed watching them for a while as Brint worked on carrying things that were being made in the Converter and Whisp was frantically drawing on one of the drafting tables he remembered from Roosevelt Senior High. He hated that class – he thought he had signed up for a Computer-Aided Drafting or CAD class, which sounded mildly interesting. In actuality, the teacher was really old-school and insisted that everyone learn how to do it by hand first. He never had been good at drawing and his idea of art consisted of stick figures, so it was not a good match. While he passed the class, he never was able to draw even the frames surrounding the drawings well enough to advance to the CAD part.

  Probably because he hated it, he vividly remembered every instrument he was forced to use, as well as the tables. The tables he thought were pretty neat because they slanted so that you weren’t forced to bend over to a flat surface and Whisp took to it like a fish to water. He didn’t know if they used similar things on this planet or not – either way, her hands flew around the paper she had tacked onto it like a magician. If that’s what a boost to Intelligence does for you, I wish I had that ability back in high school.

  The plans for some new rooms and some new traps seemed to be coming together, as somehow the girl was able to multi-task and work on three or four projects at once. On one of the tables seemed to be scale models of some traps that were in development, assembled by Brint with instructions relayed by the wildly drawing Inventor. Some of them looked interesting and he was starting to see where she was going with them.

  Congratulations!

  You have upgraded the skill: Rudimentary Defensive Trap Design (Level 4)

  Allows the design and creation of rudimentary defensive traps using available resources. Also provides the ability to create blueprints of any previously created traps so that they can be created again by your drones without supervision. Create additional defensive traps to upgrade this skill.

  Current skill level allows: Improvised single-use defenses, planned reusable defenses, use of alternate materials

  You have upgraded the skill: Basic Mechanical Engineering (Level 4)

  Further imparts the knowledge of basic mechanical engineering for use in defensive structures and traps. Additionally, the skill provides information regarding materials, movement forces, and testing procedures. Continue to use your current engineering knowledge and expand on different ideas to improve this skill.

  You have upgraded the skill: Basic Construction (Level 4)

  Allows the construction of basic structures such as tunnels, ditches, walls, aqueducts, and sewer systems. Higher levels improve the quality and durability of structures as well as granting access to more complex construction projects.

  Congratulations!

  Because of your deeper understanding of Trap Design, Mechanical Engineering, and Construction, these skills have combined into a higher-grade skill: Advanced Engineering (Level 1)

  Combining your knowledge of three basic skills, Advanced Engineering is the culmination of everything you have learned so far. This skill enhances your planning, development, creation, and proper placement of structures, traps, rooms, and other engineering projects. Higher levels in this skill reduces the cost of the majority of traps found within the Defensive Weapons Factory as your knowledge streamlines their efficiency and adaptability. Upgrades to this skill is achieved by creating more traps, different rooms and structures, and even by observing your creations in a combat scenario. Cost Reduction excludes Power Generator – Portable and Molecular Converter – Portable.

  Cost reduction: .04 X Ingenuity/Wisdom stat %

  Current cost reduction of Defensive Weapons Factory traps: 1.9%

  Uh…what? Not that Milton was complaining, but he hadn’t actually done anything other than watch someone else building traps…and designing rooms…

  “ALANNA! Did you know that I can gain skills by just watching other people do things?” his tone was a little harsher than he intended. He was annoyed that he hadn’t known about this before.

  Instead of being offended at his harsh tone – which was what he was expecting – she instead took it in a whole new direction, “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before. It’s all my fault and there is no excuse for my forgetfulness. In my defense, the only thing I can say is that you didn’t have anything intelligent to watch before this.”

  There was no sarcasm, no derision, and she actually sounded sincere. This was even stranger than her not using foul language. Now he was thoroughly confused – he wasn’t sure he liked this side of her. Even though it was contrary to what he thought he would have liked in a guide, for some reason it seemed…wrong.

  “Uh…that’s ok, I guess. It makes sense that there was probably nothing for me to watch before this,” he paused before broaching what had been on his mind, “are you ok? You’re not exactly acting like yourself lately.”

  “Oh, I’m fine. Like I told you before, I’ve been trying out different personality profiles from my observations of the Proctans’ interactions. I’m experimenting to find one that fits me. I was only given this standard profile from my creators; however, I was also given the ability to alter it if needs arose. The only problem I had before was that I didn’t have anything to model it after, since any additional profiles either were never uploaded or were damaged along with the rest of you. I’m just sooo happy that you found some friends for me to observe,” she informed him with a smile that Milton thought was just a little creepy.

  “So, how did you fucking like it?”

  And just that quickly, her old personality was back. He didn’t know what to think and he didn’t have time to deal with an AI suffering from a multiple personality disorder. He told her exactly what he thought – it was weird and creepy. It may be because he had gotten used to her old personality over the years and any change was strange. Or it could be just that it didn’t suit her. He didn’t know what else to say, so he moved on and in the back of his mind he hoped she figured it out soon.

  His Processing Power/Intelligence stat was high enough now that his upgraded skills hadn’t taken more than a second of downtime, which just proved that everything he had been doing was slowly bringing him back to where he should have been all along. There was still a long way to go, especially with repairing his Structural Integrity and Reactor, but his other stats were coming along nicely.

  With those stats in mind, he figured it was time to allocate the points he had received from his last Combat Level increase. He had held off on it until he learned a little more about what was needed from a defensive point-of-view; with the confidence he felt in his new allies, he knew that now was the time.

&
nbsp; Since they had the main construction of his dungeon well in-hand, his responsibility would primarily be filling it with traps and Combat Units. Oh, and mining more dirt for the special stone Brint found. He was still a little baffled at how he had missed the Weightonite when he was first building his dungeon and even some of his traps. He was sure he looked at everything on the list…at least everything that he saw he recognized.

  And that was probably the problem right there – his mind filtered out everything that he couldn’t identify right away if it wasn’t present on Earth. Weightonite wasn’t found on Earth; it was a product of another planet entirely. The fact that Brint had access to the list was fortuitous because he had very little knowledge of stone and geology – if Whisp had been looking, she would have looked for the best stone from Proctus, not just the best stone available on the whole list. It was something he would have to keep in mind in the future.

  Back to the matter at hand, Milton figured that he could produce some of the traps from his Defensive Weapons Factory – such as the Wire Grid he had placed near the entrance – but they were expensive in terms of metal content. He received a bonus from his Advanced Engineering (Level 1) skill, but it wasn’t much at only 1.9%. If he upped his Ingenuity/Wisdom score it would increase this bonus a few percentage points; however, it was likely that the bonus would increase as he leveled up the skill so the 13 points he could place into the stat wouldn’t do as much good right now.

  Additionally, the traps that Whisp was designing appeared to be just a deadly as some of the ones his factory could produce. He would save a lot of resources using those instead of his “pre-fabricated” traps from the Factory. This meant that his focus needed to be on defending his dungeon with the Combat Units he had available. Which brought up two problems.