Dungeon Robotics (Book 7): Collapse

by Matthew Peed

  “Caw!”

  “Huh?” I looked up from my book and saw the monster was starting to expand. I checked my anti-mana barrier and found it working as it should. Looking closely at the wolf monster, I found it was trying to detonate its pool. “Very established intelligence. Will seek to destroy itself when caught. Interesting,” I said, jotting it down.

  Closing the book, I tightened my grip on my staff, then stabbed it through the center of the creature. The excess mana was siphoned into the dormant dungeon shard at the top of the staff. The monster slowly broke into motes of light that were sucked into the instrument.

  After a good two minutes, the creature was gone. I double-checked to be sure but found the crack to be gone as well. I made a note that the crack and monster might have been tied together in some form but would require further investigation. This incident was concluded for the moment. I dismissed all my magics and turned to the soldiers.

  “Everything is over. This area should be safe now.”

  A soldier with a small bar of mithril on his breast came over and saluted me. “Thank you for your service to Vaihdetta. Here is a small token from Her Highness,” he said while handing me a small bag.

  Looking inside, I found several dozen gold coins that possessed a white tint.

  “While your living expense and lodging have already been taken care of, Her Highness wanted you to have some spending money for around the valley.”

  “Thank you. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each a few more times over the coming days. Thus, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I said, holding my hand out.

  He took it with a grin. “I am called Pin. It is a pleasure, Master Oparens.”

  “Just Rens is fine,” I said with a wave of my hand.

  “Very well. We are responsible for responding to these threats as best we can. We will make sure that any citizens in the area of an appearance cooperate with you.”

  “Sounds good. Needless deaths are something none of us wants,” I said with a grin that some might take as smug. Pin just nodded, unfazed by my attitude. That just took all the fun out of it.

  “We will be returning for—” Pin started to say when the valley shook from a tremendous force from the west.

  We all turned to see a cloud that was shaped like a giant mushroom rising into the sky from the other side of the mountains. Lightning and mana flashed inside the clouds from the mana it was putting off.

  “Lady Ezal or Her Highness?” I heard one of the soldiers whisper to his fellow.

  “If they followed the battle plan, should be Lady Ezal. Damn! Remind me never to skip training,” replied the other soldier. I noticed that he was gripping his sword tightly.

  I turned back to the spectacle just as a wave of force washed over the mountain. I had to dig my staff into the ground to keep from being knocked over from the strong winds that were ripping through the valley. Less than half a second passed before a massive barrier formed over the entire valley. The effects died down immediately.

  “I have ten gold that one of them will end up blowing up the valley,” another soldier said with a chuckle.

  “Ten gold? That’s it?”

  “Well, if they do blow it up, then it’s not going to do me much good,” the soldier shot back and got a begrudging nod in reply.

  “Are you sure you should be betting on your queen like that?” I asked, a little surprised about the exchange.

  Before I got a reply, I heard a massive crash as debris started raining onto the barrier above us. Everyone ducked unconsciously, myself included. The debris chunks were easily two or three houses large, with smaller pieces intermixed. More debris rained down, ranging from trees to boulders. Even a few monsters that were tier two and of the physical class, thus able to survive the outright blast, were impacting the barrier.

  The soldier coughed before he turned back to me. “She allows it. There are so many new people arriving in the valley every day that it would be ludicrous not to. A little trivial betting to help ease people in this troubling time. Plus, it is mostly harmless. I think the biggest bet is what mana aspect Lady Ezal’s child will have.”

  “Convention is that it follows the parents,” I said, looking between them and the barrier-blocked sky.

  “Exactly. There are a few bets on who the father is,” Pin added, joining the conversation for the first time. He didn’t seem like the type of man to engage in idle chatter. This must be an issue for the entire valley.

  “Oh, what are the options?” I asked, curious.

  A streak of yellow lightning struck the barrier, turning several dozen of the hexagrams that made up its structure orange, then red. After the lightning passed, the hexagrams near the impact site appeared to exchange mana with each other and balanced out the damaged section. Soon, the area that was struck returned to a solid blue.

  I took note of the magic. It was a fascinating use of mana exchange. One that had never crossed my mind before. I could think of several applications for it on more than just barriers.

  “First you have Baden, he was the local leader of the Golden Dawn before a bit of an incident ended up with a necromancer coup in their ranks. Though rumor has it that he and Her Highness were more of a thing than those two, there are still some placing bets on it,” a soldier said, but I could tell he didn’t think that was the correct candidate.

  “Next, Marquis Valamar. She saved his life when he almost fell from the airdocks on the other side of town. They were supposedly spotted together in various places in town, but she was the head of security for Her Highness back then. So, it’s up in the air,” another soldier explained.

  “Then you have Bruce, who appeared in the dead of night and protects her as if his life depends on it. He has the highest odds right now,” a third soldier added with some gusto. Likely, this Bruce was the one that he had bet on.

