Dungeon Master

by Andrew Bardsley

  On Rhef order Ceras cast his fire touch spell onto the ore in the tunnel heating it up until it was glowing red hot giving off fumes that were sucked into the tunnel.

  "Hopeful that should entice the rock worm," said Rhef in a hopeful voice but with a nervous expression on her replacing her normal look of determination, "as Hidden-Caverns said that they seem to crave copper."

  As everybody was silently watching the ore smolder away, standing in the cold wind on the exposed mountainside, the first sign of some was coming was a slight tremor of the earth around them. All the adventures and orcs look at each other with expressions showing their nerves. Ceras was surprised to see the orcs show such a weak emotion as they called it, which in turn made him more nervous. If they were that scared of what they were about to do. The tremor started to increase in intensity and frequency until a loud rumbling noise was to be heard from the dark tunnel into the side of the mountain.

  The noise continued to get louder as Ceras could see in the tunnel some movement in the near absolute darkness. Suddenly into the rays of light, from the sun, that reached into the tunnel, a large mouth was visible.

  Ceras watched with a stunned expression amazed at what he saw; the mouth encompassed the whole diameter of the two-meter tunnel. The teeth were sharp blocks of metal moving around in concentric circles. Each of the circles of teeth was moving the opposite direction to the next set of teeth. In the center of the mouth was a set of inner metal teeth that was pounding together.

  When the mouth reached the bag of smoldering ore, the outer teeth moved downwards digging into the rock at the bottom of the tunnel, breaking it into to pierces as they were crushed repeatedly by the circling rows of teeth until it was powder and small stone fed it into the center of the mouth where it was channeled through the pounding teeth to be broken up into finer and finer powder.

  Ceras tried not to image being caught in the largemouth as he body and bones were ground to the smaller and smaller particle by the grinding teeth, but the image came to his head nether the less as he knew he would have nightmares about this monster.

  The rock worm seemed to savor the taste of the copper ore for a few seconds as it was feeding the ore into the center part of its mouth where it was ground to dust. When it had the finish the ore, it suddenly leaped forward, faster than Ceras thought was possible for such a large creature and it body shot out of the hole to grab the bag suspended in the air. The side of the worm that was exposed had ribbed, of what seemed to be a hardened leather with softer and fleshy grey translucent skin in between.

  "Go!" shouted Rhef in a firm voice as the monsters started to grind the bag into dust, with its body exposed to the spear orcs on the side.

  All the orc seemed to move as one as each large spear on the side of the tunnel was driven into the soft flesh of the rock worm, by three orcs holding each spear. As the spears penetrated the flesh of the large monster, orcs with mallets started to pound the end of the large wooden pole driving it in as far as they could, to Ceras it seemed as if they got a foot or two into the body of the worm. Ceras cast his immobilization spell on the head of the worm, poring his full mana into the spell. This only just slowed down the movement of the head of the worm as it waved around in the air trying to smash anything it could reach with it mouth grinding in mid-air from peoples exposed the flesh.

  As the spears were being driven into the warm fleshy body, between the ribs of harden leather, Rinaldo went to work with his team of orcs with a sharp ax. Aiming for a flesh section of the worm, they started to hack away trying to chop off a large chunk of flesh. With all of the chopping, in a coordinated manner as they had practiced, soon large segments of flesh were falling onto the ground. Grikius ran quickly under the worm and picked up several pieces of the flesh that seem to be dry grey lumps of organic matter and ran away quickly when he had finished.

  The ax and spear orcs were just about to retreat when the worm gave one giant push and shot more of its body out of the hole. This caused the orcs holding the spears to be pulled into the air as they were still holding the spear shafts. For a few second the orcs were hanging in mid-air being thrown around as if they were just tasseling on the end of a rope. Each of them let go quickly and fell to the ground and started to run away from the smashing worms' body now able to reach the ground. As Ceras was running with the orcs and the rest of the adventures down the steep incline of the mountain, trying not to trip over he, glanced back and saw the rock worm pulling its head back into the mountain as it easily snapped the spear shafts.

  Everybody kept running until they were back in the valley with its green trees for shade, where Symania started to heal all the cuts, bruises and broken limbs that the battle with the rock worm had produced.

  "Did anybody see the stat for that creature? "said Ceras to the assembled crowd of huffing and puffing, humans and orcs.

  Everybody shook their head, making Ceras wondering why the goddess blessing had not displayed any stats.

  Grikius placed the grey flesh of the worm into Ceras bag of holding for the long journey back to the dungeon as every sorted out their packs to get away from mountain with the rock worms. On the journey back Rinaldo and the orc hunted for more monster to take back to the dungeon for them to use for protection and when the adventures got back, they were dropped in the following for the dungeon to absorb for later use.

  Name of Monster

  Level

  Agility

  HP

  MP

  Skills

  Half-giant

  12

  2

  550

  -

  -

  Metal Trolls‎

  14

  1

  800

  -

  -

  Werewolves‎

  9

  7

  400

  -

  Speed attack

  Worghest

  8

  4

  300

  -

  Wolf form

  Rock worm (sample)

  ?