  “Interesting. Well, with her being such a powerful Fire mage, the child will be largely influenced by that. If the father was a fire aspect at all, then the chances of the child being of the fire aspect are almost guaranteed. If the father had anything else, it would be interesting, to say the least.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement. It looked like the display was almost over, so I turned to head back to my housing. It would take at least a few more hours for the chaos mana to gather enough to form another crack, so I wanted to rest and figure out a way to maybe capture a pretakrin.

  I was only a few meters away when Pin shouted, “What the hell is that?”

  I turned back, worried that I might have missed something to do with the crack, and saw a massive being made from flames over the mountains. It had a warhammer and looked like an evil god that was bringing about the end of the world. As we watched, it brought its warhammer down on something past the mountains, and a pillar of flame rose into the air.

  “May the fates have mercy on our souls,” murmured a soldier just loudly enough for us all to hear. I could only nod in reply.

  Chapter 35

  Regan

  I breathed heavily from the pain I’d just experienced. I’d managed to create what I was calling a “core transmitter” inside my body. It was painful to create and use, so I was glad I only planned to use it for the one thing. I was equally glad I was able to manipulate my own body, even in this strange space.

  I was able to get a message through the prison to Ignea by using my soul as the conductor. Thankfully, the damage wasn’t permanent, but it would remain for a while. Now that the immediate issue at hand was dealt with, I needed to figure out a way to get out of here. I could just watch like the two forces of the universe told me to, but I felt like that was giving in too easily.

  They seemed to be watching me closely, but of course, they could just be omnipotent. Something told me that wasn’t the only reason. Even though I knew they had a bet of some type going, I couldn’t be sure what it was. I once thought it was the destruction of the world, but that might not have been the case.

  I rubbed my temples, as the i
dea seemed ridiculous. What would two immortal beings that obviously had no restraints of time want with me? “Whatever will be will be,” I mumbled finally and turned back to my aura. At least I could see what was going on, as long as it was in my aura. I would need to remember to thank them for that boon. Being stuck in a black void for who knew how long would have been annoying.

  Checking my main dungeon first, I noticed that there were nearly twenty thousand people working the farming floor. Nearly half of that number had even gone for the homestead option and were living there now. I could see hundreds of families that looked genuinely happy with their lot in life.

  Moving on, I looked for the more aggressive version of the mortals. The adventurers had moved past the junkyard floor and were working on the winter forest section. I was impressed with what I saw after observing for a while.

  An outpost created by the mortals had sprung up on the outskirts of the forest. Mostly made from tents and terra magic buildings, there was a pretty large community that was trading and collecting the stones to get to the next floor. While the boss remained undefeated, or rather no one had reached it yet, many parties were getting close.

  The guardians of the stones, giant mechanical wolves or ice golems that towered over the mortals by three or four meters were getting a workout. The adventurers that were diving my halls were much more powerful than when they’d first dived them. A combination of higher-quality mana, studying their elements in ways that many had likely never thought of, and the desperate drive to get stronger pushed these people faster than just simply gathering gold could ever have done.

  I was pleased with the mortals. I liked the fact that these floors I’d spent time and mana designing were finally getting some action. I personally couldn’t wait for the adventurers or, more accurately, the dwarves to reach the next set of floors.

  Hephaestus had remodeled the floor since I’d created him. It was a miners’ and crafters’ paradise. Ore and abandoned smiths dotted the land. You could mine iron, walk less than ten meters, and start forging. There were plenty of monsters to fight and harvest for materials. Damaged miner mechs, forging automata, and more made for a nice challenge for those that would seek them.

  Hephaestus himself worked at a forge at the end of the floor. His hammering could be heard from anywhere on the floor. Depending on what he was working on, crafters could get insight into their works just by watching the man. I was glad that I’d created him. He was currently making weapons and armor for my armies at an almost nonstop rate.

  It would likely be quite a while until anyone reached the fortieth floor. Any parties that wanted to get past the thirtieth-floor section would have to gather enough materials for Hephaestus to forge a weapon or piece of gear of a certain quality. He would outright reject anything that he felt was too poor for him to forge with.

  People could gather these materials from the monsters on the floor or mine them. Foreign materials brought from outside the dungeon were acceptable but were scrutinized more before he would accept them. I estimated that it would take someone about a week of solid work to gather enough materials for him to use, since the size of what he forged was based on him at several meters long.

  Of course, if a party could defeat Hephaestus, then they would be free to move to the next section. That would be ridiculously hard, considering he was able to use all the armor, weapons, and gear that he forged. That and he was well into tier three.

  Looking toward Hephaestus, I expected to see him forging but was surprised when I found him in battle. He was surrounded by three creatures that gave off the strange mana readings. They were reminiscent of the separate dimension I’d been stuck in for a few weeks. I didn’t know why they were in my dungeon, but I could tell they were after something. Given that they were trying to go deeper, I could only wager that it was my core.

  As I watched, Hephaestus brought his massive forging hammer around, and it grew to the size of a house. He brought it down on one of the creatures, and the thing exploded into a splatter of gore. I whistled at the outright death of the creature. It didn’t look like he was going to have any trouble with them.

  A hyena monster with wings and an extra pair of legs jumped onto Hephaestus but wasn’t able to penetrate his should armor when it went in for a bite. He flexed his arm, and the hyena’s mouth exploded from the force of his muscles expanding. As the hyena fell to the ground twitching, he brought his foot down repeatedly, crushing the hyena’s body.

  “I hope no one tries to fight their way through this floor,” I mumbled, shaking my head. I really needed to stop making overpowered boss monsters. I was breaking the idea behind a dungeon. Though, the only real rule I had been told was to cleanse the mana from mortals. I wasn’t actually told I had to be fair about it.

  I just shrugged and looked on. The ocean floor was tranquil at the moment. Looking over the navy and pirate fleets, I could see they’d been in some serious combat with something, likely the same creatures that Hephaestus was fighting. Several ships were listing at their respective docks, being hurriedly repaired before they sank.

  The rest of the dungeon appeared to be free of the creatures for the moment. Looking farther, I could see Goblin City had suffered some damage. Crews of goblins with heavily armed mechs patrolled the streets while gnomes offered support. They’d seen some casualties, but living in a dungeon was never meant to be safe. At least they weren’t just taking it by rolling over and were ready for what looked like anything.

  Feeling that my main dungeon was secure for the moment, I moved over to Steel Spire. The ex-slave population had ballooned even more and was close to Vaihdetta in size now. People moved about with purpose, but there didn’t seem to be many appearances of the creatures.

  I could spot some damage, but it was minor. The automata were usually being updated daily about the happenings in the main dungeon, thus they should have been relatively prepared for anything that came their way. The tower itself was designed to be a death trap for anything that I didn’t recognize. If one of the creatures appeared in the structure, I gave it less than thirty seconds of life before it was vaporized.

  Moving farther east, I saw the city of Tearfalls looking much like the last time I’d seen it. My army appeared to be stationed in front of the city and were not pursuing the undead farther. Likely, it was due to my disappearance. They didn’t want to risk getting into a position they couldn’t handle without my support. A wise decision by Anubis.

  Izora appeared busy converting people to my name. I could feel the adherent mana coming from the city was growing by the hour. That was usually what happened when your god just sat and let you die while another reached out with food and help. The fact I was protecting them literally meant everything to some of the people there now.

  Puppet appeared to be helping a great deal. It looked like his party was quite famous among the people of Tearfalls. I nodded my approval. A single voice shouting promises wasn’t much to move hearts. A voice with the support of someone that you know and are thankful for means all the difference.

  The situation there looked stable, so I moved to the next core. Alara and Jarvis along with the captains were moving Alpha to confront the lich core to the east in the north. I wasn’t sure what the lich was thinking by sending such a weak force to attack me, but likely he wanted to lure her out of her home turf. Especially if he knew I wasn’t available at the moment.

  That wasn’t even that hard to find out. He just needed to probe the core communication and he would find I wasn’t there. After this incident, I thought, I’ll just work from home. Yeah, a couple hundred drones that I have direct access to will work just as well. While I wasn’t completely sure of the necromancers’ goals, taking the fight to them was the best option, given what they knew.

  The group looked to be well on their way and had already traveled about halfway to the lich core. I idly wondered how the core connection would work, as it was my core but Alara was technically piloting it right now. Something interes
ting to see in about a day or two once the aura around Alpha contacted the lich’s.

  Just to be safe, I checked my newest core. Soza was napping around my core shielding like a cat next to a heater. This was both good and bad. Good since I knew she was holding up her end of the agreement. Bad since that meant she was absorbing a ton of mana directly from the source. I couldn’t fathom how that might affect her in the long run.

  I would have to try to give Nova a boost before their fight. I wasn’t particularly interested in having a dragon for a wife. I just exhaled and looked back to my main dungeon. That was a problem for another day. One that I hoped didn’t bite me in the ass.

  Reexamining my prison, I could tell that the mana my body contained wouldn’t be enough to break free. I was interested in the fact that the two forces of absolute used real-world rules for my prison. I could only assume that they didn’t care if I managed to break out as long as it followed the rules of the world. That I was able to send even a hint of a feeling to Ignea told me that. It also made me truly wonder what their deal was.

  ~~~

  Roughly ten hours later, if I was keeping track right, I was nowhere closer to getting out. I came up with about half a dozen different ways I could escape. Nothing that would work from inside, ironically enough.

  I was staring out over the city and pondering what to do when the entire valley shook. Thankfully, my sight wasn’t limited to the valley. Looking out to the west, I saw a mushroom cloud, of all things, and immediately thought of Louella and Ezal. Mainly Ezal. Only she would have the control over fire mana and knowledge of it to create the reaction of anything close to that type of explosion.

  “Looks like I really did create a few monsters with that knowledge,” I mumbled as debris started to rain on the city. The barrier I’d placed during the festival activated and repelled the falling wreckage. I found it ironic that the first time the barrier was used was to protect against friendly fire.