  1

  -

  -

  -

  Chapter 10 The Library

  "Welcome home everybody," said an overly cheerful Hidden-Caverns as if they had just been gone for a quick stroll not to battle a giant rock worm that lived in the side of a mountain.

  All of the adventures just grunted as they wanted the comfort of their bed for a long rest, even Rinaldo thought that he might try the bath to ease his muscles ace from the long journey and the fighting that he had done with the orcs at every opportunity.

  As Ceras entered his apartment, he was happy to see that all of his magical books were back in the books shelve safely. Before Ceras had even placed his pack on the table, to sort out later, he heard the happy tones of a dungeon clearing its throat as if it wanted something.

  "I've read through all the magical book that you have," the overbearing Hidden-Caverns said in a slightly impatient voice as if he had been waiting too long to have this discussion, "and it's time to start your education in earnest. If you want to get out your spellbook, we can start with theories on how to spell creation works for the simple spell that you already have."

  "I've not even had a chance to wash from the journey," said Ceras in slight exasperation.

  Suddenly a cleaning spell was cast on him as all the journeys dirt was removed from his body, as Hidden-Caverns said, "Ok, that should do let's get started then."

  "Slavemaster," said Ceras under his breath but got out his spellbook and sat at the table as a gremlin brought him a plate full of steaming hot food.

  "Let start from the beginning talking about the form of the magical symbol that makes up the power of the spell, opens your spellbook to..." lectured Hidden-Cavern for the next few hours.

  Even through Ceras was tired and grouchy the next several hours of discussion and sometimes the demonstration of magical spells between him and Hidden-Caverns was education, to say the least. Hidden-
Cavern seems to be on the same wavelength of thinking as Ceras, which made Ceras wonder why this was the case. Because of his comprehensive knowledge from all the magical books, the dungeon was able to make the connection that it would have taken Ceras a lot of studying to produces.

  It was early in the morning that they finish studying unexpectedly, by Hidden-Caverns instance, as Ceras was starting to fall asleep during the explanation of a complex magical principle. Stubbornly Ceras had wanted to carry on with the lessons, but his body was not cooperating, so he went to bed, reluctantly under duress.

  Ceras slowly came back to full consciousness late in the morning to the sound of a clock ticking and showing that it was close to mid-day, as his blurry eyes stared at it.

  He had been dreaming of a magical notes books that were cramp packed with information that he had to learn, or a demanding dark teacher would beat him with a stick. The after effects of the dream were still making him shudder slightly. Sitting up in bed trying to shake off the dream for his mind, he cast the wash spell upon himself and looked around his bedroom seeing that his armor was hanging up on a stand with some clean clothes set out for him. Wondering vaguely how this had happened, as he had just thrown everything on the floor last night, he smelt breakfast odor coming from the next room and remember the industrious gremlins under Hidden-Caverns control.

  Clothed within seconds, he rushed out to see the plate of hot food steaming away on the large table with some of the notebooks that he had been working on last night with Hidden-Caverns. Talking a while over eating his delicious breakfast, he did not hear from the over-eager dungeon until he ate the last morsel of food and placed his cutlery down on the plate.

  "Good morning," said Hidden-Caverns in a polite tone of voice, "shall we start back up with where we left off?"

  Ceras nodded as the plate was taken by a gremlin that had been spying through the small wooden doors in the wall, and quickly walked back into the passageway they came from as the door flapped shut. Moving over to the quill he had been using to make notes, Ceras heard the sound of Hidden-Caverns clearing his nonexistent throat before he started to speak.

  "We were talking about the magical theory of personal calibration before you fell asleep last night," said the now lecturing tone of voice that Hidden-Caverns talked in when he was teaching Ceras. "Through calibration of your metal pathway, that leads to your bodies extremities, where the magic is emitted into a spell, you can increase your spell efficiency."

  "I chose that skill when I gained the journeymen rank," said Ceras as he made some notes in his magical book, "and felt the cleaning of the magical pathway in my body."

  "That good as it will be easier to describe what you need to do next," said Hidden-Caverns, "as the gifts from the goddess are not the only ways to increase your magical energies or efficiencies. By performing certain mental-magical acts you don't have to be confined within the ranking system, hard work has the same effect as the gift from the goddess.

  "Most magicians don't seem to go down this route as it takes to much effort and a bit of pain that could be avoided by just following the normal ranking system. But as we need all the power that we can get quickly, it would be best if we tried to work faster."

  "Why are you in such a hurry about gaining more power?" questioned Ceras to the intense-sounding dungeon, "you seem to be able to deal with the creature entering the dungeon."

  "The monsters that we've been dealing with, are all low level," said the dungeon quietly, "from my memories of another dungeon there are worse monsters out there that could completely wipe us off the map if they take over the dungeon. But that is not the worst thing to contend with when we were up and running with adventures; we could be attacked by strong humans wanting to take over the dungeon as having a dungeon is very profitable."

  "What will happen if the other humans defeat us?" said Ceras feeling that he already knew the answer and it was not good for him.

  "Well both of us will be dead," said the dungeon in a grave voice, "as I was made from some of your memories and personality when you activated me that will all be gone when they take over."

  "Oh, "said Ceras in a subdued tone of voice, "so does that mean that you are in some ways me, but with the knowledge from the past."

  "Yes, that is about right," said Hidden-Caverns, "maybe that why I'm so annoying and obsessed with magic as you are. The link we have is strong to help you run the dungeon. So, it is essential that we gain more power as we will certainly have to contend with some higher-level adventures wanting to take over the dungeon."

  "Right, let's get back to the lesson," Ceras said with new enthusiasm.

  --

  Ceras lying on his comfortable couch with his eyes closed concentration on the magical pathway in his brain and rest of the body, he was using an exercise that the two of them had developed to expand and increase the efficiency of his magical system for casting spells. As he forced the energies one more time into his magical energy conduits into his tired body, he fell the same burning itching pain he had felt many times over the past few days he had been working with the exercised. Relaxing the pain melted away as he pushed the magical energy back into his mind. Standing up from his prone position, he stretched his muscle and worked around the run for a few minutes.

  "I need a break," he said to the thin air as he talked to his hard taskmaster Hidden-Caverns.

  "It would be best," said Hidden-Caverns with some respect for the boy as he had tried to exercise his magical system over the last few days but met with slow improvement, for a lot of pain, "why not go and see how the new level is coming on with the others help."

  Ceras nodded grabbing a cloak from of one of the chairs and placed it on his broad shoulders as he walked out the door of his apartment, for the first time since he had gotten back from the trip to collect the rock worm sample.

  "Let me show you the way to the new level," said Hidden-Caverns as if he was a tour guide.

  Ceras follow the glowing white line to the end of the corridor that his apartment was located off, and saw a new stairway going downwards into the depth of the earth. The stairway was in a spiral descending down with magical lights lighting the way so Ceras could easily see where he was going. The first thing he noticed as he was descending was the magical inscription on the wall that seemed to be glowing brightly as if they had been newly carved. Walking past some of the symbols; he felt a gentle breeze of cool air that seemed to smell like a fresh spring morning.

  "Hidden-Caverns," Ceras spoke to the air, "I should have asked you earlier, but what do the magical inscriptions do?"

  "It all part of me being a dungeon," said the dungeon seeming happy to talk, "some of them are for the structural integrity of the caverns we create. Other provide air and heat or cooling to the dungeon so it livable while others I can produce light with. There will be other effects that we'll be able to do when we are more powerful, but mainly it so creatures can live in the dungeon to fight."

  As Ceras had been listening he seemed to have been descending the stairs forever, it felt to him that he gone down at least two-hundred meter into the depth of the earth, eventual at the bottom of the winding stairs he came to a landing with kobold and rock trolls working away shaping a room that had a large archway at one end. He spied Rhef and Symania talking to a smart looking kobold that seemed to be in charge of the work, with a scroll in their hand as if they were directing the work. Spotting him, Symania waved him over to the group.

  "Hidden-Caverns said that you've been busy with magic for the last few days, "said the shy Symania in a gentle tone, "so we've been getting on with building the first of the new levels for the dungeon. It's quite an ambitious building project, but it should be worthwhile when it finished."

  "Is it going to be another labyrinth?" said Ceras with a smile at the beautiful girl.

  "No, it just best if you go and have a look for yourself the levels through the large archway," she said point to the exit of the hall.

  "Will do," sai
d Ceras as he turned around.

  Making his way past some of the trolls that were breaking down the rocks and reforming them into a level floor he walked to the dark archway and produced a magical light to illuminate what was on the other side.

  As he entered the archway, the only thing, he could see was hemispherical stairs going down into the darkness. Pushing the light further into the cavern, he could see the bottom of the stair ending on what seemed to be soil, but the rest of the cavern was dark and seemed to go on forever.

  "You'll need to increase the brightness of your lights to see what's happening," said a seemly proud voice of Hidden-Caverns.

  As instructed by the dungeon, Ceras poured more magical power into the light hovering in the air above him and sent it higher. Soon he was able to see the outline of a vast cavern that seemed to go on forever in the darkness. Where he stood with a surprised expression on his face, he could just see the cavern walls arching downward, giving it about a mile width at the entrances. The ceiling of the cavern was about two-hundred-meter-high with a smooth surface as if it had been eaten away. Pushing his light far into the distance, he started to the end of the cavern. At first, it appeared to be a wall full of snakes twisting on each other as if they were in a snake pit withering around on top of each other, but then he made out the large bodies of the rock worms that were eating away at the stone end of the cavern.

  "What is that!" Ceras said in a surprise as he watched in wonder as the rock worms extending the cavern length as they spoke.

  "That is the sign off process," said Hidden-Caverns with a tone of pride in his voice, "This level is going to be massive, where it will hold all types of woodland and grassland monsters that are so abundant in the area around the dungeon."

  Ceras nodded as he really could not comprehend the size of the operation he was witnessing, but just had to accept it as he moved forward to watch the worms at the end of the cavern cutting away the rock wall.